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Wings Over Scotland


The dirty baker’s dozen

Posted on July 30, 2018 by

So this morning, four days after our entire YouTube channel was deleted at the behest of the BBC, and after days of wrestling with YouTube’s shambolic robot-staffed admin maze, we finally managed to get an email out of them with the full list of what the BBC had complained about.

(If you should ever find yourself in a similar situation, we can recommend contacting @TeamYouTube on Twitter, who appear to be actual human people and can eventually prod the robots into action.)

The signatory was a London-based BBC lawyer, who’d plucked 13 videos apparently at random from the hundreds on our channel and decided to whine about them (citing US copyright law, rather than UK) up to four and a half years later.

There was no rhyme or reason to the selection, and no obvious link between them:

This one from February 2014, of Alex Salmond.

This one from February 2014, of London pundit Steve Richards being a pillock.

This one from June 2014, about BBC hypocrisy and Clare Lally.

This one from September 2014, of ex-European Parliament President Pat Cox.

This one from March 2015, of Ian Murray making a tit of himself.

This one from August 2015, of John McTernan arguing with Owen Jones.

This one from August 2015, of Gordon Brown doing a funny dance.

This one from February 2016, of Ken MacIntosh cooing over Laura Kuenssberg.

This one from February 2016, of Kezia Dugdale being embarrassed.

This one from November 2016, of John McTernan adoring Tony Blair.

This one from May 2017 (second clip), of Kezia Dugdale being really really clear.

This one from May 2018, of me actually appearing on a BBC politics show.

And just for fun, a single track from New Order at Glastonbury 2016.

Finally armed with the relevant information, we’ve filed a FIFTH counter-notification with YouTube in respect of all 13, citing fair dealing for all of them, since all are just short extracts and all of them explicitly identify the original source.

As far as we can gather, the BBC now has 10 to 14 business days in which to actually initiate court action to block the videos, or they’ll be reinstated (and presumably the rest of the channel along with them).

It’s going to be pretty interesting to see whether they do.

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The Isolator

Sensation …after stramash in the goalmouth.Nice one Stu…BBC we’be got yer number.

gordoz

Jeez glad you gave the constitution & patience for these kinda
Shenanigans.

Fred

The man has the bit between his teeth! 🙂

Jim

Can’t for the life of me think why old media BBC would want to silence a new media outlet which exposes its appalling ingrained bias …….

The cries of ‘paranoia’ are beginning to sound oh so hollow and contrived.

Malcolm McCandless

Maybe the random nature of the clips chosen mask the one clip the BBC are targeting – the clip with you being interviewed on the BBC. What better way than to hide in plain view the true nature of their attempt to censor.

Luigi

Who instructed the “London-based BBC lawyer”?

That would be interesting – would it eventually come out in the wash (if the BBC decide to go ahead with court action)?

Let’s see who these cowardly bullies really are. 🙂

isleofskye

#bbcwingsgate I feel a donation coming on. Support on a weekly basis, so didn’t make a contribution to recent fundraiser. Thanks to Auntie upping the ante, a donation will be on its way this morning.

Liz

Well done Stu.

Angela Mullen-Smith

The must have to give a reason why they believe the Channel should be deleted.
You should contact Channel 4 and ITV and get them to report on this

schrodingers cat

can you make a FOI request to the bbc to find out who instructed the lawyer to make complaints about these specific videos and for what reasons?

Muscleguy

The random nature of them speaks of a Lawyer given Instruction and seeking the quickest and simplest way to carry that out whilst claiming for a longer period of working. They have to make a buck somehow. They are used to the idea of specimen charges so picking some videos at random, making sure they are BBC ones makes as sort of sense.

I wouldn’t overthink the selection or you risk going all conspiracy theory over them. Outwith the mind and method of the person selecting them you will not find defensible reasons.

Colin Black

Challenging the BBC and its endless propaganda, endlessly tiring as well I’m sure, well done and kudos to you for your tenacity and endurance.

Normski

Have you thought about a Warrant Canary in case anything happens to you?

bobajock

Watching this closely – both cackhanded and worrying. Perhaps the most interesting outcome would be for the BBC to ‘come out’ and show its bias in public.

schrodingers cat

Muscleguy says:
I wouldn’t overthink the selection or you risk going all conspiracy theory over them. Outwith the mind and method of the person selecting them you will not find defensible reasons.
———
probably true, but a FOI asking who complained and why they complained about these specific items, would forse the person do defend these indefensible reasons. It would make good copy 🙂

Gordon

Bravo ???

Ken500

Who was it?

What an embarrassment

BBC lawyer paid by public fees collides in secrecy and tries to spike democracy

Get’s very interesting. Who is acting illegally?

Shambles in oh so many ways.. Aother scandal.

Who to sue?

The lawyer, the client or the BBC. Or all three. What an embarrassment. Or just shame the lot of them.

So much for open democracy and government. The Westminster.controlled BBC. Trolling the public who fund it.

Many institutions has a similar e-Mail structure. Loony tunes. Often ripping off the public. Can’t get a reply from anyone that makes sense. Around and round in ever decreasing circles. Until people often give up. The purpose of the exercise? Complaints dept. Thrown into the ether. Not regulated properly.

Gordon

Bravo sir.

Dave Albiston

I suspect they won’t take legal action. Jist put up another bunch of urls to complain about. And another bunch and another bunch…

yerkitbreeks

This fracas comprises yet another piece in a jigsaw that when completed will lead to Scottish Independence – just look at the trends in just about everything over the last 30 years.

You should have seen the despondent face of the NFUS President at the Border Union Show in Kelso at the weekend. Like Bertie Armstrong of the SFF he has been the go-to opinion of Unionist organisations such as the BBC, and finding it increasingly difficult to justify Westminster decisions. ( Bertie of course has never been a fisherman ! )

” Just anovver brick in the wall “.

Ken500

They all look Labour related?

The intrigue. Who is the culprit?

Is it a mistaken identity.

Les Wilson

Well,it was a shock for us all that this has happened, however it is hardly something that will be kept quiet. Voices across the UK will be uttering about the bias of the BBC as a “honest broker”, and where this leaves democracy.

Even the English are waking up how untrustworthy the Westminster poodle actually is.

In Scotland, what they are doing across the board, makes the BBC as a REAL news entity, fatally damaged. People in Scotland are now taking the BBC with a pinch of salt, they are now a propaganda machine.
No surprise in that, they have always been a state mouthpiece. However in this digital world they cannot hide as they did in other generations, they can be exposed as never before. We can see them clearly now for what they are and it what they are is now beyond doubt.

I hope the Rev has a good case against them, for if they have overstepped their authority as seems the may well have, then we have a very interesting case for the winning.

Reading the Rev’s comment this morning that one of the vids taken down was one of his own interview with the BBC, how laughable is that. Seems the used a pin to select what to complain about rather than a brain.

The BBC and their masters have went a step too far, with little thought of the consequences of their actions.

So, here’s to you Stu, we will all be behind you.

Capella

I hope Peter Curran is also demanding redress. Compensation for time and stress and sheer waste of precious energy is the least they should pay. Google/Youtube are also at fault for deleting an entire channel on the word of a malicious complainant. Twitter did somehing similar lately.

Perhaps Indy people should approach RT to host a channel outwith the jusrisdiction of the BBC. Of course, our state broadcaster is also hoping to have them shut down through specious complaints to OFCOM.

If we want a democracy with freedom of speech we have to get out of this hostile union.

auld highlander

If they are all labour related it could have been hand picked that way by the other side so when it all goes tits up they get the blame. They are devious b’stards.

jfngw

Well at least it is now in the open, those that always claimed the BBC was unbiased because both sides complain are going to have a hard time making their case with this one sided censorship.

The BBC has exposed itself (what did you expect from a corporation that tirelessly promoted Jimmy Saville as a children’s entertainer) as being the the arm of the government, as we all believed.

It’s interesting that if I query BBC sex convictions and ITV sex convictions into google only the BBC search returns reams of material regarding legal sex cases, I think this informs me something about the nature of this beast.

Bob Mack

Why would the BBC want to shut down a site that absolutely slaughters them and numerous politicians? Oh, that’s a hard one. You Rev are an enemy of the people that control the agenda, and set the political tone for the nation.

You are letting the sheep escape from the pen and they don’t like it. I have absolutely no shadow of doubt this is not random. You have been targeted as an enemy of the controlling facets of this State, probably political in origin.

I think something like an election or application for indy ref2 must be on the cards in the near future, and they fear your influence. Just incredible.

Famous15

GRievance?

Just because the BBC stabs you in the back does not mean you cannot turn the other cheek.

Oh for the fresh air of independence.

Having reread Gibbons “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” our Imperial masters are in terminal madness and way beyond their sell by date.

galamcennalath

This stuff is the fodder of political discourse collected by the public service broadcaster. It is the lubricant of open public debate which allows democracy to function. My knowledge of copyright is sketchy but I completely fail to understand why such video is not freely available for all non commercial use.

It all seems like behaviour contrary to the entire raison d’être of a public broadcaster. Makes you begin to think that the BBC is not actually what its Charter declares it to be.

The BBC’s legal response should be very enlightening.

almannysbunnet

Well it certainly eats up huge wads of your time which may be part of the plan. It doesn’t do Youtube any favours either. Do they really thing anyone will want to open a serious channel on their site if it can be taken down on a whim. In 2014 at the height of the indy campaign Peter Curran said his channel was taken down for 6 months by ITV. It’s too easy a weapon for the BBC/ITV to use. Is there a penalty for overuse of take down notices or can they use them endlessly?

Moone

I think this is an attempt to tie you up in a legal battle. They would be delighted if we took them to court, depleting time and valuable resources. This is but one head of the Hydra.

drawdeaddave

Are you the only one with these clips? If not, why are you being targeted? Why US copyright law ? Why after four years? Maybe they are just testing the water, so when the shit really hits the fan they know they can shut at least that part of your operation down.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they have a go at other aspects of your operation in the near future…
While i’m here, rather than promote fundraisers for other bloggers & indy media outlets, why not have a central crowdfunder through wings & distribute the proceeds among them, that would really annoy the yoons…

Bill Glen

(The May Directive)
Social media is Winning the Battle of Truth, it Must be Stopped At all costs, Go after the Biggest and Best first, and if You win the Rest will Collapse,, At all costs our lies And Our Media Monkey must Survive,,, They never Learn, we Never Give up,

Alt Clut

It’s all been said above but your determination is truly remarkable. David and Goliath was nothing by comparison.

I think its the casual and lazy way that the BBC perpetrates these acts of blatant bias that infuriates me against them most.

Well Done Rev. Stu (yet again).

Capella

Greg Dyke, DG of the BBC in 2003, planned to make the entire BBC archive available to the public for free. He was sacked during the Iraq War WMD furore.

“I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion.

“In particular, it will be about how public money can be combined with new digital technologies to transform everyone’s lives,” he added.

link to archive.fo

defo

Did they think nobody would notice? Nah.
Do they know it won’t reach, or worry the sheep ? Yup.

A democracy without an informed electorate, isn’t.

robert alexander harrison

They fear new media like you how long before they try to take down the wee ginger dug website or the nationals shows the yoons fear the new online media and you’ve gotten the bullseye on your back as the British state lackeys like kezia dugdale and the BBC are targeting you hope you defeated the backstabbing woman who helped sabotage her own party.

Angry Weegie

Interesting last line of the email. Could this complaint be considered abuse of YouTube’s complaints system? Are BBC in danger of sanction by YouTube?

Alison Rollo

This will be massive! The BBC needs to be shown for the State propaganda machine for the British Establishment that it is!!! The whole corporation is corrupt. Scotland demands it’s own broadcaster immediately.

Breeks

All very strange.

I know it’s a massive frustration and a very real blow to the accessibility of an important archive, but without being disrespectful, I cannot imagine these 13 “old” clips supported much traffic, and the small gains of taking down Rev’s YouTube account will surely be dwarfed by the fallout, bad publicity and derision which will follow the cowardice of the £3.8billion State funded BBC Propagandists attempting to suppress a Pro Indy blog or two.

Whatever they gain seems strange considering the “shite” they’re going to get forevermore. Seems a spectacular own goal, even by BBC standards.

I wonder what they were thinking. Intimidation maybe? Psychology? It seems like petulant frustration that for all their profligacy and eyewatering budget, the BBC is losing the propaganda war for our hearts and minds.

YouTube, I suspect, for all its clumsiness, will not like to be seen as a patsy of the BBC.

Flower of Scotland

People are furious about this happening to Wings and Peter Curran, on twitter.

BBC shooting themselves in the foot?

Well done Stu! Onwards and upwards!

Roger Mexico

The significance of these may not be the content of the clips, but the number. Normally a request seems to mean YouTube just remove the complained about item, but it could be that over a certain number from a copyright holder (10? 12?) the channel automatically gets taken down. That would make sense if it was holding a large amount of copyright material, rather than having to list every example of maybe hundreds of pirated pieces.

Now the BBC lawyer may be well aware of YouTube’s usual methodology. It’s possibly their full-time job legitimately removing copyright infringements – full-length copies of BBC programmes that are still being sold commercially by the BBC for instance. So a dozen or so randomly selected clips would make sense if the purpose is to take down the channel.

[…] Wings Over Scotland The dirty baker’s dozen So this morning, four days after our entire YouTube channel was deleted at the behest […]

PictAtRandom

On the subject of media exploits and the Inverness march, I’d been checking the “Press & Journal”. Their initial silence made me wonder if they’d given up on areas west of Forres although they did find time to cover such as “Chaos at Skye beauty spot as ‘abandoned’ cars cause parking nightmare”.

Eventually they did report. Negative spin, much?

link to pressandjournal.co.uk

Al Dossary

@Capella,

The BBC archive would indeed have been a great thing. However, it would have been another money making exercise for the greedy Troughers at the BBC.

It does seem though that most of the controversial episodes are not available.

Episodes like “United Kingdom” have Ben shown one time, and one time only.

Robert J. Sutherland

Stu:

The signatory was a London-based BBC lawyer […] citing US copyright law, rather than UK

I thought we were “taking back control” again? =grin=

Only to throw it away again, it would seem.

All concerning resources that the poor unsuspecting public, under penalty of law, paid for in the first place. Just like the clans back in the day had their land stolen from them by their chiefs.

Ain’t it a big bad corporate world out there, Acquisitive Auntie BBC?

Robert Peffers

The real, “victims”, of this YouTube ban is, and as long as it runs, will continue to be, The BBC, YouTube, Google and the unionist/United Kingdom Government.

They have all lost any last remnants of the public’s trust that every one of them needs to retain in order to be effective in the public domain as a trusted media.

If the public cannot trust an organisation it is diminished as a media which is why the dead tree press circulation figures continues its downward spiral.

This morning I read a headline that reads:-

“HUGE LOSS FOR MIRROR & EXPRESS OWNER”.

The narrative reads, “The owner of the Mirror and Express newspapers has slumped to a £113 million half-year loss after slashing the value of its regional publishing operations.

Reach, formerly known as Trinity Mirror, said the £150 charge reflected a “more challenging outlook”, for its regional businesses.

They include the Manchester Evening News,Daily Record, and Liverpool Echo.

The results are the first since Reach completed its takeover of the Express and Star titles from Richard Desmond.

So there you go – can anyone argue that the Daily Record, for example, by its own actions, destroyed any remaining trust their then readership had in the newspaper.

I’d venture the opinion their remaining readership do not buy the Daily Record for its news content but for its support for certain sports and its support for a certain declining unionist political mantras.

HandandShrimp

This really is like something that we are told by the BBC would happen in Russia or China.

I think Stu should win this but what is really interesting and important is who the hell is paying the lawyer. My experience of lawyers is that they rarely do this sort of thing for fun. In the interests of transparency (hollow laugh) we should be told who is behind this.

Corrado Mella

The Army distributing “adequate” food and medication rations to the plebs.

“Papers please” if you look foreign, or brown.

Cack-handed censorship of opposing opinions.

Perennial state of conflict through surreptitious proxy wars.

More money hidden in tax havens than the nation’s public debt.

Ongoing protection of rich and powerful paedophiles.

Ladies and gentleman, I present you the BritNazi Establishment.

Still BetterTogether?

And to think that if we didn’t meekly accepted the 2014 electoral fraud that the BritNazi passed like a referendum, by now these demented, minus habens, sociopathic psychopaths would have been in jail…

A missed occasion.

Oh, please, don’t argue that there was no fraud in 2014.

With all that we know now and all that the BritNazi Establishment had to lose if Yes won, do you still believe everything was kosher, you naive fool?

Get ready, because if you think it’s choppy now, the waves will terrify you.

Clootie

Stu

I admire your tenacity and focus. I’m not surprised by these qualities as you have demonstrated them since the site started.
Like many others have already stated I will dig deep to fund any legal undertaking you may exercise. We must prevent this attempt at gagging.

If they think the annual fund raiser is spectacular….they have seen nothing yet!
All you have to do is fire the starting pistol!

Jack collatin

Since most of BBC Scotlands staff with clout appear to be married to, living with, or related to somebody in Tony Blair’s New Labour coven, and the 13 videos all relate to Labour clips, then it’s certainly not Mum 2B Davidson who raised the complaint.
I posted this over on WGD.
I intend to record my views on BBC output in writing from now on in.
Nobody can stop me.
Sorry that this is long, so long.

Me again.

Serco, a property company charged with housing refugees who await the outcome of their claim to remain in the UK , is to issue Seven Day notices in Glasgow on some 300 asylum seekers and will be changing the locks and effectively making 300 very vulnerable people homeless.

Serco claim that since these unfortunates have been refused Leave to Remain, they have been meeting their rent and rates, and heating bills out of the Company’s own pocket, because the UK Government will not meet the rent and rates, or indeed provide money for food, clothing etc.

In David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ charities and stretched LA Social Work Departments have been keeping these poor wretches alive.

Serco argue that they have been working with the UK Government and Glasgow City Council for months to resolve the issue, and now have no alternative but to force evictions and change the locks.
Glasgow ‘officials’ claim that they have been ‘blindsided’, by Serco, and were unaware that these mass evictions were going ahead.

‘He said, she said’.

It wisnae us, it was them.

A Big Boy did it and ran away. The ‘Big Boy’ being the UK Government.
T
he Hostile Environment of the English Parliament’s Homeland Security, the Purgers of Furriners.

There are reportedly ‘thousands’ in Glasgow in the same refugee ‘boat’, if you’ll pardon the metaphor.

This is BBC Scotland’s Breakfast TV version of this quite alarming story.

‘Moves’ to change the locks housing asylum seekers refused refugee status in Glasgow are ‘set to begin’.
Up to 300 people could be affected as the landlord Serco starts to issue seven day notices .

(get this!)

‘The Labour MSP Mary Fee (Who?) says that it will force the most vulnerable in society on to the streets.
The Home Office say it’s right to prepare someone’s removal from the UK if they have no legal basis to stay’.
Who writes this meaningless shallow crapola?
Why the free publicity for a list labour MSP nobody?

The 150 seconds of News Where You Are on BBC Breakfast TV was introduced thus:-

‘Let’s get the local weather and news where you are.’ by a young man on the cycle track where the latest ‘ British’ cyclist to win the Tour De France began his career.

Scottish news is downgraded to ‘local news’ where you are once more.

The Pacific Quay Stockade in Glasgow headlined with the news that six alleged victims of historic child abuse are to sue the SFA.

Then the Serco lock changing refugee evictions; all 30 odd seconds of it.

Then with a gathering professional smile, Andy Murray our National treasure, is back in action in Washington or somewhere.

Then the Beano’s eightieth birthday.

