Wings Over Scotland

Does this count?

BBC Scores own goal by totally twisting the report of Independence Demonstration’s offer to hold public discussion over BBC Bias, outside the building in front of Internet, live-stream, cameras!

They reported, instead, that the demonstrators refused to enter the BBC building to hold talks, where they could edit and spin the meeting toward their preferred Unionist bias!

Only accurate report of this, so far, has been from Gordon Ross on IndyCar this afternoon.

After a blissfully lengthy and uncharacteristically silent period I see that Scotland’s shameless self publicist has returned to turn our stomachs with a sickeningly cringing puff piece in the Daily Gerrard.

After a typical fanfare of publicity a couple of months ago she launched her latest money making scheme which was promptly shot down in flames by by experts in the field of finance.

Since then – silence until yesterday – Any news of how said scheme is doing?

Why are you dropping my comments?

I’ve twice submitted this perfectly reasonable comment and twice it has been dropped.

This is test comment to see if this wil also be dropped.

“Ok, I’ll try this one again. The previous post seems to have been lost in favour of the above post on Israel.

The BBC scored a terrific own goal, as it refused to meet with pro-independence demonstrators oustide their Glasgow offices, to discuss clear BBC bias in reporting Scottish issues.

As the discussion would be live and impossible to edit, they refused to come out of their building to meet with the protestors.

Instead, they applied standard BBC bias and spun the story that it was the demonstrators who refused to enter the building, where the BBC would obviously have the control over what was eventually realeased to the public.

This illustrated the BBC bias perfectly and couldn’t have been arranged more adeptly!

The only news source to feature the story accurately was Gordon Ross’s Indycar broadcst this afternoon.

Now it’s on Wings too.”

gus1940:
Have a wee look at http://www.jordansfireworks.co.uk. They seem to have quite a selection!

Ruthonium Davidsoterex has been found 30 metres down in the Darkmoney shale formation.

Calm before the ‘Storm’ or are we really in the ‘Eye of the Hurricane’ about to engulf us?

Only some light reading on “Imperial Preference” & “Commonwealth Preference”
Lets see : Tory infighting, weak government, a depression, agenda pushed by the right wing press, promote unity of Britain, be a global power, free trade agreements with Commonewealth & Dominions instead of with ‘protectionist’ Germany & the U.S, everything a shitshow – thats Bingo!
Except that was also the early 1900’s

Those who cannot learn from… Yawn.

@Robert Thomas

In their report, the BBC failed to mention that Ian Small had been invited to come out and address the demonstrators but he refused.

Their spin was the demonstrators (maximum 4 persons) would not engage with the BBC but fail to mention the BBC refusal to engage with the demonstrators (all of them).

Why is anyone surprised about the BBC bias after all that’s why you were there – they are simply not capable of telling any news story involving indy without automatic bias – should have reported a stand off – bbc not willing to go out and demonstrators unwilling to enter bbc building because meeting would have been edited and corrupted into something it was not. BBC unwilling to come out since they might have said something that would condemn them. Talking live does not suit them since they might inadvertently give the game away.

It does seem incredible in the circumstances at present that no-one in WM is appearing to do something except BJ who is eying up the PM’s job for himself and the extreme right wing of the tory party.

Remember BBC is the mouthpiece of Maybot/WM and the protector of Ruthie.

I am pretty certain that a fair few members of staff in PQ voted Yes and vote SNP. With the SNP on about 42%+ it would be bizarre if nearly half of them were not sympathetic. The problem with the BBC is only partly to do with how content is treated. It is much more to do with senior management agenda setting, editorial control and headline spin. What is reported and what is not reported is not a decided by the staff. The emphasis and billing on the news is likewise decided at a senior level so I have some sympathy with Derek. He worked at the BBC, he knows how the game is played and the views of the rank and file. They are often fighting against this editorial dead hand too (not all obviously some don’t hide their allegiances).

However, the BBC senior management are undoubtedly under pressure and the piece on the radio yesterday morning discussing bias and the BBC’s love of the status quo, not just in Scotland but also England, was not shied away from. Whether things change is moot. I would be surprised there was not a little more nuance in coming months…which will of course enrage Ian Davidson etc., However, I will surprised if the playing field is ever entirely even. Independence is about turning the UK’s world upside down. The BBC are not comfortable with change.

