It’s not just us, then?
Posted on
May 19, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’re not in the habit of just reprinting other publications’ stories wholesale here at Wings Over Scotland – we’ve done it maybe four or five times in a year-and-a-half, and two of those were yesterday – but we’ve got a lot on today and there isn’t much we can add to this piece in today’s eminently-worth-purchasing Sunday Post.
Click the image below to read the whole thing.
In the days of yore when GunGum was the best seller for repairing car exhausts, the BBC was the pinnacle of renown, listened across the world with a sense of pride and in the knowledge that its reporting was non-political, without bias or favour. How the mightly have fallen. All Hail the Sunday Post for its edition this day and long may it continue.
Alas as much as I love some of the things the BBC has produced over the years BBC Scotland News is a abomination of corrupt partisanship. It is neither fair nor balanced and serves a political elite that is itself being eclipsed and rapidly on the wane. The incompetence of Labour in Scotland has served only to highlight the tangled web of complicity between the two, as errors, lies and failures are ignored, promoted as fact or simply glossed over.
There needs to be wholesale change at the very top of BBC Scotland and if they cannot reform their behaviour themselves then Government should do it for them.
Guess we all know what will DEFINITELY not be a topic on call kay(with an)e this week. 🙂
BBC Labour.
My tuppence worth – four words:
Baillie. Jackie. Bradford. Eleanor.
@HandandShrimp
“There needs to be wholesale change at the very top of BBC Scotland and if they cannot reform their behaviour themselves then Government should do it for them.”
I am tempted to agree.
I have just seen Call Kay’s [with an E] schedule for next week and it includes discussion on neutering Scottish gerbils, hamsters and cyber-rats. On Thursday there is a conversation regarding a plaque on the wa’ ootside a pub in the Royal Mile. Submissions will be welcome.
Well to be fair, Nigel Farage, Ruth Davidson and Johann Lamont have all been well and truly skewered by BBC Scotland recently.
“On Thursday there is a conversation regarding a plaque on the wa’ ootside a pub in the Royal Mile. Submissions will be welcome. ”
the plaque should read
the first pub in Scotland where an Englishman was thrown into it
Sky news at the moment running an interview with Mervyn King and his view on currency union quite relaxed, that a politiacl decision would be made between the Governments and the independent BOE would get on with it, much as now, where there is different needs, unemployment over these islands.
”
Malcolm says:
19 May, 2013 at 3:30 pm
“Well to be fair, Nigel Farage, Ruth Davidson and Johann Lamont have all been well and truly skewered by BBC Scotland recently.”
Spooky
do you know I was thinking just that very thing this morning
you could almost be forgiven for thinking someones had a word
I would really like to think emails sent to ODIHR hit the mark
Placque: 16th May 2013 – site of a meroculous escape.
Malcolm
“Well to be fair, Nigel Farage, Ruth Davidson and Johann Lamont have all been well and truly skewered by BBC Scotland recently.”
All three are truly awful politicians. The problem is, at least the way I see it, is that which should be the norm is being treated as luxury.
The spokesman for BBC Scotland reporters and staff who was talking at the Rally in Glasgow yesterday, was asking for a bit of support. The rally was against BBC bias. There were 150 or so us there in the torrential rain. it was good to hear from several speakers. Encouraging.
Where were you?
Where were you?
At home, warm and dry and achieving exactly as much as the people standing in the rain.
Malcolm
In the case of Johann, she skewered herself it was the most spectacular political kamikaze effort I have seen since Sarah Palin. However, they did go for Ruth and Farage. Perhaps there is hope there will be a level playing field. I don’t want the Government to get an easy ride I just want them to grill them all.
@SCED300
I’m not sure if I heard this correctly at the rally yesterday, but I thought I heard one of the speakers say, quite early on, that they were hoping to hold similar rallies in different towns across the country. I might not have heard correctly though. Between the noise coming from the passing buses at various points, coupled with the noise of the rain, it’s entirely possible I didn’t pick this up correctly. Did anybody else who was there hear this?
Where were you?
At home wrapped in a duvet, wearing a hat to keep out the
cold.
Try not to get too ‘up yersel’, otherwise some of us less
unfortunates might think you’re a condescending prick.
