The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland



Fear Factor Five 137

Posted on February 05, 2014 by

We do hope none of these shock troops get caught up and hurt in the lovebombing.

Scottish independence: Cable warns of VAT on food

Caroline Flint warns that independence would mean £875 on energy bills

Warning of risk to transport links after Yes vote

No camp in grocery price rise claims (NB unrelated to VAT)

RBS would move to London if Scotland breaks away

That’s all just today. Anyone sound frightened to you?

Read the rest of this entry →

Panic stations 115

Posted on January 18, 2014 by

When we started the week with news of the UK government’s statement on debt, we wondered aloud whether it would be a game-changing moment. Judging by the No camp’s reaction since then, shrieking and flailing and lashing out blindly in all directions simultaneously, our question’s been answered.

paniczombies1

It’s been hard to keep track of it all, but we’ll have a go.

Read the rest of this entry →

Taking our best shot 126

Posted on January 13, 2014 by

This is going to be tough. Alistair Carmichael’s list of the “top 20” reasons for staying in the UK, issued today, is a document so farcical it’s actually quite hard to analyse.

alistaircarmichael4

It’s difficult to react to it in a rational manner, because the rational response is a torrent of angry invective at having one’s intelligence so heinously and crassly insulted. And going for the satire angle isn’t easy either, because it’s quite tricky to think of anything more ridiculous or idiotic than some of the claims the Secretary of State for Portsmouth makes. Striving as ever for balance, then, this is the best we can do.

Read the rest of this entry →

How things change 98

Posted on December 04, 2013 by

Well done to the alert reader who spotted this 2006 Q&A with Jack Straw MP, former Foreign Secretary and then Leader of the House Of Commons, on the BBC website:

Question from Stephen, London: As Leader of the Commons, how can having two Scottish MPs as the front runners for PM be democratic? Powers for most agencies including health, education etc have been devolved in Scotland, yet Mr Reid or Mr Brown would set the agenda for solely English matters when they represent Scottish constituencies.

jackstraw

Jack Straw: English MPs control all the money which Scotland receives – is that ‘fair’? England constitutes 85% of the UK’s population and 87% of its wealth. It was English MPs who agreed to devolve some powers to Scotland in a Westminster Act of Parliament; but year by year controls over public spending levels for all of the UK continue to be exercised by Westminster. And power devolved is power retained, not ceded.

Read the rest of this entry →

By their works shall you know them 135

Posted on November 16, 2013 by

Something rather odd happened over on our Facebook page this week. It’s the most sparsely-populated outpost of the Wings empire, (because it’s mostly just links to articles here), and the average post there is doing well if it’s seen by 2000 people and gets five or six comments.

But yesterday, after running this article, we thought it might be fun to turn the two maps into one of our celebrated series of “leaked Better Together posters”, so we quickly knocked up this image and posted it on the Facebook page accompanied only by the words “Another Union dividend”:

btbest

And then things went a bit mad.

Read the rest of this entry →

The bully’s gospel 353

Posted on October 15, 2013 by

Alistair Darling is in full Private Frazer mode over on the “Better Together” website today with his campaign’s latest variant on the timeless “too wee, too poor, too stupid” theme. Allow us to save you some time by stripping the entire 1000-word rant down to its three core paragraphs:

“Scotland has run a net fiscal deficit in 20 of the past 21 years. This suggests that over this period North Sea Oil receipts would have been required to fund public services in Scotland rather than being invested in an oil fund.

Faced with the fact that Scotland’s oil taxes are needed to fund Scotland’s public services, John Swinney made a decision that alter the terms of the independence debate forever. He made it clear on Good Morning Scotland that he favoured borrowing money to pay into an oil fund.

Borrowing to save is such a daft idea that it leads you back to the conclusion that to set up an oil fund they would have little choice but to raise taxes or cut spending. “

Contained within those few short lines is so much misinformation that it’s going to take rather longer to pull it all apart and see what the former Chancellor is trying to conceal, so let’s get straight to it. We don’t even have time for a picture.

