Bring me sunshine
Remember how the No campaign was definitely going to be much more positive from now on, pushing a feelgood “sunshine strategy” to persuade Scots that the UK was the best of both worlds?
Let’s see how that’s going, shall we?
– Split ‘may cost Scots £400m for welfare IT’
An independent Scotland would have to spend up to £400 million creating a new IT system to run its separate welfare policies, Westminster analysts have predicted in new report which spells out the impact of separation.”
[£400 MILLION? FOR SOFTWARE FOR A COUNTRY OF 5 MILLION? THEY’RE NEVER GOING TO SWALLOW THAT. STICK AN ‘UP TO’ IN FRONT OF IT, THAT MAKES IT BULLETPROOF. – ALISTAIR]
– Yes vote pension cost warning
“Pension costs in an independent Scotland would rise fivefold within 20 years because of an ageing population and the SNP Government’s spending commitments, according to a new analysis paper.”
[SHOULD WE TONE THIS DOWN? ‘FIVEFOLD’ IS A BIT SCAREMONGERY.]
– Vulnerable people could lose benefits in an independent Scotland
“Iain Duncan Smith warns that vulnerable people could lose their benefits if Scotland breaks away from the United Kingdom.”
[YOU’RE KIDDING, RIGHT? WE’RE HAVING IDS PUNT THAT ONE? HIM OF ALL PEOPLE? SERIOUSLY? WAS ATTILA THE HUN NOT AVAILABLE?]
– Bank bailout doubt if Scots vote to quit UK
– Independent Scotland Could Suffer Iceland-Style Financial Collapse
“If Scotland decided to end its 307-year union with England, the country’s banking system would immediately come under strain from the hefty assets on its balance sheet, and possibly forfeit the support of the rest of Britain.“
[GUYS, HAVE WE DECIDED YET WHETHER THE BANKS ARE ALL LEAVING, OR IF SCOTLAND WILL HAVE TO BAIL THEM OUT? IT CAN’T BE BOTH, AND PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO LAUGH AT US.]
“The prospect of another North Sea oil boom in the decades ahead has been rejected by the head of the UK’s economic watchdog.”
[JUST TO BE SAFE, COULD WE GET SOMEONE TO GO ON THE RADIO THIS MORNING AND TELL THE JOCKS IT WOULDN’T BE THEIR OIL ANYWAY, AND IF THEY TRIED TO TAKE IT IT WOULD CAUSE GLOBAL WARS?]
– Consumers would snub separate Scotland’s brands
“Scottish brands could fall out of favour with English and Welsh consumers as 36% of Britons may no longer use firms north of the Border in the event of a Yes vote. The potential backlash rises to 46% for households earning over £55,000 a year, according to the ICM survey for trade magazine Marketing Week.”
[HAVE SOMEONE FROM THE MAGAZINE HAMMER THIS ONE HOME.]
All of those are just today. This month so far we’ve also had:
– Scottish independence ‘would harm world’s poorest’
– Go-alone Scotland faces ‘threats from space’
– Scottish Independence ‘Will Lead to Soaring Energy Bills’
– Scotland faces £143bn debt after independence
– Fears for fishing in breakaway Scotland
– Thousands of defence jobs will be at risk if Scotland votes Yes
and of course, still way out in front:
– Scottish independence ‘would be cataclysmic for the world’
We hope you’ve all got plenty of Factor 50 ready for the next five months, readers. We’re not sure Scottish people are equipped to handle this much direct exposure.
Are we 100% sure Willie Rennie said “sunshine strategy” and not “some shite strategy”?
Union’s made men: “Nice little country you’ve got here, pity if something bad were to happen to it”
And a prime example link to weourselves.com
Hahaha! I’m howling at “some shite strategy”
Really, that picture at the top must be s a spoof…right?
Ha ha ha ha x infinity
Hahahaha, “some shite strategy”. That made me literally LOL.
I can’t remember, because unfortunately, I have a woeful memory, but is there a page dedicated to collecting all these scare stories in one place? If so, is there also a column where they state the complete opposite of what they said? I.e. You’ll get kicked out of Europe v You will be forced to join the Euro v You won’t be allowed into Europe.
Ho Ho Ho. Lets all just laugh at these numpties.
