A False Labelling
We’ve just watched the BBC’s new documentary, and we’re confused.
You can see both episodes on iPlayer now, or on TV tonight and tomorrow, but there’s no mistaking what’s being advertised – a personal drama between the two biggest players in Scottish politics in the last 300 years.
But that’s not what you get.
Nor, interestingly, is that what the BBC pitched to participants.
The company who produced the film described it as a history of the rise of the modern SNP. That it was then instead presented as a two-person “psycho drama” [sic] has angered Salmond greatly, as revealed in a Twitter thread this morning.
Most of those complaints are valid, but the truth is that the actual show being aired is rather closer to the pitch than to the presentation. The problem is that its own apparent confusion about what it’s meant to be means it serves neither purpose very well.
Most of Episode 1 is indeed just a history of the SNP. There’s some funny old footage (most amusingly a young Nicola Sturgeon awkwardly shuffling around at a party disco) but it’s not really very interesting, and when you’ve been led to expect a show about the breakdown of the Salmond-Sturgeon relationship it feels like a lot of padding.
The only notable bit is the presence of Liz Lloyd – someone who played absolutely no significant role in the SNP until Sturgeon made her her chief of staff at the end of 2014. Despite everything that’s subsequently happened, in Episode 1 you get what seems a genuine sense of regret from Sturgeon, Robertson et al, who when forced to recall the good old days of the party’s rise cannot entirely mask the warm memories of Salmond’s transformative influence.
Lloyd’s presence, though, is one of sheer poisonous malice from beginning to end, smirking and smearing and knifing Salmond in every moment she’s onscreen. She’s a grotesque figure, almost a pantomime villain, whose malignity is never mentioned but is conveyed solely through her face.
It’s a good harbinger, though, for the start of Episode 2. In a very abrupt change of tone, everyone’s got their conspirator hats on and is staying firmly on-message. If the first episode shows us something of the human side of politicians, Episode 2 offers a glimpse of everything dishonest and venal and ugly about them.
But it’s quite a brief one. The whole documentary leaps around in an unhelpful and disengaging manner – the second episode has barely gotten into the meat of the story when it jumps back a decade and becomes a slow-moving history lesson again.
That isn’t without its own merits. Much of A Troubled Union is an enlightening, albeit depressing, microcosm of modern times, particularly the triumph of what it’s hard to avoid calling “snowflakery” over grownups doing a tough and serious job and being able to handle a few bumps and bruises along the way.
The whole furore over Salmond doing a show on RT is a great demonstration of that – a media and political bubble having a shrieking fit over something no ordinary voter cared in the slightest about. Yet in some ways it seems to have been the genesis of the entire scandal.
The RT show appears to be what sowed the seed of paranoia in Sturgeon’s mind that Salmond had to be restrained and controlled in some way, and that he posed some sort of threat to her that had to be extinguished. Instead of robustly deflecting media criticism (eg by saying “Why is such a figure in Scottish politics having to do this on RT, rather than the BBC or STV?”), the party threw Salmond under the bus in a panic. It was a hugely telling response.
But the programme mentions the disagreement in passing for about 60 seconds and never returns to it. Indeed, it’s just about the only specific mention of conflict between the two in the entire 120 minutes.
What really comes across in the documentary is the simply enormous gulf in political ability and character between Salmond and Sturgeon. He’s someone who plans and strategises and executes and achieves, where she passively reacts to events.
(It leaves you with a profound sense of regret that Sturgeon was in charge of the indy campaign while Salmond was running the country. It’d have been better the other way round. Managerialism, not revolution, is Sturgeon’s nature and – relatively speaking, at least – forte. For a self-portrayed radical, she’s a timid small-c conservative to her boots, too enamoured of being a player on the world stage to ever risk all her hard-won personal status in pursuit of independence.)
By the time the documentary gets back to the matter of the conspiracy against Salmond which destroyed the pair’s relationship – its advertised subject, remember – there are just 12 minutes left of the 120, and those 12 minutes are basically a short one-sided reprise of the “He was guilty really” hatchet job of the infamous 2020 Kirsty Wark assassination.
As an analysis of how the relationship between Salmond and Sturgeon broke down – the thing it professes to be about – “A Troubled Union” is a complete failure. How and why that happened is barely even examined, never mind revealed. The structure and pacing of the programme is a mess and no new light is shed on anything.
As a broad-brush history of the rise and fall of the last 30 years of the SNP, on the other hand, it’s okay, notwithstanding all the criticisms made by Salmond on social media today about the choice of participants and focus.
(What, for example, is Humza Yousaf doing in there, given that it was supposed to end with Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation? George Osborne’s brief appearance made a tantalising but unfulfilled suggestion of a much more intriguing perspective. The BBC’s focus today on Yousaf’s comments is on one level bewildering given what a bit-part player he was, but also indicative of the absence of new material in the show.)
It’s nowhere near the disgraceful depths of “The Trial Of Alex Salmond”. To the casual viewer it’s largely unobjectionable, although to anyone reasonably in the know about Scottish politics over the last seven or eight years there are extremely concerning issues with it that we’re unable to talk about for reasons we also can’t talk about.
