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The plot stupids

Posted on February 26, 2015 by

The comical furore about The Nurse Who Definitely Isn’t An Actress shows no signs of making sense any time soon.

24 hours and several demented pages of hysterical tabloid shrieking later, we’re still not sure whether a No activist and Labour supporter from Clackmannanshire is called Suzanne Duncan (as “Better Together” called her until at least June last year) or “Suzanne Hunter” (as the Daily Record calls her), though a bit of Facebook detective work suggests the latter.

We do at least seem to have cleared up her employment history, as the Daily Record has now very quietly and subtly changed its article of last night, which claimed she’d worked for eight years at a hospital that’s only been open for five.

fvh

But a whole bundle of other questions remain unanswered.

The most immediately intriguing is “Who’s been Photoshopping her uniform?”

Below are three pictures of Suzanne. The top one is from a “Better Together” leaflet from last year, the middle one is from a Labour “vote No” leaflet just before the referendum, and the bottom one is from Labour’s NHS leaflet of this week.

suzanne2

suzanne6

suzannelabour

We say “three pictures”, but in fact they’re clearly all the same one. You can tell by the crease lines on her tunic, the position of her watch clip and, well, everything else. But there’s one significant difference.

suzannelogo2

Where “Better Together” appear to have airbrushed out the NHS Scotland logo, presumably to stop the nurse getting in trouble for politicising her job in contravention of the rules for public-sector employees, Scottish Labour haven’t bothered.

(At first, judging by a poorer-quality scan, we suspected that they might have crudely Photoshopped the logo ON, but the one above from a high-resolution original looks like the real version.)

Nurses are entitled to hold any political views they like, and to campaign for them in their spare time like anyone else, but they’re not supposed to do so in uniform. By carelessly failing to edit out the logo, and by then ensuring that the offending picture was blared all across the internet and the print media, Scottish Labour and the Daily Record have used her and then abandoned her up a creek without a paddle.

But we pointed all that out yesterday, along with the reason.

The Record gives around three times as much space to its screaming, fuming editorial about a website suggesting a political party might have used an actress on a leaflet as it does to “correcting”, in a tiny box under the weather and the lottery numbers, the fact that it told Scots a TWENTY BILLION POUND lie on its front page just a few months ago, and inquisitive readers might wonder why.

recordsmith1

There isn’t even the pretence of a fauxpology, or an explanation of how a senior political journalist could have so spectacularly misinterpreted the Smith Commission as to imagine that the UK government was going to hand Scotland an annual £20bn bonanza of free extra cash in the midst of savage austerity.

While the Record explodes with fabricated rage across a full-page story and a lead editorial about someone saying they didn’t know if two people were the same or not – risking a nurse’s livelihood as they do so – they bury in a corner the fact that they told a gigantic front-page lie about a sum of money that would cover the entire yearly budget of NHS Scotland twice over, and they don’t even say sorry.

The Record bleats that sites like this one “aren’t bound by the same standards of accuracy and responsibility” that newspapers are. But we said absolutely nothing about Suzanne Duncan/Hunter that was inaccurate, and we didn’t insult or abuse her in any way. Unlike the Record and Scottish Labour, we didn’t put her job on the line.

We have nothing to apologise for. The Daily Record, meanwhile, very much does, but it doesn’t seem to want to, and the toothless press watchdog is happy to let it off with a microscopic weasel-worded “correction” no bigger than the NHS Scotland logo that Scottish Labour forgot to airbrush off a nurse’s uniform.

And the reason for the massive smokescreen might be that the Record’s lie about the Smith Commission is still present on its website.

On this page, at the time of writing, you can still see the paragraph claiming a 50% boost to the Holyrood budget which was deleted from the original story after we alerted IPSO, and which the Record admits isn’t true.

vowlie801

Also there is the equally-false line about “billions of pounds of extra tax and spending” which can still be found on the “corrected” original page – which this morning carries no notification whatsoever of the correction, despite IPSO saying that it would.

So to recap: the Record’s original page still carries a major lie, another page on its website features that lie as well as an even bigger one that the paper claimed to have removed, and there are no links on either of them to the pitiful “correction”. Readers of the paper’s website will still come away with the completely wrong impression that the Smith Commission proposals would mean billions of pounds more for Scotland.

We’re not even going to get into the wider morality of being lectured on ethics by the newspaper group responsible for mass-scale phone hacking or the commonplace intimidation of innocent members of the public.

But we promise the Daily Record that it can monster us as much as it likes. We’re going to keep right on watching it, along with the rest of the Scottish press, and every time it lies to the people of Scotland we’ll be there to tell them about it.

