Hostile questioning
We were rather gobsmacked, readers, when we tuned into this morning’s BBC Radio Scotland phone-in at 9am. Ostensibly discussing the promotion of “Rangers” to the Premiership, presenter Louise White adopted the most astonishingly, openly partisan and aggressive approach we’ve ever heard from a host on the state broadcaster (which is no small feat), on the subject of whether the club was a new one or not.
Callers were harangued, interrupted and hustled on for daring to suggest the truth. It was a jaw-dropping display of disregard for not only impartiality but basic journalistic regard for the plain, uncontestable facts of the matter.
But don’t panic, football-haters. This post is about something else.
Because an alert reader, on seeing our tweets, forwarded us details about something remarkable that happened last week, at an LGBTI election hustings in Edinburgh.
During the debate, White was criticised onstage by Ruth Davidson for being too “interrogatory” towards Nicola Sturgeon. Davidson chastised the BBC journalist for not treating the panel of party leaders equally, after what one audience member called “hostile questioning” from White to Sturgeon:
“Sorry I’m going to do something probably quite bad and not very well thought of here, but I’m actually a little bit uncomfortable with the way this evening’s going, because we’re at an equality event and we all agreed to come here on the grounds that we’d all be treated equally.”
“There’s five people on this panel and four of them have been given a platform to say what they want and one of them is being treated in an interrogatory way, and you either chair this in a way that we’re all being interrogated….”
At this point the Tory leader was interrupted by applause from the floor, rendering the rest of her comment inaudible. Our source sent us a recording of the incident:
(Stonewall Scotland LGBTI hustings, 31 March 2015).
The presenter replied:
“If that is pointed at me, I want to make you aware that I am attempting to treat everyone in a fair and equitable manner. Nicola Sturgeon has been in power for nine years, I am trying to look back to get her to justify her actions, and I’m also asking the rest of the panel, including Nicola Sturgeon, to look forward to what they would do if you come to power.”
White is due to interview the First Minister on an episode of the phone-in show soon.
We commend Ruth Davidson for speaking up on behalf of a political opponent. But when even the Tories are having to intervene to stop the BBC being overly hostile to the SNP, readers might well feel that there’s something rotten in Pacific Quay.
Ahh – the BBC – amazing, a Tory defends Sturgeon? What, is she waking up? Is this the change – London Labour failing in everything, but the BBC being their flag bearers as much as possible.
If this does not say the BBC is over, what would?
Is Louise White related to Craig White?
I think we should be told.
Credit to Ruth Davidson (it’s not often I say that). I wonder whether Kezia Dugdale agreed with her?
Too little, too late.
A very telling reply from the BBC woman, her tone said it all.
Even Ruthie knows that treating Nicola unfairly actually backfires and any and all criticism can be deflected by a claim of SNPBad and no one pays any heed to what is actually said.
‘But don’t panic, football-haters. This post is about something else.’
Oh good!
Perhaps the above warning should be higher up. I nearly gave up at “Rangers”
As much as I hate to congratulate a Tory given the misery they have inflict on Scotland and its people.
But on this occasion good on Ruth Davidson for pulling up Louise White for her aggressive questioning of Nicola sturgeon.
There’s something rotten at Pacific Quay alright, Labour in Scotland familial ties; for starters.
“Justify her actions” – has Nicola been at the centre of some crime I don’t know about or something? Mind you, unionists probably would like it for governing in a way that makes Scotland more confident to be a criminal offence.
“… readers might well feel that there’s something rotten in Pacific Quay.”
They might indeed. However I have to take words of others on the matter of the current state of BBC coverage as I have not listened to, watched or read any news/current affairs material put out by the Biased Broadcasting Corporation since 19.09.2014. I’m content to come to a reliable source (such as WoS)and to read other selected columnists, to get my information.
Since Alex Salmond rightly criticised the BBC for their coverage of the independence referendum, BBC Scotland in particular appear to have gone completely native, and have thrown aside any pretence of neutrality and balance in their coverage of Scottish politics.
As for the Rangers story, well clearly they are a new club, because they were forced to start again at the lowest possible level of Scottish football. If Rangers were the same club they would only have been demoted to the Championship. They were clearly liquidated.
I’m gobsmacked…..
I’m sure Mr Macwhirter will tell us that Louise White just read the hostile BritNat press and was merely following their lead. Isn’t that right, Mr Macwhirter.
BBCSLAB are the clear and present danger to democracy in Scotland. They know. We know it. And now, it seems, even Ruth-the-Mooth knows it.
“there’s something rotten in Pacific Quay”
Yes, it’s called London.
The irony is that it is the Union (the London Establishment) which is the biggest threat to BBC Shortbread, not the SNP.
Just this week, yet another announcement was made that the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) for the entire UK is being moved from Kinloss, Scotland to Hampshire, England.
It joins a long list of operations based in Scotland being closed down & moved to England including HMRC offices across the country being consolidated in Croydon, England.
It’s almost as if London knows independence is inevitable so is ready by systematically dismantling all the UK wide assets in Scotland & moving them south.
I would personally like to see BBC Shortbread shoved over the cliffs at Portpatrick but I recognise that the Scottish Government has a more moderate aspiration for Britain’s propaganda offices in Glasgow.
From the dept of pedantry: Nicola Sturgeon has not been in power for nine years. Even her snottily delivered defence is a lie.
It’s a bit of both. The problem is that it’s clubs that entered a team into the competition. That’s the way the rules were written. On the other hand it’s teams and not clubs that win the competitions. So Rangers, the team, is the same one under new ownership. In order to have that recognised their new club had to take on culpability for any debts to other clubs incurred by their old.
New club, same team, arm twisted to take a financial hit. Old club targeted by HMRC and forced out of business as an object lesson to others.
I’m sure Mr Macwhirter will come forward to reassure us all that Louise White had just read the hostile BritNat press and was merely following their lead. Nothing to do with blatant BBCSLAB bias. Isn’t that right, Mr Macwhirter.
BBCSLAB are the clear and present danger to democracy in Scotland. They know. We know it. And now, it seems, even Ruth-the-Mooth knows it.
Spits out the words Nicola Sturgeon.
Could be a put up job between the BBC and the Tories to make Ruth Davidson look good!
Ruth Davidson is of course an ex-BBC Scotland radio journalist & interviewer herself, so she is the only one there who could have said that with any authority.
But it does illuminate the transformation in the quality of radio journalism at Pathetic Quay, and at least with Louise White, they are now providing their own rhyming slang.
Interviewing Nicola Sturgeon? Won’t be listening
‘But don’t panic, football-haters. This post is about something else.’
So why introduce it at all? Is there some political importance in Rangers’ status as a football club or are you just mischief making. This does no good at all. Rangers really only matter to their diehard fans and those who oppose them. Your comments about their status were unnecessary and unhelpful.
My flabber is well gasted! Davidson tearing a strip off one of the BBC Yoon toadies. Fair doos tae her!
There is something deid and stinking at the BBC in the Yoon Colony at Pacific Quay and it is no fish.
This alone is reason enough for Scotland to be Independent.
The Yoons have form on rewriting history. Come May the 5th let’s take the first step to making the Yoons history.
The BBC excuse for attacking the SNP more robustly than the other parties has always been that they are the incumbent, they have been in power for nine years. They have more to answer for.
Well, fair enough. Thinking back in time though, beyond that when the Labour-LibDem coalition was running the show, I cannot remember the BBC attacking Jack MoConnell and his cronies with the same venom. I may be wrong, but it would be worth someone of Prof Robertson’s reputation having a look back at old, pre-2007 interviews. A horrendous amount of work, but it would make a fascinating comparative study:
BBC bias: Before and after 2007
@ Proud Cybernat
Absolutely. There is a reason hostile forces the world over target communications towers first.
That is quite incredible! Perhaps Ruthie would have been happier if she & the other panel members were the ones doing the interrogating.
I wonder if there is a recording of the whole event.
Are there any bbc presenters/reporters that are capable of being neutral and unbiased? I’m glad I’m not the only one who is thproughly fed up with the blatantly biased corp. Not only that they are blatant liars and it is so deep in them they don’t even accept truth when pointed out.
@ Ruby
I think you may have missed the point here.
“So why introduce it at all?”
For the reason I said in the article. FFS.
“So Rangers, the team, is the same one under new ownership.”
No, it’s not. If it was, half its players wouldn’t have been allowed to walk away from their contracts and it would have played in Europe in season 2012-13, having qualified by finishing second in the SPL. You don’t get kicked out of competitions just for having a new owner.
On the subject of disgustingly biased journalism I would like to know what WOSers think of the lead story in this week’s Scottish Review by that twisted individual Kenneth Roy.
There’s a good deal of evidence (remember the Wimbledon twitter conversation?), that, away from the public stage, the leaders of our political parties get on pretty well on a personal level. And that, on the whole, is a good thing.