Not sure if it counts as news, but I found a conundrum.

When the Smith Commission was meeting to decide on the new powers coming to Scotland, the Scottish Conservatives wanted to devolve VAT. However, EU rules did not allow it. Hence the compromise of assigning 50% of revenues raised from VAT collected in Scotland from 2019/20. Had VAT been devolved it would have given Holyrood responsibility for raising 60% of Scotland’s revenues.

Following Brexit, the UK Government made great play of maintaining the UK’s internal market, hence their determination that devolved powers the EU had responsibility for returned to Westminster and not Holyrood.

So how can they explain the recent vote in the House of Commons for the UK to leave the EU’s VAT regime with the burden it places on small businesses?

Explained here..

link to accountancyage.com

and devolving VAT to Scotland?

UNLESS.. coming out of the EU’s VAT regime is a precursor to a momentous decision that will be in a second independence referendum?

These protests outside the BBC are counter productive, the reporting to the mass of the public is controlled by them and just gives the No side more propaganda to use in the future.

It may make those that attended feel good and get a big cheer from already convinced yessers, and online within the indy groups. Outside this arena it will have little effect and may deter those that you need to convince.

Also not a good look that when some yes people disagree they are then turned on and accused of being closet unionists. Seems some independence supporters only want independence on their terms, no dissenters and definitely no Conservatives voting Yes (I suspect they really don’t want Labour either), just purity.

Reports in the media about a right wing plan to replace May with Davies asap. He would be an interim PM to achieve the hard Brexit they desire, while Johnson would hold out and get the top job post Brexit. Sun and Mail and others report.

This would be excellent news for Scotland because it will clarify that Brexit is going to be unacceptably hard. And following that a nutter as PM.

Plenty of reason to get the IndyRef2 train hurtling down the tracks!

Afternoon’ Robert Thomas ~

Whenever a reader posts a valid comment, that comment gets assigned a unique reference number, which is then displayed on your devices path-line (at the top of your page.) Unless you are a new poster or your comment contains a filter-catch word, it should go through fine, best to persevere just a wee bit longer, cheers.

Aussi, once your posting has posted, the date / time stamp is displayed at the bottom of your comment, as a link. For example, the link below takes you to your original posting.

Unique reference post number:
link to wingsoverscotland.com

We were passengers with Glasgow Cabbie yesterday, worth a share:
link to facebook.com

Cheers for the perkies, received with thx.

Groovy day / night out Wingers. 🙂

The reason the cowed is reported as small. No one is interested in the BBC News anymore, only soaps that the BBC produce, they contain more facts.

@yesindyref2

Only current indy supporters will probably ever be aware of the counter offer, the vast majority will never hear about it.

My opinion is a more widespread campaign with things like the ‘Is it the truth…’ being worn and on cars would garner more long term attention. This demo will be forgotten by next week, except of course by unionist that will use it like the last one, as indy supporters attacking free speech (it doesn’t matter if it’s not true, when has that ever worried them).

At this moment a Yes vote is on a knife edge, I’m wary of any action that could repel some potential yes supporters.

The final route for the AOUB march in Dundee next Saturday has been agreed with the police and the council.

It leaves Baxter Park at 12:45 sharp, the route is mostly downhill with just short stretch uphill on the Nethergate/Perth Road and goes right through the centre of the city.

Big turnout expected and one you won’t want to miss,even the ploice are estimating upwards of 20,000.

Current forecast is for decent weather too so fingers crossed for another big and successful day.

link to archive.fo

Edinburgh is being turned into a playground for the rich, with black boards, barriers up, benches blocked, and fenced off. Virgin money hosting concerts, don’t allow the plebs to see it from the main street though! Still I might go up and listen to it lolz!

@Robert Thomas says: 12 August, 2018 at 1:28 pm:

” … Why are you dropping my comments?”

Who are you addressing your question too, Robert?

No I’m not trying to be unkind – just trying to explain a few things for you in the hope you won’t get upset as you seem to have reasonable comments.

The point is that this is the Rev Stu Campbell’s blog and it is not happening in real time. Is more like a message board where messages appear and although you we are speaking to each other it isn’t like face to face conversation. Your comments have appeared and as there have been several you will inevitably get up everyone’s nose. So just be patient and your comment will be published.

