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Wings Over Scotland


Tory Cabinet visits Scotland 63

Posted on February 25, 2014 by

EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE:

Bad news rapidly improves 112

Posted on February 24, 2014 by

A story from Reuters tonight:

“A majority of FTSE 100 chairmen oppose Scottish independence as they fear splitting up would be bad for British business and dilute the UK’s economic influence”

Ooft. How big is this majority of the chairmen of the 100 leading companies, then?

“The poll by executive search firm Korn Ferry found 65 percent of chairmen of 32 FTSE 100 companies said it would be bad for business if – “

Woah there! 65% of 32? Isn’t that, um, 21? That’s not really a “majority” of 100, is it? And while we’re here, how many of the chairmen of FTSE 100 companies have a vote in the Scottish independence referendum anyway? We have a strong suspicion that the effective sample in this survey might actually have been zero.

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Scottish Labour in one tweet 122

Posted on February 24, 2014 by

By an old pal of ours.

duncstarve

Let’s just walk through that one for a moment.

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We still don’t get it 170

Posted on February 24, 2014 by

If you were wondering why we hadn’t written about today’s oil-industry shenanigans yet, it’s because we’ve been scratching our heads for hours trying to work out what the heck David Cameron thought it was he was proving on the Cabinet’s trip to Aberdeen.

dishface

Sadly, we’re still none the wiser.

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We’ll never have that recipe again 89

Posted on February 24, 2014 by

A remarkable insight into how Scottish Labour MPs see the people of Scotland, and the future that awaits us after a No vote, from an article posted on Labour Uncut today:

“Uncut recently put the point to a Scottish member of the [Parliamentary Labour Party] that while it is hard to imagine Scotland voting for an uncertain future outside the EU, keeping the UK together by playing on these fears risks perpetuating Scottish grievance against the English. They were unrepentant.

‘They need to be told. It’s like a child saying they want to play in the rain. They can do if they want but they need to know that they’ll get wet.'”

Hear that, people of Scotland? For even considering taking control of your own affairs like adults, Scottish Labour (ironically) thinks you’re behaving like stupid kids too dumb to come in out of the rain. Mm, feel the respect from your representatives.

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The remedial class 45

Posted on February 24, 2014 by

We’ve written often about the contempt with which both the No campaign and the media regards voters, particularly in respect of their willingness to tell them even the most insultingly transparent lies in the assumption they’ll be swallowed anyway.

alanmassie

Allan Massie in today’s Telegraph may have set a new all-time record, though.

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A developing theme 223

Posted on February 24, 2014 by

From today’s Telegraph.

sctelegraph

And there’s plenty more where that came from.

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Wrong number 123

Posted on February 23, 2014 by

To cut a long story short, Wings readers, it turns out that by a freakish coincidence I have a fax number only one digit different to that of Alistair Darling’s constituency office. Attached below is a document I unexpectedly found in my in-tray this evening.

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The next time 43

Posted on February 23, 2014 by

… someone from the No campaign or a right-wing newspaper tries to tell you that Scotland’s attitudes to the EU aren’t actually very different to those in the rest of the UK, just show them this striking graphic and tell them to shush.

euregions

(And don’t take any “Well then we’d have to join the Euro!” cobblers either.)

If we choose to remain in the UK and the UK has a referendum on EU membership (which it’s highly likely to), there isn’t a whole lot of doubt about the outcome. There’s only one way to make sure Scotland stays in Europe. Businesspeople planning a No vote because they fear “uncertainty” might want to have a wee think about that.

Quoted for partial truth 95

Posted on February 23, 2014 by

A Radio 4 “Point Of View” programme by the writer and philosopher Roger Scruton on Friday evening attracted quite a lot of social-media ire from nationalists. We can only assume they were so angered by a few crass factual errors (“The Scottish economy is subsidised by the English”) and Dr Scruton’s rather patrician manner that they didn’t bother to listen all the way to the end.

“Suppose then we English were finally allowed a say in the matter, which way would I vote? I have no doubt about it. I would vote for English independence, as a step towards strengthening the friendship between our countries.

It was thanks to independence that the Americans were able at last to confess to their attachment to the old country, and to come to our aid in two world wars. Independence is what real friendship requires. And the same is true for those, like the Scots and the English, who live side by side.”

We can’t say we find anything there to disagree with. After some of the cross-border ugliness and bad feeling that’s been whipped up by the actions of Unionists lately, the only outcome of the referendum that will allow the people of Scotland and England to regard each other with dignity and mutual respect in the future is a Yes vote. Crawling pathetically back to London with our tail between our legs won’t do it.

