A long time in the making
The fact that the millionaire-backed fake-grassroots “Vote No Borders” group arrived on the referendum scene with so little warning got a bit stranger yesterday with the news that the “unpolished voters” campaign has been gestating for almost two years.
Alert readers will recall that Acanchi is the London PR company run by Malcolm Offord and Fiona Gilmore, the directors of VNB. And it seems they’ve been busy.
The image above (and the one below) is taken from the LinkedIn profile of someone we’re not going to name – the profile has now been deleted – because as an intern and then a junior researcher it’s not actually possible to be sure they support a No vote. They may have just been doing what they were told as part of their job.
(We know OUR readers wouldn’t abuse them either way, but we don’t want to make it easy for either the more wild-eyed fringes of nationalism or any Unionist false-flaggers.)
The pictures show that over two separate periods of employment, separated by almost a year and dating right back to the formation of the official No campaign group, “Better Together”, in June 2012, Acanchi was working on an anti-independence strategy.
From the wording, it’s possible to speculate that they may have originally intended just to help the official campaign, but grew disillusioned with its conduct and decided in 2013 to strike out on their own, planning for months before launching in a blaze of friendly media publicity a couple of weeks ago.
Readers could be forgiven for thinking that in all that time they could at least have learned how to spell “Pollok”, found more than one voter outside Glasgow, or come up with some better lines than Mel Gibson chasing a haggis.
Maybe they are part time students at the University of Embra and are dossing down in Pollock Halls.
Whoa! The plot thickens on this mob. Going back a to 2012 and now forming a so called “grass roots” campaign, which we know is not the case. But they are getting plenty of publicity (and paying for it) on the BBC and daily Scottish newspapers.
This is what they have to show for two years’ work?
VNB is a serious threat. They would appear to have undertaken significant strategic planning and have money to burn.
Really good work highlighting all this.
The whole Vote Nob Orders charade is a load of Pollocks.
Conservative MPs packed into Committee Room 19 in the House of Commons on Monday night to hear their leader in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, issue a call to arms.
And their first instruction was not to go anywhere near Glasgow where Tory support is nothing if not thin on the ground.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27399912
If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck it must be an astroturfer duck.
We can bet they have a lot more up their sleeves for the next 4 months. let’s hope it’s of the same high quality.
So for the first period of employment they were compiling a “proposal document” and the second they have been awarded the contract, so proposal has been successful.
So who was this “proposal document” sent to? Were any other companies invited to bid? Surely there is an invitation to tender document somewhere? All this was happening in the summer of 2012.
Vote No Borders has been found out big time and should stop the charade. Can we not crowdfund an advert in the daily record and sun to expose this nonsense further?
I’ve never yet read “Meryl Streep chasing a jellied eel” in any Yes related paraphernalia and never will.
Vote no borders. Fake Fake Fake.
@Murray McCallum says
“VNB is a serious threat. They would appear to have undertaken significant strategic planning and have money to burn”
I agree with this too and they appear to be well coordinated/organised as per exposure on the BBC and MSM.
Two years to research,plan and launch, two hours to undermine!
Something fishy in the state of Acanchi.
Director goes to Cambridge, involved in Caribean, tax havens, London Bankers and Media, Israel etc.
Photographer, goes to Cambridge, PA to someone in Barbados, tax havens, works in London Media, Film Industry Corporations, takes up photography gets paid by London Bankers!
Something or somebody or some Gov Org is linking all these people together to undermine democratic expression.
Waves to GCHQ, MI5, MI6, CIA, VNB, MOSAD, etc, etc…
http://www.theimagefile.com/web/claireborley takes photos at £800 a day but it’s odd how the nob orders.com web page has lots of the great unpolished but not one photo of the big money men that are paying for it all, like the merchant banker Malcolm Orfford. God knows he’s pumped in a fortune into the Tory party for a long time and he ain’t doing that for no good reason.
First Cameron Clegg Con/Dem.gov act, cut taxes for millionaires or, pay back basically.
