The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland



The broken telescope 539

Posted on December 29, 2018 by

An alert reader spotted this today:

Because with Scottish Labour, lying is for life, not just Christmas.

Read the rest of this entry →

Taking the strain 284

Posted on December 03, 2018 by

We’re on about Day 79 of NoScottishPoliticsNewsGate (today’s big “EXCLUSIVE!” in the Herald is something we told you about last Friday, and was also an “exclusive” in yesterday’s Scottish Sun), so we found ourselves getting diverted by something else in the papers this morning.

The Scottish Daily Mail had a piece on the cost of train journeys from Scotland, and living in Bath you don’t need to tell us how scandalously expensive British railways are compared to almost any other country in the Northern Hemisphere.

But the Mail is the Mail, and it couldn’t help distorting even an open-goal of a story like that until it had almost no relation to reality. And it’s a very useful illustration, should anybody need yet another one, of how this country’s newspapers vastly mislead their readers without actually technically lying.

Read the rest of this entry →

Something smells fishy 275

Posted on November 29, 2018 by

From today’s Daily Mail:

The headline is, of course, a lie.

Read the rest of this entry →

Ifs and buts and maybes 170

Posted on November 01, 2018 by

Alert readers may have noticed that for a non-holiday period, Scottish politics is a deathly quiet place at the moment. Papers are struggling to find anything to write about at all, and were beside themselves with joy this week when presented with the chance to fabricate a ridiculous “anti-Semitism” story about an obscure blogger criticising a trade union and fill several pages with hysterical fauxtrage over it.

The sheer dearth of anything happening whatsoever is typified by the Scottish Daily Mail’s front-page splash this morning.

It sounds dramatic – a potentially catastrophic en-masse exodus of Scotland’s doctors would certainly be a crisis. But anyone reading beyond the lurid headline will swiftly discover a rather less doom-laden reality.

Read the rest of this entry →

Another disaster for Scotland 535

Posted on October 29, 2018 by

As if it wasn’t enough that one small country had to cope with the terrible burden of hundreds of billions of pounds of volatile oil revenues, now we have to face the grim prospect that with fossil fuels being phased out across the world to protect the climate, Scotland also produces TOO MUCH cheap, clean, infinitely renewable energy.

No wonder the Unionists think we’re too wee and too poor to go it alone.

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 →

A rapid improvement 284

Posted on October 17, 2018 by

The Scottish Daily Mail today has a big headline relaying the seemingly-unambiguous bad news that unemployment in Scotland has apparently risen by 11,000.

But cheer up, folks, because better times are ahead.

Read the rest of this entry →

Before the truth has its boots on 70

Posted on September 28, 2018 by

We’ve been keeping coverage of our ongoing court battle with former Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale to a minimum on the site, partly because little of any material impact has actually happened yet.

However, there was a mildly interesting development last night, which was scooped and accurately reported by the Scottish Sun.

Reactions to the party’s statement have already seen serious amounts of what we’re generously going to call “misinformation” generated and circulating around social media, so we’re going to have to clear some of it up. Apologies.

Read the rest of this entry →

Quick perspective check 208

Posted on September 27, 2018 by

From today’s Scottish Daily Mail:

Sounds terrible. Let’s take a look in more depth at this rising tide.

Read the rest of this entry →

The tin-eared soldier 191

Posted on September 14, 2018 by

Vince Cable, who was once apparently some sort of politician, took it upon himself to issue an opinion yesterday on the subject of referendums that had independence supporters on social media hooting with mocking laughter long into the night.

The estimable Wee Ginger Dug has already dealt adroitly with just the 300 or so most obviously ridiculous aspects of Cable’s tone-deaf and spectacularly hypocritical view, so we won’t step on his paws by repeating them here.

Instead we thought we’d do what we do best, and check the facts.

Read the rest of this entry →

Data in depth 110

Posted on September 07, 2018 by

Last night we stumbled across an interesting little statistical wrinkle to our story from Wednesday about voters’ satisfaction with Scottish public services.

The middle set of figures there is especially revealing.

Read the rest of this entry →

Getting no satisfaction 194

Posted on September 05, 2018 by

This year’s Scottish Household Survey is out, and the press is in an absolutely gleeful orgy of misery over it. Here’s the Times, for example:

The paper’s leading line is that “only half of those polled were happy with schools, the NHS and transport provision in their area”. So readers would naturally assume that the other half were DISsatisfied, right?