I say, on the whole, because there are unintended consquences. If you are a political leader, you are pretty much under attack the whole time, and with the rise of social media, a lot of the attack can become vicious and personal. So there’s an understandable instinct to sympathise with others in the same position – and lend support, either in private, or – as here – in public. So far, so good.
But ultimately it leads to what we see in Westminster, with the ‘political class’ feeling themselves removed from (and maybe superior to) the people they represent, and to see the outside world as intrinsically hostile. And that in turn leads to the expenses scandal (and others of the ilk)
Louise White, for me, was the most overtly hostile of all the GMS presenters. I actually complained about her to the BBC but was told basically she was a freelance and thus the BBC were not responsible for her.
I don’t think the BBC get how badly the tone of their presenters comes across. White from the offset is antagonistic and patronising to anyone with a different viewpoint. This morning she was jaw droppingly partisan in her stance.
Well done to Ruth Davidson. This ‘pack mentality’ which is nurtured and promoted by the BBC is not working for them or the opposition. All we see or hear is an unprofessional individual who does not allow the interviewee to answer so that the listener is left frustrated and ultimately learns nothing.
Gordon Brewer is another. They are so desperate to come away with a ‘victory’ over the interviewee that the whole process is worthless.
What a coincidence. Here am I about to take delivery of my “Is that true or did you hear it on the BBC?” car and jacket badges, thanks to Messrs Bonny badge Co.
Roll up, Roll up, get your badges today. Time to show them undermining works both ways.
R-type Grunt says:
6 April, 2016 at 2:46 pm
@ Ruby
I think you may have missed the point here.
Ruby replies
That’s possible!
TBH I find it pretty incredible that Ruth Davidson is criticising the BBC!
Ach perhaps I’m just too cynical!
I did not know about Ruth Davidson’s reaction to Louise White and it to Ruth Davidson’s credit that she was honest and fair enough to pull her up about her behaviour towards Nicola Sturgeon. In my opinion both Louise White and Kay Adams have “form” with regard to their aggressive and hostile approach when interviewing SNP politicians. I have never heard an ST politician reacting adversely in their response and it says a lot that Ruth Davidson thought it was unacceptable and told Louise White so.
Is Louise White actually Louise Whyte then? And Nicola hasn’t been in power that long surely. The place was a dictatorship for most of those 9 years with Alexander the Great in charge. You can’t be in power in a dictatorship unless you are the dictator, right? This of course was prior to the one party state days. Slap me with a frozen fish Louise is a breath of fresh air. Come on the Beeb, envy of the world, loathed by the brainwashed locals.
Here’s some rotten PQ information…
caltonjock.com/2014/11/05/bbc-scotland-powerful-politically-corrupt-and-biased-shameful-abuse-of-the-scottish-electorate/
Rev., would you please clear your head out of this Rangers stuff. We know what Rangers are about and we know that probably the worst thing about them is getting back into the Premiership. Scottish football is about to slide backwards.
As I pointed out in another thread, I stopped watching and listening to the BBC for dental reasons. Louise White’s voice in particular really grates on me and has me grinding away at my gnashers when I hear it.
It isn’t my imagination, she’s way too thick and slow for the job she does on BBC radio. Very amateurish but keen to please the bosses, providing treasonous poison isn’t a problem for her, so I suppose we should get used to her.
I bet she’s dirt cheap too; who else would hire that nobody?
A curious intervention.
Sturgeon is liable to attract sympathy if attacked to a greater extent than opponents on what should be an Even Stevens Q&A event.
Complaining about a lack of even handedness is fine, if not self-serving.
The SNP’s track-record is for a different occasion – policies after the election is the brief here.
@ Ruby
I would love to hear a bit more to see how interrogatory White was. As a member of the audience shouts when she tries to defend herself – “Irrelevant”.
Talking of irrelevant.
O/T Can anybody help with this? I donated to the Great Leap Forward and requested badges. I received an email from Indiegogo on 29/3 to say that the badges had arrived and to get in touch with ‘Stuart Campbell’ (highlighted in pink). This just takes me to what looks like his page on Indiegogo.
As this is the first time I have ever donated to anything, can anyone tell me how to get my badges?
Thanks.
BBC interviewer reverts to auntie’s default position when acting as chair surprise. This has always been the news where we are. 🙂
Good catch with the recording alert listener.
Slim pickings for labour funding.
https://archive.is/ZpeWT
PS:
The questioning goes on by the MSM until they get a reply which suits their agenda. The Yoon party spokepersons will follow on with the ‘China’ bad stuff unhindered.
https://archive.is/8kdH3
Posted this on the other thread but it is very relevant to this thread.
This is a war–a ‘cold war’, if you like. And it is a war we are fighting against the might of the BritNat Establishment. Here in Scotland the principal cheerleader and mouthpiece for that Establishment is the auntie you never ever want to kiss (not even at Christmas)–BBCSLAB; the auntie we all, by law, have to pay the ‘pedo tax’ – (c) Bevrijdingsdag – to watch and listen to their propaganda.
Right now BBCSLAB are in full frontal assault on the Scottish Government (as the small clip above aptly demonstrates) and are doing so to try and undermine its popularity; the SNP’s popularity. Make no mistake here folks – this is serious. This is an all out assault on our democracy by the BritNat State to try and ensure that the SNP does not get a Holyrood majority because they know – as we do – that without that majority, IndyRef#2 will be shelved for at least another 5 yers. This is why we are all witnessing on our screens and radios right now the total monstering by the BBC (and the wider BritNat colonial media) of the Scottish Government and the SNP. They are doing it to try and protect the corrupt structures of the Corporate Elite and the British State.
Folks – we simply CANNOT let BBCSLAB win this ‘war’. We simply CAN’T. They MUST be beaten. They have to be brought, kicking and screaming if need be, to realise that they are on the wrong side of the argument and the wrong side of history. They have to be told by the Scottish electorate in May’s Scottish Election that we are DONE listening to them; that they can pump out their batshit, BritNat, Eleanor BADford pish all year long – SCOTLAND IS NOT FOR TURNING. And we will NOT allow them to undermine our democracy in this fashion. NEVER.
This May, use your vote to ensure BBCSLAB gets the message – LOUD and CLEAR. It is OVER. It doesn’t matter how much of your pro-union, BritNat propaganda you pump out – IT AIN’T WORKING and it will NEVER work. It’s OVER. DONE. The drugs don’t work anymore.
BBCSLAB is who we are really up against, folks. It is TEHY that are propping up the failed fortunes of the BritNat parties in Scotland. BBCSLAB is the REAL opposition in this country that we have to beat. And we do that by giving their unionist puppets a total doin’ in May’s election. They must be routed like never before.
Come on Scotland. Let us tell BBCSLAB we are listening to them NO MORE. Let’s tell them to shove their BritNat, anti-Scottish propaganda where the sun don’t shine. Let’s have BBCSLAB scratching their fucking heads and asking themselves after the rout of their unionist puppets in May, “Dfuq do we do now?”
In May LET US BEAT BBCSLAB (and their unionist puppets in the BritNAt press and the BritNat parties).
And there is only ONE absolutely sure fire way of doing that –
SNP x 2
Perhaps Davidson and her Tories think that EBC’s extreme bias is now having the opposite effect from what is intended!
Yes, it probably has become counter productive!
Gus 1940
Not much,
Found the faux disgust by a somewhat odd fellow D Torrence hilarious, a timid little chap he is! I hope Ruth Davidson is thoroughly ashamed of herself, poor chap turned to drink just to calm himself down!
Bad Tory, bad bad Tory, you sit down son, we will get you something to calm you, bad tank commander, bad!
Is it possible that Ruth Davidson was complaining that it looked as if the other parties were not important enough to be interrogated?
If I were a BBC interviewer with ambitions to be the next Jeremy Paxman I don’t think I would spend too much time interrogating Kezia, Willie or Ruth.
Louise White is just a rubbish broadcaster, not sure why or whether she’s deliberately biased/hectoring/whatever. What ever it is, I know FA about football (ha ha) and even I thought she was very imbalanced with regard to what we’re calling Rangers or whether its the same club etc etc etc.
It could be that she was just trying to extract a sticking point from the debate – she didn’t want people to get hung up on that point alone… I mean, its not like football people to be argumentative or to keep picking at one thing which in the grand scheme isn’t really important… Because, you know… Its only football…
Other than that, the BBC could stick a vuvuzela in front of the microphone and I’d be hard pushed to tell the difference most mornings.
😉
“I received an email from Indiegogo on 29/3 to say that the badges had arrived and to get in touch with ‘Stuart Campbell’”
Eh? How would Indiegogo know whether the badges had arrived or not? (They haven’t.)
Why is the date under the recording 31 march 2015?
