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Wings Over Scotland


At Easter the prophet rose again 191

Posted on March 25, 2016 by

A message of hope for Good Friday from everyone’s favourite Labour activist:

HothersallPredicts13

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Once upon a time 152

Posted on March 24, 2016 by

“Dry your eyes. On your feet.”

Sometimes the world’s random turns throw up a charmed piece of timing. That was the first tweet that I read on 19th September 2014, sitting on the side of the bed, eyes burning, wondering what on Earth I could possibly do with a day for which I’d bought champagne, but which broke my heart before dawn.

dryeyes

I’d resisted Twitter for a while, then fallen in love with it, weirdly comfortable with the disembodied voices of strangers. Small phrases, 140 characters: at its best, little postcards that made me smile, laugh or think.

For whatever reason, that tweet cut through, its arrival perfect to give me a virtual shake. I’d tell the writer – if I knew who they were – that I managed to carry out half of their instruction to us hollow-eyed, political orphans that day, though I failed miserably for a while on the first bit.

Today we should have become independent. We’re not, and it’s not okay, but since I don’t think we can ignore the power that time and timing can possess, and since words are all I’ve got, I’d like to tell you a story.

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The £5bn miracle 138

Posted on March 24, 2016 by

Two front pages in the same newspaper, two weeks apart.

miracle

The top image is Scotland within the UK. The bottom one is an independent Scotland.

£5 billion better off with independence? We’d call that a no-brainer.

The Wee Black Book 315

Posted on March 24, 2016 by

Scotland isn’t independent today.

wb2b

Let’s not get fooled again.

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The little guy 128

Posted on March 23, 2016 by

We hadn’t heard of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust until today. It turns out that it’s a sister organisation to the highly admirable Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which does great work highlighting and fighting issues around poverty and social injustice.

jrrt1

The Reform Trust, not so much.

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Yesterday, when they were mad 177

Posted on March 23, 2016 by

To mark the day when Scotland would have become independent had it voted Yes in 2014, the Scottish Conservatives have hired someone who sells dog food (not very successfully) for a living to produce a 37-page dossier about how absolutely dreadful Scotland is and how it would be the most bankrupt country in Europe – poorer than Greece, poorer than Latvia and poorer than Cyprus.

mentalkevgraph

It wasn’t supposed to be released publicly until tomorrow, so that all the papers could splurge their loads on it, but someone found a copy that had been left on a bus and sent it to us. It’s incredibly dull, but if you really want to read it, it’s here.

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All bad things to everyone 86

Posted on March 23, 2016 by

We’re very confused today.

mailaspiration

Okay, so that’s all straightforward enough. The SNP are bad because they’re going to hit “middle Scotland” with more tax. Bunch of dangerous tax-and-spend lefties. Right?

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A probability quiz 126

Posted on March 23, 2016 by

Q: What are the chances of us NOT having something special for you tomorrow?

A:

image

A failure to communicate 75

Posted on March 22, 2016 by

From the Scotsman tonight:

ssasscotsman

As previously, we’re having quite a lot of trouble understanding the difference between “independence” (39%), and “the Scottish Parliament should make all the decisions for Scotland” (51%). We’re going to drop the SSAS a line and see if they’ll ask for us.

Something to do 104

Posted on March 22, 2016 by

Barring some sort of unforseeable apocalypse, Scottish Labour aren’t going to win the Holyrood election in May, so it doesn’t really matter what their policy proposals are – they’re never going to happen.

Nevertheless, it’s pretty much our job to examine stuff like their plan to “scrap council tax”, and it’s more fun than watching the news today, so let’s give it a go.

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First off the mark 186

Posted on March 22, 2016 by

Brussels terror atrocity = SNP BAD.

gallagherbrussells

Chris Deerin, Iain Martin, Alan Cochrane and Ian Smart will be hopping mad.

The other kind of soaring 167

Posted on March 21, 2016 by

Even by the low, low normal arithmetical standards of the Scottish media, yesterday’s Scottish Sunday Express humiliated itself with the most stupendously factually wrong articles we’ve seen in a newspaper for some time.

expresssoar

James Kelly on Scot Goes Pop! has already eviscerated its comically inept bumbling in detail, but we thought we’d just quickly give you a visual version.

