Wings Over Scotland

This is a story in the Herald today.

Thing is, we know it’s a lie. Who says so? Kezia Dugdale does.

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Earlier today we were moved to tweet our scepticism regarding a claim made by the Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale, as reported in the Guardian.

Even on the most casual glance, the numbers just didn’t seem to add up. If 62% of Scots voted to stay in the EU and 55% voted to stay in the UK, with no correlation between the two things, then the Venn-diagram intersection between those two groups seems pretty unlikely to add up to more than 50%, let alone a “vast” majority.

So as we like to do, we checked.

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In the spirit of straight talking, honest politics, I’m going to put my cards on the table right now: I’m a Corbyn voter. As a classic hand-wringing, middle-class, North London leftie, the mad fact of Jeremy Corbyn’s candidacy compelled me to register as a Labour supporter; empowered me to bet £3 on the foolish notion that Something More might somehow, suddenly, be achievable.

In no small part, I was inspired to do this by what happened in Scotland this year. I’m sure many of us were: finally, a viable political force south of Berwick was willing to show two fingers to austerity.

And if anyone called us out, if they told us we were crazy and that nobody would vote for such a “loony”, “radical”, “hard-left” candidate? Well, then we had a perfect example just north of the border to throw back at them. The SNP had hoovered up 50% of the vote on an anti-austerity ticket, and after all, aren’t we one nation? One people fighting for a common cause, et cetera? Couldn’t we put labels aside and work together?

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…is eternal vigilance, chums. Turn your back on Unionists and the media – for the sake of argument we’ll say that’s two things – for a second and they’ll start trying to slip lies out into the public consciousness, from which place they’re notoriously hard to dislodge. (Kim Jong-Un’s mythical Scottish restaurant is a recent case in point. It’s now a comedy staple, despite having been completely fabricated.)

So it’s always worth keeping a close eye on this site’s dear old pal, Labour candidacy hopeful and media favourite Duncan Hothersall, for an early sight of which falsehoods the party will be trying to propagate next.

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We’re genuinely baffled by Ed Miliband’s big conference showstopper announcement this week that a Labour government would freeze people’s utility bills for a year and a half. Channel 4’s Fact Check is extremely sceptical that it can be done at all. The energy companies are predictably furious and making all manner of dire threats.

But what we really don’t get is what the point of it is.

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Bless ’em, they’re getting closer. After some nagging, the Herald has now finally changed the story about jobs at Faslane that it printed a correction for earlier this week. And credit to them, the new version is a good 5% less wrong than the original.

Rather more distressingly, though, the newly-edited story still doesn’t match up even to the Herald’s own correction, never mind any kind of reality.

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How to support Wings Over Scotland and other Yes causes with cold hard cash.

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If you’d like to contribute to keeping Wings Over Scotland online we run fundraisers every year around March, or you can just buy us a bag of sweets to say thanks by clicking the button below to send a one-off donation of any sum you feel like.

(You shouldn’t need a PayPal account to donate, just a credit or debit card. And yes, our PayPal account is under an odd name starting with ‘E’. Long story.)

Alternatively, you can use this exciting new drop-down menu to make a monthly donation of £2, £5, £10, £25 or even – check out our delusional optimism – £50.

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To see our previous annual fundraisers, click the banners below:

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—— DIRECT BANK TRANSFER ——

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—— RELATED CAUSES ——

Other current fundraisers you may want to help out:

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—— COMPLETED FUNDRAISERS ——

A list of pro-independence fundraisers so far, including only those that have made over £1000 and which were done fully or mainly in transparent public view with donor lists.