Rangers represent a shameful element of Scotland’s past. We witnessed this in George Square! It’s a sad day for us all bringing this hate mob back. The Yes movement and SNP represent Scotland’s future. Why are we still allowing these scumbags a platform to fill our lives with bile and hatred. They represent the Scotland the BBC want to maintain. Divide and rule and turn Scot against Scot. No good will ever come while they exist as an institution in the present form.
There will be no humility either. They will be worse than before I guarantee that!
Ali.B says:
6 April, 2016 at 3:24 pm
Why is the date under the recording 31 march 2015?
Ruby replies
Perhaps because that was when the event has held
https://www.stonewallscotland.org.uk/events/scottish-parliament-lgbti-hustings
I was trying to find a recording of the event. I wonder if Periscope keep recordings like IndyLive
For anyone interested, here’s a link to a recording of the debate:
h..ps://katch.me/stonewalluk/v/3a6abd41-3760-30a4-afb5-da3bda8d85e5
Ooops sorry Ali B.
The date is a year out.
Hi Rev, thanks for answering. Here’s the email I received (hopefully):
New Campaign Update!
Hello (my email address)
The ‘The Great Leap Forward’ team just posted:
1 new Announcement:
Logo badges arrived 🙂
Reply directly to this email to respond to the campaign owner, Stuart Campbell. Visit the campaign page to view all comments and updates for this project.
Help spread the word about the campaign!
Sincerely,
The Indiegogo Team
with a big picture of shiny badges, which hasn’t copied.
I’ll leave that with you….
Ruth NEVER does anything which hasn’t got an agenda. I think she is trying to show the caring, friendly, jolly hockey sticks, chummy side to her.
SNP BAAAD has been the mantra. We aren’t listening, she is aware of this and is using it for her own ends. Makes her one of the good guys! Aye right!
Beware Tories with a hand of friendship…there’s a knife in the hand behind her back, she will use it as many times as it takes to stop the SNP and us from reaching our goal.
These people would sell their granny to have control of Scotland. Don’t be fooled by the smiling face of this Tory…she is dangerous and knows how to work a room TO HER ADVANTAGE!
SNP X2 EU IN
Not everything is Black and white. There are farty shades of Union Jack grey.
Well done to Ruth Davidson.
Although I see this was an equality event, and perhaps it wasn’t seen as the time or place for a partisan host. I wonder if she would ever do the same on a national TV debate? I remember she wasn’t afraid of manipulative electioneering on the referendum day. ‘Rumours of burly men at polling stations.’
Still, fair play to her on this occasion.
Jim says:
6 April, 2016 at 3:29 pm
For anyone interested, here’s a link to a recording of the debate:
h..ps://katch.me/stonewalluk/v/3a6abd41-3760-30a4-afb5-da3bda8d85e5
Ruby replies
Well done that is what I was looking for!
I ran your like through TinyUrl
http://tinyurl.com/hs74snz
@ Liz Rannoch
The e-mail from Indiegogo with its pink link tells you how to get in touch with the organizer of a fund-raiser; it’s not an instruction to get in touch.
Since you’ve not donated before, you won’t be familiar with this; they send similar e-mails about every fund-raiser.
Your perk(s) will arrive in due course, I’m sure – mine always have, regardless of the cause I’ve supported.
Louise White should be fired immediately for this alone. She’s clearly lost any kind of credibility as a ‘journalist’ or ‘reporter’, there’s nae ‘impartial’ tone in anything she’s involved in at PQ.
In fact she’s just a flag waving cultist for the Union, yes the Union that is BBC and Labour in Scotland.
Got to hand it tae Ruth though…I mean seriously who’da thunk it? An intervention from chief branch manager of the Tories in Scotland on behalf of the First Minister of Scotland, on an ‘equality’ platform.
You seriously could not make up what is taking place in our country politically.
The BBC are a rogue outfit, they are acting as if ‘they’ are at war with ‘us’. The SNP didn’t get to were they are without a sufficient majority of the people Scotland voting for them. The BBC and it’s staff in Scotland ‘are’ now what can only be described as the ‘official’ political ‘opposition’ party in Scotland.
An utterly absurd situation, where those whose function it is to remain separate from the political fray between political opponents, aggressively interrogating and showing ‘extreme’ bias against a democratically elected MSP and the FM of Scotland tae boot, you know then that this is an organisation that has lost all sense of perspective.
Which is nothing new in itself, but when yer chief enemy steps in tae defend ye against the onslaught of a BBC employee who emanates disdain toward you, you know without a doubt where the BBC’s true affiliations lie…this clip is the concrete evidence of a corporation with a political axe to grind, whose sole purpose is to undermine the political will of the people of Scotland.
It’s not the BBC’s job to hold Nicola Sturgeon or the SNP to ‘account’. It’s the people of Scotland’s job to do that.
SNP x 2
GIRFUTLOT.
@Donald Anderson
Is that a typo and you meant “forty shades of Union Jack Grey”?
or…. you meant it.
I prefer “forty shades of Brown… starting with British Standard (B S) Dogshit Brown”
SNP SNP EU
Stonewall Scotland said they’d be posting the Hustings video ASAP
As I have no interst in football I switched off. But just to show how far down the sewer BBC Scotland has sunk too, did anybody hear the lunch time news where the FIRST ITEM was Rangers, the low growth rate of the Scottish economy was relegated to 2nd place, I ask you.
For the record Ranges as a football club was wound-up and a new club formed which had to start at the very bottom, where ever that is but not low enough.
Auld Rock
Definition of “club”: an ?organization of ?people with a ?common ?purpose or ?interest, who ?meet ?regularly and take ?part in ?shared ?activities
I rest my case, as do other members of clubs.
Cherry: “Ruth NEVER does anything which hasn’t got an agenda”
I’m afraid that isn’t true. Ruth Davidson is actually one of the most stubbornly principled people you could ever meet when it comes to certain subjects (not all).
If she raised the issue of Sturgeon being mistreated, I guess that she would have done so sincerely and for the right reasons.
off topic: about WBB. Can anyone answer me on this:
I’m not in a political party and since early 2015 haven’t been politically active (was involved in Yes campaign but not doing anything right now). Is it worth me asking for a set of 10 books to distribute to acquaintances? The reason I ask is that I don’t want to waste valuable resources.
Apologies for going OT:
Nigel Farage and David Coburn visiting Glasgow on Thursday the 7th:
“Taking place at the Hunter Halls, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ
With speakers Nigel Farage MEP, Dr Liam Fox, Peter Bone MP, Eddie McGuire (Trade Unionist), Mike Gold (CAEF), David Coburn and Brendan Chilton with more to be announced.
Doors open at 5.30pm and the event runs between 7pm and 9pm.”
Tickets Available…
http://grassrootsout.co.uk/upcoming-events/2016/3/15/glasgow-event
Definition of “club”: an ?organization of ?people with a common ?purpose or ?interest, who meet ?regularly and take part in ?shared activities
Don’t know what happened there before, cut and paste – character set.
The point being that the people with the common purpose or interest are the important part, not the name. So if those people are the same, even if the club renames itself, disappears half-way round the Amazon and then reappears in the Arctic, the people with the common purpose are the same, the club is still the same club, and if it has the same name, it’s the same named club.
WOW!
What can I say but kudos to wee Ruthie there. 🙂
Is it me or does it appear that the penny is just about beginning to drop with, at least, some of the other leaders that the BBC is not as impartial as it claims to be? 😉
Mike Lothian says:
6 April, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Stonewall Scotland said they’d be posting the Hustings video ASAP
Ruby replies
That’s great!
The video posted by Jim earlier cut off half way through however it is still worth watching.
FFS
It was an LGBT event.
You think Ruth Davidson would have given a flying one if Nicola Sturgeon had been getting roasted in a political debate.
Check her behaviour in the infamous Dundee question time programme to see how much she ‘cares’ about fair treatment.
@ Liz Rannoch
Your badges or whatever perk you chose will be posted out to you.
Just read the rest of the article. Good for Davidson,, but then she is an astute politician though gauche at times makign naive mistakes. Which I think go down OK with the general public.
Sturgeon did similar today when commenting about Dugdale’s having been “outed” as having applied for an SNP job, Sturgeon said that people change as they mature. While of course saying Dugdale had it right first time.
Defending someone of opposite or different views when they’re unjustly attacked is a very strong thing to do, as you get credits, while only at times, stating the obvious.
It’s a lesson I don’t think Labour ever learnt. They not only sit back smugly and smile when opponents are smeared or unjustly attacked or victimsed, they join in like sad vultures. It’s probably one of the reasons their popularity is steadily waning. They’re not principled but rely on a rapidly decaying media to feed them scraps of rotting meat.
If the BBC in Scotland were representitive of the people in Scotland. Then 52% of their presenters would be pro SNP and 48% pro independence. Of course they are not supposed to be pro or no anything in an ideal world.
In reality they are 90% anti independence and the same SNP. I can only think of one presenter who is definately yes and that’s Stuart Cosgrove. To be at war with the voters is not a good place to be for the BBC. They represent the minority now, but the majority pay their salaries. How dare they treat us with such contempt!