The reality is somewhat different.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,785 Posts, 1,221,736 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • twathater on Too Tight To Mention: “It never ceases to amaze me how many fuckwits actually think they are in the same rich league as these…Jul 10, 03:05
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Wow! Did the paramedics get to you in time and are you alright? Would have sent you a posse of…Jul 10, 02:06
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “That I believe would be the Celtic mythical Tuatha de Danann, the Celtic equivalent of the Gods of Mount Olympus.…Jul 10, 01:48
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Reply to Chas @ 8.26 Oi Chas Leave James alone! It’s me that goes fishing and frankly, it’s no-one here’s…Jul 10, 01:38
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Well that would be you P3nisbreath; posting about “sucking blokes off” (your post), shafting blokes between “spread bum cheeks” (your…Jul 10, 01:13
    • Alf Baird on Too Tight To Mention: “Yes, worthless treaties simply used ‘to legalize colonialism’, at least in the eyes of an Imperial justice system. A hoax…Jul 9, 22:59
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “Piss off troll.Jul 9, 22:24
    • Chas on Too Tight To Mention: “How’s the carp fishing going James?Jul 9, 20:26
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: ““–the chair of C-24 is quoted in a Guardian article explicitly saying that C-24 cannot.” Irrelevant, Aidan, because it doesn’t…Jul 9, 19:56
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “I literally asked you to provide evidence for any single one of your dumbass, unsubstantiated assertions. That’s not a “rebuttal”…Jul 9, 19:39
    • TURABDIN on Too Tight To Mention: “Treaties are worthless, not unlike cease fires. How many treaties did the imperialist British sign before annexing the other signatories…Jul 9, 19:30
    • AndrewR on Too Tight To Mention: “Aidan She didn’t participate in acts of terrorism, and certainly not of treason (this was in Syria). This same murderous…Jul 9, 19:26
    • Dan on Too Tight To Mention: “Ah, jist noticed this post by Aidan trying to diminish understanding of how much energy is exported from Scotland’s geographic…Jul 9, 19:22
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Andrew – I suggest she had her life destroyed by the decision she took to join a murderous death cult…Jul 9, 19:09
    • AndrewR on Too Tight To Mention: “Hatey – “… you expect me to feel sorry for the people who slaughter and abuse my country’s and my…Jul 9, 18:29
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “Sam – did the university poll a wide range from the UK? Scotland only would probably throw up different results?…Jul 9, 18:17
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “What, that was your rebuttal? Lol. You surely don’t think I’m wasting any of my time on any of that…Jul 9, 18:11
    • agent x on Too Tight To Mention: ““Police preparing for Donald Trump to visit Scotland The Scottish government said it was working with the UK government to…Jul 9, 17:49
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Too Tight To Mention: “See following Wings over Scotland article ‘Death from above’ (March 13, 2012). Stu writes: « We have a paid subscription…Jul 9, 17:48
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Midgies tae. When oor junkies and jakies start being stealed an a’, we’ll ken we’re in the end game.Jul 9, 17:45
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “@AndrewR Sorry, but when it come to that kind of people, being heartless is the only language they understand. We’ve…Jul 9, 17:42
    • James Cheyne on Too Tight To Mention: “Captain caveman, 12:04 pm. Actually the programme I am watching is How to Save England, -. The word England being…Jul 9, 17:03
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Does any left of centre politician care about the young people born in the UK, sam? Much of the evidence…Jul 9, 16:48
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “TL;DRJul 9, 16:44
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Sae true, NC, the scribblin is oan the wa. In fact, it’s only going to be (checks notes) 4-5 years…Jul 9, 16:40
    • sam on Too Tight To Mention: “When you don’t know what you think you know. Cambridge Journal of Economics Cover Image for Volume 44, Issue 2…Jul 9, 16:36
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “I’ve just run a couple of searches on ChatGPT for for similar search criteria. Which is helpful and revealing because…Jul 9, 16:32
    • sam on Too Tight To Mention: “Not many people agree with you. https://www.derby.ac.uk/blog/margaret-thatchers-legacy/ Survey results In January and February 2019, researchers at the University of Derby…Jul 9, 16:28
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Great stuff sam. Now do the type of “personality” that posts interminably about pricks, penises, wanking, shirt lifting, glory holes…Jul 9, 16:22
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “James says: “Brexit” Aw, we need to crowdfund the boy a dictionary. Turn doon the page corner on the letter…Jul 9, 16:16
  • A tall tale



↑ Top