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Wings Over Scotland


Ask and ye shall receive 165

Posted on February 07, 2014 by

Today, the Prime Minister of the UK, who wants Scotland to stay in the UK but won’t go there and make the case for it, asked the non-Scottish citizens of the rest of the UK to tell Scots how they felt about Scottish independence.

uktweets19

This is what some of them said.

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Taking no prisoners 114

Posted on February 07, 2014 by

Just to tide you over while we pop out to the shops, readers:

Can you tell we just recently got some good video-capture software?

Trading places 153

Posted on February 07, 2014 by

Sometimes it’s hard to shake the feeling that some sort of bizarre mass body-swap incident, such as those frequently depicted in comedy films like “Big” or “Freaky Friday”, must have happened in UK politics without anyone noticing.

Because on the day that David Cameron called on people elsewhere in the UK to plead with Scots to stay in the Union, English people are saying things like this:

(Warning: adult language.)

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The gift-horse dentist 209

Posted on February 07, 2014 by

We don’t entirely understand why the Times has this story as front page news, because it was covered in some detail in the Sunday Post a fortnight ago:

timesphone

But we couldn’t help thinking of the last time anyone tried something similar.

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Rare Pokemon captured 89

Posted on February 06, 2014 by

This sort of thing really shouldn’t be so startling and unusual that we feel we need to preserve it for posterity, but here’s someone on a BBC current-affairs programme giving a fair and balanced analysis of Scottish politics:

Based on the BBC’s track record this section will be missing when it goes out on the iPlayer, so we thought we better grab it while we could.

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Quotes of the day 93

Posted on February 06, 2014 by

This afternoon we reluctantly watched some of the House Of Commons debate entitled “Scotland’s Place In The UK”, because it’s our job. It was as dispiriting as its arrogant and presumptuous title suggests, and we could bear no more by about a third of the way through and went off to do something less annoying, like thread a muddy needle under a stroboscope while wearing boxing gloves and listening to One Direction.

Nevertheless, we managed to pick out a few choice lines at the time, and a few more from Hansard this evening, with our blood pressure soothed by merely having to read, not watch, Labour, Lib Dem and Tory MPs alike braying and hooting throughout, behaving with a lack of dignity and class that would have shamed a chimp’s tea party.

scotplace

(Or as Labour’s Willie Bain put it, “the best of the House of Commons”.)

The winner is below.

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Mindboggling things that happened today 89

Posted on February 06, 2014 by

This. This actually happened. We’re not making it up. Click it and see.

labtax

Go on, read it again. We dare you.

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Failure to engage 108

Posted on February 06, 2014 by

For some time now, we’ve been documenting a couple of intriguing aspects of the No campaign. One is its apparent shortage of grassroots activists, leaving “Better Together” to instead rely on the Scottish and UK media to get its message out. The other is a reluctance to engage in public debate with adults.

clintchair

Where BT has deigned to participate in public hustings at all, the bulk of the events have been those at schools and colleges. Invited to debate independence in front of crowds of grown-ups, the No camp is oddly reticent, as we discovered ourselves last year when we offered to pay for and set up a head-to-head, with a neutral and mutually-approved chair, between respective campaign figureheads Dennis Canavan and Alistair Darling, getting only abuse in response.

Of course, a bunch of evil cybernats such as ourselves might expect to be rebuffed. But what if the cuddly, respectable official Yes Scotland organisation had a go?

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100,000 green bottles 167

Posted on February 06, 2014 by

There’s a remarkable piece in today’s Scotsman that we had to share with you:

hadrian

And if you think that magnificent headline’s good, wait until you hear the rest.

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Coming to you live from 2019 139

Posted on February 06, 2014 by

Peter Arnott in The Global Dispatches, 29 January 2014:

“We have been tempted to believe in Scotland that our tactical pattern of voting one way in a Westminster elections and another in Holyrood elections would continue to shelter us from the worst neo-liberal excesses of Westminster – our parliament after all came into existence as a retroactive shelter from what was inflicted on us (and everyone else in non-Tory Britain) the last time the Conservatives were in power. 

We are still behaving as if this is the case even while history is whisking that carpet from underneath our feet.”

And that, readers, is why it matters that I live in England.

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It’s nice to be noticed 206

Posted on February 05, 2014 by

Apologies to readers who had difficulties accessing any Wings pages this afternoon. Everything seems to be currently behaving, but we’ve had an email from our webhosts (who also, on a different server, host the Conservative Party website, trivia fans):

“The server where your site is hosted is still under a DDOS attack so you may experience some issues with the site today. We’re working on remedying that.”

It’s an interesting development in the light of this recent news, although we’re sure it’s just coincidence – after all, it’s not like a popular Scottish independence website could pose any sort of perceived threat to the British state or oh yeah right.

Incidentally, we had nothing to do with choosing the name, but the server used for Wings Over Scotland, which remains under attack as we write, is called “Truth”.

Fear Factor Five 137

Posted on February 05, 2014 by

We do hope none of these shock troops get caught up and hurt in the lovebombing.

Scottish independence: Cable warns of VAT on food

Caroline Flint warns that independence would mean £875 on energy bills

Warning of risk to transport links after Yes vote

No camp in grocery price rise claims (NB unrelated to VAT)

RBS would move to London if Scotland breaks away

That’s all just today. Anyone sound frightened to you?

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