Interesting side thought on this, assuming (and i think it is reasonable to do so) that VNB has access to, or is a direct result of the research and ‘micro initiatives’ it would be reasonable to consider this a donation in kind from Acanchi to VNB.
Again assuming this information is used in the short campaign, would be interesting to know the market rate for such work as it would have to count as part of their £150k limit.
VNB is clearly Conservatively minded London business financed initiative that is at present targeting people that it sees as being traditional Scottish Labour voters. This element has been moving to don’t know/Yes over a period of months.
The No campaign is framing the Referendum as Labour ‘v’ SNP/Alex Salmond. I think that for Labour this will prove disastrous in the long run north and south of the border.
Good article on it here. http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/05/bbc-propaganda-hits-new-all-time-low/
It speaks volumes about the supposed existence of a Positive Case for the Union that, given two years to try and find it, they still come up with negative garbage.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/scottish-independence-blog/2014/may/01/scottish-independence-scotland
In the video (within the link above) Malcolm Offord indicates that the Union is like “a cup of hot chocolate” which he wants to keep. If there weren’t rules on this forum from preventing me from calling him a ….I’d call him a….
Anyway, I’d also like be a bit of tw&t myself (that could be twit or twot so don’t presume) and point out that eventually even a cup of the hottest of hot chocolates does cool down. T£!t!!!
Karen from Pollock …maybe her ma wis a fish….
Amazing!
The NOB’s just keep delivering.
So Question now is who paid for and ordered them to do this work in the first place(think we know the answer there!)If it was the UK GOV or a political party did they declare this in their spending? (do they have to ?)
When were the first documents and ideas delivered to the “client”.
Who was in the meetings and what were the content of correspondence between them.
anyone got more ideas? FOI could be interesting.
A colleague passed this version to me – thought it was worth posting for a laugh!
http://tinypic.com/r/2qav2x5/8
http://www.theimagefile.com/?skin=8409&Action=FL&from=9558&setpwd=&id=149461802
http://www.theimagefile.com/?skin=8409&Action=FL&from=9558&setpwd=&id=150072002
The contracted agency here that took these photos is using the unpolished people here as stock photos which means that they were all paid and part of the contract with no borders.com is that they can be used as stock photos in future projects. Wonder how much each of them got?
Difficult stuff this !
You look for popular names in Scotland that compare to the age group selected. You then create a profile to match the target group you want to pitch to and hey presto you have a grass root campaign.
I’m not buying it.
We have a professional London team trying to create something that doesn’t exist or certainly to pad out a very thin group.
It reminds me of that military team that drove around Europe during the 2nd World War. They changed truck insignia / changed uniform badges / played tank noises through speakers etc.
All to create the impression of an army that didn’t exist.
Awe this is a nice one too of Farrah http://www.theimagefile.com/?skin=8409&Action=FL&from=9558&setpwd=&id=148767602
It’s heartening to see the new paradigm of short term contracts and having to tout yourself about for work can come back to bite government on the arse. Is the guy actually looking for work? Can’t someone pay him for a short term contract to divulge whatever their strategy is?
“Nation Branding”…..that slogan just makes me laugh. I can actually see these clowns chapping the door of Bute House trying to pimp their services on Sept 19th after a Yes vote…”Hey Alex buddy, lets blue sky some ideas yah!”
Nation Branding….sounds like some sad wee doomed media character from Charlie Brookers Black Mirror series
What I want to know is, these internships, paying heehaw or zero hour contracts at best, place your bets!
You will find the positive case for the union here.
http://www.facebook.com/Tu4si
My partners and I are setting up a meta-PR company called TrustMe. Our USP is to leverage improvements to the brand image of other PR companies. Ones who have lost reputation by slipping on astroturf. Acanchi, let’s talk. 🙂
Better Together should have got this guy in (from Limmy):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1oXbTxhkKA
The Nobbers might appear to be dangerous, but I can’t see this phase of their campaign bearing much fruit. However, more sinister are their links to to the UK Government and the money they have to burn, most of which probably won’t be declared legally. It’s these unseen, under the table links that run the UK and we need to get out of it. OK, Offord and Gilmore might appear like a pair of inepts, but the next phases of their campaign do worry me. I’ve been worried for a long time about false flag actions, and I suspect this pair of London millionaires have all the right contacts. However, ordinary people undermined the massive structure that was the Soviet Union and its satellites, and we can do the same here, and give Scotland back to its people.
