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Wings Over Scotland


Data without information 193

Posted on January 07, 2017 by

This week a Scottish journalist told us ruefully that over the festive holidays, all parties send the newspapers “Christmas boxes” comprising a load of ready-made and pre-chewed garbage stories, each embargoed to specific days, for them to run in the news desert between Boxing Day and January 3rd with no further effort required.

(This year’s crop had been particularly dismal, our source revealed.)

emptybox

It seems, though, that the media plans to continue the practice all year.

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Category analysis, history, missing context, scottish politics

The opposite of information 133

Posted on March 10, 2016 by

Good luck with this one, folks:

guardiandeficit

All clear now?

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Category comment, media, scottish politics

The Pish Gallop 133

Posted on December 15, 2015 by

We’ve spoken a number of times before on this site about the “gish gallop” or “swarm of wasps” debating technique, in which a person attempts to bury their opponent under such an overwhelming tsunami of false, misleading or nonsensical claims in a short space of time that they can’t possibly debunk it all.

The Urban Dictionary gives an example of the form:

gishgallop

Faced with such a rushing torrent of drivel, it’s almost impossible for an opponent to know where to start in order to begin to even scratch the surface (if you can scratch a torrent). And that brings us directly to Severin Carrell’s article in today’s Guardian.

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Category analysis, comment, debunks, media, scottish politics

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  • Recent Comments

    • Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Talking of ‘delusion’, Hatey, the comment below from Ambassador Murray tends to reject yours and your colonial cohorts claim that…” Sep 19, 15:25
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused. If it is possible where do you envisage The Westminster parliament and government war being Scotlands if Westminster dates…” Sep 19, 15:09
    • Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Havers, Alf, Confused wants the gas chamber for those who disagree with him. His kind don’t make good points. You’re…” Sep 19, 14:30
    • Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “They’re saying war is coming whether they shill for it or not. Odd, really, I thought it was obvious near…” Sep 19, 14:24
    • Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “It’s the usual MO of the hard of thinking contingent which has (sadly) come to dominate BTL discourse in here.…” Sep 19, 14:16
    • Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Loving how the Argies, descendants of genocidal, colonising Europeans, are now setting their sights on their next colonialist conquest -…” Sep 19, 14:07
    • Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “We might also ‘twig’ that Imperial England has long since became a refuge and right of abode for millions of…” Sep 19, 13:25
    • Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Aye, hunners o dodgy one-sided ‘annexation’ and ‘we’ll hiv yer sovereignty, thank you’ treaties are the wey it wis done…” Sep 19, 13:02
    • Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused makes a good point. As Professor Edward Said wrote: “The imperial relationship is there in all cases. Irish people…” Sep 19, 12:45
    • Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The BBC along with the rest of the British MSM are indeed shilling for war, as is the FSL in…” Sep 19, 12:26
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The parliament of England, the monarch of England the politicians, the Commissioners all held the two mistakes and errors. 1:…” Sep 19, 12:24
    • TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Stretching the neo colonial theme, kinda Woody Guthrie..ish These lands are our land, no longer your land From the icy…” Sep 19, 12:23
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, It was and is of no account what Scotlands old parliament did when adjourned in Scotland in 1707. To…” Sep 19, 12:03
    • Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Many of the people you refer to as “Yoons” are independence supporters, myself included. (I was recently accused of being…” Sep 19, 11:58
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, The old Scottish parliament was already dissolved by the Monarch of England on the 28th April 1706 in England,…” Sep 19, 11:56
    • Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “A bit early to be pished. Someone obviously left the COSHH cabinet unlocked last night. Snorted the Denso and necked…” Sep 19, 11:51
    • Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “bbc shilling for war on the front page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn0jke547r5o delusions of a fool, pining for the past https://archive.ph/f0c0J getting involved…” Sep 19, 11:42
    • Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ben Gvir recently had a rant on X “It’s time for the State to publicly recognize that the Malvinas Islands…” Sep 19, 11:40
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “This makes the “Scotland Act itself reservations and restrictions on Scotland from the legislation and Statues of then Westminster parliament…” Sep 19, 11:39
    • agentx on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Timeline of the 1707 Union January 16, 1707:The Treaty of Union was formally ratified by the Parliament of Scotland. March…” Sep 19, 11:02
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Simply said for late comers, The ratification of Scotlands side of the 1707 treaty of union occurred after the parliament…” Sep 19, 11:02
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Both the bill of rights and the act of Settlement were passed by the parliament of England prior the Scottish…” Sep 19, 10:47
    • Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Why would anyone trust a word Trump – or indeed any of his GOP successors say? Even if the Democrats…” Sep 19, 10:41
    • Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Are Sweden and Germany Anglophone countries? How about Greece, Austria, Italy and Ceuta (Spain)? Your response is just more of…” Sep 19, 10:05
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The Westminster parliament records do not float an idea or theory that Scotland is Colonised , it proves it into…” Sep 19, 10:05
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Alf, Even you and the UN have to chronologically apply dates and time lines to arrive at the ” theses”…” Sep 19, 09:54
    • Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “If you’re referring to the US-Denmark-Greenland deal, the reality would appear to be more nuanced. And it’s yet to be…” Sep 19, 09:44
    • James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “No psychology, no theory, putting meat on the bone through the records of Westminster parliament, from the Horses mouth one…” Sep 19, 09:34
    • Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Or, you know…in the real world, it’s not the yoons contributing to BTL discourse that are the issue it is…” Sep 19, 09:29
    • Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Dunx According to the Declaration of Arbroath, the Picts were genocided by the Scots. That’s an awkward truth that can’t…” Sep 19, 09:26

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