David Torrance doesn’t know what it’s all about he says he must have missed that bit (mibbees he was darning his jumper)
Even although he was sat right there as a supposed so called part of the Scottish political commentariat taking so called notes to later report to whatever media outlet would talk to the slimy little Bastirt for two Bob and a knitting pattern
Or was he just cheering on Louise White (will we ever know the the truth)
Tune in next week for another dose of your favourite political news station The North Kore, The BB,
****The State Broadcaster****
‘NeoconNat’ Is getting a very high reading on my ‘Inbuilt Troll Detector!
Do you think my ITD might be malfunctioning?
I like a lot of others ‘tuned’ out of football many years ago,it does however cause a me a bit of interest,due to a the obvious crossovers politics/society in general.
I find it strange that the EBC can ‘impartially’ host such a discussion,if I remember correctly,I read that Match of the Day presenter get a bigger salary than The whole of Scottish Football get’s paid from the EBC.
Please somebody correct me if I am wrong,surely that cannot be right.
#yooncentral
Oh dear. looks like the Tories have tumbled to fact that the hostile, partisan BBC interviewing technique just adds points to the SNP ratings. Luckily the Labour devotees will not notice.
Ruby
No
You’ve got to admit the BBC and the unionists do make you laugh at times though. Just read these comments on BBC web page about Kezia applying for a job with the SNP when she was 21.
First up an outraged Wee Willie; “the SNP had “serious questions” to answer over how the information had become public, saying it should have been kept private.” Aye Willie like the made up private Frenchgate memo.
Next up Shadow Scottish secretary Ian (Morningside) Murray; “People need to know that their correspondence with an MSP will be kept private, not leaked to a national newspaper for petty party politics.” What, like the Neil Hay dirty tricks campaign Ian?
Taking up the rear Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson questioned whether anyone could trust Labour with a leader that “keeps flip-flopping on this most vital issue”. Ruthie nobody trusts labour and nobody thinks this is a “vital issue”.
Nicola’s response; She joked that “her opponent may have had better judgement when she was 21.” Didn’t expect anything else from Nicola. Classy lassie.
Another day in BBC lalaland.
Mike, d’ye think the ‘nature’ of the event is what ‘prompted’ Ruth tae step in?
(Ever the ‘opportunist’ is Ruth…especially with the LGBTI demograph)
Wouldn’t be surprised. I have also thought ‘would she have intervened and has she ever intervened in other ‘televised’ debates or other ‘recorded’ hustings events in this manner. Because as we all know this is not the first time we’ve seen or heard anyone from the SNP being interrogated in a ‘hostile’ fashion, or where the chair allows the other panelists to ‘talk over’ whenever the SNP rep is speaking whilst all other reps are given free reign to finish their points, or even their sentences.
I’m up for being convinced that this is ‘not’ Ruth making ‘political’ capital on an ‘equality’ platform. She’s never shown the same ‘equality’ on a tv debate wi Nicola gettin’ done in…by the panel and chair.
@NeoconNat
I think she’s both principled and astute.
All she needs to do now is get rid of the association with the toxic Westminster lot, though in fairness there are a good few principled Conservative MPs (I half knew one). Pity the UK party as a whole is not like them, particularly its leadership.
Proud Cybernat @ 3.11 pm.
Well said, and I can certainly confirm that the establishment’s propoganda is having little, or no effect on the doorstep. S.N.P X 2 on May, 5th.
Yep Ruby…think you are onto something there! Re-scanned that one and it reached 75% on the detector.
Davidson, Dugdale, Lib Dems, BBC, Daily Record etc. etc. etc.
These are the very people that campaigned against the people of Scotland during Indyref1.
No matter what they say or do they are not to be trusted in any way as their own agenda is more important than their party or the people.
How’s she gonnae dae that yesindyref2, when she’s a fully paid up member of ‘the toxic Westminster lot’? Therefore is paid to do their bidding.
She’s not the boss of she. 😉
I don’t think there’s any doubt about PQ. The inherent bias of state orthodoxy is bad and bad enough, but there are IMO certain personnel who are openly hostile in their approach to interviewing SG victims. Oh and don’t get me started on the commentariat punditry they have on speed dial. (mutters)
Ruth Davidson knows what I know. An attack is often counter productive. You would think all media outlets would have learned this by now.
The more the SNP are attacked the staunchest their supporters become.
As an aside, we all know that Rangers stand for Unionist in the main. There are always exceptions. The BBC are pushing them for that reason.They may not be best buddies at this moment but they do have that in common.
Agree with the comment above.
Davidson ONLY intervened imo,because of the nature of the event. As said, she does not ever normally do this.
Whether this intervention is because she truly appreciated the FM supporting the meeting by being there or was a typical bit of Tory opportunism to garner support from that particular demographic, who knows.
To be fair, it sounds genuine enough, so happy to see it for what it seems to be.
A friend was at the Stonewall debate and says Kezia claimed that Labour overturned military ban on gays. However it was the European Court of Human Rights and Labour actually defended the ban. Seems none of the press picked up on this mendacity.
Speaking of which Johnson Press Edinburgh papers carrying big pics of Dugdale three days in a row as their main political coverage and according to them Sturgeon alone has had two bad days.
Strange this isn’t reflected in the latest opinion polls,
Many things are rotten in the State of BBC Scotland, and images of decay and rottenness are common through much,but not all it’s output.
It resembles an unweeded garden that grows to seed,because in an unweeded garden the weeds eventually kill and corrupt the once healthy plants.
It is institutionally…….
I’ll better refrain from saying more.
RFC remains RFC, regardless of the name of the holding firm registered at Companies House.
Why this bothers some of my fellow SNP voters is a mystery.
The hatred aimed at Rangers is bizarre, in particular when it comes from seemingly intelligent people, such as Campbell.
That’s modern Scotland for you.
If the applause for Ruthie’s intervention was anything to go by, the audience wasn’t happy with White’s approach. From there, it’s just gamesmanship to gett one up on the other leaders. But then, politicians do bring out the cyclic in me, I could be well adrift.
Slightly on the football theme. A couple of years ago I listened too BBC Sco. morning phone in about facilities for physically disabled people at football stadiums. I think Louise White was taking the show.
A Celtic fan phoned in and explained how he had no problem with transport going to matches at home or away but the stadiums were a different story.
Celtic had met with disabled fans and taken on board their requirements and moved them from field side to one level up. They now get a better view of the match and are protected a bit from the weather.
Louise White then said, I think, ” so you’re in the body of the Kirk. Oh! I shouldn’t call it that in your case” or thereabouts.
I assumed she meant Chapel instead of Kirk. How dare she assume the caller was Catholic, was religious, was anything, just because he was a Celtic fan.
I no longer listen to BBC.
We commend Ruth Davidson for speaking up on behalf of a political opponent
It’s once in a blue tory moon:D
What an act.
She’s biting the BBC Scotchland hand that feeds red and blue tory power in Scotland but it probably wont happen again. There can be no other so called democracy in the world that’s not savaged day after by any state broadcaster.
That airse Jim Naughty put the boot in BBC style r4 this morning and he’s going to do it all again, in “the one party state” of his Scotland region.
We wont have democracy til the BBC have gone. Actually their biggest weapon is simply not reporting any SNP MP in Westminster, almost total aunty black out on any of our elected reps, LibDem’s still treated like the 3rd party, unless they can find some, any, smear, then they’re really fcuked, is the plan.
Ian Murray getting into a lather over revelation that Kezia Dugdale applied for a job with the SNP.
https://twitter.com/IanMurrayMP
However the millionaire red Tory “non political” candidate in Edinburgh Southern did get his first job after Uni working for disgraced Labour MP Nigel Griffths.
https://archive.is/hbMDP
G H Graham @ at 14:28 said:
Just this week, yet another announcement was made that the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) … is being moved from Kinloss, Scotland to Hampshire, England.
It joins a long list of operations based in Scotland being closed down & moved to England including HMRC offices across the country being consolidated in Croydon, England.
Well pointed-out. Add this one to The Black Book!
(Which I fear will never actually be complete because these counter-examples of “Better together” just keep on coming…!)
The BBC will have issued an edict to all of its presenters to fawn over the Govan club in an effort to be reinstated at Ibrox for next season.
From there they can better prosecute their divide and rule agenda.
