Wings Over Scotland NewsWire

Unlike the 'three initiatives before breakfast' hyperactivity of the Engish regime, Scotland's modest, consensus-seeking approach celebrates education as a public good, says Melissa Benn...

Once the post Olympic bunting has come down what will we be left with? A bunch of empty sports venues, a £multi-billion debt and an increasingly disunited kingdom.

Ever heard of Tory Hoose? No? Well you’re about to: “Tory Hoose is a new chapter in progressive thinking and conservatism within Scotland, a grassroots and independent alternative to th...

As pillars of national life like banks and police crumble, our fury needs an outlet. It may well find one beyond conventional politics.

Sometimes it's worth stating the obvious.

Whoever decided that it was a good idea to have David Cameron outline his pitiless attitude towards welfare just as Alistair Darling was advertising the benefits of Union had not exactly thought things through.

Why anybody would attack the SCVO or their staff is beyond me. But that is what Willie Rennie, the leader of Scotland’s Liberal Democrats, did recently.

It’s hard to tell what was more entertaining: the Olympic Ceremony itself, or the reactions. As the NHS was saved from an enormous mechanical Lord Voldemort by an army of Mary Poppinses and James Bond shared a parachute jump with a rich old lady, millions of tweets, facebook updates and baffled international reviews were frantically tapped out in response.

Andrew Neil stepped in to the Rupert Murdoch controversy yesterday - insisting that all the spin doctors need to relax — Murdoch is NOT getting out of the British newspaper business.

And he might even rub the British establishment noses in it - by backing Scottish independence.

BBC chiefs to tell staff not to use words like ‘break-up’ in reports on independence — after Salmond’s complaints...

Margo MacDonald’s reassertion of the case for a single question independence referendum (Scotland on Sunday 8th July) offers the seductive prospect of a dramatic cliff-hanger in 2014. No ifs, buts or maybes. No halfway houses. No distractions. No cop outs. No hedged bets. Margo wants all the money, hope and effort of several campaigning SNP decades to go on just one square during just one roll of the dice. Independence or bust. I don’t know if Margo is a gambling woman – with such nerves of steel she’d easily break the bank.

And so, in a blaze of publicity and disappointing negativity, the “No” campaign is officially launched.
Much ado about nothing in my view. Personally, these launches do little for me. The strange launch of Yes Scotland, since ridiculed as the Declaration of Cineworld, and problems with its campaigning website on which twitter followers were presented as supporters were uncharacteristically dismal by comparison with the SNP’s usually slick presentation. Given these difficulties, any intelligent person would have thought that the “No” campaign would have learned from these errors and would project a far more professional appearance. You might have also assumed that it might have something positive to say – or, failing that, at least something new.