Its interesting googling the Tory money men behind noborders such as Malcolm Offord eg.
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/high-net-worth-unit-external-stakeholder-forum
Offord’s a member of An HMRC-sponsored forum, the High Net Worth Unit (HNWU) External Stakeholder Forum which is, The Unit deals with the personal tax affairs of the UK’s wealthiest individuals.
Offords in there via his other set up The Association of Independent Expatriate Tax Practitioners.
So if your not wanting pay much tax, it makes sense to get up close and personal with the unpolished blighters that want to tax you.
So if you’RE not wanting pay much tax, it makes sense to get up close and personal with the unpolished blighters that want to tax you.
Sorry!
Remind me again, Gavin Esler is a highly paid professional journalist isn’t he?
Acanchi’s “strategic planning” would’ve been based on data, in particular market research and polling data.
Acanchi probably would have wanted/preferred to use their own, or at least unpublished/non-public-domain, data.
If so, presumably Acanchi commissioned it (e.g. from Ipsos-Mori, Panelbase, etc) and paid for it themselves, because of course it couldn’t have been provided (free of charge) by the UK government/Cabinet Office, could it?
(Btw Stu, how many biggish polls can be done for £46k? More than one?)
What this shows is a minuscule example of how Westminster wastes tax money to maintain the status quo.
OMG – this is incredible.
It should be sent to every news outlet in this country, will they publish – what do you think?
It they don’t it should be sent to the EU, surely this is in breech of our human rights.
On the previous thread, Ian Brotherhood mentioned the ‘dark forces’ – well this is one of them.
It makes me admire AS even more because he would have been well aware of ‘them’ whilst at WM.
“If so, presumably Acanchi commissioned it (e.g. from Ipsos-Mori, Panelbase, etc) and paid for it themselves, because of course it couldn’t have been provided (free of charge) by the UK government/Cabinet Office, could it?”
Though of course, had they done that, the client would ultimately have been billed for it, plus mark-up. So who was the client? Us, the taxpayer, by any chance?
Oh dear.
They really are as plastic as they come.
guardian
Corrections and clarifications
• As the subheading on a piece in Saturday’s paper said, We were not surprised that Glasgow has produced three of this year’s Turner prize nominees.
The people of Glasgow, however, were surprised to see that the subheading described their city as Scotland’s capital.
The error was corrected, but not in time for the edition which is distributed in Scotland.
There was a tweet from this employee almost a year ago. She had accidentally tweeted publicly that her employer was paying her to tweet on Independence for two days per week.
Don’t recall the nickname. But I remember the discussions at the time.
“Reform the bloated benefits system of this country to reduce the burden on the state and, just as importantly, boost the growth rate of the country”
So say the great noborders.com Malky Offord, millionaire, banker, philanthropist, with a great tan.
Offord’s charidy gave away just over a grand last year and Offord paid £120k to the Conservative party and undisclosed amounts to Mike Gove of all Tory boys, weirdly enough. He is serious money though. Just one of his directorships is http://www.acromas.com/ parent company of everything from the AA to Direct insurance, who I’m with, rats!
Its a long long way from Jean in Pollock to the super rich of teamGB.
Vote No Pollocks
“Though of course, had they done that, the client would ultimately have been billed for it, plus mark-up. So who was the client? Us, the taxpayer, by any chance?”
FOLLOW THE MONEY! That’s the way to trip up and expose what’s going on here.
While UK establishment elites are usually personally wealthy, they hate paying for anything they think or feel they can/should get for nothing or can charge somebody else for, even if that then leaves a paper trail…it is in their DNA, can’t stop themselves feeling they are above the rules (so won’t get found out) and thinking that getting left with the bill for things is to be avoided whenever possible, and in any case paying for everything is only for the little people. This is their Achilles heel.
