Auntie’s Twilight
Television’s transforming before our eyes, as both what we watch and how we watch it changes. An ever-greater number of programmes shown through increasing mediums. But that doesn’t equate to balanced political coverage being provided, quality product displayed, or distinct countries reflected.
The United States, despite the great wealth and talent available to it in Hollywood and elsewhere, is the worse for the absence of a properly funded and high quality public broadcasting service. Its society is the poorer and its democracy badly distorted by its absence. It’s why Scotland needs a properly funded public broadcaster.
It’s even more important in smaller nations where otherwise language and culture can be lost, never mind the world required to be seen through someone else’s lens. What masquerades as Scottish public broadcasting at the moment is a pale imitation of what exists elsewhere, and fails to deliver on almost every requirement.
Even devolved, not independent, nations do better. Quebec and Catalonia both have considerably greater broadcasting rights, never mind a far wider public broadcasting service on screen, than what’s available in Scotland.
The issue’s longstanding, though it was brought to prominence by the referendum in 2014. The bias was clear, and was acknowledged and even celebrated by Unionist commentators. Nothing though has changed since, despite Scottish politics diverging ever more from the rest of the UK, and despite hollow promises.
So it’s perhaps not a surprise that the BBC’s latest annual report shows a startling drop in licence fee revenue from Scotland. In just two years the Corporation has seen £30 million lost from Scottish viewers – almost 10% of its 2018 income and almost 40% of the total £80m it spends on Scotland – even as the Scottish population has grown.
BBC LICENCE FEE REVENUE (SCOTLAND)
2017: £321m
2018: £324m
2019: £311m
2020: £294m
In political coverage Brexit – an issue of low priority to most voters – was boosted to prominence, and Farage endlessly platformed with no basis in electoral support north of the border. Conversely, third party status for the SNP in Westminster has never been accorded reciprocal political exposure on UK screens.
Other viewing genres fare likewise. Culture and society are marginalized and much of what appears from historians is of a decidedly British hue. On sport Scottish successes in minority sports are routinely ignored, yet even major events like the national football teams’ critical fixtures are absent from our screens.
All that was bad enough, but the situation now appears to be worsening and not simply in terms of BBC Scotland coverage but for the BBC as an entity across the UK. It was once an institution and even a flagship of the Britain that some idolized and dreamed of a resurgence with a No vote. Some of that was mythological but there was still a great deal of respect for it both in Scotland and abroad.
But all that is being undermined by the Tory government – some on the free-market wing actively seeking its demise, others just seeking control and a neutering of the organization. The halcyon days of Lord Reith and supposed political neutrality are long gone. Instead a former Tory candidate is appointed Director General, and the names being bandied about for Chair show a clear intention to take control.
It was for that reason that colleagues and I wrote to Tim Davie, the Director General, and to Oliver Dowden, the UK Secretary for Digital Culture Media and Sport, seeking to have powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament and the right to raise revenue to support it. Change in Scotland is needed and as changes in the UK are contemplated now’s the time to strike.
Until and especially when Scotland becomes independent, public service broadcasting is vital. Ensuring it’s either impartial or at least muted in its hostility to the view of more than half of the population is important for reasons which should be obvious and uncontroversial. Also, upon independence it’ll be easier to build a new broadcaster from an established service rather than start from scratch in creating one.
Sadly, the response we’ve received from Tim Davie [appended below this post – Ed] is to echo his Tory political masters – a denial of the problems and just a pledge to deliver more of the same.
Many Yessers have already refused to pay a licence fee, so incensed were they by the coverage in 2014. Others, perhaps even some former No voters, will be disgusted at the decline in service but the increase in open partisanship. Proposed changes to decriminalize the licence fee – if implemented, as seems likely – will further increase willingness to participate in boycotts.
But there’s strength in numbers and much more effect when coordinated. It’s why the Yes movement needs to discuss and prepare. Serious consideration needs given to a non-payment campaign, and if agreed then it needs organized. That must come from within the movement, not from one party or elected members.
The strength of the anti-poll-tax movement wasn’t just its grassroots structure but its community activity. Much political campaigning is on hold with coronavirus, but discussion can commence, and much can still be done. There’s frustration at political activity being moribund and political leadership far too conformist, if not even supine. Well, here’s an that issue the grassroots can direct and where people can participate from sitting in their own home.
“No taxation without representation” is a cry that first rang out centuries ago. Maybe its time for the Yes movement to argue likewise for Scottish public broadcasting.
.
Kenny MacAskill is the SNP MP for East Lothian.
.
———————————————————————————–
“Dear Angus, Douglas, Kenny and Neale,
Thank you for your letter and attached document.
Firstly, let me assure you that I am highly committed to the delivery of the BBC’s public service obligations in Scotland and in all of the UK’s nations. Indeed, my very first day in the role as Director-General last month was spent in Glasgow, working with BBC Scotland colleagues. In my first speech as DG, later that same week, I said that if we are going to get closer to our audience we need an organisation that is based more across the UK, helping to stimulate the creative economy around the country; and we will look to make the BBC less rather than more London-based.As the leader of the BBC, I know that every house in Scotland has to feel that their Licence Fee of £157.50 offers excellent value. I take that challenge. That is what we are about.
The BBC recently enhanced this commitment by introducing the largest investment in a generation into content-making in Scotland, resulting in the launch of the BBC Scotland channel and a new agreement with Screen Scotland. This agreement included a commitment by the BBC to deliver to network channels each year from Scotland a minimum of three drama series, three comedy titles and three high-impact factual series, ensuring a strong number of TV productions made in Scotland are running on the BBC network services too.
The BBC Scotland channel, although only 18 months old, is already the most-watched digital channel in Scotland, and in the most recent figures, 75% of adults rated it as effective at delivering the BBC’s public purposes in Scotland. It of course sits alongside a range of other Scottish content on BBC One Scotland, BBC ALBA, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
Turning now to some of the further key aspects of your letter and paper, you reference the BBC’s coverage of the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefings. As with the equivalent briefings in England and Wales, the BBC has to date shown all of the Scottish Government’s briefings, so they weren’t “reinstated” – they had always been there.
As I know you will recognise, the BBC must ensure that all of our coverage is not only accurate and informative but also duly impartial, fully in line with the demands of our Editorial Guidelines and with those of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. In the early stages of the pandemic, there was broad cross-party support for the measures introduced in Scotland and for their implementation, but there is undoubtedly increasing divergence of thought in Scotland on how policy decisions could be made.
The BBC has specific regulatory requirements placed upon it, both by its own Editorial Guidelines and by the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, around ensuring due impartiality when policy judgements are being aired. Impartiality, across the BBC, is a key priority for me, as I made very clear in my first week as Director-General.
In your paper to me, you also note that you are calling for the devolution of broadcasting, an alternative method of funding public broadcasting and a consultation on the future of public service broadcasting. The matter of where legislative powers over broadcasting policy rest in the devolved settlement is clearly not a matter for the BBC.
However, on funding, the Licence Fee is the model agreed for the BBC until 2027, and when viewers are asked, it remains the most popular model for funding the BBC, as shown in polling and in the responses to the Charter Review consultation.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Parliament already has a role in shaping the future of the BBC. The BBC, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and the DCMS signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2015, itself approved by the Scottish Parliament that year, to ensure that the Parliament in Edinburgh was an important part of the process when the BBC’s charter was reviewed and renewed most recently, and on all subsequent occasions.
That renewal process included a large public consultation covering a number of the questions you discuss, including around the remit of public service broadcasting and how it is funded. The BBC’s Charter and Agreement, running to 2027, was approved unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in October 2016, following scrutiny both in Committee and in the parliamentary chamber.
The new BBC Scotland channel was also welcomed cross-party at Holyrood in a debate the following Spring. The BBC’s Annual Report & Accounts are now laid every year at the Scottish Parliament and BBC witnesses appear as required at the Parliament’s committee sessions.
I should also add that the process for the appointment of the Non-Executive Director for Scotland on the BBC Board already provides for a joint appointment by the Scottish Government and the DCMS.
Thank you again for taking the time to make contact with me, and I know my colleagues at BBC Scotland would be pleased to discuss with you further, in due course, your thoughts on the BBC’s delivery of its public services in the nation.
Best wishes,
TimTim Davie
Director-General”
Lord Reith? He was told by the government of the time to suppress voices in support of the 1926 General Strike, and did so.
(See http://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ourbeeb/general-strike-to-corbyn-90-years-of-bbc-establishment-bias/)
The BBC has never truly been independent.
BBC…
BRITNAT Brainwashing Channel producing blatantly biased coverage.
What are the equivalent revenue figures for England and Wales? Might not be a uniquely Scottish thing given how dire they are and the rise of subscription services
6 years on from Indy vote and SNP Mp’s have written a letter complaining of impartiality !!
Jeez give me strength as these wishy washy Mps are playing us. Its absolutely pitiful the state of the Party, if you look at the revenue created a new Channel should have been started and we could have an actual factual news, sports, music channel giving us an option to watch.
We have absolutely zilch of getting Independence with this mob if a f**king letter is the best course of action!!
Good point Craig P. The BBC was also one of the inspirations for Orwell’s 1984 I think.
I don’t know that we need an all powerful national broadcaster post independence. I can just imagine the woke shit propaganda and brainwashing it would purvey.
Long grass comes to mind.
Donalda did nothing much.
The facts are that even fewer people would have TV licenses if they were not just a tax for having a TV.
If they were simply a charge for watching/using the BBC, and funding it thereby, people would be ditching them in their droves (more so than now).
I suspect this is, and has been for some time, known and is why caveats such as ‘any TV as live’ are thrown in and people are effectively charged twice in some instances to watch the same thing. It’s the only way the lights have been kept on even till now.
Dross is on Bbc 1 right now slagging of the Scottish Government .
UK NewsPublished: Jun 16, 2020
Public trust in media plummets in UK with just 28% trusting most news – research
Trust in news in the UK is among the lowest in the world, according to the data.
… Trust in the BBC with the most partisan groups has fallen by 20 percentage points since 2018, according to the research…
Source: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/06/16/public-trust-in-media-plummets-in-uk-with-just-28-trusting-most-news-research/
slagging * off * the Scottish Government .
