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Wings Over Scotland


A song we’ve heard before 205

Posted on May 04, 2014 by

Respectable author Allan Massie (father of Spectator columnist Alex) rather shames himself in today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday, with a particularly grim piece of what we assume is supposed to be comical crystal ball-gazing, painting a melodramatic picture of an apocalyptic post-independence Scotland as seen by Project Fear.

btglasgowfire

Over 2500 words long, it ticks all the boxes – no currency union, a mass exodus of business, Spain vetoing Scotland’s EU membership, economic Armageddon forcing the return of tuition fees and prescription charges, Trident staying on the Clyde permanently, Orkney and Shetland voting to stay with the UK and somehow taking the oil with them in direct contravention of all international law, and so on.

Which would all be a super piece of knockabout fun, were it not for the fact that we’ve already almost lost count of the number of times the right-wing English media, and in particular the Mail itself, has already trotted out this same dystopian drivel.

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Category comment, media, scottish politics

More crystal bollocks 100

Posted on September 02, 2013 by

Almost every newspaper today reported a declaration by George Osborne that a No vote would result in a boost to Scottish family incomes of a dramatic-sounding £2,000. The headline figure, which some papers gave a more negative spin, was actually a cumulative sum spread over 30 years (because “£67 a year per family”, or £1.29 a week, sounds rather less impressive as a compelling case for the Union).

It hinged on forecast economic growth of 4% – due to “extra trade, labour migration and cross-border investment” – compared to that in an independent Scotland.

cbollocks2

Those are two pretty sweeping predictions. Is the Chancellor that good a fortune-teller?

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Category analysis, comment, scottish politics, uk politics

Crystal bollocks 122

Posted on July 18, 2013 by

Apologies if the headline falls fouls of anyone’s work filter (although it shouldn’t, as it’s officially legally not a swear word), but we can’t think of a more concise and accurate way of describing the phenomenon illustrated by the comically absurd story that’s being blared all over the Scottish media this morning like news of the Apocalypse.

torcuilshite

The price of oil, as the No campaign never tires of telling us, is volatile. Nobody knows what it’ll be in 27 weeks’ time, or even 27 days’ time. Predicting what level it’ll be at 27 hours from now is pushing your luck a bit, and City traders regularly make and lose fortunes betting on that timescale and getting it right or wrong.

So the idea that anyone, let alone the Office for Budget Responsibility, can have even the slightest, vaguest hint of a clue where North Sea oil prices and production will be 27 YEARS from now is – well, see the headline.

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Category analysis, comment, scottish politics, uk politics

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  • Recent Comments

    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “Linguistic professors, McLeod and Jones of Edinburgh University chart the decline of the use of Gaelic language. “In the mid…” Jan 23, 17:32
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.” I think you’re…” Jan 23, 17:28
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “A cosmopolitan «littérateur» ancestor of mine wrote in Ottoman Turkish. He disliked Syriac, and had reservations about Arabic considering the…” Jan 23, 17:09
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “All I know, Sam, is that when my folk arrived here there was naebody else tae be seen… and it…” Jan 23, 17:04
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.” Jan 23, 16:58
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Seriously, tak yer Gaelic and yer Inglis and get yersel’s tae…” Obviously I wasn’t being serious with my last comment.…” Jan 23, 16:52
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “@ Northcode “As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird language of the first invader, English that of the…” Jan 23, 16:47
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Shirley-Anne Somerville has sent a baby box to New York mayor Mamdani. To show him how it works, and to…” Jan 23, 16:46
    • Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““claim we were all colonised near a century afore 1707” As noted above, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural…” Jan 23, 16:42
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Ah, c’moan noo, Northy. Just the other day you were self-identifying as shit. Shit should be in seventh heaven in…” Jan 23, 16:20
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Can we please therefore jettison the exclusivist “mither tongue” myth… No! As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird…” Jan 23, 15:56
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “@ “It was a choice made and maintained by Scots.” Hardly. Historian, Iain MacKinnon. “And in 1608 there was a…” Jan 23, 15:53
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “When i was a kid my parents visited some relatives and other exiles in California, we have relatives near &…” Jan 23, 15:33
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “See fit ye’ve done noo, Fearghas? Ye’ve empowered the Baird/Northy axis tae claim we were all colonised near a century…” Jan 23, 15:15
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““He also claimed “It was the English who commanded that Scots schoolchildren be viciously belted with a leather strap…” No……” Jan 23, 15:08
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “We observe that the following was written almost exactly a century BEFORE the Act of Union. We note that the…” Jan 23, 15:03
    • 100%Yes on Yelling at the tide: “Is she really worth fighting for “Information commissioner sues SNP Government over ‘failure to publish Sturgeon files’. I wouldn’t give…” Jan 23, 14:51
    • willie on Yelling at the tide: “If I may, can I turn attention to the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond and the recent announcement that Lomond…” Jan 23, 14:41
    • factchecker on Yelling at the tide: “Thank you Cynicus for some factual input. The professor writes “Ignorant rubbish” indeed. He claims “In seeking to justify only…” Jan 23, 14:29
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Aye, TURABDIN, there’s been notable failures. There’s been notable successes, too. Japan, the former West Germany before they were sunk…” Jan 23, 14:26
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: ““As we know, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural assimilation) are well established colonial procedures intended to make ‘a…” Jan 23, 14:10
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Dinna be sae harsh, Cynicus. It’s Baltic oot there. Northy needs his pants aflame tae keep warm and he’s discovered…” Jan 23, 13:52
    • Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““Ignorant Rubbish” ? In seeking to justify only the English language being taught to Scots bairns in school, British educationalists…” Jan 23, 13:50
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “My, Alf, but like your sidekick Northy, you’re a tonic sometimes. Why don’t you call for what Mummy et al…” Jan 23, 13:49
    • Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““The American psyche’s great flaw is that .. like a prepubescent child uncertain of its identity” This is a general…” Jan 23, 13:34
    • Cynicus on Yelling at the tide: “Northcode, 23 January, 2026 at 10:56 am “It was the English who forced their own language on the Scots. “…” Jan 23, 12:55
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “@Hatey McHateface to this reader your argumentation can turn towards the confusing, however, I do share your perspective regarding the…” Jan 23, 12:49
    • Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: “Aye Willie, and here we are reminded that “whenever colonialism is imperiled, the colonizer reveals his fangs” (Fanon). So why…” Jan 23, 12:26
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “You remind me of the people who claim to believe that the killing of one woman as she interferes with…” Jan 23, 11:07
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““… speaking, reading and writing only in Scots…” Who do those folk who believe an independent Scotland would insist that…” Jan 23, 10:56

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