With a different billing it would have been a dry but worthy piece of work with a few snippets of interest. But the way the BBC have chosen to characterise it makes it a big disappointment and a missed opportunity. If you’ve only got enough time to watch one documentary about Scottish politics this week, we’d probably go with this one instead.
I’ll be tuned in to YouTube at 7.30pm on Wednesday..
Do we know who had final editorial approval?
Firecrest or BBC?
Thanks for watching it. I never could bring myself to watch anything the BBC produces.
I would hope that bottom picture of Nicola Sturgeon is removed.
I find it truly insulting to the Christian Faith.
Its blasphemous in fact!
Regardless of some who did tend to view her in that way, I have always found such guff way out of order.
As for Humza, some of us did have a bit of respect for him, although, not expecting too much at same time. However, his claims he no longer felt safe in Scotland because of riots in England, was the end of any respect I might have once had for him.
I found that almost as offensive to this country as stupid that Sturgeon image. I mean, he was until a few months back, our First Minister. And I doubt very much he would dare to make such a comment if he still held that position, and it told us maybe, what he really thinks of our country???
The media continue to give a platform to some who should, quite frankly, be in the jail. Are they confident that said individual/s will never be identified or brought to justice or are they just plain clueless?
What do you expect from the people who brought us Jimmy saville and it’s a knock out.
I was really surprised Eck fell for it, but I guess he must be an optimist.
Won’t be watching it, stopped paying the license at last after the Supreme Court decision. Got a lying “someone at your address has been watching BBC iPlayer” letter a couple of weeks ago, IMPOSSIBLE, how may old people are scared by these letters? Despicable by the BBC. But yes, desperate times for them as Martin Lewis has been telling everyone they don’t have to pay if they only watch Netflix.
A very daft-laddie question I know, but why did Alex resign after 2014, if he had had any doubts about Nicola’s abilities, or lack thereof?
Thanks for watching it and giving a fair precise and critical comment.
As uts BBC would expect the pro unionist bias and anti Salmond portrayal.
The outpouring from the Salmond case ee your last post may reflect much nearer the truth.
Let’s hope so.
I think most people will realise by now what Sturgeon saw in Lloyd that motivated her to make her Chief of Staff, but does anyone actually believe Lloyd cares about Scottish independence? She is a sinister figure in the history of the SNP and any serious documentary would be having a close look at her background and how she became involved in the party.
I went to a hustings to listen to the various candidates for the leadership, with Salmond and Sturgeon going for the dual role. On the face of it, it was perfect: male and female; leader and deputy leader; both believing in pushing the independence project. It is easy to say in hindsight, but Sturgeon did not make me believe that she was in actual favour of independence.
Yes, she made all the right noises, but the real belief was missing. I don’t claim to have prescience. It was pure gut instinct: like pinging a ‘crystal’ glass with your fingernail and getting a dull thunk back. I didn’t trust my own instinct, though, not then, and I voted for the pair. Same with Swinney: my gut told me he was a devolutionist. I smothered that, too, mostly.
Gut instinct is not always right, but mostly it is. The very first time I met Alec Salmond, gut instinct told me he was ‘special’, different from the run-of-the-mill politicians, although I had a slight wobble early on when he took on a seat that was Tory and had been for many a long year, but I soon learned that if he said he was going to do something, he did it and I have reason to be grateful to him for help he gave me well over a decade ago. If he stands in 2026, he will take a seat. Not because he is infallible, but because Scotland needs him again, even if only as an MSP on the List.
One to miss then. And I wish yousaf would just fk off to wherever he feels safe – Afghanistan maybe. He really gets my dander up with his pointless, baseless whining
Alex seems to make a habit of trusting people whose only intent is to do the dirty on him and by extension the Cause of Scottish Independence
Why-the-fuck did he ever imagine ANYTHING connected with the BBC on this subject would be fair , objective and honest ?
The sooner he abandons such naivety regarding the MSM – and his continuing attempt to find common ground with the Nu SNP Clown Troupe – the better .
Neither of those entities have anything of value to offer genuine Independence supporters .
Dissing the medium is always for people who can’t counter the message.
“Salmond has sold his soul to Russia” instead of “why doesn’t the MSM want to touch it?”.
Today’s version is “You only publish on right-wing media so you must be a fascist” instead of “why are the left-wing media covering up this story?”
The naïveté of Salmond is to be marvelled at. Creative Director of Firecrest Films, Iain Scollay was immediately prior to joining that outfit, Creative Director at Mentorn Media. That would be Mentorn Media, producers of Question Time and architects of the Billy Mitchell scandal. Why the SNP continued to put forward office holders to collaborate in that farcical, exercise in theatrical, faux outrage, posing as intellectual political debate mystified me at the time.
This would not be the first instance of pathological naïveté by Salmond. As First Minister he allowed Stephen “CIA” Gethins to be appointed as a SPAD. And who we must ask conducted the vetting on that?
A bit like making Murray Foote chief executive of the SNP.
We all have faults, Salmond had his, but when he said he wanted independence for Scotland people believed him. When Sturgeon said she wanted independence the words were scrambled through the glutinous gaps of her gritted teeth.
