The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland

← Previous Entries

The corkscrew 106

Posted on June 06, 2016 by

Alert readers may have noticed that we tend to slack off a bit at the weekend these days. There’s no point burning ourselves out with busywork at a time when there’s not very much going on in Scottish politics (certainly not in terms of independence, at any rate), and weekend traffic is always lower anyway.

So we’ve only just now got round to taking a proper look at something the online Yoon community and punditariat was getting itself very excited about on Saturday.

heraldfracking

And it’s a fascinating piece of work.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category analysis, debunks, media, scottish politics

The taxonomy of lies 246

Posted on May 18, 2016 by

For much of its life, this site has been warning readers that, as their default position, they should always assume newspaper headlines are a lie until proven otherwise.

headlie

Today, Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper admitted it in public.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

Call The Midwife 124

Posted on April 10, 2016 by

The Scottish press and opposition’s incandescent and somewhat vague fury at the Scottish Government working to bring billions of pounds in investment to Scotland has continued undiminished in this weekend’s newspapers. Scottish Labour in particular are getting themselves very worked up about today’s Sunday Times.

mcchina

“Incredible”? Sounds exciting. Let’s find out more.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, debunks, media, scottish politics

The murder of words 140

Posted on March 16, 2016 by

This headline appears in The Times today:

timesctr

It’s an absolute lie. But that’s not the interesting thing.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category debunks, media, scottish politics, wtf

The trick is to keep reading 74

Posted on December 13, 2015 by

We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve drawn people’s attention to the necessity of sticking with newspaper articles right to the end if you don’t want to be horribly misled by eye-catching headlines. But it never hurts to have another example.

scomailfrb

If you only read the start of today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday “bombshell” on the Forth Road Bridge (the left side of the picture above), you might come to a very alarming conclusion. But if you get all the way through it, to the paragraphs we’ve highlighted in red and enlarged on the right-hand side of the image, you’ll discover the truth.

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

Your half and their half 85

Posted on September 15, 2015 by

There’s been a veritable flurry of polls commissioned to mark the impending one-year anniversary of the independence referendum. In the last 48 hours alone we’ve seen ones from Survation, YouGov and Panelbase, making a variety of interesting findings. As ever, though, the trick is in the interpretation.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category debunks, scottish politics, stats

Threats and menaces 145

Posted on August 13, 2014 by

With the referendum now just five weeks away and most of the polls still uncomfortably close, there’s an increasing sense of urgency and lack of subtlety about the No camp and media’s scaremongering.

Yesterday the Scottish media covered the award of a Royal Navy shipbuilding contract to BAE Systems in unequivocally political terms. “Promise of £348m shipyard contract for No vote”, blared the Scotsman, while the Scottish Sun’s front page went with “3 ships deal ‘if No vote’”. (The English edition was the rather more loquacious “Scots will land £348m Royal Navy contract – if they stay in the UK”.)

Yet the text of the articles told a radically different story.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

As casual as you like 307

Posted on July 04, 2014 by

Today’s Scottish Daily Express:

express500m

We’ve added the red lines.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category media, scottish politics

Voting No will give you cancer 141

Posted on July 03, 2014 by

Voting No WON’T give you cancer at all, of course. (Although with the English NHS now privatising cancer care, with the likely knock-on effects on Scottish NHS funding, you’d better hope even harder that you don’t get it.)

The title on this article is in fact completely unrelated to the text you’re about to read, much like Torcuil Crichton’s column in today’s Daily Record.

rosyth

Let’s take a look.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

Good faith and bad practice 160

Posted on June 20, 2014 by

The other day we highlighted a really good piece in the Scottish Sun, which while not perfect was a pretty decent stab at the sort of evidence-based journalism Scotland’s media should have been doing throughout the referendum campaign.

sunpound

Today, not so much.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

The inadequate tide 69

Posted on June 07, 2014 by

This is a story in today’s Scottish Daily Express:

sdemigrants

Now that’s what we call some rapid inflation.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

A joke and a lie 127

Posted on May 22, 2014 by

Last night, in our 10pm “And finally” comedy slot, we ran a picture of a Labour election leaflet we’d slightly altered in order to make a joke about the party’s well-documented historic predilection for postal-vote electoral fraud. Readers can form their own view about whether the gag was funny or not, but it was at least clearly flagged as an “And finally” and we also pointed out that the pic was a fake in the comments.

taxlie

We’ve been searching this morning’s Scotsman for a similar disclaimer regarding its front-page headline, but as yet we’re not having a lot of luck locating it.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category analysis, media, scottish politics

« Previous Entries

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,695 Posts, 1,209,632 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 Douglas Daniel 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 toldyouso too wee too poor too stupid unionist of the day vote no get nothing

