The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →

A fair assessment 382

Posted on October 17, 2014 by

Mark Steel in the Independent, 16 October 2014:

“Maybe one way they can reverse this is to try a more forthright approach, and to start with they could say: ‘If the Scottish are so daft as to believe our vow, maybe that proves they’re not fit to run their own country anyway, the idiots.'”

Craig Murray said something quite similar recently from the other side, as it were, and at the moment we’re finding it quite tough to disagree with either of them.

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

Where it matters 151

Posted on October 17, 2014 by

The Evening Standard, 16 October 2014:

“George Osborne was today named the most influential person in London as the Chancellor topped the Evening Standard’s The 1000 power list, with Mayor Boris Johnson in second place.

The Evening Standard panel decided Mr Osborne is London’s most influential person because of his willingness to invest in the capital despite pressure for the Treasury to spend the money in other parts of Britain.”

Nice to know he’s looking after your money, isn’t it?

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

Spoiled for choice 133

Posted on September 10, 2014 by

George Monbiot in the Guardian, 10 September 2014:

“If Scotland becomes independent, it will be despite the efforts of almost the entire UK establishment. It will be because social media has defeated the corporate media. It will be a victory for citizens over the Westminster machine, for shoes over helicopters.

It will show that a sufficiently inspiring idea can cut through bribes and blackmail, through threats and fear-mongering. That hope, marginalised at first, can spread across a nation, defying all attempts to suppress it. That you can be hated by the Daily Mail and still have a chance of winning.”

We could have picked almost any paragraph. A tour de force.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

The great surrender 70

Posted on September 07, 2014 by

Owen Jones in the Guardian, 7 September 2014:

“New Labour’s surrender to the underlying assumptions of the Thatcherite crusade gave the independence movement its greatest opportunity. Yes, the Blairites could not entirely purge Labour’s traditions, and so the minimum wage was introduced (albeit at too low a level), poverty was reduced and public services were invested in.

Yet they illegally invaded Iraq with Conservative support, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and 179 British military personnel before handing much of the country over to fanatics. They punished aspiration by introducing tuition fees, saddled public services with long-term debt through the colossal rip-off of PFI, and began privatising our NHS – laying the foundations for some of the pernicious policies of this coalition as they did so.

They allowed the living standards of millions of working people to begin falling years before the crash, even as the coffers of corporate Britain prospered like never before. They failed to solve an ever-worsening housing crisis, leaving 5 million languishing on council housing waiting lists. They cut taxes on corporate Britain while indulging in entirely destructive gimmicks such as scrapping the 10p tax rate.

Many Scots look at the Britain built by this political elite, they don’t like it and they want out.”

Seems to pretty much cover it.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

On moving to Yes 182

Posted on September 04, 2014 by

Bill Leckie in the Scottish Sun, 4 September 2014:

“I still have a list of nagging doubts, not least over who emerges to lead this new state. It’s just that… well, whereas not so long ago these doubts were what held me back, today they somehow seem exciting.

Will it turn out a Yes vote? Don’t ask me. I’m still too busy trying to work out exactly what it was about that conversation [with my son] that changed my mind on the most important collective decision we will ever make.

Today, I can still only offer this guess. That when all is said and done, maybe it just feels better to believe in something that could be amazing than to settle for what can never be better than OK.”

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

More lying nationalists 147

Posted on August 19, 2014 by

Remember, readers, saying the Scottish NHS is in danger from Westminster attacks on the English one is just a despicable and outrageous Nat scare story.

unisonnhs

Alistair Darling and Alistair Carmichael wouldn’t lie to you, after all.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

Hobson’s Choice 64

Posted on August 10, 2014 by

The Telegraph, 10 August 2014:

“Policy Exchange, a think tank with close links to the Conservative Party, will later this month publish a report calling for the government’s £26,000 benefits cap to be lowered outside London to reflect the lower cost of living.

Labour has previously made a similar suggestion and the Conservatives are being urged to consider making the proposals part of their manifesto for the General Election in 2015.”

