Return Of The Silence
Today, readers, we’re slowly building our way up to an aneurysm trying to give away a fairly sizeable sum of money to foodbanks and other charities, who appear to have collectively decided that that should be an experience only slightly less challenging than the Krypton Factor assault course. (Ask your parents.)
While our nervous breakdown continues apace, we thought we’d draw your attention to this story in the Independent about how the new Conservative government has been avoiding putting any senior ministers up for questioning by the media.
It’s a tactic you may recall from the “Better Together” campaign, and we thought you might like to read this piece (and more here) by a videogame-journalism friend of ours which explains what’s going on when it happens.
We’ll hopefully be back with you soon.
I decide a while back that if they won’t answer then what I believe is happening is the true situation.
As when no one in the Labour Party would say how many voted for Kezia Dugdale. Someone from Lab quietly informed Craig Murray the number was 5, 300 then this was denied but the real figure still wouldn’t be given. To me, then, it was 5,300.
Avoiding the media is a smart tactic. It minimises the damage that can be done to your side.
Simple.
Does it have a flip side? I don’t know.
Shutters up, barricades in place and wagons circled.
Ye ain’t seen me roit?
They don’t say anything, you can’t hang anything on them. You can’t spot the cracks, split the ranks or ‘hold anyone to account’. So on one hand you have the government avoiding the media and on the other you have them attempting to cut the very existence of the SNP at Westminster out of the media spotlight.
Disturbing doesn’t come close to covering it.
Well, if you a stuck for a topic – there are several corkers from Wingers responding to you last post.
The Tory’s will always get more leeway from the UK press because of its structure of ownership here.
There is no freedom of the press in the UK – only freedom to own the press. Real democracies, like Norway for instance, recognise that freedom to express diverse ideas in the press – press access – is an integral part of real freedom of speech
The assault course was a cakewalk compared with landing the plane!
Ain’t broke, UKOK media wont fix it. T’other side of their cunning toryboy non stunts, total SNP blackout by BBC, today very lengthy BBC tv national lunchtime news report on Commons assisted dying bill debate, BBC show several red and blue tory MP speakers only, nothing from SNP MP’s, who were in the chamber, but maybe not saying anything, we’ll never know, it’s BetterTogether BBC.
Morphing into a secret society. They will say plenty to the favourite journalists as and when the time suits them.
It’s probably quite simple. They have just won the general election and have no need at present to appeal to the public. There is nothing in it for them to gain, however conversely, there is always the potential for one of them to ‘put their foot in it’ and lose points. So Tory politicians avoid the media.
In a democracy the media should pursue politicians who should respond to keep their voters fully informed. That would happen in a democracy so its absence in the UK shouldn’t surprise us.
There are odd parallels with Scotland where we also rarely see much coverage of our government or leading politicians! The mechanism here is of course the converse. It’s the media who are trying to avoid our SNP politicians!
There is only one country in the UK and that is England. There are only two political parties in England, Tory & red Tory’s.
This is the lies that the Establishment push through their lying propaganda spearheaded by the English Broadcasting Corporation and the Establishment owned MSM.
Bad publicity is better than NO publicity. So SNP get NO publicity.
Was’nt me guv, I didn’t say anything.
link to itv.com
It didn’t stop Disreporting Jackie today giving time to the Red Tory Kezia to tell us all she really wants to have little Corbies and that the Red Tory Party can win with Corbie in 2020. SNP BAD, Red Tories UKOK!
Sorry for the OT but some of you may find this amusing. From the excellent Terrierman’s blog. “Donald Trump and his toupee” Seems like some Americans can see Donald for what he is.
link to terriermandotcom.blogspot.co.uk
They must have some really bad news/plans to bury so they will wait till early tomorrow afternoon to release it.
The MSM is gearing up for absolute hysteria over you know who around then.
Papadox complains that the ‘SNP get NO publicity’. Funny that other threads are devoted to attacking (quite rightly) nasty personal attacks on Nicola Sturgeon.
Papadox’s other remarks are equally inaccurate. Unionists don’t deny the existence of Scotland and Wales. We just say that we are all part of a greater whole. And the media give far too much publicity to UKIP, as I’m sure we all agree.