I don’t watch the BBC so I’ll be missing it.
Dumbza (of WHITE! fame) is going to be that fckwit the BBC phone when they’ve a slot going spare & need the village eejit to fill it. How he can comment on morality & personal conduct is surely a piss take?
The clutching of pearls & gnashing of teeth some have over RT is an easy one. Information is power & the the state Mafia despise anyone else in control of it as we seen in 2014 with BBC bias & currently with Facebook, X, Telegram, Rumble etc trying to shut them down or have them comply. They’ve got to get their mitts on it so they can control the narrative & exclude what’s really happening. There’s lots of commentators have said they were grilled before going on msm, BBC, CNN, Fox, SKY news etc about what they intended to say – yet never when appearing on RT. They never asked or interfered in content.
There’s also the rabid Rphobes amongst the TQWERTYS2+++ crew cause P doesn’t embrace shagging in the streets & waving TRA flags every fcking month of the year & somehow Salmonds wee half hour show funds the entire R economy. Lol
If I were Salmond I’d purchase two weekly slots on RT just to piss them off even more.
The best person to make a program about the rise & fall of the SNP would’ve been his own production team. He was there before the yoons & the gradualists engulfed it.
Confused said at 1.23
“… for the radfems ALL “penis in vagina” sex is r4pe.”
??? How many radical feminists have you met, son? I’ve been a “radfem” for 50 years. So have most of my female friends. All of us, apart from 2 lesbians, have children. Should we call the polis on our husbands/partners?
@Vivian O’Blivion (2.25) –
‘The naïveté of Salmond is to be marvelled at.’
Unless he anticipated the likely editorial slant and decided to go along with it knowing how obvious the bias would be?
If you put a peruke on Lloyds head you would get a dead ringer for Governor Tryon in the Outlander series
The address given on the letter in the first photo for Firecrest Films, 17 Forth St., Pollokshields also seems to be associated with Chris McEleny & ALBA. It actually shows up on Google as the HQ of ALBA. Firecrest’s seems to be 1048 Govan Rd.
So – is it an inside job or am I reading it wrong?
Rev thanks for the synopsis you have just freed up 2 hours that I can use the time for something more worthwhile.
BTW A Dugger commented that no one had asked for their donation back from the £600 !
They also stated that if the SNP needed donations, all they had to do was ask for and the cash would be roll in !
I guess facts and truth are a mystery to some individuals !
It’s been nearly 10yrs since I watched anything on the BBC, and this will not be tempting me back anytime soon. I’ll stick with Shauny Boy on Wed.
Tweet 6/8.
When I heard that being quoted on the BBC news this mornin I would’ve spat oot ma cornflakes had I been eating any at the time.
I think when big Alec started making noises that he was humming and hawing about going back to politics, that’s when they started thinking on keeping him away.
I think Nicola and her hanger-ons knew it wouldn’t be long until he was back as leader and they’d lose out in their jibs and the perks that came with it.
Back in the day he’d be accused of being homosexual, but these are different days so they concocted allegations of SA and harassment, they were hoping for, but didn’t need a prosecution, they just need to throw mud and to put the thought in everyone’s head that there’s no smoke without fire and let some people’s imagination do the rest.
Thanks for outlining it – though I’ll never watch it.
@BigJay
“The address given on the letter in the first photo for Firecrest Films”
Any address on the right hand side is the from address. Any address on the lefthand side is the to address.
Much as we continue to see in the ongoing farce: “between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance.” In colonial societies human values tend to be lacking.
Also worth nothing that the most senior non-political government actors involved in “the conspiracy against Salmond” are not Scottish. Seems there are plenty of Defoe’s still around, as should be expected.
I’m allergic to all things BBC, so wouldn’t touch this with a bargepole.
Whether Salmond was niave to get unvolved is a matter of opinion, but for me, the most telling feature of this is that ten years after Scotland “lost” the Referendum, Salmond is still recognised as the most potent existential threat to the cozy UK Establishment, by the cozy UK Establishment.
Salmond scares the shit out them, while nobody else causes even the slightest concern. (Maybe Cherry did at one time, but she seems appropriately nobbled now… “contained”).
Independentists with even half a brain should sit themselves down and work out why that is.
Sturgeon? Yousaf? Swinney? Fkg nobodies; absolute dreggs… and that’s being kind. The Union has never felt safer.
Surely, I can’t be the only one who thinks the Sturgeon loyalists controlling the nuSNP are getting awfy jittery.
The nuSNP are desperately trying to find new ways to put the boot into Salmond. Before it all comes out – Every dirty, filthy, sneaky underhand thing that they plotted and nearly delivered.
Sadly, for the nuSNP, Kirsty Wark has retired so she can’t deliver any more lies. Although I hope that won’t save her from further humiliation regarding her ‘Warkumentary’.
Personally, I can’t wait. I am especially looking forward to people finding out about Humza’s rank hypocrisy, the identity of all the alphabetties, and if someone will sell them all out for a reduced sentence.
I won’t be watching the state telly broadcast.
