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Wings Over Scotland


What don’t we know? 91

Posted on July 07, 2015 by

We noticed this last night, and we checked this morning and it’s still there:

acsm

That’s going to come as news to the people going to court tomorrow.

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The voice of tolerance 153

Posted on July 06, 2015 by

The website of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland says:

“The Protestant ethic is one of tolerance of other faiths and ideals. It is this tolerance and liberty that the Orange Order promotes and defends.”

So who’d like to see the Order tolerating and defending other people’s ideals in a double-page spread from the latest edition of their house journal, The Orange Torch?

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Making lemonade 93

Posted on July 06, 2015 by

I started lurking on PoliticalBetting.com in the run up to the referendum and enjoyed reading the “robust” debates. A couple of months after the vote I got more actively involved and was immediately puzzled as to why many PBers, commentators, party strategists and – particularly – supposedly infallible bookmakers were all struggling to accept the accuracy of the Scottish opinion polls.

lemonade2

At this point the polls were already indicating that Scottish Labour was going to lose many of its 41 seats and could end up with fewer than five. I started commenting that from where I sitting in Stirling the opinion polls were accurate, the SNP surge was real and indeed that it had not yet peaked.

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To lie with impunity 112

Posted on July 06, 2015 by

We reported last night on the mealy-mouthed semi-correction the Daily Telegraph has finally been forced to grudgingly publish with regards to its incompetent and inaccurate creation of the “Memogate” scandal. The paper – we’re loath to prefix it with the word “news” – has now suffered the full weight, such as it is, of the press regulator IPSO, and will not have to answer any further for its actions.

And that just leaves us with the source.

alistaircarmichael21

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The belated truth 114

Posted on July 06, 2015 by

At 10 o’clock on a Sunday night, three months after publishing the original falsehood, the Daily Telegraph has finally quietly pushed out the sort-of admission that it told a lie before the general election about the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, wanting David Cameron to remain as UK Prime Minister – a claim intended to damage her party politically in the aforementioned election.

simonjohnson

The toothless press watchdog IPSO has allowed the Telegraph to merely publish its adjudication by way of correction. No apology is offered to the First Minister, and the Telegraph can’t quite bring itself to concede that its facts were wrong, even though they’ve now been denied by every single party to the incident – Ms Sturgeon, the French ambassador, the French Consul-General and the former Secretary of State for Scotland who leaked a memo about their meeting to the press, Alistair Carmichael.

(More on him in a few hours, incidentally.)

Such, we must apparently accept, is justice for the British media.

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The wages of triangulation 206

Posted on July 05, 2015 by

In our latest Panelbase opinion poll, conducted last week in association with the Sunday Times, we wanted to complete the work we started previously in analysing the public’s reaction to Labour’s election strategies.

What we found last time was that almost every decision the party had taken in Scotland under the regional managership of Jim Murphy had been massively at odds with the Scottish electorate.

Whether it was booze at football, full fiscal autonomy or the Named Person initiative for child welfare, the voters were full-square behind the SNP, and every new policy Scottish Labour unveiled doomed them further. Anything that could be got wrong was.

nesbittmurphyslaw

This time we were curious about the effects in the whole UK, and with regard to one landmark moment in particular.

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The third voice 231

Posted on July 04, 2015 by

We’re not due a traffic post this month, so we’ll just leave this here.

sitespoll

(From a new Panelbase poll. More findings coming soon.)

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The macaroni marriage 119

Posted on July 04, 2015 by

As the petition to save them is dismissed as a “social media experiment” and as Greggs announces it will persist in removing the macaroni pie from its line, I find that my hackles have reached hitherto unrealised heights.

Just who do these people – quislings and traitors to the cause of quality baked goods – think they are? Even the wonderful Nicola (may her name be praised) has expressed ambivalence as to their merits, preferring not to partake at a personal level.

macaronipie
I am no stranger to feelings of righteous indignation, but why does this issue drive me to print in a way that the recent rebuffs to Holyrood’s permanence and full fiscal autonomy did not? Allow me to explain.

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EVEL Knievel 75

Posted on July 04, 2015 by

evelconnival

Stop or we’ll say stop again 224

Posted on July 03, 2015 by

We’ll never tire of documenting the Daily Record’s increasingly panicked attempts to get David Cameron to enact the Record’s dodgy promise of last September and save it from having to answer for the pup it sold Scotland.

vowpish3

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Scotland’s Embarrassment 127

Posted on July 02, 2015 by

The Daily Record has a major editorial in today’s edition bleating piteously about the way David Mundell and the Conservative government have – to everyone’s complete and utter astonishment, except not so much – ignored the wishes of almost all the MPs elected by the Scottish people just two months ago and blocked every single amendment to the Scotland Bill.

marty

The picture above, by alert reader Neil Hepburn, seems to sum the situation up.

