Wings Over Scotland

That gave me a good smile.

Nighty-night.

Bloody hell, Stu! Next time, please give some prior warning before asking us to view something so gruesome! Perhaps such as the following:

Warning! This article contains a scene of graphic nature.

How am I supposed to sleep now after viewing that?! 

Crikey! Is it Hallowe’en again? I thought all the evil monsters were put down until the next one.

Doncha just love the Daily Mail?

link to dailymail.co.uk

Readers, I acknowledge the talk of how we should be targeting the ‘no’ voters or that we would be better concentrating on the ‘devo-maxers’as our best chance to increase our numbers. There is also an argument for the ‘undecided’voter to be targeted. First of all (and I wish to make it clear I am not being complacent) I firmly believe we already have enough people who have listened to the arguments so far and decided in their heart of hearts that they will be voting yes come 2014. However, I still believe we should be increasing our efforts to convince voters of not only voting yes but why they should voting yes, This will help ensure that after the referendum the framework is already in place that encourages stronger social cohesion. This will be vital to the nation in the task of rebuilding a better Scotland. With this in mind, I think we should all be targeting an all encompassing demographic.
The passionate people who sport yes/no t-shirts and badges aside, it is pretty difficult to determine a person’s voting intentions just by looking at them. A vast majority of voters have either ‘switched off’ from the MSM’s constant one-sided negative narrative or have never engaged with the whole debate in the first place. So how are these voters getting their information? Social media with prodigious coverage like‘Wings’ are fantastic for highlighting and allowing readers to highlight the shortcomings of the no campaign in the MSM. Amongst other great advantages, it also allows less informed readers (like myself) to see through the lies and ‘double’speak the no campaign trundles out on a daily basis. Whilst social websites serve an invaluable purpose and a real need for further debate, they unfortunately do not directly reach the ‘No’ and the undecided voter. The one voter the sites like ‘Wings and NNS’ do resonate with though, is the committed, and information‘hungry’ yes voter. If, as suggested earlier, any group should be ‘targeted’ perhaps we should look at concentrating on this demographic. For these yes voters, are the ones who have the best chance of ‘swaying’ voters amongst us who are in the no or undecided camp. What we discuss here on ‘Wings’ gives us ammunition and the true facts to use whilst in conversation with this group within our respective communities. In spite of this, I’m not sure how effective, at present, the social media is at engendering a feeling of confidence in some yes voters? I recall the other day Morag’s post, confessing of her embarrassment when she realised she had slipped on a light jacket on the way to choir practice and was mortified when she much later discovered it had a small Yes badge on the collar. Someone else mentioned how they met a friend as they were on the way to a yes meeting and was reticent to admit to them where they were headed.
So why then, this apparent resistance to being a ‘loud and proud’ advocate of Independence? Looking at the content in the MSM it is obvious that they have (to some degree) succeeded in their secondary objective of turning off voters to the whole debate. This negative tactic has, in part, succeeded in realising their primary objective, which is to make any discussions within the community, uncomfortable and therefore effectively, shutting down the debate. Consequently, the only way the positive benefits of a yes vote will be conveyed, is by the grass roots yes voters becoming more ‘resilient’ and starting the conversation within their respective communities. In order for this to happen, they must first surmount the feelings of awkwardness and run the risk of public humiliation. Only then can they begin to state the positive case for Independence. I personally think this is the true nature of the apparent stagnation of the yes vote. Moreover, this scenario is likely to go unchanged until such times as the grass roots voters become more visible and vocal, thus creating the momentum that will allow the more introverted yes voters to openly campaign.
So my question to you is – Is there any way to combat this attitude and make the yes voter more confident?

@Laura

 I agree Laura, a year to go on its own will be a long hard campaign. I’d say the whitepaper will be the real kick off. In the meantime firefighting and busting myths is a pretty sound strategy. Every now and again over the next 9-10 months I’d expect the YES campaign to have a release or an event to keep the pot simmering. I’d also expect the SG to keep on keepin’ on or simply govern well.

