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.
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 →
Tags: misinformation, Scott Minto
Category
analysis, history, scottish politics, uk politics
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”.
In fairness, it doesn’t actually say whether these boots have any feet in them.
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: arithmetic fail, flat-out lies
Category
analysis, comment, investigation, pictures, scottish politics, video
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.
The one above is a case in point.
Read the rest of this entry →
Category
analysis, comment, scottish politics, uk politics
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 →
Tags: memory hole
Category
comment, investigation, scottish politics
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.
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 →
Category
investigation, scottish politics
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 →
Tags: and finally
Category
uk politics, video
Because some of you won’t have seen it yet. This is NOT a spoof.
That’s what they think will persuade people to vote No, readers.
Category
comment, culture, scottish politics, wtf
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.
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 →
Tags: flat-out lies
Category
comment, investigation, uk politics
This morning’s Daily Mail reports that Alistair Darling has been “sidelined” by the No campaign, with Douglas Alexander drafted into his place. We’ve remarked previously on this site about our bemusement over the reverence with which Mr Alexander’s intellect is regarded by the Scottish media, and we’re none the wiser after this:
Read the rest of this entry →
Category
analysis, comment, media, scottish politics, uk politics, video
