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Wings Over Scotland


The resource collective 377

Posted on March 02, 2016 by

greatbanner

days remaining. Total at 9am today: £80,273 (Last 24 hours: £3,348)

Together in unity 104

Posted on March 01, 2016 by

Weirdly, right after seeing this earlier this afternoon, we sat down to watch an episode of The Professionals on ITV4, which contained what seemed a rather apt segment.

We don’t think it’s a younger Iain Martin of the Telegraph (accompanied by colleagues Alan Cochrane and Tom Gallagher), but don’t make us swear to it.

This can only end well 150

Posted on March 01, 2016 by

Goodness gracious.

eimh

The lonely onlys 46

Posted on March 01, 2016 by

As we’ve explored many times on Wings, one of the many reasons you should never trust a newspaper’s headline is that even the ones that are technically true can be painting a highly (and deliberately) misleading picture.

For example, more than two years ago we pointed to a Scotsman story that blared “A THIRD OF SCOTS WOULD BACK EXIT FROM EU”, which is a rather curious spin to put on a poll which found a 13-point margin for staying in the EU.

A paper particularly fond of misusing stats in this way is the Daily Mail.

mailonly

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Performance review day 398

Posted on February 29, 2016 by

greatleap4h

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Presented without comment 166

Posted on February 28, 2016 by

A little snippet from a corner of today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday.

smosdavidson

Shoulder to shoulder 142

Posted on February 27, 2016 by

The dogged determination of Scottish Labour to insult the Scottish electorate is a source of constant slack-jawed astonishment to us. Over the years we’ve lost count of the number of times the party’s politicians have effectively said “People are just too stupid to vote for us”, in the apparent belief that abuse is the way to win back support.

foulkesfools

But it’s not always so overt. The subtler ways in which the party treats voters like morons include the assumption that people’s memories only go back to yesterday’s newspapers, and there can surely be no more stark illustration than its recent adoption of the attack line that the SNP are standing “shoulder to shoulder with the Tories”.

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Ken Loves Laura 172

Posted on February 27, 2016 by

If you’ve ever heard people talking about the “Scottish cringe” but don’t really know what it is, you could do a lot worse for an example than this:

Jeez, Ken, Valentine’s was a fortnight ago, you had your chance.

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Future Shocks 88

Posted on February 27, 2016 by

img182

Order “Welcome To Cairnstoon”, Chris’ compilation of Wings cartoons and more, here.

Never understanding 124

Posted on February 26, 2016 by

An interesting and illuminating exchange has taken place in the last few days between the First Minister and Times columnist Kenny Farquharson, one of the many senior journalists who’ve recently jumped from the sinking ship of The Scotsman to take up less prestigious but more secure positions elsewhere.

It started on Saturday night, when Farquharson tweeted this:

kfarqns

And then people said more stuff.

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Fighting for horsemeat 178

Posted on February 26, 2016 by

In what may be a new all-time low for the broadsheet press in Scotland, this morning’s Scottish edition of the Telegraph makes a front-page lead story out of a petition with a pathetic 4500 signatures, put together by some extremist Yoon nutters to express their rage that there might be a peak-time news show actually made in Scotland.

telegraphsix

The idea of a so-called “Scottish Six”, whereby the main six o’clock news bulletin would be a single programme made by BBC Scotland and covering Scottish, UK and world news – rather than the current half-hour London-centric UK programme followed by 30 minutes of regional murdur’n’fitba in Reporting Scotland – has been exercising the media (and pretty much nobody else) for the best part of 20 years.

But now it’s become a constitutional battleground, and the funny thing about it is that the two sides are fighting bitterly over something neither of them actually really wants.

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Some brief thoughts on Donald Trump 285

Posted on February 25, 2016 by

Put your hands on your hearts, readers, and tell us that in the event of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin leading the USA and Russia a year or so from now, you can’t see this actually literally happening. [EDIT: The fight, not nuclear apocalypse. Obviously.]

Look us straight in the eye and tell us there’s a 0% chance.

You can’t, can you?

We live in interesting times.

