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Wings Over Scotland


How the times do change 314

Posted on March 23, 2017 by

Kezia Dugdale Fact Check, Part 679 384

Posted on March 22, 2017 by

Sky News earlier this morning:

Our ears always prick up when Kezia says she’s counted something herself.

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The highlights reel 160

Posted on March 21, 2017 by

Today the Scottish Parliament spent several hours heatedly debating a motion to call for a second Section 30 order to enable a new independence referendum (several more will follow tomorrow before the vote). We watched all of it so you didn’t have to, and are delighted to present you with a few clips that probably won’t make the news.

On such a momentous topic, this was the intervention that Scottish Labour list MSP Monica Lennon felt was the most pressing issue to raise, for example:

We’re very touched, obviously, and will add it to our file of other mentions in the chamber and elsewhere. But there were probably more important things to discuss.

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Unreliable sources 235

Posted on March 21, 2017 by

It seems counter-intuitive – given Rupert Murdoch’s often-overstated (despite endless and fevered speculation, the Scottish Sun didn’t back a Yes vote) but still seemingly real support for Scottish independence – that Sky News should be seen as the most hostile of the nation’s broadcasters to the Yes movement.

Yet such it is.

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Stitched up like kippers 261

Posted on March 20, 2017 by

Panelbase have released data tables for their recent Sunday Times poll. And wow.

That’s quite something.

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Asking the wrong questions 479

Posted on March 19, 2017 by

Here’s the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, speaking to BBC News this morning and giving a striking illustration of the term “dancing on the head of a pin”.

Comically, his excuse for demanding another referendum on leaving the EU while opposing a second Scottish independence referendum is that his new EU vote would be a completely different question – he’d be asking voters if they wanted to accept the Brexit deal and exit from the EU (which one might reasonably summarise on the ballot paper as “Leave”), or to refuse to approve the deal and stay in the EU (or put another way, “Remain”).

Glad we cleared that up, then. But then it got weirder.

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To keep links with the world 84

Posted on March 19, 2017 by

No 9: Mark, until recently from London.

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Come and join us 215

Posted on March 18, 2017 by

Our favourite bit is at 27m 52s.

Playmates 255

Posted on March 18, 2017 by

Does anyone speak Dugdale? 359

Posted on March 17, 2017 by

Scottish Labour’s regional branch manager (North Britain) clearly thought this was so important she needed to say it twice:

But that’s not helping us make any sense of it. All sarcasm and snark aside, we can’t figure out what on Earth it’s supposed to mean.

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How soon isn’t now? 524

Posted on March 16, 2017 by

Sigh.

None of the tweets below are true.

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GERS, by economists 397

Posted on March 15, 2017 by

The announcement that the Scottish Government would seek the uncontested legal right to hold a second independence referendum met with an outpouring of rage and ignorance from the massed ranks of the UK media that was in one sense entirely predictable yet still startling in its fury and ferocity.

Most prominent was the assertion, stated as fact by every pundit and broadcaster – including those required by law to be fair and impartial – that a second referendum would be conducted in the environment of a significantly worse economic case.

And that’s a remarkable claim, because the indisputable fact is that nobody has the slightest clue what the economic case for No will be.

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    • factchecker on The Idiot Rodeo: “robertkknight says: 16 December, 2025 at 1:37 pm “Straw man” alert… Next thing you’ll assert is that Edinburgh only prospered…Dec 16, 14:05
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    • Factchecker on The Idiot Rodeo: “Glad you agree with me, NC. However, if you think it’s clever to use only the first part of my…Dec 16, 13:43
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    • factchecker on The Idiot Rodeo: “So the UK has only two former independent states? There were at least two in what is now called Scotland,…Dec 16, 12:04
    • James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “The devolved administration placed in Scotland already breach the treaty of union of One and the Same Parliament of Great…Dec 16, 12:00
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