Then the weather, traffic, and a wee preview of what’s on over on BBC Steam Radio.

A three hour phone in to discuss Thomson Holidays scrapping holidays which feature live animals as entertainment.

We were urged to phone in and talk about whales and things..For three feckin’ hours.

Of course as August approaches England is on holiday until at least the second week in September.
So the BBC is closed; well, all the Top Executives and ‘Stars’ are off to their beach huts in the Bahamas.

The UK is closed. There is therefore no news worth reporting in any depth.

For the life of me, why doesn’t Donalda just feature two or three minutes of the Potter’s Wheel interlude instead of this news ‘headlines’ garbage.

The headline surely is: The UK Government is starving refugees on to the street?

Paul, Stu, this is the ‘copyright content’ which they won’t let you comment on.
Well, I just did. Archive if you feel you might.

I nearly forgot.

‘New Information’ from ‘Scottish Labour’ suggests that young people who have been in care are ‘falling through the cracks’ when they turn 18.
What does that even mean?

The ‘New Information’ reports that only 6% have been offered continuing care which allows them to be looked after (‘Looked after’? Whit !) until the age of 21.

Get this.

‘The policy was introduced by Scottish Government 4 years ago. Ministers say they will monitor how Local Authorities are coping’. SNP ergo BAD. Labour Good.

Who writes this crap? Labour to the rescue again?

You may understand why I ‘nearly forgot’ this 17 seconds of unsubstantiated garbage.”

Have they hired fourteen year olds on summer holiday to write copy?

Petra

Yeah a large number of them seem to relate to the Labour Party. Someone trying to play a blinder?

Where will the BBC go from here? The next couple of weeks should be interesting.

”The signatory was a London-based BBC lawyer, who’d plucked 13 videos apparently at random from the hundreds on our channel and decided to whine about them (citing US copyright law, rather than UK) up to four and a half years later.”

And that lawyer must have taken instructions from someone. Who’s that?

Marie Clark

Curiouser and curiouser by the day.

The BBC have scored a massive own goal here, and youtube and google also.I would still like to know, WHO instructed the lawyer to do this, there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Prompts the question, what are they all so scared of?

Anyway Stu, go get em, we’ve got your back. Carry on sir.

Dorothy Devine

PictAtRandom , what a spiteful ,smallminded , silly piece!

Any idea what the P&J circulation figures are?

Nana, good to have you back .Smallaxe did a grand job while you were off duty!

Robert Peffers

@HandandShrimp says: 30 July, 2018 at 11:16 am:

” … we should be told who is behind this.

We have been told, HandandShrimp, the BBC lawyer works for the BBC.

Going by the social media reactions it very much looks like the BBC has not only shot itself in the foot but turned its fire upon both Google and YouTube too. All three have diminished themselves in the minds of their client base.

Furthermore all of these organisations, except the BBC, are reliant upon those who buy advertisement content and these advertisers will see a resultant decrease in the effectiveness of their adverts and it is they who pay the piper – not the BBC or the United Kingdom Government.

Fergus Green

As you were saying Stuart:

‘the BBC now has 10 to 14 business days in which to actually initiate court action to block the videos’

Remember there are many here, including myself, who would happily support you financially if the BBC take the nuclear option and drag this through the courts.

Just ask.

Ken Clark

Glad to see you’re making some progress with this, Stu.

As others have suggested, this may be harassment, pure and simple, with the sole intention of wasting the time and energy of your one man operation.

The bullying nature of the actions towards yourself and the Moridura site by our state broadcaster is wholly over the top and I believe will prove to be hugely counter productive.

We certainly are living in interesting times.

auld highlander

Re the P&J or the tattie pickers gazette as I have heard it called, 63796 daily circulation and of that 47% are old farts over 65, link to pressandjournal.co.uk

Breeks

Got me scratching my head…

What’s the difference between Rev Stu using BBC clips, and the BBC continually referring to “what the papers” are saying? Isn’t that just the same “breach” of copyright? Can I get the BBC taken off air for doing it? If not for breach of copyright, then how about brazen feckin’ hypocrisy?

Macart

The intent may have been to bog down or frustrate a media critic, but the effect has been a PR disaster for the Beeb.

They might want to rethink their approach to bridge building, winning trust, olive branches etc.

John Robertson

Well done Stu. My (often confused) thoughts are with you.

As you probably remember, they tried to get my new Tasmanian principal to at least punish me if not sack me. Turned out he was too new in Scotland to owe them anything.

ProfJWR

For the history buffs:

link to medialens.org

mogabee

Well, who doesn’t love a challenge?

And this is a funny old business, for the BBC to show it’s hand in such a way is very troubling.

You are tenacious, which is what’s needed…thankfully!

John Robertson

Something I wrote about Wings last year and still stand by:

Does Ross Greer of the Green Party really think the Rev Campbell of Wings whom he fears naming, is killing the independence movement by his attacks on Cat Boyd for voting Labour? Really?

I’d say his Wings over Scotland website, his Wee Blue Book and his Wee Black Book will have garnered far, far, far more support for the Yes campaign than the lack of solidarity shown by people like him, like Common Space, like the National and like the Sunday Herald in their pretentious, ‘professionally journalistic [no such fuckin thing]’ pronouncements on the supposed ‘totalitarian’ tendencies in the SNP (Kevin McKenna). I’ve begun to see these two newspapers as Trojan horses in their promotion of soft [not shock] troops like McKenna, Fry and McWhitter? How better to kill a movement by having its own too posh-to-push members attack it from within? If anybody is going to lose it again, it will be those oh-so sophisticated ‘democrats’ who should be concentrating their fire on the opponents of independence and not the only group who can lead us there – the SNP.

link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com

Daisy Walker

‘the big question is who paid the lawyer’

I don’t think so, if or when that question gets answered, it will not be a surprise. It will be one arm of the establishment. Perhaps its been Labour, primed by the secret service, perhaps its been the secret service, primed by the American’s since there’s been a recent visit and US law has been cited, but ultimately, if we ever find out, we will be angry, but not surprised. And unfortunately, the vast lump of the public will not be all that bothered, and the msm, will do what they are currently doing to the Brexit/Dark Money scandal, nothing to see here.

Possibly one question which could put power to our elected reps elbow – and I think it falls to them to pursue this – is who authorised, and when did it become policy, for the BBC to waste public money, attempting to implement (without good reason) US Data Protection legislation – in the UK? And how much did this cost the British Tax Payer.

It has been highlighted again and again that individual SNP politicians need to respond to the BBC in a robust way when interviewed.

I think they also have a democratic duty to pursue the BBC for infringements, and they should be looking to chase this up big time, since for once there appear to be good legal hooks / infringements / misspending of public money, to get their teeth into.

At the very least, a policy of this kind, would put one or two of the ‘directors’ in the hot seat, and that sends out a message in a corporate organisation of that type. A wee taste of their own bit of divide and conquer medicine. We are not the only sheep.

Peace to all.

Valerie

@ Jack Collatin 11.22am

Great post.

John Robertson

Oh, yes, despite the above kind comments, it’s still: ‘Come on the Bairns!’

Giving Goose

Re PictAtRandom

I note that the P&J labels a picture with “SNP Rally and march through the streets of Inverness…”

The pejorative nature of the whole written article is obvious.

As for the proprietor of the restaurant mentioned; well Norman, I like eating out but won’t be coming to your establishment ever again. I’ll take my custom elsewhere.

brewsed

Firstly, many thanks to Stu for persevering with this, bringing sharply into focus the ill conceived, ill intentions of the UK state broadcaster. If it can be shown that its actions are discriminatory then a complaint to ofcom will be required (though waiting for paint to dry may be a more fulfilling pursuit).

I can imagine that there are various factions within the BBC, ranging from those obsequiously brown nosing to the Westminster government’s whims to those taking a more pragmatic view of the world and, in Scotland, perhaps willing to reflect the views of about 50% of the electorate, presenting to us, for example, the ‘Thousands take part in Scottish independence march in Inverness’
(though the original headline read ‘Tens of thousands…’) link to bbc.co.uk. If this is the case, the brown nose faction may think it is winning. Ha! After the revolution, so to speak, there will be (or should be) those within BBC Scotland for whom a nervous glance over the shoulder will be required because the shoogly peg tolls.

There are various IT related suggestions being posted on Wings. Stu is reliably computer literate and, I speculate, will be actively looking at resilience and disaster recovery scenarios. Unfortunately, pretty well any alternative configuration to hosted WordPress and links to Youtube costs time and money, for example hand crafting the html and hosting the video clips on a separate server, would be, if the present situation is successfully resolved, time and money wasted.

A great day was had in Inverness. The rain held off. We met some lovely people. There was some weird twat decked out in a manky butcher’s apron jeckit being openly laughed at while, round about, saltires, unicorns, lions, and flags of other nations were being joyfully paraded. Bikers for Yes roared past. Along the route many residents came out into the street to wave. The route passed the BBC Inverness office and, surprise, surprise, some stickers were stuck. And speechifying was done including some man wi’ a not so wee ginger dog. Dundee next then Edinburgh on 6 October – hunners o’ thoosands perhaps.

cearc

Not necessarily SLab making the complaint. Could just easily be the RD party wanting it to look like that!

Robert Peffers

I note this AM that Twitter shares have dropped more than 20% after the messaging platform reported a fall in active users.

User numbers fell to 335 million in the second quarter of the year, that’s down one million from the previous three months.

Now Twitter had deleted lots of, “fake accounts”, during that quarter and those, “Fake Accounts”, were being used by certain political interests to use fake news to influence polls and elections. So in spite of a slide in share value of $35 per share Twitter record quarterly profits.

Thing is that Twitter has not lost a lot of trust and thus will continue to lose users. Media, both traditional and social depends upon trust and advertisers and if it loses trust by users it will lose advertisers who see a reduction in the returns from their ads.

Andy Anderson

Good work Stu finding this out. Happy to send money if this goes to court. I do not think it will as this will show us who the complainant was.

Cubby

The UK the BBC the Britnat papers and Britnat politicians all stink of deceit, lies and propaganda.

Robert Peffers

@John Robertson says: 30 July, 2018 at 11:53 am;

” … Something I wrote about Wings last year and still stand by:
Does Ross Greer of the Green Party really think the Rev Campbell of Wings whom he fears naming, is killing the independence movement by his attacks on Cat Boyd for voting Labour? Really?”

Good to hear from you on Wings, John. Very perceptive – as usual.

Blair Paterson

I fail to understand the mentality of the people who treat us as if we were idiots telling us lies Halfe truths etc., and trying at. the same time to win us over to their,side of things do they really not realise it has the opposit effect aye as the Yorkshire people say there’s nought as queer as folk and surely U.S. Law does not apply here ???

Ian Brotherhood

What a tonic to see John Robertson posting here again.

😉

It’s been a tense and perplexing few days but now the dust has settled a wee bit, FFS, what a fillip it’s been for us: almost overnight, the Aug 11th BBC/STV PQ demo has been pencilled-into hundreds of diaries; the likely attendance for AUOB Dundee/Edinburgh has been immeasurably boosted; BBC has helped to finally dispel any illusions some were grasping to, comfort-blanket style, about ‘impartiality’; prominent players, pro-indy or not, are having to reassess their own bias against this site.

More power to WOS and abody connected with it – they’ve finally come to fight us and we are definitely winning.

🙂 🙂 🙂

Proud Cybernat

I want to think the BBC is unbiased. The evidence here is of total bias. And it is wholly unjustified. If the BBC cannot stand discussion of their output they should not be asking us to pay for it.

We need press freedom. That includes the right to make informed comment on news broadcasting. The BBC should have no right to stop that and no interest in doing so. But it has, and it clearly intends to do so.

Worry, a lot.

Next there will be a ban on clippings from the press. The law to achieve that goal is already on its way, whereafter this blog could simply disappear. I could never eliminate all the quotes I have used in the past. And dissenting voices will disappear from view.” – Richard Murphy (from: link to archive.is )

Robert Peffers

@Daisy Walker says: 30 July, 2018 at 11:53 am:

” … ‘the big question is who paid the lawyer’
I don’t think so, if or when that question gets answered, it will not be a surprise. “

It certainly will be no surprise, Daisy Walker, because Rev Stu has told you who pays the lawyer He wrote:-

“The signatory was a London-based BBC lawyer, who’d plucked 13 videos apparently at random from the hundreds on our channel and decided to whine about them (citing US copyright law, rather than UK) up to four and a half years later.”

The complainer is a BBC Lawyer – he/she is employed by the BBC and works for the BBC.

Dave Albiston

@auld highlander

That was an old circulation figure. Latest for P&J is 48,208 for 2nd half of 2017 according to ABC.

Chick McGregor

If we own the BBC then aren’t those videos ours?

HandandShrimp

Robert

The wording from the BBC suggests that their lawyer was moved to get into action by complaints from a 3rd party. It is that 3rd party that we are asking about. In short was it SiU, Mundell or Davidson or similar?

Of course the BBC could be deflecting and there is no 3rd party.

jfngw

The BBC are now probably taking one of two positions, either how do we get out of this without looking like we made a massive mistake, or (more likely with my understanding of the BBC) it’s only Scotland, we can just ignore it.

Anyone who has worked in the BBC understands the destain that London has to not only Scotland but all Nation and Regional centres. They are a political necessity, not actually wanted.

Meg merrilees

And so Rev – brilliant work to track that lot down and get a result – but what measures can you take against the “BBC Lawyer” who knows his/her stuff so well that they quoted US copyright laws!!!

Methinks it may soon be “Ex-BBC Lawyer” seeks employment?

Robert J. Sutherland

Capella @ 10:28,

I’m glad someone mentioned that. As far as I’m aware, the policy intention hasn’t changed, even if the supposed instigator is long gone. And not just long-expired episodes of The Navy Lark, either. After all, it’s the people’s resource!

As for the complainant, stay focussed, peeps. It has to be the “rights owner”, ie. the BBC. But which BBC exec took the decision remains to be discovered. And I wouldn’t be surprised if s/he was egged-on by the UKGov either.

What a farce. I’m reminded of Groucho Marx’s witty response to another absurdist lawyer’s claim on behalf of Warner Bros threatening the Marxes with the use of the name “Casablanca” in their forthcoming 1946 film “A Night in Casablanca”:

I just can’t understand your attitude. Even if they plan on re-releasing the picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don’t know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.

You claim you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without their permission. What about Warner Brothers – do you own that, too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were.

It can be found in full inter alia at:

link to nytimes.com

galamcennalath

Wee point. From the letter … “AuthoriZed” … does anyone on this side of the Atlantic actually spell authorised with a ‘Z’?

Only someone who has been exposed to a lot of US printed materials, I would venture.

Daisy Walker

@ Robert Peffers
‘The complainer is a BBC Lawyer – he/she is employed by the BBC and works for the BBC.’

Thank you – I should re-phrase the point I was trying to make. Instead of – the big question is who paid the lawyer’. It should be, the big question is what person or department in the BBC, instructed the lawyer to act and what provoked them to do so? Using US laws in the UK no less.

Here’s a thought, is there anyway, this story could become big in America? Independence, Scotland and Freedom of Speech are loved there. The political attention it might attract, might make certain American Politicians wary of supporting WM in the same way Obama did.

Peace and constructive criticism to all;)

Danny

Is Scots Media Law not different from English Media Law?

Which would confuse the whole messy issue even further.

mike cassidy

I would go along with the interesting idea that this was a test of whether a big enough group complaint could cause the downing of an entire youtube channel.

Putting the one clip of the Rev himself in the group surely smacks of taking the piss.

The question is.

Are the BBC willing to go to court if the individual responsible for the channel is willing to go all legal on them to get the channel restored?

And I am aware that however this goes, the BBC comes out badly.

Which means we’re at a stage where the BBC clearly no longer gives a feck.

Popcorn time, indeed.

Ken500

@ John Robertson

Exactly.

Thanks again. For all you do. Much appreciated by so many.

David

Daisy, there was a great deal of noise in the US about freedom when Tommy Robinson was jailed. So, your suggestion may have some legs.

Effijy

Sarah Jones provides legal advice to senior management, and manages and coordinates the BBC Legal division.
The BBC Legal Division is responsible for developing and implementing the BBC’s legal strategy and for providing legal advice to the BBC.

Last years’ salary was recorded at £255,000 So you can see why they would need to waste more money on a top flight firm of lawyers to take on the Rev’s Video Clips?

I would wager a small bet that the legal company hired has some Ox-Bridge members who were recommended by Westminster’s Tory Troughers.

link to bbc.co.uk

gus1940

While the outrage expressed here and elsewhere in the indy supporting world is justified unless one accesses said sites or is one of the few who look at The Scotsman site one is blissfully unaware of what The BBC has done.

Unfortunately this applies to the majority of the population which means that unless this disgraceful assault on free speech reaches the courts The BBC will not be unduly worried.

Luigi

HandandShrimp says:

30 July, 2018 at 12:28 pm

The wording from the BBC suggests that their lawyer was moved to get into action by complaints from a 3rd party. It is that 3rd party that we are asking about. In short was it SiU, Mundell or Davidson or similar?

It does have a bit of a Tory stink about it. If this is the case, ie. that a sneaky Tory is behind it, then the chances are it will be dropped before it gets to court. Typical sneaky BritNats – bullies and cowards.

Socrates MacSporran

Danny @12.45pm

Scots Law does not come into this one. The Rev is based in England, the BBC complaint comes from an English-based lawyer.

johnj

These clips won’t play on either of my devices, Just A notice saying they’re not available.
Has Auntie retaliated?

Robert Peffers

@Chick McGregor says: 30 July, 2018 at 12:27 pm:

” … If we own the BBC then aren’t those videos ours?”

Whoa! There, Chick, Let’s be clear – “The British Broadcasting Corporation”, is without doubt a private, “Corporation”, i.e. an incorporated company or a PLC.

Neither the voters of the United Kingdom or the Government of the United Kingdom own it. They trade in programmes and other services throughout the World (for example the BBC World Service). They sell on the open market programmes, goods and services and even children’s toys such as “Sooty & Sweep”.

They get an annual cash Grant from the Westminster Government for services rendered but do not get to retain the TV Licence fee money as is popularly believed by the public.

The licence fee belongs to the United Kingdom Treasury because, “The Licence”, is the permission of the UK government for a UK resident to view live video broadcasts from any source on any video broadcast medium.

In point of fact the BBC have never actually collected the Broadcast licence fees. The Licence is either bought on-line over the internet or bought from a Post Office Counter now usually within some private companies retail outlet. Licence dodgers are no longer chased by the BBC but by the private company CAPITA.

The Licence money belongs to the United Kingdom Government and the UK Government agree an annual grant to the private company of the BBC from general taxation.

The Licence Fees have never paid for the BBC programmes – ever. Thus neither the government or the public own the BBC but the BBC, (mainly), depend upon the annual grant to finance their continued existence. There is no longer even a BBC Trust as that has been replaced by OFCOM but both OFCOM and the BBC members were/are appointed by the Westminster Government.

The BBC operate under a Royal Warrant but are not owned by the Government.

Dennis Nicholson

Good luck, Stu. The crap you have to put up with is totally ridiculous

Macandroid

Stu ups the Auntie!

Karen

Some of the videos in the article say video unavailable others say “This is ho…” is no longer available due to a copyright claim by bbc.

Using US laws no doubt because youtube is an American company

link to en.wikipedia.org

Cuilean

Stu, don’t drive alone, again, ever.

Stay off lonely, dark roads, until Scots Independence Day.

You have been identified by the British dark state as a ‘clear and present danger’.

Invest in hidden cameras at home and in car (which upload to a secure site) and possibly a large, pissed off dog.