Major breakthrough. I went oot and bought a Sunday Post. Now I was thinking as I handed over my pennies to the young lad from Sri Lanka that this is the Scotland I want to live in…..multicultural and acceptive of all. I am reminded of a border crossing between Hungary and Romania and when the armed guards saw the Scottish Thistle we were waved through with exultation. This is the Scotland that I want to live in. Accepted, Honoured and Respected throughout the world.
Slightly off topic but I am surprised by the massive difference between Ipsos Mori and the Panelbase survey just out.
36 Yes, 44 No – Panelbase
31 Yes, 59 No – Ipsos Mori
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/panelbase-poll-yes-campaign-closes-gap.html
Whom do you believe? I favour the one that doesn’t write tabloid-esque headlines in Labour supporting publications.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/10/scottish-independence-campaign-losing-ever-more-ground
Noting that Panelbase themselves provided some interesting colour on their track record in the comments, in refuting some questionable assertions by egregious SLab trainspotter John Ruddy.
Jiggsbro and Geoff Huijer. The people on Newsnet Scotland, when writing about the Rally coming to Glasgow, in reply to one comment on their site, said going there is worth a hundred posts complaining about the BBC. I hope whoever made the comment did go.
It made sense to me so I went, and now I know where you were.
Jeannie-I couldn’t hear everything either but it would be good to know if there are rallies around the country. It was good to put faces to many more people.
O/T Yes OnAir on Facebook just now – worth a listen.
The people on Newsnet Scotland, when writing about the Rally coming to Glasgow, in reply to one comment on their site, said going there is worth a hundred posts complaining about the BBC
A post complaining about the BBC achieves nothing. The rally achieved 100 times as much.
john king,
So the bar staff threw Farage out into the street.Then the bobbies came along and threw him back in again!! You couldn’t make it up.
First it must be crap for the staff working at the BBC in Scotland, because if that is the level of trust you have in your company they have my sympathy, such figures show their is something very wrong for morale to be that low, perhaps its time a few of the BBC staff started to post on site with an idea of whats happening to cause such low morale.
Now for the plaque, may I suggest : “feartie Farage’s starting point, for race to border, in world record time”.
SCED300 says: Where were you?
Mr and Mrs D were standing in your vicinity SCED300 and I have to say that the rather nice Goretex coat Mrs D bought me from Christmas performed splendidly! Pity about the shoes and jeans though…….what do we want – dry feet, when do we want it – now!
On a serious note the speeches were good even from the non professional speakers but the tour de force was of course Mr Sheridan (as you might expect). A lively speech delivered with passion, focussing on the power of a balanced debate to deliver a resounding yes vote in 2014 – cheers all round!
Jeannie – you were correct re the different rallies, that’s what I heard too and as for you stay a bed’s – pass the quilt. The first march was freezing with snow flurries, the second soaking and dreich and I’m beginning to think it’s a BBC conspiracy to misreport the weather forecast so that when I come out to march, I have a miserable time to myself :-))
See you at the next one – weather permitting?
Plaques have been done before:
http://www.battleofcablestreet.org.uk/images/Battle-of-Cable-Street-red-plaque.png
I like the way the heading implies it was put up by the department for sewage and works.
One thing I can’t stand is people who have nothing worth while posting other than smart ass remarks in reply to others. Does make you wonder.
If this is the real state of BBC Scotland under McQuarrie and has hitherto been suppressed, it makes you wonder what the real report into the BBC Saville scandal should have been. Why, when his fief was in this state. was he chosen to carry out the inquiry?
How does one assess the value of the work we do and how much it matters? I don’t think there’s any way. We can all contribute. We can all do it differently.
Me? I didn’t go to the rally. I also didn’t go cavassing in the afternoon, because it was sluicing wet, and most folk don’t want to stand on their doorstep discussing independence with the raining dripping on them.
On the other hand I spent much of the night on Twitter encouraging the thought that an independent Scotland might have a rather better chance in Eurovision…
I did go Yes canvassing this morning: L.I.V. of the day: “I never vote, because Labour always gets in anyway, so there’s no point…”
(Long way to go….)
@kininvie-
What does L.I.V. mean?
@Northbrit.