I am led to believe that half of the old boys clubs have found new positions in ofcom, so how independent is ofcom.
“It’s why the Yes movement needs to discuss and prepare. Serious consideration needs given to a non-payment campaign, and if agreed then it needs organized. That must come from within the movement, not from one party or elected members.”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding, Kenny. Entrenched BBC bias is a side issue as the clock ticks down to Scotland becoming a region of brexited no-deal Tory England, while the SNP’s woke arse sits on a pile of mandates to give us the choice of an Indy alternative. The ONLY thing the YES movement should be contemplating organizing is threatening to boycott the SNP if it doesn’t get its finger out and deliver what it was elected and mandated several times over to do.
BBC Scotland has about as much impartiality as the Scottish Conservative Party and Scottish Labour Party.
The Scottish Conservative Party is a branch of The Conservative (and Unionist) Party
The Scottish Labour Party is part of The labour Party.
BBC Scotland is a branch of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The Conservative Party is NOT based in Scotland but is run in London, for London.
The Labour party is NOT based in Scotland but is run in London and used to be for people in ‘the North’ but is now run for a small group of people in London.
The BBC is NOT based in Scotland but is run in London, for London and the South East.
Having worked in the BBC for over 32 years I can tell you that things that happen openly are just NOT HAPPENING when it makes the BBC uncomfortable to admit their existence. e.g. bullying, harassment, sexism, anti-independence bias, ageism, racism etc..
The leaders within the BBC live in their own bubble believing the assurances they receive from colleagues.
re Tim Davie’s denial of anti-independence bias when challenged makes me think of Mandy Rice’s comment re Lord Astor’s denial…“.. he would, wouldn’t he..
Donalda McKinnon – “We’ll win back trust in the BBC”
Donalda finally left her job last week. Went quietly, no fanfare. Bet you didn’t hear about that on the BBC.
From the BBC Charter, as renewed in 2016 and effective from January 1 2017 for ten years:
“The BBC should bring people together for shared experiences and help contribute to the social cohesion and wellbeing of the United Kingdom.”
That appears to be interpreted by many a BBC boss as an actual requirement to stamp out Scottish Independence — a BritNat mission now augmented by Westminster’s toxic Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill/Act with its crusade to neutralise any threat to the economy of the glorious United Kingdom. (More of Bowie’s “get used to it.”)
Joe of the Coutts @ 12.40
Ah but, she issued a very clever quote: “… and winning them back will take a lot of work” One can only assume that she was not prepared to do ‘a lot of work’.
Ian Blackford failing again to nail that ‘once in a generation’ nonsense on Politics Live where a group of unionists are backed up with archived footage that Nicola Sturgeon has shackled us with repeated statements to that effect.
Philippa Whitford , I think, had a good reply which I can’t find, maybe Ian Blackford should have a look.
Leaders come and leaders go, circumstances change. If NS goes there is no one else they can hang this on. Please someone, have a word with anyone from the SNP who goes on TV that they should be prepared for this ridiculous argument and all the others that seem to catch them out again and again and sort it out, once and for all.
Great article from Kenny!
I think it is worth pointing out that while the indy referendum coverage by the BBC was an absolute disgrace, and while overall quality has been slipping for a while, there is still a lot that the BBC still does well – people in many countries would love to have a public broadcaster of the BBC’s quality. And that is no under further thread.
Alas I can’t see any solution to the BBC’s Scotland problem without full devolution of broadcasting. And as that just isn’t going to happen this side of independence, is there anything that can be done before then?
Tim might not want to read this but this afternoon he’ll be another £157:50 down.
So Donalda admitted to a problem that Tim D can’t / won’t see. Licence numbers will tell if things have magically improved. Bets?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_broadcasting_in_the_United_States
The USA is too massive and decentralised to have one publicly funded broadcaster. Far, far larger than Scotland (or even this whole island from top to bottom), the idea of one single BBC-like entity straddling all its states and feeding everybody the same information, which might well be propaganda when the government sees fit, is anachronism in this day and age. It harks back to WWII, with cinema and radio broadcasts soberly and somberly intoning “Go ahead, London.” And that’s before you factor in the fact that many people (more on the right) object to paying for commie communal trash like Sesame Street!
What would the sound of a publicly funded broadcaster in Scotland be? Middle class Edinburgh or Glasgow slightly-Scottish RP, as usual? The net killed the idea of centralised (propaganda) media pipelines stone dead, and, given the variety of chances for sites like this to exist, that’s mostly a good thing. Media monopoly is a bad idea at the best of times; just ask Rupert Murdoch.
Stop looking to America for anything. It’s a lost cause. As its political leakage into this country over recent years has unfortunately proved.
we need a colourful tartan campaign.
the BBC is offering us no colour
right now a black and white tv licence is £53.
switching to it would register more effectively, without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Johnny, the TV licence is not for ‘owning a tv’. It is if you have a device capable of receiving or recording live broadcast television.
It covers all channels, yet the only ‘catch-up’ service covered by this tax is bbc iplayer.
We have multiple tv screens in our house, yet no aerial, subscription to live programmes etc. Therefore we do not require a licence.
Netflix and Prime have been enough since 2014 for us.
Regarding the above letter. WM will never relinquish control of broadcasting, as it’s the only way to easily keep the masses brainwashed and misinformed. Just as they will never allow another vote, they will never loosen the leash on Scotland.
Thank you Mr MacAskill for your and your friends efforts with regards to the BBC, however most Scots already know that you’re wasting your time with this particular injustice.
As long as Scotland remains part of this unfit for purpose union we will be marginalised by, not just the BBC, but by most of the “British” media, only independence will redress the balance.
(Cough) is there anyone from the Yes movement willing to act and organise this direct mass protest against the bedrock of the British Establishment and make it visible outside Pacific Quay while keeping within Covid rules.
The BBC are the main propaganda channel for Westminster.
You only get the top jobs in there if you are all for King and the
Empire types. Be a good boy in there and you will be very well rewarded.
No form of U.K. media of any reasonable size works for the greater good
Of the general public but they are owned by the very rich who want to keep
Their very lucrative status quo not matter who gets hurt in the process.
Papers like the Herald and the Scotsman must be losing money, as well as readers
With outrageously biased and bizarre headlines.
Rich paymasters keep it going as controlling the media gives control over the electorate.
Just watched so called BBC Scotland give an open mic to Douglas Ross, outrageous liar and latest
Scottish Tory leader. It seems all things Tory are great and all things SNP is a disgrace.
He has no power in Hollywood, we all know he has to do as Tory London tell him so why are we giving him a free ride for a party political broadcast and not asking a Scottish government spokesperson?
Suzanne K @ 1:11pm:
Thanks for the clarification.
I realise that you are correct when I consider the measures taken around laptops/iPlayer. I do stand by my comment that the if it were not the case that licensing was required for all ‘as live’ stuff then significantly more people would have ditched the license.
I very much agree that power over broadcasting will never be given.
I’m sure I’ve commented here before that – from our experience down here in England’s First Colony(TM) – a campaign of refusal to pay is the only effective way forward.
You will need initially about 1000 people from all walks of life – but with a group of publicly-prominent folk openly involved amongs them – who make a binding commitment to refuse to pay the Ukanian Propaganda Tax.
Then you see what the ‘authorities’ do about it.
If they come after the campaigners, then you get, say, ten more people who will then commit to doing the same for every one of the original campaigners who is prosecuted.
Any attempts at imprisonment or seizure of assets (do you still have ‘poinding’ up there? That’s what was used in the Poll Tax prosecutions, wasn’t it?) should then be met with non-violent direct action to prevent it.
If nothing else, the reputational damage to the Boris Brainwashing Cult (Scotland sub-region) would likely be so severe that the Cult either caves in on at least the most important points or goes right down the Swannee with all hands.
Either is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
We never saw realistic regular coverage from the bbc on all the Scottish independence marches that were held, that was deliberately evasive. And not broadcast to the rest of Britain,
British broad casting, I think not.
Mr McAskill ,
Thank you for this and also this article was in the National yesterday ,
“BBC Scotland’s troubles are because the corporation is living “in a bubble” and “sticking its fingers in its ears” rather than listening to its audience, a leading journalist and media academic has warned.
Speaking today on Good Morning Scotland, associate professor and investigative journalist Dr Eamonn O’Neill accused the BBC of using impartiality as a “shibboleth” or excuse and failing to address the real issues. “
https://archive.vn/lefQF
The problem for the Bbc and other TV channels and I would also include newspapers in this , Is that now we have access to the internet and we can receive our news from all around the world and we have the choice of what we want to watch and read and we are not limited to what the TV channels decide to show us and what the newspapers decide to print .
What Scotland needs is a pirate TV station.
We could crowd-fund it.
I’d happily put in the licence fee amount.
There’s plenty old oil rigs out there…
If the SNP don’t want a dedicated TV channel made in Scotland for Scotland, then it won’t happen.
If NS did, she’d have released all her policies through Broadcasting Scotland or LiveIndy (IndyLive?) first, but you’re lucky if an independent channel can get a look in at a daily Covid report.
NS brown noses all the daily rags and indeed, handed over 6 million to the Scottish press earlier this year (probably to keep quiet over something she didn’t want released to the public, but let’s go with the ‘retaining jobs’ trope).
Noble effort, Kenny, but no point in asking for any of this, until we’re independent.
So Scotland sends £294m to London and gets £80m back.
Another £200m+ subsidy to London from Scotland.
There’s a good reason why ‘programming’ is called ‘programming’.
I got another one of their threatening letters yesterday for the £157 smackaroonies.
No dain it, jail me fine me. Couldn’t care less unless i miss a Scotland game on BBC , OH, wait a minute, what Scotland game? They had the mordacity to screen the England game last week here.
Do wan BBC.
Just adding to my previous comment – we need several pirate TV stations.
An act of resistance would be to jam BBC broadcasts.
I agree that people should boycott paying the tv licence (tax), it’s disheartening that more people people aren’t doing this already.
I don’t think we should be earnestly trying to have it devolved, by all means kick up fuck about it, nothing wrong with pointing out how shite they are but independence takes care of this issue all by itself.
The BBC is a weapon deployed by our political enemies at the drop of a hat, there’s nothing good about them at all. Every other country seems to manage without them.
