The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland

Under false pretences 441

Posted on December 27, 2014 by

We’re still supposed to be on a skeleton service for the festive period, but we couldn’t just let this one slide. The cashflow problems at the Labour Party must be more severe than previously thought, because the entire organisation seems to be sharing a single email account. We got yet another begging letter today, from the same address previously named as “Iain McNicol” and “Ed Miliband”, but today’s one was credited to shadow women’s minister Gloria De Piero.

gloria

Alert readers will recognise the appeal as one we’ve been watching for 11 days now. It’s an attempt by the UK party to raise some cash to employ 10 campaign assistants specifically for Scottish Labour. The jobs are still openly listed as such on the Labour website’s situations-vacant page. Yet the party seems oddly reluctant to say so.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: ,
Category investigation, scottish politics, uk politics

They think it’s all over 162

Posted on December 27, 2014 by

boxingday

Tags: , ,
Category scottish politics

Diversification strategy 137

Posted on December 26, 2014 by

Wait, what?

scottories1

We know there’s a lot of talk of the other Unionist parties stepping aside in order to give Scottish Labour a clear run in 2015, in a desperate attempt to stop the SNP from picking up too many seats, but this is surely taking it a bit far.

Category scottish politics, wtf

War, hide yourself 219

Posted on December 25, 2014 by

Merry Christmas, readers. Have a good one and we’ll see you soon.

ddp1

Category misc, music

Granny’s at the gin again 220

Posted on December 24, 2014 by

We missed this on Sunday, because it was 17 minutes into on the short-lived and unlamented “Crossfire” (now binned for a Sunday edition of “Good Morning Scotland”) and therefore pretty much everyone in Scotland missed it. It’s former Labour minister Helen Liddell, or as we should properly address her, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke.

[audio http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/liddell-crossfire-21dec2014.mp3 ]

We’ve spared you her subsequent painful bleating about a general election 35 years ago that she doesn’t seem to have quite gotten over, but we couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at her curious assessment of the referendum result, which we suspect fellow guest Andrew “Lallands Peat Worrier” Tickell was simply too stunned to react to.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: ,
Category audio, comment, scottish politics, stats, wtf

Asymmetric warfare 68

Posted on December 24, 2014 by

From last night’s actually rather good “2014 – The Rory Review”:

BBC Scotland has 1,250 staff and an annual budget of just over £100 million. Yikes. We’re going to need a bigger fundraiser.

Category comment, media, navel-gazing, scottish politics

Would you like to play a game? 17

Posted on December 23, 2014 by

Since the demise of the Nintendo DS, I've done almost all of my videogaming on smartphones and tablets. A confluence of circumstances made traditional console formats less attractive for a variety of reasons, but also saw me spend more money on gaming than I had done in years. iOS and Android games offer a huge range of incredibly good titles at mindbogglingly tiny prices, almost all of them capable of fitting into whatever free time you have available.

redline

(And not just because they're short, snappy arcade twitch games like Super Hexagon or Impossible Road. Classics like Civilisation and Shadowrun have been revived brilliantly to suit the format, and traditional genres such as scrolling shooters have actually been improved by touchscreen controls, with the likes of Dodonpachi and Raiden rendered far more player-friendly without reducing their fearsome difficulty one iota. Pinball games and others can finally get the aspect ratio they've always wanted.)

More to the point, it almost never takes 47 days to download one.

Read the rest of this entry →

Category videogames

God loves an optimist 264

Posted on December 23, 2014 by

The Independent, 22 December 2014:

“Labour’s newly-elected Scottish leader, Jim Murphy, has told his party’s major donors and fundraisers that he needs to find £1m to combat the rising fortunes of the SNP.

The call to arms ahead of next year’s general election is Mr Murphy’s first acknowledgement that Labour will struggle to hold on to their former heartland unless they mount a forceful  campaign against the nationalists.

Although UK Labour can expect trade unions to underwrite any campaign funding gap, the majority of the affiliated unions in Scotland chose to back Mr Murphy’s left-leaning opponent, MSP Neil Findlay, in the leadership contest.”

We can only admire Mr Murphy’s ambition.

Read the rest of this entry →

Category comment, scottish politics

The dangers of skimming 78

Posted on December 22, 2014 by

Libby Brooks in today’s Guardian:

“The recently elected leader of Scottish Labour, Jim Murphy, faces a daunting challenge to lift his party’s fortunes before next May’s general election as a poll shows support for Labour in Scotland is now half of that for the SNP.

A Survation poll for Monday’s Daily Record, the first to be released since Murphy’s election on 13 December, found that 48% of Scottish voters plan to support the SNP in May, and 24% Labour.

The swing implied by the figures suggests that as many 10 Labour seats [sic] could fall to the SNP.”

But that’s not what the figures suggest at all.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category analysis, media, scottish politics, stats

The alpha ned 219

Posted on December 22, 2014 by

Fans of the bewildering in Scottish politics don’t look set to be disappointed in 2015.

murphyfootball

Jim Murphy’s only been the Scottish Labour “leader” for a week, but already he seems hell-bent on hurling the party’s North British branch into the padded walls of its cell with more vigour than ever before, heroically ignoring the open door.

Read the rest of this entry →

Category analysis, comment, football, scottish politics, wtf

The Legacy 234

Posted on December 21, 2014 by

Iain Macwhirter in “Disunited Kingdom” (Cargo Publishing, 8 December 2014):

“It seems clear that the newspapers allowed their editorial agendas to get in the way of their communication with their readers. And this has had very serious consequences.

There is now a very large body of people in Scotland who are deeply disillusioned with the press, to such an extent that they simply no longer believe what is written there.