Enemies of the State
The Press and the BBC have been used at the behest of the British government of the day to spread misinformation, lies and to spread fear and alarm to the “Enemies of the State”
It’s not up for question even they admit to doing it in the defence of the realm, pick a war, or as we like to call them now “Conflicts”
Why on earth would anyone then believe that they tell the truth NOW
We know the BBC are liars and we know the UK Government tells them when to lie and what about, because the Great British Government of this United Kingdom of England pay them to do it using the tax they collect from us, and if they don’t do it quick enough that same government threatens them with reducing their budget just like what is happening right now
David Cameron can stick his private parts in a pigs mouth rip off the taxpayer for millions and stash it away in his daddies bank, condemn thousands to wander around Europe to die, or drown them in the Mediterranean, make folk with no legs fill out forms to state their legs haven’t grown back yet, sell arms and weapons to nasty foul regimes like the Saudis to kill folk we don’t have any quarrel with
Yet the media report all these things with a wry smile
Nicola Sturgeon blinks an eye the wrong way and all hell breaks loose from them, but of course, what’s the word they like to use “Scrutiny” it’s only fair, except of course it’s not is it
I understand that in this day and age now we can’t be seen to be doing the wrong thing because of the danger to Democracy, but we don’t have Democracy do we
We have this full of tension Pretendy Democracy where we moan and they carry on getting away with it
I’m opening my window now
# I’m not going to take this anymore
Rev’s just realised (on Twitsphere) David Torrance lives in Clapton and ‘doesn’t even live in Scotland’ since late 2014.
I wonder if he left because of the No vote 😉
Ian Murray getting into a lather over revelation that Kezia Dugdale applied for a job with the SNP.
He is rather.
As is the greatest British saviour, self proclaimed, of Scotland not running Scotland. Why this big bag of UKOK delights thinks its a dirty trick to leak Dugdale’s failed attempts to get an SNP job, is my teamGB mystery of the day, so far.
Ian Murray Retweeted
Blair McDougall ?@blairmcdougall 7h7 hours ago
They have nothing to say on the big issue of the election- using tax powers to stop cuts- so they go after Kez personally with dirty tricks.
Heard White this morning , was absolutely gobsmacked at the venom that was coming out of her mouth .Any phonein contributor who was not saying the words she wanted to hear was quickly cut off and she moved on to the next caller . Now I am not a football fan but she sounded to me as if she was wanting all callers to say it was a terrible idea that Rangers were back in the Premier League , putting words about like , an increase in violence , domestic abuse , sectarianism etc. Now, one caller asked her why they did not do a phonein like this when , I think he said Hearts, got promoted and he was quickly shot down . I think not only are the BBC doing everything they can to rubbish the SNP ,I think they are positively dangerous for Scotland as a whole , trying to stir up discontent .
It’s always 4 Unionists and 1 Independista BBC Scotland is nonsense. Cameron has a meeting every week to decide BBC agenda.
HMRC is going after former players for tax evasion. No wonder the Terraces are empty.
The SNP Gov have been in power with a majority of one for five years. They have to negotiate, to get anything through.
Louise White, is she no the K wi an E’s apprentice?
She’s just setting the tone for the upcoming debate with the real interrogator by the looks of.
@Ronnie Boyd
The hatred aimed at Rangers is bizarre, in particular when it comes from seemingly intelligent people, such as Campbell.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/hullo-hullo-we-are-the-bully-boys/#more-81205
No hatred here Ronnie…
@K1
Well, I live in hope. If 15% about vote Conservative and only 4% of them voted YES, that’s 14.4% of the voting population. Take half of that and make it YES rather than NO, and that’s Indy won at from Indy Ref 1 – 52% YES to 48% NO. Just on its own. Wealthy Nation said they were voting YES because of being Conservatives, not in spite of it. And I agreed with their logic.
And yet the best chance for progression in Scottish Politics for the Conservative Party is to break from Westminster, rename themselves, and at least have an open vote in Indy Ref 2 rather than backing a NO vote.
Similar logic goes for the old, the rich, Rangers supporters, employees of NO supporting companies, those who are besotted on nukes, those who hate windpower or the SNP, or even those who love the Union Jack.
Hearts and minds, it’s never ending until we win.
‘Why this bothers some of my fellow SNP voters is a mystery’
The reason it bothers people is because RFC folded to avoid paying their fair share of taxes that we all have to pay, and yet the Yoon State media are trying to write their own version of history by lying to the public stating that it is the same club.
If you cannot see why that would bother people, that is quite worrying.
A’chink’ in the armour.
Nicola Sturgeon unaware Chinese firm linked to corruption
First the Herald now the Hootsman and tomorrow auntie will be on the case no doubt.
https://archive.is/Vtruq
But look South and see what’s going on and that’s only two references. The SG need to a bit stronger than “We didn’t know” which is what the MSM is telling us Sturgeon said.
The truth is probably different but not in the papers or on the BBC.
https://archive.is/whjW3
https://archive.is/NHP4u
O/T. Willie Rennie shouting the odds for an investigation into the email leak on Dugdales job application for the SNP. Very vocal is oor wullie.
He was rather quiet about an investigation into the Frenchgate affair with that proven/self proclaimed LibDem liar Carmichael. What an arse!.He couldn’t care less about the email he just wants media coverage which the biased amateurish state broadcaster provides. Two cheeks of the same arse
Folks I urge you to get the IScot. Its a great magazine with the bonus next month of the WBB.
Louise White? Any relation to Jim White the Ranger’s loving sports commentator on the TV?
Hear Hear Bryan Weir
Stu, your continual references to Rangers are tiresome, do you have an agenda?
I’ve been a faithful follower of these pages and a strong supporter of Independence, but being a Rangers fan it would seem that I have to suffer these remarks as if they are in some way directly influential in the Independence cause.
It’s time to change the tune as most of my Rangers friends are pro independence but are starting to switch off to your blog.
Nobody ever won an argument by screaming in the others face till they give in, all you do is postpone the same argument
But you’ll have proved you’re a really good screamer if that’s what’s important to you
#Impressive
Interesting that Davidson mentioned the 5 people on the panel and 1 being interrogated. No mention of names, and then Louise white responds about Nicola Sturgeon. Says it all
alexicon, I pulled up a photo of both earlier today, and if you were to put red lipstick and a wig on Jim, you would have twins.
Ruth Davidson – principled?
More like principles for every occasion. This was a calculated move, she has a media background, and nothing to lose, in trying to get to second place in Holyrood. She is astute, Ill give her that, quick to spot an opening. I’d like to hear that White harpy in the rest of the debate, as Ruth made a calculated move here, so it must have been worse than usual.
I have trouble with any MSP that had to spend time helping Police with their enquiries over postal vote irregularities, that we all witnessed being brazenly thrown in our face. Then there was the BS last year about burly men at a polling station, forcing the Police to tweet back there was nothing of the sort.
Given her propensity to get in about the voting process, she should be in solitary, whenever the polls are open in this country.
Are concern trolls on the rise or am I just getting better at spotting them.
I never thought I’d ever say this, but well done to Wee Ruthie Tank Commandette. Louise White and Kay(e) Adams are from the same Unionist BBC stable of SNPBad presenters. These ladies often sound as though they are related to Glen (Red in Tooth, Claw and Politics) Campbell.
I heard this morning’s phone-in on Rangers’ return to the top league in Scottish football. As a committed Arab (for my sins) I have no anti-Berrs axe to grind but would point out one fact in the “new club/old club” dispute” – if Rangers claim they are in fact the original club in its entirety, then when are they going to pay the tax bill they owe to HMRC and when are they going to repay ALL the debts they owed when they went into administration?
@Tom
Well said. I totally agree, and I dont support any team. I do support any Scottish team against any team from another country.
Who in their right minds wouldn’t?
Well done Ruth. The other panellists witnessed the same bias and said nothing
It may have been a conveniently lower profile event for her to make a stand (but I have no idea how high profile it was other than I had not heard of it). Would be happy to be put right.
I suppose Ruth sees this day in day out- no one of sound mind could fail to see it. She must know how the bias is playing out with the public.
It’s a war- one waged for decades by the BBC that some of the Scottish public have started fighting back.
For me the PQ protest i attended was an amazing festival of democracy and a highlight of the indyref. They should be repeated again and again until we win. If anyone doubts the effect- I would suggest that the Nick Robinson scandal would be only known by us cybernats if it were not for the PQ demo
When any one in my local mentions RFC, my lights may be on , but I’m out.
Peter Lawlell, and the ‘let the people Sing’ brigade over at Parkhead are rubbing their hands with glee.
The Money Train has pulled into town.Hatred is Big Bucks, deffo.
About 30 or 40 thousand Neanderthals on both sides now have a reason for living again.
They may live in slums, get paid slave wages when there is low skilled work to be had, and buy their anoraks from the Hospice shop, but like the White Trailer Trash in America’s Deep South, at least they are better than ‘Them’,the other lot, the Tattie Munchers, or the Oranj Bassurs..
We had a wee respite for four or five years, sort of.
Now it’s back to business as usual.
Tricolours and Union Jack sales will soar as the armies regroup, and their bigotry becomes BBC headline news, as was the case at lunchtime today.
Divide and conquer.
Tory Lords, billionaire donors, and Russian Oligarchs can fleece our tax system, and suck tens of billions out of the UK’s economy, while our poor, disabled and low paid workers are asked to make up the difference.