Proud Cybernat

The BBC rely on intimidating Joe Public with, to borrow a phrase, their “island of lawyers”; that Joe Public is too small to take on the might of the BBC.

Down in London, they will have barely heard of WoS. But a memo will have crossed some legal eagle’s desk to have this pesky ‘one man band’ taken down.

Oh boy–have they under-estimated what they’re taking on. Half of Sctland have Stu’s back. These days the ‘poor’ DO HAVE lawyers. I’ll point the BBC to the Orkney Four – four ordinary people with no means of their own who took Liar Carmichael to the Court of Session at a cost of over quarter of a million quid. All funded by CrowdFund. And if it costs the Rev a MILLION QUID – his back will be covered. And more if need be.

You listening BBC? You WILL LOSE this particular fight if you decide to take it on. It’s not just ONE wee bloke you’re taking on here – IT’S HALF OF SCOTLAND (at least).

Thepnr

On all the questions of “who is paying the lawyer?”

The Youtube rules are pretty clear:

If your copyright-protected work was posted on YouTube without authorisation, you may submit a copyright infringement notification. Make sure that you consider whether fair use, fair dealing or a similar exception to copyright applies before you submit. These requests should only be sent in by the copyright owner or an agent authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.

The name that you enter as copyright owner will be published on YouTube in place of the disabled content.

link to support.google.com

Regarding that last sentence the 13 clips have all been replaced by ‘blah blah blah…’ is no longer available due to a copyright claim by bbc.

It certainly looks like it must be the BBC pursuing this and the letter received above confirms this under the first bullet point

“I am the owner, or an agent authorised to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed”

See additional youtube rules which the letter is clearly following.

link to support.google.com

The real question is did the BBC take this action by itself or was the BBC prompted to do so by a third party complaint?

Petra

Who knows who’s behind this? It could be a simple case of Davidson or Foster moaning to T May that Wings is making life extremely difficult for them: generating more and more support for Independence. It could be one of any number of extremely influential, corrupt and sinister people the World over in fact, the network, who want to destroy Europe but see the UK still standing. Someone who wants to see Trident remain in Scotland? The list is endless, our enemies are manifold, and I doubt we’ll ever get to the bottom of it. Whatever the case it looks as though it’s backfiring on them.

A2

@PictAtRandom

At least the P&J noticed, The Inverness courier however seems to have gone blind! nothing happened.

Luigi

Everything about the BrtiNat empire, the “union”, the BBC, the sovereignity, their supremacy, their invicibility, their great historic victories.

It’s all……BLUFF!

All it takes is one brave soul, one Spartacus to call them out, and all the pretence, the great deception comes crashing down. Cowards the lot of them.

Way to go, Stu (but watch yer back – cowards have knives).

Proud Cybernat

Addendum.

If the BBC DO decide to go to court (which they’ll lose), how long will that take and will the WoS YT channel be offline until the court decides? Is that the gameplan? They probably know they’ll lose in a court but the game is to have the WoS YT channel down for as long as possible (like a couple of years until IndyRef2 is over). And then they’ll simply drop the case before it goes to court.

The courts are a great mechanism to frustrate and circumvent democracy and freedom of speech, it seems.

Brian

But . . . if this lawyer is “acting on behalf of the copywrite owner” and he has a “good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorised by the copywrite owner”, then he wins does he not?
I would have then thought the problem is really an over-reaction by You Tube. It this Google channel that must answer, not BBC?

Robert Peffers

HandandShrimp says: 30 July, 2018 at 12:28 pm:

” … The wording from the BBC suggests that their lawyer was moved to get into action by complaints from a 3rd party.”

Do you really imagine I am not aware of that fact, HandandShrimp?

The point being that whoever, if any one or even many third parties are supposedly involved, is neither here or there.

Those third parties did not instigate the action and, really speaking, neither did the BBC Lawyer.

The action was undoubtedly taken by YouTube and YouTube belong to Google. Make no mistake Google/YouTube have a long history of doing what they think fit and, as an international company, have shown scant regard for the laws of individual countries laws.

It has only been over the last few years that the European Union has flexed their muscles and levied seep fines upon these international companies who have persistently, “cocked a snook”, at the laws of even the laws of the USA:

Note: “If you cock a snook at someone in authority or at an organisation, you do something that they cannot punish you for, but which insults them or expresses your contempt.”

In this instance the BBC, through their employed lawyer, are requesting that Google/YouTube to use USA law to apply in the United Kingdom and to thus illegally, “cock a snook”, at the users of YouTube and against even the United Kingdom’s and EU legal systems. Not only is the action taken not Scottish Law, English/UK law but also EU law. USA law applies to none of the parties in this dispute but the BBC lawyer is bound to be aware of that but cynically went ahead with requesting YouTube to use USA law illegally.

This matter goes far deeper than just acting against the Wings website it is attacking the laws of Scotland, England and the European union. Do you imagine for a second that the current UK government won’t be backing the BBC and their lawyer to the hilt?

Ken Clark

@ galamcennalath, 12:33pm.

I recall an episode of Morse, where a suspect’s public school credentials were tested by having him write out a statement with lots of words ending in, “ised”, or should that be, “ized”?

I think “ized” was the preferred usage. Not being part of the Oxbridge set, I couldn’t say, but if so the Rev’s original post, titled, “The State Flexes It’s Muscles” was “apposite”. (Morse again)

Affectation has always been part of much of snobbish English society. A way of defining who and where they are.

HandandShrimp

The point being that whoever, if any one or even many third parties are supposedly involved, is neither here or there.

To you perhaps but I am interested as to who it was.

orri

The law used will be that in effect where Youtube are based.

Thepnr

@Proud Cybernat

That’s a good point about keeping the channel down for as long as possible without it actually ever ending up in court.

The Rev says:

“Finally armed with the relevant information, we’ve filed a FIFTH counter-notification with YouTube in respect of all 13, citing fair dealing for all of them, since all are just short extracts and all of them explicitly identify the original source.”

The next step is for the BBC to either relent and the channel will be restored or they have 10 days to prove to youtube that they have actually initiated court proceedings.

After we process your counter notification by forwarding it to the claimant, the claimant has 10 business days to provide us with evidence that they have initiated a court action to keep the content down. This time period is a requirement of copyright law, so please be patient.

link to support.google.com

The Rev could find out by the end of next week then if they are sent a copy of the counter notification today.

The BBC initiating actual court proceedings would be a very big deal indeed I would imagine. A lot bigger than the current stushie so would they risk it? I think Naw!

Dorothy Devine

Auld Highlander , thanks for the information but I am even better pleased with David Albiston’s figures!

galamcennalath

Brexit and the media, especially the BBC.

Search for recent news about Brexit and the following themes appear … ongoing Tory bickering, polls, stockpiles, another vote, and Deutsche Bank moving business out.

The big story, which is conspicuously absent in the MSM media, should be the collapse of any credibility in the Chequers so called ‘plan’. The EU were never even going to consider it and that now seems to have been confirmed. Truth is, it never had any credibility, but the MSM treated it as a serious plan. Further, the EU have told TMay to stop faffing around and focus on agreeing to the Ireland backstop, which everyone thought was already agreed in December.

The WM Tory-DUP government is in chaos and in the verge of pulling the whole UK into the abyss with them. They are to blame. The responsibility lies firmly at their feet. They should be getting their backsides kicked and told to sort it asap, or step aside.

Yet the MSM, especially the BBC, is giving them a fairly easy time of it, acting as if ‘circumstances’ or whatever is causing this. This is mass pro government manipulation on a scale not seen since WW2.

Capella

Coincidentally, RT has dropped the UK news section from it’s home page. I noticed it yesterday. No explanation about why.

Perhaps all news and current affairs in the UK are now copyright. Or maybe it’s because of the boring repetitiveness of the headlines, BREXIT, NOVICHOK, BREXIT that prompted the change.

link to rt.com

Thepnr

Copyright material may be used under certain circumstances, in the US this is known as “fair use” and in the UK “fair dealing”

I’ve just looked up the UK position on fair dealing and keeping in mind the fact that the BBC are supposed to take this into account before raising a claim of copyright infringement. I do wonder if this has actually be done.

Details of the exceptions to copyright that allow limited use of copyright works without the permission of the copyright owner…

Criticism, review and reporting current events

Fair dealing for criticism, review or quotation is allowed for any type of copyright work. Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of reporting current events is allowed for any type of copyright work other than a photograph. In each of these cases, a sufficient acknowledgement will be required.

Hmmm.

link to gov.uk

Robert Louis

Starting to think this was an exercise, whereby the British state was testing its ability to use its BBC propagandist organisation to shut down websites. The thinking probably went, ‘oh, let’s try it on that Nat b******* Stuart Campbell, since nobody will care’.

Oh how wrong they were.

Think about it. No court action required, but the websites are down for at least a week. The kind of time a corrupt british state could use. Then followed up by ‘oh, it was all some mistake, we didn’t really want the site taken down’

These are dangerous and scary times. Never in my long life, did I expect this kind of thing to be happening here.

It is the BBC which needs shut down. Anybody now working for them is complicit, and needs to re-evaluate their priorities and moral compass.

Let’s not forget the in the run up to the indyref in 2014, it was only in Scotland that commenting on Scotish political coverage on the BBC website was verboten. In England, Wales and N.Ireland, comments were still allowed on the BBC politics coverage.

Scott

From.Donalda MacKinnon
Director, BBC Scotland

Thank you for getting in touch. We are looking into this.

This was a very quick reply it usually takes ages to get one do you think they are getting a bit worried.

Ian McGeechan

Here’s hoping sanity will be restored.

Scott

Capella says:
30 July, 2018 at 2:12 pm
Coincidentally, RT has dropped the UK news section from it’s home page. I noticed it yesterday. No explanation about why.

Just had a look its still there.

link to on.rt.com

Dr Jim

Broacasting is a power the UK refuses to devolve to Scotland

Scotland is a country that isn’t allowed free speech, you can say what you like until the UK says you can’t

That’s British democracy

Ian Brotherhood

They’ve backtracked before – big time.

They once claimed that they didn’t have real-time full length recordings of their output on 9/11. Everyone said ‘You must be jokin’ and they said, ‘Er, no, we’re not…it was a good few years ago and we bin stuff after a set time…’

Then everyone went radio-rental, ‘You can’t be fuckin serious!’ Lo & behold they miraculously located the recording. The excuse? – ‘someone put the tape on the wrong shelf.’

That actually happened. That was how seriously they treated it. We’re dealing with sociopaths – they don’t give a fuck.

Dan Huil

Keep at them, Rev.

[For anyone reading this site and are still giving the bbc their money: Stop. Give the money to pro-indy websites like WoS.]

Chick McGregor

Thanks Bob

Thepnr

@Scott

I take it the response from Donalda MacKinnon was as a result of a complaint from you. If so well done and yes the response seems very fast indeed 🙂

Merkin Scot

Starting to think this was an exercise, whereby the British state was testing its ability to use its BBC propagandist organisation to shut down websites.
.
Could well be if each set of complaints is treated as a separate action. Just have Spanner one day, Daisley the next, Darling the next, Rowling the next ad infinitum or Brian Wilson.
Presumably, Youtube is aware of this possibility.

Graeme J McAllan

Stu, you, Sir, are a Star – when our paths cross, I will be buying you a Pint or three washed down with a couple of Drams, while we split a Crunchie 😉

La Belle Angele

A reply from Donalda Mackinnon to my email complaint last night.

Dear Brian

Thank you for getting in touch. I am looking into this.

Best wishes

Donalda
Sent from my iPhone

lets hope it did reach her personally, maybe make her think long and hard about this.

Proud Cybernat

Isn’t it about time staff in BBC PQ had a strike over pay & conditions? Or some other grievance. There must be something working for BBC they are unhappy with? Time they went on strike. But if you’re thinking alng those lines Beeb luvvies – wait till IndyRef2 starting gun is fired. Shouldn’t be too far away now.

Oh yes – a strike at BBC Scotland during IndyRef2. Now, I like that. Well, Beeb peeps?

Abulhaq

Picked up a free copy of today’s London Times. A gloomy read. Plainly England is on the fast track to nowhere….and the Tory party is a sinking ship too. Labour to the rescue? Forget it!

Capella

@ Scott 2.35 – yes I know there is a UK link in the header. But they always had a UK section in the main body of text with 4 or 5 UK headlines. Exactly like their USA, Business, and Russian politics sections. I used to check that our most days.

Congrats on getting a response from Donalda MacKinnon, even if it is only “we are looking into it.” Quicker than the convoluted complaints procedure!

jfngw

@Proud cybernat

It wouldn’t matter if everybody at PQ walked out, the transmission point for BBC Scotland TV is not in Scotland (I don’t mean the transmitters). A simple bit of rewiring at the coding centre and they are back on air, they could even still put BBC Scotland logo on it if they decided to put in the effort. It would probably effect the radio stuff, but how many would even realise it was off air.

Of course there would be no Reporting Scotland but to be honest that could be a godsend. Maybe they could just fill the time with a Ruth Davidson showreel, Ruthie Does Scotland.

Proud Cybernat

They did it last time during IndyRef1 – and they’re doing it again now: shutting down political (constitutional / Brexit) debate. So many times during IndyRef1 BT would refuse to send someone along to debate Indy. Because they had no positive vision to offer, to debate with.

And they’re at it again.

BBC are now dramatically cutting back on its political programming output from Scotland. (Aiming at younger, online audiences apparently).

They have also shut down comments on their BBC Scotland news pages.

They are presently actively shutting down Indy voices with bogus claims of copyright infringement.

Stifling debate in any way they can.

Anyone sense there’s an IndyRef coming?

Scott

Sorry folks very O/T

Going through some old tapes and came across this one a very good watch again.

Truth, Lies, Oil and Scotland

I don’t know if it can can be seen or downloaded but if it can it would open many eyes to what was going on at that time.

Rev I am sure you could get a hold of it and put it up on the site.

Proud Cybernat

It wouldn’t matter if everybody at PQ walked out, the transmission point for BBC Scotland TV is not in Scotland (I don’t mean the transmitters).

I think it would badly affect the Scottish news output – which is what we want and especially during IndyRef2 when they’d have to pull up replacements from London and elsewhere. Like that would go down well in Scotland. And would any replacements cross the picket lines?

And it would certainly help those in BBCS when, after indy, they have to face a Truth & Reconciliation Committee and explain why they should be allowed to keep their job. I think video footage of themselves manning the picket lines outside PQ would go some way to helping them achieve that.

And, if nothing else, it helps them to show the rest of Scotland that many of those working in that toxic BBCS environment are actually on our side. So far I am seeing very little from staff there. A little ‘industrial action’ at the critical time would be ‘helpful’.

Andy-B

I’d imagine this little BBC fiasco, has cost them a fair few quid in cancelled licence fees.

jfngw

Just discussing with my wife about GERS. It’s simple I said, in our supermarket bill we actually spent £20 pound on beer for me, but I have only allocated 5% of our budget to this spending (despite it being 20%) of the bill. She said ‘but you have still spent 20% of the money on beer and I don’t get any of it’, yes that’s how GERS works.

She then said ‘But we have overspent are now in debt’, I replied ‘And 50% of the interest will be allocated to you’. GERS, allocate your spending to other people, great system.

Richard Dido

Proud Cybenat @3:38pm

Most BBC staff are freelancers. Not a good idea for ‘lancers to go on ‘strike’.

Proud Cybernat

Most BBC staff are freelancers. Not a good idea for ‘lancers to go on ‘strike’.

All it needs is a mass walkout of BBC staffers in key production rolls during, say, the final 2 weeks of IndyRef2 campaign.

Proud Cybernat

‘roles’

jfngw

@Proud Cybernat

It’s not going to happen, you need to know the ethos of those working at the BBC. Even if they are indy supporters they would see it as their professional standards and not become involved in the politics. The political output is not decided by the vast majority of workers at PQ.

It would also be a disaster for the Indy movement and a massive PR plus for unionists. Having to set up shop (actually fairly easy for the BBC) elsewhere then say on air that independence supporters are preventing programme production in Scotland.

Personally I think it would be guaranteed to lose any referendum. It’s about delivering the message better than last time, and ensuring that the for and against is always balanced, not the 4 or 5 to 1 bias that was often the case last time.

Petra

There you go Scott.

TRUTH LIES OIL AND SCOTLAND

link to youtube.com

Richard Dido

jfngw @ 4:49

How very astute! But what does GERS have to do with the WoS takedown?

stu mac

@gus1940 says:
30 July, 2018 at 1:08 pm
While the outrage expressed here and elsewhere in the indy supporting world is justified unless one accesses said sites or is one of the few who look at The Scotsman site one is blissfully unaware of what The BBC has done.

Unfortunately true. I’ve had a hunt through UK sites like Canary as well as RT, etc. and no mention. Only one mention in Mckenna’s article in the Guardian the other day and as that was
in their Scotland section which isn’t read much (if at all) by non-Scots.

Still it maybe means they won’t bring it to court as that might bring it to the attention of a wider audience.

Petra

Another one well worth watching if you’re a newbie.

And if you don’t have a lot of time to spare go to 47:26 mins in. Check out the BBC’s pal Rory the Tory, MI6 Officer and tutor to Prince William and Harry.

Now T May’s Minister for Prisons.

……………..

LONDON CALLING: BBC bias during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum

link to youtube.com

Petra

O/T

Worth a read. Apologies if it’s been posted before.

‘Brexit Inferno: out of the EU frying pan into the WTO fire.’

‘Brexit ‘positives’ may not be what they seem ….”The positives are that the UK would be able to strike new free trade deals with countries such as the US that it believes it wouldn’t be able to do whilst a member of the European Union. Another plus for Mrs May, who from her antagonism towards it appears to have a deepset problem with the institution, is that the UK, would not have to comply with the European Court of Justice. Therefore it would have more independence or sovereignty over its trading relations.

But nothing is ever as it seems, and rarely are such relationships as straightforward as usually portrayed. Every organisation has its binding rules and tangling red tape.

The WTO comprises 164 members, 136 of whom the UK already has deals with through EU, and 23 observer governments. In addition to states, the European Union, and each EU Country in its own right, is a member.

The EU, under the Article 28 process, will renegotiate with the 136 other countries, who, to compensate for loss of the UK market, will each be anxious to gain increased market access from the EU’s 27 remaining members. The EU even after Brexit will remain a large and desirable market with which to have trading arrangements….”

link to newsnet.scot

Conan the Librarian

I’ve just talked to Peter in the local.

He’s annoyed of course, but somewhat resigned.

I asked him specifically if I could quote him; thankfully he was drinking tonic water…

schrodingers cat

at one of the pq demos, someone inside the building held a yes poster up to the window

I support ian brotherhoods attempts to organise a demo there on the 11th aug. simply because he is at least doing something.

however, i’m not sure how effective this demo will be, in an empty car park, outside a near empty office building where no general public will see the demo, except on SM.

it isnt the folk who work for the bbc we need to convince pf this bias, it is the general public.

one guy with a rickshaw and a ghetto blaster following lab mps up buchannan street blaring out the staar waars theme

one women with an iron lung scaled the rock to hang a large yes sign in edinburgh

be angry, by all means, but above all it is time to be smart

Proud Cybernat

It would also be a disaster for the Indy movement and a massive PR plus for unionists.

Why would workers going on legitimate industrial action be a disaster for Indy? As far as I know, workers still have a right to strike in this country provided there is a legitimate grievance, a legitimate ballot and majority in favour of strike action. That it just so happens during a referendum in Scotland is, well, unfortunate and purely coincidental.