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    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Curious Fringes: “I don’t see any chains holding you down, Hatey. A solid 50% of the beef in these comments seems to…Dec 31, 13:54
    • James Cheyne on The Fear Of The Briar: “A curious side question but still related to voting, Can the Snp stand Candidates for election south of the border,…Dec 31, 13:50
    • 100%Yes on The Fear Of The Briar: “If I had been one of these Westminster MP’s who lost their jobs last year. I certainly wouldn’t be happy…Dec 31, 13:46
    • Captain Caveman on The Fear Of The Briar: “Hard to imagine any scenario where the Tories wouldn’t offer the same level of assistance for far less onerous terms,…Dec 31, 13:40
    • sarah on The Fear Of The Briar: ““The independence movement needs someone to get behind..”. We need the activists of 2014 embodied as the necessary parliamentary mechanism.…Dec 31, 13:38
    • James on The Curious Fringes: ““Prick”.Dec 31, 13:28
    • Aidan on The Fear Of The Briar: “@RevStu I was pretty skeptical about your suggestion to make an offer of an independence referendum on terms where the…Dec 31, 13:24
    • Mark Beggan on The Fear Of The Briar: “When it comes to Scottish independence I’m drawn to the old Indian story about ten men and an elephant. Another…Dec 31, 13:03
    • Cynicus on The Fear Of The Briar: “David Beveridge says: 31 December, 2025 at 11:51 am “Hard to believe that once upon a time the SNP were…Dec 31, 12:25
    • Morgatron on The Fear Of The Briar: “I read the headline this morning and thought the very same thing, but less eloquently than you Stu. The independance…Dec 31, 12:21
    • Cynicus on The Curious Fringes: “Hatey McHateface says: 31 December, 2025 at 8:40 am “The Scots on the outside looked from WGD BTL to WOS…Dec 31, 12:03
    • Heather McLean on The Fear Of The Briar: ““ But while the motivation of those in the independence industry – who need it to never happen in order…Dec 31, 12:02
    • David Beveridge on The Fear Of The Briar: “Hard to believe that once upon a time the SNP were a means to an end and it was just…Dec 31, 11:51
    • Captain Caveman on The Curious Fringes: “@Andy Ellis Well, Google characterises the term “far right” and its manifestations as follows: “… Far-right ideologies have historically included…Dec 31, 11:49
    • sam on The Curious Fringes: “Northcode, guid wishes yersel. Perhaps you might like this poet? “Efter SPL filtered throu dizzens o Scots poems publish in…Dec 31, 11:40
    • Southernbystander on The Curious Fringes: “Have had this argument before with friends about voting: is there not always a lesser of evils to choose from…Dec 31, 11:18
    • Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““…auld year’s day…” I’ve never heard of the last day of the year being called “auld year’s day”, Alf, or…Dec 31, 11:11
    • Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “Interesting new poll in The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-defence-pact-europe-trump-nato-russia-b2891548.html “A total of 55 per cent of British voters want a new UK/Europe…Dec 31, 10:49
    • Southernbystander on The Curious Fringes: “A better term would be hard right. They are the equivalent of a proper hard left socialist party on the…Dec 31, 10:46
    • Alf Baird on The Curious Fringes: “Tut tut, auld year’s day an oor colonizer aye canna resist dividin an de-basin the native fowk an thair ain…Dec 31, 10:00
    • Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “Here, whit a braw cauld an frosty stert tae the dey is theis mornyn. A fine dey tae end the…Dec 31, 09:45
    • Hatey McHateface on The Curious Fringes: “The most wonderful thing about this kind of post from oor verra ain Northie is the crass ignorance it reveals.…Dec 31, 09:37
    • diabloandco on The Curious Fringes: “A guid new year to wan and a’ – though I hae ma doots.Dec 31, 09:26
    • Hatey McHateface on The Curious Fringes: ““start up your own blog performed solely in the medium of Scots language and see what traction that gains” Something…Dec 31, 09:21
    • Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““I was punished at School for speaking Scots, it is nice to see it being wrote down again. and I…Dec 31, 09:11
    • Hatey McHateface on The Curious Fringes: “So Swinney and Rev Stu are in agreement then? I’d place my bets accordingly, although as the bookies also agree,…Dec 31, 09:08
    • Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “Well here we are at last, eh? The final day of the 25th year of the 21st century… and guid…Dec 31, 09:00
    • Hatey McHateface on The Curious Fringes: ““used to speak north east Scots at home” But that’s not the authentic, ‘true’ Scots. If anybody ever attenpted to…Dec 31, 08:59
    • Hatey McHateface on The Curious Fringes: “The Scots on the outside looked from WGD BTL to WOS BTL, and from WOS BTL to WGD BTL again,…Dec 31, 08:40
    • Cynicus on The Curious Fringes: “Apologies to Mr. Ellis for misplaced posting intended for Prof BairdDec 31, 02:40
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