I see Fred the Shred has been forced to shred his hedge (funds) down to 6’6″ after neighbours took action under the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013. He didn’t bank on that.
The best method of self defence is
Not to be there
Nothing to say here, move along now!
I think I know why this Conservative government has been avoiding. like the plague, from putting any senior ministers up for questioning by the media. I offer in evidence exhibit A.
link to facebook.com
Apparently they are all too exhausted after dreaming this poster up to be bothered to answer any questions from the media.
@heedtracker says: 11 September, 2015 at 1:54 pm:
” … today very lengthy BBC tv national lunchtime news report on Commons assisted dying bill debate, BBC show several red and blue tory MP speakers only, nothing from SNP MP’s, who were in the chamber, but maybe not saying anything, we’ll never know”
All together now! “Oh! Yes we will!”
Here is the link to Parliament TV, (Westminster): –
link to parliamentlive.tv
Then there is Hansard : –
link to parliament.uk
There you go – sorted.
@Rev Stu.
Do you mean, “The Silence of the Labs”?, (did I spell that right?)
Personally I cant wait for UKOK toryboy’s silent implosion, hysterics, whimpering, and then eventually blame the cybernats of their north britain region
link to telegraph.co.uk
Its going to a clear BBC border demarcation for the whole of the JC reign, BBC England will monster JC to ukok hell, BBC Scotland will boost JC to Scottish heaven. Fun times ahead for BBC creepshow watching. Wonder how hard last ever SLab dude’s nads are sweating right the noo?
Robert Peffers says:
11 September, 2015 at 4:00 pm
@heedtracker says:
But there was nothing SNP in their national lunchtime tv news at all. They didn’t bother with any LibDems either, although it looked like they might. They ended with Commons tv shot of both sides of house leaping up to speak but the non existent SNP MP’s remained seated.
So BBC says its England only, with bettertogether big stuff, naturally.
From the article:
Except, when it comes to Scottish politicians it doesn’t even matter if the story is valid or not. Especially so if the made up story has the power to taint Scotland’s First Minister. A case of ‘assassinate first, ask questions later’ with the press when it comes to Scotland’s First Minister.
heedtracker says:
“BBC England will monster JC to ukok hell, BBC Scotland will boost JC to Scottish heaven”
No doubt! The situation in Scotland for Labour is going to be two effects working against one another. Labour may get a boost because JC will sound more pallatable to Scottish minds, but pulling in the other direction will be a Labour party in civil war mode!
The ‘main’ news will highlight the mess, while the ‘news where we are’ will continue to try to promote Labour.
Voters never like parties in chaos, even if one faction appears to be saying the right things! Net effect, hopefully, Labour goes down the tubes in Holyrood 2016.
Interesting times indeed.
@Nana Smith says: 11 September, 2015 at 2:08 pm:
“Was’nt me guv, I didn’t say anything.
link to itv.com“
Yeah! Nana Smith, I picked up on that one earlier but got side-tracked before posting. My thought was how typical of Dave, (The Bam), that he quotes two cricket experts to back up his claim about a political Freudian slip.
Just as he chooses some well known war-mongering war criminals to back-up his attempts to negate the democratic Scottish YES movement. Perhaps if he has a burst pipe he will call out a joiner to fix it or if his gas oven goes bad he will call out an explosives expert.
@ galamcennalath, BBC Scotland will simply modulate their great British propaganda, SNP bad getting even badder, everything Scottish terrible, your cops, your NHS, your roads, your schools, BUT SLab wonder saviours of Scotland region to the ukok rescue, JC good guy with probs but its SNP v v bad all the way, little bitties on Scottish toryboys, Fluffie sage, brilliant, nae tory god, absolute right to reign over rebel sweaties and that’s just to be farted out o Pacific quay teatime this evening.
Via dudes like
link to bbc.co.uk
200 hundred grand a year of teamGB goodness, mmmmm.
O/T. I have been following Bugger (the Panda) on Twitter (in a metaphorical sense not a techinical sense) and have noticed today that his Twitter page has disappeared. Anyone knew what has happened? Have Twitter or someone taken offense at his tweets? It is a shame because BtP’s tweets are very amusing.
muttley79 says:
11 September, 2015 at 5:04 pm
O/T. I have been following Bugger (the Panda) on Twitter (in a metaphorical sense not a techinical sense) and have noticed today that his Twitter page has disappeared. Anyone knew what has happened? Have Twitter or someone taken offense at his tweets? It is a shame because BtP’s tweets are very amusing.
