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Wings Over Scotland


Quick work

Posted on August 28, 2013 by

This was waiting when we got back to Wings HQ this evening:

“Dear Sir,

Thank you for taking the time to write.

I agree the leader column should have said Labour introduced the policy and we are printing a clarification. However, we are making no apologies for highlighting the ConDem witch-hunt against people like Anthony Walker.

Kindest regards

Allan Rennie
Editor in Chief

Media Scotland
Daily Record and Sunday Mail
Scottish & Universal Newspapers”

Fair enough. Can’t ask for more than that, and we’ve got no desire to see the Record apologise for continuing to highlight the appalling reality that is WCAs. It’s the paper’s finest quality. Nice to see part of the Scottish media holding up its hands and righting a wrong, too, rather than responding with censorship and tantrums. Naming no names.

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55 to “Quick work”

  1. James Kay
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done the Record.

  2. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    Good for them.

  3. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    WOW!
    Full kudos to the Daily Record. I’ve asked the question before and this quick response seems to make me want to ask it again, are we witnessing the first newspaper to openly drop its full hearted support for Better Together and move at least in the interim to the area of ‘we’ll wait and see what the white paper brings’?

  4. DanTDog
    Ignored
    says:

    Even “weller” done, Rev Stu…great work!!

  5. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    The Record?  Go flat out against a core Labour policy even to consider a core policy of the hated SNP?  Not in this space-time continuum, I don’t think.

  6. Stevie
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ll believe in a clarification IF I see it and even IF there is a ‘clarification’ one is expecting it to be buried in the horse racing section.

    Still, one will keep an open mind for the moment — well done in getting a response in any case.  They must not be desirous of being slagged off by WOS given the rather large readership there is here.

  7. JoeMiddleton
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done Rev. 

  8. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “I’ll believe in a clarification IF I see it and even IF there is a ‘clarification’ one is expecting it to be buried in the horse racing section.”

    I don’t expect it to be big, prominent or particularly strongly worded. Newspaper corrections never are. But its existence at all will do me for now.

  9. Dave McEwan Hill
    Ignored
    says:

    The Record carried a generous two page spread on the SNP on Monday (in which it pointed out that about 10% of the SNP membership is English and that Scotland subsidises England)and gives Joan McAlpine a page every week. It regularly prints pro independence letters in its readers ‘ letters page. It is the fairest Scottish newspaper after the Sunday Herald.
    There has been a change (while the Sun appears to have slipped the other way).

  10. Cameron gibson
    Ignored
    says:

    I think I might start taking the Record as well as well as my usually paper. Good response from them.
     

  11. pmcrek
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done Daily Record and well done for being one of the few papers to keep having a go at horrific Coalition policy. Never going to buy it though.

  12. Jon D
    Ignored
    says:

    Indeed, credit where it is due. I am happy to watch this space.

  13. gordoz
    Ignored
    says:

    Nice work Rev :
    Only buy it on Tuesdays anyway – mince most other times full of garbage about the British Labour Party and its potential return to power. Very nauseating political team.
    Wouldn’t miss it really ,but saw the piece on Monday about English YES team, now that was good.

  14. Braco
    Ignored
    says:

    Wow!
    Well done The Record, very pleasantly surprised.
    Great work Rev Stu.

  15. Angus
    Ignored
    says:

    Makes a change but would need to be a bit more the normal moral stance of a good Scottish newspaper to go half way to convincing my cynical mind with regard to our ‘Scottish’ political press and what they are up to, although the daily record has actually surprised me for the first time in about 35 years and that is upbeat enough for the newspaper industry as far as a mere pleb is concerned.
     
    Good for wings to be so even handed in the general reportage, I think the editors of the daily record saw a glimpse of the type of journalism both wings and the record are capable of here and the record can easily build on that and reverse the trend of the Scottish news media reported today as in severe decline.

  16. HulloHulot
    Ignored
    says:

    Good on the Record. A printed correction may not always be prominent, but given how often they should be printed by the newspaper industry they are rare.

  17. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    Great googlie mooglie. Who’d a thunk it?
     
    Kudos Record and well done Rev.