As I commented over on Grouse beater
ALEX SALMOND’S RESPONSE
“For any independence supporter to trust a single word the BBC, or associated organisation, say is one of the great mistakes in life. The BBC’s venomous and institutional bias against Scottish independence was demonstrated during the referendum and remains to this day.”
I am sorry to say Gareth , Alex has no one to blame but himself,as a normal working class voter and independence supporter even I know that the bastard broadcasting clowns are THE establishment mouthpiece who do not let such things as honesty get in the way of a good WHITEWASH , TBQH I am outraged that Alex continues to allow these scum to get away with dragging his name through the MUD, his repeated turning his cheek to the slurs and LIES only emboldens ALL of these corrupt arsewipes , we now have the open RACIST Humza USELESS excitedly jumping on the lying beeb bandwagon , denigrating and demeaning the very man who facilitated his opportunity on his steps to his meteoric (ha,ha) rise in stature , which as we all knew due to his idiocy and incompetence would only lead to MEDIOCRITY which is being extremely generous
It is inconceivable that lying corrupt individuals and corporations have the audacity to act as morality judges determined to destroy the credibility and integrity of others when they themselves are allegedly involved in the misuse of public funds, cheating on their spouses and committing adultery,serious criminal activity, deviances and perversions,blatant lying and misinformation,french fancies , irons and ironing boards,colluding with others to facilitate a racial claim
Alex needs to be on a WAR FOOTING against ALL of these conspirators and mete out the destruction they deserve otherwise they will win
Is it possible you are all forgetting that Alex Salmond is taking legal action against the SG?
I don’t think he’s letting them get away with anything.
I much prefer this approach to that of Humza Yousaf and his ridiculous smears.
Too true about Alex Salmond’s show on RT.
I loved that show.
I’m not sure about Salmond being naïve to take part. I can easily imagine him being told, ‘We’re making the programme with or without your involvement.’ Hard in that case for him to refuse, knowing that others would be talking about him.
Managerialism, not revolution, is Sturgeon’s nature and – relatively speaking, at least – forte.
Whit?
Are you thinking ‘Marks & Spencers’ rather than a country?
@ Geri says: 10 September, 2024 at 2:55 pm
If I were Salmond I’d purchase two weekly slots on RT just to piss them off even more
I bet you would, too!
Here’s the thing though, Geri. AS didn’t dump his RT spot because he was “pissing people off”.
He dumped it because the optics of an Indy die-hard patronising a site associated with an imperialist, colonialist, militarist, murderous, tyrannical, fanatically anti-independence regime was not only tainting him, tainting Alba, and tainting Indy.
It was tainting Scotland too.
Just like you’re doing now, TBQFH.
Could the fall out have been Alex Salmond suggesting a husband and wife First Minister/CEO team was not a good idea?
Did this anger Murrell so much that he wanted to put pressure on the police and said
“TBH the more fronts he is having to firefight on the better for all complainers. So CPS action would be a good thing.”
Sometimes the most trivial of incidents can lead to extreme actions.
Some one on the internet said:
“a site associated with an imperialist, colonialist, militarist, murderous, tyrannical, fanatically anti-independence regime”
Wis that no a description o’ the British and their BBC propaganda arm ?
A few quotations which interested me:
John Swinney of Nicola Sturgeon when she was 20yrs..
Liz Lloyd of Alex Salmond in 2015 after the successful election
George Osborne on Independence and Salmond. Salmond said:
I think it’s reasonably clear that the establishment in WM and Scotland and many people in the SNP are beginning to round up the wagons because they sense that scalps are being hunted
Robert Hughes says: at 1:54 pm
“Alex seems to make a habit of trusting people whose only intent is to do the dirty on him and by extension the Cause of Scottish Independence
Why-the-fuck did he ever imagine ANYTHING connected with the BBC on this subject would be fair , objective and honest ?
The sooner he abandons such naivety regarding the MSM – and his continuing attempt to find common ground with the Nu SNP Clown Troupe – the better .
Neither of those entities have anything of value to offer genuine Independence supporters.
Aye, it’s hardly surprising that the State broadcaster does Alex no favours.
The old phrase “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” comes to mind. But no, let’s continue doing the same thing over and over and expect different results…
I don’t see the tactical play on navel gazing and looking back at the past. We know it has been a load of utter bullshit, but continuing to focus time and energy on playing with the master’s tools and the sophistry and constraints those implements bind us in seems like the wrong thing to do.
Far better to look to the future and come up with thought out sensible policies that will win over the people. And with the people supportive of sensible honest politics seeking to do things a better way, then the tsunami of change will soon wash away a great deal of the embedded crap that far too many supposedly politically astute people seem waste their time on.
I stated it years ago that I felt Alba were far to lax in how they operate. eg. Prominent members tweeting direct links to unionist MSM articles…
Sinn Fein have a more disciplined approach.
One not to watch- don’t give the BBC the satisfaction of high viewing figures.
@ Dan . Spot-on , compadre .
I reckon the Political Party jig is up .Done . Exhausted – in every sense .
As is the entire Political System – I mean , check cunty-bollocks Starmer , immediately upon being elected ( installed ) PM , telling us there was not enough money to assist pensioners fuel costs but fckn £billions to fuel further death n destruction in distant countries . Who voted for THAT ?