Wings Over Scotland, June 2019: £171,849 (incl. “offsite” donations)
Wings Over Scotland, March 2018: £153,215 (ditto)
Wings Over Scotland, March 2017: £140,047 (ditto)
Wings Over Scotland, March 2015: £117,345 (ditto)
Wings Over Scotland, March 2014: £110,717 (ditto)
Wings Over Scotland, March 2016: £87,171 (ditto)
Wings Over Scotland Wee Blue Book, August 2014: £59,661
Bella Caledonia, May/June 2015: £53,880
Broadcast News For Scotland, autumn 2014: £37,700
Indy Adverts, Aug/Sep 2014: £33,493
Backing Bella Caledonia, May 2016: £33,442
Wings Over Scotland, February 2013: £33,014
Business For Scotland, June 2014: £31,265
Common Weal, autumn 2013: £25,584
Wee Ginger Dug, July/Aug 2017: £21,065 (incl. all)
Women For Independence, March 2014: £20,823
Scotland Yet, autumn 2013: £20,320
Wee Ginger Dug, June/July 2018: £20,224
Margo Mobile 1, July 2014: £18,600
Alan Bissett – The Pure, The Dead And The Brilliant, March 2014: £18,431
National Collective, April 2013: £18,360
Phantom Power: Future Scotland: £18,271
Women For Independence To The AGM, October 2014: £15,615
Women For Independence Last Six Weeks, August 2014: £15,186
Wings Over Scotland Wee Black Book, May/June 2016: £14,965
Bella At Ten, Oct/Nov 2017: £14,795
How The BBC Stole The Referendum – The Documentary, October 2015: £14,510
Newsnet Scotland, December 2013: £13,801
Backing Bella, December 2013: £13,480
Generation Yes, May/June 2014: £13,415
AyeMail – Going Postal, October 2016: £12,655
Indy Cyclist – Rome To Home, May 2014: £12,090
Wings Over Scotland opinion polls (x2), 2013: £11,822
10,000 Flags For Yes, April 2014: £11,397
Margo Mobile 2, August 2014: £10,858
Spirit Of Independence, summer 2014: £10,779
Spirit Of Independence #2, autumn 2014: £10,404
NewsShaft And Beyond, summer 2015: £10,400
National Yes Registry, August 2015: £9,794
Radical Independence – The Final Push, July 2014: £8,995
Left Scotland (May 2015): £8,200
Scotland Yet Post-Production, May 2014: £8,200
Independence Live – Glasgow Studio, March 2017: £7,657
Labour For Independence, March 2014: £7,031
AyeMail – ScotRef Express, May 2017: £6,750
Independence Live, March 2016: £6,680
Independence Live Going Forward, May/June 2015: £5,861
Independence Live Autumn Livestreams 2017: £5,835
Independence Live Post-Conference, November 2016: £5,575
Edinburgh North & Leith For Yes, July 2014: £5,550
How The BBC Stole The Referendum – The Final Push, May 2016: £5,535
Yes Glasgow Independence Debate, February 2014: £5,465
Indy Cyclist 2 – 500 Miles In 5 Days, July 2014: £5,350
How The BBC Stole The Referendum, November 2014: £5,281
Yes Dundee Bus Adverts, April/May 2015: £5,135
Yes Borders, March 2014: £4,875
Delivery For Indy, March 2016: £4,803
The Indyref Graphics Book, March 2015: £4,800
AyeMail – Scotland’s Choice, October 2017: £4,300
Radical Independence – Another Scotland Is Possible, February 2014: £4,001
Inform Scotland, October 2017: £3,615
Scot Goes Pop!, May 2014: £3,425
Dateline Scotland, August 2014: £3,322
English Scots For Yes 2, August 2014: £3,226
North British News, March 2016: £3,155
Yes In The Glen, February 2014: £3,121
Friends Of Wings Over Scotland 2, September 2014: £3,078
Indyref Yes Graphics (August 2014): £3,010
Friends Of Wings Over Scotland, June/July 2014: £2,568
Scottish Socialist Party, August 2014: £2,121
Yes Western Isles Campaign Office, July 2014: £2,050
Scotland’s Conversation With The World, May 2014: £2,025
Yes Stirling Office, June 2014: £2,005
Yes Edinburgh West Campaign Hub, July 2014: £2,000
AyeMail – Scottish Tax Fact Check, April 2018: £1,700 
Scottish Independence Live Events, June 2014: £1,640
English Scots For Yes, June 2014: £1,627
Aye Talks, May 2014: £1,520
Yes Bo’ness Shop, May/June 2014: £1,505
Yes Edinburgh Advert Trailer, spring 2014: £1,130

Total as of 10 August 2020: £1,616,331
(Wings Over Scotland: £899,806)

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Other campaigns: totals claimed but not independently verified

Newsnet Scotland (“Duggy Dug” project and full-time staff writer): £22,000
National Collective’s “Yestival”, summer 2014: £30,820
Bella Caledonia Autumn Fund, 2014(?): £35,000 (all online trace has vanished)
iScot 2017: £25,790
Inform Scotland: £9,190

Claimed total: £122,800

Other “indy-related” pseudo-fundraisers (those primarily facilitating the selling of a product rather than raising money for campaigning materials/purposes)

The People Versus Alistair Carmichael, 2015: £216,590
iScot Phase 2, September 2015: £31,011
iScot Phase 3, 2016: £27,705
Chris Cairns – Send In The Clowns, October 2017: £15,025
Chris Cairns – Welcome To Cairnstoon, September 2015: £11,405
Greg Moodie Versus The Union, August 2014: £10,581
Greg Moodie’s Election Dissection, April 2015: £9,745
Moodievision, November 2015: £3,257
iScot, February 2016: £2,437
iScot, October (?) 2014: £2,122

Total: £329,878