I’m afraid the SNP were posted as “missing” during the big protests outside BBC Scotland HQ at Pacific Quay in the last referendum.
We were looking for back up from them regarding BBC bias and not a peep came from the SNP.
And to this day, the SNP refuse to critisize the BBC, especially their Scottish branch.
Breastplate 1.56pm
You mean they actually want you to pay them money for being lied to?
From a chat with Ken Loach:
Do you think on-demand TV is something a young Ken Loach could tap into?
No, it isn’t happening. The BBC is controlled by government. The people who control independent TV are, again, government-linked. The government dishes out the franchises and the people who get the franchises will sing the song the government wants to hear. Tony Benn said we don’t need the KGB here because we’ve got the BBC, and it’s true. There has to be fundamental changes in how broadcasting is organised for it to represent the breadth of opinion there is in the country.
Original link: https://www.shortlist.com/news/ken-loach-speaks-out
Wee Ginger Dug blogger Paul Kavanagh’s fundraiser, if anyone wishes to donate or not, that’s fine. It’s entirely voluntary.
It’s not an invitation to criticise him or his blog:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/wee-ginger-rehab-fundraiser?utm_medium=email&utm_source=product&utm_campaign=p_email%2B2300-co-team-welcome
In reply to Silverdarling at 104pm
Here’s Phillipa answering it last month on Newsnight, starts about 90 seconds from the end
https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1301647918064119811
I believe the late lamented Mr. Peffers used to constantly assert the licence is a tax not a fee to watch the telly. The BBC will always get the cash it needs to be what it is- the state broadcaster. They will privatise everything using pay-per-view a la Netflix etc as the right wing want. They will NEVER give up the “News” function, and they will NEVER devolve it.
Ronald Fraser @ 1:56
“And to this day, the SNP refuse to critisize the BBC, especially their Scottish branch.”
It’s worse than that – I seem to recall certain SNP mouthpieces jumping to the defence of the BBC back in 2014.
They should’ve been listening to the NUJ guy who spoke at the demo’s, I forget his name, but he didn’t miss and hit the wall when it came to the management culture in the place.
Cannae help wi’ the boycotting of the tv tax. Son, daughter, sister in law and me and the auld man all cancelled it in Sept. 2014. So that’s four houses down.
Cannae say that any of us have missed it, and by the look of the numbers, there’s a lot more than just us doing the same thing.
£157 quid to be ridiculed and lied to, no thanks. Plenty better info elswhere.
Underlying much of problem Scots have regarding the BBC is the simple fact that it is, to all intents and purposes, a foreign broadcaster legislated for by a foreign legislature. It’s culture, content, views and opinions have and will remain as a reflection of the fact that it has forever been an English organisation through-and-through.
In those long-gone times when many Scots considered themselves to be British, the inherent tensions of that designation rarely manifested their presence. It is only with the coming of a Scottish consciousness that those same tensions have become so blindingly obvious. The BBC can never be reformed—let’s lose it.
Take away BBC4 (which is, for all intents and puroposes, being downgraded in favour of yoof BBC3) and Radio 3 plus the occasional radio documentary, and there’s not much left.
Colin Alexander, for those not aware, Mr Kavanagh recently suffered a stroke.
@Abalha
Thank You! That was the one. It needs to be said and a clear consistent message from any SNP politician appearing on the BBC. They know the questions that will come up and yet they seem caught out each time. Ian Blackford was rattled.
The tactic at present seems to be look how disrespectful the Tories are and for the folk who do not watch the Parliament channel that might not always work.
A couple of things…
1) If we had devolved control over the BBC in Scotland, or something similar, it would be used to undermine people like Kenny Mcaskill and pump lies into the minds of Scots on a variety of subjects, including the Salmond stitch-up.
That’s not to be confused for an argument against independence; it’s actually an argument for it. As we are finding out now with regards to Scotland’s Civil Service which -despite all the lip service and allusions to its independence vis a vis politicians – has been totally compromised in the last couple of years.
2) If there’s one area where the free market has flourished and established that it can provide fantastic services (that public service broadcasting couldn’t possibly hope to compete with), it’s in the area of digital broadcasting and streaming.
I know the left generally wants to imagine that the free market is something evil and separate from society but in this area it’s not, it’s right in amongst us playing a much valued role in our homes providing us with excellent entertainment.
I don’t think we necessarily need a publicly funded BBC-styled entity in Scotland. Right now the idea just scares me. It would be back to back lies and the usual cultural gruel.
The 2014 campaign did not challenge BBC or MSM bias. That was because 2014 was a positive campaign and, as we all know, positive campaigns always beat negative campaigns. In the last six years little, if anything, has been done to confront media bias and the negative positivity continues without the campaigning. Reticence to the point of cowardice from all in the SNP.
Is there anyone in the SNP who could lead us to independence. We need an answer.
The BBC is a UK state propaganda service. Control the message, control the people.
If anyone wants proof that the BBC are not biased against the SNP take the programme The Salmod Trial on BBC 2 a few weeks ago.The BBC and the unionist press cannot accept that after all their headline reporting that a high court jury found Alex innocent.
I was disgusted when I saw a number of anti independence supporters sitting having a slap up meal and no doubt paid for by the BBC and discussing where and how something went wrong.
I don’t care how much that meal cost but the BBC are £150 down for each year from now on.
Ronald Fraser,
Yes, the sheer cheek of this mob knows no bounds, they’ve been sending me begging letters for nearly 15 years.
Ron McLean 2.34pm
“The 2014 campaign did not challenge BBC or MSM bias.”
Where the hell where you when thousands were turning up outside the BBC Scotland HQ at Pacific Quay.
Those protests were massive and many.
I think you must have been on the Moon Ron if missed these protests during indyRef1.
And the SNP gave us ZERO SUPPORT.
@John Digsby
“What are the equivalent revenue figures for England and Wales? Might not be a uniquely Scottish thing given how dire they are and the rise of subscription services”
Exactly.
We already know that print media is in decline the world over, and the TV our parents watched is long gone.
Just why when a whole lot of change is happening quickly does it all stop at the SNP and their representatives?
Quite why we need MSP’s when AI holograms will be able to argue just as effectively in 10 years time.
They cut the Scottish politics comments from their website a year or two before the Indyref also.
Unbiased decision of course.
I remember the Pacific Quay protests very well.
Some of the best days of the indyRef1 campaign.
Ronald Fraser @2:44pm
‘And the SNP gave us ZERO SUPPORT.’
I’m talking about the SNP.
Ronald Fraser says:
20 October, 2020 at 2:44 pm
Ron McLean 2.34pm
“The 2014 campaign did not challenge BBC or MSM bias.”
Where the hell where you when thousands were turning up outside the BBC Scotland HQ at Pacific Quay.
Those protests were massive and many.
I think you must have been on the Moon Ron if missed these protests during indyRef1.
And the SNP gave us ZERO SUPPORT.
———
Did SLAB,FIBDEMS,TOTIES give us any support?
Na didnae think so.
The Holy Trinity of Scottish politics in the last campaign was,
Scottish Labour
The Daily Record
BBC Scotland
Still feel dirty just writing their names down.
@dan macaulay says:
20 October, 2020 at 1:11 pm
“right now a black and white tv licence is £53.”
Was the colour licence more expensive because of the technology required when programmes first started in colour?
As colour is the standard tech now you would think the licence fee would reflect that. At least in the real world people.
Ron mclean
Apologies Ron
Your opening paragraphs at 2.34pm didn’t make that clear.
I think we are in agreement that Big Eck and Co were posted as missing when we were screaming out for support from them to get tore into BBC Scotland on our behalf regards their bias.
It was very frustrating.
Do not pay the British Imperial propaganda tax.
Do not respond to TV Licensing threatening letters.
Do not answer their home visiting employees. Do not open your door to them.
If you have opened the door to them, risking Covid infection, close your door to them again without speaking to them. They are employees of a private company with no more legal rights than you or me. No need to be rude or aggressive to them.
The time you would have wasted watching TV, do something more productive, such as campaigning safely for the restoration of Scotland’s national sovereignty.
In response to Silverdarling
She is great Phillipa. I look back at 2014 and the people I dealt with who had never done any broadcast media and you know they’re nearly all really strong politicians; Ivan McKee, Phillipa Whitford, Michelle Thomson, Joanna Cherry – of course Ivan is already at Holyrood and Michelle should win Falkirk East, Roger Mullin (who I didn’t know in 2014) will probably win Kirkcaldy.
If the likes of Whitford and Cherry could be there too you’re starting to see a strong bunch of very committed independence supporters but who are also very good performers and would be taken seriously by voters in a referendum AND they all have minds of their own.
The BBC is and has always been the propaganda wing of the British state and therefore antithetical to Scottish independence, direct democracy, republicanism etc. etc. Surely during any Scottish election or referendum there should be a blanket ban on the BBC in Scotland which is, to all intents and purposes, a foreign broadcaster?
Colin Alexander
I told the license fee collectors that I was withdrawing their right to enter my property,
And the reply I got was that that right only exists in English law.
It does not apply to Scots Law.
According to the reply I got.
@Ronald Fraser 3:08pm
I see what you mean. Must try harder.
The SNP led the 2014 campaign and as you say were posted missing on big occasions when it really mattered.
Ah SilverDarling
And of course the utterly brilliant Jim Fairlie, jumior, who surely will win Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, in between his day job as a hill sheep farmer he worked like a bloody trojan with Farmers for Yes, a genuinely all round good guy.
Unlike some current SNP politicians I dealt with in 2014.
https://archive.is/UWqBn
Daily Mirror story:
“Brits warned ‘do not take US meat at any cost’ as chlorinated chicken horror exposed”
From a Herald article recently posted, I know many people have concerns on the alrams, will be delayed
NICOLA Sturgeon has signalled there will be a year’s delay to new rules on fire and smoke alarms in the home after a public backlash.
The First Minister said housing minister Kevin Stewart was working on the matter and the delay would be confirmed as soon as possible.
New rules due to come into force from February would mean all homes must have interlinked heat and smoke alarms, plus carbon monoxide detectors where required.
Daily record on women and independence.