Nice to have a range of democratic options about punishing the poor, isn’t it, Britons?

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

Between friends 146

Posted on August 06, 2014 by

Phoebe Arnold on BuzzFeed Politics, 6 August 2014:

“If you minus Scotland’s total tax receipts generated per person since 1980 from the average for the UK, they’ve contributed a surplus of £222 billion in today’s prices (again, counting Scotland’s geographical share of North Sea oil and gas).”

(Source fullfact.org. Our emphasis.)

£222bn divided by 33 years is £6.73bn a year. No biggie. Don’t mention it.

Tags:
Category scottish politics, stats

Betting on a sure thing 173

Posted on August 04, 2014 by

Ralph Topping, CEO of William Hill, in the Financial Times, 4 August 2014:

“I have spent the past six years as chief executive of a company whose 17,000 employees work in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and throughout the world. Businesses are accustomed to dealing with different tax systems and employment regulations in the countries in which they operate. This rarely causes real difficulties.

And they know that national governments tend to collaborate where there is a mutual economic interest – indeed, they expect nothing less.”

Those voices of common sense just keep mounting up, don’t they?

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

The mouths of convicts 52

Posted on August 04, 2014 by

Chris Huhne in the Observer, 3 August 2014:

“If Scotland goes, it will be in everyone’s interest to have a ‘velvet divorce’, as the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia was described. A nasty and messy separation would damage both sides. London will want early certainty, and for Scotland to be an EU member alongside the rest of the UK.

The result on 18 September may rewrite history, but not geography. We will all still share the same island. Their mess will be ours, both sides of the border. So we will all have an interest not to make a mess.”

Isn’t it weird how an MP has to be “disgraced” before they can tell the truth?

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

More empty threats at your expense 159

Posted on August 02, 2014 by

The UK government is about to put another taxpayer-funded leaflet through every door in Scotland, laden with dire warnings about the consequences of independence.

Boiled down to just five bullet points – one of which is the meaningless “best of both worlds” – it presents the case for the UK as amounting to keeping the pound (which Scotland can do either way), higher public spending (omitting the fact that Scots pay over the odds for said spending), jobs with UK companies (which would be unaffected because EU law demands freedom of employment) and lower energy bills.

onshorewind

The latter is based on the oft-repeated claim that fuel bills would rise in Scotland because the rUK would no longer pay to import subsidised Scottish renewable energy. But an article in The Ecologist this week, by two respected academics from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, blows that argument out of the water.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, debunks, scottish politics

The best of all possible worlds 99

Posted on July 28, 2014 by

The Stevenage Advertiser, 22 July 2014:

“‘Lessons must be learned’ from the death of a Stevenage diabetic who could not afford electricity to keep his insulin cool after his benefits were stopped.

Former soldier David Clapson died aged 59 at his home in Hillside from fatal diabetic keto-acidosis, which the NHS calls ‘a dangerous complication of diabetes caused by a lack of insulin.‘

His jobseeker’s allowance of approximately £70 a week – on which his family says he was reliant – had been suspended three weeks before on June 28, for missing meetings.

According to his family, Mr Clapson was found “alone, penniless and starving” a short distance from a pile of printed CVs, with nothing to his name but £3.44, six tea bags, a tin of soup and an out-of-date tin of sardines.

The coroner found that David – a former BT engineer of 16 years, who had served two years in Northern Ireland with the Royal Corps of Signals during The Troubles – had nothing in his stomach when he died.”

We can’t do any better than that. Vote No, everyone. UK OK!