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Macart

Just stunning.

Near as I can tell, no historic power shift or ratification of the Smith fudge through parliament has even taken place yet. In fact as of this moment the Scottish electorate are still completely unaware of what is going to be devolved and what the ramifications may be for their daily lives.

Or did we just miss this historic devolution of powers, their enactment and a year or two of having to live with them and their consequences?

drygrangebull

outstanding.

JB

Dear Stu

Keep up the good work.

Commitment, determination, strength of conviction, articulate, entertaining, inspiring…..

I can’t complete the list as you would be embarrassed and others may question my motives

yours sincerely

A thoughtful nationalist

Clootie

“But we can promise the Record that it can monster us as much as it likes. We’re going to keep right on watching it, along with the rest of the Scottish press, and every time it lies to the people of Scotland we’ll be there to tell them about it”.

Gaun yersl’ – I’m proud of you! The MSM have been unionist puppets for years and if this helps them to return to journalism then great. If not, then a declining circulation is assured.

Jen

Rev,
The plot thickens…
link to alltalentuk.co.uk

Marie clark

Well said Rev. You can bet your sweet life that we will all keep watching and outing the lies the tell.

No wonder their sales are dropping. What a poor excuse of a newspaper.

Kenny

Stu – might it be a good idea to drop Suzanne a wee line? Be as nice as pie. Tell her you’re sorry that she’s been caught up in this silliness and stress that you meant her no personal harm and if any idiotic readers have actually abused her personally (or if there are any comments on here that particularly upset her) then you will take whatever action you can to ease the situation. You could also highlight that you did the exact opposite of “stirring up hatred” and ask her to actually read what you wrote and what the comments below actually say.

That first article WAS a wee bit misjudged, I think. It can’t hurt to tell this woman you’re sorry if she got caught with some shrapnel.

Ken500

What a cheek. The DR management should face censor for downright lying. The gutter Press. It goes from bad to worse. The VOW was misleading and illegal. It broke electoral rules.

John Sellars

Kid gloves – off!
Brilliant Stuart. Thanks

One_Scot

The Daily Record – Scotland’s Champion.

Champion at what exactly, peddling Scottish Labours political agenda, blatant lying, misleading the public, and destroying people lives in the own selfish pursuit of maintaining a corrupt union for their own gain.

Oh that champion. Yeah, they probably are Scotland’s champion at that.

Bootsy81

What can I say Stu. Well played. An excellent summation of whats going wrong here. What would be good is if Labour take some responsibility for putting this Nurse in this horrible position and make an apology.

The honourable thing would be to release a statement shouldering the blame. Some along the lines of taking full responsibility for not photoshopping out the logo this time around, or telling her it wasn’t important. Something to take the heat off her with her employers.

Sadly I don’t think honour is something or political parties (or papers) are too concerned with…

Susan

Slightly O/T My husband worked for NHS Scotland. Most of the staff he talked to did not know the Scottish NHS was separate from the English one!
The SNP government should really call our NHS something different.

macbeda

On the topic of the DR read the latest Derek Bateman blog on “The Gutter Press”. It says it all about this rag.

Luigi

There is nothing sweeter than a huge amount of free publicity, provided by your enemy (no expenses spared LOL). Expect WoS visits (already huge) to rise considerably this week. The DR is proving to be one of our best recruiting sergeants ever. The usless rag is maybe not so useless after all.

Stoker

Well done, Rev, good article and straight to the point, as per!

Daily Rectum, Yer full of sh!te, GIRFUY, with knobs on.

comment image

ghostly606

Terrific article as ever Rev.

morgatron

The liars. They are so frightened of the truth. Along with several others Stu you are keeping us all informed of the truth. They just dont like it. We need the SNP to attack them now on every platform at every oppertunity . Stu, thanks and we must not give in , just because their voice appears louder, but we all know what they say about empty vessels eh! I despise these them.

macbeda

First post didn’t work apparently.

link to derekbateman.co.uk is another expose of this rag.

[…] The comical furore about The Nurse Who Definitely Isn’t An Actress shows no signs of making sense any time soon.24 hours and several demented pages of hysterical tabloid shrieking later, we’re still not sure whether a No activist and Labour supporter from Clackmannanshire is called Suzanne Duncan (as “Better Together” called her until at least June last year) or “Suzanne Hunter” (as the Daily Record calls her), though a bit of Facebook detective work suggests the latter.  […]

Jim Mitchell

“aren’t bound by the same standards of accuracy and responsibility”

Well done Daily Record, that, for many reasons, all of them bad, is the comment of the year!

