The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

Apocalypse worsens 131

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

Monday:

“On the basis of independent analysis, the UK Government has estimated that an average annual mortgage payment in Scotland could increase by £1,700.”

(UK government “factsheet” issued by the Scotland Office.)

Wednesday:

“For the average mortgage in Scotland, there would be £5,400 more [in] mortgage payments a year.”

(George Osborne to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.)

Yikes! What the hell happened on Tuesday?

Read the rest of this entry →

The dangers of the kneejerk 162

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

We’re so used to reading doom-and-gloom predictions about the apocalyptic future that would await an independent Scotland, readers, that to our shame we occasionally fall foul of a trap we never stop warning you about – reading the headline of a story and not paying attention to the words below.

eenystannit

The one above is a case in point.

Read the rest of this entry →

Quoted for LOLs 65

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

Mark Wallace in Conservative Home, 14 May 2014:

“Darling might not have been the most dynamic campaigner in the world, but at least he isn’t a complete and utter Jonah. Replacing him with Alexander is the equivalent of replacing your single-bar heater with a bonfire in your lounge because you weren’t warm enough, substituting your Morris Minor with a North Korean missile in the hope of getting to work faster or deciding to shave with a lawnmower because your disposable Bic was a bit blunt.

Because it actually did make us laugh.

Grassroots concreted over 153

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

Well, that was odd. No sooner had we posted a rather lightweight little piece this morning, revealing that the fake-grassroots “Vote No Borders” campaign had been in development since June 2012, than the story got a whole lot more interesting.

Read the rest of this entry →

A long time in the making 78

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

The fact that the millionaire-backed fake-grassroots “Vote No Borders” group arrived on the referendum scene with so little warning got a bit stranger yesterday with the news that the “unpolished voters” campaign has been gestating for almost two years.

acanchi2

Alert readers will recall that Acanchi is the London PR company run by Malcolm Offord and Fiona Gilmore, the directors of VNB. And it seems they’ve been busy.

Read the rest of this entry →

What you’re Better Together with 158

Posted on May 13, 2014 by

Some more people who want you to vote No so we can all be One Nation.

Although like Scottish Labour, they don’t seem to be very keen on foreigners.

Read the rest of this entry →

FOR COMMON SENSE 279

Posted on May 13, 2014 by

Because some of you won’t have seen it yet. This is NOT a spoof.

jean

That’s what they think will persuade people to vote No, readers.

The poster isn’t the problem 114

Posted on May 13, 2014 by

Labour’s Douglas Alexander got himself in a right old pickle this weekend, at first claiming that the party’s new campaign around a poster about VAT referred to an annual bill of £450 for the average family, but then trying to backtrack in a panic and claim the sum was calculated over the entire period of the coalition government when it was pointed out to him that the figure was ludicrous.

vatposter

Wings Over Scotland is of course dedicated above all to keeping the record straight, so our sinister network of shadowy cyber-agents got straight onto the case.

Read the rest of this entry →

Yet another warning from history 87

Posted on May 13, 2014 by

The Scotsman, 24 March 2007:

Brown: I will save the union

Gordon Brown last night revealed he was placing himself at the heart of Labour’s Holyrood election campaign, declaring it was his ‘duty’ to save the Union from the SNP.

In an exclusive interview with Scotland on Sunday, Brown pledged to spend the six weeks before polling day ‘explaining and exposing’ the Nationalists’ ‘disastrous’ plans.

The Chancellor ruled out any plans to give more power to the Scottish Parliament saying it was not necessary.”

How (some) things change, eh readers?

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,913 Posts, 1,242,955 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Stuart McDonald is down as treasurer. My theory doesnae work then! They couldbae hae been that brassneckit.May 28, 00:42
    • James on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Carrion CampervanMay 28, 00:42
    • Young Lochinvar on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Izzie & 7.05 Is that, Izzie, the word coming down the line from the top to the party-before-country faithful? What…May 28, 00:30
    • gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If someone else had put themselves forward for selection that would look terrible. If no-one else wanted the job then…May 28, 00:05
    • sarah on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I don’t know the facts, I just read somewhere about it. I got the impression that it wasn’t that the…May 27, 23:51
    • sarah on Off-topic: “Hello, Peter! The time I saw the goldcrest was from a caravan which was in a wood and was right…May 27, 23:38
    • gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Sarah. why on earth would a 70odd yr old man, who has gone through years of stress want to put…May 27, 23:35
    • gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I don’t know but many of us were frustrated at the time it was taking and asked the same thing.…May 27, 23:31
    • gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Sarah, its strange indeed. I would put money on him retiring was shocked when i saw he was standing again.…May 27, 23:28
    • Andrea on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I tried to leave a comment a couple of hours ago, but it is not there, so I am trying…May 27, 23:20
    • sarah on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “It cost him £20,000 to his local branch in order to get the nomination as candidate. Something very, very odd…May 27, 23:08
    • Ian Smith on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Why did Beattie stand again? He’s well past retirement age and clearly a clown. There was a massive likelyhood this…May 27, 22:29
    • Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Economists will say anything to avoid being grilled like that boy you were writing about yesterday, Geri. Any sarnies left?May 27, 22:28
    • Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Don’t knock being fiddled, Geri, you might have an organism So Maggie killed of the Clyde did she? And there…May 27, 22:21
    • Ian Smith on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Better than the Herald did, just mentioning a ‘website’.May 27, 22:19
    • Geri on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Leading economists say GDP is a pants way to measure a country by because it adds in things like rents…May 27, 22:15
    • Hatey McHateface on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Sounds like Mr Gibson wasn’t paying attention when it was explained to him that a shortfall in the separation of…May 27, 22:07
    • Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “@Northcode 8:18 Thanks for that rare peep into your personal life and habits, Northy. You’re a sly dog! All this…May 27, 21:46
    • Geri on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Scotland is being fiddled. You can quote all the figures you like. Unless they hand over the full accounts you…May 27, 21:45
    • Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Yes but we’ve been round this roundabout before, the data was wrong when you published it and now it’s both…May 27, 21:45
    • Andrea on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Slightly OT, but has anyone got any idea why the investigation lasted for so many years and why it took…May 27, 21:36
    • Hatey McHateface on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “After hundreds of posts, all hoaching with outright lies, why should we choose to believe your latest one, Geri? I…May 27, 21:35
    • Andy Wiltshire on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “This whole business is just one more example of how the institutions of Scotland work nowadays.May 27, 21:32
    • Hatey McHateface on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Havers, Northy. A handful of beads, a mirror or two, and a pint of fire water and you’d be the…May 27, 21:24
    • Alf Baird on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “My article identifying ‘the cost of colonialism’ for Scotland was published a couple of years ago and was therefore based…May 27, 21:18
    • Bill Scullion on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I heard Colin Beattie on TV yesterday and he looked like startled deer when asked if perhaps he should have…May 27, 20:47
    • Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Why would you be using figures from 5-years ago when for at least part of the period the U.K. was…May 27, 20:45
    • Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““We all know the answer, colonial plunder and economic under-development.” I am convinced by Alf’s argument, which is supported by…May 27, 20:18
    • Onlooker on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “We have a precedent. Poe did spend some childhood time in Ayrshire, Nicola’s home gaff, after all. Maybe he’s where…May 27, 20:17
    • Sheepshagger on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If nailed on evidence of either Sturgeon’s or Beattie’s culpability were to emerge could Police Scotland reopen the case?May 27, 19:48
  • A tall tale



↑ Top