Curtice said: “It may be the case that a narrow majority of men voted Yes in 2014 and either way the No victory appeared to rest heavily on the support of women – who perhaps were more averse to what they considered to be the risks of independence.
“Now, the picture appears to be rather different. On average the last nine polls have put support for Yes at 54%.
“These same nine polls on average put the figure for both men and women at 54% too.”
https://archive.is/2wInc
Its interesting to note that Sturgeon says that Johnson is playing politics during this pandemic and that, to do so is a terrible thing when folks lives are at risk.
However Sturgeon is also playing politics right now using her position to enforce a full on assault on the SNP to capture it and use it to her own ends, which doesn’t include Scottish independence.
I stopped paying the tv tax not long after 2014. I could no longer stand the filth, deceit and anti Scottish drivel emanating from the box. You do not have to pay if you do not watch any of the English dross that is the norm on the box
.Netflix YouTube are just 2 of the many other channels available. The tv license is just a tax, BBC is funded by the gov from general taxation. InitialIy I got lots of threatening letters from the private company who act on behalf of the BBC. I was informed to ignore them and that they were demanding money with menaces, very naughty in Scotland it is a criminal offence. So if everyone in Scotland stops paying the tv tax Westminster won’t give a monkeys they will still get the money from your tax.
Nice try Kenny, Westminster will be shaking in their boots
An interesting take on Scottish independence.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/scotland-independence-trick/5727013
Aye short comment on your long answer TIM of the BBC Propaganda Unit
LOAD OF PISH
Ronald Fraser says:
20 October, 2020 at 1:56 pm
I’m afraid the SNP were posted as “missing” during the big protests outside BBC Scotland HQ at Pacific Quay in the last referendum.
We were looking for back up from them regarding BBC bias and not a peep came from the SNP.…
Not entirely ‘missing’, Ronald..
We had a decent head of steam and a growing voice against the BBC – peaceful protest – in 2014. Know what happened? Nicola Sturgeon made public her distaste and disagreement over our more than justified peaceful protest. Killed it stone dead, never again to see the light of day. Bear in mind, at that time Sturgeon was squeaky-clean and broadly respected by the vast majority of Yes, pro-indy Scotland. However, that was then (6 years ago with heck-all movement and zero campaigning since) and this is now (heck-all movement, zero campaigning, openly lying to Scottish Parliament, husband embroiled in damning Whatsapp scandal, failure to sack her Permanent Sec for costs outlay of Salmond case, rewarding other examples of failure, poor management etc, etc) and I’d like to see her try that don’t stand outside PQ and exercise your right of freedom of speech and freedom of expression lark today.
Which reminds me; I see the Press have finally laid-off holding the First Minister to account after that brutal, weeks-long onslaught of damning front page spreads re her, and her husband’s, unaccountable power, lies and dubiety?
I know exactly how to get to Pacific Quay.
I have a tv set but don’t watch live tv. When I cancelled I told them why and continue to do so every 2 years when the letter arrives.
Wullie,
So what do you reckon then, should we pay it or not?
You seem to be happy not to pat it yourself yet unhappy that Kenny has suggested mass non payment.
Pat =pay
wullie says: at 3:52 pm
“I stopped paying the tv tax not long after 2014.”
What took you so long? I’d been “clean” for almost a decade afore ye! 😉
The Legal Occupier of ma hoose actually received yet another letter this morning… which as usual remains unopened and was swiftly added to the ever growing pile of evidence for when I launch my combined extended harassment and environmentally damaging claim against the fuckers.
I’m currently in the brown phase of envelope colour which means the red phase will arrive in the next couple of months, and I’ll jovially misinterpret that as being for the festive season, rather than it being an escalation of a warning on their misplaced presumption that I am breaking the law by watching any of the shite they produce.
Katharine Hamilton at 2.26pm… has Mr Peffers passed away? I thought he might have considering he has not posted in almost 2 years but have not heard anything.
Mr Peffers was a legend on WOS…. and not to be trifled with in relation to the sovereignty of the Scots
A bit o/t
English people are now witnessing the Scabby Tory Government in full frothing at the mouth do as you are told or else mode
Andy Burnham has now acquired the the Mantle of being public enemy No 1 , the Devil incarnate
Christ sure makes a change from the usual SNP bad and bugger the Jocks mantra we usually get
Well we tried to convince you lot, we sussed out this Scabby bunch of Shysters years ago but well it’s called free will , its a great pity you decided to Choose so poorly , Tough Shit eh , now let’s look at a Tory success BREXIT the most brainless act of self harm anyone could imagine .
Any odds being offered Bawjaws Government won’t last the year out or are the English to stupid and proud to admit they made a giant Duck Up ,
One hopes the Welsh retaliate and set up a dragon powered firewall on the DVLA server info.
https://twitter.com/GlynJon35249665/status/1318516277393186819
If refusing to pay the license fee for funding of the BBC is a legitimate tactic for those who regard it’s current output as unacceptable, will non-payment of the license for a future ‘SBC’ be a legitimate stance for those of us who may find it’s broadcasting unacceptable? Just wondering.
@ Nigel Stapley at 1.29
Poindings and warrant sales were abolished by Holyrood in 2001 (https://tinyurl.com/poindings) based on a bill introduced by Tommy Sheridan in 1999.
Joe Morrison says:
20 October, 2020 at 3:19 pm
Colin Alexander
I told the license fee collectors that I was withdrawing their right to enter my property,
And the reply I got was that that right only exists in English law.
It does not apply to Scots Law.
According to the reply I got.
the law may have changed since I worked for the Post Office but when we went out on TV licence evasion duty it was the case that we had no right of entry and there had to be two officers to secure a prosecution.
Like everything else the SNP attempt now…this article is at least a decade too late. I came on this site pre-REF with the express purpose of encouraging mass non payment of the tv tax as per the poll tax days. By and large, the reaction was mixed..especially from the entity known as Peffers.
Why anybody pays this tax is beyond me. In the past weeks we have had the Internal Market legislation and the explicitly evil Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) foisted on us by the criminals in Westminster. Starmer, the legal ‘expert’ who sanctioned the De Mendes ‘execution’ as otherwise whilst D.P.P, whipped his curs to abstain from a bill that allows State authorities (i.e. The Brit Deep State) to commit crimes if it satisfies the following criteria: affects the INTERESTS OF NATIONAL SECURITY; FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETECTING/PREVENTING CRIME OR DISORDER; and the killer rationale (literally) ANYTHING THAT IS IN THE INTEREST OF THE ECONOMIC WELLBEING OF THE UK.
Has any of this been headlined by the BBC in Scotland? or Scotland’s scabrous media? I attended the first demo outside the BBC and subsequent ones following, which dribbled away to nought. The SNP did SFA, neither supported the demos publicly or in person. When I was in the SNP, I badgered branch officials and MPs to ‘do something’. They did nothing but repeatedly allow lies and distortions to be made ad nauseum and without refutation. Own goals all the way. My conclusion: deliberate supinity..at first believing it to be ‘not rocking the boat’…now I see it with the appointment of Murray Foote a deliberate Leadership tactic.
These pieces of legislation are the final slipknot round the throat of Scottish Independence. They will have all the tools to close or divert all political power from Holyrood and the State power to spy, harass, arrest and imprison anybody espousing our cause for all the criteria mentioned. Instead of poncing about outside Pacific Quay, we should be getting the SNP MPs to walk out..for the last time..of Westminster with the express purpose of destroying its purpose of oppressing our country and its people.This must be done before the 31st of December..we won’t get to an Election ‘plebiscite’ of any sort otherwise.
Hi Breastplate .
Naw a just thought something stronger from Kenny. As Ive said does not matter if everybody stops paying BBC Scotland will get our money anyway. I stopped paying before Mr Peffers informed us of how BBc gets its money therefore I presume Im still paying via the taxman. Cannae win wi those brstewards.
And I think a mass demo outside the Scottish Parliament would be more effective than standing outside BBC Scotland. I really do not have the answer to our present predicament, Im just so downhearted as to how things have turned out. I have been taken for an absolute mug.
On persons entering your premises there is a misapprehension that Scotland has no Trespass Law.
Like all civilised countries Scotland does have Trespass Laws but not directly in the Criminal Law like England ,unless the Trespass has a criminal purpose. TV tax collectors are subject to the Civil or Private Law and commit no crime BUT if you withdraw the permission for them to be on your property they must leave and you may use sufficient minimum force to propel them from your property if they refuse.
To ensure that you do not end up in trouble it is wise to inform Police Scotland of your intentions so that you do not fall foul of a constable who was asleep on the day that subject was covered in training. ( I know having given the lectures and the snoring was loud)
This is not 2014.
The BBC as a British state propaganda machine is well documented.
Plenty of talk but no action.
Does no one from the Yes Movement read this site.
What are you going to do?
@wullie 4:54pm
‘Im just so downhearted as to how things have turned out. I have been taken for an absolute mug.’
You’re not alone. I know the feeling. I hope the fight back will start soon.
Again o/t
News Flash
Bawjaws and his medical stooges addressing the Nation
ENGLAND
That’s it end of this News Flash .
A short reminder UK means England , Britain means England ,the government of this country governing for and behalf England , where is Scotland represented in this Union ? , Answers on the back of a Fag packet and about as bloody useful, once again #DisolveTheUnion
America does have PBS. Anything by Ken Burns is well worth
watching.
Ron Maclean says:
20 October, 2020 at 5:13 pm
“You’re not alone. I know the feeling. I hope the fight back will start soon.”
Are you not the least bit concerned it has not already started?
East Lothian Countryside Volunteers and Forth Resource Management were among the winners at the Helping It Happen Awards.
https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/18783481.two-east-lothian-groups-successful-helping-happen-awards/
About time the Yes Movement helped things happen.
No legal eagle, however my understanding is that you are under no obligation to admit anyone claiming to be calling on behalf of TV Licensing UNLESS they are accompanied by the boys in blue, who are themselves in possession of a Warrant, clearly indicating the relevant address. You are then required by law to admit all three of them.
Even then, they (the TV bod) have to find evidence that you have equipment on the premises capable of receiving a live television broadcast.
Anyone knows different, please educate me and others. Thanks.