They have taen hypocrisy down to a new low.

Doug Daniel

Kenny – nah, Stu’s not the one in the wrong here. The original article was just an example of how election literature can make up whatever it likes – even though it seems Suzanne really is a nurse, it’s still highly unlikely that she said the words attributed to her on the leaflet (or any of the previous leaflets) since they’re such blatant politician-speak. Suzanne was not actually the focus of the article, but it touched a nerve – presumably because she’s a friend (or other) of Richard Simpson’s assistant, Craig Miller – and thus an over-reaction has occurred.

Suzanne’s no innocent here – she’s a willing participant in an effort to use the NHS in a bout of political point-scoring. If anyone should be apologising, surely it’s the person who asked her to pose for a photo so Labour could try and abuse her status as an NHS nurse in the first place? (Which is presumably Craig Miller…)

If people don’t want to get caught up in political arguments, there’s a very simple way of doing that: don’t help a political party use the NHS (or other public service) to score political points against others.

ronnie anderson

Sos Rev for going O/T.

Ah wee memo for Peter Murrell would you take Mrs Murrell on a Grand tour, starting from Orkney & Shetland to the Borders.

Murray McCallum

“… the fact that it told Scots a TWENTY BILLION POUND lie on its front page just a few months ago, and inquisitive readers might wonder why.”

I hope the “correction” will now be read by significantly more people. As the “correction” is minuscule and lacking in detail I hope readers seek out the background to the Record’s glaring error.

The Daily Record seems to have poor editorial standards, lack judgment and be unable to learn from past mistakes. Why can’t they simply apologise for their crude mistake?

Ben roberts

Spitting image was probably the single most influential factor in politicising me and that video is the greatest thing they ever did and quite possibly one of the greatest political songs ever (that’s coming from a lifelong fan of the redskins and billy bragg).

Illy

This is why I’m firmly of the opinion that a newspaper caught lying should have the correction statement written by on of its competitors, and use the same space and location as the lying article, on both the same day of the week as the lie appeared, and the very next issue published.

No more small print corrections, if you’re caught lying on a front page spread, you get to foot the bill for two front page spreads that say “We’re lying bastards, and we thought you were dumb enough to fall for it”.

gillie

SuzanneGate: The failed attempt by the Daily Record to bury bad news.

Clarinda

As Rev Stu suspects a “photo shopped ON” logo – there is something very odd about the spelling of the presumed ‘Scotland’ under the NHS logo which does not appear to start with an S?!

Yet another brilliant deconstruction and exposure of incompetence and potential harm to a variety of victims.

Grizzle McPuss

To quote the Respect moggy…

“Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability, and I want you to know that we are with you”

Keep going Stu.

Ken500

Why apologise to Suzanne? She knew exactly what she was doing, breaking the rules and telling lies. It is her who should apologise to her hardworking collegues and the Scottish electorate, who she would rather disrespect.

ronnie anderson

Stand by Kezia winding up to mention Suzanne at FMQs

McDuff

Still waiting for the National to produce some serious stories on Labour`s continuing lies and distortions but I won`t hold my breath.
Looks like its down to the Rev to carry that burden alone.

HandandShrimp

I do have some moments of hesitation over all this.

Is it fair to monster the Record? Shooting fish in barrel and making fun of the terminally dim are both a tad unsporting. The record being particularly dim fish seems doubly so.

As to Labour failing to remove the logo, that is just typical Labour…incompetent.

paul gerard mccormack

I think that Jackie Bird should get involved. Clearly, she is best-placed as a neutral journalist to settle this matter once and for all. – ‘Thus spake Jackie’. The more this farrago gets like a Flann O’Brien (Miles Na Gopaleen) novel the better.:-)

bookie from hell

wow Kezia mentions Suzanne Hunter #fmqs

Labour better be on a sure footing

Foonurt

Fuck me, whit ah beezer o ah stair-heid rammy. Yon proverbial waasp’s-nest.

Jist a smokescreen fur awe yon Westminster daurk-airts.

SNP is the wan, 7th May 2015.

Juteman

It’s nice of the Record to encourage folk to visit Wings so their ‘apology’ gets the publicity it deserved.
Is there a secret Winger at the Record? 🙂

RMAC

It’s hard to come up with an adequate description of this rag and its ethics, gutter journalism doesn’t even come close to covering it. You have to wonder about the rationalisation that its “journalists” and editorial team have to go through to justify their behaviour. Clearly decent moral values and the ability to sleep at night with a clear conscience isn’t one of the primary requirements in the people they employ to write this stuff.

