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.
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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:
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Category
analysis, comment, media, scottish politics, uk politics, video
The deeply dodgy fake-grassroots “Vote No Borders” group of wealthy London-based PR people has been rolling out its “unpolished” voters (their term, not ours) again, this time in a series of what must have been fairly pricey adverts in the Daily Record.
The simplistic, often dreadfully-misinformed quotes in the ads have been causing some irritation and anger among Yes supporters on social media, which is understandable but not constructive. After all, many of us have relied on the press for our information about one thing or another in the past too, and learned a bitter lesson.
So let’s see if we can’t actually be polite and helpful instead.
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Tags: perspectives
Category
comment, scottish politics
It’s been fascinating to watch the media slyly turning Chris and Colin Weir’s quite understandable objection to being defamed by loathsome right-wing newspapers and MSPs into an attack on “cybernats”.
But this morning Alan Cochrane of the Telegraph – who we rarely read even for laughs now, so far gone is his grasp on reality – added a particularly deft twist which we thought worthy of note for those who like to study how the press does its business.
And yes, we entirely meant that double entendre.
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Tags: misinformation, phantoms, smears
Category
comment, media, scottish politics
Alert readers will have noticed that we’ve been studying the UK government’s latest independence paper today. The 24-page booklet comes with a foreword from the Secretary of State for Portsmouth promising that it contains “the positive case for Scotland remaining in the United Kingdom”, so we thought it’d be fun to share some of our favourite snippets of positivity.
We could do with some cheering up.
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Tags: the positive case for the union
Category
analysis, comment, scottish politics
The Scotland Office has today released yet another taxpayer-funded (though we’re not allowed to know how much) document about how rubbish and useless Scotland is. Issued in the name of Alistair Carmichael, it reheats and repeats all the same lines from the previous papers, but this time dumbed down a bit for thickos.
You’d think that having been churning out the same thing for two years, the UK government would have at least managed to get its story straight by now.
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Tags: misinformation
Category
comment, idiots, scottish politics
For your licence fee today:
Category
culture, video
The top five most-read stories on Wings Over Scotland in the last seven days.
1. Quoted For Truth Extra
The first defection to Yes from inside “Better Together” itself.
2. The talk of the town
What Alex Salmond really said to GQ, stripped of media hysteria.
3. What an arsehole looks like
Vile taxpayer-funded scumbag repeatedly abuses decent citizens in public.
4. Character assassination
Journalism, as imagined by a petulant six-year-old.
5. Look away now
Massive story almost totally and inexplicably ignored.
This week’s theme: not pretending any more.
Category
scottish politics, stats
The Sunday Mail has a surprisingly low-key piece today about a new opinion poll commissioned by the paper through the little-known pollster Progressive Partnership (who aren’t a member of the British Polling Council) and conducted by YouGov.
Oddly, it seems to have produced two very different sets of results.
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Tags: misinformation
Category
psephology, scottish politics
This morning’s Sunday Herald carries a typically sour and sneery quote from “Better Together” campaign director Blair McDougall in response to a Yes Scotland release of financial data relating to its campaign funding:
“No-one would criticise the Weirs, who are longstanding SNP supporters. However, it is extraordinary that compared to the tens of thousands of small donations received by Better Together, almost 80% of Yes Scotland’s money comes from one source.
We now know why they have been hiding their donations for so long.”
Firstly, of course, he might want to revise that opening sentence, since his campaign’s representative Alex Johnstone MSP seems quite unable to stop criticising the Weirs, repeatedly painting them as gullible and dishonest dupes of the evil Alex Salmond.
But as usual, Mr McDougall’s obnoxious bluster also conceals a cynical misdirection.
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Category
analysis, scottish politics, stats
