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Wings Over Scotland

The others 163

Posted on May 18, 2014 by

Referendum polls now seem to be arriving on a daily basis, but this morning sees the appearance of two that offer some rather striking contrasts in more than one sense.

The less interesting, despite showing a remarkable swing of 5% to the No side, is an ICM one for Scotland on Sunday, which the paper gets predictably excited about and illustrates with an extreme close-up of a No activist with his face plastered in “Better Together” stickers (despite the man seeming to be in his 50s) and contorted into a provocative, mocking sneer.

btsneer

The more unsettling one, however, is in the Sunday Times.

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Category analysis, comment, scottish politics

Set the dials to Maximum Cringe 205

Posted on May 17, 2014 by

This one, from today’s Scottish Daily Mail, might actually be beyond comment.

horriblehistory

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Tags:
Category culture, media, scottish politics

Fear of flying 218

Posted on May 17, 2014 by

We suppose we should at least commend the “Vote No Borders” campaign for a certain level of frankness. While their output is little different to the daily hysterical fearmongering of “Better Together”, at least they don’t try to pretend that it’s “positive”.

Sadly, when it comes to the relationship their assertions have with the truth, however, they’re singing very much from the same hymn sheet.

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Tags: ,
Category analysis, scottish politics, world

Their master’s voice 126

Posted on May 17, 2014 by

puppets

Tags: ,
Category pictures, scottish politics, uk politics

This is not a spoof 180

Posted on May 16, 2014 by

We have not made this story up. It’s not the work of BBC Scotlandshire.

bbcoil5yrs

Just casually, there, beneath an unassuming, innocuous headline. No big deal.

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Category apocalypse, scottish politics, wtf

Another leaked poster 79

Posted on May 16, 2014 by

lifeexpectancy

(Story.)

Category leaks, scottish politics

Quoted for horror 113

Posted on May 16, 2014 by

An alert reader directed us to this document this morning:

“The reasons for the high Scottish mortality between 1950 and 1980 are unclear, but poverty and deprivation linked to particular industrial employment patterns, poor housing and unhealthy cultural and behavioural patterns seem the more likely explanations.

From 1980 onwards the mortality pattern changed and this seems most likely to be attributable to the changed political context, produced by neoliberal political attack, and the consequent hopelessness and community disruption experienced in Scotland and Glasgow.”

It’s a 2011 study by the non-political Glasgow Centre for Population Health, which attempts to discern why Scotland, and particularly Glasgow, has such appalling life expectancies compared to the rest of the UK. And its findings are startling.

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

The Dishface Tapes 147

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

Watch (from 5m 50s) as David Cameron refuses to commit to having a bill for more powers for Holyrood in the first Queen’s Speech should he win the 2015 election.

Vote no, get nothing, and get it never.

Tags:
Category scottish politics, uk politics, video

The unionist case for independence 149

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

The unionist case for Scots voting No in the independence referendum is encapsulated in the following quote from the website of “Better Together”, the official No campaign:

“Devolution offers us the best of both worlds: we have a strong Scottish Parliament taking important decisions about schools, hospitals and jobs AND we benefit from the strength, security and opportunities we can take advantage of being part of a bigger United Kingdom.”

The main problem with this argument is that there’s an alternative Union which would provide the Scottish Parliament with more powers to “take important decisions about” things and allow Scotland to “benefit from” and “take advantage of’” the “strength, security and opportunities” of being part of something far bigger than the UK itself.

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Category comment, europe, scottish politics, uk politics

Automatic pilot 74

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

Judging by the latest leak from our “Better Together” mole, we’re not sure anyone’s actually driving the No campaign any more. It seems to be set on an infinite loop.

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Category comment, leaks, pictures, scottish politics

The pounds in your pockets 108

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

Several of today’s papers run with the story that in giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee in Westminster, George Osborne yesterday made the claim that Scots could run out of cash under independence, as Scottish banks would no longer be able to print their own pound notes guaranteed by the Bank of England.

RBS banknotes

Osborne’s argument is that Scottish notes are accepted as currency in the UK under the Banknote (Scotland) Act of 1845. However, this legislation would no longer apply after independence without a currency union, thereby making Scots notes worthless.

In what was an oddly nervous and evasive performance before the Committee – despite its extremely friendly questioning – it was one of the Chancellor’s stranger assertions.

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Category analysis, history, scottish politics, uk politics

The invisible army 154

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

We’ve been wiping tears of laughter from our eyes most of this morning, after reading one of the most magnificently bare-faced and audacious pieces of black-is-white lying we think we might ever have seen printed with a straight face in a British newspaper.

It appears in the Telegraph, which seems to have positioned itself latterly as the Daily Sport for people with a reading age above seven, and makes the mindboggling claim that “Contrary to its media image, the campaign to save the United Kingdom says it has more boots on the ground than its nationalist opponents”.

boots

In fairness, it doesn’t actually say whether these boots have any feet in them.

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Category analysis, comment, investigation, pictures, scottish politics, video

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