Not that the puppet masters at Slab who direct this are any better or worse.

Grouse Beater

Susan: Most staff did not know the NHS here is separate from England. The SNP government should really call our NHS something different.

That’s an excellent point.

How about Scottish Health Service – SHS?

Marcia

Grouse Beater

That was the name used up until the Tories under Forsyth replaced it temporarily with Trusts in the early 1990’s. Trusts went but the old name did not return. It is time to bring it back.

galamcennalath

Well said Stu. The DR is an utter disgrace to this nation.

@Susan. I remember thinking when SNP dropped the stupid ‘Executive’ title for the more appropriate ‘Government’ they should have looked more widely at national rebranding, especially the NHS.

Given the common usage of NHS throughout the UK, when the different organisations had NEVER been one entity, it was a problem in waiting! Scottish Health Service would have been an obvious choice.

Any change now would be seen as highly political. In 2008 it would have slipped through as a bit of admin!

Ross

I felt it was misguided the actress article, if i’m honest. She didn’t look anything like the actress. It may have been amusing if she had but all it did was bring her to the attention of the small, dafty element that we do have in the independent movement and also the crazies on the other side to make a deal about nothing. This is obviously massively taken out of proportion by the biased media but it remains the case that there are bampots abusing people.

Wings is at its best when its giving the dying, partisan MSM a good, and deserved, doing over. The idea that the political editor actually thought Smith was handing an extra 20bn is devastatingly hilarious. There’s no way he could think that. It’s bias proven beyond doubt and this website has distributed that idea to an ever increasing Scottish populace.

I don’t think bringing this women to the forefront was, on balance, interesting enough for the hassle it would inevitably bring.

However, it shows how important this website has become that other media are going for the jugular. They’ve attempted to monster the site, all they’ve done is given it more publicity and the fact it’s irked them so much proves the importance of this website.

Good luck.

dakk

North Britain’s Champion is lashing out in much the same way as Rifkind’s petulance when he was exposed.

They can’t handle being confronted with their lies and duplicity.

I and thousands like me will always be grateful to Wings for the sanitizing light it shines on the cesspit of establishment propaganda machines like North Britain’s Champion,the BBC et al.

I enjoy their discomfiture with relish.

One_Scot

I was going to mention that I have read posts suggesting the boycotting of newspapers because of their output, but then thought, does any one still actual buy the Daily Record. Is it not just given away these days.

Surely most people now know it’s purely a political mouth piece for Scottish Labour.

Socrates MacSporran

Rev,

Difficult though it might be, annoying though it will undoubtedly be, might I suggest your best course of action as regards the so-called Scottish sub-branch of the Daily Mirror is – IGNORE THE BAR STEWARDS.

I have spent most of my 40-plus years in the media game freelancing. Some years ago, I was hung out to dry by this newspaper, over a story involving one of the biggest legends in Scottish football.

I got the story and sent it to the two biggest red tops. Unfortunately, and I hold my head up on this, I made a mistake in the story.

The Sun checked-out my story independently, then came back to me, pointing it out. I accepted I had boobed, the Sun accepted how the boob had come about and sorted it out pre-publication.

The Retard, however; took my original piece and re-wrote it as a hatchet job on the subject. They piled inaccuracy on my single inaccuracy, then, when the subject objected, they blamed me.

What the Retard didn’t know, was, the football legend was a very good friend of mine. He accepted my mistake, he also understood how I had come to make it – sorted.

In return, I gave him my “black”, (my copy) of the original story as filed to the Sun and the Retard. This he passed-on to his solicitor, who managed to get him a nice little cheque for the damage the Retard’s hatchet job had done.

That, and the fact the Retard never every paid me for a tip-off on a front-lage “Splash” regarding a Scot who survived the 9/11 attack in New York, persuaded me never again to offer any stories or do any work for that paper.

It stunk then, it stinks ever-more today.

They will never admit they were wrong until prompted,usually by m’learned friends. Even then, they will attempt to weasel out of apologising. This sort of behaviour is in the DNA of the paper. It will never change until, by evolution, the Retard fails to evolve and becomes extinct.

This, sadly, may take some time.

Lollysmum

ronnie anderson
Mrs Murrell-Grand Tour :-)Oh my aching sides-that’s hilarious but I so liked it! Shame it would never happen-we might find they were kindred spirits. Well done

Luigi

I think a rebranding of the “SHS” would be timely.