Vestas

:

Are you saying this was a takedown under DMCA regs?

If so then IIRC the complainants must have done that via a USA subsidiary – BBC America/Worldwide – for that to be legal. Either that or file via a local lawyer.

Pretty much all USA justices are sick to the back teeth of spurious DMCA/damages.

If you happen to know anyone in the legal profession over that side of the pond it may be more “interesting” to make legal challenges/damages there.

schrodingers cat

on the subject of being smart,

much of what happens in government is nothing more than organised chaos, things generally happen, not because of the actions of politicians but inspite of their actions.

as such, i’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories, most folk in the know put things down to incompetence. but that doesnt mean conspiracies dont happen

in this case, a 250k lawyer has initiated this crisis, tread very very carefully stu, this is the bbc, the establishment you are taking on, who have hated you for a long time. this might be the opening gambit of a sting op,

do not be afraid to drop this, with or without you tube, we cant afford to lose wings now.

this is google, youtube and the bbc. not dugdale or the scotsman.

regardless of what you chose. you will always have my support

Hamish100

Apologies to mr mundell. Hello brit nat labour. Ms Dugdale is mentioned quite a lot. I wonder why?

Mind you maybe he is a tory trying to undermine allegedly? After all who knows Kezia in londinium.

Iain Emslie

Well done Stu I think the time has come to cancel my fake news subscription.

Robert Peffers

@Scott says: 30 July, 2018 at 4:45 pm:

” … Rev I am sure you could get a hold of it and put it up on the site.”

Let’s just try it and see, Scott. It comes in parts and here are two:-

link to youtube.com

link to youtube.com

I suppose we could run them ragged if we downloaded the existing YouTube parts, edited them into different lengthed parts and uploaded them back on YouTube again. They would then have a different YouTube designations, (those who have YouTube Channels and don’t bother if we lose them, that is).

Gullane No4

This is beginning to look like the missing script from the BBC comedy W1A where the Head of Truthfulness has a big falling out with the Head of BritNat Issues.

yesindyref2

@Rev
What Musceleguy says is perhaps correct, about the specimen selection, and it might be that they deliberately take randomly rather than the most recent 13 or so.

The clue is in youtube’s message: “The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement.”

multiple third-party notifications

The thing is this, in 10 to 14 days your account is reinstated, and then a few hours later, youtube receive ANOTHER batch of multiple third-party notifications, and your account is terminated again. Then another 10 to 14 days and another batch.

It’s a form of DDOS, Denial Of Service. And what you may well neeed is a solicitor to write to BOTH the BBC and Youtube about it. If your Twitter youtube peeps are friendly, tell them what you’re going to do, as you think the BBC are likely to do the same trick again.

And if you’re not a member of the NUJ or NUJ Scotland, you might consider joining for the protection they can give you, and the leverage they can use.

That could of course also lead to some publicity …

yesindyref2

The point I didn’t make is that taking the most recent 13, if they then don’t follow through but submit another 13 or even 11, it’s obvious they’re targetting the whole channel. Fail once, and fail for all time.

Whereas if it’s a random 13 they can claim they “just noticed them”, or some other excuse, and keep on going.

Yes Youtube are your potential “friend”, after all, it’s all revenue stream and if such actions are “malicious”, then it targets Youtube as well as you. And others can be similarly targetted. And that ain’t good for business if, say, half of youtube’s profit-making channels get taken down maliciously.

William Dunbar

Hi Stu, I am pretty horrified at what BBC are doing here. I am about to write to them complaining about this and other issues (primarily anti Scottish bias). I will mention this too.
I will support any funding you need to fight this.

vlad (not that one)

@Andy-B 4:47
But they don’t care. The Treasury collects the fee but gives a grant to BBC irrespective of what we do. (I think, correct me if I am wrong.)

Haggishunter

When the UK gets its independence and country back from free and liberal Europe, then the Brit establishment will behave in any manner it wants when dealing with the Scots, there will be no EU law or court to prevent it.
The Establishment is arrogant and defensive and will commit any act to silence Scots ranging from corruption to brutality.
Sorry to be so cheery, but they are predictable.

ronnie anderson

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe”
Time for Scotland To get up and Go
The Attack of The Rev’s YouTube Stance
Never Happened as Per Chance

It’s the start of More to Go
As Tory May has one last Blow
Hit them hard weed them out
Appears to be the Tory Shout

Cause her Fake news Can’t be Displayed
As all the Don’t Knows Could Be persuade
So cut them off Shut them Down
She squeals out her Gobshit frown

The Rallies so far have hit four Towns
Scot’s Unionists See they have lost their Crowns
With more to Come Push much Stronger
Scotland Is free A slave no Longer

Bill Glen

jfngw

@Richard Dido

Nothing, when did you become the site moderator?

I’ve already posted quite a few comments on the subject, I just fancied a bit of a diversion.

The site owner is free to remove my posts if they are unacceptable. There is no requirement to read it.

yesindyref2

@Rev
Actually you could be proactive. Send the BBC a full list of the URLs with their videos, and give them 14 days to complain about them one by one to YOU – with the full reason – so you can take them down individually pending consideration and possible action.

Then they’re on a very sticky wicket if they submit another complaint, and you could maybe take them to court, and even consider damages.

yesindyref2

@ Ken500 “They all look Labour related?

Well, there is a current court case against a certain Labour politician …

That thought occurred to me yesterday, but I was posting too much already!

Richard Dido

jfngw @6:12pm

I merely asked a question; I did not intimate anything with regard to moderation.

Your paranoia is palpable…….

PacMan

It’s hard to fathom the motivations of the British Broadcasting Corporation in this.

Is it a form of political censorship, protecting the IP or simply unable to face criticism when folk simply highlights how bad their output is?

Jim Mitchell

Do they really think that they make their arguments stronger by these actions?

Donald Bruce

This is not an anti English rant
. So it’s aimed at BBC radio Scotland. Why is there a low percentage of Scottish news articles .I would think it being Scottish radio it would be 90% from Scots items.plenty UK coverage on radio 2 or 4. Also seems when expert called to comment the majority is based in England. Even garden item required calling expert from Kent!

jfngw

@Richard Dildo

HaHaHa – I think you are a troll aren’t you. Run along now.

Karen Ray

While you are doing all this, you have less time to do what you are supposed to be doing. They can’t beat you, so they put as many obstacles in your way as they can.

Scot Finlayson

Is it not too obvious they are mostly Labour related ?

a bit of misdirection going on ?

although Labour are not the brightest bunch (Finlay,Dugdale,Sweeney)they would have to be world champion stupid to pick only Labour related videos and not see the finger pointing straight at them,

so it was done at the behest of either very stupid Labour,
or,
very devious but ultimately just as stupid (Fraser,Mundell,Davidson) Tory,
or,
even more devious BBC (Robertson,Bird,Donalda Mackinnon)also trying to point blame at the stupid Labour.

or the Russians ?

Ian Brotherhood

@SC –

Cheers, but a clarification…

I’m not organising the PQ demo. It was already arranged and I was told about it via Twitter. It’s sheer coincidence that this BBC/YT stushie has erupted so close to it.

I hear what you’re saying about the effectiveness of it all but it’s going ahead anyway and this time it’ll also be giving proper attention to STV. Ronnie Anderson provided details on the last thread and/or the one before that.

If the response to my tweet was at all typical then Aug 11th at PQ is going to be *very* busy, possibly the biggest turnout yet, and if we get nothing else from it there will be more great images and the chance to meet a lot of new faces. I’m sure Ronnie A will pop back in soon with his FB link containing all details!

😉

yesindyref2

@Scot Finlayson “Is it not too obvious they are mostly Labour related ?

Yes, you’re right, it is too obvious.

Andy-B
Craig

Interesting take on this affair has just appeared on the Scotsman website and according to the zoomers it’s all a scam against the BBC!

Who would have thought it, the Rev came up with the whole idea! ???

Gary45%

Giving Goose@11.55.
Had a wee look at the P&J article, noticed Norman the proprietor had a wee complain. P&J failed to mention one of his staff verbally abused a pair of senior citizens walking in front of me and many other locals,(for simply carrying a Palestine banner). I for one will never set foot in his premises again, there are dozens of better restaurants in Inverness than Cafe1.(IMHO) Maybe he should train his staff better.

PictAtRandom

“Chick McGregor says:
30 July, 2018 at 12:27 pm

If we own the BBC then aren’t those videos ours?”

I was wondering about that. Remember that The Guardian (to name but one) was big on “Free Our Data” back in the Noughties.

Thepnr

This is one of that clips that the BBC have alleged of copyright infringement against Wings. It’s the Kezia Dugdale one from May 2017.

link to twitter.com

If the rest are similar to this one which they made freely available to share on Twitter their case would most certainly fail.

We all know the type of clip most often played on Wings is political, it’s from UK news/political programs and is used to analyse and or criticise mainly political figures. Such clips are also exempt if reporting current affairs.

Sounds a lot like the exception to copyright law under under “fair dealing” would apply provided the clips are short and the owner acknowledged.

link to gov.uk

galamcennalath

Craig says:

Interesting take on this affair has just appeared on the Scotsman website and according to the zoomers it’s all a scam against the BBC!

A big boy did it and ran away!

link to archive.li

HandandShrimp

Craig

The Scotsman site is a very strange place. Most of the posts there seem to be from oddballs, like the one that haunts James Kelly’s site. Witless, weird and permanently angry.

Brian Powell

On strange goings on- I tried today to connect to Scottish Government webpages and it said they can’t be found. That was with Safari. I didn’t have issues in the past.

call me dave

Not devolved: Good old Tories and their enforcers.

Contractor Serco faces pressure to halt a programme of changing locks to force people out of their Glasgow homes.

Six individuals were due to be issued notices on Monday, with up to 300 people at risk of eviction.

Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken has sent a “strongly-worded” letter to Sajid Javid, signed by politicians from several parties.

In it she “calls on the Home Office to demand Serco ceases its lock change programme”.

It condemns the Home Office contractor’s action as “wholly unacceptable”.

PS:
Keeping up with the latest on the you tube fiasco on here and have read lots of helpful and knowledgeable posts.

Excellent work Rev.

PPS:
Just flagging this up.

Scotland’s heraldic authority, the Court of the Lord Lyon, has appointed its first honorary vexillologist.

link to archive.is

Sarah

@callmedave – “just FLAGGING this up” the news from Lord Lyon. Very good – saw what you did there!

Sarah

@call me dave: re “FLAGGING this up” about Lord Lyon. Very good – saw what you did there!

galamcennalath

You’ve got to wonder about the far right … are they really so thick, is it an act, or do they think the rest of us are thick?

The Express reports … ”We don’t owe them a penny’ Brexiteer reveals ‘WONDERFUL BOOST’ of leaving EU with NO DEAL

BREXITEER John Redwood explained how leaving the EU without a deal would give a “wonderful boost” to the UK’s economy as leaving without an agreement would allow Britain to spend its divorce bill on national priorities.

Estimates vary but a quarter of a trillion pounds lost from GDP growth over 15 years is a middling figure. The loss in tax take to the treasury will be much greater than pocketing the divorce bill!

It’s a bit like the imaginary NHS money on the side of the big red bus – the result of a not very well thought through calculation. BritNats really need to find a better abacus supplier.

Folk like Redwood probably expect to make money from Brexit while the rest of us are going to be royally shafted.

Nicola … are we there yet!?

ronnie anderson

Please Share.

link to facebook.com

lets make this a a big event Indy People Power.

jfngw

@Call Me Dave

Don’t worry I’m sure the foreign secretary will have his finger on the pulse – Oh, hold on he’s not even sure what nationality his wife is. It’s a problem we all have to grapple with isn’t it.

Big Jock

Many commentators think there will be no referendum date set until after March 29!

I hope they are wrong, but I know why they are saying it.certainty! It seems the autumn indi review will be difficult due to the Tories delaying tactics. In other words we still haven’t a clue if it’s a no deal or hard Brexit.

To me it is time and prevarication that the Tories need to gazump the opposition. I fear if we allow a no deal to happen then there will be no escape. We will end up under martial law.

This UK intends to take every last woman and man down with it. I feel that if Scots get a choice in the next few months ,they will grasp it. I fear after Brexit our reach will be too far to grasp.

Hamish100

OT. Radio 4 just now. Sovereignty is a 16th century concept says an american. Quotes from westphalia, greece , rome, england and UsA. Scotland? Not heard us mentioned yet.

Macart

Heh! This is so good. 😎

link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com

Shug

Why has the national not covered this yet

Dave McEwan Hill

Shug at 8.26
What? Has the National got an evening edition?

Robert Peffers

@vlad (not that one) says: 30 July, 2018 at 6:09 pm:

” … But they don’t care. The Treasury collects the fee but gives a grant to BBC irrespective of what we do. (I think, correct me if I am wrong.)”

You are not wrong, Vlad, and I’m glad you commented. I was beginning to think I’d been commenting to a brick wall.

Here is the official statement on the Matter:-

“Section 365 of the Communications Act 2003 (opens in a new window) requires the BBC to pay all licence fee revenue it collects (via TV Licensing), less any sums required for making refunds, into the Government’s Consolidated Fund. TV Licensing doesn’t retain any of the licence fee revenue it collects; all monies are passed to the Government, and then on to the BBC, less a small administration fee paid to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (opens in a new window).
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport may retain a proportion of the licence fee revenue for other purposes (refer to the BBC’s Royal Charter and Agreement with Secretary of State).

You can find the rest of the quote here including the figures that are being quoted – here:-

link to tvlicensing.co.uk

Robert Peffers

@Richard Dido says: 30 July, 2018 at 6:15 pm: to jfngw @6:12pm:

“I merely asked a question; I did not intimate anything with regard to moderation.
Your paranoia is palpable… “

Aye! Richard – so are your intentions.

Jack collatin

Big Jock@ 8.13 pm

Worry not, sir.
The Brit Establishment is laying on Eurmageddon/Eurapocalypse Now with a trowel to frighten the natives.

It is beyond belief that Big Business and the Finance Houses, and the Old Guard English Establishment will allow a bunch Hedge Fund Freeloaders and Carpetbaggers to plunge England into economic ruin, be reduced to the status of a ‘third country’ isolated on the Continental Shelf with no political, military, economic or social influence at the heart of Europe.

It is arrant nonsense to consider that England and poor old Wales with its disproportionate number of ‘settlers’ from across the Border who voted Leave, will actually Leave with No Deal.

The EU 27 are not going to blink.

WM is feeding Project Fear to their Propaganda wing, the Dead Tree Scrolls, and of course the BBC and Sky.

Dread tales of Food shortages, no inhalers for asthma sufferers,£84 Visas to go on holiday, and so on.

The knuckledragger xenophobes care more about their money than they do about foreign nurses taking all their jobs.

By late summer, the Deal that dare not speak its name, Remain in Europe and Reform, will re-surface.

By then the English will be returning from the Costas and the Greek Islands telling horror stories of £5 pints, and no Lea and Perrins sauce anywhere.

They are being whipped up into a panic so that they will agree with anything the Darling Duds of May can cobble together with the EU 27.

The only deal the EU will accept is continuing membership and the promise of Reform.

Otherwise Engwaland becomes a third country, an outcast, peddling Red Leicester cheese to Peruvians.

Trust me, England will blink first.

However, this sea change will not dampen the spirit for Indyref2.

Robert Peffers

@Karen Ray says: 30 July, 2018 at 6:31 pm:

” … While you are doing all this, you have less time to do what you are supposed to be doing. They can’t beat you, so they put as many obstacles in your way as they can.”

That may indeed be their intentions, Karen, but as we have seen in the past, when Rev Stu had his hands full elsewhere, there are many commenters on Wings, The Rev refers to them as, “Alert Readers”, to keep the pot boiling.

We have, unfortunately, lost a few of the really great ones such as John Jappy but here is the roll of Honour for anyone who needs it: –

link to wingsoverscotland.com

Click on any name on that page and you will read some of their work – Now please don’t assume I’m saying the Rev is dispensable – I’m just saying he has a reserve team to call upon when required.

Petra

If there’s one politician I can’t stick, it’s HIM.

‘James Kelly calling for an independent review of how football is polices.’

link to heraldscotland.com

Petra

Ooops: ”polices” = ”policed”

Awayanbileyerheed

@Robert Peffers 8:41pm

I have said it before and I will say it again, denying the BBC their tax DIRECTLY affects them as can be seen below:

Less license fee payers DOES HURT the BBC –

“The BBC is to cut 1,000 jobs because of a £150m budget gap in its licence fee income.
An unexpected increase in the number of households saying they do not watch live TV so do not pay for a licence has been blamed for the shortfall.”

Big Jock

Jack it does remain a possibility that England will decide to remain. The part I then fear is the Scots will return to their lapdog status.

After seeing the Euro shambles , they will fear Scotland leaving the UK and temporarily outside the EU will be similar. The yoons would ramp up the waiting list nonsense again!

The soft Yoon Scots will just want peace from anymore change. Don’t forget. We are only talking about Indy ref 2 because of Brexit.Otherwise it would be decades away.

Robert Peffers

@Awayanbileyerheed says: 30 July, 2018 at 9:12 pm:

” … I have said it before and I will say it again, denying the BBC their tax DIRECTLY affects them as can be seen below:”

Indeed you have said it before … it was pish then and it’s pish now. How the hell can it affect the BBC directly when the BBC get a fixed agreed annual Grant from HM government?

The government may decide that they, (the government), are not prepared to pay as much for the next annual grant from the consolidated fund but the BBC will have had their grant and it isn’t variable.

If you care to look upthread you will find both myself and another commenter have posted extracts from the official statement and the other person a link to the account figures.

JLT

They ARE rattled. There’s no doubt about it. In fact, they’re not just rattled – they are absolutely bricking it! Everything is basically going (excuse my language) majorly ‘tits up’.

Deep down, they know this is their worst nightmare. They’ve been caught in several traps of their own making and they can’t work out how to return to those days of the pre-millennium where they were supremely in control.

With the Internet and its freedoms of speech, the chaos of Brexit, the rise of Scottish nationalism and the rebirth of Scottish culture and identity, the fear of a hard border in Ireland, a £2 Trillion pound debt, and the absolute no chance of a decent trade deal, no matter if it is a Hard Brexit or not …they’re power and influence is dissipating on a daily basis. They know it, we know it, everyone knows it! …and because of that …it’s driving everyone of the Establishment to a form of utter madness and denial.

And producing stunts like they have done over the last few days with a few Scottish independent sites, is not going to endear half of Scotland back into the fold. The more they try to control, the more they are antagonising a people. There is no way that the 50% of the Scottish people who advocate independence will ever get back into bed with the British State. To be told that we are British (which to me) is nothing more than a term now. I can’t relate to Britishness anymore. What is being British? What does it mean? What does it stand for? What is its culture???

The clusterf*** that is Brexit proves that those who are considered ‘our betters’ are in fact, no better at doing the job than anyone else. In fact, with some, they are just utterly hopeless. On a day that the new Foreign Secretary – auld Jeremy Hunt – dropped another howler (an absolute doozy this time) by saying that his Chinese-born wife was Japanese …to a Chinese trade delegation …is utterly breath-taking. We went from one narcissistic boy-idiot in BoJo to a dim-witted boy-idiot in Hunt. That’s how hopeless this current lot are! And because we are led by a group of charlatans, liars, deceivers, self-servers, delusionists, sycophants, racists and basically, the lowest of the low when it comes to compassion, they are now at each other’s throats as they try to preserve their own power bases and status as the nation slowly crumbles around them.

