Wings Over Scotland

This should get the hacks yapping.

Bowiegate

Oh! Jings! The MSM are starting to publish believable stories at long last. About time too. Perhaps a new era of truth and honesty is dawning at last.

Don’t get your hopes up Robert. Its never going to happen 🙂

Nice one Chris- neatly demonstrating the press’ ability to suppress the really important news in favour of the production of contrived mince.

Spot on Chris 😀

Noticing the CIA report getting chucked in the bin made me consider – if there was a MAJOR story to break regarding our government/intelligence services who would do it (where’s our Woodward & Bernstein) and who would believe it, given the current state of the UK media?
It’s truly a sad state of affairs, and people deserve better. Sometimes I think that Wings is the only thing that’s keeping us collectively sane!

Incredible how much you can say in one small cartoon Chris.

Our wonderful ‘Scottish’ press in a nutshell.

@ Ruglonian [ the only thing that’s keeping us collectively sane!] Speak fur yerself Gillian. Ah held oan tae ah wee bit o ma Insanity, tae see me through this coming indy campain LoL.

I keep hoping a modern day Scot in the public service would blow the whistle on how Scotland is being shafted by the agents of government. Perhaps like in my day Scots out Britted the Brits to get a decent career and even those who did not start out that way at least acted in that way as money pressures for home and family made cowards of them.

Never underestimate the power of our imperial masters but the misuse of that power will see their decline and fall. Courage my friends!

Well if it was written by the CIA you might as well bin it.

The first time I heard anyone use the term “conspiracy theorists” was Dick Cheney at a press conference rubbishing the idea that 9/11 was an inside job. That clinched it for me!

Was Bowie not known as the thin white duke, not the fat white duke? I would be so bold to suggest that tells me his relationship with biscuits was fleeting at best!

The corporate unionist media ARE hurting, their influence is waning, the beast is dying, slowly and in its in great pain, a joy to behold.

They suffer severe job cuts and they still stay on the same agenda. Am beginning to believe that they are receiving indirect funding from the British state.

How can such a loss leading enterprise survive? It can’t.

I hope one of the offending titles folds soon and sends shock waves across the unionist corporate media.

The whole corrupt unionist ‘news’ construct needs torn down, it needs to be stamped out, they have crossed the line again and again.

There is no place for them in modern civic society, they actively seek to provoke, marginalise and compromise any individual or organisation that deviates from their controlling narrative.

Case in point: shrieking, hysterical ‘journalists’ being challenged on twitter. Their responses tell you everything you need to know.

The new media (for the minute) is Wings, twitter, Facebook and people’s blogs.

‘Journalists’ are plundering people’s blogs to construct articles. Disgusting. They are the lowest of the low.

No morals, no sense of justice, no conscience, no integrity. Repulsive.

I had a word with someone this week, he was reading the P and J. Horrible pamphlet. Total doom and gloom about the oil industry and other dour news of hopelessness and despair.

I asked him – do you believe in that? The pontifications of some hack patsy?

Hopefully another new media convert.

Could be any great British news room too, with any henchman ed, Ligger Neil, BBC vote SLab Scotland crew, especially that outfit, Rupert Carrell of rancid The Graun, Kelvin MacKenzie, the emetic lechers and pervs at the Heil, triple named Torygraph upper class twit/liars, its an endless UKOK line up.

Agree with everyone so far.The media are contrary to what we should expect. No sense of balanced reporting, fairness, or impartiality. They are the lungs of the State trying to breathe life into a terminal Union.

They must be getting financial support from the State ,otherwise they would have changed tack long ago.

The mug on the Editors desk has become their byword and their mission statement. Mugs for mugs.

Great cartoon Chris. Brilliant yet somehow sad that we have lost something that years ago I used to treasure as part of my daily life ,with coffee and toast in the morning.

I now have Wings.

EVEL doesn’t resolve the relevant issues. Scotland’s total Budget is decided by Westminster policy. Scotland is out voted 10 to 1 in Westminster. That is evil. Scotland get’s policies a majority didn’t vote for and a reduced available Budget, on account of it.

Unionists want a consensus that doesn’t exist. The working class in England vote Tory. The Greens want a consensus that doesn’t exist. Geeens in England vote Tory. Nat Goldsmith.

The Greens advocate just slapping a land tax on wealthy estate/landowners. That could affect everyone else. The whole economy. It could put up the price of land for everybody. Put up house prices. Land is except from tax to keep farms together. Larger farms produce more. Food productions could fall. Exports of food stuffs could reduce. What is gained on the roundabout could be lost on the swings. There are other ways of tackling/solving the problem.