The red tories would certainly scream that it is political, but so what? The consequent battle and publicity would remind people that the health service in Scotland is devolved, and therefore what is the point of Murphy promising 1000 more nurses than the SNP, when this matter is no relevant to the coming GE?

The SNP have to regain the initiative here. What better than to announce that NHS Scotland will be renamed to something more accurate:

The Scottish Health Service.

caz-m

Twisted and Contorted.

Kezia Dugdale howling AGAIN at FMQ’s about the Scottish NHS.

link to 3.bp.blogspot.com

muttley79

The hysterical reaction of the Daily Record to Wings shows that they are scared of anyone who is willing to hold SLAB to account. Remember, this is a party in Scotland who refuse to tell the electorate how many people voted for their branch party leader. They and their MSM mouthpieces hate that Wings is determined to hold Labour in Scotland accountable for their actions, words and methods.

bowanarrow

Maybe you should thank them for the free publicity they have given to this rags readership, you never know they might now come looking for it to see what other scandels can be uncovered. 🙂

Desimond

I suggest Better Together removed the logo to ensure no mention on Scotland and its devolved NHS to ensure the image of one big happy HNS umbrella regardless of the truth of 3 NHS Institutions in the UK.

Labour couldnt care less about etiquette,rules or fallguys thats a given.

Now sitting hoping the “Reason for a fundraiser” has extra fuel to its flame!

HandandShrimp

Ross

I wish Suzanne no ill will and hope that the issue slides past her employers who probably don’t read Wings or the Record. That said one of Labour’s leaflets where they forgot to remove the logo may drop on their doormat.

On the other hand the Record’s response, the traffic from the Record to here and the focus on the Record’s insane lying and Labour’s incompetence is a bonus we couldn’t have hoped for.

I think we can take it that they all read Wings too 🙂

jackie g

O/T

Well worth a read for anyone who thinks the SNP are not fighting back.

link to newstatesman.com

scunnered

brilliant stuff
cannot believe these people
its like there saying why cant you just go away and let us all lie to the people in peace
you pesky interfering annoying man
I wish we had you 20 years ago stu
thank you

Craig Macinnes

It all seems fairly straightforward to me:

This was a propaganda leaflet issued by the Labour Party. They are responsible for the content of said leaflet including the photograph of their supporter in NHS Scotland uniform.

Said supporter presumably agreed with the wording attributed to her and to the publication of her in her NHS Scotland uniform. As such she must share responsibility for the content of said leaflet.

As a nurse of 8 years standing, she must be aware of the guidelines from Forth Valley NHS stating that no party political activity is permitted where the employee can be clearly identified with NHS Scotland as such activity would undermine the impartiality of NHS Scotland in party political matters.

As both The Labour Party and the supporter in question presumably agreed to the dissemination of their propaganda leaflet throughout Scotland any disciplinary action which might follow is attributable solely to the Labour Party and the nurse in question.

It wasn’t Wings Over Scotland which created this propaganda leaflet. It wasn’t Wings Over Scotland which chose to mail it to every household in Scotland.

Marcia

Jackie g

The Right wing’s take on the SNP surge – Alex Massie in the Spectator;

Why an SNP surge at Westminster could mean the end of Britain.

link to archive.today

robert mcdonald

Last paragraph fair made my day. Glad to hear it Stu, yer a Champion!

Kenny

Just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean you can’t be sorry if they’ve suffered any abuse that was even indirectly caused by you. The fact is that some people on here jumped the gun big time. “Abuse” might be putting it a bit strongly, but some people here got pretty carried away in their indignation. I thought the article was pretty stupid and counter-productive myself.

Also, anyone who doesn’t see the upside of BEING NICE as opposed to BEING A DICK has no clue about how to win people over to your side of an argument. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and shake hands with people you don’t like just so they’ll allow you to be heard. I mean, don’t you read yourselves? “She’s damaging patient care with her seedy political views!” “She knew what she was doing and deserves to lose her job!” “She’s a stupid Labour drone!” That’s the overwhelming impression I’m getting from this place just now and it’s not nice. On a fairly general level I agree that anyone putting their face out there must be ready to face whatever consequences there may be for good or ill, but I also think it’s a wee bit like the Charlie Hebdo hysteria; just because someone has a *right* to offend doesn’t mean they have a *duty* to offend. Same thing here; just because she should be prepared to deal with this stuff doesn’t make us good people for making an unreasonably big deal about it.

