Better late than never. But there’s still something not quite right in the image above, and you’ll have to be one of our extra-specially alert readers to spot it.
Readers will know that as a rule we don’t just pinch bits of other peoples’ work wholesale, but in this particular case, given that the entire UK media’s been going on about it misleadingly for a solid week and still shows no sign of stopping, it seemed only fair that everyone should be up to speed on the source.
It’s a Bank Holiday and frankly there’s absolutely bugger-all of any interest in the news today, so I hope you’ll forgive me a personal indulgence, readers. I’ve only used the personal pronoun for a couple of Wings articles out of over 2,300 in the site’s two and a half years of existence, because the independence debate isn’t about me. But a curious piece in today’s Herald by David Torrance merits such a response.
If you don’t see what it’s got to do with that video*, bear with me.
To cheer you up a bit, we thought you might like to see a couple of rather curious pieces from this weekend’s right-wing press. 300 years of the Union have infamously left Scotland with the lowest life expectancies in the UK, as illustrated in particularly stark fashion by some maps published a couple of years ago in the Guardian:
Respectable author Allan Massie (father of Spectator columnist Alex) rather shames himself in today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday, with a particularly grim piece of what we assume is supposed to be comical crystal ball-gazing, painting a melodramatic picture of an apocalyptic post-independence Scotland as seen by Project Fear.
Over 2500 words long, it ticks all the boxes – no currency union, a mass exodus of business, Spain vetoing Scotland’s EU membership, economic Armageddon forcing the return of tuition fees and prescription charges, Trident staying on the Clyde permanently, Orkney and Shetland voting to stay with the UK and somehow taking the oil with them in direct contravention of all international law, and so on.
Which would all be a super piece of knockabout fun, were it not for the fact that we’ve already almost lost count of the number of times the right-wing English media, and in particular the Mail itself, has already trotted out this same dystopian drivel.
Despite the strikingly unequivocal nature of David Trimble’s clarification yesterday of his comments about the independence referendum’s potential impact on Northern Irish politics, remarkably the media are today still trying to spin them into a dire warning about a Yes vote causing renewed violence in the province.
The picture below is a page from this morning’s Sunday Times.
It doesn’t seem to have had a great deal of coverage, perhaps because most of the answers were in the “bleeding obvious” category – business frets about change, and the more change there might be the less they like it.
We’ve quite frequently highlighted the ugly, irresponsible tone of the No campaign’s – and especially Labour’s – comments about “foreigners”in the independence debate. And the reason we do is because that sort of language feeds attitudes like these.
Whoops, eh? Oddly, while the original story is still on the BBC NI website, we can’t seem to find one reporting the correction anywhere, even though Lord Trimble spoke to GMS more than eight hours ago. We’re sure it’ll be along any minute now.
A reader this morning pointed us to an article by the arch-Unionist blogger and pundit Professor Adam Tomkins, who we must once again emphasise in the interests of clarity is almost definitely NOT the gentleman in this picture:
It was a piece from a few weeks ago about the currency debate, which the reader felt made a reasonable and “quite convincing” case, so we went and had a look.
Saffron Robe on Shield Of The Phantom: “A thought-provoking video with two excellent speakers — especially relevant in the current geo-political climate: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iYw2f9i6s0” Feb 1, 19:50
Young Lochinvar on Shield Of The Phantom: “I see Sandy Brindley has stepped down. Muted comment on controversies she has been involved in, BBC certainly isn’t making…” Feb 1, 19:00
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “H McH: a judge should deliver a judgement solely on the evidence and the jury’s deliberations – which saved Alec…” Feb 1, 18:58
Saffron Robe on Shield Of The Phantom: ““Fanon and Memmi – foreign boys who knew SFA about Scotland, our people, our history, our culture, or our unique…” Feb 1, 18:58
Young Lochinvar on Shield Of The Phantom: “Depends on how much you support and want to see protected the transgressors eh.. Small potatoes though compared to what’s…” Feb 1, 18:45
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Just you, x. “Rich people have sex” is the biggest story since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Try to see your…” Feb 1, 18:36
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “If those with money and power can be accused without evidence, the rest of us are easy meat.” Feb 1, 18:33
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “@Cynicus Seems fair enough to me. After all, the mosque is built on the ruins of the earlier temple. What…” Feb 1, 18:31
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Any advance on tertiary? Anybody prepared to believe that syphilis hasn’t been curable since before President Trump was born? Anybody…” Feb 1, 18:15
agentx on Shield Of The Phantom: “Is it just me or are the general public just not as interested in the Ep files as the News…” Feb 1, 18:15
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “G’wan, Marie, mak a start. What with being named after the Mother of God, you must have special insight.” Feb 1, 18:08
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: ““Extreme orthodoxy of EVERY main ABRAHAMic (my emphasis) faith is frightening” -Marie ======== Trump’s son in law Kushner donates to…” Feb 1, 17:30
Aidan on Shield Of The Phantom: “@Xaracen – I posted one of the quotes from the judgement further up in the thread. You can read the…” Feb 1, 16:01
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “You are right, H McH, as far as domestic legislation is concerned, but not international legislation, which a treaty is.…” Feb 1, 14:19
Marie on Shield Of The Phantom: “Monarchy is a religious relic – time to get rid. Religions are anti-scientific nonsense – ALL of them. The archaic…” Feb 1, 13:47
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Marie, Maybe all nonsense to you or I, but the monarch of England believes in that nonsense, follows his beliefs,…” Feb 1, 13:14
Marie on Shield Of The Phantom: “Another appalling scandal being deliberately hidden from us. Thanks for the info.” Feb 1, 13:05
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “DaveL Thats because It is medical malpractice to follow an ( ideology ) medically when practicing medicine, “To do no…” Feb 1, 12:59
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Confused, It is a sexual deviance among the elites to pray on young people and children and women, The only…” Feb 1, 12:52
Saffron Robe on Shield Of The Phantom: “Very good comment in reply to the points Lorna raises, Alf, as are all your comments. I like how you…” Feb 1, 12:50
Marie on Shield Of The Phantom: “Halal, Kosher, not eating meat on Fridays – it’s all archaic nonsense.” Feb 1, 12:36
DaveL on Shield Of The Phantom: “A quote from msn news: “A woman who received a double mastectomy at the age of 16 under the guise…” Feb 1, 12:32
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Good day to you too north Code, The worlds still unrelentingly crazy even for a Sunday, my own religion is…” Feb 1, 12:30
Confused on Shield Of The Phantom: “interesting rumour – trump has tertiary syphilis, after 20 years it starts to rot the brain and it removes your…” Feb 1, 12:17
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Marie, Indeed a king that change his faith to differ than that wrote down in the treaty of union, And…” Feb 1, 12:13
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Scotland holds itself captive, a prisoner without bars,” Feb 1, 12:07
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “To peruse around the details of Scotland/ England supposed union is not only extremely amusing and interesting, but also alters…” Feb 1, 12:01
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Lorna Campbell, For Scotland, and perhaps England, the way out of the all the confusing modern day politics is the…” Feb 1, 11:08
Marie on Shield Of The Phantom: “I find religious people absolutely terrifying now. Extreme orthodoxy of EVERY main Abrahamic faith is frightening. People in power who…” Feb 1, 10:53
Xaracen on Shield Of The Phantom: “Aidan, you said; “in his opinion on the subject Lord Hope of Craighead said explicitly that the treaty did extinguish…” Feb 1, 10:47
