The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland

← Previous Entries

When Tories tell the truth 147

Posted on January 19, 2021 by

There’s a most revealing article by George Osborne in today’s Evening Standard. It’s well worth a read in full – it’s not very long – but this is the key passage:

The deathless defenders of Plan A will of course continue to shriek that “he’s a Tory so he must be lying”. And if any of them can ever actually manage to tell us what Scottish voters can possibly DO to Boris Johnson if he keeps refusing, we’ll be all ears.

But since they never seem to be able to do that, we’re going to thank Mr Osborne for that unusual outbreak of honesty, and for admitting that a simple point-blank refusal of democracy is the Tories’ best and only strategy to keep Scotland in the UK. Because for as long as the SNP don’t have a Plan B, it’s the only one they actually need.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

Quoted for truth #83 120

Posted on January 08, 2021 by

Agreeing with Tom Gordon from the Herald is a position that we really don’t like to find ourselves in, readers. But we can’t find fault with a single word of this column.

We could quote almost any of it, and we recommend digesting the whole thing, but this is as good a passage to pick out as any:

For most of this site’s existence it was the Unionists who were denying the obvious realities staring them in the face. It’s a source of great discomfort to us that many on the Yes side are now picking up the habit too. But we are where we are.

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics, uk politics

The irrefutable argument 140

Posted on July 05, 2019 by

We haven’t done a good old-fashioned Quoted For Truth in quite some time, but on occasion someone else makes a point in a way that just can’t be improved on.

We’ve always known/said that this is THE core case for independence, of course, but sometimes seeing it from another country’s perspective brings the message home.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, world

One last thing to remember 74

Posted on March 09, 2016 by

The BBC’s Brian Taylor on GERS:

briantaylorgers

As we have, of course, noted before.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

Presented without comment 166

Posted on February 28, 2016 by

A little snippet from a corner of today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday.

smosdavidson

Tags:
Category scottish politics

The cost of everything 70

Posted on February 06, 2016 by

From an excellent letter in today’s Herald by Chris McLaughlin of Giffnock:

oftri

The only fault in Chris’ logic is that he’s a bit too generous to Labour.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

Quoted for truth #82 149

Posted on August 07, 2015 by

Frank Cottrell Boyce in the Independent, 7 August 2015:

“Only 25 per cent of the population earns more than £30,000 a year. Most media commentators (including me) do. For people like me, the country basically works. Politics doesn’t affect me. Politics, for me, is about how other people are treated. It’s easy inside my echo-chamber to believe that I am the norm, or the middle. Easy to forget that there are voices outside.

To people in my position, austerity can be read as regrettable but pragmatic. But to my friends and family, who live outside the bubble, it’s not regrettable, it’s terrifying. It’s also not pragmatic. The crackpot, gimcrack ideological nature of austerity becomes more apparent the closer you get to the point of delivery.”

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

A revealing turn of phrase 79

Posted on March 25, 2015 by

From an editorial leader in this week’s London Evening Standard:

“The man likely to lead the SNP in Westminster, former party leader Alex Salmond, has made it clear that he is contemplating keeping a minority Labour government in power on a case by case basis. ‘If you hold the balance, then you hold the power,’ he said yesterday.

His price: an end to austerity and to Trident.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has come out fighting against the threat.“

Seems to sum it up pretty well.

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

Something worth remembering 237

Posted on March 19, 2015 by

From politics.co.uk this morning:

“Those hoping that a Labour government would look very different from the current Conservative-led government are likely to be disappointed.

Asked by the Today programme what he would reverse from Osborne’s Budget yesterday, Ed Balls replied that there was nothing.

Tags:
Category audio, comment, uk politics

In through the out door 59

Posted on February 12, 2015 by

The Daily Mash, 12 February 2015:

dmash

Because a good satirist can sometimes make a point better in seven sentences than idiots like us can in a 1000-word article, and make it funny at the same time.

Tags:
Category scottish politics, uk politics

The Legacy 234

Posted on December 21, 2014 by

Iain Macwhirter in “Disunited Kingdom” (Cargo Publishing, 8 December 2014):

“It seems clear that the newspapers allowed their editorial agendas to get in the way of their communication with their readers. And this has had very serious consequences.

There is now a very large body of people in Scotland who are deeply disillusioned with the press, to such an extent that they simply no longer believe what is written there.

Look at any of the internet sites related to the Yes campaign and you will now find, not just criticism of mainstream media but a complete rejection of it, as if it were the propaganda arm of a foreign power.

This degree of alienation from the press, shared by hundreds of thousands of Scottish voters, is unprecedented and should be causing alarm, not just in editorial offices, but in the political parties which are also losing their ability to communicate. “

It’s a difficult assessment to dispute.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

The man who should know 117

Posted on December 15, 2014 by

The Times, 14 December 2014:

“Scottish Labour has an ‘intellectual deficit’ because it is filled with ‘time-servers’ given seats to keep them quiet, according to Paul Sinclair, who served alongside Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, and at the heart of the ‘no’ campaign against Scottish independence.

In an excoriating attack on the moribund state of Labour north of the border, Mr Sinclair said that the party will pay the price in May.”