  18. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    The Record deliberately lied using big headlines because they still treat their readers like stupid, gullible, sheep.
    A small rectification tucked below a line ad for 1/2 price crimpolene trousers is hardly worth the bother.
    Best way to use this newspaper is still to acquire a day old second hand copy from a bookmakers or tattoo shop & take it home where it can be shredded into fine strips to line a rat cage with, so the rodents have something absorbent to piss on.

  19. Tom Donald
    Ignored
    says:

    Encouraging! The important thing is to help Labour supporters to vote “yes”, which means suppressing some of the rivalries built up over the years… The Record can help with this, and it looks like they might, eventually.

  20. wee jamie
    Ignored
    says:

    Credit where it’s due, well done the record , hope this starts a trend of journalistic integrity in the Scottish press, but am no haudin ma breath !!

  21. Bob Howie
    Ignored
    says:

    That is what we would like to see from all our media.

  22. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    gh graham says
    “A small rectification tucked below a line ad for 1/2 price crimpolene trousers is hardly worth the bother.”
    are they the crimpolene trousers priced at an amazing one pound fifteen and ninepence?
    I saw that ad, think I’ll get a pair,
    that was lucky, I was lifting the carpet and found that daily record or I would have missed it 🙂

  23. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Not so impressed like gh graham says,
    after the headline the retraction is very unlikely to be seen and the hard of thinking are left as ignorant as they were before they read it, but well done rev for making them acknowledge it 

  24. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Different day different negative story,
    the STV evening news leads with the good news of a man who waited 1 hour from being told he needed a new heart to being told they had a match, incredible and almost certainly saved his life,
    the BBC however,
    their health story is about a hospital which has a worrying mortality record and of course manage to include a snippet of Alex Neil to reinforce the unspoken assertion that its the SNP  killing these people 
    what a sad and miserable job it must be to be a news reporter for the BBC where all is doom and gloom 

  25. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    “Best way to use this newspaper is still to acquire a day old second hand copy from a bookmakers or tattoo shop & take it home where it can be shredded into fine strips to line a rat cage with, so the rodents have something absorbent to piss on.”
    Bugger the rats, I ve got nothin on the nail in the cludgie, Im awa tae the bookies 🙂

  26. G. Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “Plans to keep sterling after independence have been described as ‘fundamentally flawed’ by a former banker.”

    “Prof Brian Quinn, a former Bank of England executive, set out his views in a David Hume Institute paper.”

    “Prof Quinn claimed that Scottish financial institutions could be considered ‘riskier’, that crisis management may suffer and that an assumption other UK taxpayers could share the costs of the collapse of Scottish banks ‘does not appear to have a legitimate basis’.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-23872230

  27. G. Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    THE AMAZING CLAIRVOYANT SKILLZ OF PROFESSOR BRIAN QUINN

    English keen on Old Firm move – 29 July 2001

    “Celtic chairman Brian Quinn has revealed that informal discussions have already taken place with top English clubs about the possibility of the Old Firm joining their league.”

    “And Quinn, who believes that Celtic and Rangers could move south within three years, insists that they would be regarded as most welcome additions to the English Premiership.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/1461237.stm

    Premier’s Rebuff for Scottish Invaders – 31 July 2001

    “THE Premier League last night officially quashed Rangers’ and Celtic’s dreams of joining English football’s elite.”

    “In a statement which confirmed Sportsmail’s exclusive story on Saturday that the door to the Premiership would be shut firmly in the face of the Old Firm, spokesman Philip French said: ‘Celtic and Rangers are not joining the FA Premier League.”

    http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-76874728.html

  28. Adam Davidson
    Ignored
    says:

    Many of the people reading the Editorial with the error will know that it was Labour that brought in Atos. Some will start to question what they write generally.

  29. Adam Davidson
    Ignored
    says:

    re GH Graham,
    I need new crimpolene trousers, where can I buy them? (I had forgotten about crimpolene, I did actually have them as a child. I’m away to phone my mum, she needs telt!)

  30. G. Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    BILL JAMIESON: This week I have been mostly getting paid twice for the same article by adding and subtracting the odd word here and there.

