The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The unnecessary umbrella 72

Posted on July 15, 2013 by

The No campaign is fond of mocking the SNP’s insistence that an independent Scotland could be a member of NATO while still getting rid of Trident. The USA in particular, it’s frequently argued, would simply not stand for the Scots taking the strategic base at Faslane out of the North Atlantic picture while still seeking the benefits of the alliance’s military presence and protection.

robertsonnato

If only there was some sort of precedent we could examine.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category analysis, scottish politics, world

Neither Brigadoon nor GERSland 25

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

Brigadoon is the story of a Scottish village which only appears for one day every hundred years. GERSland, on the other hand, is a country – similar to Scotland in many ways – which has appeared, albeit fleetingly, every year since 1999.

brigadoon

GERSland too suffers from Caledonian Antisyzygy – it is simultaneously like Scotland and unlike it. It is not Scotland as we know it and it’s not a glimpse of an independent Scotland either, despite the dogged insistence of countless journalists, analysts and commentators less insightful than Wings Over Scotland’s on presenting it as such.

It is, as the lawyers say, sui generis, or a special case.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category analysis, scottish politics, uk politics

The King’s shilling 58

Posted on February 10, 2013 by

The Telegraph’s crotchety old relic Alan Cochrane is usually a figure of comic fun for independence supporters. But now and again the Tory dinosaur’s prehistoric polemic conceals something more dangerous. In a misguided attempt to add hard numbers to a piece yesterday reporting Teresa May’s speech about spies, Cochrane seems to have used Wikipedia for some information on Swedish and Danish domestic intelligence services and come up with this:

“For instance, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, which is part of the country’s police force, has 650 officers. Sweden, which is not a member of Nato, has over 1,000 officers in its security, counter terrorism and intelligence service – SAPO – which has an annual budget, according to one estimate, of £800 million.”

“According to one estimate”? That’s an interesting choice of words. Unfortunately someone wasn’t reading closely enough. Wikipedia’s English-language page on Säpo does indeed say that it had a budget of around 800m in 2008. Except it wasn’t £800m, but 800 million Swedish Kronor. At today’s exchange rate that’s around £80 million. Mr Cochrane has, in his fury, overstated Sweden’s intelligence budget by 1,000%. Oops.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category analysis, stats

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,917 Posts, 1,243,364 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

    and finally and firstly arithmetic fail braveheart klaxon britnats captain darling cartoons Chris Cairns confused cringe crybabies dateline debates Devo Nano Federalists Unionists and Devolutionists flat-out lies foreigner watch from the archives fundraisers galleries Greg Moodie hamish hypocrisy liars light-hearted banter lizards memogate misinformation one nation perspectives poll project fear project feart qft Scott Minto smears snp accused soapbox the positive case for the union The Vow ticktock toldyouso too wee too poor too stupid unionist of the day vote no get nothing

  • Recent Comments

    • Del G on The View From Row Z: “If oor Nicola didn’t see most of these items, my question is: Who were they going to? This sounds like…” May 31, 23:59
    • Mark Beggan on The View From Row Z: “No Comment. Mind your own business.” May 31, 23:52
    • Northcode on The View From Row Z: “Correction: Muriel Stark should of course read as Muriel Spark.” May 31, 23:38
    • Northcode on The View From Row Z: “You lot are too harsh on the lassie. She’s a simple wee soul who only wants to be known and…” May 31, 23:10
    • prj on The View From Row Z: “I suspect that when the police got involved they found a more serious crime to investigate and that was Murrell.…” May 31, 22:40
    • robertkknight on The View From Row Z: “Aye… Bring a tear to a glass eye, so it would.” May 31, 22:28
    • William G Walker on The View From Row Z: “Hello All, Whatever happened to the £667,000 which was “ring-fenced” in the late 2010s for Independence? Never mind the £410,000…” May 31, 22:26
    • Ex President Xiden on The View From Row Z: “She is currently on TV trying to reinvent herself amongst the wokeraty.” May 31, 22:26
    • Mark Beggan on The View From Row Z: “The poor wee cow.” May 31, 22:18
    • Carol Neill on The View From Row Z: “My heart bleeds …. She should have just shut her pus and there might have been questions , but no…” May 31, 21:24
    • Andy Wiltshire on The View From Row Z: “The whole performance was a one-fingered salute with added crocodile tears.” May 31, 21:16
    • Ian on The View From Row Z: “Yes that is what a serious and responsible party would do.” May 31, 21:07
    • Callum on The View From Row Z: “The only victims are the people who donated money to a fraudulent scheme. They need justice and payback. That means…” May 31, 20:27
    • Northcode on The View From Row Z: “When the humbler ranks of society are plucked from obscurity and deposited — blinking and dazzled — into the chandeliered…” May 31, 20:13
    • Ian on The View From Row Z: “Amazing, is it not, that an albeit failed lawyer, however incompetent, has not the faintest idea what a company legal…” May 31, 19:46
    • Bilbo on The View From Row Z: “We are living in a time now where people don’t really care if supposed left of centre polictians like Sturgeon…” May 31, 19:44
    • Louise Hogg on The View From Row Z: “100% sure she was aware of, and involved in, both the ‘ringfenced fund’ ruse raised to repay the Weirs’ loan.…” May 31, 19:14
    • Stuart MacKay on The View From Row Z: “Since the fraud seems to have started some time ago. Is there any evidence that would suggest that all the…” May 31, 19:11
    • 100%Yes on The View From Row Z: “There is something good came out of this mess, 1 Sturgeon had to stand down as FM and give up…” May 31, 19:00
    • Andouillette on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “I prefer the KJV: “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.” “As the partridge sitteth on eggs,…” May 31, 18:51
    • Willie on The View From Row Z: “The Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service is rotten to the core. They traduce the prosecution service to what you would…” May 31, 18:43
    • Marie on The View From Row Z: “She claims to be serving a sentence. Nope – that sentence starts when she’s in a prison cell. Best place…” May 31, 18:25
    • David Lindsay on The View From Row Z: “If Nicola Sturgeon is “serving a sentence for a crime [she] did not commit,” then is she serving it on…” May 31, 18:16
    • Jon Drummond on The View From Row Z: “Regarding the pepper grinder I can assure everyone that Sturgeon has never had a “sausage” supper in her life. Maybe…” May 31, 18:14
    • The Friendly Sassenach on The View From Row Z: “John Crace in the guardian put it like this… https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/31/nicola-sturgeon-interview-peter-murrell-snp-politics-sketch” May 31, 18:06
    • Peter S on The View From Row Z: “A word to the wise, hen – when you’re in a hole, for goodness’ sake stop digging !” May 31, 18:05
    • James on The View From Row Z: “Blamed for a crime I haven’t committed But it was ok to try and get Salmond sent down? I can’t…” May 31, 18:04
    • Karen on The View From Row Z: “I’m hearing £30,000.” May 31, 17:51
    • Victor Clements on The View From Row Z: “The really obvious missed opportunity today was when Sturgeon said words to the effect that “at that point, the people…” May 31, 17:48
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on The View From Row Z: “The 2021 accounts list no motor vehicles under expenditure, and the “miscellaneous” entries don’t include the campervan.” May 31, 17:12

  • A tall tale



↑ Top