Almost a year ago we ran a short piece mocking a Scotsman headline which claimed that “THOUSANDS” of people had signed a Tory anti-referendum petition, when the actual number was a strictly-accurate-but-pathetic TWO thousand.
We didn’t think that could ever be beaten for technically-true hyperbolic exaggeration, but we’d reckoned without the bold boundary-pushing ingenuity of the Daily Express.
Hundreds of thousands? How many hundreds, exactly?
We don’t normally run rumours on Wings, but this one was too good to pass up. We offer it to you on the clear basis that it IS just gossip, but it’s from a source we trust.
Our source says that “he’s selling himself – to any influential figures who’ll listen – as a PR chief for Better Together 2. In my personal opinion I don’t think they will be silly enough to let him back in, frankly, but he seems to be indestructable.”
They also gave us a quote from what they described as “a well-placed insider”:
“McTernan is itching for a comeback.
He’s sniffing around both in London and among Scottish contacts to see if he can carve out a senior role in the inevitable indyref2 campaign, which everyone’s having to pretend isn’t inevitable at all.
Given his track record there’s a fair degree of concern, to say the least. But he still holds sway with some senior figures in London especially. He is disliked by many in Scottish Labour but seems to have charmed some of the Tories. Given the number of lives he’s had few will be surprised if he manages to worm his way in to the upper echelons of Better Together 2.”
Today seems a good day to bring up the latest snippet of data from our poll.
Less than a third of Scots of all parties and persuasions think BBC Scotland provides “balanced” political coverage. Even among Unionists, twice as many feel it’s biased in their favour as the frankly unhinged group who think it’s pro-independence.
Remarkably, more Tory voters think the Beeb is biased in favour of independence than think it leans towards the Union, which is quite some feat of self-delusion. Among Labour and Lib Dem voters it’s three-to-one the other way, and more than 17-to-1 among SNP supporters.
Meanwhile, 5% of respondents claimed to have “never heard of” the state broadcaster, which just goes to prove what Panelbase regularly tell us about how you can get 5% to 10% of people to vote for ANY answer you put in a poll, up to and including “Would you like us to come round right now and shoot you in the face?”
The process of simply buying the Xbox One took me either three days or eight weeks, depending on how you look at it, due to a combination of how retail works these days and the gibbering random madness that is GAME's pricing and corporate structure. But I'm not even going to get into that here.
It reveals that the party’s income from donations plunged from £600,000 in 2015 to £100,000 last year, which in the article is blamed on Jeremy Corbyn’s UK leadership (even though Dugdale opposed him in the leadership election).
But there were a few comments in the piece that we thought needed scrutiny.
Of all the people who wanted to retain the UK’s nuclear weapons, just over HALF of them (56%) were prepared to have them kept in Scotland. 15% did a total U-turn when confronted with the thought of having them in the same place they’ve been for the last 30-odd years, and nearly a third suddenly weren’t so sure nukes were a great idea when they were reminded they’re kept about half an hour from Glasgow.
It’s an interesting stat to keep in mind when the subject is debated.
The reliably-wise Stephen Bush of The New Statesman said something perceptive yesterday on the subject of an EU referendum, although it applies much more widely.
It’s a view we’ve held for many years, most often in relation to UK governments ruling with huge majorities won on pretty tiddly pluralities of the vote (often in the mid-30%s), where the bulk of the electorate has no defence against a party it didn’t vote for.
Despite an electoral system that makes such events far rarer, the phenomenon crops up a lot in Scotland too, and both sides are guilty, often on the same subject. Scottish employment figures, for example, alternate with almost metronomic regularity between being higher/lower than those in the rest of the UK, and whichever it is in any given month one side or the other will trumpet it as conclusive and permanent proof that Scotland’s governance is better/worse than that of London.
(Even though Holyrood in fact has almost no power over the economy, so deserves little of either the blame or credit, whichever applies that month.)
The Scottish media has today leapt all over the front-page lead story from yesterday’s Sunday Times, in which “top economist” Douglas McWilliams of right-wing thinktank the Centre for Economics and Business Research made an apocalyptic prediction of a huge deficit turning an independent Scotland into “a Third World country”.
The Express’ customarily restrained coverage is pretty typical.
