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Wings Over Scotland

It’s that story again! 246

Posted on August 11, 2016 by

No, we’re not referring to the Spectator’s awful reheated whine from super-Unionist composer Sir James Macmillan, Knight Commander Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire, in which he takes the audacious step of accusing some OTHER artistes of cravenly kowtowing to the establishment.

(A complaint he’s been levelling for several years in any publication that’ll listen, and which today’s piece hasn’t bothered to update with any post-2014 examples.)

We’re actually talking about this:

pjgaelic

Because this one’s even older.

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Category comment, debunks, history, media, scottish politics

A new challenger appears 75

Posted on August 11, 2016 by

We thought yesterday’s Herald story – about a Scottish Government initiative designed to increase visitor numbers to island communities “backfiring” when it, er, increased visitor numbers to island communities – would be hard to top for this month’s SNP BAD Award, but when the paper grudgingly amended it a few hours later it seemed we’d have to look for a new contender.

smokemirrors

Luckily we didn’t have long to wait.

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

The occasional flicker 132

Posted on August 10, 2016 by

This morning’s SNP BAD piece in the Herald has undergone a slight change in tone since we wrote about it.

backfirec

We’ll just assume that a small pang of conscience overcame someone.

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Category media, scottish politics

The unending badness 245

Posted on August 10, 2016 by

There’s a story in today’s Herald about yet another SNP disaster:

backfire

Backfires? What, the fares have gone UP?

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Category comment, debunks, media, scottish politics

Chinese whispering 163

Posted on August 09, 2016 by

An alert reader spotted this today:

labpresschina

How times have changed, eh, readers?

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Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

Agnostic like the Pope 226

Posted on August 08, 2016 by

God knows, readers, there’s almost nothing we want to write about less than either David Torrance or the Scottish Six. Just to restate our own position for the record, we couldn’t care less either way about a dedicated teatime Scottish news programme on BBC Scotland – not because it’s a bad idea but because we have no confidence that in reality it’d end up any better than the embarrassment that is Reporting Scotland, far and away the regional station’s worst current-affairs broadcast.

(Certainly now that Scotland 2016’s had the chop.)

torranceheraldsix

Nevertheless, the former’s article about the latter in today’s Herald is one of the most abysmally disingenuous and badly-argued things we’ve seen in the Scottish media for quite some time, and in the absence of any more diverting news in what now seems to have reasserted itself as the traditional summer slow season, we might as well take a methodical look at it.

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Category analysis, comment, media, scottish politics

A point of reference 78

Posted on August 08, 2016 by

Straight from a Scottish Labour activist, here’s a little something that’s worth keeping in mind every day of the next decade (or more) of brutal Tory governments imposing policies rejected by the vast majority of Scots.

kevwlabindy

Category comment, scottish politics

No-one likes them, they don’t care 296

Posted on August 06, 2016 by

WARNING: this post isn’t about football, but it will refer to football for quite a while in order to illustrate its point. Get over it or go outside for some fresh air.

Today is the opening day of the SPFL Premiership season, and will see the top-flight debut of a four-year-old club which is legally entitled under company law to use the name and trademarks of a much older one which went into liquidation in 2012 owing creditors tens of millions of pounds.

The facts of that matter are beyond any empirical dispute, but human beings are adept at arguing things which are demonstrably not true and so the truth is hotly and furiously rejected by a substantial group of people, weirdly including the club itself (even as it insists that it can’t be held responsible for the old club’s debts because it’s not the same club).

We’re not going to attempt to settle that argument here, because (a) it’s already been settled, and (b) we have nothing new to say that would remotely convince the people who’ve already steadfastly refused to acknowledge any of the proven facts.

Instead, we’re going to talk – not for the first time, sadly – about why the “debate” around “Rangers” won’t die, and what it tells us about the Scottish media.

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Category comment, football, media

Reborn In The USA 66

Posted on August 06, 2016 by

img230

Tags: ,
Category comment, scottish politics, world

The Formula 452

Posted on August 04, 2016 by

Have you ever wondered how you try to poison and shut down a debate and a political environment that you fear you’ve found yourself on the losing side of, readers? Well, it’s funny you should ask, because as it happens we’ve got a visiting professor – an expert authority on the subject – with us today to give us a demonstration.

tanktoptorrance

Make sure you’ve got your pens and notepads ready. He’s got a very busy schedule and we can’t afford to have him here for long.

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Category comment, media, scottish politics

The cybernat in the trees 109

Posted on August 03, 2016 by

A parable of internet abuse. Acknowledgements to Alan Moore and Frankie Boyle.

haloj1

Dedicated to David Torrance, Susan Calman, Johanna Baxter and Angela Eagle.

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Category comment, culture, media, scottish politics

Until your ship comes in 188

Posted on August 03, 2016 by

There’s been a statistic released in Scotland, so obviously there’s a crisis.

policeexpress

Anarchy on the streets can only be moments away.

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Category debunks, media, missing context, scottish politics

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