These ” staunch defenders of Democracy ” ( HA ! ) now openly shit on the people daft enough to vote for them n wipe their arse on the ballot papers they used to do so . I doubt I’ll ever vote for any Party again .
Under the present system anyway ,you’re right ….best move would be finding individuals with no ties to any P.P , ie TRULY independent/Independence-minded people ; identify n focus on tangible issues that people are being affected by or are concerned they may be affected by – these are not hard to discern – and take whatever ideas have been developed as potential solutions/responses directly to those people .
That requires a high degree of commitment – of time , energy and – inevitably – ( some ) money from the individual concerned ; though that person would no doubt have a team of some description helping him/her .
You strike me as a * perfect * I4I candidate ma man . If elected , yr constituents would at least be assured the Shit-Extraction Lorries would run on time ; you could run on an Anti-Faecist platform 🙂
Salmond is a natural loner and a lousy judge of character. It’s just as well for him that he’s a first-rate politician.
BBC = Britnat Brainwashing Channel
Nuff said!
Those imperialist, colonialist, militarist, murderous, tyrannical, fanatically anti-independence regiming barstewards are gonnie sanction Slovakia now for not handing over it’s judicial system to the
EU.USA. So far that’s Poland, Hungary & Slovakia sanctioned – who are *supposedly* their friends, sanctioned by their fellow NATO members – shall we also add Venezuela, Syria, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Africa, Cuba, on & on the imperialists list goes..Oops, my mistake, wrong regime there. That’s the West. Those bastions of democracy & upholders of independent sovereign nations. Hand us yer judicial system & everything else you’ve got or else…
Independent nations – there’s a laugh.
Mr America can I use long range missiles? Pretty please..
No.
Not very independent is it? His handlers have everyone on a tight leash.
I see the US is escalating & in typical colonial style is pretending its someone else – now they’re pretending they need *permission* from Sir Kid Starver & Lame Lammy. LMAO that ppl lap this shit up as believable. Naw, that’s so any retaliation will come to the britnats first.
I really can’t bring myself to watch it.
BBC enough said
Aye, there’s plenty taxpayer’s money spare for spending on wars and other shit, like bunging what looks like it will be 16 million quid in curtailment costs to energy companies today not to produce power.
A situation that exists because the folk that “run” the UK couldn’t get their shit together to develop the leccy grid in a timely manner to handle all these “planet saving” windfarms.
https://wind-curtailment-app-ahq7fucdyq-lz.a.run.app/
It’s just yet another way of big foreign owned corporates and private individuals to rinse wealth out of societies with lucrative contracts which nobody seems to be scrutinising.
I’m certain some folk are daft enough to think the BBC will step up and inform us all of this unjust travesty…
Sadly, I will not be watching it. I generally try to avoid anything political by the BBC, given their very overt bias against Scotland. During the run up to the 2014 independence referendum, the blatant anti independence bias of the BBC would have have put pravda from the old days of the USSR to shame.
Then, of course there was the political conspiracy to jail the wholly innocent Alex Salmond, with the BBC’s coven of nobodies, Sitting filming, as they were, in the high street, rubbing their hands in seeming delight at their incorrect assumption of Salmond getting jail. Peak BBC ‘scotyland’ you might call that.
Any normal true national broadcaster in any normal country would be working right now 24/7 to uncover the lies, deceit and corruption of others that led to his trial. Fergus Ewing was right to call it the political scandal of a lifetime. But the BBC? Nah, they know what happened, but choose to look the other way. Corrupt as f***.
The English owned and controlled BBC in Scotland, is ruled by London, England. It portrays only the ‘shortbread tin’ variety of Scotland, twee, unobjectionable, parochial and definitely not up to independence. ‘Just look at all our lovely, lovely hills and grass and sheep and deer and stuff’. It plays the game of a colonial broadcaster in Scotland, appearing on the surface to be very, very ‘scottishy’ – ‘och, we’re going live now to Edinburgh for Hogmanay, and will raise a wee dram here oorsels for the bells’, but when push comes to shove, it is the very vanguard of English colonial rule over Scotland. We saw that clearly in 2014 in every news broadcast and every documentary. Blatant, blatant, disgraceful and shocking pro London rule bias.
Day after day, BBC scotyland, playing the English colonial game, keeping the uppity jocks at bay. Right up there with the very best propagandists. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.
“To the casual viewer it’s largely unobjectionable, although to anyone reasonably in the know about Scottish politics over the last seven or eight years there are extremely concerning issues with it that we’re unable to talk about for reasons we also can’t talk about.”
The BBC article on the documentary has the same issue. I wanted to make an editorial complaint but wasn’t sure of the legality of it. An absolute disgrace how an innocent man continues to be dragged through the mud.
Robert Louis @ 9.45pm
Well said!
Sums up the whole ugly position we find ourselves in.
Nails in the coffin;
The Reformation, 1603, 1707 and then Walter Scott’s rehabilitation of Scotland to become Scotchland in tartan to suit “Great Britain”: in reality a cover name for Imperial aspiring England.