    The Hootsmon
    http://archive.is/mPs0G

    Think Scotland
    http://archive.is/YF0t0

    GERRY HASSAN: He stole my act!

  31. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Adam Davisdson says
    re GH Graham
    look under the carpet Adam 
    just look for a daily record with the back page headline Jim Baxter leaves Rangers for Sunderland, 1965?

  32. Another London Dividend
    Ignored
    says:

    Following articles yesterday and to-day by Jim Gallacher and John McTernan in in Scotsman and Brian Quinn in to-days Herald  all repeating the old chestnut that an independent Scotland could not afford to bail out the Banks will lead to clarification by their respective editors that the banks were wholly regulated from London.
    They were only allowed to change the way they lend money by the Westminster Parliament who were following the neo-classical economic strategy of little or seemingly no regulation, and a no limits on lending strategy as long as the loan is secured against an asset. The joint architect of this economic strategy that helped to collapse the global economy was Alistair Darling now the leader of the ‘No’ campaign. 
    90% of RBS and HBoS UK employees were based in out-with Scotland so 90% of employers income tax was paid to Westminster, and not counted as Scottish or Scottish Government revenue. 
    Likewise 90% of the banks national insurance contributions were paid to Westminster and not counted as Scottish.
    80% of the losses of RBS for example were generated from the banks London based operations.
    As with all companies corporation tax is not considered regional and therefore the corporation tax paid by the banks is not considered to be a Scottish Government revenue, it is all paid directly to Westminster. Note: RBS paid £16 billion in corporate taxes from 1998 to 2007, NONE of this was counted as Scottish Government revenue”
    As Andrew Hughes Hallett, Professor of Economics at St Andrew’s University, put it: “The real point here, and this is the real point, is by international convention, when banks which operate in more than one country get into these sorts of conditions, the bailout is shared in proportion to the area of activities of those banks, and therefore it’s shared between several countries.
    As Andrew Hughes Hallett, Professor of Economics at St Andrew’s University, put it: “The real point here, and this is the real point, is by international convention, when banks which operate in more than one country get into these sorts of conditions, the bailout is shared in proportion to the area of activities of those banks, and therefore it’s shared between several countries.
    “In the case of the RBS, I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but roughly speaking 90% of its operations are in England and 10% are in Scotland, the result being, by that convention, therefore, that the rest of the UK would have to carry 90% of the liabilities of RBS and Scotland 10%. 

    “And the precedent for this, if you want to go into the details, are the Fortis Bank and the Dexia Bank, two banks which were shared between France, Belgium and the Netherlands, at the same time were bailed out in proportion by France, Belgium and the Netherlands.”

    Did you know that RBS was also bailed out by the American Federal Reserve and the Australian Central Bank? The UK government bail out of RBS and HBOS amounted to £65bn a lot of money but the US federal reserve made emergency loans available to RBS of £285bn and to HBOS of £115bn and $552.32bn to Barclays – sorry who bailed out the British banks again? 

    Alistair Darling  was the Chancellor responsible for banking regulation and its failure at the critical time of the first banking collapse Northern Rock and he was the Chancellor responsible for signing off the fatal RBS  / ABN Ambro deal when everyone knew RBS had paid too much to scupper Barclays and UK regulatory authorities headed by A Darling ignored fact that no  due diligence was done by RBS on a deal worth £49 billion before they gave its approval for world’s biggest bank take over  deal that brought about the collapse of the Royal Bank.
     
    In a BBC Today Programme Lecture on 2nd May 2012, the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King criticised the lack of action by Alistair Darling and the last Labour government in the earliest days of the banking crisis when the first UK Bank, sorry English bank, Northern Rock, failed, which King said could have cost up to one million people their jobs.   Decisive action would have at least mitigated the problems encountered by other Banks including HBOS and RBS some 10 months later. 

    Also at time of collapse “Bank of Scotland” had been run by Halifax for seven years in which time they changed the culture of the Bank.
     