Here’s the UK government talking to the people of Scotland: link to youtube.com
A friend of mine who was on the No side and has voted Tory since time began has now just informed me he is voting Yes. I am literally stunned by this.
I’ve tried not to get too excited regarding the ‘tide is turning’ chat but I honestly believe it is starting to happen. This is very winnable. And I wouldn’t have said that in January.
By warning that the cost of pensions will increase due to Alex Salmonds spending commitments, is like saying.
‘In the union we won’t spend another penny on pensions for the foreseeable future in order to cut spending’
Basically you are saying no extra costs will be incurred if you stay in the union… because well we won’t be paying you anymore than we currently do ever again.
O/T
The BBC are coming under pressure to declare itself regarding its CBI membership.
link to bbc.co.uk
“The CBI has said it was confident the “vast majority” of its membership agreed with its stance on independence.”
When they say vast majority, how many were that majority, given that they won’t give us the details of numbers?
Ooooh BBC 24 reporting on itself being a member of NO supporting CBI at the moment LOL.
The BT “some shite” strategists have, once again over-extended themselves.
Too many turds, not enough polish.
Still cant stop myself laughing. Has to be one of the best ones to share LOL.
Wait, what – the BBC is a member of CBI??
The BBC probably did tell the CBI they backed the No campaign
In the picture at the top:
‘If you vote Yes, we won’t let you watch the BBC’.
Please God, let that be true.
@Doug Daniel
Classic made me literally snort in my coffee.
On Project Doom, I have to say that since they said they were going to be more positive they have upped the silliness factor on the scare stories all the way up to 11
Is this perhaps their Dodgy Dossier on Social Security? link to gov.uk
@Craig P
I didn’t know they were a member either. They kept that one rather quiet.
That FT article is ridiculous. Fair ruined my mood as well. How can Paul Collier compare Scotland to Nigeria, Tanzania and South Sudan. Just because we have oil. There are totally different social reasons for Independence, oil is just a bonus. The bit about how we’d only be entitled to 8% share of the profits of currently existing fields despite them being up by shetland for example I do not understand. Quite frankly I don’t see how that argument has any legs to stand on.
@Luigi
Too many turds not enough polish! Brilliant
This is the best laugh I’ve had in ages – keep it up guys
@ Heather – This link gives quite a few scare stories but not sure if its up to date.
link to newsnetscotland.com
Willie Rennie is currently believed to be locked in the toilet at LibDem HQ – they won’t let him out until he produces a better strategy.
@Archie
Ah thanks. Most helpful. It would be nice to see a Column A v Column B of contradictions or something in pictorial form like the front pages of the Scottish and English Daily Express. Something at a glance that highlights how utterly two-headed the BT campaign is.
Any Flag makers in the CBI?
They must be hoping to make a fortune come a Yes vote!
this might be useful for comparison. link to businessforscotland.co.uk
Really got to love the implications of having confidence in something you haven’t consulted on. The other sentence that stuck out was the one about being in regular conversation with it’s members at which point they could have provided feedback.
You don’t suppose the reason the CBI hasn’t allocated funding for campaigning is because in order to do so would mean they’d have to actually consult the membership do you?
Just had a thought.
If CBI felt the need to (or were forced to) declare a position in the referendum campaign, what about the unions? What is the legal position?
We all know that certain union leaders claim to be saying NO, on behalf of their members. It will be interesting to see how active these people are during the campaign proper.
@Luigi –
Willie Rennie locked in a lavvy! Aye. It’s the type of Norman Wisdom sketch that suits him so well.
And they won’t release him until he ‘produces a better strategy’. Quite. Someone should lob him a pencil – perhaps he can work it out with that.
Here in Aberdeen today, vote NO or else Press and Journal covers all of the above and they’re hysterical over latest Russian bomber attacks over Scotland BUT its ok though, we were saved by UKOK airforce eurofighters, so vote no.
China, that evil, corrupt totalitarian super state also happens to make most of Apples’ products including laptops, i-phones & those stupidly unreliable i-pods.
Presumably, those consumers eager to take their wrath out on Scots by rejecting Tunnock’s Tea Cakes & Talisker will also be sending their gadgets back & buy their products from countries with impeccable social values like er, Korea or Taiwan or perhaps Indonesia?