Rope a dope.

Its fairly well known that the media are holding the NO campaign together.  Without them their whole argument falls to pieces. With them they are allowed to carpet bomb the Scottish government and YES campaign with impunity. However they are finding it hard going to find a chink in either’s armour. They are desperate to find a scandal to destroy Alex or Blair and the latest tactic of baiting cybernats is beneath contempt. The big boys of the no campaign are targeting civilians since they’re having trouble beating down their direct opposition. Still without any scandal they’re swingin’ hard and missing. In such a long campaign they’ll need stamina and without it are beginning to look tired and winded. People are turned off to their constant campaign strategy of scare and smear. Result? Almost total indifference, plummeting newspaper sales and a barrage of media complaints.

By comparison look at the campaigning to date by YES or the SG. Or rather how little campaigning or coverage. Other than the campaign launch last year and the non aligned march in September, just how much have they done? We’ve been subjected to almost two years of constant political and media negative campaigning since May 2011. But what have they actually had to hit other than smoke and mirrors? Exposing themselves time and again to dedicated people online who have the arguments, facts and counter questioning to hand to kick every story into touch.

I think when the whitepaper is launched into public view the counter campaign will begin in earnest. Mainly because everything that is in the whitepaper will need very public and very loud backing. That campaign will be appear for all the world to be fresh, up for it and swingin’ hard.

Rope a dope. 

The latest attempt by BBC Scotland and the pet MSM to smother Nicolas comments in Dublin, regarding Cameron and the EU are so blatant and transparent. The Glenn Campbell clone Raymond Buchanan dug out some Irish politico who was willing to spout the lies he wanted us to hear, it has all become so predictable now with BBC Scotlands Comical Ali army.

www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0038/00386123.pdf
Sorry, quick google just found it… November 2013

If I were a betting man (cough). I’d be looking for a flurry of events and releases by both the YES campaign and SG slightly before the release. Watch for the independence march and speakers this September as a flag. Thereafter it should be Thunderbirds are go right up until polling day. 🙂

The independence march should be assembled on Glasgow Green this year, march right through the city and on to Georges Square. Or perhaps have two, one for Edinburgh and one for Glasgow. Park on the enemies lawn. Holyrood Park and Georges Square.

@cauld tattie.
 
Yep! And Scotland’s answer to ‘Save the Whale’ immediately expressed her doubt regarding those percentages.
I had to turn the radio off. That woman is the antithesis of all that is good in my country.

Turnbull Drier
 
 
“I thought that because they were now a regional paper they didn’t have to publish figures?”

  
Not so often, I think.
 

@ James Morton
 
“That woman and her legacy should be old news by now.”
 
I agree with the sentiment, but unfortunately it is more than a bad smell that she left behind. The attack she led on local democracy and on the freedom of association (rights to union representation), underscore the whole political discourse today. She ushered in the neoliberal orthodoxy that has lead to our public infrastructure suffering, while the losses of private banks are socialised. It has lead to the perception that government’s primary role is the creation of a “good business environment”, rather than a good “social environment”. The end result of this philosophy has been the greatest concentration of wealth in human history. The really sad fact regarding all of this, is that it is a self-perpetuating cycle. Capital continues to accumulate, while the fabric of society is being ripped to shreds.

Thatcher will never be ‘old news’ to myself and my friends.
 I was a young man when she came to power. My first vote was in the ’79 referendum. Over the years of her reign, traditional industry was shut down in Scotland in her rage against trade unionism and society. Friends of mine were made redundant, with no hope of future work but a sense of failure that was no fault of their own.
. Kids today are ‘lucky’, they can escape into cheap drugs. All we had was glue or smack. Many of my friends who went down the smack route died on the streets of London.
Myself and friends have long arranged to take the day off work when she eventually pegs out. A grand day on the piss will follow. I only hope she hangs on in her piss and dribble to hear the 2014 result.
Alba gu brath.

@ Juteman
 
Yes, it would be nice for her to see us vote Yes. I do not think she would agree though.