And now I predict a bunch of people calling me concern troll, telling me I’m sympathising with the wrong people, that I’m making up quotes and probably more. And that’s the problem. Some people aren’t thinking about how this stuff looks to outsiders. I’m not saying that we should all walk on eggshells. I’m just saying that this one person might have their mind opened a wee bit by Stu admitting the first story was a bit silly, explaining the point, and asking her to point out the comments she finds offensive so he can delete them.

Malcolm

Luigi
You are onto something: ” The Scottish Health Service”
“Health Service Scotland” ? Great idea.

Ian Brotherhood

@ronnie anderson –

Did you have your crystal ball out at 12.05?

Well, ye can put it away now…well done.

Pleidiwr

I thought your original article was misguided

By not admitting you’ve made a mistake you’re starting to sound like the dodgy politicians you so rightly decry

There’s enough scum politicians for you to carry in exposing without dragging a nurse / actress into it

Misjudged this time, but I think youre amazing website deserves a blooper or two!

[…] The plot stupids […]

Chitterinlicht

Thank you

Robert Louis

Might I suggest, that given the disreputable, and proven misleading paper, the Daily Record, has no doubt boosted your readership by some margin in recent days, perhaps you should commence your fundraiser immediately. 🙂

Crass, I know, but very satisfying.

Algernon Pondlife

@Susan
It was called the SHS when I worked for its Common Services Agency some years ago.

Lollysmum

From Rev’s twitter feed-it seems that Suzanne is either a model or actress as someone has found her agency’s online listing. Now that’s a turn up for the books!

What do you have to say now Murray Foote?

HandandShrimp

Marcia

That Massie piece is remarkable…sort Frankie Howard “Woe! Woe! Thrice Woe!” in its conception…or possibly “We are all dooooomed”

SqueuedPerspextive

@Luigi @12.25

National Health Scotland ?

Although less prominent it would –
a) Send the message
b) Cost a lot less to change the signage – which could be done on an as required basis.

steviecosmic

It’s been nothing short of mental watching this unfold. Layer after layer of subterfuge and intrigue.

If anyone were in any doubt whatsoever that the Record is anything other than a mouthpiece for Scottish Labour, then surely today it must have become clear to them that this is indeed the case.

Even Lamont got involved. She chose this to stick her head above the parapet?

And the nurse? Turns out she’s not just a nurse, but also an actress. And the cosey photie with a parliamentary assistant?

This is soap opera stuff now.

Macart

You’ve got to hand it to the Record, you have to have a biblical irony bypass when you accuse others of attempting to influence opinion.

Ricky

Gone yerself REV.

Free publicity from the biggest cheapest toilet roll in Scotland.

Faux outrage ??? this is like the referendum and they call that a victory rather than a doubling of the YES vote and a No vote that squeeked through because this shitroll frightened our pensioners.

Kenny.

This lass is an activist for the Labour party. She’s one of the liars, with her picture posted throughout Scotland promoting lies. She , and her like might be a wee bit naive, which i doubt, she’s well aware of the political situation in Scotland. She’s actively promoting it. And the uniform ???? Come on, why not in jeans and a jumper like everyone else.

Using the uniform to put emphasis on her ” Comments” is a fucking lie and designed to scare folk … AGAIN.

I hope she gets the sack.

The problems in Scotland are compounded by these so called ” Proud Scots But…” refusing to see facts for what they are. She is a liar. fact. And party to a lie . Fact.

Nawbags already cost this country . They shame us.

galamcennalath

OTish – Time for some seriously positive publicity …. when is the annual WoS crowd fund?

JLT

Be interesting to see how the Record comes out of this new mess of its own making. I’m predicting a further fall in sales figures…

themadmurph

Rev.

You’re a glutton for punishment. They’re going to be screaming about your arithmetic ineptitude, when you say “about a sum of money that would cover the entire yearly budget of NHS Scotland twice over,”. Clearly £20 billion would not cover the current record £12 billion twice over. Typical cybernattery! You’re for it now 🙂

Ronbon

If the Record won’t publish the apology for the Vow why doesn’t the National report on it on their front page so that everyone can see it

The mystery over the nurse continues!

Craig Evans

I’ve just looked athe Record website and they state that

“Even after the gaffe was pointed out, no apologies to Suzanne were forthcoming from the site or its followers. Instead, she faced yet more unfounded abuse and calls for bosses to carpet her”

I see the Record is stating that the Rev will also not respond to questions?

“The Record asked Stuart Campbell if he intended to apologise to Suzanne or to admit his “question” about the two women being the same might be inflammatory.

He refused to address the questions”

C’mon Rev; give them a soundbite???

izzie

Initially I felt uncomfortable with the original article mainly because the actress whoever she is had not expressed
her own opinion on the political situation, however, it
should bring her some publicity and if she is a struggling
actress that is of benefit.

