The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland



Beware of liars 337

Posted on June 15, 2022 by

Even when you’re retired, some things are too journalistically offensive to let pass, such as this piece of absolute garbage we just saw from The National today.

The paper’s anonymous reporter set off all our red warning lights at once.

Read the rest of this entry →

Just another day in 2020 108

Posted on July 31, 2020 by

The Wings Over Scotland Twitter account was – whether coincidentally or otherwise – banned very shortly after it made this famous quote from “1984” its pinned tweet:

So it was only ever a matter of time until a trans activist went there:

That’s an MSc in maths, an MA in statistics and a PhD student in statistics at Harvard University there, readers, publicly calling for the flexible redefinition of the meaning of the number 2 so that two plus two can sometimes make five. Humanity is doomed.

Read the rest of this entry →

How numbers work, with Paul and John 241

Posted on August 30, 2019 by

We just watched a nine-minute segment on Sky News, purportedly on the subject of “Is the Union between Scotland and England under threat?”, which for maximum balance and impartiality included views from both Labour and the Tories – in the forms of Paul Sweeney MP and John Lamont MP – but nobody else.

Both men spouted some quite extraordinary claims, all of which went unchallenged by presenter Adam Boulton. Let’s just take a quick look at a couple of the best ones.

Wait, what?

Read the rest of this entry →

Counting With James Kelly MSP 776

Posted on February 19, 2019 by

Alex Cole-Hamilton’s reign was the shortest on record.

Counting With Scottish Labour 102

Posted on February 16, 2019 by

A little snippet in today’s Times caught our eye earlier.

As alert readers may recall from our numerous investigations into the enduring enigma that is Scottish Labour’s membership figures, at the end of 2014 the branch office was claiming to have either 14,000 or 20,000 members.

And even in a world where 38% is “almost half” and five is half of seven, there’s still no way you can get 21,000 to be “almost double” either 14,000 or 20,000.

Were Labour lying in 2014, or are they lying now, or (and this is our guess) were they lying both times and their real membership is nothing like any of those unverified, unscrutinised, plucked-from-the-air numbers?

We’ll probably never know, and it’ll almost certainly never matter.

Counting With Jamie Greene 448

Posted on February 14, 2019 by

In this site’s view, the proposed new employee-parking levy which the 2019 budget will enable local authorities to implement if they choose to  – but which is in no sense being imposed on anyone by the SNP, who don’t have a majority on a single Scottish council – is a pretty rotten idea, which will do nothing to combat climate change or congestion and will punish ordinary workers purely to make Greens feel important, but that’s neither here nor there. Councils can answer to voters if they use it.

What we’re a lot more worried about is the rampant Zimbabwe-style hyper-inflation that’s apparently running wild across Scotland, at least if you listen to Olympic-grade imbecile Jamie Greene MSP.

That was at 10.18 yesterday morning. But by halfway through lunchtime the situation had become far more serious.

Read the rest of this entry →

Counting With The Scottish Media #2 386

Posted on February 13, 2019 by

In today’s Daily Record:

Half, you say?

Read the rest of this entry →

Counting With The Scottish Media 111

Posted on February 08, 2019 by

What does two plus two make?

Let’s all do it together, shall we?

Read the rest of this entry →

Return Of The Magic Abacus 58

Posted on December 13, 2018 by

Q: Why did Scottish Labour refuse to propose a costed alternative budget yesterday?

Read the rest of this entry →

The staunch defenders 281

Posted on November 19, 2018 by

If we were to write an article every time Murdo Fraser said something moronic, we’d have to rename this site Wings Over Murdo Fraser, and drink an awful lot of Red Bull to be able to cover it all.

Stuff like this, for example, is almost too easy.

43% (actually 45.3% excluding Don’t Knows) is considerably more than Murdo Fraser has ever achieved in an election, either himself or as part of a party. His average over the seven elections he’s contested and lost since 1999 is just 30.1%, and until a blip in 2016 it had been falling lower and lower each time, as people have watched how he performed as an MSP and got less and less keen on the idea.

That’s still actually slightly more than the 28.6% his party secured in Scotland at the last election, though, in what was nevertheless generally regarded as an unusually impressive performance. Two years earlier they gathered just 14.9% of the votes cast.

Yet neither Fraser nor the Tories disappear for a generation every time Scotland tells them to go and get stuffed. Fraser keeps trousering an MSP’s fat salary despite two decades of unbroken and unequivocal personal rejection from the electorate, even as he demands that the independence movement gives up after losing ONE vote.

But in his defence, his leader’s not setting him much of an example.