MORI are all alone.
Not even TNS (face to face) comes close for such high No levels. MORI is the most reactive and outlier main pollster in Scotland. Probably to do with the fact they’re the only one still relying on the discredited landline only approach.
Panelbase match well with Comres, ICM, Angus Reid, ICD etc.
@ Yesitis and @HandandShrimp
Brian Taylor just left Johann to talk (bad enough), but I think it was David Miller on GMS who gave her a properly rough ride.
Thoroughly agree the job of journalism is to hold a light up to and challenge rather than invite for a cosy chat.
@Ianbrotherhood
Low information voter………A euphemism for ….(fill in your own colourful phrase)
Oh and if people e.g. come across John Ruddy et al., they should ask how come Labour has lost up to 6% to UKIP since the new year.
So much for one nation under Labour huh.
‘Try not to get too ‘up yersel’, otherwise some of us lessunfortunates might think you’re a condescending prick’
While I don’t know you SCDE300 , I’m sure you’re not a ‘condescending prick’. We all have a role to play in this campaign, in our own way. But you come across as a bit ‘evanglical’. I’m umemployed and wish I could attend more stuff but things are as they are. What I do resent is someone suggesting I should do more. Maybe you are young and or inexperienced. Not everyone has the means to do as much as they like. so please less of tub thumping at fellow travellers. Some of have been working for this chance for a few score years a missed rally or two ain’t going to make much difference. Personally I could not give a f**k about the BBC because I’ve never expected it to play fair (ask any experienced campaigner for anything about the BBC). Keep the pressure on but don’t expect an overnight transformation. But please a bit more thought before accusing or implying lack of effort. Not everyoone has the abilty either physically, mentally, financally or logistically to travel to demos. Ever tried travelling on public transport in a wheelchair or arrange childcare, pay fares on the dole. So my friend (and we’re all friends here) please consider what you post. Hopefully see you at the Rally in September in Edinburgh 🙂
O/T Steve Byrne can now be heard singing his ‘lament’ for Farage on National Collective, here:
http://nationalcollective.com/2013/05/19/nae-chance-nigel-edinburghs-lament/
BBC in Scotland is a cesspit of labour party apparatchiks and sycophants .. nothing will change till independence, when perhaps those involved in propaganda against Scotland will move closer to their spiritual home of Tony Blair or Gordon Brown’s colon.
sneddon says:
Thank you Sneddon; far more eloquently put than
me.
If it was in Kirkcaldy I’d gladly walk there, just
as I will have to do on Wednesday when I sign on
and just as I had to do for an interview for voluntary
work last week.
I would love to attend all these rallies etc but simply can’t,
Edinburgh in September will have to be one I don’t miss though…
@Malcolm (7.21)-
‘Brian Taylor just left Johann to talk (bad enough), but I think it was David Miller on GMS who gave her a properly rough ride.’
Gordon Bennett! Glad I missed that.
Malcolm:
Is there a chance you have links to the skewering of Lamont on GMS… Agh I missed that one. Also the Davidson one?
I seem to miss this and end up only hearing Kaye and Johnny Beattie.
Anyone here know what a ‘jam boy’ is? A friend told me about it, I was skeptical, looked it up. Quite astonishing –
http://wikibin.org/articles/jam-boy.html
In my heid there’s an analogy or metaphor, some dammed thing involving the BBC staff being used as ‘jam boys’, but I can’t quite formulate it.
Might also be interesting to identify who in the current Scottish political scene plays a similar role in terms of attracting the pesky ‘cybergnats’ away from the real players, allowing them to get on with their ‘game’…
Don’t forget that if it was not for BBC Scotland’s management, we probably wouldn’t have BBC Scotlandshire…..
So can give them some credit for being such po-faced smoothie buggers that their underlings are provoked into starting one of the best sites around?
@NortbBrit @Davy @Jeannie Thanks for the plaque? suggestions and just loved the ‘They Shall Not Pass’ from 1936. [On ya go Gandalf!].
Goodness me, the traffic is thin tonight, eh?
Isn’t this just the perfect time for a disgruntled BBC insider to come clean, give us the griff on what’s happening?