So pulling stunts like they did with Wings shows that they are deeply worried. And to continue flexing their muscles like they have done in the last few days is only going to have more of the Scottish electorate realising that the British State is not the entity that they thought it was.

Hopefully …just hopefully …these really are the last days of ‘Great Britannia’.

Scot Finlayson

The BBC are licenced to collect the Broadcast Tax on behalf of the State,

but the BBC canny be arsed so they have given the job to private company `Capita` on a £58,000,000 a year 10 year contract,

Capita have their dirty fingers in every Gov department,they are the de facto privatised civil service,

where Carillion was the Gov prefered builder,Capita are the Govs prefered `services` provider,

and like Carillion the arse has fallen out their share price,

from 1,275p two years ago to 160p today.

Robert Peffers

BBC Text service headline:-

“EU PIRACY FORCE TO LEAVE THE UK POST-BREXIT.

“The UK will lose command of the EU naval task force – set up to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia – as it exits the European Union.

The headquarters – currently in Northwood, north London – will move to Rota in Spain, with more operations moving to Breast, in France.

The European Council made the move “following the decision of the UK to withdraw from the EU”.

The Ministry of Defence said it was “a natural consequence” of Brexit.”

I wonder what else the EU will be taking back next? It seems to me that the EU have made their mind up already that there is going to be no BR UKEXIT deal when the deadline is reached.

JLT

@Awayanbileyerheed / Robert Peffers

” … I have said it before and I will say it again, denying the BBC their tax DIRECTLY affects them as can be seen below:”

I would agree that Robert is right – the BBC do get a fixed agreed annual Grant from HM government.

And yet – ignoring the financial argument – Awayanbileyerheed might be right from a different aspect …for it will worry the British State and the BBC if folk do cancel their TV licence.

For one only has to return to George Orwell and his magnus opus, 1984 and the theory of mind-control that dominated the novel. The book as we know, had the State implement a TV in every room, in every house, and was thus able to broadcast its ‘message’ detailing how great Oceania and Airstrip One was. The British Establishment realised the potential of that idea decades ago.

So by taking the BBC out of your house …how can they influence a nation if the BBC channels are not watched? A mind not dependent on the State for assurance becomes a very dangerous mind.

Aye …1984 …one of the greatest books ever written. It was this very book that taught me to beware of the artificial state and the way it spoke to you.

So gentlemen …I believe from two different arguments …you are both correct.

Robert Peffers

It seems the BBC is concerned that the Chinese are very upset to be confused as being Japanese.

Yet strangely enough the BBC continually confuse the United Kingdom of Great Britain with Britain and don’t seem to realise the non-United Kingdom Britons in Ireland and the non-UK Crown Dependencies get upset when they are assumed by the BBC to be parts of the United Kingdom.

How sad is that?

Thepnr

Every single licence fee cancellation does hurt the BBC, It hurts their rosy view of themselves as Auntie Beeb, it hurts directly their income as a consequence of the governments income also being hit.

Most importantly as JLT has just said it hurts their ability to manipulate opinion if the non-payer refuses to watch their crap and that’s probably the most painful.

The licence fee is likely on it’s last legs as a means of funding the BBC anyway, new technology has put paid to that nonsense as the availability of other types of entertainment such as streaming of TV on demand and the internet for news.

If the government want the BBC to hang around it will either have to go fully commercial, be funded from direct taxation or maybe a bit of both. It just can’t last in it’s present form.

It’s a dead duck and won’t last for more than another 5 years as people just stop paying it and move to more modern ways perfectly legally. These things happen naturally all the time, video killed the radio stars. Did it not? 🙂

stewartb

Big Jock @ 9:29 pm

You wrote: ” Don’t forget. We are only talking about Indy ref 2 because of Brexit. Otherwise it would be decades away.”

Whatever the precise timeframe would be, ‘decades’ or less, it would not be now or soon. Your point is an important reminder of the present context. And given how little movement there has been since IndyRef1 in opinion polling of support for independence (despite the shambles evident in the governance of the UK state) you provide an important reminder of the challenge we have to change minds and to give confidence to those who are inherently wary of or resistant to deciding for themselves to opt for change.

And the tactical challenge is that if we need to rely on Brexit-related factors to condition public opinion in Scotland on independence then we become spectators watching and waiting on the manoeuvres of the Westminster government and its official opposition.

Thepnr

Ask yourself this.

If the electricity, railways, water(England), the Post Office, British gas, BP even prisons and the probation service can all be privatised then why don’t the Tories privatise the BBC and make it a commercial organisation?

Oh! Right enough.

Meindevon

@JLT

I commented the other day on that debate on Scotland in the Union but I don’t they no it showed. I, like you, feel less British with every passing day and that so called debate made me feel really quite low and isolated as an independence supporter particularly living here in Devon.

It was just an excuse for every party to throw insult after insult at the SNP and their followers or cult members as I think one even said. Like you I thought how on earth are they going to mend and build bridges with around half (hopefully more) of the electorate in Scotland when they do nothing but abuse them and call them evil and worse which will can’t say as maybe that’s why my last post was not shown. And even in an independent Scotland there is a chance that one day SLab or STory will be voted into Parliament. It doesn’t bear thinking about what they might do to punish and maybe even extinguishe the SNP itself.

It just feels that the whole U.K. is split over several huge political problems and how we all get back to living together I really don’t know. (I heard today of a family where the parents voted leave when their daughter in law is German and it nearly caused a family rift.)

One way I believe would help is that we live together on these islands but as normal separate self governing neighbours. It is almost the only option now.

ronnie anderson

link to facebook.com

As requested Mr B.

AwYanbilyerheed

@Rober Peffers
Now come on Robert, some intelligent conversation here. Tell me the company that does not make decisions based on current targets and sales having direct impact on the following fiscal years projections.

Even more so show me a public body that does not operate targets or have a limited budget.

Of course the current year cannot be affected. Anyone with a business knows they do not pay their tax up front but after their financial year concludes.

The BBC carries out regular ‘efficiency reviews’. One related to the quote I provided was from PwC – can be found here if your really bored

downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/reports/pdf/bbcreport_pwc_efficiencyreport.pdf

Because of the drop in BBC tax their grant was at threat since their spending had increased and they were seeing an immediate £50 million shortfall. Over the longer term £150million.

The government won’t continue to subsidise at current levels if that subsidy is increasing year on year due to falling BBC tax income and can commission further reviews which can put the BBC into the position of having to cut more staff or programming as it previously has had to.

Denying tax revenue this year hurts them in following years as it did in 2015 in relation to its 2016/2017 projection.

Dr Jim

Political opinion polling, does anybody still think that’s real, never in my life have I ever seen political polls that don’t move all over the place yet Scottish Independence remains the same?

really?

awayanbileyerheed

Now come on Robert, some intelligent conversation here. Tell me the company that does not make decisions based on current targets and sales having direct impact on the following fiscal years projections.

Even more so show me a public body that does not operate targets or have a limited budget.

Of course the current year cannot be affected. Anyone with a business knows they do not pay their tax up front but after their financial year concludes.

The BBC carries out regular ‘efficiency reviews’. One related to the quote I provided was from PwC – can be found here if your really bored

downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/reports/pdf/bbcreport_pwc_efficiencyreport.pdf

Because of the drop in BBC tax their grant was at threat since their spending had increased and they were seeing an immediate £50 million shortfall. Over the longer term £150million.

The government won’t continue to subsidise at current levels if that subsidy is increasing year on year due to falling BBC tax income and can commission further reviews which can put the BBC into the position of having to cut more staff or programming as it previously has had to.

Denying tax revenue this year hurts them in following years as it did in 2015 in relation to its 2016/2017 projection.

Sarah

O/T Scot goes Pop is £4000 short on his target of £14,800. [Wee ginger dug has reported his target is now met.]

Scott

It would be very interesting to uncover the decision making process that led to this situation.

It seems calculated to produce confusion, a loss of control and sense of powerlessness, all behind a veil of anonymity.

The final outcome will be very interesting.

Robert Peffers

@Thepnr says: 30 July, 2018 at 10:13 pm:

” … video killed the radio stars. Did it not? ?”

Not really, many of those better Radio Stars simply became both Audio and video stars. However, that is not the problem the BBC faces for the BBC were not only pioneers of radio broadcasting but also of Television too.

The BBC, and thus the United Kingdom Government problem is that the BBC that began as an attempt of a bunch of Radio Hams to become manufacturers of, “Wireless Receivers”, to sell to the public and thus needed a source of Wireless News and entertainment.

For there was no point on selling wireless sets that only allowed non-Hams to listen to hams talking to each other and the Hams were moving to the short waves anyway.

Wireless broadcasting, (broadcasting was beamed, (cast), to a, “broad”, audience not to individual hams.

So what began as Broadcasts of news and music for a broad audience in order to sell wireless sets was realised by the government as the perfect propaganda tool and the would-be Wireless manufacturers of the private corporation, (The BBC), were only too happy to allow the Government to fund their entertainment/news broadcasts.

All it took was a Royal Warrant and a government grant and Marconi and the rest of the corporation members like Murphy and Philips were happy to be replaced by a government chosen BBC Trust. A BBC TRUST now disbanded and replaced by a government chosen panel called OFCOM.

But the Current BBC is still a private corporation mainly, but not exclusively, funded with the consolidated Tax Fund of taxpayers money.

There are, as we speak, moves being considered to change how the BBC is funded and that has to stop the BBC Grant.

Wanna bet there will be a government contract with whatever the BBC becomes for services rendered by the BBC to the Government?

I may well be wrong but I believe that the only thing stopping such an arrangement ATM is that such a government contract with the BBC would be against EU regulations because all government contracts must be open to all EU companies.

Which is why there are EU companies with fingers in many UK former nationalise services just now. Like railways for example. Kind of puts BREXIT in a new light does it not?

Rock

“As far as we can gather, the BBC now has 10 to 14 business days in which to actually initiate court action to block the videos, or they’ll be reinstated (and presumably the rest of the channel along with them).”

It won’t dare initiate court action.

But it will resort to the Black Arts department of the British Establishment.

The next Novichok attacks could be in Bath.

Rock (13th June 2014 – “To the editor of the Scotsman”):

“Remember that you are now the 2nd biggest threat to the Establishment and they will do everything in their power to get you. My advice to you would be to move to Iceland – NOW – and carry on your work from there.”

Update: The biggest threat.

Since the current leader of the SNP, Establishment lawyer Nicola, who stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Saint Theresa and the “ghastly” Boris Johnson as they declared war on Russia after a false flag operation, is not a threat to the Establishment.

Nicola will not dare call an independence referendum before Brexit has been completed and Scotland is at the mercy of Westminster for at least the next 622 years.

Thepnr

Yawn.

Petra

It really pleases me to think that George Orwell, ex-BBC employee, wrote his inspirational “Nineteen Eighty-Four ” around 70 years ago in Jura, Scotland. What a place, eh!

Valerie

OT

Very tragic incident on island of Majorca. A 5 year old boy from Bishopbriggs found drowned in the hotel pool.

It came up on my TL in the Irish news, as Irish diplomats are dealing with the family.

Very odd. But, I’m very glad the Irish have picked up on it.

Petra

O/T

@ Valerie …

I read about it too Valerie. Worst still (if possible) he was on holiday with his grandmother, only, and she’s been rushed to hospital now.

jfngw

@Thepnr

Although the BBC is still intact as a organisation lots of its functions have been turned over to private companies. Started in the 90’s with catering & cleaning, other house services, then Transmitters, Outside Broadcast (now defunct as company went bust), Technology (was BBC R&D, IT), Broadcast (transmission, network playout), some HR functions. Probably missed some from this list.

The tried to sell BBC Resources (studios, editing) but nobody wanted it, now called BBC Studios, still ready to be sold if possible. Engineering/Comms group in Scotland, now back in house as it didn’t seem to work out (Comms still controlled from London, only around 33% of original staffing in Scotland).

Add to that that around 50% of non news output is by commissioning independent productions I suspect a substantial amount of the BBC’s money now ends up in the hands of private companies.

It’s what is intend for the NHS in England, you get the impression it is a national service but the money is being redirected to private companies.

Still Positive

Valerie & Petra re the wee boy.

Have found nothing on FB or BBC News Scotland.

Petra

O/T

Google “Bishopbriggs boy drowns in Marjorca.” I think he drowned yesterday, Still Positive. Absolutely tragic.

Valerie

@ Still positive

I searched and found a report in Daily M***

I can’t believe it’s not reported here because DM even had a quote from a nursery teacher.

@ Petra

I saw he was there with his grandmother. What a dreadful, awful thing.

Just for info, the British Embassy has 6 Consulates in Spain, one in Palma, in Majorca. The website makes a big thing of it being due to hugh numbers of British tourists.

Hamish100

Rock 622 years thats what it feels like reading one of your posts. Last week a 1000years with 622 repeats. Zzzzzzz

Brian McHugh

Someone has wires crossed. It was 2002.
link to news.bbc.co.uk

Dr Jim

Now that’s news reporting:

BBC text service reports tonight that MPs want to renegotiate an new devolution deal for Scotland

BBC doesn’t say MPs representing which parties or what kind of new devolution deal less or more devolution or indeed any devolution at all

In other words some unknown people who the BBC won’t name talked about something but they’re not telling us what

Sounds like the usual thing

yesindyref2

Sad that the Herald hasn’t carried this story at all, unlike the Scotsman which is now rapidly overtaking it for representing Scotland’s interest.

With the readership Wings has, the reputation Moridura has, and the number of journalists, broadcasters and politicians of all flavours who read the site, you’d have thunk it would be genuine news.

It seems to me it’s probably because Leask has a feud with Wings over Scotland, a largely unrequited feud it has to be said, apart from the occasional application of a fly swat.

Valerie

Apologies

Here’s the story carried in Irish news

link to irishtimes.com

yesindyref2

Talking abut hypocrisy:

You’re on Twitter. So you routinely see angry, self-righteous people harass, insult & intimidate journalists. Please read this report on global context of such abuse. & ask yourself if you should speak up next time you witness attacks on a free press. 1/2

ask yourself if you should speak up next time you witness attacks on a free press

link to twitter.com

I wonder if David Leask should ask himself the same question, considering he and the Herald have NOT spoken up about the attack on Wings by the BBC?

Very disappointing, for a so-called professional journalist.

And they can’t plead ignorance, as Hutcheon has indirectly commented on it, and Leask has retweeted Hutcheon. So they are deliberately ignoring a quite major news story, one of interest to many in Scotland.

Petra

@ Brian … “Wires crossed”

Sorry about that Brian (and others). My (terrible) mistake.

yesindyref2

This was an #indyref highlight. There was a Scottish man who wouldn’t buy Scottish stamps in Scotland because – the horror! – they featured Scottish flags. Please, somebody, make TV docu when he meets a man who nearly lost it when his Scots strawberries came with a union jack.

I take it

1). Leask doesn’t understand the difference between a Scottish flag on a Scottish product, and a British flag on a Scottish product.

2). Leask is not a supporter of “Scotland the Brand”, or Visit Scotland’s Brand Scotland: “Ms Leaver takes on the role of project director for Brand Scotland from 3 July 2018 and will oversee international activity across VisitScotland, Scottish Development International and the Scottish Government.

which is also supported by the News & Online Editor of Scottish Farmer, a Newsquest publication.

link to thescottishfarmer.co.uk

or indeed the original Scotland the Brand back in the 90s which I believe was set up by Labour, even before Devolution.

Imagine a journalist for the Herald sneering at such a thing.

Valerie

@ Petra

My mistake too, as my search threw up that older story.

The Irish report just says “British family”

The little girl’s death is widely reported in a general search.

My main point is that it’s very odd a British family are getting Irish Embassy assistance.

Although, if you are an EU citizen, you can ask for help at any EU country embassy. That all stops next year of course.

Valerie

@ yesindyref2

I genuinely think Leask has lost the plot, some time ago. His obsession with Rev was way off the scale, and I told Rev I found it disturbing and creepy.

Perhaps he’s not well. Folk seem to be just leaving him alone, and that’s defo for the best.

yesindyref2

Apart from all that, Leask IS doing a good investigative and reporting job with the Mafia use of SLPs and LLPs, and I was against him in the first place as they’re legislated for at Westminster, but he did cause an SNP campaign which has done some good, but it hasn’t gone far enough yet.

yesindyref2

@Valerie
Yes I agree, best to leave alone. But he has done a good job on the SLP thing, and his series on “As others see us” for different countries during Indy Ref 1 was very good.

Like Hutcheon he takes things personally and I’d think a journo should have a thick skin supplied as standard during Journalism 101.

ScottieDog

@yesindyref2
My Leask knows exactly on which side his bread is buttered. I have zero sympathy with him if he is being ‘attacked’. As you say the YouTube assault should be right up his street, but that over steps the mark at the herald – which is broadly an establishment paper.

I have no time for him after challenging him about the U.K. media coverage of economics and asking him to compare with some of the excellent content on RT. I was branded a Russian bot and blocked. He eventually uncooked me and I then blocked him.

He’s a sanctimonious twat and not seeing him in my twitter feed is much nicer.

ScottieDog

Can anyone imagine the fever pitch content in papers like the herald if Scotland was about to leave the U.K. next year – with no trade deals and not part of any trade organisation.?!

I work in the airline industry and there is little coverage of this in the media. Had it been scotland you would see the apocalyptic headlines about not being able to fly across borders or book a holiday in the next few months for nex summer as the end of our ‘open skies’ trade deal approached.That’s just one example.

BJ

Someone needs to get a stronger vacuum cleaner to hoover out Ross Thomson’s brain? Make sure it’s a Brexiteers Dyson though and not a limp Hoover with no sooking power.

Poor deluded clown.

Nana
Nana

This week’s Full Scottish comes from the All Under One Banner march which took place in Inverness on Saturday. We followed the march through Inverness to the rally at Castle Heather Park.
Steven Cuthil was joined in the park by SNP MSP, Maree Todd and Green MSP, John Finnie,, to hear points of view from the Highland and Islands.
link to broadcastingscotland.scot

link to greens.scot

link to thecanary.co

link to taxresearch.org.uk

Nana

This is true – 7 major agricultural exporters told the UK & EU they disagreed with the proposed tariff rate quota split back in Sept. 2017
Letter here link to src.bna.com

link to prospectmagazine.co.uk

link to uk.businessinsider.com

link to jackofkent.com

Nana

Dirty Russian money part 8. The devil’s advocate
link to byline.com

link to truepublica.org.uk

BREAKING: The IEA has long kept its funders secret. But the think tank’s boss told our undercover reporter that BP gives them repeat donations which enables its executives to question ministers on government policy
link to twitter.com

Brexit: a dagger in the soft underbelly of democracy
link to eureferendum.com

sinky

Very poor coverage in Scotsman of Mps damning report Uks lack of understanding of devolution in brexit negotiations. The Hootsman editorial even refers to Hollywood’s grab of powers but doesn’t mention report saying Scotland Office should be scrapped.

Much better coverage in Herald but nothing on BBC London.

Nana
Luigi

Oh Dear.

Whatever way you look at this, there is no good outcome. Whether it’s hard Brexit, soft Brexit, Non-Brexit, the UK comes out diminished and broken. The Europeans have had enough of BritNat crap and even if the UK comes back a begging to stay in the EU, it won’t be on blighty terms like before. No No No.

The UK is facing its biggest humiliation since the Suez Crisis. It will be interesting to see how the BBC spin it. The BBC are certainly well-practiced in the art of polishing turds. However, with Brexit they have a pile of dung the size of Everest to deal with. Good luck with that one. 🙂

PictAtRandom

Only able to read a couple of paras but the Herald’s lead article on the Westminster Public Admin. & Const. Affairs Comm. seems remarkable. They want to consider scrapping the role of Scottish Secretary and the Scotland Office. Written by an SNPer, 5 Cons and 5 Labs (one admittedly suspended Euro-rebel Kelvin Hopkins).