Read the rest of this entry →

A change of heart 102

Posted on October 07, 2013 by

The new Scottish Secretary, Alistair Carmichael, in Holyrood magazine in 2010:

“Getting rid of the Scotland Office is a ‘job waiting to be done’, says Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, dubbing the current Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy as a ‘tax-funded campaign manager for the Labour Party in Scotland’.

In an interview with Holyrood magazine, Carmichael said that if his party got into power there would be no Scotland Office, asserting that he would instead head up a department of the Nations and Regions.

 He continued: “I think there is a job to be done but having the Scotland Office is not the right way to do it because it should be the clearing house between government in Edinburgh and government in London but now it is just a focal point for conflict.”

Read the rest of this entry →

The hope of the future 151

Posted on September 14, 2013 by

This is a leaflet distributed to pupils at Ellon Academy in Aberdeenshire this week. It was put together by “the school’s Better Together team” as part of the lead-up to a mini-referendum this Tuesday and sent to us by a concerned parent.

ellon1

Read the rest of this entry →

Later than you think 364

Posted on July 24, 2013 by

In an extraordinary outburst on TV last night, “Better Together” campaign chairman Alistair Darling accused Alex Salmond of exaggerating the amount of extractable oil in the Scottish sector of the North Sea by 1,200%.

The former Chancellor (who we learned a few weeks ago thinks the population of Scotland is six million, creating an impressive 705,000 imaginary Scots) suggested that rather than the 24 billion barrels currently estimated by the oil industry – and commonly cited by the UK government – there were in fact just 2 billion barrels left.

darlingoil

As BT are a tad wobbly with numbers, let’s do a quick bit of arithmetic on that.

Read the rest of this entry →

Bananas republic 140

Posted on July 15, 2013 by

We’ve noted recently how the No camp likes to huffily deny that it ever portrays Scotland as incapable of thriving as an independent country. Here’s a fairly typical example from the Scotsman back in April (our emphasis):

“SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson has claimed the ‘No’ campaign is based on the idea that Scots are “uniquely poor”, “stupid” and “incapable” of self-government.

Last night, Better Together rejected Mr Robertson’s claim. A spokesman said: ‘The only people who peddle this line are the Nationalists. No-one from Better Together thinks that Scotland couldn’t go it alone.’

We know they’re not great at counting, but they might want to check that figure.

Read the rest of this entry →

Do you agree? 57

Posted on July 12, 2013 by

Alistair Darling’s gremlin-plagued “positive case for the Union” speech in Glasgow yesterday, even leaving aside the weakness of its tired, reheated arguments (basically the same old “We cannae dae it” doom and gloom resprayed with an atom-thin coat of All-New Positivitrex!) might be the most boring thing we’ve ever read.

It drones on for a soul-sapping 26 pages and we can’t imagine how long it must have seemed when you were stuck in the room hearing it in Darling’s querulous, vexatious voice, but there’s one saving grace: the graphs. There are no fewer than 23 frequently-incomprehensible boxes, charts and diagrams, of which this is our favourite.

btgraph

We’re not sure they’ve quite grasped how polling works.

Read the rest of this entry →

We couldn’t have put it Better 73

Posted on July 03, 2013 by

Who says there’s no satire in Scottish politics? We’re indebted to the alert reader who sent us a link to this magnificent website from the ever-delightful Orange Order.

(“British Together is a campaign group set up by the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland to assist the mainstream Unionist groups leading up to and including the independence referendum in 2014.”)

britgether

Why the Union? Want to read the positive case for the most successful political union the world has ever known? Just click the “Find Out More” button! Okay, try it again. You might have to click it quite a lot of times. Oh well, maybe one day.

