Alert readers will of course be aware that one of this site’s most frequently-recurring themes is “phantom news”, whereby events or unpleasant opinions that newspapers or broadcasters really want to have happened are conveniently brought to life, either by some random nobody on the internet, or an unnamed “source” or “insider”.
So when Nicola Sturgeon did something today that nearly everyone in the Northern Hemisphere knew she was going to do sometime soon, but wasn’t expecting just yet, there wasn’t time to prepare actual real people with the required quotes.
In the modern media world, though, that isn’t a problem.
Our attention was drawn today to hardcore shrieky Loyalist nutter collective Scotland In Union releasing “new research” on an independent Scotland’s finances, which in fact came out last year but which for unknown reasons they’re touting again now.
Commissioned by the loongroup from a London-based thinktank that we’d never heard of by the name of “Europe Economics”, it predictably produces a doom-and-gloom conclusion that independence would have cost over £10bn in the first year.
There are so many gaping chasms in the logic we could hardly stop laughing for long enough to type, but one in particular was worth wiping the tears from our eyes for.
We were very pleased to hear Gary Robertson challenge Kezia Dugdale on the curious matter of Scottish Labour’s membership and income figures on today’s Good Morning Scotland. Dugdale flapped and dodged and waffled for as long as she could before diverting the topic onto federalism, and eventually managed to wriggle away from the subject without any sort of proper answer (through no fault of Robertson’s).
Almost a year ago we ran a short piece mocking a Scotsman headline which claimed that “THOUSANDS” of people had signed a Tory anti-referendum petition, when the actual number was a strictly-accurate-but-pathetic TWO thousand.
We didn’t think that could ever be beaten for technically-true hyperbolic exaggeration, but we’d reckoned without the bold boundary-pushing ingenuity of the Daily Express.
Hundreds of thousands? How many hundreds, exactly?
There’s a truly abominable piece of hatemongering in today’s Times. A grotesequely dishonest Nat-bashing smear job based on stupendously misrepresented fragments of quotes, it’s penned by Patrick Harkness, someone who the paper identifies as “a past co-chairman of the RSE [Royal Society of Edinburgh] Young Academy of Scotland”.
For some reason it’s chosen to leave a few lines off his CV.
It’s a well-known fact, of course, that 87% of all statistics are made up. But as this site regularly observes, if you’re the Scottish opposition and media there’s no need to invent fake ones when you can twist the real ones to present an image completely at odds with the reality.
The Sunday Times today has some fine examples of the craft of massaging figures for the purposes of deception. It carries two separate scare stories on the NHS, both of them using figures which aren’t based on any sort of news, but on opposition spin on existing stats. One comes from the Tories, under a dramatic headline:
The banner is pulling a classic trick – the £685m figure is actually the total sum spent in a decade, not the single year that most people would assume (since there’s no good reason to measure spending in decades, so headlines usually don’t do it). But remarkably it’s just about the most honest thing in the paper’s health coverage today.
Figures released yesterday indicated that the number of full-time teachers employed in Scotland had risen by 253 over the past year, despite budget cuts imposed by the UK government’s austerity programme. This obviously presented the Scottish media with a dilemma: how could such statistics be presented as an “SNP BAD” story?
Luckily, we’re dealing with experienced professionals here.
We often say here on Wings that our job is to teach people to instantly recognise the sneaky tricks used by the media to try to create false impressions without saying things that are technically untrue. (Because despite the tiny size they’re allowed to print corrections at, they’re still rather embarrassing.)
A key technique is to look at a headline or story and immediately ask what you’re NOT being told. So here’s an easy example from today’s Scottish Daily Mail.