:thumbsup:
Wullie,
I agree with you that we have to do a whole lot more to secure independence but the way I see it, mass non payment of the tv license cost us very little in the way of resources and sends a message that we know what they’re up to at the British Broadcasting Corporation. British is what they are and all they can ever be.
None of us should give them a penny.
FFS, I do get angry when I read some posts on here.
FACT:
The Conservative Party has an 80-seat majority in the HoC – Baw Jaws may fall foul of the Party and be deposed as PM, but, they would still have a majority, and we would be left with Gove or Sunak or Rees-Mogg. The mouth piece might change, the pish coming out of that mouth will be the same.
The Tories know, without Scotland’s riches, the UK is fucked. They will never willingly let us go. For as long as they have that massive majority, they can “flick the Vicky” at us from now until 2025.
So, until things change, and there is no guarantee a resurgent Labour Party can turn things around in 2025, Scotland is screwed.
We will be even further screwed by then, so, we need to see the SNP changing tack NOW or we will be in even deeper doo-dah than at present.
If Shifty Blinkblink will not change her stance from> : “Only the Gold Standard Section 30 Order will do,” then we need to see her replaced with someone who will try something else.
We should be attacking the Tories on every front, by doing nothing, the SNP are allowing them time to plan further pain for Scotland.
Hi Republicofscotland at 3:59 pm.
You typed,
“An interesting take on Scottish independence.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/scotland-independence-trick/5727013 “
It’s always interesting to read foreign journalists’ impressions of the situation in Scotland. Konrad R?kas, the author of the above article, is Polish.
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11742728
Huh? His surname appeared correctly in the preview…
Colin Alexander says:
Wee Ginger Dug blogger Paul Kavanagh’s fundraiser, if anyone wishes to donate or not, that’s fine. It’s entirely voluntary.It’s not an invitation to criticise him or his blog:
It’s such a cringeworthy fundraiser. “Selling my wee Barlanark flat”. “Buying a wee cottage or a ground-floor flat”. “You are giving a practical demonstration of the better more loving and caring Scotland that we are all striving for.” Urgh. No self-respect. There are many,many people in Scotland in a far worse predicament than kavanagh.Total lack of self-awareness (and a tractor).
Kenny says,
`The halcyon days of Lord Reith and supposed political neutrality are long gone.`
John Reith admitted to political bias from the BBC as early as 1926 during The General Strike,
https://tinyurl.com/y5je22ya
if someone as capable and strong minded as Reith ( 6ft6in and a WW1 veteran) can cave in to Government pressure what chance the deadbeats that came after him.
Like the `golden age` of journalism , BBC neutrality is and always has been a total fake news myth.
Apparently the BBC have murdered Terry Pratchett’s “The Watch”
Terry Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna Pratchett has said that the forthcoming television adaptation of the late author’s stories about Ankh-Morpork’s City Watch “shares no DNA with my father’s Watch”, and that she “should know”.
Bastards!
Nicola is shameless. Shirley Ann Somerville getting criticised for her GRA stance at hustings and NS has her on at Covid briefing delivering a statement re extra funding.
That has no place at the Covid briefing, she has just proven her critics right,that was politics pure and simple
Paul K
I doubt there would few if any who suffers a major stroke that do not feel start worrying about how they are gonnae cope if they are left disabled.
Just thinking about it is scary.
You are entitled to your thoughts and opinions, Paul. But, sometimes it’s best just to no say anything at all or just wish someone better health for the future, whether you like them or no.
Peter Housden to be recalled to the Salmond Cttee re Nicola Sturgeon.
”A Holyrood inquiry examining how the Scottish Government botched the handling of allegations made against Alex Salmond has called on a former top civil servant to clarify his evidence.
Sir Peter Housden appeared in person before a committee of MSPs last month.
Now committee chairwoman Linda Fabiani has written to Housden calling on him to answer the question regarding whether he has raised concerns with Sturgeon.
The former civil servant had initially claimed that “confidentiality” rules meant he could not answer”
https://archive.is/8B7mB
In reply to Liz at 616pm
Was Shirley-Anne Somerville at the briefing today?
@Lochside 4.50: as you say, Keir Stumer is the prime example of controlled/licensed opposition, given his entrenched and former occupation of high positions in the British State, an establishment man to his core.
In 2013 I was discussing the death of De Menezes with a colleague who had happened to be in Austria at the time of his death and had seen witnesses on Austrian TV describing the Brazilian’s brutal demise at the hands of the Met Police (an operation controlled by Cressida Dick, IIRC). Contrast this with the obfuscating BS we were fed on the MSM. I may have been naive in those days but events in the next year made me realise he was right about our media, emphasised by Chrome Dome Robinson’s mega-lie about Alex Salmond “not replying” just before the referendum vote.
Those dwindling demos outside PQ were such a disappointment. I met a good few Wingers there and hoped we could make a difference. Mind you, when the SNP leadership told us the BBC wasn’t biased and and then doled out money to MSM journalists, I began to realise it was totally compromised.
If people aren’t worried by CHIS and their sweeping powers, well, be afraid, be very afraid. This and the Coronavirus Act will be the bonfire of our hard-won rights over the centuries.
And silence from the “Scottish ” Government, of course, because the FM can only deal with one thing at a time.
As Liz flagged Shirley-Anne Somerville was at the corona virus briefing today, eh this is OVERTLY party political, she even mentions Brexit, they must be very worried that she’ll not be reselected. Bloody hell what a state we’re in, really.
https://twitter.com/S_A_Somerville/status/1318546211486445568
A balha yes she was to announce a £10m package for school meal provision.
Cheers Liz yes after your post spotted it on her twitter, utterly shameless, that really was party political.
The BBC are nothing but an AngloBrit Stasi media offshoot. All the ones that work for them are vetted by the spooks/mi5.
Oh, Liz, was she really? SAS is the most mystifying of all NS’s favourites. Even dispensing with the GRA farrago she is a desperately poor politician, bad at substance, terrible with delivery. Yet apparently walks on water and is the apple of Nicola’s eye.
If SNP had change of leadership and therefore new FM we would have an end of the “once in a generation” nonsense.
I would rather be dead in a ditch than ,oh sorry I’ll start again
The SNP have got to be the worst and weakest freedom fighters on Earth.
They are just hopeless.
They fight for nothing.
Can you imagine asking Sturgeon to turn up at a BBC Scotland protest rally???
The little poison dwarf is more interested in strolling through Edinburgh leading an LGBT Rally.
@Stan Broadwood at7.41pm
Sadly Stan I have to agree with you on that.
o/t aye again
I was watching a Hope over Fear livestream on Indy Live I said was
A definite advertisement for depression Peter Bell ffs he would empty a bloody Pub , Gloom Gloom on bloody stilts , oh that’s been tried , you can’t do this , you can’t do that, it’s been tried before ,
All this because of attempting to unseat Unionists in the List Seats , I can see the SNP being against it because it’s competition for them and might just keep them on coarse , probably the first time I can remember I switched out from a Indy Livestream , it’s to bad you don’t have the opportunity of a Mute switch available it was badly needed tonight
Stan broadwood 7.41
Quote of the day so far.
It’s a little protest but folk should not pay the TV licence for the reasons given earlier.
To be clear the offence is watching live TV without a licence there is no offence of possessing a TV set.
You inform TV licensing that you no longer require a licence and that is it.
Occasional visits may be made by the private company contracted to try and catch folk out, they want to scare people into buying a licence. In the event you receive a visit do not engage and close the door.
If the private company have evidence that an unlicensed household is watching TV a warrant can be craved from the court.
In the event of a visit where they have a warrant they are accompanied by the Police so if you are watching TV illegally and there’s a knock at the door turn the TV off.
You must allow the company folk and the Police in when they produce a warrant you may film their conduct.
You do not have to answer any questions or do anything to assist them. If you are not daft they will leave a short time later.
The Police are only present to prevent disorder.
I save £157.50 each year by not paying the TV tax and make my own small protest.
It is difficult and often impossible for the company to detect offences unless you are watching TV in view of your window, don’t engage with them politely tell them where to go make that wee protest save some money.
It’s sadly true that until Scotland hits rock bottom economically, the people will continue to accept overlordship without a fight back. The SNP are our only hope for independence and they are no hurry to take it. Propaganda only works if you have no free thinking and no question authority . The British know this they have fought independence in every colony the possessed and Scotland is no different. They have many tools in the arsenal for this only determination and refusing their imposed laws will work. Asking them for independence is stupid, taking it is all that works.
Robert. Peter Bell slogan is “Dissolve the union”.
He is critical of the Section 30 plan. He is critical of the SNP leader, their strategy and their progress.
Yet he wants everyone to do what they have always done and vote SNP 1 and 2. So basically waste your list vote and allow 25 unionist free seats.
The evidence is sitting in the opposition benches. SNP 42% on list vote and 4 Msps. Tories 23% on list vote and 25-30 list seats.
Who is the fool.
Colin Alexander @ 16.16
Very well said sir.
Colin Alexander says:
20 October, 2020 at 6:16 pm
Paul K
“I doubt there would few if any who suffers a major stroke that do not feel start worrying about how they are gonnae cope if they are left disabled.”
Aye, I had an uncle who suffered a stroke at the age of 61. He spent his remaining 17 years in a nursing home unable to do anything for himself. The thought frightens the shit out of me.
Really glad WGD is able to communicate and looks set for a fairly decent recovery.
Never had a BBC TV licence and never will, save money and time boycott the BBC TV tax. When the enforcers visit, smile and close the door.
@LizG & Colin Alexander:
Thank you both, for raising the hope not fear stakes here on BTL.
I’ve chucked a wee something to Paul’s collection; there’s nothing I can do for hunners of folk I don’t know personally in total other than charitable causes, or my tax goes up; either way, I can only make a wee difference.
I chose to help Paul out because he makes me feel good, and he’s not a bad journalist either.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Let’s not be unkind, where it’s not deserved.
Breaking News :
Dumbarton Constituency still in chaos.
With the National Secretary having taken direct control of the Dumbarton Constituency by cancelling scheduled hustings and removing the chair reports are now emerging of members being denied access to the replacement Hustings arranged by the National Secretary.
How many members have been denied access is still unclear. Initial reports suggest that there may be hundreds.
