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Wings Over Scotland


An open goal 108

Posted on January 10, 2015 by

It’s like they’re actually setting these up for us.

murphylaw1

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A few not-very-good men 83

Posted on January 10, 2015 by

We’ve had some fun with the appointment of John McTernan as Scottish Labour’s new chief of staff this week. But he’s far from the only talent in branch manager Jim Murphy’s backroom team. Particularly alert readers may recall an obscure figure from the independence campaign by the name of Blair McDougall, who was little-seen in the last year of the debate but we think was the director of “Better Together”.

blairmcdougall22

It seems his modus operandi hasn’t changed much since the referendum.

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Business as usual 105

Posted on January 10, 2015 by

An unsurprising result.

legaldecent

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Ontae plums 65

Posted on January 10, 2015 by

slabslot

When history didn’t happen 244

Posted on January 09, 2015 by

Below is a clip from today’s “Morning Call” on BBC Radio Scotland. Speaking (from 16m 24s on the full show) are SNP MSP Mark McDonald, presenter Kaye Adams and Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald. There are a couple of noteworthy moments.

A caller named “George” had rung in concerned that the SNP might be giving up on their goal of independence, and Adams invited Mark McDonald to set his mind at rest. Here’s what happened in the next three minutes.

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The right kind of people 87

Posted on January 09, 2015 by

Scottish Labour’s new chief of staff this afternoon:

jmct

Hmm, wonder who “the right people” are?

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Scottish Labour For Dummies 2015 133

Posted on January 09, 2015 by

In the light of the announcement of Scottish Labour’s new chief of staff, we thought it might be worthwhile to summarise some of his views in one handy reference guide, for the benefit of left-wing Labour voters who may have voted Yes in the referendum but are now considering whether to return to the party this May.

mcternan1

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Reaching out to Yes 126

Posted on January 09, 2015 by

Alert readers may recall that since the election of Jim Murphy as Scottish Labour branch office manager he’s barely gone a moment without promising to “reach out” to Yes voters. Last month he even pledged that he’d employ some in his team if he won the Labour job.

murphyreach

We imagine they’ll be fair hammering on his door after the latest addition to his crew, because today’s Herald reveals that Murphy’s new chief of staff, and joining “Better Together” director Blair McDougall among Jim’s backroom boys, is to be our old pal John “there will be no referendum” McTernan.

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They just can’t help it 115

Posted on January 08, 2015 by

“Wait, this story’s entirely true. Do something, Torcuil.”

fivedogs

“Sorted, boss.”

The goldfish principle 245

Posted on January 08, 2015 by

It is, we’ve remarked before, often difficult to satirise Scottish Labour, because it’s hard to think of anything more fatuous, transparently hypocritical or just plain idiotic than the things they actually say for real. The party’s recent demand that the Scottish Government should set up a “resilience fund” to cushion the blow of falls in oil prices – or as everyone else on Earth usually calls it, an “oil fund” – is only the latest example.

bailliefund1

There are just five months between the two tweets above. Yet Labour seemingly believes that the Scottish public will already have completely forgotten that the party spent most of the last two years telling Scots an oil fund was a mad, impossible idea.

But it’s even more ludicrous than it sounds.

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Nous sommes avec vous, nos amis 167

Posted on January 07, 2015 by

hamishcharlie

Drawing a blank 71

Posted on January 07, 2015 by

We’ve got nothing today, readers. We don’t want to turn into Wings Over Jim Murphy, but otherwise the Scottish political scene is a bit tumbleweedy. Tell us something interesting that we should be covering. Or just a fun fact, or a joke, or anything.

In the light of the absolute horror at Charlie Hebdo today, it’s either that or we’re going to start running cartoons of Mohammed on principle.

shawtoon

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    • Peter McAvoy on Believers In The Ruins: “When Independence is declared whether after a referendum or UDI who would recognise Scottish Independence and for what reason,and how…Aug 14, 01:34
    • sarah on Believers In The Ruins: “@ BLMac “Scotland is lacking..a leader who the enemy fear…”. I’d be happy with any leader i.e. with enough personality,…Aug 13, 22:24
    • BLMac on Believers In The Ruins: “Looking at the history of independence movements what Scotland is lacking is a right nasty bastard as leader, ie a…Aug 13, 22:00
    • sarah on Believers In The Ruins: “O/T: Mark Hirst fundraiser today for £5000 to pursue his case against the Crown Office for malicious prosecution. The crowdfunder…Aug 13, 21:33
    • Breeks on Believers In The Ruins: “The weakness of a UDI isn’t necessarily constitutional legitimacy, nor political justification, both of which I consider favourable towards Scotland’s…Aug 13, 21:14
    • Dan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Trouble is Stu that there aren’t that many people btl now… That’s because 8 years of an awful lot of…Aug 13, 20:17
    • Aidan on Believers In The Ruins: “Aye thats it – there’s about 15-20 regular posters here, the plan is to bore than to death until what?…Aug 13, 20:10
    • diabloandco on Believers In The Ruins: “Me too MorgatronAug 13, 19:54
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    • Chas on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I did state that migrants are a separate issue!Aug 13, 16:43
    • Chas on Believers In The Ruins: “I owe the learned professor an apology. He is clearly suffering from dementia as this is the only reason why…Aug 13, 16:41
    • Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “So that’s what we’re doing, Alf, we’re following the decolonisation template. Crivens! Care to provide a concrete example? Maybe a…Aug 13, 16:40
    • Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Perhaps you need to educate yourself, TURABDIN. You might discover that the Earth-Moon system is unique within our solar system,…Aug 13, 16:13
    • Alf Baird on Believers In The Ruins: ““Written in the post colonial textbooks” Correct Hatey, Scots are, sure as Celts winning the league, following the ‘decolonization template’…Aug 13, 16:12
    • Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “An interesting idea, Chas, but in a country where the immigrants are doing an ever increasing share of the jobs,…Aug 13, 15:47
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    • Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “All very well but where aboot’s this genocide at? Thing is, if there’s a real genocide ongoing, none of the…Aug 13, 15:31
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