Convergence keeps converging 150

Posted on February 23, 2014 by

(An update on this post.)

polls23feb

If the next Ipsos MORI poll shows a significant drop in the No lead, we can probably call that definitive. The days of the No camp being 30+ points ahead seem to be well and truly over. Five out of the seven British Polling Council members polling on the independence referendum now put the required swing for Yes at just 5-6%. Looks like Wings pollsters Panelbase were at the cutting edge again after all.

Here we go again 114

Posted on February 23, 2014 by

To save time, just take everything we said last week and repeat.

Perhaps the most telling thing, though, about this week’s edition of what now appears to be the BBC’s official late-night No-campaign propaganda slot is that Iain Martin used to be the editor of the Scotsman. Readers can draw their own conclusions.

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    • Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “Che spambot in full flow, I see. Give it a bloody rest, will you?Sep 10, 10:02
    • Colin Alexander on Anything But That: “My gut instinct is that the YES campaign was deliberately designed to fail. I suspect that pressure was also applied…Sep 10, 09:46
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “I made no comment about my personal life, James. 🙂Sep 10, 09:42
    • James Che on Anything But That: “Hatey, I don’t think anyone enquired about your’e personal life.Sep 10, 09:17
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Much like dogging.Sep 10, 09:08
    • James Che on Anything But That: “Hence my interest in researching historical records, maps, buildings, old battles and history in general began,Sep 10, 09:03
    • James Che on Anything But That: “Forgot dozens of horse shoes and tools, A interesting hobby because its like a lucky dip, some days you come…Sep 10, 08:36
    • James Che on Anything But That: “Did I find any thing interest? Yes I suppose depending on what a person is interested in, every thing from…Sep 10, 08:30
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Man, must be 35 years since I last opened some embassies. Happy days. But glad I stopped.Sep 10, 08:14
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Duncan MacTrump says; Currency: That was the question that sunk Big Eck. Great guy, treated very badly by very nasty…Sep 10, 02:36
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Does Scotland have any legal right (As the law now stands) to open embassies?Sep 10, 01:47
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Metal detector? Find anything interesting?Sep 10, 01:25
    • James Che on Anything But That: “I personally think that John Swinney and Andy Burnham have a lot in common in how they run Countries.Sep 10, 00:55
    • James Che on Anything But That: “As the Devolved governance parliament in Scotland from Westminster parliaments “Scotland Act,” The Westminster parliament has every right to launch…Sep 10, 00:47
    • James Che on Anything But That: “I see the Telegraph is suggesting that Andy Burnham is running the parliament similar as a boy Scout leval.Sep 10, 00:37
    • James Che on Anything But That: “In a attempt to give you more meat on the bone, I will have to refer you to the Westminster…Sep 10, 00:32
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Naw, Alf. In as much as neoliberalism has an agreed definition at all, its meaning has nothing to do with…Sep 9, 23:16
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “You are dribbling your Buckfast.Sep 9, 23:07
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I respect that James. But it is too high brow, technical, academia land. We plebs need meat on the bonesSep 9, 23:05
    • Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““the basic point of neoliberalism” and of course liberal imperialism and its colonial procedures. A colonized people suffer from territorial…Sep 9, 21:38
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Every time someone asks Andy Burnham a question he does this amazing goldfish out of water impersonation.Sep 9, 19:59
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Out of all the Shires in Scotland Aberdeen seems to produce an altogether unique form of stupidity and arrogance. Lowest…Sep 9, 19:53
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I hope people aren’t being distracted by a smirking bald guy and a whole lot of gas. Who would fall…Sep 9, 19:46
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Wow! Looks like some big, bad, English basturts really are gonna do it. But this time I don’t think they’re…Sep 9, 18:59
    • Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “Given the gas was unburned, the CO2/greenhouse gas impact would have been horrendous. Roughly the same as driving an average…Sep 9, 16:58
    • agentx on Anything But That: ““John Swinney nightmare as Westminster launches probe into Peter Murrell’s crimes and Lord Advocate’s role in Cabinet” For details read…Sep 9, 16:39
    • sam on Anything But That: “sez the UK parlyment England which has about 90 % of UK surface water has problems, to put it mildly,…Sep 9, 16:37
    • Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “OK we’re talking methane, not propane, therefore a lower calorific value and all that jazz, but fuck me, 700kg of…Sep 9, 16:37
    • agentx on Anything But That: ““Stephen Flynn says he was unaware of ferry gas escape” ——————————————————- No surprise there then!Sep 9, 15:57
    • agentx on Anything But That: “The Math Breakdown:Methane Volume: \(700 \text{ kg} \div 0.657 \text{ kg/m³} = \mathbf{1,065.4 \text{ m³}}\) Average UK 4-Bedroom House: A…Sep 9, 15:54
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