Branch and constituency secretaries are however still in lockdown with access to the party mailing system and access credentials denied.
Further details will be reported as soon as reports emerge.
Pete Barton @ 9.04
Your welcome Pete and I think so too 🙂
@Pete Barton,
To be honest Pete, Paul has been very unkind about this site and it’s readership and author of late. Contributors have been censored and ridiculed by Paul and his readership. I have stopped reading his blog because comments were always censored. Not welcome you see if you were a reader of Wings.
I may contribute I may not. I’ll Think it over.
I wish him a speedy recovery.
Just had a look at WGD. It seems the Wee Ginger Dug has died. My heart goes out to Paul.
To the arsehole above who insulted him, I assume you’ll be saying he organised this to elicit more sympathy?
Jason Smoothpiece Your comment about not assisting private tv licence persons in your property if they have a warrant reminded Of a story from Aberdeen in the Poll Tax days. Guy called Lenny (not me) got a chap on his door about six on a winters night, they were going to value his possessions for selling to pay his Poll Tax Arrears, he slammed the door in the bailiffs face, an hour later the bailliff is back with a warrant and a policeman, he lets them in and then switches off the power to the lights saying yer no using my electricity. The bailiff then had to go away, find a torch ?
RIP
Wee Ginger Dug.
O/T re WGD and Paul,
I’ve contributed.
I very much appreciated his blog since 2013.
He kept it going as his husband was terminally ill. And he did so with eloquence, compassion and wit.
I’m aware his position appears to have shifted lately to ‘wheesht for Indy’, not long after his American husband came to live with him.
What a lever that must be for the BritNat establishment. Water down what your saying, or your hubby won’t get to stay.
And the above might not have come to pass. We will never know.
But right just now, we can get on with the bigger business of delivering Indy, say a great big thank you to those who have done such a lot of the heavy lifting, until the baddies came chapping on their specific doors and they were faced with horrible choices to make.
Dear Paul of the WGD, and your husband and the wee dug – very best of wishes, grateful thanks, and get well soon.
Brian Doonthetoon says: 20 October, 2020 at 5:38 pm
Just wanted to say a damn good read. It is sad that journalists form outside our country does a better job of reporting events.
Just want to comment on this part of the article:
Just to note that this ‘liberalism’ is easy to implement and costs governments very little. It also produces heightened emotions of ire in the right and a similar heightened emotions of self-protection in the left who feel threatened by it.
A good way of a party using this agenda to keep it’s own support in line.
This is quite perceptive.
Of course the Scottish government is doing well with the pandemic. It is following medical advice which is the right course to do. However, there is that self righteous tone that from Sturgeon that we can beat the virus if only the Tories in Westminster stopped messing around.
In a sense that is right because the Tories are making a right mess of it but there is the trap that the direction of how Scotland handles the pandemic is based on doing it different than England rather than being more self-critical towards it’s own response and whether we can do it better.
As I had mentioned a fortnight ago, governments simply can’t follow medical advice and if they encounter problems with that strategy they hid behind that. Politicians need to take medical advice and make political decisions in the wider context of our society, our economy and our social structures based on that medical advice.
An topical example is the shutting of hospitality. On the surface it sounds sensible that pubs are causing the spread of the virus and needs to be shut for a period until the spread of the virus is under control enough for medical services are able to cope.
However, what if the issue is to do with the Track and trace requirement of the hospitality industry rather than the industry itself?
If there is no way of verifying that contact details are correct when people go into pubs then that system is not working properly and of course it is going to cause the virus to be spread if there is systemic false information being used.
That does raise uncomfortable questions about privacy but it is something that may need to be explored. However, how can that be done if there is this culture of the Scottish government trying to be more stricter on the virus than Westminster which superficially feels the right thing to do?
Of course it is the right thing to do to be cautious against the virus and observe the rules but we shouldn’t let that Calvinist self-righteousness we Scots seem to have blind us if there is a better way of doing things or that the current strategy isn’t working or needs tweaked.
Awful news about Ginger…. The only guarantee that comes with a dog is that they’ll break yer heart and there’s a fair few sair hearts in Scotland the night …. RIP Ginger xxx
I had got a fright there when reading comments on here about WGD because I thought it was Paul K that had died.
Tinto Chiel@6.39
Aye Tinto, those heady days at Pacific Quay us all milling about anticipating the collapse of the British State. The energy and excitement generated on here was immense.
Compare and contrast..so many great contributors given up the ghost.. and what do we have a load of sweetie wives arguing about letting Capita snoops ower the door..or worse disgusting trolls stirring the shit pot and shiting out their venom over a hard working and now disabled patriot Paul Kavanagh..someone who hav the utmost respect for…even though I disagree with him how we get to the objective of Independence.
The ’77’ brigade and their acolytes disrupting and diverting threads as ever. Meanwhile our country and our Sovereign status is sitting in the condemned cell waiting for the hanging, drawing and quartering by the CHIS and the Internal market bills and the final beheading with our exit from Europe.
At least Wallace fought and bled before being betrayed by the tra*tor Monteith. All we have is Wallis and Gromit…animated dummies.
@Lochside,
Yes and there are sites that encourage that same inactivity of which you speak. All the while we face defeat in the face.
O/T sorry, but looks like Toni Giugliano is about to be defenestrated by the Woke Stasi:
https://twitter.com/ToniGiugliano/status/1318292169799630850
@ Albaha 3.47pm the report said “No, victory appeared to rest heavily on the support of women”
And funnily enough with women comprising 50% at least of the electorate you would have thought that an ASTUTE leader would go out of their way to ENCOURAGE and convince those voters that her government would work even harder in an independent country to ENSURE their views and opinions were seriously considered and acted upon
BUT instead we have as a leader a self professed feminist determined to DELIBERATELY outrage and undermine conditions and regulations designed to PROTECT the very women we require to vote for independence
To me that does not exemplify someone who is trying to win hearts and minds BUT someone who is deliberately out to antagonise 50% of the voters we need, IMO that is SABOTAGE or STUPIDITY you decide
@Bob Mack
Good points, I wish otherwise but unkindness seems to be doing the rounds.
It’s such a shame that the reasonable proponents of Indy have turned sour on themselves; It makes me deeply unhappy.
But I won’t have indulge, I just wish it were not so.
BREAKING NEWS :
Dumbarton Constituency – Hustings Blackout
Further reports emerging that in addition to hundreds being locked out from online meeting is that no one in the audience was permitted to ask a question.
All questions, of which there were only four were asked by the chair who had been parachuted in by the National Secretary. News
Reports further suggest that HQ It / Data administrator Chris was operating and or coordinating the event – and concern grows about HQ news blackout.
Ends:
Stu,
I chucked it after 2014. Are there any figures for revenue going back to then?
To those losing their jobs at the BBC I would remind them of Ravenscraig, Hillington, Bathgate, shipbuilding truck building, car building and more others that I can remember.
You presented a unionist/labour pretendie supporting view of why they should close these business and now it is your turn and false hopes of Westminster will look after you and regenerate your economy.
There is an old Arab saying “better to be the Englishman’s enemy than his friend. If your his enemy he will try and buy you, if your his friend he will sell you”
Well you know your place now!!
Toni Giugliano’s reasonableness is being attacked and bullied unreasonably.
These nasty people are making the lives of trans people even more difficult than they care to admit.
Having worked hard to get Toni elected in Edinburgh I know he is a good guy but perhaps too human and humane to stick it to the nasties.
I would love to know their real motivation because their behaviour is dysfunctional and disturbing.
So glad my hard earned money is no longer paying their salaries.
Famous15 says: 20 October, 2020 at 10:24 pm
I’ve had a read at that tweet and it isn’t pretty.
I think Lochside sums it up at his post at 9:45. It is much better to have action than talking.
These people don’t want to debate, they want to attack deplatform, shout no pasarán, whip themselves up to a frenzy and smite the other who doesn’t agree with their position. It’s like a cult.
Anybody who tries to engage with these type of people are wasting their time.
@ Pacman at 10.45pm
Aye, you’re not wrong.
Sic’ a parcel o’ bawbags in a nation… 🙁
#DontVoteScrote
Shug @ 10:21
Good often forgotten comment about being a Englishman’s friend ,
Someone mentioned this current situation as being pretty sad and it really is deviating to a lot of people who feel totally betrayed , ok like any other loss learn from it and pick up what ever remnants that are salvageable from a totally self inflicted mess , This was probably the intended direction that is to adjust the SNP and mould it into a wholly different political party ,
I first got a whiff of this when I heard Nicola Sturgeon say she would have rather the SNP were not associated with Nationalism , and the reluctance to join with the YES movement and until very recently SNP MPs and MSPs have distanced themselves from marches , it seems she is embarrassed by all this demonstrations business her being eh The Scottish Government after all , the same Scottish government that’s going after with gusto independence supporters , She wants to replace us with people who reflect a more genteel and palatable version to the English establishment , aye well maybe it’s time to part company then your new best friends can move current supporters out of the way . Dear ! .
Republicofscotland @ 3:59 pm
“An interesting take on Scottish independence.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/scotland-independence-trick/5727013”
I thought it would have mentioned the recent change in the law with regard to foreign citizens aged 16 or over living in Scotland who are now able to take part in Scottish elections.
It is a substantial number..
http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/population-estimates/pop-cob-18/pop-cob-nat-18-publication.pdf
“In 2018, there were 352,000 non-British nationals in Scotland. The non-British population of Scotland remained broadly stable over the past year. Prior to 2018, the EU national population increased since the EU expansion in 2004 and also grew at a faster rate than the non-EU population.”
A lot of votes up for grabs.
For those who still care about the SNP:
https://twitter.com/GraceBrodie/status/1318630143976480769/
“To cheer everyone up I’ve made a list of good candidates that won’t screw over women’s rights. It’s STV voting so if there’s two or three candidates listed you can vote for both”
Just asking around my own family and friends I think the numbers of those refusing to pay the BBC license took a dive after the Alex Salmond monstering/retrial on TV.
Propaganda if its to be effective needs to be subtle. Kirsty Wark blew it but she succeeded in opening the eyes of much of the public who previously thought the BBC were the good guys.