     

  33. sneddon
    Ignored
    says:

    At least the Record replied to the Revs letter, what more do ye want sack cloth and ashes! 🙂   I also agree with AnotherLondon Dividend  There are no scottish banks.  Baw faced Quinn gets it wrong again.   The Celtic board are getting embarrasing as some of their unionist supporters.  I guess that’s why they are held in comtempt by most thinking Celtic supporters.

  34. Eddie
    Ignored
    says:

    Yes, the Celtic board can be an utter embarressment at times and I really don’t understand my fellow supporters who have stated they will vote ‘no’ due to the mishandling of the sectarian bill. 

    Mishandled? Yes.  A reason to vote against your country becoming indpendent?  Put down the crayons before you hurt yourself and stop thinking with your head, because that does hurt you.  Follow your heart and vote ‘yes’.

  35. Training Day
    Ignored
    says:

    A cursory glance at the Rev’s twitter feed from last night reveals the kind of pond life that pass for journalists in this country. 
     
    So please, go easy on the ‘kudos’ awarded to this vile rag which has lied to the Scottish people for decades.  We’re still waiting on its ‘clarification’ on why it suppressed McCrone almost forty years ago.

  36. Albalha
    Ignored
    says:

    @Eddie
    Is it possible to point out to them that there’s probably more chance of change, even to that bill, if Scotland is independent? Or is it fingers in ears?

  37. bunter
    Ignored
    says:

    Thought The Herald was keen for clarity when it comes to articles from contributors on the indy debate. Theres one from someone called ”Brian Quinn? who spins a yarn of misinformation and mistruths and nothing from the Herald as to where hes coming from and his stance on the independence debate. Was he paid?

  38. HoraceSaysYes
    Ignored
    says:

    Nicely done, Rev. 🙂

  39. raineach
    Ignored
    says:

    How odd that for many months now the Record is more accurate/less inaccurate than the Scotsman. Never thought I’d see that.

  40. Gordon Bain
    Ignored
    says:

    Has anyone seen this ‘correction’ then? I can’t get to a paper shop to find out for myself.

  41. Murray McCallum
    Ignored
    says:

    Another London Dividend
    Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King criticised the lack of action by Alistair Darling and the last Labour government in the earliest days of the banking crisis when the first UK Bank, sorry English bank, Northern Rock, failed, which King said could have cost up to one million people their jobs.
     
    It never ceases to amaze me how the Clunking Fist and Fingers-in-Till “Flipper” Darling are held as some kind of financial gurus in the independence debate. As if they have some wisdom to share with us plebs.
     
    Darling was pretty much a Cabinet Minister throughout the 13 years of Tony Blair’s New Labour government.  He is a part of the legacy that Ed Miliband seemed to want to move away from.
     
    In terms of lectures on financial wisdom and security you might as well listen to Bernard Madoff than either Alistair Darling and/or Gordon Brown.

  42. tartanfever
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry but this just illustrates where we are in the debate.

    A rag of a newspaper omits a pertinent and well known fact to avoid dissing the Labour Party. Whether deliberate or not it shows complete ignorance.

    It’s pointed out to them, we then applaud said newspaper for replying saying it was incorrect.

    They shouldn’t have got it wrong in the first place.

    Are we so desperate for attention from the Scottish media we’ll applaud any recognition from them whatsoever, regardless of how trivial it is ?

  43. Gillie
    Ignored
    says:

    ………. and then there is this;
     
    Daily Record view, May 2013, “SNP are using our fear of the Tories to try to drive us towards independence.”
     
    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/record-view-snp-using-fear-1888382
     
    Of course that is different from the Daily Record using the fear of the Tories to drive people to vote Labour.

  44. Murray McCallum
    Ignored
    says:

    cynicalHighlander says:
    http://archive.is/1Lbpq
     
    Fitting there is a Bank of Scotland advert next to this negative and untrustworthy outlook towards Scottish banks. Are Bank of Scotland aware how their brand is being used in the Scotsman? Will this encourage folks to open accounts with Bank of Scotland?
     
    If Bank of Scotland wish to move HQ to London and reap the returns of property speculation (which played a major part in their demise) then that is their commercial decision. The office space they vacate can be used by Asset Managers, Pension fund managers, or insurers who seem more than happy to move North. Strange that a Scottish financial institution would not like to be at the heart of managing a Sovereign Wealth Fund?