Do we need to rethink the likelihood of Fluffy being installed as The Strongman Of Annandale?

Highland Wifie

Smallaxe did a fantastic job but it’s very nice to see you back Nana. 🙂
Great links. Thank you.

Capella

@ PictAtRandom – Bernard Jenkin is a very sharp cookie indeed. But he’s an English Constitutionalist. My guess is that Westminster is cooking up another “vote for us and we’ll give you a better deal” scenario. They see the potential for an Independence vote being won this time. They are fliating some ideas to test the reaction.

Capella

@ PictAtRandom – Bernard Jenkin is a very sharp cookie indeed. But he’s an English Constitutionalist. My guess is that Westminster is cooking up another “vote for us and we’ll give you a better deal” scenario. They see the potential for an Independence vote being won this time. They are floating some ideas to test the reaction.

gus1940

Good point made above by thepnr.

The Tories have privatised everything under the sun with one exception -The BBC.

I wonder why that could be.

Capella

Well at least I managed to correct the spelling in the second post though didn’t manage to cancel the first. Sorry about double post.

Luigi

Highland Wifie says:

31 July, 2018 at 8:36 am

Smallaxe did a fantastic job but it’s very nice to see you back Nana. ?
Great links. Thank you.

Aye, thanks Smallaxe, and welcome back Nana. These links are so important.

Luigi

Highland Wifie says:

31 July, 2018 at 8:36 am

Smallaxe did a fantastic job but it’s very nice to see you back Nana. ?
Great links. Thank you.

Aye, thanks Smallaxe, and welcome back Nana. These links are so important.

Luigi

Ooooops. 🙂

galamcennalath

Article by Kirsty Hughes on Brexit and what it means for the SNP and IndyRef2.

link to thenational.scot

Finishes with … ” SNP may find the politics of the autumn make it harder than some now envisage to avoid a strong political commitment to another independence vote.”

I agree, one outcome or another with Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, will be negative for Scotland. No Brexit outcome will be an acceptable one. The SNP must never appear complicit with Brexit.

However, I think it’s crucial to frame the need of IndyRef2 in terms well beyond Brexit. So much more has happened in the last four years.

Nana

@ Highland Wifey

It’s good to be back and Smallaxe did a fine job for us.

@ Luigi
Thanks and here’s a couple more links

link to peterabell.blog

From 2014
Matt Allwright on the BBC TV Licence Scam (MUST WATCH!)
link to youtube.com

yesindyref2

@ScottieDog / @Sinky
The Herald’s coverage on the Brexit Tory shambles has been good, and Michael Settle seems steady.

It’s all very strange!

Petra

Thanks for the links, Nana. Corruption, corruption, corruption. The country’s being run by a giant network of people akin to the devil incarnate. Most of us on here have always known this, but more and more of their dirty dealings are being exposed every day, such as the BP and IEA – member of the Brexit syndicate – link. If the Media in Scotland would do their job properly, tell the bl**dy truth for ONCE, we’d be out of this totally disfunctional Union in a heart beat.

I see that politicians have united in Glasgow in an attempt to combat the SERCO fiasco: Throwing asylum seekers onto the street, kids and all. When will they waken up and start supporting Independence? Surely some Labour and Libdem politicians / councillors must see that Scotland is going to be totally decimated by the Tories and Brexcrement? From a self-centred point of view may even find themselves out of a job. Are ALL of them really willing to put their (short-term) London bosses / Party before the (long-term) well-being of Scotland and the Scots? And by the sound of it both the Labour and Tory parties are ready to split / implode. Tough!

What’s happened to the invisible woman, Rooth the Mooth? Very quiet this weather, isn’t she! I don’t see Ruth Davidson envisioning a future in politics now. Here or south of the border. She can see the writing on the wall. Probably making plans to move on or rather back to journalism, TV presenter or whatever. Baby will come in handy, I reckon. Her “stand-down” face-saver.

@ Valerie ….. I see some newspapers are now reporting that the poor, wee girl who drowned is Irish.

auld highlander

o/t
Now they are considering dumping nuclear waste under national parks.
link to news.sky.com

The Tree of Liberty

All this talk of abolishing the Scottish office and strengthening the Devolution settlement, is there a Referendum on the horizion?

The Tree of Liberty

All this talk of abolishing the Scottish office and strengthening the Devolution settlement, is there a Referendum on the horizon?

vlad (not that one)

@Andy-B 6:53 pm
Ta. Noted

Breeks


Luigi says:
31 July, 2018 at 8:10 am

….It will be interesting to see how the BBC spin it. The BBC are certainly well-practiced in the art of polishing turds. However, with Brexit they have a pile of dung the size of Everest to deal with. Good luck with that one. ?

Considering the barrage of anti European rhetoric and stereotypes which the BBC has been pumping out for decades, added to the BBC’s fixation with promoting UKIP, (the only safe seat UKIP ever had was the one on the Question Time panel), nevermind spinning Brexit, I would be holding the BBC accountable for Brexit actually happening.

Even Scotland was embarrassed by a UKIP MEP for no other reason than the BBC pushing the xenophobic antiEuropean UKIP agenda at every possible opportunity.

Please step forward BBC and take a good look at what you’ve done. You picked up where the Telegraph and Daily Mail left off, and gave their narrow minded bigotry, xenophobia, racism, and deluded exceptionalism an air of normality and even respectability, and now such bass hatreds have taken root in the BritNat psyche. You must be so very proud of yourselves BBC.

I ache for the day when Scotland can see the back of the despicable BBC.

call me dave

Another distraction you Scots.

A new devolution jam from all these left over fruits that we’d like you to try being cooked up in London where all the strawberry and rasps go to be packaged and sent North again with a Saltire stamped on its arse.

Aye right?

Petra

I see that my last post disappeared into the ether!

……………….

It’s an absolute disgrace that we don’t have any control over this in Scotland.

”Where will we go?” ask Glasgow’s asylum seekers over lock-out threat.’

link to thenational.scot

‘Home Office’s outsourcing of the asylum system is a UK scandal.’

link to thenational.scot

Shinty

“What’s happened to the invisible woman, Rooth the Mooth?”

Busy posting leaflets, received one today.
SNP Bad
SNP VERY Bad

‘fightback against the SNP’ x 3
‘beat the SNP’ x 3
‘defeat Nicola Sturgeon’ x 1
Oh and her dodgy 2017 GE graph

Macart

@ call me dave

Ayup. Clocked the latest devolution jam. And it is jam.

Keen made the relationship more than clear in the SC submission. There is no devolution, only lead that can be lengthened or shortened at the whim of Westminster government. So know your place Jocklanders. (frowny thing)

In the words of the immortal Rab C. … See yer devolushun? See yer Westmidden parly? See yer holier than thou, get back in yer shortbread tin, eat yer cereal and dae as yer telt attitude?

I will tell you this boy. Ye can stick it wher the monkey hides his nuts. Right up ther!

Or words to that effect. 😎

Jack collatin

Tree of Liberty @ 10.30 am.
On ‘abolishing the Scottish Office and strengthening the Devolution settlement’, don’t hold your breath.
I posted THIS over on WGD.

“Me Again.

“The UK Government must rethink Devolution as a result of Brexit, according to a group of MPs.
In a scathing report (‘scathing’ my bahookie: Jack) the Constitutional Affairs Committee says that the current settlement isn’t ‘fit for purpose’. (‘Fit for purpose’ vies with ‘Lessons must be learned’, and ‘direction of travel’, as the most banal meaningless Whitehall mandarin Doublespeak ever: Jack)

The Scottish Government has also called for a new arrangement (really? Jack) for Devolution.
Westminster says it is committed to giving (‘giving’? Jack) each part of the UK a voice.”
The above headlines on BBC Scotland’s Breakfast News Where You Are this morning.

60 words.

Presumably this meaningless paragraph was cobbled together from Mike Settle’s :-

“MPS; Time to look at abolishing the Scotland Office”

online clickbait ’10 hours’ earlier in the Herald Britland

60 words cobbled together by a bleary eyed staffer at Pacific Quay in the wee sma’ hours.

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has the following members.

Sir Bernard Jenkin (Chair) Conservative. Member of Leave Means Leave
Ronnie Cowan Scottish National Party. Who left the door unlocked?
Paul Flynn Labour’ He’s 82 now, old warhorse that he never was.
Mr Marcus Fysh Conservative.Leave
Dame Cheryl Gillan Conservative.Leave
Kelvin Hopkins Independent (ex-Labour)
Dr Rupa Huq Labour; Remain Londoner.
Mr David Jones Conservative On the Advisory Board of Leave Means Leave.
Sandy Martin Labour. His Father was actor Trevor Martin. No, that’s it.
David Morris Conservative. Guitarist, Hair Stylist, second most expensive MP, and Leave.
Tulip Siddiq Labour. London.

This is the ‘group of MP’s’ to which BBC Breakfast refer .

Of course they will have Scotland’s interest at the forefront of their thoughts.

5 Tories, all Leavers, and 5 Labour Fence Sitters who have no connection to Scotland at all.
..and Ronnie Cowan.

Sir Bernard Jenkins was sacked as Vice Chair of the Conservative Party for referring to ethnic minorities as ‘coloureds’ a couple of years back, yet magically retained his position as Chair of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, a nice little number which has held since 2010.

Settle’s article at least quotes Mike Russell, and for comedy relief, Oor Wullie, A’body’s Wullie.

Russell:-
“The EU Withdrawal Act is a power-grab on the Scottish Parliament and this report demonstrates that fundamental change is required within the UK Government to ensure devolution is respected.”

…it was astonishing how 20 years on from the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, the committee highlighted how training in Whitehall about how devolution worked was still required.
The Scottish Government has already said there needs to be a requirement in law for the Scottish Parliament’s consent before Westminster legislates on devolved issues.

There has been little meaningful engagement throughout this process and it is time the UK Government respected the views of the Scottish Parliament and abandoned its pursuit of a hard Brexit.”

Cowan said: “‘What we are witnessing is a blatant Westminster power-grab after twenty years of devolution.
“It is the arrogance of the Tories who think they can rip up the devolution settlement and transfer powers to Westminster. The fact that the committee is now questioning whether the Scotland Office and the office of Secretary of State are necessary is a humiliation for David Mundell who has clearly failed to justify his job.”

Rennie:The Report was a “powerful rebuke to those who think the only way is separation and division”. (Whit?)

“..urgent for the committee’s recommendations to be enacted to allow all the governments to work together, he added: “The prize will be a UK which has decentralised and devolved power but which can still work as a whole when the issues affect everyone across these islands.”

This is garbled meaningless nonsense from Rennie, as per.

There is a view that this Committee has just heralded the end of Devolution post Brexit.
All those warm fuzzy words from Jenkins (Leave Means Leave) :-

“Leaving the EU will change the UK’s constitutional arrangements, so it needs a rethink. We recommend the Government sets out a clear devolution policy for the Union as we leave the EU; failure to do this just prolongs misunderstandings, which are the basis for more conflict.”

Well, when WM ‘takes back control’, we all know what ‘Government sets out a clear devolution policy for the Union as we leave the EU’ will mean.’

Taxi for Holyrood.

Sorry it’s long, but BBC Breakfast continues to be as shallow as a fruit fly’s belly button.

Reply

Macart

Mmmm. Should have been leash. Picked the wrong word on the predictive thingy, but still works. 🙂

Petra

I hope the amendments go through. In fact go further.

‘Green MSP calls for planning permission for short-term lets.’

link to thenational.scot

They’ve got the right idea in Cornwall. Referendum, referendum, referendum (nae bother) with the potential to block homes in Cornwall being used as holiday homes.

The Guardian reported on the story as being ‘English out’: Cornwall’s fightback against second homes, lol.

link to cornwalllive.com

Pogmothon

We all see conspiracy to a greater or lesser extent in this which is probably accurate in the general scheme of things.
But try to look at it from the empire point of view for a moment. Careful it’s a bit scarier.
1. Simple math by selecting 10 to 15 (in this case 13) random clips and raising a complaint about them the unknown individual/group (to be known as BBZ) force the closure of the channel. Time and energy allocated to the reopening of the channel over a 4 to 6 week period sees a reduction in the scrutiny of BBZ and others.

2. This can be repeated ad-infinitum with another 10 to 15 clips every 4 to 6 weeks until the supply of clips is exhausted. Thereby keeping the channel shut down semi permanently. (There are a lot of clips in total)

3. It does not matter that BBZs complaints have no grounding or that they are overturned. The fact that they have been registered and the channel shut down is the important part. This demonstrates a history of supposed wrong doing. (if you throw enough shit some of it will stick) this is what will be screamed about in the MSM not the truth but the spin.

4. The demonstrated history provides a basis for attacking other elements: – websites, people, blogs etc..etc.. This is how you legally politically remove a thorn in “empire mind”.
The solution as I see it (someone else will probably be able to improve it drastically) is
Move all clips more than a year old to “WoS A channel”.
Any clips 6 months to 12 months old to “WoS B channel”.
Any clips 1 month to 6 months old to “WoS C channel”.
All clips less than 1 month old duplicate on “WoS” and “WoS D channel”.
This does mean 5 different channels in the meantime until the threat is removed.
Because the clips can no longer be random, each channel must be targeted specifically. BBZs costs/energy, person power increases dramatically. And specific targeting more easily demonstrates persecution and malicious intent. And possible the most effective tool public awareness something BBZ and their political masters industriously seek to avoid for their Machiavellian connivances.

call me dave

There’s always a story to float your boat in the Guardian.

The Observer: Royal Navy:

Job fears as Japanese bid to build Royal Navy support ships

link to archive.is

PS:
I see that there will be four countries masquerading as one again this week…lots of Scottish medals…Aye!

A Scotsman

One answer is to have more than one backup channel on different providers with the same content

Petra

@ Shinty says at 11:26 am …..“What’s happened to the invisible woman, Rooth the Mooth?”

”Busy posting leaflets, received one today. SNP Bad. SNP VERY Bad. ‘fightback against the SNP’ x 3 ‘beat the SNP’ x 3 ‘defeat Nicola Sturgeon’ x 1 – Oh and her dodgy 2017 GE graph.”

Is that her dipping into the Tories ‘dark money’ pot again, Shinty? The ”pot-ty” that she hides under her bed. When is the BBC going to question her about this dark money? Money used to oust people like Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson, no doubt. Sit outside her door as they do / did with Nicola Sturgeon and people like Michelle Thomson? Harass and hound in fact. God when you think about it we could put together something longer than War and Peace to highlight the BLATANT BIAS of the BBC. Better still, and more appropriate, imo, the The (BBC) Blah Story by Nigel Tomm with 3,277,227 words.

The Tree of Liberty

So Jack, I think we can both agree, it’s a crock of shit.

Petra

Talking of books. One’s due out in late August – ‘The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence.’

It basically highlights that if you think that Trump’s bad, you ain’t seen anything yet.

‘Mike Pence, Holy Terror – Are you sure you want to get rid of Donald Trump?’

link to nytimes.com

Shinty

Petra – the small print says; Promoted by Mark McInnes on behalf of the Scottish Conservative Party both at Northumberland St. Edinburgh.

There is also a wee questionnaire on the back
Q 5. Who do you think would make the best FM

Ruth Davidson
or
Nicola Sturgeon.

LOL.

Breeks


Petra says:
31 July, 2018 at 11:21 am

It’s an absolute disgrace that we don’t have any control over this in Scotland.

”Where will we go?” ask Glasgow’s asylum seekers over lock-out threat.’….

Started thinking about it when the Brain family were being deported. Thought about is some more when Clara Ponsati was being deported. Now the UK Government is throwing vulnerable asylum seekers into the street.

Just how far removed are we from 1930’s Germany? OK, I dare to hope we are not on that trajectory, but there must have been a time in Germany when fair minded people started worrying about the reckless conduct of their government and started making rudimentary plans to hide Jews and keep them safe from the authorities. How long before Scotland need its own Comet line to secretly move these people from one hiding place to another so the authorities won’t get hold of them? Should we start planning it all now before there are curfews and we all have to produce our papers or be arrested?

I want to see Scotland start apart from all this, and be a dignified country we can all be proud of. The English / BritNats have properly taken leave of their senses. I honestly don’t know whether it’s better to be worried about them and try to help, or be scared of them and start looking after ourselves.

What an indictment of 21st Century Britain.

Sarah

@Petra 12.20: Totally agree, Petra. And I also brood about Dungavel – Joanna Cherry and other SNP Mps have been trying for months to gain access and Home Office outrageously refuse.

We all know the terrible treatment of inmates by the privatised administration of Dungavel. Scottish Government should be able to go in off their own bat to check out what is going on.

Robert Peffers

@jfngw says: 31 July, 2018 at 12:18 am:

! … I suspect a substantial amount of the BBC’s money now ends up in the hands of private companies.”

Trouble with that theory, jfngw, is that the BBC itself is, and always has been, a private company, (Corporation). It can thus do as it likes as long as it sticks to it’s Royal Charter and what it is contacted to do for the Government.

It sells programmes, series, video and audio recordings, children’s toys (related to programme characters), all over the World. It translates and dubs foreign dialogue and adds subtitles in foreign languages to programmes and series. Among other things. So it isn’t a legally a government department but just gets a government grant for, “services rendered”.

One_Scot

Thought I would check the BBC weather only to find what I take is a ‘weather watcher’ photo being shown with three flags bang in the middle of the picture, one of them being, you guessed it, a union jack.

Seriously, FFS, can I not even find out if it’s going to rain without these F’wits trying to assimilate me.

Robert Peffers

@Still Positive says: 31 July, 2018 at 12:38 am:
” … Valerie & Petra re the wee boy.
Have found nothing on FB or BBC News Scotland.”

No, but I’ll tell you what you all have found. Yet another thing we will all lose if we are dragged out of the EU against our wishes by the BR UKEXITeers.

As EU citizens we have the right to call upon any EU’s member state Embassies or Consulates in non-EU countries for help or protection.

That is why Ireland is helping the Scottish Family in this instance and that is one of the EU Cherries the UK will not get to pick if we are dragged out of the EU.

Capella

Noticed this comment from The National’s article on Stu’s Youtube channel being disabled.

A few years ago the BBC produced “The Most Dangerous Woman in Britain” about Nicola Sturgeon. A few months later I was in Canada and sat and watched with a Canadian buddy. I flew to Boston to meet an associate. I could not watch the programme in the US. It was banned. I found out that it was banned as being “a threat to the security of the UK”;the UK Government asked for it to be banned. Police state in the making re Scotland ?

link to archive.fo

unarchived article for access to comments:
link to tinyurl.com

Jack collatin

Tree of Liberty @11.52 am.

You take your nom de guerre from a time when Scots who fought against this cursed Union were rounded up by the Parcel of Rogues, their fellow Scots, blood lusting Barons and Lairds, the Landed gentry, who held their fellow countrymen and women in slavery and penury, and the Magistrates who ‘legalised’ tyranny for them, and executed or exiled the Dissenters to Tasmania.

A lass at BBC PQ reads out ‘a group of MPs’ urging the WM Government to ‘give us’ more of a voice.
Really?
Bernard Jenkin, ex disgraced Deputy Chairman of the Blue Tory Party, would crush us underfoot as Tartan ‘coloureds’.
They think they got away with the 26 issues Power Grab.
They really do.
They don’t give a toss about Mundell; but they actually believe that we would lose all analytical nous and rejoice in a war dance of bloodlust celebration at the thought of Mundell’s job being scrapped?
BBC Scotland is a pointless drain on England’s Broadcast budget.
Shut it down. Nobody Up Here under 61 is watching or listening any more.
That’s probably Donalda MacKinnon’s remit from her London Masters, right enough.
Drive independent thought off the airwaves.