Look at any of the internet sites related to the Yes campaign and you will now find, not just criticism of mainstream media but a complete rejection of it, as if it were the propaganda arm of a foreign power.

This degree of alienation from the press, shared by hundreds of thousands of Scottish voters, is unprecedented and should be causing alarm, not just in editorial offices, but in the political parties which are also losing their ability to communicate. “

It’s a difficult assessment to dispute.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

Behind the magic 158

Posted on December 20, 2014 by

We thought you might like a wee glimpse into the machinery.

Tags:
Category navel-gazing, video

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,965 Posts, 1,248,530 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

    and finally and firstly arithmetic fail braveheart klaxon britnats captain darling cartoons Chris Cairns confused cringe crybabies dateline debates Devo Nano Federalists Unionists and Devolutionists flat-out lies foreigner watch from the archives fundraisers galleries Greg Moodie hamish hypocrisy liars light-hearted banter lizards memogate misinformation one nation perspectives poll project fear project feart qft Scott Minto smears snp accused soapbox the positive case for the union The Vow ticktock toldyouso too wee too poor too stupid unionist of the day vote no get nothing

  • Recent Comments

    • TURABDIN on The Other Kind Of Winning: “«They might immediately stop paying benefits and pensions» indeed they might but Scots would have made their contributions to such…” Aug 12, 16:09
    • Lorncal on The Other Kind Of Winning: “H McH: I really believe that, in the end, there will be no alternative to an immediate UDI in the…” Aug 12, 15:40
    • lothianlad on The Other Kind Of Winning: “If its the National reporting, you know its duff information.” Aug 12, 15:17
    • 100%Yes on The Other Kind Of Winning: “The first failure of the SNP under Sturgeon was when she was on her grand tour in Edinburgh, I stayed…” Aug 12, 15:10
    • H Scott on The Other Kind Of Winning: “It’s standard practice to strip out Don’t Knows. The significance of the result is that it shows a much higher…” Aug 12, 15:09
    • Minceheid on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Here’s the deguffed archive version: https://archive.is/KGVkT” Aug 12, 14:52
    • crisiscult on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I’m in no way defending the National, and going further, a story in their paper that promotes actual movement on…” Aug 12, 14:49
    • aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Oh FFS. “Scots give verdict on unilateral declaration of independence” https://www.thenational.scot/news/26455863.scots-give-verdict-unilateral-declaration-independence/” Aug 12, 14:29
    • Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““rather unlikely the Brits could do anything about it” They might immediately stop paying benefits and pensions. I’m entirely in…” Aug 12, 14:23
    • Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “Spot the loony!” Aug 12, 13:58
    • Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “I will ask you yet again Alf, who forms an honest, competent Government if Independence was achieved any time soon.…” Aug 12, 13:54
    • Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Just as well no understanding of statistics is needed to design a ferry, eh, Alf?” Aug 12, 13:48
    • aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I am having some difficulty reconciling the donut chart graphic which shows, among other things, that the ‘Don’t know’ cohort…” Aug 12, 13:45
    • Potace on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Said it before and will say it again. The National only exists, and only ever existed, to leverage and exploit…” Aug 12, 13:44
    • Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Quite smart, Confused. I note you have no intention of cutting the trucking routes heading north. The ones shifting the…” Aug 12, 13:39
    • TURABDIN on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Were a collective/ junta/ faction consisting of Scotland’s brightest, one would hope for the brightest, were to do a well…” Aug 12, 13:38
    • Hibbie02 on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Go Stu, nice analogy! Still sticking it to the Hun after all these years!” Aug 12, 13:19
    • Rob on The Other Kind Of Winning: “That poll shows that 3/4 of the population oppose or don’t have have an opinion one way or the other…” Aug 12, 13:01
    • Spartan 117 on The Other Kind Of Winning: “The National is a Goebellsian comic strip that does more to damage any credibility of the Independence movement than anything…” Aug 12, 12:49
    • agentx on The Party Of The Dead: ““ALMOST half of Scots would back the Scottish Government declaring independence without a referendum or Westminster’s permission, The National can…” Aug 12, 11:50
    • Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: “Reflecting a far better understanding of our ever-worsening colonial condition, it finally looks like maist Scots have haed eneuch an…” Aug 12, 11:20
    • Confused on The Party Of The Dead: “GERS when the people who robbed you, tell you how poor you are – let’s talk about GDP per capita…” Aug 12, 11:01
    • Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Southwest Scotland would be awesome 🙂 Sadly though. It comes down to tax. I’m about to go for early retirement…” Aug 12, 10:15
    • Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: ““Bald Eagle” 😀 Love it. Hand me the Pledge and duster” Aug 12, 10:13
    • TURABDIN on The Party Of The Dead: “security, war & collateral damage futures, a stock that never fails…certainly worked in Iraq. But first you must destroy &…” Aug 12, 08:53
    • gm on The Party Of The Dead: “Well spotted Turabdin. The Ruling Class.” Aug 11, 22:05
    • James on The Party Of The Dead: ““….Who is the pathetic twat?” Still you, Bubba.” Aug 11, 21:10
    • Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Generally speaking, TURABDIN, in our culture, we don’t expect the offspring of anybody to be held accountable for the sins…” Aug 11, 21:06
    • Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Isn’t that how to deal with a fatberg? Divide it into smaller lumps that can then be individually flushed.” Aug 11, 20:56
    • Aidan on The Party Of The Dead: “What useful activities do you spend your day doing that you can be “diverted” and “distracted” from?” Aug 11, 20:40

  • A tall tale



↑ Top