James Che on Faces In Sand: “North Code. Again appreciate your response and keeping the debate polite and clean, They are not actually my own personal…” Oct 23, 12:37
Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: ““Independence would bring political responsibility closer to voters, strengthen democratic legitimacy and allow Scotland to adapt its institutions over time…” Oct 23, 11:24
Northcode on Faces In Sand: “James, I haven’t replied to you. My earlier comment was a general observation about the modern independence argument, not a…” Oct 23, 11:10
James Che on Faces In Sand: “Alf Baird, I suspect that the non – treaty of union issue and Colonisation issue will merge, for they become…” Oct 23, 10:53
Lorncal on Faces In Sand: “MaryB: they also infected people already in hospitals by placing them in wards with uninfected patients. I remember the huge…” Oct 23, 10:48
James Che on Faces In Sand: “North code. Thank you for your reply, I will answer your points one by one if I may. Firstly, We…” Oct 23, 10:43
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““A convincing case for independence doesn’t need the colonial frame” How else can we explain to Scots: – the ‘union’…” Oct 23, 10:20
James Chey on Faces In Sand: “Fact checker. You are entirely correct in stating that there is no equal union, What you omitted by default through…” Oct 23, 10:10
Northcode on Faces In Sand: “I’ve been thinking about why the “Scotland is a colony” argument is actually counter-productive. A convincing case for independence doesn’t…” Oct 23, 09:43
James Che on Faces In Sand: “North code, Did not have time to respond fully to you yesterday, Which and what Sovereignty works nowadays and where…” Oct 23, 09:14
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Humza Yousaf has a new book out – just in time for Christmas – although it’s inconceivable that could ever…” Oct 23, 08:35
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Robin McAlpine claims Jackdaw will add 35 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere that wouldn’t otherwise have got…” Oct 22, 21:02
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Good post, Lorncal. As I’ve often observed, we should never underestimate the popularity of a government policy that enables people…” Oct 22, 20:32
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Faces In Sand: “Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) extensive interview with VZ on 16 Oct 2026 www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x9dkYIRb58” Oct 22, 20:24
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Excellent questions, Confused. Well worth repetition. How come you’re an EXPERT ON INTERNATIONAL LAW? How come you’re an EXPERT LEVEL…” Oct 22, 20:10
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “@Geri 1:04 I absolutely love your posts and so I’d like to help you out. Teach yourself what 24/7 actually…” Oct 22, 19:52
Lorncal on Faces In Sand: “H McH: it was noted post WW II that few people in any of the affected countries expressed pre war…” Oct 22, 18:47
agentx on Faces In Sand: “• Ultimate Competence: Under UN General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV), the UNGA established the specific criteria for what constitutes a…” Oct 22, 18:10
Aidan on Faces In Sand: ““You could be on 100K a year for some place with a nice wine cellar” – I am thanks (more),…” Oct 22, 17:34
Dan on Faces In Sand: “AIDan says: “Modern cars are more complex and aren’t always designed well, and come with the risk of very difficult…” Oct 22, 17:29
Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “Yeah great analogy, Confused. Not. Stay in lane with James, there’s a good lad. This is grown up talk.” Oct 22, 17:28
Confused on Faces In Sand: “Northcode would tell us a turd is not a turd because he found a peanut in it.” Oct 22, 17:16
factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Interesting, Confused. You say ” if an equal partner in a union we can just tear the fucking thing up”.…” Oct 22, 17:08
Northcode on Faces In Sand: “Aidan — yes, exactly. That’s the core point I’ve been trying to make. Whatever people believe about historical treaties or…” Oct 22, 16:51
Confused on Faces In Sand: “it has been explained many times the nature and necessity of a multi-layered strategy for independence and the importance of…” Oct 22, 16:44
Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “”… and would appear to be linked more to the obsessions and eccentricities of the proponents” Not to mention self-delusion…” Oct 22, 16:42
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““The SNP of 2026 has two faces” Correct Rev, one face shows the saltire, on occasion, while the other face…” Oct 22, 16:37
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “Why is it @Alf – that you comment almost entirely in riddles and abstraction?” Oct 22, 16:13
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “I would also add that the circumstances around the formation of a treaty 300 years ago is an issue that…” Oct 22, 16:10
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““Scotland currently has full civil rights” A colonized people are a subordinated people subject to cultural erasure and economic extraction,…” Oct 22, 16:05