Geri
10 September, 2024 at 2:55 pm
“If I were Salmond I’d purchase two weekly slots on RT just to piss them off even more.”
Thank goodness you are not Salmond.
That would do the job the rape conspiracy failed to do.
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon – The Tartan Charlatan!
I lost patience with Sturgeon after selling the offshore renewable rights for a small amount instead on keeping them and profiting from them for the future and the overreaction to omicron,then came the trans takeover of the political agenda and branchform.She should resign from the party and the Scottish parliament.
Watching the SNP in total meltdown.
Priceless.
All of Cranky’s plans going up in smoke.
Priceless.
Watching Useless squirm.
Priceless.
Every other day another scandal and exposure.
Priceless.
Watching the SNP stab each other in the back.
Priceless.
For anything else.
There’s always the Credit Union.
Just watched Ep. 1, immediate thoughts as they played the trailer for Ep. 2 was how (and why) have they justified butchering the timeline in such a haphazard way ???
IndyRef#1 period being ripped out of Ep. 1 linear narrative that had ended on Nicola as FM and Alex out of WM in 2017, then “dropped” back into Ep. 2. !
Who benefits from framing it like that ?
Did Alex believe that Nicola had deliberately tanked 2017 GE campaign to get him out of WM (and destroy the Alternative Faction, that was hinted at being centred around Alex at WM before he lost his seat )? … was hoping that Ep. 2 would dig into that & the Peter Murrell angle ! But apparently not ?
So Stuart:
has the time come for WoS to form a TV Production Company arm to take the base content of these Episodes; tighten it up ; edit in new clips from Ewing; David Davis ; MPs sidelined by Robertson … ? Surely someone (Sky; Netflix; Amazon or Elon ??? would buy the real Drama , as clickbait if nothing else !
If you are up for it, ( and we can afford the Lawyers ! ) maybe the real story can start to emerge from the deep shadows that a combination of self interested Establishment; Unionists & Devolutionists; and Perjururs have tried to bury it … Then #CountMeIn
Don’t waste your time watching that very deliberate BBC soap opera level shite.
Watch this interview instead.
https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246
The stuff about Churchill is bang on the money.
It is harrowing for me listening to the way they are discussing what has been done to England & Germany (both the ‘winner’ and loser of WW2), like it is ‘over’. They are not wrong IMHO.
This is just around the corner for Scotland, be absolutely sure of it. In fact it is already happening.
As they discuss they are doing it to Ireland as well and what did they ever do to anyone? It is clearly pure racism, enacted. Look at Sweden…
People need to wake up and in a fucking hurry. Really frightening what is being done. That is why they are arresting people for facebook posts, they know fine what they are doing.
Gordon Innes
Ignored
says:
11 September, 2024 at 6:56 am
If you are up for it, ( and we can afford the Lawyers ! ) maybe the real story can start to emerge…
Yes, very true, but then again, we’ve been here before. Anybody remember Lndon Calling? How the BBC stole the Referendum? Seems a long time ago, way back when Pay-Pal-Paul had something to contribute, but consequences came there none… Damning truths, but nothing ever came of it… except promotions and OBE’s for some.
The UK Establishment owns the corrupt media, and that media is corrupt because the Estalishment requires it so. Witness the transparency of the shill propaganda misinforming people about the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and the extent to which truth requires social media and the internet to be heard.
It’s no longer adequate to listen to the news, these days, you must be proactive; go out and find it.
The collective West has been sold down the river by it’s rancid media for decades, and Scotland is no exception. I mean, they’ve lied through their teeth to Scotland for 300+ years. Televised media has simply refined the indoctrination.
If Scotland wants to take on the media monopoly which distorts the realities of Scotland’s exploitation, then we need the help of a big player… Controversially perhaps, but somebody like Ruzzia Today…
Yes, I know that’s a red rag to a bull for some, but we need “somebody”. A “neutral” media giant would be preferrable, but in the media, I fear we are already at war and need allies, not neutrals. As Churchill said; the only thing worse that fighting a war with Allies is fighting a war without them.
Joining 2 + 2 to get 5 maybe, but I have always found it deeply suspicious why Sturgeon the Betrayer freaked out about Salmond airing political discussion on RT. Why should it even matter to her? Why should it matter so much to her? I submit this as more circumstamcial evidence that “No-Fly-Zone Sturgeon” was merely a glove puppet for the Establishment all along.
These events in Scotland make Watergate look positively tame. Yet the scandal of the SNP’s subversion is as nothing beside the centuries of scandal surrounding Scotland’s subjugation.
Alex Salmond has a snowball poised and ready to roll, but so too does SALVO, and they’re standing much higher up the mountain…
Anyone thought what would have happened if Alex Salmond had refused to take part in the show?
@Breeks
I share your concern over the Media ; but RT doesn’t hack it – it cannot be through a toxic channel – Majority of Public will just dismiss the information as pure propaganda (rightly or wrongly).
I’m no fan of Elon, and he carries similar risks – but may offer a delivery mechanism & publicity to reach those who dismiss the story as “wild conspiracy ” and have done no independent research. Most other MSM are unlikely to touch it with a Barge Pole … look at David Davies being ignored ! Remember no MSM interest in Tory #DarkMoney ( apart from BBC Ulster programme mention that got pulled , and never shown in rest of UK !