Valerie

Doug Daniel @ 11.59, well said.

For those talking about apologies??? What?? Take a step back. Are we saying that a leaflet that is delivered to potentially millions, is not open to question? Of course it is, it’s a political leaflet, and is a perfect example of freedom of speech.

The core issue here is that a political leaflet seeks to unfairly influence the voters views, by using an image of a uniformed nurse. This DOES influence people, and its why there is a rule from the Health Boards about not using that position to unduly politicise a public service, and influence people.

Don’t lose sight of the grubby tactics being used here. If the person in the uniform has a complaint, it’s with the people who used her image in a public and political way. If she gets into trouble with her employer, that’s a shame, but it’s down to her own actions.

Taysideterrier

They have created a mess right enough, but i reckon the only reason its still there now is to attract website traffic and boost their stats. No one is daft enough to believe anything from that dross of a paper anyway…. Are they?

Donald

I know Torcuil Crichton. He is a bright guy. There is no way he didn’t understand how the tax system would work and the grant would be cut. There is also no way he would knowingly write a lie. I suspect that front page is the work of the editor or whoever put together ‘the vow’.

Gordon

The daily record appears to be stuck in a 1990’s mindset and doesn’t realise that Scottish politics has moved on. It’s time they had a staff/dinosaur clear out & caught up! In the meantime though, they could stop printing lies n pish!!
Well done wings, I very much appreciate your hard work.

packhorse pete

Come on Record, make our day for calling you liars. Sue us.

Gary

Is EVERYTHING they say a lie? NB – I can repost this comment on every single post about The Daily Record/Better Together/ConDemLabour they are entirely interchangeable.

Cuddis

Stu

Absolutely brilliant journalism. Concise, accurate, level-headed, containing just the right amount of humility, and your points amplified by your great sense of humour. Your measured, calm but assertive stance in the face of their rants is both commendable and highly effective.

Clearly, it is driving blue with rage, those who have long got away with peddling their cheap tricks from the shadows, but who now know that the floodlights are on now for the duration.

Now, more than at any time since the introduction of digital media in general and social media in particular, the establishment is finding to its horror that many of the deceptions it could once rely on to keep those with the claw hammer jackets and lum hats in power are under assault. They are not up to speed and are unlikely too get up to speed before May.

But we should keep a watchful eye on what they do next because I would not put it past them to attempt to legislate by stealth against sites such as this to prevent future collateral damage to their gravy train.

Keep up the sterling work Stu, you’re playing a blinder.

Michael

Oh dear, the Record, Scot Lab and its Better Together retirement home staff just walked into one big trap.

Lesley-Anne

I would post a comment here about our *ahem* beloved Daily Record and the *cough* excellent work it does in uncovering the TRUTH. However, and let me tell you it is a HUGE however folks, I can not do this for one very simple if not blinding obvious reason … I would be LYING! 😀

The Daily Record must be about the only paper in Scotland that requires all *ahem* readers to undergo a FULL antibacterial hose down after afore mentioned *cough* reading.

For a so called newspaper to throw up such a faux outrage must mean only one thing … WE are getting to them. They don’t like it up ’em as my favourite Corporal would say. 😉

Now you can call me suspicious if you like, and I know a lot of you do 😛 , but is it just me or is it not just the slightest bit suspicious that all this outpouring of faux outrage happens exactly the same day as the DR puts out its *ahem* apology for LYING to its reader last year?

What was it they said when it happened in Westminster … oh that’s right “today is a GOOD day to bury BAD news!”

A. Murray

As long as newspapers are allowed to bury apologies over incorrect statements in their editorial deep inside their pages, the lying will continue, opinions based on falsehoods will be held and we’ll all be much the worse for it.

Newspapers should be forced to print any apology in no less a prominent position within their paper than the original story featured.

If they lied within a story on the front page, that’s where the subsequent apology is featured.

If this were the case, we may have a slightly less unbalanced media.