Sounds like the Dumbarton CA need to ‘grow a pair’ and resign en masse and select their own candidate. They may start a trend…
https://mobile.twitter.com/weegingerdug
I gave up my tv licence the day after the 14 ref and I have to say it was quite liberating in its effect on my day to day.
Now if I see the “news” in a pub or hotel it’s like watching people in a warped dimension.
I’ll never go back.
STV Scotland Tonight topic
How can the Union Stop Scottish Independence?
If they didn’t have English centric bias should they
Be asking why Scotland isn’t independent.
Did watch the show and never do as there is already
Too much unionist crap across the channels.
I was reliably informed BBC Scot show the 9 often has
single figure viewing stats.
Who needs yet another tier of biased crap?
Interesting how there has been no discussion about the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS)
Inserting operatives be they tax inspectors’ police, border agency staff, army, or whatever to operate covertly within communities, taking even wives and partners as a cover for spying is a dangerous business.
The IRA knew all about that type of behaviour and many of the covert operatives found themselves face down in a ditch dead.
Stripped, beaten and then shot, a grizzly end was their fate. We go down the same route at our peril. The deep state ultimately will be resisted. Democracy and a rule of law needs to prevail. We ignore that at our peril.
Of course in NI the deep state played games. Exposing or blaming individuals within the nationalist movement as ("Tractor" - Ed)s was a tried and tested method of turning the movement on itself.
All part of the British deep state play book, one has to ask why the British State now want to legislate for covert intelligence activities to be lawful in Scotland, England, and Wales.
Its frightening stuff but not has as frightening as the backlash it could engender. 1984 by Orwell predicted this. But he did not predict how it would end.
Was browsing on twatter and came across this , someone really doesn’t like Stu or Joanna Cherry
https://twitter.com/harryjosiegiles/status/1318214318949912576
Dan says:
20 October, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Aye, gave up TV completely many years ago. Watch out for the sneaky wee red card that looks like it came from the post office. It resembles the P739 “Undeliverable Item” card. When you open it there is a number to call and it takes you through to a recorded message from TV licensing – add cost of a ‘phone call to harassment charges. I refuse to tell them that I don’t have a TV because I’m not legally obliged to do so and because they are likely to send someone to check anyway.
twathater says:
21 October, 2020 at 4:20 am
“Was browsing on twatter and came across this , someone really doesn’t like Stu or Joanna Cherry”
A “Performance Poet, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Writer” who uses the pronoun “they”.
On last night’s Dumbarton hustings came across this tweet, did anyone here take part? Would be great to have a wee summary.
https://twitter.com/peterbroughan/status/1318624498946637826
twathater
That’s a pretty interesting set of tweets. I bet from the good Dr’s side of the fence they truly believe everything they posted to be true which is interesting in itself also.
In Errol Morris’s documentary “The Fog of War” Robert McNamara talks about how the Americans should have empathized with the Vietnamese and that would have lead them to understand why they were fighting and why they were going to lose. Usually this is painted as a good strategy for conflict resolution but these tweets are also a good lesson in how to cut the head off the snake.
I’m sure in general “trans” folk are just like anybody else but they’ve been hijacked by their version of Militant Tendency and are being lead down the path to destruction as a result. Separating the good from the bad – divide and conquer if you like – is one way out of this mess that leaves the essence – justice and equality – intact.
Re the Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
Updates from the Correspondence page ,
https://www.parliament.scot/HarassmentComplaintsCommittee/General%20documents/20201016ConvenertoSirPeterHousden.pdf
https://www.parliament.scot/HarassmentComplaintsCommittee/General%20documents/20201016ConvenertoAlexSalmond.pdf
This is a great documentary aboot this very subject:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TXQYuLUAbyw
Dan says: 20 October, 2020 at 10:50 pm
Most of these ones that inhabit social media have zero social skills. You see then all the time with a mobile phone stuck in their face typing away. Even when they are in company, they are same.
They simply have no self awareness or able to properly communicate with people on a social level. They just don’t have the strength of personality that you get in the real world and having to deal with the problems that it throws up. Because of that, they will flip flop around every position depending on how the winds blow.
These are the type of people that the SNP are aiming for with their McWoke nonsense.
Twathater: that’s Harry Josephine Giles, the laughing stock of the Scottish poetry scene. Sucks up grants a mile a minute (I know top people in that scene, and there is no way in Hell a white, straight Scottish working class male will ever be allowed a grant – too male, too white, too straight, the wrong sex, and the the wrong class) and whining 24/7 aboot ‘oppression’as usual. The Scottish poetry scene is full of sniffy bedroom-dwelling intersectionality-spouting oppression-whiners, and is best off stayed well away from.
Thanks Maggie C @7.19.
I’m sure that Rev Stuart Campbell will understand what Iain Lawson is saying here in his latest blog post ,
“THE PROBLEMS OF WRITING A PRO INDY BLOG
By far the biggest is that SNP supporters expect every article to be positive about the Party. I would love that as well but what you are looking for there is a fanzine not a blog. “
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2020/10/21/the-problems-of-writing-a-pro-indy-blog/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
WhoRatteledYourCage @7:54.
Sounds like he’d make Mcgonagal seem inspiring.
Sharny Dubs – he has a computer programme that writes random ‘poetry,’ then charges you money for a printout of this electro-doggerel! No joke. That’s the level we are operating at here.
(Actually, okay, I admit it, I’m just jealous I never thought of it first)(chuckling)
twathater says:
21 October, 2020 at 4:20 am
Was browsing on twatter and came across this , someone really doesn’t like Stu or Joanna Cherry
https://twitter.com/harryjosiegiles/status/1318214318949912576
How’s this for a quote?
“..In Scotland, a lot is going to depend on coming candidate selection, and then on the May 2021 election, which will shift the balance of power. Little action on trans rights will happen before then, because it’s too risky for Sturgeon’s hold on the party.”
These are the uninvited, scheming and conniving wee bastards who are hi-jacking Scottish Independence, destroying OUR movement, and the SNP under Sturgeon is giving them a free ticket into Scottish Government at a critical time for Scottish Independence.
And the arseholes think this will make Scotland a safer and more tolerant place for blokes dressing up as women?
I guess logic and consequential thinking isn’t their strong point, which is maybe why science is such a struggle for them to grasp.
@Lochside 9.45: as Orwell said, hope lies with the proles, it’s just that we can’t congregate and march just now. In normal times a series of concerted protests around Holyrood like the HOOPS one might have some effect on the SNP leadership, or at least worry enough MSPs about their futures.
We need to stop messing about.
Plan B:
The majority of Scotland’s sovereign representatives (MP’s) inform Westminster of their intention to withdraw Scotland from the UK union treaty agreement now, subject to the outcome of a confirmatory plebiscite via the Holyrood national election in May 2021.
There is nothing complicated about a sovereign nation withdrawing from and cancelling its own treaty agreement. Scotland must do this itself.
Nobody seems to have mentioned NPR in this thread when discussing American broadcasting:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR
WhoRattledYourCage, well I suppose you got to give him points for brass neck! Unbelievable. One born every minute eh!?
For info Grace Brodies tweet (with list of non woke candidates) ‘comes up ‘this tweet is unavailable’.
Reading a little of the GRA tweets. I’ve decided ‘womany’ needs to be a word…. As in
‘I’m much more womany than wot you are.’
For some that seems to be the transgender attitude.
I have no idea what half of the comments are about on here, seems a wee ginger dog has died, whats that all about ?
I note that there was two pro Independence supporters on last weeks Debate Night.
Why should that surprise me?
It produced a balanced debate.
BTW DRoss looked like a 5th former who just found out how unpopular his views were.
These Tories realy do need the Westminster ‘Howler Monkeys’ to back up their unpopular policies.
Sharny Dubs – “If home is a mobile phone, drop it on a concrete trampoline.” 🙂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cURhjTcN2sc
A total clear out of Yoons and Quizzers at the EBC in Scotland is badly needed. I wont be paying the English TV Tax on Scotland because that is what it is.
Another one gone into oblivion
Wasted and left alone
Nothing to show for existing or being there
that’s sure
If only it where possible to return to that very time
And again silence that hungry enemy of man and woman
Would it not be wonderful to reach out and touch the hand
and see the sunlight and energy of that beautiful creation
And only god knows a heart that will not allow the fading
of something so pure and good to go away and forget it was
ever known
Its my birthday on Sunday, I am not going to tell my age here, but I can give a little clue, I am between 68 and 70 on Sunday
Hope the little eeejit and her minnions lifts the ban on the hospitality trade and lets me and my family celebrate with a good nosh and swally
Here’s tae us, who’s like us ?
Daisy Walker,
I often find myself astounded by the vitriol projected at women by these men professing to be women themselves. The irony is that these attacks are drenched in testosterone.
Nowt queer as folk, as the old saying goes.
WhoRattledYourCage 9.30am
That video of Harry Josephine Giles is “different”.
And I think he/she should put his/her name in the hat to replace Sturgeon as First Minister.
With the Indian man/woman Forth Valley *ape Crisis Centre worker as his/her Deputy First Minister.
Why not? The rest of Scottish Politics has gone tits up, so why not have these two running the show?
This Covid Crisis has got a lot to answer for.
We are all going fuckin nuts.
Nothing against the person, just not a good writer, is all. And that is enough of discussing him.
Dave Caledonia.
The wee ginger dug, was a dug now sadly departed
But it’s owner used that moniker for his Indy blog and book.
When his demise was first posted I had feared it was the owner
but thankfully not.
O/T I once worked with a lovey guy who spoke broad Glaswegian
We had segments to present to Scot Gov reps.
I had fears about them not taking well to non Morningside pronounciation
but it when well when they laughed out loud at his apology for “being nae better
than a hauf shut knife as his dug was spewing awe night”.
Many better to be yourself and talk your talk? lol
And talking of balanced news.
When was the last time you heard Scotland get a mention on our “National” News bulletins?
You could sit there for 24 hours solid, and the only time Scotland gets a mention now is if “Scotland” Yard has been involved in something.
Or, if Lizzie’s man takes a tumble, the Duke of Scotland’s capital city gets a wee heads up.
Apart from that, Scotland has to sit cowering in the corner and to only speak if spoken to.
And this seems to suit our present SNP Government just fine.
