Fearmongering in the gloaming
Things must be grim at Project Fear HQ if things have gotten this desperate and amateurish 15 months out. The latest speculative FearBomb is that “mobile phone companies could introduce roaming charges when people cross over the border.”
(Coupled, rather excellently, with the assertion that “Scottish independence could also drive up the cost of posting letters”, apparently under the impression that we’ve all forgotten the price of a stamp in the UK rocketing by a eye-watering 39% last year.)
We all love our mobile phones, so that would be an excellent piece of scarework – if only it was more than a fortnight since the EU announced that roaming charges are to be abolished in Europe by July 2014, two months before the independence referendum and almost two years before Scotland would actually be independent.
Come on, guys, it’s like you’re not even trying any more.
“Mobile phone users could incur roaming charges while still in the UK if Scotland gains independence”
Could someone explain independence to the Telegraph, with particular emphasis on its effect on Scotland’s membership of the UK?
Another scare story bites the dust but the real challenge for the YES campaign is how to persuade Labour supporters to vote YES in 2014.
From going round the doors recently the current tactics are not working.
Labour has gamboled that those in work have no sympathy with those who cant / wont get a job so thus mitigating the effect of Tory welfare cuts.
You just don’t get the right kind of scare stories these days. Standards are slipping somewhat.
off topic, but did anyone see the scotsman article today about alex salmond boycotting muirfield? it ended with jackson carlaw, deputy leader of the scottish conservatives, saying “At least we will be spared photographs of him [Mr Salmond] sprawled like a beached whale beside the greens.”
is this where we are now? i was genuinely shocked when i saw that. the deputy leader of the conservatives in scotland actually said that, on the record, to a journalist! is is just me or is it perfectly acceptable for public servants to say this type of thing now?
Project fears chief weapons are Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt…just realised that spells FUD. How apt
We’re well below the scariness of Carry on Screaming now. However I hope lots of Scots read the article and the anti Scottish bile in the comments.
FHB
As if Jackson Carlaw was Adonis himself!
A political campaign that boasts of running what they term “Project Fear” in order to win votes in this day and age of the internet is bound to be found out big time, yet it doesn’t appear to have dawned on the “Better Together” mob as yet.
Marian says:
A political campaign that boasts of running what they term “Project Fear” in order to win votes in this day and age of the internet is bound to be found out big time, yet it doesn’t appear to have dawned on the “Better Together” mob as yet.
I remember reading a while back that an incredible 58% of households in Scotland’s biggest city (Glasgow) had no internet access (2011 figures I think).
I would like to think that today that figure will be much much lower. If it’s not then I imagine many of these households get their information from the likes of the Daily Record or the BBC.
Their tactic may not be as daft as it seems.
I can see that an Independent Scotland would have thinner air (no longer enjoying all of the UK air supply) and therefore radio signals from mobile phones would take longer to travel through the ether, and hence call charges would increase. I guess I should really just mail this important scientific info to Project Fear HQ?
I suspect that fear bomb central a.k.a. BTHQ have a SERIOUS problem with the simplest of concepts i.e. “check your facts BEFORE opening your mouth!” There again do BTHQ actually know what an actual FACT looks like I think not myself! 😆
Now that Jackie Baillie has become Labour’s “manifesto co-ordinator” I am certain that all these sacvre bombs will stop raining down on us from on high. Oh wait a minute she is usually found to be at the centre of Labour’s scare bombs up till now has she so I guess it will be business as usual. Ho Hum! 😆
I don’t see this as scaremongering at all.
If the rUK leaves the European Union, then rUK phone companies will be free to impose swinging roaming charges on EU (including Scottish) citizens who are travelling in the rUK.
So, a reasonable point from the UKOKers I would say.
Tomorrow’s Sunday Herald front page:
http://twitpic.com/czx08m
I guess I should really just mail this important scientific info to Project Fear HQ?
Text them. But do it now, while you’re still in the UK. It’ll be cheaper.
@Marcia-
Thanks, as ever – we could set our watches at your posting of the SH front page!
It’s a great image of Osborne – he looks suitably haunted/hunted.
(Oh, kismet, kismet, please be ‘real’, and let this fucker get his due – preferably when some of us are still alive to witness it…amen.)
