This year’s GERS figures will be published today, purporting to illustrate the financial relationship between Scotland and the rest of the UK. With oil revenues down, they’ll undoubtedly provoke an orgasmic explosion of glee among Unionists crowing about “black holes” and how Scotland is too wee, too poor and too stupid to survive alone.
We’ve already run an extremely detailed explanation of all the flaws and booby-traps in GERS, but of course we’re a pro-independence website and we would say that. So instead we’ll direct you to someone who’s very much NOT on our side.
This week Scottish Labour have been attacking the SNP’s rather timid plans for the reform of Council Tax, which is an entirely fair and legitimate opposition pursuit.
But as is their wont, Kezia Dugdale’s branch office just can’t help overplaying their hand and doing it in a highly dishonest way.
An alert reader just found this. It’s quite something.
We especially liked this bit:
“The growing practice of the socialist government is to take decisions vitally affecting Scotland in Whitehall… this is a process which we have every intention of setting in direct reverse.”
We thought you might like to see this snippet from a recent edition of the BBC News channel’s newspapers round-up, spotted by an alert reader.
We particularly enjoy the obviousness with which presenter Martine Croxall is being fed random titles into her earpiece by a panicking producer in response to freelancer stringer Matthew Green’s unexpected observation.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
twathater on Anything But That: “Another link to educate people to the damage progressives do https://markacollett.substack.com/p/strangled-and-raped-by-an-ethiopian?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=4738145&post_id=214132287&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=nd6hf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email” Sep 5, 02:46
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “S117 @ 2.10 “Plastic”!! Plastic?! Steady on there laddie-buck! I recount; “The first blow that Lord Forbes struck The blade…” Sep 5, 01:28
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Burnham gave him a wee piece of Manchesterism to play with. Said “Here you go, John, you can be King…” Sep 4, 23:41
James on Anything But That: “Cheers, girls; you’ve proved my point. As expected.” Sep 4, 23:10
willie on Anything But That: “Water was hived into East , West and North before it it was fettled up to become Scottish Water. A…” Sep 4, 23:05
willie on Anything But That: “Water was hived into East , West and North before it it was fettled up to become Scottish Water. A…” Sep 4, 22:47
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “@ James says: 4 September, 2026 at 9:33 pm “all they have is inults” Side splitting for two reasons, the…” Sep 4, 22:25
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““Fourteen health boards into two” Why two? Theoretical mathematicians argues there are only 3 numbers worth dealing with: zero, one…” Sep 4, 22:18
Aidan on Anything But That: “Oh it’s “James” – this should be good Adult nappy.” Sep 4, 21:59
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Baby Swinney says “We are going to make the NHS great again. Believe me. We’re going to march down there…” Sep 4, 21:42
James on Anything But That: “oh, Yoon pile-on. As usual all they have is inults. Keep going, Alf, you’re getting to them. Truth hurts and…” Sep 4, 21:33
Aidan on Anything But That: “So if you reject the authority of the courts, are you proposing for your ideas to lead to a violent…” Sep 4, 21:24
Chas on Anything But That: “I fail to see the detailed analysis. I do see the usual mince. Figures plucked out of thin air yet…” Sep 4, 21:19
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““No person or institution that took part in negotiating, agreeing, signing, or ratifying the 1707 Treaty of Union ever held…” Sep 4, 21:01
Xaracen on Anything But That: “@Aidan; The question of lawful authority in 1707 is not a matter for judicial discretion. It is a matter of…” Sep 4, 20:58
Aidan on Anything But That: “Yes Alf – your tautological proposition is: – if Scotland was wealthier than Norway (because) then Scotland would be wealthier…” Sep 4, 20:49
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““places a liberated Scotland above Norway” Wow, fifty years of Scotland’s oil wealth being “plundered by England”. Fifty years of…” Sep 4, 20:42
Aidan on Anything But That: “If it’s irrefutable Xaracen – then why not argue it in court where these matters are properly determined?” Sep 4, 20:06
Chas on Anything But That: “The usual mince from the supposedly learned professor. Figures plucked from thin air and a conclusion that does not stand…” Sep 4, 19:51
Xaracen on Anything But That: “@Aidan; “Ultimately – those proposing independence are those proposing to change the status quo.” And so they absolutely should! The…” Sep 4, 19:48
Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““If there is anybody who genuinely believes in this £150+ billion a year figure” Well here’s another quite detailed analysis…” Sep 4, 19:42
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Seems like hardly any time since you were telling us it’s £200 billion a year. Whatever, what’s £50 billion between…” Sep 4, 18:52
Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““The court in The Hague reckons the Orcs owe $4.22 billion” Small beer, or the cost of one dodgy aircraft…” Sep 4, 16:34
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Respect to the Norwegians. They’re rediscovering their inner Viking and taking back control of the seas around their coastline. All…” Sep 4, 14:28
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Aye, James, breaths there as many as even ten True Sovereign Scots who have not, on reading your post, redoubled…” Sep 4, 13:42
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““highly valuable natural resources” Odd that nobody, either in Scotland or outside, knew we had any highly valuable natural resources…” Sep 4, 13:36
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Dear Slave, Shut up and eat your porridge or we will stop your privileges. Yours faithfully Sir Biggus ‘Fluffy’ Dickus…” Sep 4, 13:22
James Che on Anything But That: “There is ni UK parliament concerning Scotland, as the UK parliament has a start date of origin of 1800, When…” Sep 4, 12:03
James Che on Anything But That: “Willie, Jacob rees Mog was on his podcast yesterday praising that should the lights go out, not to worry as…” Sep 4, 11:58