As I blabbed on Twitter, do some statements of the NO Campaign resemble Gaslighting?
link to en.wikipedia.org
Brilliant *ahem* picture there Stu. ;P
I assume the £400 million for I.T. is based on the figures spent by that excellent Chancellor Gordon Brown on I.T. during his term in office that turned out never to work.
“The prospect of another North Sea oil boom in the decades ahead has been rejected by the head of the UK’s economic watchdog.”
I guess now would not be a good time to tell the *ahem* watchdog about this little gem then.
link to tinyurl.com
or this
link to tinyurl.com
Scottish independence ‘would harm world’s poorest’
Well that IS true, the poorest would no longer be as poor as they currently are so obviously they’d be harmed cause they’d have no idea how to cope with all the extra funds they’d receive.
Go-alone Scotland faces ‘threats from space’
It’s all right, I was talking to E.T. just the other night and he has it on good authority that any alien *ahem* invasion would purely be one of friendly tourists from outer space.
Scottish Independence ‘Will Lead to Soaring Energy Bills’
They might at least haqve finished the sentence here…”Will lead to soaring energy bills for rUK
Scotland faces £143bn debt after independence
Well if this figure is coming from someone like Gordon Brown I’d demand a recount!
Fears for fishing in breakaway Scotland
Again, they really should put up the FULL quote. “rUK fears it will lose control over fishing in breakaway Scotland.”
Thousands of defence jobs will be at risk if Scotland votes Yes
Perhaps this should read “thousands fewer defence jobs at risk if Scotland votes YES”
The heroic battle of Scotland dogfighting over Scotland was exciting and all because the new eurofighters of the UK cost over £250 million quid each with total costs hitting £25 billion . Its OK though, UKOK just chucks spends like this on the UKOK debt mountain, now hitting £2 trillion.
link to theregister.co.uk
“Probably the most dismal figure we are given is that the RAF will actually put into service just 107 Typhoons. At the moment it has received 70: the last of the 160 planes ordered by the UK will be delivered in 2015. But, we are told, “by 2019” all the Tranche 1 jets (which were still being delivered to the RAF at the start of 2008) will be “retired” – that is, thrown away. We’ll pay for 160 jets (actually we’ll pay for 2321), but we’ll only ever get a fleet of 107.
This shows the acquisition cost of the Eurofighter/Typhoon in an even worse light than it had previously appeared, when an RAF fleet of 160 had been expected. It is now acknowledged that the development and production cost to the UK of Eurofighter will be £23bn with planned upgrades.
This means that we UK taxpayers will have shelled out no less than £215m for each of our 107 jets – that’s $350m at today’s rates, rather more than the US taxpayers have been made to pay for each of their 185 Raptor superfighters2, almost all of which will be used operationally. And the Raptor has third-generation Stealth: the Eurofighter has no stealth features at all. The Raptor has thrust vectoring for unbeatable manoeuvrability in a dogfight: the Eurofighter doesn’t.”
Boycotting Scottish products?
When I lived in England you could count on
one hand (if you exclude whisky brands) the
amount of Scottish products on supermarket shelves.
O/T again
Just had the postie drop off some deliveries and he handed me a BT and UKIP leaflet.
I just handed it to to him and said ‘Take it back, I don’t want this’. The young guy looked totally perplexed. He stood looking and hadn’t a clue what to do. I said I refuse to have this drivel in my house. I didn’t ask for it. I don’t want it. He went off rather confused but took the leaflet anyway. Victory me!
Rev just RTd this – utterly bizarre, toe-curling stuff from Brian Donohoe. It’s like a scene from The Prisoner.
Ayrshire’s shame!
(If the link doesn’t work, you’ll find it near the top of the WOS Twitter feed – it was originally tweeted by the Independent)
ind.pn/1iicsAz
UKIP leaflets can be sent back FREEPOST at a nice cost to them..
Aswell as vote No Press and Journal in Aberdeen, we can faintly hear R4 news and at 7am this morn an English oil expert in Oxford and a Welsh oil expert in Inverness explained, vote YES Scotland and you’ll will only get 8% of UKOK oil. Awe!