WRYC
This is something I rustled up for you inspired by your link .
If only the carpets down
And the curtains up and fly them all around
If the toaster squealed with the butter peeled
If only I had a tube of yoohoo to cook and eat a tasty Zulu.
Mr Thms
Pacman
Brian Doonthetoon.
“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion.” ? Robert Burns
Re. Measures to reduce the spread of the virus.
If dentists are having to put in place air filtering / extraction / UV light treatment measures when there are only 2 or 3 folk in a treatment room, are there similar measures for school classrooms, offices, pubs, and restaurants where there are usually far higher numbers of folk in each room, and they are generally in those rooms for a far longer duration?
@MaggieC (7.19) –
Thanks for the links. They must’ve gone up this morning but I wish the committee would get someone to date the publication of this stuff!
So, anyway, Alex Salmond to appear in December!?
*rubs hands*
The English governments plan to ask the EU to block an independent Scotland from joining EU will fail.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18809364.senior-figure-says-eu-wont-threaten-block-scotland-tory-trick-fails/
Dan,
I no longer have a clue what the governmental strategy is regarding the virus. There seems to be a blunderbus approach in operation now where by creating a pile of restrictions they hope something will work.
Maybe these extra restrictions are put in place to reassure the descendants of Chicken Little but there seems to be little logic involved in the reasoning.
Effijy
There is a reason why forlorn Scots speakers in Scotland have to aye apologise for their supposedly ‘invalid’ and (hence deemed to be inferior) Scots language to our privileged Anglophone meritocratic elite. This is the consequence of Cultural Imperialism and colonialism and is the reason for the Scottish cultural Cringe, the Scots speaker’s ‘schizoid psyche’ (Purves 1997), the longstanding ‘Cultural Division of Labour’ (Hechter 1998) and resulting institutionalised inequalities in our society.
The only solution to this oppression of Scots, as explained in my book ‘Doun-Hauden’, is tae lairn Scots bairns hou tae reed an screed in thay’re ain mither tung, language of course being a human right which is intentionally denied the Scottish minority by the UK state.
Independence is always about the liberation of a people AND their national culture from oppression.
Chair of the Inquiry Committee Linda Fabiani has written to Alex Salmond looking for as much detail as possible. The Crown office is attempting to block some of the evidence under the Criminal and Justice Licensing act (Scotland).
However the committee is looking for a way around this to obtain a full submission from Salmond before questioning Scottish government officials. Fabiani is worried that things might not be in place before the dissolution of Parliament in March 2021.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18808744.alex-salmond-appear-front-holyrood-committee-december/
In my opinion Sturgeon and her clique will attempt to string it out until Marc next year.
Angus MacNeil.
Spells it out plainly, we’re f*cked without a Plan B, Johnson will not give consent, on a S30 even more so now that the polls are on the up for yes.
Next years Scottish elections must double up as an indyref, we don’t have have five years or ten years, it must be now.
Stand aside Sturgeon.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18809348.scottish-independence-dirty-tricks-show-need-plan-b-ever/
Sturgeon will be pleased that Salmond is scheduled to appear at the Holyrood inquiry after, rather than before, the SNP conference.
Does anyone believe Sturgeon will still be in power by May 2021. I don’t think she will. Leave the shit for someone else to clear up!
“Sturgeon will be pleased that Salmond is scheduled to appear at the Holyrood inquiry after, rather than before, the SNP conference.”
I’m not at all sure she’ll still be First Minister by then.
Rev,
One can only hope a change in leadership is in the offing because we certainly need a bit of action regarding independence.
Rev- Let’s hope so.
She looks beaten as far as independence is concerned.
@Rev I wish I had your confidence
Alf Baird, I’m sorry but it’s just slang. If the difference between a language and a dialect is a good army or navy, the difference between slang and and what you’re calling the “mither tung” is a couple of successful grant applications.
Language is a tool for communicating. When you start inventing words like “tung”, you underscore the inadequacy of your lexicon. Why? Because not everyone, even those who are sympathetic to your idea, will have clue what you’re talking about.
Tell me how you’d say “intercontinental ballistic missiles” in your “mither tung”. If it’s the same, what’s the point? If it’s different, even worse.
On paper, it’s difficult to tell the difference between your “mither tung” and eggy language.
Like everything else, language is subject to forces of natural selection. There’s nothing mysterious or sinister about it. Nobody is behind it pulling strings although that’s what you seem to want.
The English language itself is constantly changing and adapting to historical forces and has no purity whatsoever. That’s a good thing.
It’s the same with programming languages, the best ones adapt to new technologies and ideas. They need to. And, of course, with programming languages things like syntax and grammar need to be strictly adhered to too, otherwise nothing will work. That’s not a cultural war, it’s not someone trying to destroy your identity, it’s just a basic necessity.
Sturgeon will resign. The alternatives are all worse for her.
One of the 4 things specified in the remit of the ongoing inquiry was the role of the first minister. Another was the ministerial code.
OT, but perhaps not so OT:
So sad re the wee ginger dug, RIP Ginger. Even more so since he would not have had his beloved Paul beside him to say goodbye.
This sad news came on the same day that another dog, beautiful sweet Eva, a gentle and loving bull mastiff, seized under the corrupt and misleading BSL was pts. Eva was wrongly condemned to death under all-too-familiar circumstances of false and disallowed evidence, by that fat idle prejudiced slug Carloway, (where have we come across that bloated red-faced slug before?) in spite of appeal after appeal, while other judges allowed dogs involved in genuine serious biting incidents to go free after considering all evidence. (Eva, as pretty much all dogs will do, had nipped, in reprimand, a boisterous and uncontrolled labrador youngster who was bouncing off her – no skin broken, no vet care needed) Our lovely sweet Eva was held in kennels for two years awaiting a royal pardon, the only way left to save her, from that paedo-producing filthy parasite lizzie, whose own dogs got off with biting and vicious behavior all their fat pampered lives where they ate better than the majority of people in the world.
Poor Eva,jailed and without her loving family round her, eventually pined away over that two years in her prison cage, to the extent that yesterday she had to be set free forever from this cruel spiteful elitist-run world which let her down so badly.
Injustice is not restricted to people. And the Scottish establishment is rotten to the core, as epitomised by the despicable over-fed pile of rotting blubber, ‘lord’ Carloway, whose fat face is so reminiscent of the heavy drinker. It suited him and the lizzie hag to delay and delay a decision on royal pardon till it was too late.
To both of you, Ginger and Eva, rest in peace far from the brutality and lack of even the most basic compassion in this world of inhumans.
I just cannot see Sturgeon resigning / being forced to resign. Yes she has lied, but this looks like an inter-SNP squabble that few care about, so I just don’t think it gets traction.
I think things may be different if Salmond would be gunning for Sturgeon’s head (asking for her resignation). But so far it seems that he is content to shoot at various other other party officials, civil servants and hangers-on.
And I think I can see why. I think the chances for independence are now higher than ever, but they would get damaged by an acrimonious implosion of the top of the SNP. Salmond has said previously that he sees independence as more important than his own position, and his actions (and non-actions) so far are quite in line with that…
“I just cannot see Sturgeon resigning / being forced to resign. Yes she has lied, but this looks like an inter-SNP squabble that few care about, so I just don’t think it gets traction.”
It’s not about traction. It doesn’t matter a shit what the public thinks. The Ministerial Code is absolutely clear that ministers caught lying have to go, and if she refuses there’ll be a vote of no confidence called by the opposition. If the Greens supported her she could survive that, but I don’t think even they’re craven/stupid enough to publicly support a declared liar with an election coming up. They’re craven enough that they could just about conceivably abstain, which would leave her relying on dragging in Derek Mackay and Mark McDonald for support. Hmmm.
(Also, jeez, if there’s ANYTHING that could revive Labour and the Tories’ fortunes right now, it’d be being able to campaign in a general election against someone proven to have lied to Parliament but who refused to resign. Imagine it.)
In 2020 £294m is still too much for those purveyors of lies.
Why don’t you say the same of sky and stv or itv
David,
Better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
David ,
Check out the difference between a public broadcaster and a private one.
There is a myth , that somehow losing Sturgeon would reverse the independence vote.
I am at the opposite side of that argument. Of the 45% who voted yes. Only about 35% have stayed yes. I believe some of that was to do with Brexit fundamentalists.
However I believe the majority drifted away because they were uninspired and forgotten by Nicola. There were many EU nationals as well, but that really only accounts for 2%.
So having a decent , strong leader who drives independence will hopefully bring some of those people back.
I would argue that the indy vote should be 68% not 58%. Everything that has driven the increase are factors beyond Nicola’s control.
Brexit, Covid-19 , Boris, Gove, The Tories. Any fool could count on that lot to increase the demand for independence.
Finally. Nicola has no intention of delivering independence. So she needs to go , or it will never happen. Even if her approval ratings are 100%.
@ Fionan: I am so sorry to hear about poor Eva. It must have been hell for you these two years. It is the injustice of it that is so hard to get over. As you say, it is another example of what has happened within the SNP, and at Westminster – anywhere that the truth is defeated by corruption in one form or another.
@Stuart,
Yes, you are right, a vote of no confidence called by the opposition could be the end, I didn’t think about that.
But I very much doubt there will be any before the enquiry has heard from both Salmond and Sturgeon? While I’d agree it looks like Sturgeon lied, I am sure the opposition would want to be diligent before going for the big hammer, and that means giving both Salmond and Sturgeon the opportunity to explain.
So, do you know when S+S are scheduled to appear?
Also, if a vote of no confidence succeeds, what then? If I get this right, a new FM would need to be elected in 28 days – but would the SNP be able to find a new leader in 28 days? Otherwise there’d be early elections – with presumably Sturgeon still in post as caretaker FM and the SNP scrambling to find a new leader before the election?
Oh, and one more point, I think it is worth noting that last time an SNP minority government was on the brink, when the Greens voted against the budget in 2009, it was Labour that carved in! In other words I think if there is a vote then it is likely that the Greens would vote for no confidence on principle, but I’d be far less sure with some of the other opposition parties…
Christian -I can think of several of her own MSP’s that would also vote against Sturgeon. She has many enemies , mainly the old guard!
If there’s any hope at all for the SNP it lies with the old guard.