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,778 Posts, 1,220,186 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: ““certain other seemingly pro-indy intellectuals within the movement” Would this be a good opportunity to deploy “goitrous”? I can’t remember…Jun 18, 13:32
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Here’s a Kleenex, James. Clean yourself up, there’s a good chap, afore yer mammie comes back.Jun 18, 13:25
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: ““the union is a hoax and that Scotland is essentially a colony and the Scots an oppressed people” Haud oan…Jun 18, 13:22
    • Robinov Cybernat on Holiday Relief: “Right now, I’m reckoning they could replace Honest John Swinney with Steven Pressley and they would definitely be getting someone…Jun 18, 12:58
    • Captain Caveman on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Ah, another trademark valued contribution to the site from our corpulent wastrel friend. I’ve crying rivers here, Chief. Keep your…Jun 18, 12:44
    • Chas on Holiday Relief: “Maybe Robin realises it is all a load of shite. Unlike the fantasists on here!Jun 18, 12:25
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Behold: the language of the [Site] Prick!Jun 18, 12:20
    • lothianlad on Holiday Relief: “Surely the SNP members will start to see they are being lied to!? its taking them lomng enough!Jun 18, 12:17
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Welcome back, Northcode! Yes indeed they are becoming much bolder.Jun 18, 12:16
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Go easy on her, YL, she was a “captain” – of industry ROTFL. And the Site Prick “P3nisbreath McP3nisbreathface”… LOLZJun 18, 12:11
    • sam on Holiday Relief: “I wonder if Alf will be at Holyrood tomorrow, meeting 12.15, to protest and meet FH with regard to ferries…Jun 18, 11:38
    • Northcode on Holiday Relief: ““…completely missed the big news for the independence movement…” It seems unlikely McAlpine missed the news of the Liberation.Scot petition…Jun 18, 11:37
    • Aidan on Holiday Relief: “Perhaps Robin is aware that the highly vaunted “approach to the UN” has been completely rebuffed at the first hurdle?…Jun 18, 11:27
    • sarah on Holiday Relief: “That is interesting, Alf. I generally agree with what Robin says and I hadn’t noticed theses striking omissions. Can someone…Jun 18, 10:58
    • Alf Baird on Holiday Relief: “A daeless Swinney and his hot-air speechwriter seems an easy target, however Robin and certain other seemingly pro-indy intellectuals within…Jun 18, 10:06
    • Sven on Holiday Relief: “Crazycat @ 23.12. I believe that policy was effectively jettisioned back in 2015 when Ms Sturgeon forced the then PM…Jun 18, 09:02
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““roll back over and cosy up with yer new “bestie” P3nisbreath McP3nisbreathface..” Aw naw! Signature double-tap there from Wings’ only…Jun 18, 08:24
    • Callum on Holiday Relief: “‘The world’s most embarrassing relaunch’ by Robin McAlpine | 16 Jun 2025 “So anyway, we have learned loads here. Mainly…Jun 18, 08:22
    • Sven on Holiday Relief: “Off Topic; Hardly surprising that our SNP led devolved administration (was never a government) have declined to have an inquiry…Jun 18, 08:21
    • Captain Caveman on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Heh! Gone “fishing” have we YL? About the only thing you’ll catch (in your piss-stained shoes) is an empty bottle…Jun 18, 07:55
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““Is it my imagination or is our coloniser becoming bolder in its shameless extraction of Scotland’s wealth?” Every night before…Jun 18, 07:36
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Whats this then? Three lengthy posts from NC, all of them written in the King’s English? Isn’t that the language…Jun 18, 07:28
    • Northcode on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “A little, hopefully informative and not overly didactic, light-hearted diversion. Aristotle is one of my favourite ancients and was a…Jun 18, 06:25
    • Northcode on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “The only plans they’re concerned with are their pension plans. And the only future they’ll be shaping will be the…Jun 18, 06:07
    • Northcode on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Great news! It turns out I was feeling a wee bit sensitive the other day and just needed some me…Jun 18, 05:40
    • Young Lochinvar on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Fred Flintstone aka (so called Captain Caveman) at 8.26am with a p1sh English beer hangover! Good morning jaikie!! Just up…Jun 18, 05:00
    • GM on Holiday Relief: “I PDF’ed most of his articles in the period after Iain died. I go back to them from time to…Jun 17, 23:46
    • crazycat on Holiday Relief: “The legislation only applies to England and Wales. It always used to be SNP policy not to vote in cases…Jun 17, 23:12
    • Insider on Holiday Relief: “agent x…… Well, we must all wait with bated breath to see what “post colonialism” tells us ! It will…Jun 17, 22:45
    • Towbar Sullivan on Holiday Relief: “This vote on Abortion – did the SNP go AWOL? There’s no record of them voting at all. WTF? https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2058Jun 17, 22:35
  • A tall tale



↑ Top