But its ok though as these lads say there is only 20% non Scots oil left. On the other hand, Oil billionaire Sir Ian Wood up here in Aberdeen says there is £1.25 trillion Scots oil reserves left which means that at $100 a barrel UKOK have taken aprox £5 trillion in Scots oil revenues and its funny because here in Aberdeen we have no public swimming pool, a Victorian road and transport network, any new school build is the great bettertogether PFI ripoff and a lunatic labour council that takes legal action to bar Scots.gov and well you know the rest…
link to bbc.co.uk
“We’ve produced 41 billion barrels,” he said. “If you look ahead, we could still produce another 25 billion barrels – at $100 a barrel, that’s $2,500bn.
“If we don’t get it right, we’ll produce about half that – we could lose $1,250bn of economic contribution to the UK
These are scary right enough, but I believe that they’re reserving even more scary ones for later. For example, I was watching Ian Hislop’s Olden Days programme (I know..). There was a lingering shot of the crowd belting out Rule Britannia during the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall. And in the sea of butchers’ aprons being waved wildly there were a few Saltires too. Well I have it on good authority that there’s a poster being planned that’s going to put the fear of God amongst us Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory belters:
WE WON’T LET YOU WAVE YOUR FLAGS AT THE LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS. IN FACT WE WON’T EVEN LET YOU SING OUR SONGS.
Sorry am totally wrong on figures there. Ian Wood says that £2.5 trillion Scots oil reserves left, if its done properly but again, UKOK law says they own it and Scotland gets 8% after independence.
Feeling left out, out here in the sticks. Nothing even remotely either U or Kip from the postie yet.
But I did see a couple of UKOK car stickers a week or two ago, both in Irvine of all places.
The debate is already won being a conspiracy theiorist i am just wondering what type of false flag Westminster is going to come up with,a nuclear explosion at faslane wouldent put it past em
HANG EM HIGH all of them.
Real sense that the polls have them scared (so they respond with, er, scares) and that battle has really been entered. The BBC interview with the two oil stooges this morning will have been carefully planned as the opening salvo. Expect the BBC to start ramping up the ‘it’s the UK’s oil’ narrative to the nth degree as of now.
Being Scottish and reading the news at the moment is like getting into the shower every morning but getting shit out the tap instead of water. So glad we’ve got social media like Wings
Sunshine says Rennie!
Piles and piles of dung, every day. More to come, but I think very many people are now just not listening to their crap. To it anymore, everyone even doubters are fed up with it. It Ain’t working !
James Cook’s BBC/CBI report now third item on BBC RS news.
And to think years ago ah hah several lovely vegtable
plots in my neighbours garden’s & had to buy Manure from
farmers,noo am no able to do gardening an awe that Free
Shit, isent life ah Bitch.
If UK “Experts” are saying in Independence on a “what is in situ” it will remain under UK. Then under the same cenario, an Independent Scotland would be entitled to our share of the shale gas deposits in England.?
I do nto think their “expert” took this into consideration?
Thoughts?
“Heather says: Just had the postie drop off some deliveries and he handed me a BT and UKIP leaflet.”
I came back to find a UKIP leaflet through the door though not a BT one. Thanks to Haud on the noo for the freepost tip as I’d chucked it in the recycling.
@ Ali says, Never read a newspaper unless advised to and then with caution, first thing in the morning, check if radiois likely to be on GMS or the tv is on the Scottish opt out, though that is necessary as you need to see the weather a bit closer up than the UK edition. Then turn on tablet or computer and read the real news. Simple.
@heedtracker
You don’t have a pool up there? Here in Dundee they built us a new one as the old one was getting demolished.
Oh that’s right, your ‘redevelopment plan’ was a private developer’s wet dream instead of a council led, rational relinking of the city with its waterfront.
Never mind, you can hop the train down here. You can make a day of it in a couple of years and take in our V&A offshoot, even if it is not quite cantilevered daringly out over the Tay. We might have finished rebuilding the, above ground, bits of the railway station too. The Victorian platforms will remain though.
@Panda Paws, just send them back some Takaway leaflets
an a wee note, At least this Shits edable,a nice Indian,China’s.