Might be that it has to use combination of YouTube ; (Vimeo?) ; X ; Insta & TikTok etc as only unregulated way to publish. But if that’s done need to cover all the costs ; who will bankroll ?
How can you be a lousy judge of character and at the same time a first-rate politician?
IMHO Alex Salmond is a very sociable person and always delighted to meet people. I think he is very far from being a loner.
Mac @ 8:12 am says “Watch this [Tucker Carlson with Darryl Cooper] interview instead”
———————-
I would endorse that, and also strongly recommend Carlson’s previous interview with JEFFREY SACHS (30 Aug), which should alert us to just how many of that up-thread string of adjectives “imperialist, colonialist, militarist, murderous, tyrannical, fanatically anti-independence” apply also to American and British geo-political interventions. In the lurid light of which, Scots can draw their own pessimistic conclusions as to the likelihood of Scottish independence being allowed to democratically happen.
@Gordon Innes look at David Davies being ignored!
He seems to be getting a fair amount of press coverage re his views on the Lucy Letby verdict.
Robert Louis @ 9:45 pm
“It plays the game of a colonial broadcaster in Scotland”
That’s the BBC’s function, same as Ch4 and STV. The reality in a colony is that all institutions are colonial in terms of their ‘values’. That is why ‘institutions’ is one of the nine determinants of independence:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/08/01/the-determinants-of-independence-institutions/
Mac
Ignored says:
11 September, 2024 at 8:12 am
” Don’t waste your time watching that very deliberate BBC soap opera level shite.
Watch this interview instead. ”
https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246
Agreed and I have ( watched that T.C interview ) . Like others mention , above , I haven’t watched any BBC ” News ” or ” Current Affairs ” shite for years : I don’t intend to start doing so now because of this latest piece of Eastenders-level Soap Opera wilful distortion/trivialisation of the truth .
This is what frustrates me about seemingly all the current Political Class , ie it’s absolute refusal to even talk about the truly awful , malign * forces * that are essentially waging war on * ordinary * people .
Take , eg the issue of Mass Migration ; in all the hand-wringing and ” the * Far Right * must be stopped – ideally , jailed – ” alarmist pish ,I’ve yet to see any Politician from any Party address WHY groups like Reform have gained so much ground in so short a time . Are none of them interested in the ” why ” ?
By their cowardice , even decent Politicians ( yes , there are still a few around ) eg in ALBA/ISP , are leaving the gap , the gulf that exists between ordinary people’s ACTUAL lived experience of issues like Migration and the unreality of Political head-nodders cocooned in their generous-salaried bubbles to be filled by simplistic * solution * punting bad faith opportunists like Reform .
Yes , like Ireland , Sweden , Finland , in fact , the whole of Scandinavia ( whose success in creating pretty much the fairest societies in the World could not be countenanced by the U.S led rabid dogs of Neoliberal Globalism who think providing excellent health care , work & education opportunities , good housing etc for citizens is ” Communism ” or , at least ” Socialism ” – a word that fckn terrifies them ) : Scotland is getting the same treatment . All facilitated by vain , conformist/compliant clowns like Sturgeon & Yousaf previously and now by the absolute nadir of critical/original thought – Swinney .
All those daft cunts screeching about ” Trans Rights ” , ” Climate Emergency ” ” Ban Hate Speech/Thought ” and calling for more inward Migration etc are like fuckn playdoh in hands of the Globalist Puppet-Masters .
Whilst the Buffoonocracy are flashing their ( imagined ) virtue the Plutocracy is tightening the knot around our necks and making it almost impossible to resist the predation taking place on all of our freedoms and our ability to even verbally/ in writing protest .
Aye , somehow the latest episode of ” When Alex Met/Fell Out With Nikki ” telenovela-for-Jockland doesn’t seem that important
Because it isn’t . It’s mental candyfloss ; nothing more
https://archive.is/SnPli
cheap fuel for the pensioners this winter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIWIWU_Za_U
– if you want it
helps with this problem
https://archive.is/yWWIV
https://archive.is/c55Wk
and if this is all true, why do this
https://archive.is/gkspa
are you crazy?
or maybe your leaders are blackmailed.
as a kid I got told we lived in this thing called a meritocracy where points mean prizes, so work hard, do your exams, you’ll do fine. Then when I got into work I noticed the people above me seemed helluva dumb, and the people above yet again, even worse. Then you realise – the people above you got their jobs for their LOYALTY to those above them and so on and so on; thus the shit rises to the top and what you get is a kakistocracy. Leaders are often clinical psychopaths, or at least their second rank brethren, the narcissists.
Keir Starmer, we see what an empty coat he is – no principles whatsoever; he ran interference for saville and despite being a human rights lawyer, went after assange. Now the scumbag is going to fuck over the pensioners just as the first snow hits the hills. But the pensioners have no “lobby”, and it was a powerful lobby that placed him in charge after destroying the incumbent with relentless smears and bureaucratic lawfare. Starmer now reads it off a script, for his real bosses.
