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A decisive choice 264

Posted on August 26, 2014 by

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Picking up a buzz 172

Posted on May 01, 2014 by

Yesterday, we discovered a rather curious anti-independence “listicle” on the popular viral-meme website Buzzfeed. Entitled “Scotland. The UK. 10 Myths. 10 Facts.”, it describes itself as “myth busting” by an author identified only as “YouDecide2014”.

It was shared or retweeted by a variety of Conservative Party special advisers, the 10 Downing Street Facebook account, and even the UK Ministry of Defence.

sheepie

The crude, extremely biased article gives no indication that it’s written by the UK government. The closest it comes to doing so is right at the end, where it says “Get the facts at www.gov.uk/scottishreferendum. The Buzzfeed account page makes no reference to the UK government, and the layout makes the piece look like any normal article on the site, although in fact it’s posted on Buzzfeed Community, which is an area where users can post anything they want to without censorship.

We decided to find out more.

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How money changed everything 200

Posted on December 05, 2013 by

We all know there’s something strange about Britain. Germany and China have their factories, France and Japan their nuclear power plants. America has Google and Apple and the world’s largest navy. But how is it that Britain, a country that closed its mines and shuttered almost its entire manufacturing industry, is still a major world economy?

infra

The answer is Britain’s best-kept economic secret. It links Grangemouth, the obscene cost of housing in London, the Royal Mail sell-off, Channel Island tax havens and George Osborne’s disregard for the poor, and explains why an incomprehensible financial crisis triggered by bad American mortgages led to the closure of municipal libraries and swimming pools across the UK and a programme of permanent austerity.

And more to the point, it explains why only London, not Scotland or Wales or Yorkshire or Wearside, matters to the British political class today.

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    • George Ferguson on The Grand Tour: “I have to comment after that exchange I have just had. Decades ago when I join the SNP and a…Jun 13, 00:01
    • Confused on The Grand Tour: “main spends all day trying to save old blighty, but it’s done https://archive.ph/gPbIQ and it won’t be 2100, more like…Jun 12, 23:39
    • Scot Finlayson on The Grand Tour: “Ireland is one of the most indebted countries in the world, `The national debt of Ireland was estimated at approximately…Jun 12, 23:29
    • George Ferguson on The Grand Tour: “@Insider Of course I know there is more than one George Ferguson. The point I was making which you missed…Jun 12, 23:04
    • James on The Grand Tour: “Careful there, MaryB -you’ll set off the Yoonhowlers and Franchise fannies!Jun 12, 22:44
    • Insider on The Grand Tour: “George Ferguson …. FFS ! Grow up ! Have you never realised there may be more than one person in…Jun 12, 22:37
    • Insider on The Grand Tour: “Findlay… “Governments don’t need to borrow money, they could issue their own currency…..” Aye right ! I’ve still got some…Jun 12, 22:32
    • MaryB on The Grand Tour: “Scot goes Pop so pathetic. Asks a question about who should have a vote in an Indy ref. But won’t…Jun 12, 22:24
    • George Ferguson on The Grand Tour: “@Dan Hi Dan a good example of AI on X. I wrote a post and Grok3 said I was George…Jun 12, 21:52
    • Findlay on The Grand Tour: “Scott, I thought that every country that uses a central banking system has a ;national debt’. You say that it’s…Jun 12, 21:47
    • Scot Finlayson on The Grand Tour: “Even Norway has a national debt, it borrows money to pay for infrastructure like every other nation, it is cheaper…Jun 12, 20:59
    • Hatey McHateface on The Grand Tour: ““It was just under a billion quid the taxpayer paid out in curtailment charges last year to big often foreign…Jun 12, 19:47
    • James on The Grand Tour: “Dan – was the bot a “John Main” model? ;-DJun 12, 19:38
    • Dan on The Grand Tour: “@ Hatey Oh do fuck off. Show me where you have ever seen me state leccy would be free? If…Jun 12, 18:59
    • agent x on The Grand Tour: “FIRST Minister John Swinney has said he does not think a challenge to his leadership would be a “good idea”.…Jun 12, 18:37
    • Dan on The Grand Tour: “Has anybody tried switching the internet aff, and jist leaving it aff… Was trying to find the Wings article on…Jun 12, 18:37
    • Hatey McHateface on The Grand Tour: ““The 6 farms that make up the Seagreen area off the Angus coast regularly are sitting in curtailment mode during…Jun 12, 18:31
    • Hatey McHateface on The Grand Tour: ““provide its people with cheap renewable energy before exporting to England or anywhere else” Sigh. It is undeniable that the…Jun 12, 18:23
    • Dan on The Grand Tour: “Aye James, most of the top 5 “concerns” that sit above Scotland returning to self-governing status can’t and won’t be…Jun 12, 18:14
    • Dan on The Grand Tour: “@ JBG Scotland’s leccy demand could / should be significantly higher than it is if we had more industries requiring…Jun 12, 18:05
    • Alf Baird on The Grand Tour: ““it’s the establishment in our neighbour’s capital that benefits tremendously by having Scotland shackled to it.” Yes, colonialism (aka ‘the…Jun 12, 18:02
    • Northcode on The Grand Tour: “This extract from an article by Sara Salyers posted on the Salvo website. Political ‘Kryptonite’ and UK Exceptionalism: …Management of…Jun 12, 17:53
    • PhilM on The Grand Tour: “Wait til Vivian O’Blivian takes a keek at that line-up for the Project 2050 conference…Jun 12, 17:47
    • Breastplate on The Grand Tour: “That’s right, we’ve all had enough of this democracy nonsense. Democracy isn’t even in the top 10 of things people…Jun 12, 17:46
    • James on The Grand Tour: “Scotland’s Imaginary Debt; In 2022-23 Scotland raised £87.5bn in tax which goes directly to Westminster. However, the Scottish Government only…Jun 12, 17:32
    • James on The Grand Tour: ““…Independence isn’t even in the top 5 important issues that the general public are even interested in…” Maybe they don’t…Jun 12, 17:28
    • Dunx on The Grand Tour: “The Barrhead Boy article just reads as a wish list. He treats UDI as an end in itself. There’s nothing…Jun 12, 17:10
    • James Barr Gardner on The Grand Tour: “Scotland’s power requirement is under 5GW…… There must be a dale/tarn or two in Ye Merry Olde Engalunt that would…Jun 12, 17:07
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    • Insider on The Grand Tour: “Stuart… Give up son ! Hatey can swat away a dozen wannabe wee trolls like you in the blink of…Jun 12, 16:44
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