Watch out folks re the Topalof flyover, the Ukrainien
people are the ones who will be shaffted by Cameron by
return of favour. The deals within the Wheels of Politics.
link to bsg.ox.ac.uk
I think is the dude that vote NO BBC had on this morning explaining how and why what he calls “a resource rich region” like Scotland cannot be allowed to “run off with” any of the resources within said region’s territory.
Prof Collier from Yorkshire says Yorkshire coal was shared with Scotland so “resource secessions cannot be allowed” but “Scotland is legally entitled to 8% of the UK’s oil” and the law is all coming out right now “because until now its not been a credible thing that Scotland could be independent” and also Scotland as a nation state 19th Sept 2014 will kick of resource wars in Africa because although the Prof is sure there is virtually no Scots oil left, Africans will start wars with each other, in fits of pique maybe.
Whether or not Scotland is NOT merely a UKOK region wasn’t debated but its a bit scary to think that there are Oxford grads kicking around, both taught and rewarded degrees by buffoons like this.
@
panda paws says:
24 April, 2014 at 3:12 pm
“Heather says: Just had the postie drop off some deliveries and he handed me a BT and UKIP leaflet.”
I came back to find a UKIP leaflet through the door though not a BT one. Thanks to Haud on the noo for the freepost tip as I’d chucked it in the recycling.
I mind when The LabServatives had a freepost, some of my mates sent telephone directories and bricks, one guy even sent a 6″ breeze block, freepost, that must have come to about £50
If you get a UKIP leaflet through your door, you can return it at their expense:
UKIP FREEPOST
RLSU-HZBG-UBBG
Lexdrum House
Heathfield
Devon
TQ12 6UT
Edit : if you send it back (with other stuff..) remember to deface it first.
As I said elsewhere, the gist of the claim that Scotland would only get 8% of the oil is that somehow it’s finders keepers with a dose of Scotland seceding from rather ending the union. He then goes on about how African nations prevented secession in order that they not be allowed to take resources into their own possession and that Scotland shouldn’t be allowed to as that would set a precedent.
He capped it of with the standard appeal to the mythical “international” law wheeled out whenever rational argument goes against them. There is no such thing, there’s a set of agreed to legislation based on treaties but nothing to bind Scotland to anything. He also mumbles something a there being a set of rule.
Brilliant synopsis Rev, of the Better Together’s tactics to date,not a hint of positivity in sight.
O/T I do apologise.
Ed Balls, wife and shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, is flying up to Inverness, to meet Scots women, and frighten them into voting no by claiming an independent Scotland will be over ran with immigrants. Not content with her scaremongering over immigration Mrs Cooper or Balls, will throw her tuppence into the debate claiming, there’s a significant gap in pensions in Scotland.
Of course the article was penned by none other than Torcuil Crichton, a political spin doctor, and acolyte of London Labour,Crichton is also allegedly a journalist, with the London owned Daily Record newspaper.
link to dailyrecord.co.uk
According to BBC Scotland, they’re considering their position, on their membership of CBI Scotland, with a move either to suspend their membership or, resign from CBI Scotland, we’ll wait and see if anything happens at all.
link to bbc.co.uk
Finally Ed Miliband and his shadow cabinet, are coming to Glasgow, tomorrow, (Talk about Tory tourism Labour wins that hands down)to further preach the benefits of the union, if I hear the terms broad shoulders or pooling resources one more time I’ll pull whats left of my hair out.
link to eveningtimes.co.uk
@ Muscleguy, don’t rub it in. The OIL CAPITAL OF EUROPE and there is no public swimming pool in said OIL CAPITAL OF EUROPE. Aberdeen looks like awful really. Its shabby, Union street is run down, Aberdeen Art Gallery is worn and thread bare, the beach boulevard was lovely years ago but its been destroyed by horrific speculator building from hell, they built a new shopping centre next to the train station that won “most ugly building in Britain” award before it was even finished and its impossible to get to by car, the only way to get round Aberdeen as the buses are really expensive and really really slow and on it goes in ABZ, home of nutters like Wullie Young and Barney Crockett.
@heedtracker.
Re-Russian bomber.
The Tupolev bomber never once left international airspace, the pilot didn’t break any laws yet to read the article in some Scottish newspapers you’d have thought, WW3 was on the verge of breaking out, and its all Scotland’s fault, for wanting independence. Never trust a press article,as they’re all unionists.