Okay, we know you’re bound by the Official Secrets Act etc, but those stats reported above are pretty serious. There isn’t one of you who’d come here and tell a completely rapt audience what’s going on in that big shiny HQ on the Clyde?
What’ve you got to lose? (Well, apart from your job, which you may well lose in any event…)
You could be Scotland’s answer to ‘Deep Throat’ (although I’m sure we could find you a less saucy moniker).
Go-on, go-on, go-on, go-on, go-on, go-on – Scotland needs you, and you know it makes sense!
The bbc in Scotland are forever pleading with the public to contact them regarding any complaints they have towards the SG, so I think it is reasonable to ask if wings over Scotland could be the main point of contact for BBC Scotland whistleblowers to vent their frustrations and insucurities. Would be fascinating to hear from someone on the inside of bbc Scotland news as to how they actually twist and turn a story into one that boots the shit out of any good news story about scottish independence,, they can’t all be on board with their producers.. Surely at least one of them is starting to question their policies. Come and join a winning team and shout out , enough is enough..
Re myself –
Is anyone there?
Has the Great Cull of Cybernats started?
Is anyone there?
Rev?
Anyone?
On a serious point – what do we do if Rev is suddenly incommunicado?
Is there any contingency plan?
Do we all reassemble at another place?
FFS, where’s me Tramadol…
This is a link to Newsnet Scotland’s excellent piece and video reporting the events of the “Illuminate the Debate” rally on Saturday. Well worth a watch.
Paul Holleran’s contribution, speaking as he is on behalf of the NUJ and the many frustrated, stressed and morale-sapped staff at BBC Scotland, is particularly interesting, and represents I think, a new turn in this debate. At the moment he is the nearest thing we have to an “insider” being able to speak out in public about what’s going on in there.
http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-politics/7407-scotland-guinea-pig-for-cuts-as-nuj-chief-accuses-bbc-scotland-management-of-major-dumbing-down
Saved me doing it Oatcake, cheers
can I say to Geoff Huijer and Seddon, I dont think anyone expects folk to spend their living money getting to a rally BUT it would have been nice to have more people there.
Not sure about the plans for future rallies. We need to sit down and work out a strategy for the next few months. But thanks to everyone who did come along.
@Jiggsbro your words are worth nothing, without putting too fine a point on it can I just award you the first weekly Nigel Farage prize for bawbaggery.
tartanpigsy. I hear what you say, I know folk don’t expect us to spend our scare resources on getting to demos. What I do object to is hectoring. I’m sure it would have been nice to have more folk at the demo but winding people up won’t encourage others to attend the next one. as I hinted the OP is relativly inexperienced but y’know ‘engage brain before opening mouth’ is a great watchword. I commend his enthusiasim but not everyones circumstances are the same. I like the idea of moving the demo around the country. A weekly Bawbaggery award sounds just the thing. Stu could set up a poll at the start of the week and announce the ‘winner’ or somewhere we could send our nominations 🙂
I also mentioned on another site that a demo outside bbc at Pacific Quay, but this guy came back at me and slaughtered me for even suggesting such a march Telling me the city centre was the place to march because we will get more people attending, I dont know how many turned up but iit should have been a lot more,, I think the guy was called springter.. And because he growled at me so much and more or less called me an idiot, I didn’t bother going on Saturday.. So I think organisers of these marches need a re think on strategy and attitude towards fellow nationalists, be prepared to accept different views.
This is my last word on this matter. OK some folk went, more folk didn’t, press coverage zilch, internet coverage, pretty damn good I reckon.
One thing though @Dee as one of the organizers of Saturdays march can I assure you none of us took an aggressive line to any fellow nationalists nor would we.
Your comment
” So I think organisers of these marches need a re think on strategy and attitude towards fellow nationalists, be prepared to accept different views.”
is a wee bit sad as whoever made that comment has nothing to do with our team.
City centre is better though, even in the monsoon like conditions a lot of people took leaflets asked questions and were genuinely interested in what we were demonstrating about. Even the Palestinian support groups who occupied Pacific Quay last year agreed it’s pointless doing anything down there because nobody sees therefore nobody knows.
So end of rally propaganda for a while here’s a wee watch for those who weren’t there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR_0nOJzKmA