– it must be depressing to gain “a grand prize, an office of state” and find you have just made it to the … 4th division.
I see Humza has kindly empowered the BBC to smear Mr Salmond and of course they keep it on their web page as long as they can and always refer the the Salmond case in sexual terms.
Who would have thought Humza was a plant??
But then he has family facing court charges and family in Gazza so an easy turn I guess.
When you go to the 1st episode @ 32:34 and listen to this ordinary woman you realize Sturgeon is just a mirror of Salmond and how they ran the party. Its now 2024 and just look at how the Alba party is run, it all seems to be repeating its self again.
It looks as if it’s ‘Get Alex Salmond Day’ here BTL on Wings.
Seemingly I am in the background in the early NS footage. Can’t stomach watching it. The same people who wrecked the party since 2014, had previous in the youth movement in the 90s. How they were fast-tracked can only suggest that higher forces were behind them, – forces not working in the interest of Scottish independence.
As for Alex – his big mistake was deciding to work for RT. The Rev is astute enough to see that this is when things changed. Not because NS hated the Russians, but because her masters, ie those in Washington decided he had to go.
People are oblivious to the fact that the Cold War never ended. It is one of the longest running conflicts in human history and will probably result in a tactical nuclear war on European soil which will decimate the continent. Thus knocking another American competitor out of the game, which suits Washington fine.
People need only think back to the early days of Thatcher and how a war had to be concocted and won (with help of the Americans) to keep her in power. For if Labour had won in 82, all the American nuke bases would have been removed and this would have genuinely damaged the American efforts to encircle the Russians.
Catalonia voted 90pc for independence. Is it independent today? No, because it doesn’t suit the Yanks. And neither does Scottish independence. Never mind, we have 39 new genders we can pick from!
It is delightful to see the labour and conservatives uniting to support free school meals and the SNP having to vote against free meals for poorest children.
What a car crash
Role on 2026 (if they last that long)
I can see the headlines now
Proving yet again that the yoons serve absolutely zero point in Scotland.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh
Well said & you are correct. The British establishment, & the American, are as thick as thieves & meddling around the globe.
I think we already seen that Indy wouldn’t be allowed to democratically happen when Obama stuck his nebb in 2014, & after it, by flooding Holyrood/SNP/NGOs with bad actors intent on detailing any notion of independence & any chance of a competent government. They need their permanent partner in crime on the UN security council & they need Scotlands wealth to help fund their expeditions pretending its some kind of global player.
Sachs is an excellent person to recommend. Another is Neutrality studies, Geopolitical economy report & We love Africa channel (for UN/BRICS) or for Geopolitical news. All are on YouTube.
Their meddling is off the charts & they’re the colonisers. In U, R who they hope to split into tiny regions & China where they’ve no business patrolling their waters. Gaza is another. Illegal expansion dressed up as *defending themselves* already condemned by UN/ICJ yet just ignored. Britain only handed it’s empire to America after WW2 & they both continued. They need thrown off their perch. They’re the only ones destabilising countries, interfering in democratic elections & resorting to violence around the world in their quest to rule & seize everyone else’s resources & wealth. Even the IMF & World Bank is captured. Only giving out funds if they can control that countries domestic policies, laws & trade.
Sturgeon is a most vile individual. seduced and captured by thge cult, she has given herself over to the darkest of forces in politics!
History will not be kind. She drank from the poisoned challice.
The Currency question was the achilles heel in 2014. There hasn’t been any progress since. Surprised that topic was omitted.
Salmond looks well past his best before date. He ought to retire. Alba going nowhere fast. Only Ash still in office, and she was elected under a different colour of jersey.
I’m very disappointed that you’ve not been able to stop your inherent bias against Sturgeon et al from poisoning your views of this documentary. You’re usually pretty good at being objective even on Independence matters about which you’re passionate. But you’ll read this piece in a year or two and realise you let yourself down. Unless it’s a deliberate and cynical effort by you to show support for Salmond, regardless of his obvious failings, the greatest of which is hubris – the fatal flaw of so many would-be leaders.
Just one example of your bias:
“ Lloyd’s presence, though, is one of sheer poisonous malice from beginning to end, smirking and smearing and knifing Salmond in every moment she’s onscreen. She’s a grotesque figure, almost a pantomime villain, whose malignity is never mentioned but is conveyed solely through her face.”
Followed by the best shot you could capture of her looking nasty.
Whereas you fail to discuss the malice contained in Salmond’s words, the failure to acknowledge serious character flaws. He comes across as grotesque and malign too with his slippery language avoiding responsibility.
You also castigate Sturgeon for her incompetence – and I’d normally totally agree as I can’t stand her – but unlike Salmond, she came across as human and trying to deal with a monstrous ego that you won’t acknowledge (for some reason). It became clear that the SNP were so distracted by trying to accommodate Salmond’s ego during the Independence drive that they took their eye off the Independence ball and hit it over the bar. And for that I’ll be forever grateful to Salmond.
Poor old Sturgeon couldn’t cope with his ego and leading a political movement, thankfully for the Union. Very disappointed at your distorted interpretation of the programme.