  • Recent Comments

    • diabloandco on A short treatise on stalking: “Yep, he was once my go to for statistics and polling – not now.” Jan 22, 07:58
    • Hatey McHateface on The Great Hollowing: “Andrew Liddle writing in Unherd on the possibility of an SNP-Labour governing coalition in HR after the 2026 election: “the…” Jan 22, 07:52
    • Hatey McHateface on The Great Hollowing: “A back-room group will already be working on the most acceptable way to combine the “Will For Independence” process with…” Jan 22, 07:41
    • Hatey McHateface on A short treatise on stalking: “Here’s another one: On Wings BTL, it is widely assumed that gregor is the sole reader of his own posts.” Jan 22, 07:07
    • Jeannie McCrimmon on A short treatise on stalking: “Sit doon Mr Kelly is a personal Holyrood favourite.” Jan 22, 04:57
    • Young Lochinvar on The Great Hollowing: “Ah well, who knows, give him a break. As we used to joke asking the local Germans back in the…” Jan 22, 01:59
    • Skip_NC on A short treatise on stalking: “In this context, “tortured sole” is correct. James Kelly is like a fish out of water.” Jan 22, 01:50
    • Young Lochinvar on The Great Hollowing: “Still waiting for a meaningful factual reply yoon (or is it scum!). Heck I don’t know but you sound well…” Jan 22, 01:45
    • Skip_NC on A short treatise on stalking: “Alba is doing something. It’s just that the media don’t talk about it.” Jan 22, 01:43
    • gregor on The Great Hollowing: “BBC (2025): Gray apologises over football match meetings: “Health Secretary Neil Gray has apologised for “inadvertently” misleading MSPs over the…” Jan 22, 01:37
    • gregor on A short treatise on stalking: “Olde Throne: Greyfriars Kirkyard: “Oh, Greyfriars Where the Covenanters lay Ceased by the black judge Cut down by his hand…” Jan 22, 00:55
    • gregor on The Great Hollowing: “Funnily enough – same could be said for J.K. Rowling (et al)… https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1881728397598175645” Jan 22, 00:06
    • Confused on The same old tricks: “another classic from the archive” Jan 21, 23:50
    • gregor on A short treatise on stalking: “If you insist, McFetish… “The sole of your foot or of a shoe or sock is the underneath surface of…” Jan 21, 23:50
    • Confused on A short treatise on stalking: “main cavorts with satan and a black cat under moonlight in greyfriars a heretic by any measure” Jan 21, 23:42
    • yoon scum on A short treatise on stalking: “One thing that has always un-settled me about a very large part of the YES movement is the rage that…” Jan 21, 23:33
    • yoon scum on A short treatise on stalking: “Don’t forget not one single YOON has ever had a job a “fact” I have been told by a good…” Jan 21, 23:20
    • Derek on A short treatise on stalking: “Chains? There’s a rope in the play, I think.” Jan 21, 23:13
    • gregor on The Great Hollowing: “The Fraud (2025): How will bequests have helped the SNP’s finances by millions: “The SNP have received millions in will…” Jan 21, 23:10
    • Hatey McHateface on The same old tricks: “Your remedy is obvious, Confused. Scorn the accumulation of all stuff. Then you can enjoy the last laugh. BTW, if…” Jan 21, 23:07
    • Hatey McHateface on A short treatise on stalking: “It’s a complex subject and there are lots of nuances that could be discussed, on a forum that had the…” Jan 21, 23:01
    • Martin on A short treatise on stalking: “The two Davies will think his return to the SNP is big big news and will welcome him into team…” Jan 21, 22:46
    • Confused on The same old tricks: “this is the enemy he wants to steal your stuff  expects you to be grateful about it  fart in your…” Jan 21, 22:45
    • Confused on The same old tricks: “This is why the UN needs to be involved; they know all the tricks and won’t stand for them. If…” Jan 21, 22:44
    • sarah on A short treatise on stalking: “There’s more than one way to skin a cat. As someone who dislikes living the lie of a Union which…” Jan 21, 22:38
    • Hatey McHateface on A short treatise on stalking: ““hee haw else to write about” On the sites I read, they’re publicising that President Trump has announced to the…” Jan 21, 22:35
    • Northman on A short treatise on stalking: “I assume that is partly because sensible posts don’t rile people up. People nod their heads and read on. We…” Jan 21, 22:34
    • Scot Finlayson on A short treatise on stalking: “The 2022 census found that of the 514,543 people residing in Edinburgh, 47.9% identified with a Scottish identity.” Jan 21, 22:32
    • Insider on A short treatise on stalking: ““Salvo, as the campaigning group for Liberation.scot, have formed a Scottish People’s Liberation Movement”. ? Is this a Monty Python…” Jan 21, 22:31
    • yoon scum on A short treatise on stalking: “With the current lot in Holyrood An independent scotland would welcome anyone with open arms no matter how much they…” Jan 21, 22:26

  • A tall tale



↑ Top