The member for The Vow 211

Posted on July 02, 2015 by

The Sunday Post’s lobby reporter James Millar noticed today that all the parties have submitted their nominations to sit on the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster.

scotaffairs

As has already been noted, the majority of the committee – seven from 11 – are MPs for English seats (list below). But one name in particular caught our attention.

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    • James on Yelling at the tide: “When they’re online they *are* working!Jan 26, 10:48
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “Extracts from THE MIDGE / A’ MHEANBHCHUILEAG It troubles me too to see a country sink like a sand-castle beneath…Jan 26, 10:42
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “The lust, the will for survival that is something that costs nothing but actually is beyond price if you are…Jan 26, 08:49
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “I know a lot about language on the edge of extinction my people speak one. Many imagine that because they…Jan 26, 08:30
    • Young Lochinvar on Yelling at the tide: “Off topic.. I see our Engerlush super(ior) efficient Anglo masters are getting things, ahem, “bigley” wrong again!! Shock horror gasp…Jan 26, 06:31
    • DaveL on Yelling at the tide: “Exactly, who’d be Hatey alright. He’s calling everybody shit for things they haven’t said. He’s quite a piece of work…Jan 26, 06:29
    • James on Yelling at the tide: “# Who’d be Hatey?Jan 25, 21:50
    • Southernbystander on Yelling at the tide: “Exactly. Why do people think using lies to justify an argument will work? We have all seen the videos and…Jan 25, 21:37
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Were they not still Scots?” Certainly… as Sturgeon is a Scot, and Swinney is a Scot, and Tony Blair is…Jan 25, 21:37
    • DaveL on Yelling at the tide: “Caring Hatey rides again. If anybody had posted about it the chances are you would’ve laughed at them and shit…Jan 25, 21:00
    • Marie on Yelling at the tide: “Looking forward to the mid-terms Mr Brownshirt? You’ll be needing the tissues doll.Jan 25, 20:50
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “‘When a Language Won’t Awaken: The Hard Truths of Linguistic Revitalization’ Thanks TURABDIN for the link to this essentially sound,…Jan 25, 20:25
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “Thanks, Northcode for your answers upthread. Yes, Fergusson and Burns wanted to be more widely read and both had a…Jan 25, 20:08
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “As we all weep bitter, outraged and angry tears on the worlds most-read Scottish Independence site for the man cut…Jan 25, 20:04
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “I’m at hame the nicht. But in ma younger days, oan Burns Nicht, we wud always get a few shots…Jan 25, 19:49
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Aye, Northy, I hae absaelootly nae doot ye’re a much better poet than Burns ivver was. The langer ye go…Jan 25, 19:45
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “…so I could put a few shots in him.Jan 25, 19:35
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Sure, Alf, it’s racism that I don’t want to lose my livelihood because I’m not fluent in one of Scotland’s…Jan 25, 19:29
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Here’s a question, x. Is it true that with widely available apps, it’s possible to make all protagonists involved in…Jan 25, 18:45
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “Here, aw this tak o the braw Scots leid haes pit mi in mind tae write doun anither o ma…Jan 25, 18:45
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Bang! Whoops! My bad for startling you. I honestly didn’t think you’d have a wee accident like that. Have some…Jan 25, 18:39
    • agentx on Yelling at the tide: ““Hello love welcome home – how was your day today?” “Just normal darling. My 3 colleagues were holding a guy…Jan 25, 18:38
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “All to do with colonialism, sam. You’re long overdue to spend a few hours of quality time with Fanny and…Jan 25, 18:36
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “C’moan, noo, it’s a foregone conclusion. Scotland will win bigly and return home, dripping with gold.Jan 25, 18:32
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “The answer to your first two questions is: “MONEY!” (The mercenary pricks). There was obviously a bigger market for stuff…Jan 25, 18:32
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “Anent this post Northcode. Some questions. Why did the poets (Roberts) Fergusson and Burns begin to write in both English…Jan 25, 18:10
    • agentx on Yelling at the tide: “Happy Burns Night.Jan 25, 17:58
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““However, i do agree the ethnolinguistic archeology stage is over… ” Thank fuck… I was a bit concerned that you…Jan 25, 17:26
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “….their true language….what a can of worms you open there, more than a can of worms a veritable chasm. However,…Jan 25, 17:02
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “The Scots language is not, by any reckoning, a dead language – nearly half of Scots living in Scotland still…Jan 25, 16:28
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