We wondered if Mr McWilliams used to have a more optimistic view.
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “House Jock implies someone who still lives here who suffers an identity crisis. Pet Jock is about right, the token…” Mar 13, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Monarchy is the default for humanity, TURABDIN. It’s wired into our DNA, almost certainly because over the long term, it…” Mar 13, 20:31
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Sure, Alf, these arguments go round and round with such depressing regularity that we can now all predict where they…” Mar 13, 20:30
Scot Finlayson on Looking up at the stars: “Lord Byron penned the song, Dark Lochnagar,about his youth in the highlands, Ah ! there my young footsteps in infancy…” Mar 13, 20:30
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““as if their Scottish Sovereignty is superior to the Scottish Sovereignty of other Scots” You appear to misunderstand the colonial…” Mar 13, 20:00
TURABDIN on Looking up at the stars: “«The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike…” Mar 13, 19:43
100%Yes on Looking up at the stars: “What is there to talk about that hasn’t already been said. Looking at the Rag today I had to look…” Mar 13, 19:20
TURABDIN on Looking up at the stars: “The MASSIVE elephant in the room is the US and its emerging absolutist «monarchy». If the sun sets on the…” Mar 13, 18:52
sarah on Looking up at the stars: “O/T Does anyone know what is happening with the Voices for Independence site? There has been no entry for today…” Mar 13, 18:41
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““the case with most of” What’s this, Alf? Are Cesaire’s ideological foundations starting to crumble? That “most” permits some doubt…” Mar 13, 18:09
twathater on Looking up at the stars: “WOW John boy Main is getting more unhinged by the day, he is now telling Geri that her views could…” Mar 13, 17:58
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Drink! Haha, just my wee joke, Alf. Obviously the only option open to us is to buy a copy of…” Mar 13, 17:53
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““I see a few are waking from the ways that were taught them, will the all wake up or will…” Mar 13, 16:23
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““pet-Jock moon howlers” Ah, and there’s plenty of them, each following Mannoni’s “dependency complex…that these groups are psychologically made for…” Mar 13, 15:56
sam on Looking up at the stars: “I know, Sven. It is impossible to know anything with certainty about illegal immigration numbers. You can get some idea…” Mar 13, 15:55
agentx on Looking up at the stars: “Following the Union St fire the demolition company is Burnfield Demolition. Ironic.” Mar 13, 15:54
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Police Scotland refused a request under the freedom of information to reveal the criminal numbers connected to immigrant hotels. Their…” Mar 13, 15:29
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That has been the elite establishments plan all along. The socialist post-colonial ideology. Get into bed with the death cult.…” Mar 13, 15:23
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That would be the exact Nasty Nats answer just get to one over the English bastards. Then they would staple…” Mar 13, 15:14
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “@ Sam How many illegal immigrants came into Scotland? I don’t know They don’t know. You don’t know. Did they…” Mar 13, 15:03
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Sam @ 14.26. I’m guessing that would be legal immigrants, Sam. As I doubt asylum seekers awaiting classification, illegals or…” Mar 13, 14:50
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Mark Beggan @ 14.12. I do, Mark. And if they don’t, I believe the full power of the state will…” Mar 13, 14:31
sam on Looking up at the stars: “Jist fir til let ye know, ken? https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/2022-reports/scotland-s-census-2022-ethnic-group-national-identity-language-and-religion/ The largest group of immigrants in 2022 was from the category, “Other…” Mar 13, 14:26
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Careful you dinna scuff the covers of your holy book, Geri. If you do, some meditative, focussed cant will have…” Mar 13, 14:15
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “I think you mean the government. The country is fit and able. This summer is going to be the crunch…” Mar 13, 14:12
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “I miss oor national mammie. She excelled at topping whatever England did. That was more or less her entire and…” Mar 13, 14:07
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Meditation is good for the soul. Focus is good for the mind. If a child can recite an entire book…” Mar 13, 13:58
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Too little, too late, Mark B. I doubt this country has either the will nor the means to locate, identify,…” Mar 13, 13:19
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Should Scotland seriously consider sending the illegal immigrants hame tae think again?” Mar 13, 13:09
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Too late your mask slipped there Herr Von Leichtenvar.” Mar 13, 12:53