Fred

@ Jack Collatin, good posts!

Jack Murphy

Thanks Nana for all your links at about 7am today including this: link to broadcastingscotland.scot

I didn’t know anything about that new site with Scottish news.

Here’s the Main Portal of Broadcasting Scotland:

“Welcome to Broadcasting Scotland 🙂

Broadcasting Scotland is a new broadcaster for Scotland, producing programmes from a Scottish perspective, targeting audiences, inside Scotland and beyond.”

link to broadcastingscotland.scot

Definitely one for Bookmarking and helping out in any way we can. 🙂

The Tree of Liberty

Burns poem (allegedly, it surfaced after his death) about the French Revolution.

inkypic

Wow! How scary is the BBC? I’m so shocked by all of this. I really am.

Capella

@ Jack Murphy – I looked at the Broadcasting Scotland link you posted. The sidebar has links to articles accusing Russia of persecuting dissidents and interfering with US elections. Why?

Scotland should stay right out of the cold war hysteria being whipped up by Washington and London IMO.

I recently watched a 2 hr film about The Magnitsky Act because I wasn’t sure what it was about. This film was made by Russian film maker Nekrosov. It starts off taking the word of Bill Browder at face value but soon discrepancies and lies emerge.

Who knows what the true story is. But I found this film compelling viewing – even at 2 hrs it is worth watching. The sight of an American President signing into law an act based on a tissue of lies is quite shocking.

It is supposedly banned in the West so I would watch it promptly if you want to see it as it will probably disappear.

link to youtube.com

Clapper57

MSM shovels up shit.

The morons spread it.

WOS cleans it up.

Post Brexit UKOK will surely be referred to as the Moronic period…..post Brass neck Age obvs courtesy of Farage, Mogg & co….of course we all know WHAT part of UKOK really really prompted the evolution of this Moronic Age…..that said I was of a mind that post 18 September 2014 Scotland entered the beginning of a Dark age…more so now it seems considering the position we , in Scotland, now find ourselves in…thanks to majority not voting Yes !

Hey Ho….Surely we will finally, post Brexit, be able to lead enough people from the depths of UKOK’s Moronic age into a new age of Scottish enlightenment….here’s hoping……or we in Scotland will flounder not only in a Dark Age but merge into a UKOK Moronic Age too of which we will be find it near impossible to break free.

Clapper57

“too of which we will ‘be’ find it near impossible to break free”.

Oops sorry going through my own dark age at the moment …feel free to delete ” be” and add ‘from’ at end of this last sentence Lol.

scozzie

This is a bit OT and am a lurker from Oz (so probably out the loop on a lot of things) but it feels like everything is heating up with the possible no deal Brexit fiasco and calling the indyref 2.

So my questions is, are all the yes hubs ready for campaign mode – do they have strategies in place to target key demographics e.g. young / pensioners / women etc? It seems we can’t solely rely on social media to get the word on the street (given the potential for shutting down key influencers like WOS etc).
I know we have yes stalls etc but is that just attracting the already converted? Are we doing targeted ‘marketing / influencing’? My old maw belongs to loads of pensioner groups and boy is she not listening to her family – can pensioners for independence try to hold ‘tea and talk events’ across various pensioners groups to explain what’s going on?

Are young people engaging with others on snapchat, Instagram etc to get the word out and to vote when the time comes?

Given there could be major disruption and lock downs against pro-indy sites on social media we need alternative ways of reaching out.

We need key ‘influencers’ within communities to step up when the ref is called. I know we have Business Scotland for yes but we need –
Celebrities for Yes
Religious faiths for Yes
LGBTQI for Yes
Mums for Yes
Sport for Yes etc etc
We need them to come out loud and proud and actively campaign so we can normalise independence amongst the population and we need key influencers to engage with these demographics.

The grassroots work has been amazing these last few years and god am so proud watching it from afar but I also hope we have some top notch marketing / PR folks who can help strategise our indy campaign.

jfngw

@Robert Peffers

I don’t think anyone thinks of the BBC as a normal private company. It has no objective to actually make any profit, unlike all the outsourced and commissioned companies it uses. It’s independence of government is looking more of a threadbare claim as time progresses, the trust (if it is still called that) is more or less now stuffed with government appointed people. Also it is the only broadcaster that relies on the government directly to exist, if the government removes its royal charter it is basically finished.

All the sales of BBC product is done by BBC Worldwide (soon to be part of BBC Studios) which technically is not directly part of the BBC but a commercial arm that that at this time is still owned by the BBC.

call me dave

News just in:

Former Holyrood presiding officer Sir Alex Fergusson dies.

link to archive.is

Clydebuilt

Another day passes and still nothing in the National about the BBC closing down The Rev’s Youtube channel.

This should be spread all over the papers front page.

Jack collatin

The Tree of Liberty @ 2.10

Indeed there is a polemic attributed to Burns but denied by the Establishment (surprise surprise) as his work, rejoicing in the French Revolution.

I was thinking more of the Society of Friends here.

From Wiki:-
“Friends of the People in Scotland

In Scotland The Friends of the People Society in Edinburgh was founded in July 1792 with lower subscription rates than the English Society, attracting a wider membership which made it more like the London Corresponding Society. It soon had imitators in towns and villages throughout Scotland.

The rank and file were usually described as “shopkeepers and artisans”, and included most prominently weavers as well as tailors, cobblers, brewers, bakers, tanners, butchers and hairdressers. The membership generally did not include general labourers, agricultural workers, colliers, spinners, foundrymen, masons and the like.

The government feared such wider support and outbreaks of rioting in many places in the summer and autumn of 1792 were officially attributed to “an almost universal spirit of reform and opposition to the established government and legal administrators which has wonderfully diffused through the manufacturing towns”, but most of the riots were due to other grievances such as an unpopular turnpike, the Corn laws and the Enclosures.

Radical demonstrations were evident, not just in the larger towns such as Perth and Dundee but also in smaller towns such as Auchtermuchty, at each of which a “Tree of Liberty” was erected and there were cries of “Liberty and Equality”, but the Friends of the People unhesitatingly condemned these disturbances and threatened to expel from their membership anyone joining the rioters.

North chiel

“ Devolution” no longer exists now under the “centralist Westminster rules ok Tory Junta”. It is now crystal clear that the future “ post Brexit” remit for Holyrood envisaged by the the “ Public school dominated colonial establishment “ is little more than the Tony Blair quoted parish council status”. The “ Pacific Quay propaganda outlet” has this morning been “fed a line “exclusively contrived for Scottish& Welsh consumption” ( no mention whatsoever of this report on the main EBC home page says it all ), and if anyone in Scotland was under any illusion that Scotland was to be the recipient of “ more devolved powers” any time soon , then the REALITY of what has transpired over the past year or so has completely shattered the original devolution settlement. So the U.K. government “ mouthpiece at Propaganda Quay can forget any further “ drivel “ as regards “ Devo super duper max / Federalism” under any of the Westminster unionist establishment parties. That ship has been
“ wrecked on the rocks of Brexit “( stripped against our will of EU citizenship), the Westminster powergrab, and the Supreme Court action against the sovereignty of the Scottish people through Holyrood ( continuity Bill). So please BBC Scotland “ dry up” as regards devolution as nobody is listening any longer.

Robert Peffers

@gus1940 says: 31 July, 2018 at 8:51 am:

” … Good point made above by thepnr.
The Tories have privatised everything under the sun with one exception -The BBC.”

Are you and Thepnr for real?

“I wonder why that could be.”

Sheesh! Mibbies it’s because the British Broadcasting Corporation. – is a private company and has been so since 18 October 1922 when it was formed (a.k.a. Incorporatedand).

link to beta.companieshouse.gov.uk

Petra

@ Shinty says at 12:11 pm …. ”Petra – the small print says; Promoted by Mark McInnes on behalf of the Scottish Conservative Party both at Northumberland St. Edinburgh. There is also a wee questionnaire on the back Q 5. Who do you think would make the best FM – Ruth Davidson or Nicola Sturgeon. LOL.”

That’s a cracker, eh, Shinty? Most people want the First Minister of Scotland to be visible and available: More to the point working for the betterment of Scotland.

call me dave

May should extend the article 50 process – to broker a good deal with the EU

link to archive.is

It was suggested a wee while ago by the SNP group at WM:

link to thenational.scot

PS:
Caught BBC shortbread lunchtime news on the tv next door a wee while ago.

“Jings what a country Scotland is…fair depressing…init”!

My neighbour looked across at me and just laughed… 🙂

Thepnr

@Robert Peffers

Are you for real?

The BBC in NOT a private company in any sense. The entire board of the BBC are appointed by the government, they have no shareholders and no requirement to make a profit.

It’s entire purpose is as a mouthpiece of the UK government both home and abroad intermingled with a bit of sport and light entertainment to keep the public’s gaze away from the real issues. Sheesh!

The BBC is a public service organisation. Our five public purposes are central to us serving the public and help us achieve our core mission to inform, educate and entertain.

To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them

The BBC will provide accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming of the highest editorial standards so that all audiences can engage fully with issues across the UK and the world.

To support learning for people of all ages

Educational content will help support learning for children and teenagers across the UK, whilst audiences will be encouraged to explore inspiring and challenging new subjects and activities through a range of partnerships.

To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services

Innovative content covering many different genres will be provided across a range of services and platforms, setting the standard both in the UK and globally.

To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom

The lives of the people in the United Kingdom today will be accurately and authentically portrayed in the BBC’s output and services to raise awareness of different cultures, contribute to social cohesion and invest in the development of each nation’s creative economy.

To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world

High quality, accurate, impartial news coverage will be delivered to international audiences, aiding understanding of the UK as a whole.

,

link to bbc.co.uk

Petra

@ Sarah says at 12:54 pm …. ”Totally agree, Petra. And I also brood about Dungavel – Joanna Cherry and other SNP Mps have been trying for months to gain access and Home Office outrageously refuse. We all know the terrible treatment of inmates by the privatised administration of Dungavel. Scottish Government should be able to go in off their own bat to check out what is going on.”

It’s a disgrace Sarah. An absolute disgrace. It’s getting to the point that they should be calling Amnesty International in to see what’s going on. I hate to think that I’m sitting at home in comfort, or going about my daily life, when there are people (non-criminals), frightened and miserable, being imprisoned elsewhere: with God knows what happening to them.

We’ve also had reports of at least 70 ”extraordinary rendition” flights (that we know of) landing at Prestwick Airport carrying so-called terrorists on their way to or from locations (or both) to be be tortured. Two of the jets identified, Gulfstream IVs, are owned by L3 Technology and operated by Centurion Aviation Services. Both companies are said to have links to the CIA and have been named as part of a complex web of shell companies used to fly detainees around the world. So just pop into Scotland, why don’t you!!!

I for one am SICK and TIRED of Scotland being USED as a dumping ground for Westminster’s WMD’s. Sick and tired of Scotland being forced to ”house” people (and on a ”stop-over”) who’s lives are being made an absolute misery by the decisions taken by Unionist MP’s – that is, Tory, Labour and Libdems in London. And now we have people who’ve already experienced hell, asylum seekers, being thrown on to the streets of Scotland. The saddest thing about all of this is that very few Scots probably know what’s going on, on their own soil. In our name.

Gerry

@pnr
“BBC Worldwide” is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It is NOT the BBC.

Thepnr

@Gerry

Yes thanks, I read that.

BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcast abroad with the aim of supplementing the income received by the BBC through the licence fee.

BBC Worldwide (Now BBC Studios) is a private company owned by the BBC which is a “public service organisation” funded by the government through collection of the License fee.

The BBC is a government mouthpiece, no more no less.

gus1940

O/T

Today’s Independent has a long interview with Seymour Hersh which is well worth reading.

Breeks

New Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt appeals to France and Germany to make the European Commission strike a pro-jobs Brexit trade deal with the UK….

Maybe Chris Cairns could draw a wee picture to help the Tory Imbeciles understand that the EU is a collective, and where Brexit is concerned, it has formally appointed Michel Barnier as their Brexit negotiator. All discussion and negotiation goes through Michel Barnier – PERIOD. The individual EU member states will not, indeed cannot, negotiate individual bilateral agreements with the UK. It isn’t going to happen.

Every time the UK send a minister to Brussels, Paris, Calais, or wherever, to discuss Brexit, unless Michel Barnier is there in his formal capacity, IT IS A WASTE OF TIME.

I know David Davis said you didn’t have to be very clever to do his job, but jayzuuusss. After two feckin years of the same mind numbing stupidity, I don’t know how Barnier can keep his composure and not start throwing things at these douche bags.

Robert Peffers

@Nana says: 31 July, 2018 at 9:41 am:

“Matt Allwright on the BBC TV Licence Scam (MUST WATCH!)
link to youtube.com

Whoa! Please take note.

While this video is not wrong and it’s intentions are good please ignore it and here is why:-

They are looking at things from the point of view of English Law which does not apply in Scotland so the advice given could land you in trouble. Just about everything about it is wrong.

The English law of Trespass does not apply: The English laws on contracts does not apply.

The law of what constitute threats being made is different under Scots law and so is the law of search and search warrants.

What is right is that you should not tell the BBC, or their agents anything whatsoever, there is no law that says you must and they got it right that it is a scam.

I posted, this very week, and quoted a newspaper article that stated no one in Scotland had been convicted of illegally watching TV for five years but that 10s of thousands of Englanders who have been imprisoned.

Scottish Law is different and it protects you from the BBCs agents, (CAPITA) in many ways but that video quotes the law of England that has convicted 10 of thousands. Please ignore it.

gus1940

Robert P @3.28

If The BBC is a company presumably it will have shareholders.

Who are they and where can I buy shares?

Lenny Hartley

Gus1940 same place where you can buy shares in the Bank of England which is also a company.

Marie Clark

Call Me Dave @ 3.16, very sad to hear of Alex Fergusson’s passing.He was our constituency MSP and a gentleman. Very helpful to my family on a problem that we had, and a very good and well respected Presiding Officer.

Thoughts with his family.

Dan Huil

Keep watching developments in Ireland.

“Hard Brexit would see Sinn Féin seek border poll, says McDonald”

link to rte.ie

Ken500

Tommy Sheridan stopped warrant sales in Scotland. Bailiffs can’t enter people’s house and sell off goods.

TV licence non payment is it a civil offence? Even in England people can prevent them harassing them. There were reports to take a phone record of any approaches and the investigators backed off. They are on the internet.

They could freeze bank accounts etc to take Poll tax arrears but did Scottish Parliament not pass a Law stopping it. There was an amnesty. Councils were using the IndyRef registration to go after people for historical non Poll tax payments.

Robert Peffers

@Thepnr says: 31 July, 2018 at 3:51 pm:

@Robert Peffers
Are you for real?

Aye! I’m foe real, but I’ve had enough of arguing with numties. Have it your way.

I could tear your claims to bits but it isn’t worth the bother.

I’ll just point out your first idiocies:-

” … The BBC is a public service organisation.”

Indeed it is – in that it provides a public service – but so does almost all of the Bus services in Scotland and all of the railway services in England, Wales & N.I. As does the person that cleans the toilet for customers in ASDA provide a service to the public.

I have already poster a link to the BBC data entry from Companies House register of companies but here are you telling people the are not a private company.

Have it your way. You are not worth the bother arguing with.

Petra

@ Breeks says at 12:20 pm ….”Started thinking about it when the Brain family were being deported. Thought about it some more when Clara Ponsati was being deported. Now the UK Government is throwing vulnerable asylum seekers into the street.

Just how far removed are we from 1930’s Germany? OK, I dare to hope we are not on that trajectory, but there must have been a time in Germany when fair minded people started worrying about the reckless conduct of their government and started making rudimentary plans to hide Jews and keep them safe from the authorities. How long before Scotland need its own Comet line to secretly move these people from one hiding place to another so the authorities won’t get hold of them? Should we start planning it all now before there are curfews and we all have to produce our papers or be arrested?

I want to see Scotland start apart from all this, and be a dignified country we can all be proud of. The English / BritNats have properly taken leave of their senses. I honestly don’t know whether it’s better to be worried about them and try to help, or be scared of them and start looking after ourselves. What an indictment of 21st Century Britain.”

…………………

Breeks in my opinion, we’re truly heading towards living in a totalitarian state now where anything goes. Seemingly the Windrush people had been ”quietly” removed from the UK over many years before we found out and then there’s been stories about individuals being sent back to countries where they, and their representatives, said that they would be tortured and killed. In one case I heard of a young guy who was huckled on to a plane in the dead of night and no more was heard of him: no follow up with ”how are you getting on now?” Seemingly he just disappeared. Who cares? Not Westminster.

Imo, we are now on the slippery slope with ”going-ons”, that are akin to Germany in the 30’s. They, Westminster / Media, have been using propaganda techniques to scapegoat foreigners, to ”other” people, to ensure that they have the vast majority of people on their side when they carry out their dirty deeds. Most of which we’ll know nothing about, I’m sure.

Breeks: ”I want to see Scotland start apart from all this, and be a dignified country we can all be proud of.”

I do too Breeks, but I think we’ll have to forget about helping them and expend our energy in getting out, ASAP. If not for our sakes, for our children, grandchildren and the vulnerable in our society who are depending on us. It’s quite telling to think that Scotland was the only country in Europe that didn’t expel Jews throughout the centuries, when we were Independent, and now we’re reduced to having to stand back and watch this going on. Sad or what?

Next up, of course, we’ll have the BBC (and STV) interviewing these asylum seekers on the streets. Not bothering one whit about them, rather trying to put the fear of death into those in Scotland, their viewers, who are fearful of newcomers.

I reckon it’s all part of their plan. Well worked out. From Westminster to Serco to the BBC and so on. Let’s hope that Nicola is making sure that this doesn’t happen. Something else for her to deal with.

link to en.wikipedia.org

Scot Finlayson

The BBC is a Statutory Corporation,

a statutory corporation is a corporate body created by statute (a written law passed by a legislative body),

it typically has no shareholders and its powers are defined by the Act of Parliament which creates it, and may be modified by later legislation.

Bit like what was British Rail,British Coal Board, British Post Office.

Graeme

I have a question I hope someone can answer for me

I have a small garage business and for years now I’ve been pestered with letters from TV Licensing telling me I’m under investigation, and all the dire consequences that will befall me if I’m watching TV on my premises without one and that I should purchase a license immediately or fill in the attached form if I think I don’t need a license and send it back to them ,

Although these letters are written in very intimidating and threatening language they don’t scare me and are promptly ripped up and thrown in the bin

Last week I received another letter which was different from the rest informing me again that I’m under investigation and that I WILL be getting a visit from their collection officers which I’m rather looking forward to because apart from anything else I don’t have a TV on the premises let alone watch live broadcasts

As this is a commercial property and open to the public they don’t have to knock at the door they can just walk straight in so just to clarify am I right in thinking they don’t have any authority, I don’t have to answer any of their questions and I can tell them politely or otherwise to piss off ?

manandboy

Graeme, with a very similar experience to your own, lasting the past two years, I am still waiting for ‘the visit’.

If they come, I will switch my phone camera on to video, and politely tell whoever that I am withdrawing their right to approach. I will then close the door and that will be the end of it.

Dorothy Devine

OT Just caught the trail for Misreporting Scotland – another attack on the SNHS coming up.