I counter scare stories like this is by asking. “What do you think that the big four supermarkets will do post a independence?” Like they are going to shut up shop and head south!
SIMON The providers wil go along with EU ruling .
The Man in the Jar says:
I counter scare stories like this is by asking. “What do you think that the big four supermarkets will do post a independence?” Like they are going to shut up shop and head south!
I can confirm they ain’t going anywhere 🙂
@Simon
Surely the other way round? The entire EU could gang up on the rUk and charge them squillions if they so much as step over Carter Bar.
Slightly OT ( well ok quite a bit) but in keeping with the theme of the headlines – some more rather odd roaming in the gloaming ………sure has pulled some unusual bedfellows together.
http://news.stv.tv/politics/231230-celtic-director-tom-allison-joins-panel-advising-tories-on-devolution/
This is much ado about nothing – in an Independent Scotland we won’t have mobile phones.
We’ll be too busy monitoring the skies for signs of seasonal-shift, whereupon we herd north or south, using smoke signals and/or the imitation of bird-sound as the primary means of communication.
To that end we should all familiarise ourselves with the sounds of Nature ASAP.
(FWIW, I do a passable ‘angry blackbird’ – a friend of a friend is also, helpfully, receptive to ‘mole-panic’ and unexpected mollusc migrations.)
<i>To that end we should all familiarise ourselves with the sounds of Nature ASAP.</i>
Independent or not.
I can hoot like an owl, do you think that’ll be any good in the hunter/ gatherer Scotland that we’re sure to become after independence?
Nicola Sturgeon has just twitted on Labour Home pouring scorn on the mobile phone story
@pictishbeastie-
Invaluable.
2wit
2woo
..and here’s a teaser for the weans…
YY
UR
YY
IC
IC
UR
YY
4 me
Hoots!
I spend more time in continental Europe than England so keeping free EU roaming is what counts for me.
The risk of losing that makes me even more determined to vote “Yes”!
Linda’s got a point and we mustn’t bury our heads, there are still many out there who are labour old timers, but they won’t budge even if Scotland is totally shafted, should there be a no vote, unbelievable really. Much work to do, just watched the stone of destiny again, my friends from N E England liked it but we’re quite aghast at never having seen it until now…history/ her story is so relevant and crucial to having any sort of civilised debate around how to take things forward. Future generations will have so much to put right, and here in Scotland it will only be possible when we are rid of the right wing selfish greedy mentality which resides in the halls of Westminster…
All these scare stories are designed to make us think that it’s going to be difficult and stressful to achieve and/or, once we have it, we’ll regret it. This is because they know that deep down, most people want it.
Apologies to the men reading this, but for me this is like planning for a baby. You really want to have a baby (independence) but there never seems to be a perfect time to do it. The pregnancy (run up to referendum) is full of worry and uncertainty (but also excitement). Labour is bloody hard work (period between 18 Sept 2014 and Independence). BUT once you have your baby (independence) you will treasure it more than anything and you would never want to give it up.
Folks
Norway, despite not being in the EU has to apply most EU laws in order to have a trading status with the EU.
I am sure Norway will also adopt Nelly Kro’s last bit of legislation against the big theft that is called mobile phone charging.
What disappoints me is that she has not told the mobile phone companies to harmonise their data charges when roaming. That and the charges for texting, inside individual countries and cross border. That one is a nice little dripping reoast; yopu think you are saving money when abroad by using texts but end up paying much much more than the text actually costs to deliver. I think a text costs the Mobile CO less than a penny to transmit and they charge 10p and 25p for cross border.
o/t
Only last week Blair MacDougal
waxed lyrical about his travels abroad where the local savages held the UK in such awe they wished they could be more like us, well what are we REALLY like,
this mornings news shows Jeremy Hunt
trying to ferret out those Johnnie foreigners who think the UK is a soft touch,
having the nerve to come here on holiday and having the poor judgement to have a heart attack/stroke/anything else you can fall ill with,
and expecting us to fork out for their care, which by the Tories own estimates amounts to £33 million out of a budget of £104 billion,
this is how mean the UK is becoming, putting in place checks to ensure those people don’t as much as get a free paracetamol will cost substantially more than they cost the UK and given the poor state of the NHS I would suspect visitors would rather they didn’t fall ill here but in their homeland,
I was speaking to an English lady in Tenerife who had fallen badly and had to have an operation involving delicate surgery to ensure she didn’t lose the use of her hand which had several broken bones, the quality of the work performed on her was remarked upon by a doctor in England when she returned home, his opinion was that she could not have received that quality of work in England and that she was fortunate that the Tenerife medics did her surgery.