When the problem is tax evasion which is a Westminster responsibility. i.e Tax Law is not enforced for the wealthiest. A Land Tax is not progressive. It would not solve the problem of poorer, income single people living in larger properties or wealthier people living on less land. Progressive tax is fairer and income based.

That is why the SNP administration proceeds with caution. Exercising caution with responsibility. An obsessed Green, with a huge ego who likes publicity would not be held responsible for any unforeseen consequences. Consequences which could have a negative effect on the whole economy. .

This cartoon is as clever as the latest Bella article is depressing! “Shsh for Indy” with a photo of a Scottish teacake. Very corp medie. Nothing worse than the feeling of betrayal by an attack from within. I don’t take kindly to being labeled an enthusiastic acolyte, unquestioningly lapping up Stu’s output. I question everything. I question who is going to be happier with your latest “article”. I suspect the unionists will be tickled pink. Nae mair oh my pennies for you Mr Small.

SNP 1-2

Is this really beyond belief?

You have an economic crash caused by the rich that benefited the rich that the poor paid (and still are) for.

There is a uk government that spends money killing people in foreign lands (again the poor pay for this too), and when people from these lands are displaced and want to come here, no is the response and more bombing the answer.

You have a uk government who oversee disabled people living in conditions you would not have a dog living in and would rather spend money on trident, a weapon that can never be used. Guess what, poor people pay for this too!

I for one have no expectations of Scottish journalists or state broadaster to be other that incompetent buffoons with their eye off the main stories whilst doing their utmost to bring down something good in Scottish society.

@Almannysbunnet,

Saw the article in Bella. Boy, if ever I read a piece which expressed envy and jealousy then this was it. The writer is full of their self importance and is doing just in effect what the mainstream media does.i.e. attack what is causing your frustration .It is more about self indulgence rather than the ability to see the bigger picture.

It is not the fault of the Rev or anyone else people will vote SNPX2.It is a natural choice. Yet again, envy raises its head within the independence movement. Perhaps some of the scenes in Braveheart were indeed accurate.

I will stick to wings from now on

No problem with RISE, or the Greens or, for that matter, SNP, Tories, SLAB or the other one campaigning for Their respective causes.

As long as they do it honestly and on their own merits. With the SNP you get what it says on the tin, likewise the Tories (however distasteful the contents)

Who are RISE, What do the Greens stand for, have SLAB anything constructive to say and does anyonone give a fig for the other one?

SNP have a record of sound governance and fiscal probity with steady progress towards Indy. The Tories stand for the Union and private gain.

It’s clear, it’s simple let RISE and the Greens (who I wish well) do the hard miles, get some (in the case of the Greens, more) experience at local level then go full out for Parliamentary seats at Holyrood and WM. They are relative newcomers and need some bass notes to their shrill trebble.

The SNP has been on a long journey with setbacks, successes and progress from a quirky laughingstock to a full blooded able party with a proven record. They are the closest to my personal dreams and have the best chance of fulfilling them.

The long term goal is Indy but meanwhile the SNP show what they can do with very limited powers. It gives them strenght, roundness and a credibility that none of the other parties have.

SNP for your local nemed candidate
SNP for the party to represent you on the regional list.

You know it makes sense!

@ Ken500, The vast majority of Scotland’s land is of no use whatsoever for housing purposes, it’s made up of sporting estates, most of which produces nothing but grouse, when did you last have grouse? John Major lifted sporting land out of taxation to please his Tory chums and generally they’re are not held to make profits, their wealthy owners hold them for purposes of tax-avoidance/hospitality/speculation/vanity or just milking the rest of us by the generous system of grants. Land taxes are levied on Scottish land right now but only in the case of wealthy Danish citizens who incredibly pay land taxes to Copenhagen for their Scottish estates, we get bugger-all and the infrastructure for all these estates (roads,bridges,police,fire,education & health services are paid for by “us!”

The notion that larger agricultural units produce more is also mistaken, small intensively-worked units produce more per acre and employ more labour. You could do worse than check out Andy Wightman’s website “Land Matters”.

@Ken500

With any tax how high it is for who or what is a separate issue than the nature of the tax itself. Do you really think that sensible intelligent people would put up food prices and endanger the rural economy by a swingeing tax on farming?

What a land value tax is levied on and the level and what exemptions there are determine such things, it is not a magic farming killing thing.

And besides it would not increase the total tax take any more than a local income tax would be on top of the Council Tax (it would replace it, much more progressive). An LVT can be used to ensure land is productive (with exemptions for parks and reserves) preventing industrial sprawl, ending land banking by supermarkets and house builders. To hold unproductive land would be to lose money. At the moment there is no penalty to doing so and in many cases tax breaks available. Do you think these land banks would exist if they cost lots to hold?

