Wings Over Scotland

We’ve been writing for quite a while now about the absurd-yet-deathless “Project Fear” scare story that an independent Scotland would lose access to BBC broadcasts (and thereby shows like Strictly Come Dancing, Match Of The Day, EastEnders, Doctor Who and, we dunno, Homes Under The Hammer or something), which was given another tired run-through last week by UK government culture secretary Maria Miller.

We’ve pointed out in some detail that it was complete nonsense, because the BBC is a commercial organisation which would actively seek to sell the rights to its output to Scotland, but what we haven’t been able to do previously was put a figure to the likely cost. Thanks to an alert reader, though, we can now fill in that gap.

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A chance comment on Twitter this afternoon gave us a fun thought – with over 230,000 readers a month, could we get a song to No.1 in the charts by ourselves now, as both publicity and a rallying call for the Yes movement?

We got lots of suggestions for songs with apt lyrics about Scotland’s relationship with the UK and catchy tunes, so as democrats we’ve decided to have a poll to pick what would be the best choice if we should decide to attempt the project.

You can cast your vote below.

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From today’s Telegraph.

And there’s plenty more where that came from.

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SATIRE:

REALITY:

At least, we THINK we’ve got those the right way round.

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So we’ve now had David Cameron, David Mitchell and David Bowie all “lovebombing” Scotland with pleas to stay in the Union (as assorted Tory ministers and their Labour and Lib Dem hangers-on lurk in the shadows a few feet away tapping knuckle-dusters into their palms and making throat-slitting gestures in our direction).

But the big question is, which David would you like to see try it next?

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We wouldn’t like to suggest Unionists are clutching at straws this week, but:

Number of words actually spoken by David Bowie about independence: 4

Number of words written about it so far by major news outlets: 3,916

To be honest we stopped counting after that.

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One way or another, pretty much the entire history of mankind has been that of a struggle for power. Whether military conquest to secure resources, religious crusades to impose ideology or the fight for individual human rights, people across the globe have constantly striven for power over themselves and each other, and do to this day.

Scots seem to be the only exception.

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A poll conducted by a Scottish Asian radio station and reported in today’s Sunday Herald offers the encouraging news that 64% of its listeners back a Yes vote in the independence referendum, exactly twice as many as those planning to vote No (32%, for those of you with hangovers).

But in a week which seems to have left Yes supporters excited and buoyant – despite what the media has frantically attempted to spin as bad news –  the piece also contained a few sobering quotes that illustrate the nature and size of the wall the Yes campaign has to scale if it’s to emerge victorious.

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Okay, readers, there’ve been quite a few 18-hour work days recently, and an awful lot of pain-in-the-arse stuff to deal with. Tonight I’m kicking back, cracking open a smooth and spicy Bundaberg Ginger Beer, and playing TxK.

Talk amongst yourselves. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

We’ve speculated on a few occasions recently on the effect on Scottish public opinion of almost the entire Scottish media being owned and controlled from outside Scotland. So we thought it was time we actually put some facts and figures to it.

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Today, the Prime Minister of the UK, who wants Scotland to stay in the UK but won’t go there and make the case for it, asked the non-Scottish citizens of the rest of the UK to tell Scots how they felt about Scottish independence.

This is what some of them said.

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It seems that today marked the official start of the much-vaunted “lovebombing” campaign aimed at persuading Scots to stay in the UK by showing them how much they’re loved by the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The opening salvo did some unfortunate and costly collateral damage, but luckily the Union had a white knight following close behind to smooth over any injured feelings.

Would you like to meet him, readers?

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