Rev. posted a link to this story starring the views of Paul Collier link to archive.today and he is featured in Radio 4 this morning at 06:51 link to bbc.co.uk (as heedtracker mentioned at 2:39)
Last night Radio4 ‘Costing the Earth’ featured a whole half hour on Scottish oil link to bbc.co.uk (also available to download).
“Iceland-style financial collapse”?
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHAHAAhahahahahahahaahaaaaa……. wheeze
I WISH the UK had treated the great banking casino robbery the way Iceland did!
@John White 2:19pm
It certainly doin’ ma napper in.
I’d forgotten that term but it does seem to fit the inept (or is it?) management of the whole BT debacle.
O/T – totally and utterly
what’s that largest graphic off to eithee side of these text panels in WordPress? Looks like a praying mantiss folded in half.
@DerekBateman2
Is it true? The BBC still a CBI member? Is there a corporate death wish at PQ? They cannot be in a campaign group in a referendum!
Derek Bateman @DerekBateman2
Unless and until the BBC resigns from a NO campaign group, all Yes people including MSPs should refuse to cooperate with programmes.
Derek Bateman @DerekBateman2
Licence fee payers should complain to PQ and to the Trust and can justifiably withhold their payments. BBC are in breach of their charter
Re Derek Bateman’s comment on licence fee, maybe we should get up a petition stating that we will stop paying the telly licence until BBC withdraw from the CBI, or at least suspend their membership until after indy. I for one would want to see proof that they have indeed withdrawn from CBI, and also what other political stances the CBI occupy that could also impinge on BBC ‘impartiality’!
@Jim T 3:51
Background image of old newsprint, looks to be a ploughshare.
Come in handy it will, great for turning bombed runways into tatty fields.
They ( BBC) should be registered with the Electoral Commission as being a NO supporter. As CBI had to do.
I have never read such utter bollocks in all my life..WTF is going on here..if this is being positive I hope they don’t go negative..must go and re-stitch the button on the back of my head
The BBC are affiliate members of Better Together.
This is through their membership of the CBI, who tell us they sought the view of their members.
Every BBC employee should introduce their organisation as having such official connection to Better Together otherwise they are misleading the public.
Any mail I get without my address on it is posted back into a postbox..they can do what they like with it
Good place to post this article.Sunshine strategy looking overcast.
link to internationalpoliticalforum.com
O/T BBC – CBI
Guido Fawkes sums up the horrible tangle quite succinctly:
link to order-order.com
Well done James Cook, say I. It takes a bit of integrity to run a story that you know will leave your employer in a pickle. I’m sure his spine was stiffened by having to spend hours on assignment disguised as a panda last year while waiting for ‘things’ to happen…. It’s enough to make anyone want to take a little revenge…
@les Wilson
Totally agree! it just shows you how STUPID HMG believes we are. They treat us with total contempt and try to scare the sh** out of us with lies and rob us blind. Yep sounds like true friends to me.
Why there is any debate about EBC being cahoots with HMG BT CBI etc. just reinforces the contempt they hold us in. Any proud scot who even thinks of selling his country and people out to these gangsters and fraudsters is beneath contempt in my book. Quisling does not come close.
O/T BBC-CBI
And, incidentally, it shows the extent of the massive sluggishness and lack of political nous at the heart of the BBC that it has taken them this long to make up their minds about something that is quite obvious: they cannot possibly be simultaneously impartial and a signed up member of a campaigning organisation.
I imagine this reluctance to act is because BBC Scotland has no separate existence – so the WHOLE BBC will have to resign from the CBI, and the besuited bigwigs down in London will be scratching their heads about why on earth some minor disturbance north of the border should be of any interest to them.
Like many others who frequent this site, I ‘suspended’ payment of the BBC Licence Fee last year – it has just handed those who DO pay the tax a solid reason to cease doing so forthwith.
@heraldnomore
You can have one of my UKIP leaflets.Postman delivered one yesterday and another one today. If I’m being targeted they’re wasting their time.
I spoke to a postman yesterday while I was delivering letters for the SNP. He seemed pretty disgusted to be delivering UKIP stuff.
“Iceland-style financial collapse”?
Does that mean we get to lock up the bankers like Iceland did?