I am not 100% certain Muttley but I think BtP resdies in China. There are therefore a few possibilities to his/her absence from Twitter in my view.
1) China has cracked down on Twitter. 😉
2) BtP is somewhere between China and Scotland in a thin aluminium tube with wings attached. 🙂
3) BtP is off on holiday somewhere 😀
O/T
Catalan Parliament to vote on UDI from Spain
link to bellacaledonia.org.uk
Catalan pro-independence leaders ready to declare unilateral independence
link to youtube.com
@ Nana Smith says at 2:08 pm ”Was’nt me guv, I didn’t say anything.”
link to itv.com
I love one of the comments re. the article from a Catherine Jones. ”Cameron thinks Yorkshire people hate everyone probably because everyone in Yorkshire hates him.” So it isn’t just us then, lol?
Avoiding media is a smart tactic. It minimises the damage … done to your side.
Should be made illegal, first rebuked with a sanction – wages, expenses, whatever.
If our elected representatives refuse to be accountable time to fire them.
BBC chief executive to me: “If a politician refuses to take part in the debate don’t announce to viewers his party declined to appear on the programme.”
Not quite with this. Holyrood recently rejected an assisted suicide bill, so it’s clearly a devolved matter. Which means it’s legitimately an EVEL only bill in Westminster, as there’s little or no financial impact on Barnett or consequentials. So the SNP MPs would generally remain silent and not vote.
Ot sorry
Im just back from the La Diada celebration in Barcelona. Its the catalans national day and this year they are using it to show support for the pro catalan parties who have agreed that if the jointly get a majority on the 27th of september, they will see it as a mandate for independence and declare Udi.
Have a look on line. So many people showed up to form a colour mosaic from the outskirts of the city to the parliament in the centre.
Amazing.
Plodmore: We just say that we are all part of a greater whole.
A convenience avoiding reality, unless you mean ‘hole’.
Will Podmore @3.03pm,
You spelt whole wrong, you meant to omit the w. What you meant to say was this, “Unionists don’t deny the existance of Scotland and Wales”. “We just say, that we are all part of a greater HOLE”.
As someone say’s on here, sorted that for you. The HOLE of course being a Shitehole.
Stephen.
Just more grist to the mill of grinding out increasing support for independence.
Apart from the unionists, an increasingly confident Scottish electorate is not going to be blind to or appreciative of the fact that they are being treated with disdain.
Scottish unionists have no self-respect so it is just business as usual for them. They no doubt glow with grovelling pride at the exercise of raw power by their broad shouldered masters.
Slab were super good at raw power and look what happened to them.
@heedtracker says: 11 September, 2015 at 5:00 pm:
” … SNP bad getting even badder, everything Scottish terrible, your cops, your NHS, your roads, your schools … “
It really is comic, heedtracker. They monster the Scottish Police Service for months and then the actual statistics are published that show the crime rate now at its lowest level since records began.
They monster the SNHS and the stats keep on improving and are much better than when Labour were in office. Same goes for education no matter what the subject the reality is that, even in these dire times of Westminster manufactured austerity, the present Scottish government are outperforming them at everything.
They criticise the A9 improvements but for all the years that Labour were in office there were few, if any, improvements and death rates kept on climbing. The last lot of stats showed that the average speed cameras were effective and accident figures had indeed reduced.
Every single thing that Labour has chosen to monster has come back to bite their bums. Remember the Jackie Bailie claim, “The SNP presided over the Hospital acquired infections capital of Europe”. That turned out to have used the figures of when Labour were in charge and had been reduced by 70% by wee Nicola as Health Minister.
Not forgetting the daft claims about house building. It turned out Labour had not built a single new home but had also sold off many homes to Housing Associations and the civil works they bragged about were all racking up debt due to the PPP/PPI style financing schemes that will take many decades to pay off and will leave the local authorities with absolutely nothing to show for their money as the actual buildings and equipment they paid for, (and paid to be maintained), still belong to the private companies that built them.
@Lesley Anne
Pretty sure Bugger lives in France.