You see there are a few filters but no other moderators than Rev Stu himself and, if you look over to the top right of the page under Tweets you will see Stu is busy on twitter. So please keep posting but be a little more patient.

There was little point talking to Ian Small, he is effectively a PR person. He has no direct control over any editorial decisions, he is the person they send out to take the flak when they feel they need to say something. If you can’t meet with the department heads directly then it is a waste of time, not for the BBC as they can say they have listened to your concerns and issue a press release.

Ruth Davidson lurking in the darkness of the Tory lot expressed her horror of Boris Johnston’s foul remarks about how a tiny minority of Moslem women dress….however she has yet to express such horror for the continuing disgrace of the rape clause wher women have to expose their trauma to DWP staff……beyond words is it Ruthie?

Ruthie has also to explain her reasoning in supporting the political legitimisation of the OO and their friends to potentially undermine the stability of Scottish Society……the horror and actual reality of such legitimisation seen recently at the Barras. Beyond words again Ruthie baby?

Give me peace as my mother used to say.

Only talk to the organ grinder.

Foolish to talk to the

@Robert Thomas
Normally it takes about 10 minutes for a comment to appear, but just now it can take 20 minutes or even longer.

Wings got subject to a DDOS attack some months back, a severe one, more than the “normal” ones, apparently, so there’s some kind of delay system built in now to keep it under control and prevent the whole blog being taken down. It’s automatic, the Rev isn’t involved in that, so there’s nothing personal.

On top of that some words are filtered, and commetns with them won’t appear at all. Words like r*pe, *lb* replacing & with “a”, and others. Also too many links in a comment will be put in the moderation queue for Rev to have a look at.

@Socrates MacSporran says: 12 August, 2018 at 2:49 pm:

” … Can anyone tell me – when did Vyvyan change his name to Boris?”

There are lots of wee unmentioned things about Boris, Socrates.

Here are a few I know about:-

“Boris Johnson was born on 19th June 1964. His full name is actually, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, but chooses to use the shortened version of Boris.

But as to a name change – I have no clue whatsoever.

galamcennalath says:

Reports in the media about a right wing plan to replace May with Davies asap.
——-

if the labour party dont replace corbyn soon, any snap ge would see the labour party campaigning for the no deal option as well. what other option is open to corbyn?

the planets are aligning in our favour

@jfngw
The thing is the media are doing the same to Corbyn and Labour, and that IS more noticeable to people, so keeping going with the Indy and SNP anti-bias is important, as it complements and becomes part of the action against Labour. Which is of more interest to Labour origins Scotland, and gives it “gravitas”, rather than being the voices of a few “loonies”.

Given that the schools in many parts of Scotland return on Monday, holding the protest against BBC Bias/Censorship on Saturday was probably not the best day for a lot of people. Lots of people returning to work too from holiday. Lots to get organised to get back into the normal groove again so a protest @ BBC would not have been a viable option at this time for many people.

Some news for you Rev – my daughter got 2 As & 3Bs in her Highers. I know you’ll be chuffed for her.

This isn’t unrelated to the media bias, propaganda and manipulation of news. The BBC gets a well deserved mention. Worth a wee watch before it gets pulled from YouTube: link to youtube.com

@galamcennalath
The media is even biased against the MOD and equipment, something I should do more to point out.

@Flower of Scotland & Gus –

Aye, Derek Bateman’s being (very uncharacteristically) snidey on Twitter to Prof John Robertson, and losing the rag with Peter Bell. Don’t know what he’s getting so tetchy about, unless he perhaps knows he’s in the wrong on this one?

The idea that any of the demo organisers should’ve gone into PQ for a chat with Ian Small et al is idiotic. Gripers can say whatever they like about the efficacy of these demos but the organisers are anything but daft.

As one who attended the demo yesterday with my wife , I don’t feel I was wasting my time , okay it wasn’t well attended and others have opinions as to why this was , and the effectiveness of it , but are we supposed to just lap it up and say well it’s just the bbc and it won’t change anything .

This demo was arranged by people who gave their time , money and great effort to allow US to have our say on the corrupt bias bbc and for that I thank them from the heart

I have many opinions on many things but I also appreciate when people make the effort to DO something to help US forward our message , criticism and the effectiveness of the effort can and does lead to the organisers questioning whether their sacrifices are worth the bother

I salute these organisers and THANK THEM WHOLEHEARTEDLY FOR THEIR ENDEAVOURS

I didn’t hear about it until too late in the day.