Lord John Reid (he’s got something to do with Celtic?),Jim Murphy, Lord George Foulkes (Hearts man?), Lord George Robertson, Lord Alistair Darling, Lord Jack Mc Connell, Baroness Helen Liddell, and their Scots Tory and Lib Dem equivalents have made their millions on the back of destroying Scottish society, and allowing our wealth to filter South, and our income generating industries, and resources, to be marginalised, and Scotland run from New Rome, London Town.
BBC Scotland has presented a picture of Scotland of two extremes.
QT from Dundee, the Laughable ‘leaders’ debate’ chaired by Glenn Campbell, from the Establishment redoubt that is Edinburgh, and last night’s Scotland 2016 ‘Tax Debate’, in Glasgow before an invited audience of 42 and a guide dog, purports to present Scotland as a Middle and Upper Middle Class Colony, predominantly Unionist, with a hardy dozen or so activists who cheer loudly when a Unionist politician merely says ‘good evening’.
Not a plumber, joiner, electrician, car mechanic, supermarket check out person, in sight.
We don’t have artisans with a voice in Scotland any more.
We have instead the Great Unwashed fighting each other across the City of Glasgow.
Celtic and Rangers supporters (and some of the Hearts, Hibs legions) are the ‘working poor’brainwashed into behaving like frenzied zealots, in a cause long gone, in another country..
‘I was born under a Union Star’ gets big licks, as well as Armed Forces Day at Ibrox. Lots of Union Flags and young men and women in uniform marching up and down, recruits into an English Imperialist War Machine from the ranks of the unemployed disenfranchised poor in housing estates in Scotland, North England, Port Talbot, and the Shankhill Road.
Cellic supporters are even more fecked up.
They sing of Irish Freedom (eh?) and how they’ve been done down by the Prods Over Here.
You don’t see many saltires flying among the crowd at Parkhead.
For both mobs , it’s 1690, and they’re on the green grassy slopes of the Boyne.
Rangers are back|! Rejoice , Scotland ! Aye, right.
To all the young men, and sadly some women, who will descend on Hampden in less than two weeks’ time, I urge you:_
Get a feckin life.
Scotland, and its people, that’ll be the five million of us who have nothing to do with your pathological hatred of each other, are engaged in a political struggle to regain Self determination for our country.
Ruth Davidson is a Tory.
They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
She has rebranded the Tories Up Here as the Conservative and Unionist p[arty, to pander to the Loyal Sons of William.
Teddy Taylor admitted that calling the Tories Unionists Up Here got the vote in for them in the ‘fifties.
Working Class Scots voted for their Capitalist Overlords..
I’ll stop now. No more fitba’ for a while, guys, I beg you.
The Herald and the Record churn out this poison quite adequately for Ra Peeple.
OT
Just watching the news and there’s Davidson cutting as my wife put it “a big fat jiucy steak which most people can’t afford and they’re supposed to be for the people”.
She’s not into policits though votes YES and SNP (as far as I know), and I must admit it doesn’t worry me, but it’s funny the reaction she had. She even rewound it so I could see Sturgeon in a bakers (OK) and Davidson with the big fat juicy unaffordable steak.
BBC are conflicted.They have a duty to bolster the union and they have a duty to be impartial.How can this be squared?
There are plenty people who support Rangers and the SNP.One is football.The other is about politics.If they’re comfortable with that,it’s fine by me.
Rangers were put out of the top flight for back room cheating.They’ve regained their position through merit on the field.Fair and square.I find it very disappointing that Rangers fans have been dragged through a lot of keich by a succession of gangsters and come out the other side not owning their club.There are some sectarian thugs and bigots in the Ibrox support,but there are a lot more decent folk there who are ashamed and embarrassed by the antics of a minority.They know it’s up to them to push out the bigots.
Aye Valerie, well said, we have to be reminded of those events to get the ‘full’ picture of Ruth’s ‘principled’ intervention. Thanks for the reminder…there’s so much to remember not to forget to remember 😉
Brilliant Jack! `says it aw.
Mmm, there are those who would advise football supporters to get a life and support a civilised sport like rugby where you never see fights on the park or ears being bitten off. Or tennis where never in its history has anyone smashed a racket or their bag in frustration and dismay.
Talking about tennis, the tennis spectators aren’t “swivel-eyed” either, they’re “swivel-headed”.
Makes you think. And don’t get me started on ping pong.
Ruby: “‘NeoconNat’ Is getting a very high reading on my ‘Inbuilt Troll Detector!”
NeoconNat Replies,
What do you mean inbuilt? Might we guess where it is?
Before I go any further with you, Ruby, can you let me know if you suffer from learning difficulties or are over the age of 90 or anything? I don’t want to find out later on that I’ve been rather too blunt with a retard or something and made to feel bad…
What couldn’t believe is, all the goings on in Panama, we have a phone in about a football team getting to the top league in Scotland?? Strange topic at this time!!!!
Mealer, you know that this “Rangers were put out of the top flight for back room cheating.They’ve regained their position through merit on the field.Fair and square.” is utterly false.
Rangers were liquidated. In business and corporate law, liquidation means the demise of an entity — it’s end. That’s not debatable.
The distinction some would have us believe exists between club and company is an entirely false distinction. No such distinction was ever made by anyone at Rangers or elsewhere. They were one and the same thing, in other words.
If you look at their corporate history, specifically the articles of incorporation, you will most likely find that the last time any distinction was made between club and company was when the company formed in 1872 or whenever it was. The incorporation would have put any such distinction to rest, assuming any ever existed.
Thus, getting back to your point, Rangers were unfairly treated for sure. As a new club they should have had to apply to get into the lower leagues and go through the same process other clubs wishing to take part would go through. Instead they got parachuted in to the third division, ahead of those waiting to get in.
OT
Leave campaign complaining about the UK Government spending £9 million of taxpayers money on the Stay campaign.
Now where have I heard that before?
@ K1, “A flag-waving cultist!” nearly right.
Och yesIndyref2…ye’ve a ‘sunny’ disposition richt enough! Even when it’s rainin’ doon yer lookin’ oot fur that wan ray… 😉
😉 Fred
This is par for the course with the BBC, I finally had enough after the openly hostile questioning from Gary Robertson to John Swinney and made an official complaint to the BBC. The response was little short of stating the style of questioning was justified and I would see the same aggressive challenge with all politicians no matter the party. Really, don’t think so.
Jack Collatin Well said , time everyone in Scotland woke up .
Jack Collatin, I can see why it might be convenient to discuss Scotland’s sectarian problems on the basis that it’s a two-sided problem, with both sides being equally guilty and obnoxious. But, speaking as someone who at least thinks he is completely neutral, I don’t think it’s true.
It seems to me that one side is much worse than the other and everybody is denying it. As I said, it might be convenient or expedient to discuss it from that perspective, but I don’t see parity in terms of the songs, the violence, the threats, the numbers, etc., and I don’t see how a lasting solution to the problem can possibly come out of a lie.
By all means correct me if I am wrong, I’d welcome it. If you do, please be prepared to explain the genocidal songs, bullets being sent in the post and death threats, orchestrated intimidation of footballing authorities, racism and violence, buses being smashed, kids literally killed on the streets of Glasgow, and flute bands marching through areas purely to antagonise and intimidate people, etc.
All strength to Ruth, but I suspect that she and the rest of the panel were looking complicit in a nasty setup and she wanted to distance herself from the BBC biased attack line.
Well said Jack Collatin with regards to Rangers & Celtic and there moronic supporters. However I feel that it’s a bit out of order to call them “Neanderthals”.
Our Stone Age cousins, as any archaeologist will tell you, were a highly evolved species of man who were far more cultured and sophisticated than your average Rangers or Celtic fan will ever be !
I did hope that when Rangers went bust that Scottish football would change for the better, but no, next season it’s a return to sectarianism ad nauseum and busier casualty departments on old firm derby day. How depressing.
I’ll stick to watching rugby, at least in that game all the violence is on the pitch.
It’s the revs toy, but football? Really? Who gives a flying fuck! They can all dress up in tutus and dance the Macarena for all I care, some good old guys kicking a ball about the park and other fat bald’y guys getting so worked up they go home and beat their wives to a bloody pulp!
We’re the peooopl, up the ra, fuck off the lot of you!
@K1
I try to be glass half-full, always make a good thing out of a bad thing. But people do need encouragement at times.
I remember 19th Sept 2014 waking up about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, after a late late incredibly disappointing night. Cup of despondent tea, then onto the son’s laptop and checked out Wings.
Only to find people already talking about the General Election, sweeping out the Unionists, getting the SNP as many seats as possible.
Finally I went back on to the Herald a few hours later, only to find that the likes of DDM had been posting away just about an hour after the result was known, calm as you like, cheerful, optimistic.