An LVT encourages landowners to make money from the land to cover the tax and hopefully more. You could either set it peppercorn for residential property or tax by footprint and occupancy to encourage density and inhibit sprawl. If you want to live in a big house with a huge garden for just you and a couple of others, fine. But it will cost you. That sort of thing.

Please try and understand things instead of kneejerk reacting to them.

Freddie Mercury resisted Bowie’s attempts to record their duet entitled “Under Prestwick”.

Genuine query – are any Wings regulars members of RISE? I’m not talking about SSP members who’ve ‘become’ members (whether they wanted to or not). Rather, members of the original RIC.

If any of you are there, why don’t you come out and deal with what Schrodingers Cat and others have been saying?

No matter how much I may agree with SC, I can’t come right out and say it. Not yet. But this continual kicking of the SSP is intolerable. The SSP is ‘my’ party in the same way that Ireland ‘belonged’ to the dude in Braveheart, and I know plenty of members who feel likewise. The simple fact that no-one seems to feel similarly about RISE speaks volumes – where are you, ‘comrades’?

It’s possible I’ve missed your posts – no-one can keep across every comment – but given the size of the WOS readership there must be at least a handful who are already known here, or lurkers who can answer some of the legitimate questions being raised.

The BBC is not allowed to advertise private products. Why, then, does it breach this rule, by advertising privately-owned, profit-orientated newspapers in ‘What The Papers Say’ nightly?

The BBC knows “there are other news outlets available” so why, if impartial, does it not cover all outlets? The show could be called, ‘What The Papers & Social Media Say’?

The BBC should cover Wings Over Scotland, (compare WoS viewers to paper readers) if it cared about ‘impartiality’ on BBC Trust regulations on reporting news and reflecting cultural values.

The ‘Beeb’ ceased long ago (if it ever was) to be a benign’Auntie’. It is ‘Nurse Ratched’ (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) to Scotland’s independence, keeping Scotland locked in the UKOK Mental Asylum with threats of punishment and when that fails, by doping & thereafter lobotomizing the truth with ‘medication time, medication’ a la ‘Jackie Bird, working us over nightly.

As McMurphy would say, (paraphrasing here), ‘Jesus, Scotland must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this.’

@Ian Brotherhood: “But this continual kicking of the SSP is intolerable. “

I agree Ian, the SSP get lumped in with RISE. I heard nothing but good about the SSP Indy Ref campaigning efforts from my local SNP branch. Same though about RIC.

Bob: “Is The Revenant not a rehash of the Richard Harris film “Man in the Wilderness?”

Not quite, but close. The point is, the storyline is so basic it’s like so many other revenge dramas we’ve seen. The cinematography and the acting quality raises it way, way above the average.

Grouse Beater:

You forgot, every EBC North British news is product placement for D. R. and SLAB#SNPBAD

@yesindyref2 –

Cheers.

Just read your comment over on BellaC – I don’t know what rattled Mike Small’s cage, but that article is just one more example of the type of thing which has decent left-wingers tearing out their hair.

If the SSP/RISE/Green heid bummers cannot see how much they are damaging one another with this posturing then they don’t deserve to have ANY representation – they are embarrassing themselves and putting their parties’ supporters in an impossible situation whereby we’re being expected to adopt faux antagonism towards those who intend to vote SNPX2 (for perfectly obvious and understandable reasons) whilst claiming to be more ‘indy’ than them because the SNP hasn’t yet made a solid indyref2 commitment?!?

It’s a ludicrous exercise in doublethink which many of us are simply not prepared to perform any longer and we should not be afraid to say so. If the rot is to be stopped and the ‘Yes’ movement revitalised in time for May we have to send that message to those party leaders and well-kent faces who seem content to play blind-man’s buff instead of organising the final push to rid ourselves of rancid WM rule once and for all.

Anyone else finding the Bella piece deeply ironic, in view of the fact that people are deleted or censored?

A person – James Coleman – has just said he will publish on Twitter, as his comment was censored. This week Peter Bell said he had comments deleted, and I have no reason to not believe these folk, it’s happening a lot now.

The Unionists must be wetting themselves laughing.

@Valerie –

Just for reference, where did Peter Bell say that?

Cheers.

Regarding the issue with Rise and the second vote, I don’t think we need worry. It is the Scottish electorate who will decide the outcome of the Holyrood election, not political activists, and the electorate know that the SNP are a country mile ahead of all the opposition. The Scottish electorate will never vote for either extreme right or extreme left wing politics. Contrary to the opinions of those at each end of the spectrum, the majority of the electorate are not daft.