  45. Gillie
    Ignored
    says:

     
    The big problem for the Daily Record is that never ran campaigns against the Welfare Reform Act 2007 or the WRA2009. It never offered a view on the matter, not once. 
     
    If the DR are honestly interested in stopping UK government witch-hunts against the disadvantaged in our society then it has got to take off its blinkers. 

  46. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    Tiny as expected, but true to their word:

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/recordcorrect.jpg

    And it’s on page 2, which by newspaper correction standards actually is quite prominent.

  47. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    Of course that is different from the Daily Record using the fear of the Tories to drive people to vote Labour.”

    No, clearly it’s not. But speaking as a site that spends half its time slagging off newspapers, it’s important to remember that the Daily Record is allowed to support Labour. It doesn’t exactly hide the fact. It doesn’t claim to be impartial any more than Wings Over Scotland does.

    We need to hold them to account when they distort facts, or as in this case completely reverse them. But for that scrutiny to have credibility, we also have to not attack straw men by complaining about them not being something – neutral – that they have no obligation to be, and make no pretence at being.

  48. Gillie
    Ignored
    says:

    REV: But for that scrutiny to have credibility, we also have to not attack straw men by complaining about them not being something – neutral – that they have no obligation to be, and make no pretence at being.
     
    The DR has claimed it is fair in its reporting. Is it?

  49. Ellie
    Ignored
    says:

    The Record carried a generous two page spread on the SNP on Monday (in which it pointed out that about 10% of the SNP membership is English and that Scotland subsidises England)and gives Joan McAlpine a page every week. It regularly prints pro independence letters in its readers ‘ letters page. It is the fairest Scottish newspaper after the Sunday Herald.There has been a change (while the Sun appears to have slipped the other way).
     

    The Daily Record is waiting to see which way the wind is really blowing on the independence debate before it says something it can’t take back (so far while very unionist leaning I note they are managing to leave themselves enough wriggle room to backtrack if they think the debate shifts overwhelmingly).  Smart move really and also a sign that they think it’s all still to play for, certain other publications have hammered their colours to the mast so hard that should their doomsday scenario come true they are effectively finished as they will have lost any remaining credibility.  Imagine the Scotsman attempting to claim it’s the voice of a country it didn’t even want to exist.

  50. Robert
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done Rev and the Record for a quick direct but polite response

  51. dmw42
    Ignored
    says:

    Following Leveson, didn’t the publishers themselves agree that there should be “upfront corrections with inaccuracies corrected fully and prominently“?; and a regulator with powers to impose fines of up to £1m for “systematic wrongdoing”?
     
    It’s about time publishers of Scottish ‘journals’ followed their own recommendations, ’cause if they don’t…
     
     
     

  52. EdinScot
    Ignored
    says:

    Kudos to you Rev for forcing this paper into a u-turn.  Its no mean feat for any of the press to admit their articles are innacurate and so their clarification is welcome.  In saying all that, Isnt it just so f*****g convenient of this Labour party supporting rag to initially omit their beloved Labour party from any wrong doing.  What really jars with me is that this paper has actively misinformed and lied to its readership as generation after generation have went to their deaths believing their twisted anti democratic bile omitting crucial wee bits here, there and everywhere.  Those poor misinformed people must be birling in their graves right now.  And as for the journalists and editors like this what a damning thing to have on your conscience for all time.  Shameful and thats why the papers are in freefall.  Good, what goes round and all that.

  53. Weedeochandorris
    Ignored
    says:

    I think maybe all the rags are just taking turn at good cop, bad cop to keep the public off balance and create confusion.  They’re all in it together, it’s all coordinated. All these little sideway ‘bites’ play on peoples short attention spans.  They divert attention and use up so much energy chasing them to make sure the truth is known.   No kudos from me because they probably achieved what they set out to do with the headline.  How many will really notice the correction?  Job done.

  54. Indy_Scot
    Ignored
    says:

     
    You can praise the Record all day long, but my Rev status has now been upgraded to legend.



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