It got me back on track 🙂
And right on fucking cue, the absolute reason why, division red in tooth and claw, we have a troll with his attempt at developing devision, what next in your armoury, abortion? Oh one side is worse than the other, rip each other’s eyes out on that little gem!
Jesus the quality of trolling is pathetic, if it doesn’t improve am calling the fucking polis!
That’s the thing, this is not about football, its about the British Establishment changing and manipulating the truth for their own agenda.
If they are not held to account their lies simply become fact.
Stu -please make WOS an Old Firm Free Zone.
gus1940
I second that request!
O/T
Last night I watched a program on the History Of The London Underground.
I was already aware that Billions have recently and are presently being spent on extending the system and that £10Billion is being spent on refurbishing the existing system.
I was, however, somewhat surprised to hear that the Annual Running Costs of the system are subsidised by the taxpayer to the extent of 50%.
No mention was made of what the running costs are but they must be many many millions even billions – can anybody put a figure on this.
I wonder what the relevant Barnett Consequentials, if any, are or is The Tube considered to be a National Asset and free of Barnett Consequentials.
Over the last 9 years, The SNP under Alex Salmond and then Nicola Sturgeon have done a fine job of Government in Scotland. The FM has no need to justify anything. In my opinion she is the idea FM.
It is Louise White should be interrogated in order to “justify HER actions”.
She seems to be a Unionist of the very worst kind and it seems she gave herself away on BOTH occasions, at the Hustings and in the football phone in.
Well done Ruth Davidson for having pointed White’s malpractice out and for having the human decency to feel uncomfortable about what was going on. White’s response was also a dead giveaway as to her true nature. What a contemptible person!
Hatred kills the spirit and this White woman’s spirit is stone dead. Nevertheless, most people know what is going on here. The BBC is NOT impartial. It has an agenda and some its employees also have the agenda. It has no business being in Scotland and needs replaced, NOT renewed.
White will give herself away again soon. Keep alert and you will see.
In May, SNP 1 and SNP 2.
Father Cameron
These (bank accounts) are small, those (bank accounts) are far away!
An excellent point gus1940, even if O/T.
I wonder how many other situations of this kind there are.
NeocoNat.@ 6.49
I will not be drawn into this.
They are both an abomination in 21st Century Scotland.
You attempt to blame one side more than the other, proves my argument.
Ooh Ah, Up Ra ‘Ra, is as vile as, up to your knees in fenian Blood.
To quote Carrickfergus:-
‘I’ll say no more now, ’til I get a drink.’
Gavin:@ 6.56
I have views on the elitism of Scottish rugby, our biggest draw back at International level, IMHO.
You are of course correct about Neanderthals. They used tools, fire, and interbred latterly with Homo sapiens before mysteriously disappearing off the face of the planet.
Sloppy of me and unjust.
The current owners of the rights to field a team under the name Glasgow Rangers using the logo and associated branding is not the same one as before. It’s not the same club but it is the same brand.
As said previously if it was they would be well fucked as far as HMRC was concerned.
The confusion is that, with hindsight , there was no way to buy the SPL membership of the old company without buying it intact due to the way things were set up which may be arrogant or ignorance. A properly arranged legal set up might have allowed a parent company to go under whilst selling the “club”. Even so the other members of the SPL could still refuse membership under a new owner.
The reason half the team skedaddled is that the old company held the contracts which couldn’t be transferred to the new without the agreement of the players some of whom didn’t fancy life in the closest leagues. Even if the old club had survived and was bumped out of the SPL it might still have had to lose most of its best players as it couldn’t afford them. A major difference is that in that case it might have been able to make some money on the transfer market. If anything there’s still potential for a sufficiently pissed of creditor to sue either the liquidators or HMRC for mishandling the assets of the oldco.
Jack
Me the pedantic! Currently the hypothesis is, based on DNA analysis is that they were assimilated into what became modern humans, and that could easily explain quite a lot.
@ crazycat & @ lollysmum
Thanks for your comments on the badges.
Question time from Dundee was approx 5 weeks ago, the anti Scottish Nationalist bias versus the pro british nationalist bias was evident to all.
Immediately afterwards, bias deceases for a short while, then hay presto starts up again.
It’s like the bbc is worried about getting rumbled when they were rumbled some time ago, bbc of course deny any bias. Their bias comes in waves, peaks and troughs, the peaks will come just prior to the elections and then die down immediately afterwards. Few believe the Bec in Scotland these days.
It’s the equivalent of David Cameron saying he will not benefit from his father’s Panamanian bank account. Who will benefit from that money, Batersea dog’s home? Aye right!
In response to your initial point, it’s not the same club.
Aye yesindyref2 ah wis there that morning’ tae on Wings…hellish an hopeful aw at once. 😉
gus1940….I’m not being picky but there is no such thing as the Old Firm any more. That went the way of the dodo in 2012.
Yes ref 2
I was in arising, took a long walk along the beach, a beautiful thing that!
You wonder at the sad shallow lives of people who’s only sense of worth comes from football. Ok if you play every week, but for it to define what and who you are, well that’s just so sad!
I would agree with others above, that the blatantly biased and propagandist BBC in Scotland has indeed become worse, not better, since the referendum.
It is almost as if they are ‘getting their own back’ for legitimate criticism that has been levelled at them. Worryingly, however, there is another possible explanation, and that is, that during the referendum they realised for the first time, just how blatant their propagandist and biased performances could be, and there was nothing ANYBODY could do about it. They act in their anti-democratic ways, with complete impunity – AND THEY KNOW IT!
The blatantly biased and propagandist English controlled BBC, is beyond normal laws, beyond proper Scottish parliamentary scrutiny, it is funded by Scots via a threat of criminal charges if not paid. Such things would be condemned were they happening in a third world dictatorship, yet in Scotland NOBODY has ANY power to act.
It is, by any notion of democracy, a disgrace.
‘Then they fight you
And then you win’
= )
Actually do you know what, let them have their claim to exist outside the corporate entity, it is no more stupid than having a green brigade and sing pro ira songs when on of the directors is pro union ex head of the British army!
Jack Collatin, you seem to be saying you won’t be drawn into a discussion that you started. I was and don’t see why it shouldn’t be discussed.
This week will go down as a week of twisted dichotomies.
It’s a falsehood to say that Celtic and Rangers fans are equally responsible when it comes to problems of sectarianism. We all know it, even if some don’t want to admit or discuss it.
It’s like saying Palestinians and Israelis are equally responsible for the problems over there, expedient maybe but not true.
It’s also a false dichotomy to argue that Rangers the club was ever distinct from the company. Again, we all know it, just as we all know that liquidation means death in corporate law.
And it’s a false dichotomy to argue, as people like Macwhirter and his supporters argue, that the Independence movement collapsed and the SNP capitalised on that collapse after the referendum. We all know they are more or less one and the same thing.
Of course it suits the media to contort all these things and impede our understanding. Hard to imagine why it suits anyone on here to pander to that stuff though.
Andrew MacLean @8.22.
Like all other species which have walked or swum or flown on this planet, contact with Homo Sapiens was always going to lead to their eventual extinction.
I just caught the second half of the PSG Man U game. Now that’s football all right.
I pity the good burghers of Mount Florida a week on Sunday.
Live long and prosper, sir.
I’m going to read a paperback for a wee while before hitting the sack.
Kindle users google ‘paperback’. The Dead Tree scrolls.
O/T
Been watching the ‘Inside Obama’s White House’ programmes and found many parallels with our situation. He gave the quote from Thomas Jefferson about ‘the Arc of History’ which relates to the fact that some things take a long time to reach the goal but will be reached eventually. Every battle takes us further down the road. We should be encouraged about how far we’ve come and stay focused on the endgame. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be drawn into divide and rule tactics. Some of the above posts about the emotions of the referendum and how people found solace in others determination to get right back into the fray bear this out.
O/T, but did anyone see Kez on EBC RS tonight? Talking about APD she said:
“This is a regressive tax. The more wealthy you are the more you benefit from Air Passenger Duty. The wealthiest in Scotland benefit from around £73 a year……”
As always, she has confused the hell out of me. My questions for her are:
If APD is regressive, surely you should want to get rid of it?
In what way do the wealthy benefit from APD to the tune of £73 a year?
Did you mean to say “Cutting APD is a regressive thing to do. The more wealthy you are the more you benefit from cuts to APD. The wealthiest in Scotland will benefit by around £73 a year if it is cut”? (That at least would be coherent, if misguided.)
What muddled thinking are you going to entertain us with tomorrow?
I haven’t been able to take Kez seriously for a while, but it’s getting really embarrassing now.
NeoconNat @ 9.46.
I’ve been reading a study of Doris Day and how the American media, film industry, and commercial interests, branded and rebranded her movie and private image to sell stuff; yet I’m still not ‘nod off’ sleepy yet.
Your ‘false dichotomy’ post may just have done it for me.