I read that piece on Bella. This is what drives ordinary people away from political engagement. Ego’s fighting for position within a ‘manufactured’ context.

There is no ‘one party state’. There is no ‘rise in nationalism’. There are no Wings ‘acolytes’.

This is all intellectual masturbation. You can’t convince people not to see what they see by telling them they aren’t seeing what you think they ‘should’ be seeing.

We have to have an SNP majority in Holyrood to maintain the trajectory toward independence.

To use the tiresome but effective analogy one more time: The SNP are merely the vehicle. If we have learned anything in these last few years, it is that we, ordinary folks, can decide who we want as our representatives in WM and Holyrood. From May’s results it is clear that we chose from a wide array of contenders from the Indy movement: stand out candidates who reflected our outlook on social policy and who are 100% for independence.

Rise, imo, are a distraction and potentially divisive element that has suddenly emerged several months before our own SG election. Rather than produce and promote a clear manifesto outlining their policies in detail…costings ‘n all, the public output from them seems overtly focused on ‘oppositional to the SNP’ just because there ‘has to be seen to be opposition to the SNP’.

This is why they are being ‘granted’ increased media exposure: they are in essence formulating their existence upon a premise that is espoused ad nauseum by the unionist parties and the corpmedia.

They are feeding into that ‘meme’ and are now complaining when anyone questions them about this aspect of their ‘campaigning’. Deflecting the attention from this crucial point by accusing anyone who can ‘see’ this aspect as being blinded by adherence to ‘nationalism’, or of being ‘acolytes’ etc etc.

Now…where have we heard those descriptors before?

By all means vote for who or what party you feel reflects your views etc. But don’t be ‘manipulated’ by some intellectual contortionists telling you that you’re being manipulated by effective governance whose main raison d’etre aligns with your own: Independence.

SNP x 2

the problem for the ssp/greens is their failure to read the runes, the indy referendum campaign has never really stopped and party politics is a secondary issue to the drive for indy

in normal times, criticism, valid or otherwise, is an accepted part of party politics in Scotland. but we are not in normal times. eg, during the ref, it was acceptable, even desirable for eg, Patrick Harvey to critise the snp policy on currency union, it highlighted the diversity of the yes campaign and showed up the unionist claims that the yes campaign was just the snp.

any criticism of the snp is now seen as a direct attack on the indyref2 campaign and an attempt to jump on the #snpbad meme.

im pretty certain that many of the snp voters would quite happily vote green/ssp, if we were in a normal situation. but were aren’t so party politics is taking second billing behind the on going indy campaign.
How many times do you hear people say that party politics, eg greens/ssp etc must wait until after indy?

whether you like him or not, tommy Sheridan was the only leader of the smaller indy parties to realise this. the first announcement from rise was to exclude solidarity,

Ian brotherhood is right, the only people who can help the greens and rise are themselves, some advice for them

1. if they feel it is necessary to stand candidates in constituencies, then chose the ones where the snp have a huge majority, eg Nicola sturgeons seat, not in the borders where the best you can do is split the vote and allow a unionist to win

2. if you are asking snp voters to lend you their list votes to minimise the number of unionist list msps then you need to accept that the same argument and logic to vote snp1&2 in the south of Scotland region also applies. don’t stand any list candidates in this region either

3. rise/greens and solidarity need to agree, for all your own sakes, not to stand against each other in any region

I maybe way off the mark here, but, is it not what the unionist does best …divide and cause unrest. There seems to be, to me at least, sum degree of orchestrated stories popping up within Indy. Why should any of us feel surprised even betrayed by what’s happening on Bella, or anywhere.

We, each of us are aware of what is at stake here. We are right bang in the middle of project fear the epilogue! Obviously like any good unionist group/ring there has to be “sleepers” who are now showing their hands. To lose Scotland is NOT what matters to them, it’s making sure that THEY cripple our economy, damage our International standing, make us look as unappealing as cold vomit to the world. This is “then they come to fight us” bit and we have to stand firm, TOGETHER, or we might as well just hand them the keys! We are swaying in the wind right now. Somehow the word has to be spread to stand your ground, let them throw whatever it is at us…we are at war! Albeit a keyboard war, only one egg has been thrown in anger(and imo was a setup) that really pisses them off coz all they know is war…getting one over on johnny foreigner what! Be under no illusion we are foreign to them.

What I can’t understand is how can oor ain folk be still under the grotesque spell of these people. What is the marker at which you can sell yourself and your family down the swanee. I am more convinced than ever that certain folk have been just waiting for their call to come in!

