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Wings Over Scotland

The shifting foundations 201

Posted on January 08, 2016 by

As we noted on Tuesday, Scottish Labour’s opening election salvo for 2016 has been to blame the Scottish Government for unaffordable house prices.

scotsmanhousing

Of the 450 most obvious flaws in that argument, not least the extraordinary efforts a 13-year Labour government went to to keep the housing bubble inflated, the one that caught our eye was that in the past three years we were regularly told of one thing that definitely WOULD bring prices down dramatically, but which Labour pathologically fought every step of the way.

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

Some very brief thoughts on RISE 394

Posted on January 07, 2016 by

(And the rest of the “pro-indy left”.)

If you’re primarily or solely contesting regional seats, and you’re chiefly (as seems to be the case) targeting people who are going to use their first vote for the SNP, “Vote for us so that we can provide strong opposition to the SNP” is a pretty weird pitch.

You’re basically asking people to use their second vote to cancel out their first. And that’s quite a tough angle to be trying to sell them. Just saying, like.

Category comment, scottish politics

The judgement of silence 220

Posted on January 06, 2016 by

We suppose we shouldn’t technically be surprised that today’s newspapers carry no analysis whatsoever of Kezia Dugdale’s big speech yesterday detailing Scottish Labour’s first big election pledge – a £6000 handout to first-time home buyers.

slabhouse

After all, current polling suggests Scottish Labour have about as much chance of exerting any influence in the next Scottish Parliament as Lemmy has of posthumously winning the Eurovision Song Contest, so it doesn’t really matter if Kezia Dugdale promises every voter a free unicorn made of diamonds and glitter.

Still, if only for the mental exercise, it’s worth taking a look in detail.

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Category analysis, scottish politics

Kezia For Independence 149

Posted on January 05, 2016 by

The tweets below are all genuine, and taken from the Scottish Labour Twitter account earlier today during its live-tweeting of Kezia Dugdale’s speech. We’ve rarely heard a more compelling and concise argument for a Yes vote. We take our hats off to her.

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Category scottish politics

Clickbait corner 68

Posted on January 05, 2016 by

It’s always good to see someone take a strong moral stand.

dhgg

When indeed, eh?

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Category comment, scottish politics

The sewer press 261

Posted on January 05, 2016 by

So, this appeared in the Herald today:

beggherald1

And that’s a problem, because it’s a complete and utter lie.

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Category comment, debunks, media, scottish politics

Meet the new year, same as the old year 94

Posted on January 05, 2016 by

As politics wakes up from the holidays, any readers still bothering to gaze at the pages of the Scottish media could be forgiven for a crushing sense of deja vu.

2016papers

In more senses than one.

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Category analysis, debunks, media, scottish politics

Towards a better, kinder 2016 343

Posted on January 03, 2016 by

The Herald columnist Iain Macwhirter has had some wise words to say on the subject of social media in the past few weeks, most recently on New Year’s Day:

imac1

The month before, though, he’d been even more to the point.

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Category admin, comment, culture, scottish politics

Answers without words 167

Posted on January 02, 2016 by

We tweeted this proposition last night (the quote comes from a blog post yesterday by Scottish Labour madcase and all-round comedy relief Ian Smart):

rdfm

We thought you might enjoy some of the responses as much as we did.

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Category culture, scottish politics, video

A whole new world 201

Posted on January 01, 2016 by

bullpress

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

Tags: ,
Category media, scottish politics

The media they don’t like to talk about 229

Posted on December 31, 2015 by

Below is a very interesting 13-minute chat from this afternoon’s John Beattie Show on Radio Scotland, also featuring Stuart Cosgrove (presenter of the excellent footy prog Off The Ball) and Eamonn O’Neill, who we presume is this Eamonn O’Neill.

(The John Beattie Show, BBC Radio Scotland, 31 December 2015)
.

Naturally we like it because there’s mention of Wings, which – for just about the first time we can recall on broadcast media in our four-year life – isn’t about how vile and awful we are, but the whole thing is much more wide-ranging and well worth a listen.

(The line “The media the media doesn’t like to talk about” is Beattie’s, not ours.)

Category audio, comment, media, navel-gazing

The Slightly Tubby Quiz Of The Year 567

Posted on December 29, 2015 by

It’s time to find out just how alert you really are, readers.

jcarr

The answers to each of the 24 questions below about Scottish politics in 2015 can be found in Wings articles. But no Googling – we’ll know.

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Category misc, scottish politics

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