That is where we, and the internet come in. There WILL be evidence, a paper and/or ‘e’ trail somewhere…the more we focus on FOLLOWING THE MONEY, with less sniping about their ads and the Scots involved, the more chance we have of showing all of Scotland what is going on and who is behind it…
If anyone asks you about VNB, direct them away from the co.uk by giving them the much more relevant http://www.votenoborders.com. Better still, just don’t mention the co.uk site.
” Karen and Donna” have got very nurturing positions. Who are they targeting?
Rev. Stuart Campbell, just a wee duplicitous idea;
Why don`t we ALL – within the “YES campaign” – volunteer our own photographs to Acanchi and Offord — for payment (bribes), but after we get paid – Donate the bribes to our “YES CAMPAIGN”.
Is that too sneaky or just – “a business opporchancity”?
So the BBC were telling the truth when they said that VNB were ‘gaining momentum’ on the day of their launch.
They just weren’t telling the whole truth.
Ever wondered where UKIP came from and how they managed to get so much airtime and publicity from the BBC?
It could be a coincidence that the UKIP aim and message is onsong with some BBC political editor chap, but knowing full-well that the BBC is staffed by virtual Labour-ites, or UK establishment hacks like Andrew Neil, UKIP means something to them very important and it’s thinking out of the same box as that which has produced NOBS / BT / and Acanchi to thwart democracy.
It is getting very close to a stage when it will be inevitable that the UN will have to intervene on a human rights basis. The BBC is the propaganda platform for UKIP and NOBS and this is a completely unsustainable position from a public broadcaster which takes funds by legal threat from the very population it is grossly ill-serving.
The BBC Charter explicitly warns against partiality. How does this square with what’s happening in practice?
I’m really looking forward to the contributions from the ordinary folk in Kirkcoddy, Milnguy and Goven.
“There was a tweet from this employee almost a year ago. She had accidentally tweeted publicly that her employer was paying her to tweet on Independence for two days per week.”
Got anything more on that?
@Jamie Arriere,Whit wrang do you no like the people in
Achengoogle they deserve a mention tae.
Offord is the acclaimed author of Bankrupt Britain, a huge tome/lousy web site, all about Bankrupt Britain and acclaimed by Offord no doubt. But it’s weird that adverts online for “Bankrupt Britain” have been prominent on national news web sites like the Guardian for yonks. If Offord is paying for these ads for his own book, it’s not much of step to a paying a lot of money for a massive anti independence campaign. Plus Offord can’t yet afford a sense of irony either.
It all kicked off back in 2009 for brilliant young author with a lovely tan and a crippling fear of paying any tax
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/iainmartin/4691856/Welcome-to-Browns-Billions-a-farce-remade-as-a-tragedy.html
Do they have grass for roots to grow in Great Marlborough St., London?
“Ever wondered where UKIP came from and how they managed to get so much airtime and publicity from the BBC?”
UKIP are BBC’s/the UK establshment’s useful idiots, the equivalent of the Tea Party in the US.
BBC’s long-term underlying role/purpose is to cultivate and achieve the ‘US-ification’ of UK politics: i.e. a political system based on 2 tweedle-dee-tweedle-dum parties, both right of centre and both fundamentally (in practice if not always rhetoric) pro Big Corporate Capital.
As part of the belt and braces approach to maintaining this system, voters have to feel there is an alternative, an outlet for dissent/disapproval. It was and is the BBC’s job to ensure that the ONLY ‘alternative’ outlet given publicity/credibility is further to the Right of the 2 main parties (i.e. UKIP).
This strategy is to ensure that no meaningful chance/threat of a party to the left of the 2 parties emerges (or at least given any airtime)…which is where BBC (London)’s opposition to Scottish independence really/fundamentally emanates from.
An independent Scotland would not only most likely have parties and elect a government to the left of UK Tories and Labour, even worse for London (and Washington) these parties/politicians would get airtime (on SBC or wherever) and they would provide a credible, working alternative…
In this context, BBC Scotchland managers and hacks are just as much the Establishment’s useful idiots, being gamed, as UKIP/Farage are. The Pacific Quayers dutifully acting on the signals from BBC London to play a role in the No campaign are just pawns on a bigger geopolitical chessboard.