Does everyone know about AUOB march in Dundee next Saturday? While AUOB has a FB page, its website seems to be dormant, not updated in over a year, none of this year’s marches mentioned.

Meg merrilees says:
12 August, 2018 at 6:10 pm

‘T May and Hunt silent as UK’s best arms kills dozens of children in Yemen bus attack.’

Maybe because Saudi is the UK’s biggest customer for weapons by a very long way, and of course they want them to be used so more are ordered

link to statista.com

I was shocked when I saw this graph but it does explain a lot

On topic… and genuine question,

Does anyone know what pork was suffering from before it was cured?

@twathater at 6.16.: Hear, hear. OF COURSE it was worth doing the PQ event – it will encourage the Yessers on BBC staff to see that the house style is NOT going unremarked. They may be able to make some difference one day.

The organisers deserve thanks from all of us. And I liked the way that there was an open mic – everyone who spoke sounded at home, not nervous at all, and made some good points.

I couldn’t make Pacific Quay, I had to work, but I’m right behind the people who organised it and turned up.

I’ve made about half the AUOB marches, all the ones I could make, and I’m right behind the people who organised it and turned up.

I’m right behind Peter Bell, who isn’t a SNPbad agitator, but insightfully articulates frustrations which are already resonating in my head.

I have a great deal of time for what Craig Murray has to say, and I also appreciate Craig Murray’s discretion about what he doesn’t say, not least because many of the frustrations he articulates also resonate with me.

I don’t know how Wee Ginger Dug maintains his crescendo of excellence bulding up the anticipation for a dambusting type event on the Independence Front with one blistering article after another.

I could go on, and on, Rev Stu, Chris Cairns, Prof Robertson, Phantom Power Films, IndyLive, on, and on, and on….

But you know what? All of these fine Lieutenants in our Pro-Indy movement are pretty much running on empty until the Scottish Government finally decides to let the whole country in on the great plan.

Of course nobody wants to jinx Indy, or disrupt the great Masterplan, but come on Scot Gov! FFS give these people some fuel for their engines.

I’m not talking money, nor even direct endorsement, but we have SEVEN MONTHS to save ourselves from our humiliating subjugation and catastrophic expulsion from Europe, and yet one of the foremost Pro-Indy players in the media war, Wings Over Scotland, merely days after unprecedent exposure and a spike in online traffic courtesy of the BBC, is now writing about the conspicuous absence of any political discourse.

All we get from our Leadership is “wait until October”???

I hope to FK you know what you’re doing, and not just building up the mother of all anticlimaxes in October, and leaving us with just five dark and cold winter months to save Scotland from disaster, and all from a standing start…

@Breeks says: 12 August, 2018 at 8:44 pm:

” … Of course nobody wants to jinx Indy, or disrupt the great Masterplan,”

Are you sure about that, breeks? For some that comment here on Wings can sure as hell fool me on that score.

” … but come on Scot Gov! FFS give these people some fuel for their engines.”

Oh! Aye! And while they are about it they will be fuelling the enemy’s fuel tanks as they syphon off the fuel intended for the Indy Support. Don’t you realise that not only do they have people reading Wings, and all the other on-line indy sites.

I’m certain they will have infiltrated the SNP and perhaps even the SG, That is how they work and, breeks, it wouldn’t be the first time they had someone on the inside of the SNP. They have worked like that throughout the World but particularly in Scotland.

Never forget how The London Scot, William Paterson, a paid for employee of Sir Robert Harley, and Daniel Defoe had a hand in forcing the Treaty of Union.

The FM and her advisors dinna button up the back.

Stu, do you have permission from the copyright holder to share that Young Ones video on Wings? (Jist havin a laugh).

@Daisy Walker –

Would you be okay about reposting your comment onto the ongoing thread? A lot of readers, esp new ones, may not revisit this one.

🙂

Ian – done. Will share the hammers;)

Daisy,

That wasn’t the second one. Maybe the fourth?

I went to the first two (and others since) and honestly, I think there were more at those.

Couldn’t make this one, but was somewhat surprised, despite the ominous neg. vibes about it among some yes voters beforehand, at the low turn out.