I get your passion for your club, whichever one of the laughingly called ‘Big Two’ you support, I really do.
However what you must respect is that the VAST (my caps) majority of the citizens of Scotland, that would be five million plus of us, now brace yourself for this shocking revelation, do not really care about your sense of grievance/superiority because you have attached yourself to a football club and bought into its ‘history’ or whatever.
May I suggest that conflating the Israeli/ Palestine problems with the Rangers/Celtic football hatefest really does beggar belief.
However, I think that I follow your warped logic.
Which one of the ‘Glasgow rivals’ is Israel, which one ‘Palestine’?
Which football club is the oppressor, which one the downtrodden oppressed? Which one is defending its rights and traditions against the more powerful neighbour?
False dichotomy indeed, young man.
And please refrain from dragging the Scottish Self Determination campaign into this.
While I agree with you that, strangely, MacWhirter seems to have gone off the boil in his support for Independence by implying that the Yes Movement has collapsed, but somehow support for the SNP and membership increase, and incidentally 56 SNP MP’s returned to Westminster last May,is a separate Independence Beast than the Yes Movement, is a tortured dichotomy.
But neither the conflict in the Middle East, nor the Road to Independence has anything to do with Cellic and Ranjurs.
For most of us there is no Auld Firm dichotomy. You are twa fleas aff the same dug.
I hope you’re happy now. I’m wide awake again.
Trust me. There is more to life than this fitba nonsense.
@ Jack Collatin
Brilliant!
They come over here with their brash attitude trying to sow the seeds of division in our flock of wings, silly trolling, from silly trolls.
Do you honestly think for one second that you’re not as obvious obnoxious and as unwanted as a man dressed as a chicken at a funeral.
NCN
Your deliberately missing the fucking point..
I’m not arguing that, as things were set up, the club and company were not one and the same thing. What I’m saying is that, as acknowledged by the various footballing authorities who run the competitions and the law, the team is the same.
Nor is it a good idea to try to entrench and force supporters of Rangers into a wee unionist box and Celtic supporters into whatever one you think they belong to unless your aim is to perpetuate division. I’d certainly treat support for or against independence from either teams support as suspect given it might have sod all to do with what’s in the best interest of Scotland.
Jack, I’m completely non aligned when it comes to the old firm and actually think all football is exceedingly crap. I guess you are jumping to more strange conclusions for some reason.
I actually wish they would both disappear and I mean that. I wish all football would but, then, it keeps morons off the golf course.
The topic of this post concerns how the media handle discussions of Rangers. You can hardly accuse me of trolling by staying on topic. And I happen to think it’s a highly relevant and interesting subject because, again, it illustrates the usual bias.
You either misunderstood my Isreal-Palestine analogy or, again, are deliberately twisting it. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are uneducated and thick. The analogy compared how the subjects were handled in the media which, just as you attempt with the old firm, wants us all to believe the conflict can be explained by attributing equal blame to both sides.
Anyone who has read more than two paragraphs on the Middle East knows that there isn’t two equal sides. It’s a lie just as its a lie to say the old firm are equally culpable when it comes to sectarianism. To be clear, again, for the benefit of thick people, I’m not conflating the issues per se or suggesting they have the same gravity, I’m comparing how they are discussed.
I never dragged the Scottish independence movement into this, it’s the topic here. It’s also highly relevant to the independence debate when in Glasgow you have untold thousands of people each week singing songs and waving flags that are at odds with the goals, values, and flavour of the independence movement.
The old firm on both sides is highly politicised but again I’m not interested in that, we are discussing how it’s covered in the establishment media. Hardly surprising that the establishment media gives such favourable coverage to the establishment club — it’s on topic to discuss that, in fact that is the topic.
As to my personal character which you are determined to bring into this, if you can think of a way to prove I’m non aligned I will do it providing you will too. I am prepared to provide proof of my school etc., if that’s what you want. Seems strange to be pressured like that though, strange and familiar at the same time.
In the grand scheme of things this old firm stuff is relatively insignificant, that’s for sure. But that’s why it’s so puzzling to see so many people on here wanting to brush it under the carpet and cloak the issue in lies and fuzzy logic, just as the media do.
Until people are willing to question their own motives and bias on issues like this, it’s hard to see how Scotland is going to get anywhere. And it’s also important that we are all seen discussing this subject with honesty, clarity, and thoroughness: a cursory glance at the SNP support base in Glasgow confirms that.
Orri, the football authorities in Scotland have played and continue to play a highly questionable role in all this. Clearly there’s bias there. We know that they tried everything they could to keep Rangers in the top division.
The real debate which you haven’t touched on revolves around the question of how you explain the obvious bias of the Scottish football authorities and there seems to be three possible explanations: 1) the overlap of people working for the SFA and the old firm, 2) the financial benefits of keeping Rangers in the top league in connection with sponsors and TV money, and of course 3) you’d have to consider the possibility that some people in positions of power might have had loyalties to Rangers (hard to believe any grown sensible man would but you couldn’t rule it out).
As for forcing the old firm into wee boxes, and this idea made me laugh btw, you surely can’t be serious. Not after what happened in George Square (after the referendum), not when so many thousands of them wave the Union flags and are openly political on the issue of Britishness. Yeah, I force them to do that. Hilarious.
Of course we should welcome support from both sides. That’s why it’s so important that we appear impartial and treat the subject itself and the specific subject of bias with the same levels of scrutiny and seriousness that we approach other such subjects with. You run the risk of alienating one side or the other if you aren’t honest.
NeoconNat @ 9.30 am.
You were doing so well until you got to lines 2 and 3 of your response this morning.
I will defend to death your right to consider me uneducated and thick. I do know the difference between the periodic table and an occasional table, have read Euripides in the original ancient Attic Greek, and sung Schubert in the school choir at St Andrew’s Halls before they were burnt to the ground. Ho hum.
I tire of this.
Celtic and Rangers and their core of sociopaths is certainly a social problem in Scotland. We have laws to deal with them.
For our Establishment, both culturally, economically, and via the media, to condone this nonsense, is the greater crime.
I apologise if you felt I was attacking your personal character; this was not my intention.
No, that’s it. I’m done. Lunch to make for my Everlovin’.
Apologies for getting your dander up. I’ll have a stiff one on the bar at the nineteenth for you on Independence Day, honest.
You have my permission to imagine your tee shot on the first hole as my face.
Something rotten at the BBC……. This dinner time Stuart Cosgrove has just talked up the Daily Retard’s front page cover of the Panama Papers, ……. Then John Beattie said a Scottish investigative journalist should investigate Scottish Banks as well as Scottish Industrialists…… Aye Great John lets get our industry leaders jailed up, buissinesses closed and workers sacked…….
Sigh. There goes the neighbourhood. The evicted ‘nay-boors from hell’ are flitting back.
Doubtless this news created depression & trepidation among the police and nurses, on the frontline of the public and domestic violence ‘surges’ at these Glasgow fixtures.
It’s Masters week. I’ll relax on this and I’m happy with everything I said; it’s all there forever.
Jack, for the record, I’ve called a few people on here thick. I wouldn’t take it too personally. If people show an unwillingness/inability to imbibe and process basic ideas, I reserve the right to call them thick, even if they read Euripides.
That all said, it’s refreshing to see a stuck up, middle-class, bastard discuss something other than food… Rejoice.
NeoconNat.
I was going to give you the last word, but.
@NeoconNat
“If people show an unwillingness/inability to imbibe and process basic ideas, I reserve the right to call them thick, even if they read Euripides.”
Says it all really. I on the other hand am very willing to listen to other peoples’ point of view.
I guess that makes me a vastly superior being, to you.
You ripper these, you mend ’em.
A little bit of honesty /decency for a change
Yes, well done Ruth Davidson for this honest intervention. However, Ruth Davidson is not the Tory Party. That honour is left to the Cameron’s, Osborne’s, Ducann’s, in London who have the say. Like Labour in Scotland the Tories in Scotland are a branch office.And maybe in the rush of blood to the head, Ruth would like to comment on her leader David Cameron who has been exposed as a barefaced denier of any involvement in offshore investing when he and his family were up to their neck in tax haven participation. Now that would be something worthwhile for Ruth to say about her party who wanted to cripple the cripples by removing financial assistance.
Well , Louise White is interviewing Ruth Davidson on Radio Scotland on Tuesday at 9.00.Lets just see how that conversation pans out!.
crisiscult wrote: (about WBB. Can anyone answer me on this)
“Is it worth me asking for a set of 10 books to distribute to acquaintances? The reason I ask is that I don’t want to waste valuable resources.”
Don’t know if anyone has replied to you but of course it’s worth it. That’s the very kind of thing the Rev mentions in the article about Wee Black Book orders, something along the lines of ordering 10 (one for oneself and the other 9 for giving out). THE most important factor is getting the facts out there. Go for it!
😉