@Ronnie
Achengoogle? Which part of Glazgo is that in?
I’m no fussy, I like all parts of Skotlund
@Beachthistle – that’s most likely a fair analysis, but does the BBC have the right to be in that position? That’s my question and it is enforced by the legal right to demand TV licence payment, or else.
It’s obvious that the BBC is UK Westminster propagandist and now by your analysis, it comes with US bells on, but to be in that position they are completely at odds with their policy charter and responsibilities as a public broadcast service.
My point is, who invokes the human rights watch at the UN?
This is an extremely high risk strategy for BT. When the whole rotten scam is exposed it could finish BT off. The problem for Yes is getting the exposé in front of everyone.
“it’s possible to speculate that they may have originally intended just to help the official campaign, but grew disillusioned with its conduct and decided in 2013 to strike out on their own,”
It’s possible – but why would a London company spend their time doing a job without being paid?
And where else did they get 150k spending money they started with?
Even vote No or else Press and Journals mentioned that poll that Westminster wont show anyone, which is weird enough. If you get the chance, check out their awful coverage of Barney Crockett getting sacked as head of Aberdeen city cooncil. Who sacked mad old Barney? His idiot side kick, finance convener and banner of all SNP Scots.gov people from Aberdeen city council property, Wullie Young.
Mad unionists aren’t just very rich lads in London interested in tax dodging.
I hope you’re taking this to the electoral commission.
It’s undeniable now that that VoteNoBorders has misrepresented itself to the Commssion and to the public as a grassroots organisation and has been asking for donations on a false basis. The Commission is obliged to make sure whoever finances it is registered as a participant / donor in their own right.
Oops, you may want to delete my comment on the Common Sense story as I linked to the google cache of the linkedin profile last night.
I rather innocently discovered this information for myself, and thinking it was a public profile on a social network it was okay to publish.
I understand your reservations on naming and ask that my comment at about 3am be deleted. I’d buggered up the links anyway.
Sorry Stu.
“She had accidentally tweeted publicly that her employer was paying her to tweet on Independence for two days per week.”
Wouldn’t it be amusing if the NO campaign had been paying people outside Scotland to tweet and do social media stuff against independence. And, being astroturf, they were spewing out totally ignorant Braveheart nonsense which was just turning people off. Then some consultancy arm picked up that person’s tweets and turned them into statements for adverts that ended up plastered all over the media as
i what people in Scotland might really think.
@Cath 11:44
The person responsible is female and appears to be a holiday rep on a ski resort at the moment.
This should have some VERY SERIOUS implications for the BBC.
This must be addressed and they must be summoned to answer questions in parliament and held to account. Heads should roll.
How low can these people go?
This is false representation, lies and attempts to Gerrymander the Political processes. This Company (Acanchi) is breaking Company House rules and should be charge with fraud. As for supporting apartheid Israel, that says it all.
Willie Young mismanaged Aberdeen CC finances £100Million in a year. Willie Young is a crook and a fraud and should be censored. These policies will leave Aberdeen City with £Millions of debt to Muse Co for years. The Unionist parties have allowed this to happen.
The Scottish Gov audiitors should step in to censor Young and the Council. Young and Crockett better together in a cell.
Party is the one that has allowed the corruption to happen.
Notice how Osbourne’s face always goes red when he is telling lies. Every time his lips move.
Like a Red to a Bull. People in Scotland will vote YES at the sight of Osbourne and the rest of the tax evading Unionists crooks. Defrauding £10Billion of Scottish revenues, a year.
The fathom train to nowhere is designed to defraud £Billions of public monies by Osbourne’s tax evading family and the Associates. There is absolutely no business case for the HS2. A total waste of monies. The public monies should be spent taking the Railways into public ownership and improving the service.
A LibDem’s PR? Company was paid £30,000+ of public monies for Independence Polls,
Curtice’s Dept gets £Millions (of public monies) in Grants for (Indy?) Polls from – Unionists Alistair Darling/BT. All in I together.