Can we include all the ones that got bonuses? What about the ones who manipulated LIBOR?
Last I heard Icelands unemployment rate was 4% and they complained that was too high!
The BBC desk-bound executives must be finding it hard to justify their high paid existence. Making strategic decisions is their job.
They seem to be hoping it all simply goes away.
I wonder when the BBC Trust will intervene?
Just walked in the door to be greeted by my good lady doing her best Andy Murray ‘victory fist’.
“F***ing Chomsky!”
link to scotsman.com
On a separate note, I wish I hadn’t stopped paying my BBC licence fee already, just so I could do it all over again in protest at this CBI fiasco. Dammit!
Proof the economy isn’t on the way up, even though George Osborne told it was.
link to morningstaronline.co.uk
IB – I think you’re right. Us indy supporters who have been endlessly harping on about the obvious BBC anti-indy bias, without doing anything more than bleating on WOS, have now just been handed the ‘last straw’. Don’t do online banking, but will go into bank tomorrow and cancel my BBC licence dd.
@Mat 4:08pm
*smacks forehead with hand [REALLY hard]*
of course it is. Swords into ploughshares and all that.
Thanks for being so observant
I see ITV are refusing to quit CBI
stating “We remain entirely impartial on the debate over Scottish independence and our coverage of the issue will, as always, be completely fair and balanced.”
Really?
What about ITV Borders coverage then, or lack of it?
The further point about the BBC/CBI business is – that until they resign – it gives every pro-indy person on the planet an unassailable position over BBC bias. Hitherto the BBC has always rebutted suggestions of bias. Now, the simple question ‘how can you be unbiased but signed up to a political campaigning organisation?’ is unanswerable.
Newsdrive just said the BBC is assessing its position re CBI and will come to a decision ‘in its own time and on its own terms’.
Wooooooh! How very gallus of them.
@kininvie
I’m just wondering how you “suspend” your membership of a body such as the CBI (as per RGU action).
I’ve never been aware of any professional body with whom I have, or have had, membership making that option available.
“I smell shite” – as a well known actress is wont to say.
That seems like some hastily cobbled together escape route for the terminally exposed, and I doubt very much if that even has a scintilla of corporate governance adhering strength to it.
I only mention that because I suspect the BBC will adopt a similar position to RGU’s – and will be further eroding the CBI’s governance (such as it is).
Does anyone really believe that there will not be some sharing of systems after a YES? Of course there will.
Take Vehicle registration and licensing for example.
We own 10% of this system. Does anyone think the UK are going to pay us and kick us off it? Of course not.
1. Vehicles will still need to be tracked across these islands and fined for speeding.
2. Do we really want too untangle, which current vehicles should be registered where, other than to agree licence revenue?
3. Forget Scotland’s costs. rUK costs jump 10% if they have to run the system separately.
4. Do we really want two different systems emerging, with different rates of tax? Maybe, but wouldn’t it be more likely to be ‘agreed’ and applied unilaterally to prevent complications?
5. It may just be that some sensible person suggest British Isles road licence that covers all countries. Funny eh?
Collaboration is the only game in town after a YES vote. Everything else including IT systems, is just ‘..its my ba, your nae playin…’ unless you vote NO.
And Scotland would be entitled to a share of the TOTAL cost of any DWP systems… Would anyone like to hazard a guess what the development of that system has cost to date?
Its not like a wee App off the Apple Web site
Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out?
I see the Brigadoon Donkey is trying to deconstruct Business for Scotland membership.
link to indyrefmyths.blogspot.co.uk
I’d rather have a 1000 small businesses working locally for the community, than a big business paying tax in Luxembourg.
I seem to recall that when they brought back Yes Prime Minister recently on UK Gold,(a bad move it, was truly dire), there was an episode with Robbie Coltrane playing the FM and it was asserted that Scotland would not be able to get anything like all the oil revenue. I can’t remember the details but it worried me a bit. That was about a year ago and this is the first thing that I’ve heard that comes close to what was in that episode.
Is it rubbish or not?
Sunshine strategy coordinator Blair McDougall and scripted by the Rev I.M. Jolly.
‘Some shite strategy’. Nice.