I watched a film on Anthony Blunt earlier, it’s what got me thinking…if Russia could recruit from THE most prominent of universities why not mi5/6 do the same in Scottish universities. These Scots would not have been from the wealthier families as they would be already under the establishment thumb. Young impressionable poorer victims drawn into the warm embrace of HMG. Promised who knows what but making certain that they will do well, until the day they have to give their soul to the empire. Too much? Maybe I’ve read too many John Le Carre.

Great cartoon Chris, missing Hamish tho!

SNP X 2

The fact that commentators on RISE fail to see that they are damaging themselves by publishing articles such as todays on Bella is for me at least, very sad.

The left in Scotland does not appear to be in a good place at the moment despite the hard work done by the SSP, RIC and Tommy Sheridans Solidarity.

Seems like business as usual, a failure to agree on strategy, a failure to work with both the Greens and the SNP. We that read Wings also appear pretty much divided on this business.

I’m not surprised, as for Wings readers and commentators I would hope that it is all about the main goal. Independence, nothing else. At least that is how I see it. I will continue to support the SSP through my monthly subs as I think that is the right thing to do. I do see them as being capable of contributing to the common good of the people of Scotland.

It’s a bit of a shame that this infighting has arisen just before the Holyrood election. RIC and the SSP done a fantastic job in getting people out to vote, particularly in those areas well known for not bothering to vote.

The Independence movement has a lot to thank them for and I unreservedly do. I guess nerves are just too frayed at the moment. If tactical voting with the purpose of ridding Holyrood of Unionists is the goal then we need cooperation rather than bickering.

Guess that some will just have to learn the hard way.

Always a great cartoon from Chris.

@Croompenstein

Left a wee tune on off topic for you.

@Valerie
I’ve got to say I only had one posting deleted that I noticed a couple of weeks bacj, and I had put yesinsyref2 with an “s” instead of a “d” so it could have just been deleted as unknown or even potentially bogus.

Perhaps the postings deleted are abusive in some way, I guess we’ll never know. Certainly Peter A Bell’s postings can be somewhat robust!

@Ian Brotherhood

Peter Bell said that on his FB page in relation to the Lobbying piece on Bella which tries to insinuate some dodgy dealings with Sturgeon, and employers attending a dinner at which she was invited to speak.

Peter posted a response to the piece on his blog – Sotto Voce.

@yesindyref, I have never found Peter to be anything but polite and articulate. If robust means – hard to fault – then that puts him in the same group as the Rev.

I just find Mike Smalls piece disappointing. However, my pennies have more than enough homes to go to.

@Valerie –

Cheers for that.

I don’t ‘do’ FB, so I wouldn’t have seen it anyway, but I wouldn’t question Peter’s account – if BellaC really is censoring/deleting comments from stalwarts like Peter Bell then things have reached a sorry state indeed. 🙁

@K1

I agree, there is no one party state, nor is even any danger of one coming about. Just for once people are using politicians for their proper and intended function, rather than abuse normally suffered by the electorate the other way round and THAT is a good thing IMO.

People see a competent government and a centrist party with a spread of policy they can all live with whilst a more important job of work is done.

I have absolutely no doubt that once our constitutional future is finally settled with no dubiety, people will gravitate toward parties with more specific purpose and more suitable to their particular conscience. What will have changed radically, will be how people relate to those parties and how those parties will be expected to behave in future.

For the moment though the current Scottish government is the ONLY vehicle which has the wherewithal and infrastructure to challenge the Westminster establishment.

@Ian Brotherhood
I’ve tried a few times on Bella to warn them they’re being daft trying to fool SNP supporters, and that they’d be better being honest and asking for support on the basis that when SNP canvassers have someome who is fed up with Labour but hates the SNP they could suggest RISE or Greens.

But they don’t seem to take a blind tack of notice, just persist with the false line that a lost vote for the SNP is wasted. Well, the campaign starts for real soon, and I think RISE have blown their chances.

Simples? Maybe from a simpleton? ALL Scottish political parties that detest Westminster and want Independence for Scotland should do EVERYTHING in their power to support the ONLY party that has any chance of achieving such an objective. The SNP. If not they will go down in history as being the current members of the ‘Parcel of Rogues in a Nation’. And when we get our Independence we’ll remember them and they won’t EVER make any political headway in this Country at all. I for one am sick and tired of wee runts such as Cat (in the name) of RISE getting carried away with herself and her big ego to the detriment of Scotland and the Scots: now on a par with Dugdale, Davidson and Rennie.