The Referendum is trying into a Unionists feast on public monies.
this story is quite jaw-dropping. Where are all the investigative journalists & sleuth hacks? Have they all been warned off by their newspapers? Has this story been in Private Eye? Come on BBC. Let your Panorama team loose on this one haha
Apart from people on Wings website. Newsnet & some other concerned democrats , Who will make sure this murky world is exposed in the everyday media that feeds a huge amount of the electorate with this unremitting propaganda. If a website like Wings can turn up this stuff then surely a reporter with experience of smelling political & financial rats would love to get their teeth into this. Who knows where it might end up. Secret Service? Government? Faceless Unionist Grandees of all Parties. If there is a no vote on the 18th then on the 19th these forces will melt away & leave barely a trace they ever existed.
Could somebody direct me to the link that proves these people in the photos are NOT Scottish
So many moaners but not one who is willing to instigate action to stop these obvious contraventions of the rules.
I can only find one post where a contributor said he/she was going to contact the Electoral Commission, but has not returned to the subject.?
When the BBC in Scotland is so blatantly skewed to the Union side and STV is copying them – do something to stop them.
Moaning doesn`t cut-it.
Write to OFCOM.
Demonstrate outside their BBC and STV Studios in Scotland.
Write to the Press Complaints Commission.
When Brian Allan was using 7 (seven) addresses to spout his Unionist bile several times per week in the Letters Page of the Express – I got him stopped.
When the CCTV.Cameras in my local Polling Station were monitoring the Ballot – on Polling Day – I got it stopped.
It seems to be that — If Rev.Stu. doesn`t take action – No action is taken by anyone else in the YES millieu.?
Moaning to like-minded moaners achieves zero.
Big new news – Ian Davidson M.P. Hates Nats., and twice per month at Scots.Q.`s and the Scots Grand Comm. Wings Wastes a couple of days per telling each other that Davidson is being bad to us.??
Four or five days per month where we are letting Brown, Darling and wee Duggie – off the hook.
They are the masters of distraction and we are falling for flim-flam. Grow up.
May Irepeat – LET`S MAKE MONEY FOR “YES”.
For a fee, let`s offer our own photographs to Acanchi.
Take their cheque.
Counter-sign it.
Post it to the “YES Campaign”.
When PR Companies are allowed to bend or break all the rules, when National tv. and Unionist politicians are all allowed to break the rules – I AM NOT AVERSE TO JOINING THEIR CLUB. In Opposition.
Good for the goose – is good for the gander.
We are fighting for our Freedom.
There are zero rules in this war.
“THEY” DO NOT OBEY ANY RULES – BUT WE MUST.??
P.S.
Merely by offering the threat that “YES CAMPAIGNERS” are only too willing and able to exploit the Acanchi PR photo-system by taking their bribes, we have probably Closed that publicity campaign to them.
However, we may be able to fund “YES” – with their money – when they make a new attempt in another area.
Anyone want to bet that journalists will not question “BamCam” on his Boundary Change Legislation that excludes his Scots Tory voters from representation at Westminster, but gains his party 20 x new tory seats in England.
Cameron arrives today in Scotland – to fake – saving the Union.
Before enacting legislation that disenfranchises his idiots.?
Ceding Scotland to Mibbeland. And Lament. O.M.G.
Of course, with the collusion of Scottish labour party peers, lib.dem. peers and tory peers this despicable legislation has been “Delayed” – Until after – the Independence Referendum.??
Scots tories vote to highlight their own idiocy.
Will feign outrage – after it is too late.
I won`t hold my breath waiting for Scots journalists to take “BamCam” to task on this fundamental right to democratic representation for his own Scots tories.
The end game for Malcolm Offord and his like is there to see; he’s taken a ton of money from Scotland haters, and some sort of renumeration for himself.
When Yes wins the Referendum Offord is a dead duck. Money men hate losers. In particular they hate people who squander their ill-gotten loot and have nothing to show for it except how they got fat on a percentage.
Vote SNP 1 – Green 2 at next years Holyrood election to decimate the Unionist list MSPs and give the Scottish Parliament numbers to take the Independence campaign forward.