Read the rest of this entry →

Another crushing defeat 451

Posted on October 28, 2018 by

From today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday:

Blimey, a “hammering”? Well, we suppose after 14 years in power they’ll have had a good run, so who’s going to replace them as the next Scottish Government?

Read the rest of this entry →

The Talent 175

Posted on July 10, 2018 by

So we stumbled, we thought, across a random Twitter idiot this morning.

Alert readers may have spotted a flaw or two in that claim.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,785 Posts, 1,221,610 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Dan – and yet I’m apparently the one talking Scotland down! Why don’t you get yourself to the comedy festival,…Jul 8, 12:56
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Xaracen – The plan as described on this blog many many times was to approach C-24. We were all encouraged…Jul 8, 12:51
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “@Xaracen “@CC, a good outcome in 12 months is that Scotland’s case is being evaluated by the C-24. No-one is…Jul 8, 12:13
    • sarah on Too Tight To Mention: “It wouldn’t have happened under Alex, I’m sure. Every single b…y decision by the authorities in Scotland is rubbish. Hence…Jul 8, 12:09
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “No, Aidan, you are mischaracterising the plan. You may be thinking of my mischaracterisation, which I admitted was incomplete, but…Jul 8, 11:56
    • Dan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Aidan at 8:58am Yer being awfy selective bigging up Auld Reekie’s GDP, and it having a shit comedy show where…Jul 8, 11:54
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “I think Xaracen’s inability and/or refusal to set out even in basic terms what a “good outcome” looks like in…Jul 8, 11:15
    • Anthem on Too Tight To Mention: “OT. But, why are we using American corporates as consultants for road infrastructure around fort William? Aren’t there any Scottish…Jul 8, 10:27
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “Again, there is no point in trying to rewrite history here. Go back and read the posts prior to May…Jul 8, 10:25
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “No, Aidan, that was not the plan. I had misunderstood part of it because I was unaware at the time…Jul 8, 09:38
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Alf – does Edinburgh not have one of the highest rates of GDP per capita anywhere in the world, higher…Jul 8, 08:58
    • Alf Baird on Too Tight To Mention: “Gaun yersel Aidan, tell us aw aboot oor zero-growth unner-developed and plunnerred colonial economy aye rin bi a bunch o…Jul 8, 07:40
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “Let’s rewind back a bit, go back to any WoS post from May or earlier and the plan was very…Jul 8, 06:18
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Dangerous stuff. The more boxes that are ticked that say “ye just Cannae dae it” and that we are in…Jul 8, 05:07
    • Anthem on Too Tight To Mention: “Brilliant!Jul 8, 01:33
    • Dunx on Too Tight To Mention: “The UK has a veto in the UN Security Council, not the General Assembly . The GA is a talking…Jul 8, 00:41
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “I suspect not MB. The problem I have with the Jacobite rebellions is the whole “using” thing the exiled Stuart’s…Jul 8, 00:24
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “LOLz 🙂Jul 7, 23:57
    • Stuart on Too Tight To Mention: “Would that be the same UN General Assembly where the UK Government can wield a veto? Why yes it is!…Jul 7, 23:21
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “Only one page on JPTI appears relevant, Aidan, and it doesn’t say what you asserted. JPTI states on its site…Jul 7, 22:52
    • sarah on Too Tight To Mention: “Liberation’s case has to be approved by the General Assembly of the UN. That is well known. The route to…Jul 7, 22:28
    • Oneliner on Too Tight To Mention: “Not My KingJul 7, 22:27
    • Confused on Too Tight To Mention: “I like to think of it this way : an analogy Scotland is like Auschwitz (rich industrial area, but not…Jul 7, 22:10
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Too Tight To Mention: ““The foundational function of the State is the monopolistic organization of the power of the sword over a territorial cultural…Jul 7, 22:07
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “I quite agree, “Chas” is indeed a unionist prick. Well said.Jul 7, 21:56
    • Northcode on Too Tight To Mention: “Leah Gunn Barrett has this to say about the Darien Scheme. The Darien Myth and the Origins of the Union…Jul 7, 21:53
    • Mark Beggan on Too Tight To Mention: “Pity the Jacobites didn’t win. Young English nationalists would be talking of the slaughter of London, the burning of Winchester.…Jul 7, 21:46
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Alf – I constantly praise Scotland and talk up its strengths both here and in person. Can the same be…Jul 7, 21:37
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Xaracen – it’s on the JPTI website. If you want the actual wording you’ll need to email JPTI or persuade…Jul 7, 21:35
    • Alf Baird on Too Tight To Mention: ““they talk about our history and culture as being ancient guff but not one of them has ever presented anything…Jul 7, 21:19
  • A tall tale



↑ Top