Plodmore says
“We just say that we are all part of a greater whole.”
What if we dont want to BE in your “whole”
do you really want to drag us down with you?
we are not you,
GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEAD!
Just basic politics, isn’t it?
Communicate only when you have to.
Not a coincidence Drone Cameron announced he had blown the fuck out of a couple of British citizens after all the shit being thrown at him for his attitude to the refugees.
Although I presume you have to live in Toryworld to think that one outweighs the other politically.
ps
Note the “living in glass houses” comment under the Independent article claiming the same silence exists within the media about reporting on the refugees. A pity the commentator gave no links to back up the claim.
muttley79 says:
11 September, 2015 at 5:47 pm
@Lesley Anne
Pretty sure Bugger lives in France.
DAMN!
You’re right Muttley getting her mixed up with another Panda. Sorry. 😉
Following on from Fionan’s comments earlier about supporting our fledgling independent media please don’t forget Independence Live. They’re only looking for £4500 total so not a huge amount & are at £930.
link to indiegogo.com
Please help if you can & don’t forget to tune in tomorrow 2.30pm Glasgow Sees Syria
Anyone seen the breaking news re RAF typhoons sent to intercept Russian aircraft in international air space?
They have put up some photos of the Russian plane (from today, I think) and stamped in big black letters on the tail of the bomber is ….BBC!
You gotta laugh!
Muttley says
“Pretty sure Bugger lives in France.”
L/A was right
BtP DOES spend time in China.
If nobody wants to talk to the press, “anybody” could just make something up! ????
As a matter of interest who believes the MSM anymore? Is it a particular age group or a section of society isolated from the internet?
I occasionally watch a “News program” and find it cringe worthy buffoonery. Jesus wept ! Who believes this dross anymore? Tractor production in Islington increasing by 100 percent would be more creditable along with the five year plan for SNP resistant voters being two years a head of schedule in Surbiton.
Hi muttley79.
“Pretty sure Bugger lives in France”
Typing of Wingers domiciled in France. What’s happened to AuldA?
I used to enjoy his posts.
Just had a look through the Sun newspaper (not mine!). There’s a couple of articles that I found to be pretty interesting. One is about Hfm radio station pulling out of Scotland. The interesting part is this, for me at least as I was unaware of the facts.
Nicky Marr (former Moray Firth Radio breakfast show presenter) says that ”Scotland has one BBC radio station to cover the whole of Scotland, two if you include Radio Nan Gaedheal (if you speak Gaelic). That’s basically one single BBC radio station for the whole of Scotland. Compare our one with the 39 English BBC stations, plus one each for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man and we look like the poor relation.”
Surprise, surprise eh! Taking into consideration that England has approximately 10 times our population they should have 10 radio stations and Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man nought (share England’s just as the Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland etc share ours). BBC no money? No bias, unfairness or discrimination?
This second article will really make your blood boil. ‘UK fashion stylist Debbie Wingham is making a 6ft diamond-frosted cake for an Arab family that is worth £48.5 million.’ What can you say other than it just beggars belief?
@Lesley Anne
Pretty sure Bugger still had his dangly bits last time I saw him. At least that’s what Paula told me 😉
@ Rev.
Thanks Stu for pointing out a ommision on Greater Maryhill Foodbanks F/B page (no Paypal ect).
The Twitter/Facebook pages will be updated soon .The new Board of Trustees only started on the 31st August & have to sort out issues transferd from the previous board.
Driving home yesterday afternoon, and on the radio (radio scotland) their was the most surprising announcement, kezia dugdale had just said that Jeremy Corbyn would have a very good chance of winning the next election and being the next PM.
Well apart fa nearly crashing the car and laughing ma earse shut, we must now take it that a certain “ex-deputy dug” has had a wee bitte of insider knowledge to be making such a statement.
Didn’t Kezia Dugdale not say that labour had no chance of winning the next election if Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership of the labour party, and that was just a month or two back !!!
Usually pissed off after watching “scottish” late night politics shows but stumbled onto UK newsnight last two nights with James O’Neil skewering UK minister, arms lobby and Saudis over Yemen bombing.
Really very excellent but have a feeling his card will be marked now. BBC bias was the last shouted defence of interviewee.