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    • Alf Baird on The Fast Track: ““To get to the bottom of what’s really going on” Aye Hatey, postcolonial theory clearly helps a great deal to…Jun 30, 17:01
    • Confused on The Fast Track: “Listened to it, was alright. Scotcast is generally, not the worst thing on the bbc, depends who is on; some…Jun 30, 16:09
    • Bob W on The Fast Track: “Same. Requires registration and login.Jun 30, 15:46
    • Bob W on The Fast Track: “Same, asks me to login or register.Jun 30, 15:42
    • lothianlad on The Fast Track: “Murrell did indeed take one for the team. Whils focussing on the crimes he did comott , others were let…Jun 30, 15:15
    • Jas on The Fast Track: “Perhaps the reason certain people in the SNP took to crime was because they figured no-one would take much notice…Jun 30, 14:07
    • james on The Fast Track: “DavidT-Its not the crux of the matter. Your assumption that if the SNP spent the money raised soley for another…Jun 30, 13:37
    • Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Nothing about the size of the cave, if it has underfloor heating, how many heat pumps, and if the multi-vehicle…Jun 30, 13:06
    • Alf Baird on The Fast Track: ““John Swinney … would tell you that he would live in a cave for independence” Aye Fearghas, here we have…Jun 30, 11:05
    • David Henry on The Fast Track: “Missing money followed by a list of people all who lied about the missing money while others tried to shut…Jun 30, 10:48
    • James Che on The Fast Track: “Hatey McHateface, You left one out at 8:11 am. Your Guff Treaty that is so old no one pays attention…Jun 30, 09:55
    • James Che on The Fast Track: “Seeing as no one is scrutinising the SNP and Scotland finances in depth other than Stu, one wonders about the…Jun 30, 09:48
    • James Che on The Fast Track: “Law in Scotland, All under one umbrella, [The Scotland Act] Just add water to dilute. Well done Stu, excellent jounalism.Jun 30, 08:20
    • Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Not really. To get to the bottom of what’s really going on you need to study the works of Fanon,…Jun 30, 08:11
    • Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “It’s surely a bit odd that kids might be permitted to change their first names but not their surnames. Many…Jun 30, 08:06
    • Robinov Cybernat on The Fast Track: “Aye, job done for them at that point.Jun 30, 07:59
    • Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Gift it to them as reparations for centuries of Scottish colonialism. And thank our lucky stars we got away lightly.Jun 30, 07:23
    • Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Good to see you offering due respect with your capitalisation of “Royal Audience”. As you say, it’s our history. Remove…Jun 30, 07:19
    • DavidT on The Fast Track: “It is all very complicated, but from John Swinney’s comments, I get the impression that the general elections in 2017…Jun 30, 07:10
    • Angus on The Fast Track: ““and the fact that only one of the two crimes it concerned has been resolved.” I don’t think it has…Jun 30, 03:00
    • Cynicus on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““No Morocco, No party!” ======== Fans of Scotland’s erstwhile World Cup group opponents have borrowed the Tartan Army’s signature chant!…Jun 30, 02:54
    • Angus on The Fast Track: “Very nice and easily understandable guide on how blatantly obvious crimes can be detected and solved for the dummies calling…Jun 30, 02:51
    • Gordon Bain on The Fast Track: “Chill man. Lady J of Tay has this all covered.Jun 30, 00:33
    • Young Lochinvar on The Fast Track: “I wonder how long Ned Stark (sorry my bad; King of oop t’ Norf Andy Burnham) will take to annoy…Jun 30, 00:08
    • Young Lochinvar on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “C3PO @ 5.49 Clan Chattan? Well if not then you should make yourself familiar with the September 1396 North Inch…Jun 29, 23:43
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “Well done Stuart. Case put coherently and succinctly. Geissler was very good too, except near the end (26.40) with his…Jun 29, 23:42
    • Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “I think it was the National Crime Agency that pressed for that.Jun 29, 23:36
    • Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “Well said Rev. The media do have their slippers under the political bed with the Crown office as the pillow.…Jun 29, 23:28
    • Frazerio on The Fast Track: “Dear Rev, The more you dig, the more you expose. That the ‘Ringfenced’ investigation led to Murrell’s exposé and the…Jun 29, 23:24
    • Dick Wall on The Fast Track: “I do recall some suggestions that the Peter Murrell stuff was rather forced on Police Scotland by a UK organised…Jun 29, 23:12
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