Also, disappointing because it seemed to have been one of the best organized ‘indy’ events with great speeches, especially from Ruth Watson and Peter Bell and even good, well thought out, mash-up musical interludes. (I caught up on indy live).

Perhaps there was an element of ‘BBC? Nobody believes them any more. Why bother?’ going on but we would have went if we could.

Daisy,
Great poem BTW.

@Breeks
Well said, it needs to be said. I still have faith, but it is wearing a bit thin.

The neo-liberal project aims to rob society of our critical resistance to authoritarian inequality. Honestly folks, anyone who suggest there is no bias at the BBC, perhaps needs to re-evaluate their own critical powers. Fascism is waiting eagerly for us all to drop our gaurd.

Think Tanks, Television News and Impartiality
The ideological balance of sources in BBC programming

Abstract

Is the use of think tanks ideologically balanced in BBC news and current affairs programming? This study answers this question empirically by establishing which think tanks are referenced in different BBC programming in 2009 and 2015, and then classifying them according to their ideological aims (either left, right, centrist or non-partisan). We draw on a sample size of over 30,000 BBC news and current affairs programmes in 2009 and 2015 to measure how often these think tanks were mentioned or quoted. Overall, BBC news reveals a clear preference for non-partisan or centrist think tanks. However, when the Labour Party was in power in 2009, left and right-leaning think tanks received similar levels of coverage, but in 2015, when the Conservative Party was in government, right-leaning think tanks outnumbered left-leaning think tanks by around two to one. Overall, our findings add weight to a pattern emerging from a number of recent academic studies that show, despite its undoubted commitment to impartiality, BBC news programming has shifted its centre of gravity to the right. We argue that broadcasters need to be more independently aware of how stories emerge, and how issues and sources should be balanced and explained in an increasingly partisan news environment.

KEYWORDS: impartiality, partisan news environment, public service broadcasting, sources, television news, think tanks

link to tandfonline.com

Rethinking the BBC
Public Media in the 21st Century

Foreword

Niki Seth-Smith and Dan Hind

The majority of the contributions in this book were written before Britain voted to leave the European Union. Yet its core concerns are now more pressing than ever. The media in
Britain are not adequate to the task that they claim for themselves. Public debate about politics, economics and social trends is distorted by all manner of internal biases and external pressures that are themselves ignored in mainstream coverage. The preoccupations of the private media lie outside the scope of this book. But the BBC is a
public institution. It is the nearest instrument to hand for those who wish to create media that presents an accurate account of the world, and that challenges the fictions to which prejudice and the lavish expenditure of money render us all vulnerable….

link to allysonpollock.com

In search of credibility: RT and the BBC in a ‘post-truth’ world

….In the global news market, the longstanding Anglo-American hegemony established through CNN and BBC World was first challenged by the rise of Qatar-based network Al Jazeera in the early 2000s.[3] The channel’s early success owed much to its reputation as a source of alternative frames for the US-led War on Terror, and the reactionary responses of US political elites seemed to underline its disruptive potential.[4] But it was the launch of its English-language channel in 2006, fronted by established and respected western journalists, which marked the most significant disruption to the BBC-CNN duopoly.

What Al Jazeera exposed in both the BBC and CNN was not lies or propaganda in a crude sense, nor an exclusive preoccupation with issues that conformed to a Western ideological agenda, nor the omission of critical perspectives of Western governments and ideals. But they did expose a tendency towards selection of stories and facts that, on balance, aligned with a Western neoliberal consensus and definition of world problems. It was into this fracturing and polarising global agenda that RT emerged with an explicit mission to cover issues and perspectives marginalised by the so-called ‘mainstream media’.

Underlying this discourse is an implicit critique of impartiality, and its association with news authority, credibility and professionalism. The problem with impartiality has always been about which critical perspectives are admitted into any given controversy or debate, the drawing of boundaries around what is acceptable criticism, beyond which ‘there is no alternative’.[5]

The ideology of ‘There is No Alternative’ – or ‘TINA’ as the phrase has become known[6] was originally popularised by Margaret Thatcher in her repeated dismissal of arguments against economic liberalism.[7] Its sentiment was later echoed in Francis Fukuyama’s declaration of the ‘end of history’ following the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1989, signalling “the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”[8]

link to fpc.org.uk