Gary

Having checked on yesterday’s comments there are no hate filled rants. None, not a one. Will the Daily Record apologise to Wings? If they are after “hate filled rants” they could do well to read Guido Fawkes (Conservative supporting blog) and check out the racist and sectarian comments by their readers. But then, as simply Labour’s mouthpiece they hate Independence and SNP while teaming up with the Tories is just fine…

Alabaman

Stew,
The first skirmishes have taken place, now be prepared to do battle, ’cause as sure as hell they will come after you, as you and this site have (rightly) become so powerful, that the Daily #%€
Is actually fighting for its very existence!.
Know what?, everyone on here wants you to win, and if in any way we can help you in that endeavour, put the word out on this site, yes the Daily ~#%>€$ can read it, but they are a spent force.

paul

probably called her suzanne hunter rather than duncan like they originally did because there is a suzanne hunter working at forth valley whereas there is no suzanne duncan working in forth valley at all, easily checked up by putting the name here: link to nmc-uk.org but if i remember correctly she was only referred to as hunter in the daily record (who obviously cannot do accurate research to save themselves) and has been called duncan from every other source, therefore we just need someone to message labour and get them to confirm the nurse’s name and let them put themselves in the s#!t.

shug

get on with your fund raiser now!!

Bootsy81

Received a reply from NHS Forth Valley just a minute ago. It reads as follows:

“Good afternoon Mr MyName

Please see the statement below

“All staff working in the NHS are obviously entitled to their own personal views and opinions and can support any political party of their choice. As the majority of NHS nursing staff in Scotland wear a national uniform which bears the NHS Scotland logo, staff should avoid wearing their uniform in any situation which could potentially align NHS Scotland with any political party or campaign. NHS staff should also follow organisational polices and relevant professional codes of conduct, which for nurses are set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. We are aware of the leaflet and are work is underway to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding this issue”.”

Scots Renewables

I have received an identical response.

Tinto Chiel

Keep up the pressure, Stu. What a hornets’ nest you have stirred up, aided by some typically crass and inflammatory Unionist behaviour.

Set phasers to Malky.

On reflection, make that Pyoor Malky.

ronnie anderson

@ Pleidiwr 12.41. I would think you have Misjudged the Rev & The many Wingers,but as a new poster we can forgive you, this time,never Underestimate Wings Over Scotland for sheer pure deid brilliance.

Aidan

Well done!

Stephen Armstrong

The Daily Record:

The ugly face of BRITISH Nationalism.

Roll_On_2015

STU

I left this comment on a previous article. You may have missed it – It is worth a look.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

OT

Stu you may find the following link of some interest, given your recent brush with the Daily Retard.

Ipso orders newspaper where to publish its correction

The newspaper in question was the P&J

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
.

Christian Schmidt

Well I must agree with the Record, if some leading Nats refer to the Wings website, they really should know better. And that’s because this website, unlike others, always provides chapter and verse of its sources, so you could always quote the original.

Keep up thegood work!

Lesley-Anne

Having read the link from Roll_On Stu I think it might be worth having a wee word with IPSO regarding the totally inappropriate placement of their *ahem* correction to their front page LIE. 😉

Andy-B

The Holyrood mouthpiece, Kezia Dugdale, actually mentioned the actress come NHS nurse, at PMQ’s today.

As I said the London owned, anti-Scottish Daily Record are working hand in glove with the London Labour branch in Scotland, to smear the SNP and WoS.

grahamlive

Outstanding article Rev. The Record needs to be exposed again and again until as many people as possible know what a shitey lying little rag it is.

crackers

Bootsy81 and scots renwewables

I received the exact same response

David

To-do list for actress/nurse/Slab:
1- Get back in your box
2- Eat your cereal
3- Strike a pose for the camera

PS 4- SNP baad, vote Union!

Dr Ew

One of your best, Stu.

Diane

“The Record bleats that sites like this one “aren’t bound by the same standards of accuracy and responsibility” that newspapers are.” Surprised the Retard can even spell accuracy cos they certainly don’t know it’s meaning. Classic cover up journalism (and I use the term loosely).

Pleidiwr

Apologies Rev, you obviously hadn’t made a mistake after all

I thought that I could never be caught out by their lies again…I was wrong…you think it can never happen to you..ect

They are desperate for you to slip up though, please be carefull!

Roll_On_2015

.
STU

I left this comment on two previous articles. You may have missed it – It is worth a look.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

OT

Stu you may find the following link of some interest, given your recent brush with the Daily Retard.

Ipso orders newspaper where to publish its correction

The newspaper in question was the P&J

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
.

Col

Maybe we should have more appreciation for all the free advertising the Daily retard have given to Wings recently? ? ?

[…] We’re not even going to get into the wider morality of being lectured on ethics by the newspaper group responsible for mass-scale phone hacking or the commonplace intimidation of innocent members of the public. But we promise the Daily Record that it can monster us as much as it likes. We’re going to keep right on watching it, along with the rest of the Scottish press, and every time it lies to the people of Scotland we’ll be there to tell them about it. link to wingsoverscotland.com […]


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