Scaredy cat,
Aye, but BT are hoping that induced fear will cause a miscarriage.
So, the scare story is we’d pay roaming charges..?
logically however,
if EU cancel charges
Scotland votes ‘yes’ and stays in EU
England votes to leave EU
then surely the English will be in the minority facing roaming charges across Europe?
I thought the story was the entire mobile network in the Northern Shire would stop working. We have no mobile telecom companies. The separatists plan to use semaphore.
@scaredy cat
Labour is bloody hard work
Scottish Labour, doubly so.
On GMS this morning Derek Bateman rubbished the latest scare from Westminster regarding mobile phones. Yet as soon as his show is finished the headlines on the same programme are going with the Westminster scare story. Didnt thy listen to Derek Bateman who was on immediately before them???? What kind of idiot have they got running that place.??
And what kind of idiots to they think are listening.???
BBC will be even more worthless listening now that Derek Bateman has retired (so I heard on radio this morning. I wonder if he walked or was pushed?). He says he will be running a blog, so it might be worth linking to that!!
A wee bit embarrassing for Jo Swinson. “Related Articles” LOL
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10150160/Mobile-phone-users-could-incur-roaming-charges-if-Scotland-gains-independence.html
It’s still up there on the BBC website…. The choice of words for the strapline is pretty questionable also “The UK government is to claim that Scottish independence would leave mobile phone users facing higher bills.”, ie it makes it sounds like phone bills are going to increase without mentioning roaming.
err the article is kind of true to an extent, if Scotland is independent then the normal rules apply. I mean I live in Northern Ireland depending on your network provider, calls to the republic, a few miles down the road, count as international calls the same as calling france or spain.
If I drive a few miles down the road into the republic of ireland(another country technically) then im going to get potential extra charges for using it there depending on my network.
When Scotland goes independent I don’t see why it’d be different or special scotish users would still be hit the the same charges anyone else in Europe gets hit with for traveling around
Why would Scotland be any different?
I mean fair enough if roaming charges are abolished across the EU then no worries but there will still be the extra charges in that calling family who live in the UK would be classified as an international call and cost much more in general.
I mean thats no reason not to become independent but at least everyone knows what will happen.
EE- French/German company
o2- spanish
3- hong kong
like these companies will care less funny picture but pathetic negativity ONCE AGAIN
T Kelly
I live in France and my mobile tarif is €20 per month.
I have free mobile and land line connections in France (unlimited) and free texts and unlimited internet access.
I can call virtually any land line in the World for free as well as mobile numbers in China, USA and Canada, maybe also Japan.
OK so, the tel connections are via the internet but it works fine although internet speeds are not always up there.
If the UK splits to Scotland and whatever the rump state wants to call itself, the network would not change across the UK. Scotland would probably not be spliced off the main UK network. It would probably just continue as before.
Ireland, NI and the Republic is a different business as both territories licenced different providers and thus established different networks from the very beginning.
I believe if you live in Andorra you can opt to be on a French or Spanish tariff, depending on where you go when you go out of the mountain postage stamp of an administration.
It is no big problem that will be sorted out at the time. The networks would not want to lose 8% of their client base overnight.
I see Jackson Carlew has said the mobile phone thing is just silly and that the No campaign needs to up its game.
He isn’t wrong.
This is kind of old news now. It has been put to bed, and still the early evening Better Together Broadcasting Corporation`s Reporting Scotland runs with this story, and also that letters will cost more to send if there is a Yes vote next year.
Jees.
Will Santa still come if we are Independent?
Seasick Dave
Sadly no, we will have no air traffic control. 🙂
Time to look out my morse key…
We should not underestimate the utter stupidity of unionists.
fit aboot flags on the top o a hill?
or bonfires?
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/4994948/Its-Scare-Trek-as-Vince-Cable-says-opposing-indy-split-is-a-matter-of-logic.html