With regards to the license fee, I had the wee license man at my door last week – a really lovely man – and when I told him that I don’t see why I should pay for the bias of the BBC or any other media organisation who claims to be unbiased but clearly run anti-independence stories, particularly a state-funded organisation who I don’t even watch anyway. I told him that the BBC was supposedly impartial and asked how could they be since they are state funded, with the interests of the state at heart. I also said that it wouldn’t be so bad if they tried to redress the imbalance by having equal coverage for the Yes campaign but they don’t. I complained that the budget allocated for Scottish programmes considering the income the BBC received from Scotland was woefully inadequate. He said of all the reasons people had given him for not paying their licenses, he’d never heard this before and that what I was saying was absolutely correct, and that I had given him food for thought. A small victory for me!
@ BigSteveChisholm
Good news on Chomsky favouring YES. Of course he is an anarcho-syndicalist!
Ian Hislop’s grandfather and father were/are Scottish – from Ayrshire. Almost as surprising as Tom Morton turning out to be a Unionist.
Which is the more convincing argument?
1. We shouldn’t drive over that cliff because we’ll die when we hit the ground.
2. We shouldn’t drive over that cliff because the flowers up here are lovely.
This obsession with negative arguments is by far the biggest red herring in the entire campaign. Bleating on about it incessantly isn’t going to change anything: the only thing that matters is how accurate an argument is, not its tone.
Just heard BBC (Dis)reporting Scotland saying that BBC has *ahem* suspended its membership of the CBI till after the referendum. Hmm…
Is there anywhere ……… anywhere ….. it is possible to get a list of CBI member organisations in Scotland. I would like to be able to score through them as they drop like flies. At what point will the CBI have to desist from calling itself a “confederation”? I make it at least 11 – 14 already gone … from an alleged total of 90? 13% (ish) and falling? Oops!
Oh, and yeah ….. suspended? Really BBC? Really?
@Firestarter,Sultans of swing 19th at Caz-m 8.13.
Thanks, Ronnie …….. got it
Copied, pasted and printed. Pen in hand
Heather you should have taken the UKIP leaflet, written NO WAY on Nigel Farage’s coupon, stuck it in an unstamped envelope and returned it to them like I did!
UKIP Freepost RLSU-H2BG-UBBG,
Lexdrum House,
TQ126UT
That way you’ll have the satisfaction of disposing of the offending leaflet, and at the same time sending them a clear message that their vile xenophobic brand of politics is neither needed nor wanted in Scotland.
Plus the added bonus that it will cost them money to pick up!
@Heather – written NO WAY on Nigel Farage’s coupon
or a wee Hitler moustache..
The BBC were repeating the old “Scotland’s banking sector is too big for Scotland to bail out and the banks will all move south” line this morning on their business news just before BBC Breakfast.
Ah, ITV Borders that Edward mentioned. It’s a farce and a disgrace. News and weather from Manchester. Scotland — where’s that?
At last the BBC has been outed and has decided to suspend its membership. Like others, I think this is a get-out, cooked up to get them out a difficult situation. Suspension in most organisations usually means you’ve done something either dire or considered inimical to the standing of the organisation. But I suspect many of us will agree this temporary suspension is not enough.
The CBI has always been vociferously against more powers for Scotland (from 1979 onwards). So those businesses and organisations who are members have joined in the understanding that it is a body campaigning to retain the status quo. This is a political position against our democratic aspirations, and no publicly funded bodies or those claiming to be impartial should be members, either now or at any other time, for membership fees are being used in a political manner.
Well done Business for Scotland for bringing this to our attention.
The BBC have not left the CBI. They’re playing games and trying to pretend that the CBI can be regarded as neutral until the official start of campaigning. That comes after the CBI have gone on record as expressing a policy opposed to independence.
@Heather @Croompenstein
I must admit that I was still rather sleepy and in my pjs when the postie arrived and when I saw the leaflet horror passed over my face. My instinct was ‘I don’t want this tripe over my doorstep’ and immediately wanted it out of my hands. Had I taken time to let it sink in, I’d have remembered you can send it back foc. My friend posted a nice pic on Facebook of her burning her leaflet. It would have been nice to get a bit creative with my paints and drawing pens before sending it back.
Oh well, I must check whether my parents have received one!
test
nahjxnwuincn kjsn kwncwjcnkjn ksxj n