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,886 Posts, 1,237,579 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

    • Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “You should have slept well. No one be reads it anyway.” Mar 12, 03:18
    • James on Looking up at the stars: “Ah yes, infiltration is the key….. The old colonialists are expert.” Mar 12, 02:06
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “GOVT DITCHES NON-CRIME HATE INCIDENTS (England & Wales) A Government amendment removing the statutory basis for non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs)…” Mar 12, 00:47
    • Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “J The long haired one certainly did walk a bit like the ministry of funny walks 🙂” Mar 12, 00:34
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “PUBLIC STATEMENT BY SALVOSCOT LTD & LIBERATION SCOTLAND COMMITTEE Response to Defamatory Statements by JPTi   In November 2025, the…” Mar 12, 00:33
    • DaveL on Looking up at the stars: “Then why the fuck do you never shut up?” Mar 12, 00:32
    • Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Hubris. It gets the empire every time. Trump is the babbling idiot but the real evil is the unelected evil…” Mar 11, 22:17
    • diabloandco on Looking up at the stars: “Really Geri? Thanks for the information – it seems entirely wrong that that should be allowed.” Mar 11, 22:09
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “” It is historically indisputable…” I dispute your historically indisputable ‘stuff’. What some, the ignorant and deluded, call colonization others…” Mar 11, 21:52
    • Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: “” the people of Scotland have been among the most efficient and enthusiastic colonisers” You may find of interest the…” Mar 11, 21:18
    • Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Hopefully addressing the problems experienced by the original RR gas turbines by installing three, greater capacity diesel generators at considerable…” Mar 11, 21:17
    • Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Scotland hasn’t colonised anyone. Can you point to our overseas territories where we rule over a ppl? The City of…” Mar 11, 21:03
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Correction: that ‘other’ should read ‘others’ plural – otherwise the intended meaning is lost in the sentence which should read…” Mar 11, 20:10
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “This what bullies do when they get caught… bullies being cowards. They try to pull other, innocent parties, into their…” Mar 11, 19:59
    • agentx on Looking up at the stars: ““Fyona Bairstow, 72, and Michael Bairstow, 77, abused Apple Moorhouse in Manor Heath Park, Halifax, on 28 August last year…” Mar 11, 19:33
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “I’ve been perusing todays unionist (colonist if preferred… same thing) mincin and mingin and mangleezed insults comments and comparing them…” Mar 11, 19:29
    • James on Looking up at the stars: “Had one of them shit himself? If so, the other yin was Beggan…..” Mar 11, 19:27
    • Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Anyone else see the clip on the news of the old couple racially abusing the Philipino woman in a park…” Mar 11, 19:13
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “An observation: Someone who would destroy the world economy for no apparent reason is not an evil genius…. just evil,…” Mar 11, 19:05
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Wheesht, factchecker. Our illustrious forebears were only following orders. Some big, bad, Inglis barsturts made them do it. And then…” Mar 11, 18:22
    • factchecker on Looking up at the stars: “Our resident professor tells us that ” a nation which colonizes, a civilization which justifies colonization – and therefore force…” Mar 11, 18:03
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Wahey, James is up! It must have finally healed. But as he’s hunched over it, pumping away, he’s not upright.…” Mar 11, 17:58
    • David Holden on Looking up at the stars: “Enter the Dragon. The spot of bother in the gulf will be over soon as Sir Keith has dispatched HMS…” Mar 11, 17:47
    • James on Looking up at the stars: “The site Prick is in urgent need of a double dose of immodium. They’re spilling out of him without even…” Mar 11, 17:05
    • James Che on Looking up at the stars: “robertkknight, Thats because all the codgers in the holyrood parliament are a sub division of the parliament of the united…” Mar 11, 17:05
    • 100%Yes on Looking up at the stars: “Kelly’s brown Eye has went silent.” Mar 11, 16:31
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “@ Geri says: 11 March, 2026 at 3:54 pm “It’s printing press” “it’s line of credit” “it’s economy” The Mystic…” Mar 11, 16:12
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Oh FFS, Alf. There’s hardly a Scottish family in the land that doesn’t have relatives in the Colonies. Plenty will…” Mar 11, 15:56
    • Geri on Looking up at the stars: “It’s about to get a whole lot sicker… It’s printing press & it’s line of credit is just about to…” Mar 11, 15:54
    • Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““Isn’t the Indy movement sprinkled with simpering pathetic fools” The main concern of the colonized is or should be focused…” Mar 11, 15:38

  • A tall tale



↑ Top