As someone who wrote Johann Lamont’s speeches for the last three years, on this occasion we’re going to defer to Mr Sinclair’s superior expertise.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

« Previous Entries

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,887 Posts, 1,238,363 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 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 ticktock toldyouso too wee too poor too stupid unionist of the day vote no get nothing

  • Recent Comments

    • diabloandco on Irony you can’t buy: “Speaking of irony , apparently the Minister for War in the US of A said ,”The problem with Iran is…” Mar 24, 11:10
    • diabloandco on Irony you can’t buy: “Thanks Alf! The Caledonian Isles is a bit elderly much like me!” Mar 23, 20:30
    • diabloandco on Irony you can’t buy: “Thanks Alf! The Caledonian Isles is a bit elderly much like me!” Mar 23, 20:25
    • Iain More on Irony you can’t buy: “Re Iran war . Poor wee stupid Norway is laughing all the way to the Sassanach Offshore Tax Haven Banks.…” Mar 23, 20:07
    • twathater on Irony you can’t buy: “It is sometimes extremely difficult to gauge how stupid some people really are , but time and time again they…” Mar 23, 18:19
    • Aidan on Irony you can’t buy: “As much as it pains me to say this, I am inclined to agree with James here. This feels like…” Mar 23, 18:06
    • Alf Baird on Irony you can’t buy: ““Has your position now changed” Nothing of any significance can change in a colony until it becomes independent and in…” Mar 23, 18:03
    • agentx on Irony you can’t buy: ““Alf Baird says: 20 March, 2026 at 9:11 am My preference would be for Scotland to reduce dependence on England’s…” Mar 23, 15:52
    • Del G on Irony you can’t buy: “First I wash my clothes. Then I dry them. Then I do the irony.” Mar 23, 15:06
    • Geri on Irony you can’t buy: ““London governments sold Scotland’s public utilities including port monopolies for peanuts based on the specific argument that private owners would…” Mar 23, 12:43
    • James on Irony you can’t buy: “Yoon Troll X; “A £3m funding pledge…” LOL. ‘Here’s some crumbs, Jock’” Mar 23, 11:56
    • Alf Baird on Irony you can’t buy: ““investment in Rosyth from the UK’s Growth Mission Fund” London governments sold Scotland’s public utilities including port monopolies for peanuts…” Mar 23, 11:31
    • agentx on Irony you can’t buy: ““A £3m funding pledge for a Scottish port comes with hopes that a new ferry service to France will set…” Mar 23, 11:01
    • Alf Baird on Irony you can’t buy: “Fog should not necessarily prevent a sailing. Modern ships have excellent navigation systems, they can tell what is around them.…” Mar 23, 10:42
    • Geri on Irony you can’t buy: “The SNP & it’s membership have been completely captured. There is zero point in hoping for a road to Damascus…” Mar 23, 09:54
    • Stevie m on Irony you can’t buy: “It was obvious from day one she wasn’t interested in Scottish independence ; the number of Sturgeionites who hassled me…” Mar 23, 09:07
    • Mark Beggan on Irony you can’t buy: “What about building tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels.” Mar 23, 09:02
    • diabloandco on Irony you can’t buy: “A question for Alf with his maritime hat on, I thought ships sailed on merrily in fog only to discover…” Mar 23, 08:50
    • diabloandco on Irony you can’t buy: “Wheesht YL! – It might hear you and return to make me scroll on by ad nauseam.” Mar 23, 08:43
    • diabloandco on Irony you can’t buy: “Brilliant Sven!” Mar 23, 08:39
    • 100%Yes on Irony you can’t buy: “I posted a video from The Independence Forum, here is the video link again, if you haven’t watched the video…” Mar 23, 08:32
    • Geri on Irony you can’t buy: “Iran has responded to Trumps rant with ultimatums of their own. I’ll raise ye with five of oors.. They weren’t…” Mar 23, 01:24
    • Young Lochinvar on Irony you can’t buy: “Who, the doped-up out of control trigger-happy half trained conscript IDF? They’ll kill anything on 2 legs, four legs and…” Mar 23, 00:53
    • Young Lochinvar on Irony you can’t buy: “Just where is Hatey? I see death now stalks the w3st b8nk.. What’s the bets ol’ Hatey is over there…” Mar 23, 00:47
    • Mark Beggan on Irony you can’t buy: “The hour of doom is at hand for the Iranian people. Their chance to free themselves from a terror not…” Mar 23, 00:30
    • DaveL on Irony you can’t buy: “You’ll notice also how they’re staying away from the phrase ‘weapons of mass destruction’, WMD. They just say atomic bomb,…” Mar 22, 22:08
    • Geri on Irony you can’t buy: “The Labour party should be shunned just as equally as the Tories are and run out of Scotland. They’ve been…” Mar 22, 21:50
    • Geri on Irony you can’t buy: “They passed that point with a Jenny side. Issy doesn’t work alone. Everything needs American approval. His BS he’s telling…” Mar 22, 21:38
    • sam on Irony you can’t buy: “Trump’s adventure in the Niddle East is likely to lead to a humanitarian disaster there and a more repressive regime…” Mar 22, 21:22
    • Geri on Irony you can’t buy: “Aye, Alf. They didn’t serve under a Scottish political party. They served under the colonisers & not one of them…” Mar 22, 21:15

  • A tall tale



↑ Top