I know I shouldn’t wish folk ill but it would be a real treat if there was some mass illness in BBBC Scotland which resulted in them being treated and quarantined in Betty’s.

Images of Carry on Nurse and daffodils spring lithely to mind.

Thepnr

You cannot be jailed for failing to pay for a TV license and are then caught or admit to watching live broadcast TV without one.

The maximum penalty is a fine of £1000 and that applies in both Scotland and the rest of the UK.

People can be jailed though for non payment of the fine just as you can be jailed for non payment of any fine.

link to gov.uk

The number of people jailed each year in England is in the dozens and generally less than 100/year. In Scotland none at all have been jailed in recent years as so few are ever charged compared to the ludicrous number that are in England.

manandboy

A view of where Tory policy has brought us:-

link to bilbo.economicoutlook.net

Last week (July 26, 2018), the British Office of National Statistics (ONS) published an article – Making ends meet: are households living beyond their means? – rwhich draws on analysis of the most recent national accounts data, and, which bears on my assessment in 2011.

The article sets out to “Explore how UK household finances have changed in the last 30 years”.

The conclusion is that that Britain is undergoing major changes that are moving it more in the direction of the US, with increased household poverty and precariousness and away from the Welfare State of the past.

There was an interesting article on June 2, 2018 in the UK Independent – The big squeeze: In slow-bleed Britain, austerity is changing everything – which presented a consistent view of these changes.

That article noted that:

After eight years of budget cutting, too many communities are looking less like the rest of Europe and more like the United States, with a shrinking welfare state and spreading poverty.

It reports on what is happening in British towns and communities and presents a harrowing picture.

We read that:

For a nation with a storied history of public largesse, the protracted campaign of budget cutting, started in 2010 by the coalition government led by the Conservatives, has delivered a monumental shift in British life. A wave of austerity has yielded a country that has grown accustomed to living with less, even as many measures of social wellbeing – crime rates, opioid addiction, infant mortality, childhood poverty and homelessness – point to a deteriorating quality of life.

Dr Jim

Today i’ve been listening to the news from all over England and I’ve heard about how Englands water companies have to catch up with Scottish water practices, i’ve heard about how England has to catch up with Scottish education as Scotland is doing so much better in all aspects of this

I’ve also heard about how the English NHS is failing so very badly compared to the Scottish NHS in many areas but importantly the amount of drugs that are available in Scotland that are not in England, now we know there are always some differences but it would appear by quite some distance Scotlands practices once again outstrip those of Englands NHS by some considerable distance

Then I switched on BBC radio Scotland and to hear them tell it and the unbiased experts they keep digging up tell it Scotland has been a basket case ever since the SNP took office, y’see and that’s kinda what gives the game away when the BBC can’t even cook up a more convincing fake load of garbage than this constant daily tripe they plop out of their very own big mouths

Do the BBC not know our radios can get other stations on them these days

galamcennalath

Dan Huil says:

Keep watching developments in Ireland.

“Hard Brexit would see Sinn Féin seek border poll, says McDonald”

link to rte.ie

I get the impression that both north and south, they feel the ‘time isn’t right’. It’s being forced upon them.

From the article …. “Ms McDonald said it is not an ideal scenario nor the ideal climate for a referendum … if a crash happens… “well then we have to play the hand we are dealt and that would make it as a matter of urgency that the question of Irish unity be put” to the people.”

Which is a very sensible and pragmatic position to take.

I assume Nicola is thinking along the same lines … if a ‘crash’ Brexit is on the cards, Scotland NEEDS IndyRef2.

Patrick Roden

RE: BBC,

It’s surely about time to hit back.

One thing that I’ve wondered about, is surely it must be illegal for the BBC to send letters to peoples homes threatening consequences for people who have not paid for their service?

Just think about the amount of vulnerable people who may pay the licence fee tax, even though they don’t need one, simply because they read the threats and are frightened enough to pay.

In fact, I bet if any corporation sent out letters telling people they must pay a certain amount or face prosecution, they would get quite a number of people paying through fear.

Surely it must (or should) be illegal for any company to threaten people unless that company has got evidence they have agreed to provide a service, and that the other party have agreed to receive the service, then the other party have then reneged on the agreement?

Can’t we start to lobby the SNP to get them to make it illegal (or just enforce the existing laws) so that the BBC can’t send threatening letters (unless they can show breach of contract)

If in fact the BBC are breaking the law, in order to threaten people into paying for services they may not be receiving, then they are by any reasonable definition, a criminal organisation.

It is illegal in UK law (both Scots and UK law, to help fund illegal/criminal organisations.

Could it be that paying the licence Fee is a criminal act?

Don’t be a criminal, cancel the licence!

What a slogan that would be.

manandboy

In all the letters I’ve received about TV licence, none has included any reference whatsoever to the BBC.

The TV licence is a UK Government tax. Pure and simple.

The association between the TV licence and the BBC is an example of very successful brainwashing.

The company chasing non payment of TV licence are debt collectors appointed by the British government.

Eppy

Re Patrick Roden (6.18 pm)

As never having owned a telly and never having paid a licence fee I feel glad now that I have not supported the BBC.

When I first met my husband, he had an ancient TV which hadn’t been used in several years and was in a box in the attic, and he got rid of it shortly after we met.

Despite this he was pestered for a licence for several years.

One evening, many years later an inspector came to the door. I looked surprised to see him and he took my surprise as guilt. Luckily my eldest son, who was about 8 at the time took him into the house, showed him all the books and toys we had and told him quite proudly that we didn’t have a TV though choice.

The poor chap went in seconds from thinking that he had an offender on his hands to looking quite stunned.

My husbands argument was, “I don’t have a shotgun either, but I am not regularly required to prove it.”

We subsequently moved house (about 11 years ago) and the pestering started again. Some of the letters were very threatening but I now feel no compunction about putting them straight in the bin. Although they demand an answer, I don’t feel legally obliged to do so. Still no TV and I am perfectly happy not watching i-player or such like either.

manandboy

Brainwashing antibiotic – in 2007 George Osborne announced Austerity as a means to reduce the National Debt. The Tories then doubled the National Debt. A big lie was born.

Osborne also said that Austerity would become the default economic position for the UK.

Given that Austerity has nothing to do with the National Debt, what is its purpose? Answer: Austerity is designed to realign British Society so as to make it like the American model of very rich and the poor. In other words, to destroy the middle class, who are despised by the elite as deluded because they, the middle class, think that they could become like the very wealthy.

Tinto Chiel

“It is illegal in UK law (both Scots and UK law, to help fund illegal/criminal organisations.”

@Patrick Roden: I think this guy thought along similar lines to yourself…

link to geopolitics.co

Still surprised he won his case, though.

Gerry

re the TV Tax…. A few years back I responded to one of their letters by phone, and argued that I had to take the time and trouble to get in touch with them and incur expense in doing so.

I threatened them with a small claims court action if they failed to compensate me for my time and expense, citing that they were in essence costing me money for NOT having having paid the TV Tax.

I got a cheque for a fiver or so the next week. Didn’t cash it, and wish I had framed it. I have since moved address and am considering doing the same thing now. The only downside is that you have to give them your details to do so, which I am hesitant to do for my current address.

jfngw

Just seen the front cover of the next iScot, not one for the coffee table. Just put me off my meal it did!

Reluctant Nationalist

Tinto Chiel @ 7.09pm

‘kin ‘ell. I never knew about that case. Bookmarked.

Petra

@ TC at 7:09 pm …. “US 9/11 BBC fiasco.”

I just checked that link out TC and the contents of the video have been blocked by the BBC on copyright grounds, lol. Is that because I’m trying to access it on this site or have they blocked it altogether?

Petra

It’s ok TC, I see it’s still on YouTube.

Capella

Stu tweets that he’ll be on GMS tomorrow. Will make an exception and listen in.

link to twitter.com

Brian Cahill

Hi Stuart, I wonder who instructed the BBC lawyer? I have nothing but contemp for the BBC and their obvious bias. I will be at the demo on Saturday.We need our Independence bloggers more than ever. Good work and thank you.

Petra

Rooth the Mooth was on STV news tonight talking about the late Alex Ferguson, Presiding Officer. It’s amazing how she can manage to clamber out of her bunker when it suits her.

Capella

BBC again. They report that a robber was released early from prison and raped a teenager in a Dundee car park 20 days later.
link to bbc.co.uk

They fail to mention that he was in prison in England.

The usual suspects have been bitterly condemning the SNP and demanding they reform the Scottish justice system. Oops.

link to archive.fo

ScottieDog

@manandboy
Brainwashing antibiotic – in 2007 George Osborne announced Austerity as a means to reduce the National Debt. The Tories then doubled the National Debt. A big lie was born.

Unfortunately that lie started with Thatcher.

The basics of macroeconomics is fairly simple. Aggregate spending = aggregate income.
Someone’s spending is anither’s Income.

The tories and new labour and a compliant media kept such simple facts away from the populace for decades.

Highland Wifie

@Capella
Wow. That should be worth tuning in to. Probably the only thing that would persuade me to break my fourteen month boycott of radio shortbread.
Go Stu. 🙂

Gary

This seems a little ‘too easy’ to me.

I know this is not easy at all but what I mean is that, Wings is rather adept at rooting through to get to the point and wading through legalese to get things done. They’ve tried many tricks already, haven’t they. So why try one with such an obvious route to dealing with it? I mean, although time-consuming, the procedure I straightforward. You identify the videos, you put your counter claim in and then you wait for reinstatement (because you know you have dealt with this is a legal, proper and ‘by the rules’ kinda way.

As I have said in previous comments, the BBC are NOT naïve. I fear they have something else up their sleeves.

We have all seen, no doubt, the BBC promoting their news as being factual and even going to schools and producing materials to help schoolchildren (allegedly) be able to distinguish between fact and fake news. Looking at issues of bias and radicalisation, foreign interference etc etc.

Facebook, likewise, after getting itself into TERRIBLE hot water has been on a campaign to end fake news. I must admit to some glee when I discovered that ‘The Daily Mail’ had been banned from Facebook’s now defunct ‘trending’ for fake news! It(Facebook) has suffered from being dragged in front of committees, being fined, heavily scrutinised and accused of facilitating interference and other illegal actions in regard to referenda and national elections here and in the US too.

I would not be at all surprised if the BBC pulled a rabbit from it’s voluminous hat and DID decide, either to proceed with legal action, or take other action aimed at continued disruption of Wings’ channel.

They need not win, they need only have it drag on sufficiently long that either your money runs out or they are convinced it will have a large enough effect on the viewing figures and hence reader numbers for YouTube and the Blog.

I sense a trap, be careful. Accept nothing, question EVERYTHING…

Legerwood

More BBC partial, in every sense, reporting.

There is a story in the Courier – saw it on Rev’s Twitter – about a r*pe case in Dundee. The man who was charged, and found guilty, had been released early from a previous jail sentence shortly before he committed the r*pe so a Tory has jumped in with both feet and criticised the SG’s early release policy.

Only thing is he was released early from an English jail. The Courier makes this clear in its report.

Read the report of this on BBC News web site (Scotland). The report mentions that he had been released early from jail shortly before committing the r*pe BUT at NO point does it mention that his early release was from an English Jail.

The BBC…what are they like

Capella

BBC again. They report that a robber was released early from prison and r*ped a teenager in a Dundee car park 20 days later.
link to bbc.co.uk

They fail to mention that he was in prison in England.

The usual suspects have been bitterly condemning the SNP and demanding they reform the Scottish justice system. Oops.

link to archive.fo

Fred

If it isn’t time for a poll on Irish unification post Brexit why not a re-drawing of the completely gerrymandered & artificial Northern Ireland border which would probably only leave Antrim & Down.

Brian Powell

On the early release rapist, Wings can mention it was an English prison, work it in somewhere. A good example of the need to keep an eye on the MSM. That’s if they use more than 15secs of the interview.

Thepnr

@Legerwood & Capella

Deplorable journalism. In fact it’s not journalism at all, simply an attack on the SNP who have absolutely nothing to do with this case and they well know this to be the case.

Some of them should be in jail for lying.

Capella

@ Legerwood – snap 🙂

I posted the story earlier but forgot that it wouldn’t appear with the word r*pe in it.

@ Highland Wifie – Stu thinks he wll be on at 7.45 but that could change.

jfngw

@Thepnr

The trouble is, it’s not actually lying but misleading by not giving all the facts. With their previous stories regarding early release the public will just assume the release was in Scotland. They will just claim it was editor choice as they didn’t believe that detail was pertinent. They are masters at this type of factual slight of hand.

ronnie anderson

Seemingly the Home Office have issued a statement to the effect they will no longer talk to MSPs .

Clootie

Do the BBC spend all their time trawling NHS data to find a target being missed?….of course they do.
They will never put it in context of a percentage OR how it compares with other UK nations.

Like the rape case the BBC is simply proving their credentials as propaganda agent for the state.

BBC Scotland – a never ending stream of negative spin.

Thepnr

@jfngw

I realised after posting that “jailed for lying” was the wrong thing to say in this case.

They should be jailed for “crimes against journalism” by not giving all the facts is maybe more appropriate.

Capella

@ Thepnr – that’s what I thought until I read the Courier article from Stu’s twitter. There must be a journaist at the Courier. The BBC is beyond redemption.

Looking forward to hear how they intend to skewer Stu tomorrow. Some joker on twitter asked him to record it and upload it to Youtube in case he missed it. Endless comic potential here.

Jockanese Wind Talker

You got a link to the Home Office not speaking to MSPs Ronnie?

Gary45%

Stu, Tread carefully regarding the BBC, if going into Pathetic Quay wear rubber gloves when touching door handles etc.
Do not trust the Bas**rds under any circumstances.
You are the thorn in their side.

ronnie anderson

JW Talker Sos I was informed during a phone conversation it was on the radio , thats nothing new I got a letter from DWP secretary not to have my MSP ( Alex Neil ) to act on my behalf ,I had to use my MP ( Karen Whitfield ) lol .

Highland Wifie

@ronnie
@Jockanese Wind Talker
Sorry can’t link but Righttoremain.org.uk has a Toolkit of advice for people dealing with immigration issues and they state that the Home Office have had a policy since 2009 of not responding to MSPs. Not sure how reliable this is.

HandandShrimp

Liam Kerr must be a candidate for May’s Home Secretary. He seems to be as ill informed and as incompetent as the rest of her cabinet.

lumilumi

Well, I go away sailing and when I come back, it’s a Brexit shitstorm in the twittersphere and here.

Extreme Brexiters seem to be… how can I put this… stupid. Swept away on a nostalgic, nationalist narrative. The Blitz spirit, rah rah rah!

But it’s much like Germans were in the 1930s, aye? Ordinary people become nazis, or at least stand back and let other do it.

It’s 2018, of course people won’t starve, or get rickets or scurvy. But shortages of fresh fruit/veg are a given, due to the JiT sourcing. A hiccup even in the best case scenario will cause delays.

Bam Brexiteers say it’s gonna be allright because WTO rules and free trade… Without having a clue as to how WTO actually works. They’re just so pumped up about the British empire, the “good old days” when Brits could subjucate peoples round the world, because they are so exceptional, and the EU should acknolodge that… Ecept the EU27 laugh at the English pride shooting at their own feet.

The thing I really worry about is the creeping fascism in European politics. The discredited US nazi Steve Bannon has already made inroads into European politics, supporting UKIP and the like. He’s now setting up a “Foundation” in Europe to advance extreme right-wing, racits policies.

I don’t want to be some conspiracy fruitcake but Brexit is a coup to give as much, as many as possible national assets to cynical “disaster capitalist”.

And many misguided vote fodder leavers try to cling to the unicorn narrative, the narrative that anyting contrary to ther fed view is “fake news”.
Jeez.want to have their cake and eat it (“cakeism” has already entered te European political vocabulary), and desperately try to tell the rest of the world but don’t realise the rest of the world now treats them as unreliable partners for any human endauvor.

Thepnr

@Highland Wifie

The statement on the website you mentioned about the Home Office attitude to queries from MSP’s regarding immigration issues is a peach.

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, and elects MPs to the UK parliament, but it also has a Scottish parliament. The Scottish government has powers in areas such as health, education and justice, but not immigration and asylum.

These matters are reserved to the UK parliament, meaning the Scottish government and members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs) have no influence on the law.

This should not rule out MSPs representing their constituents in a similar way to MPs, but since around 2009 the Home Office, unlike other UK government agencies, has a had a policy of refusing to respond to MSPs.

link to righttoremain.org.uk

Hopefully Scotland will soon tell them where to go.

HandandShrimp

Enjoy your sail Lumilumi

Hopefully we will still be here when you get back and not sold off to Monsanta or something in order to facilitate a Brexit trade deal.

Petra

I was just checking out the, “Criminal released from English prison heads north and r*pes Scot”, article on the BBC website.

Of course not, just kidding, no mention of him being released from a prison in England at all. The BBC up to it’s “we’re not impartial or honest” games again? Propaganda through omission. No wonder they’re cracking up. They’ve been getting away with blue murder for decades now, however social media seems to have stymied that (to some extent).

When I was on their site (one I don’t normally visit), having a nosy around, I noticed that the only political articles that the public can make comments on relate to Scotland. Hundreds of comments submitted by people from all over the UK (and further afield?) arguing the bit out with each other. Working well in creating a north – south divide. Does anyone know if this the norm (as with some newspapers)? If so that’s blatant bias to say the least. I’m going to check this out on a regular basis and if it does seem to be the norm i.e. Scotland only, I’m contacting the BBC followed by Ofcom. Not that I expect the latter, Westminster / BBC lackey, to do anything either but we should all think of bombarding them constantly with genuine complaints anyway. Bog them down.

ronnie anderson

JW Talker
Highland Wifie

Its the National’s front page headline tomorrow if somebody could put it up .

Petra

@ luminumi at “people won’t starve, get rickets or scurvy…..”

I hate to tell you luminumi, but people have starved / are starving to death in the UK and the incidence of rickets, scurvy and malnutrition is on the rise, especially in the London area. And in the winter one person dies every 7 minutes from cold related issues in England and Wales. No stats, on the latter, seemingly for Scotland.

ronnie anderson

scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/38085357_630411770675140_8691678317088079872_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=920f4370bc228c403dc963a60b770610&oe=5BC70908

Hope this is right .

Thepnr

@ronnie anderson

Here you go, tomorrows headline from the National. Seems like old news though as I posted earlier it has been going on since 2009!

link to twitter.com

Thepnr
Petra

You’ve got to laugh at this farce of a Union. A bunch of conmen / women. The Home Office won’t respond to MSP’s and yet we’re getting all this hoo-ha now in relation to how sorry they are about the Tories totally (Brexcrement) ignoring us and about the fabulous changes they’re recommending (Westminster’s Public Administration and Consitutional Affairs Committee), such as considering doing away with the Scotland Office and the office of SoS. Aye right, right enough, just as they’re sending a veritable army of civil servants north to newly leased premises in Edinburgh. The cross-party committee chockablock with Tory and Labour MPs with one SNP MP involved! Getting close again folks – another Vow in the offing?

Thepnr

@Petra

“Getting close again folks – another Vow in the offing?”

I think that’s exactly right, what was the point of that committee other than to come up with something they could use against Independence in the next Referendum?

There was no other point, another sop towards the Jocks who are getting more restless is all it was. Sorry but those that have already been fooled won’t be fooled again.

We are no longer listening yet, they appear to have missed that too.

Still Posituve

The Pnr @ 12.12 and Petra @ 11.57

Totally agree.

What a shower of f***ing barstewards.

yesindyref2

@Robert Peffer
You’re totally wrong, as someone else said you found the marketing arm of the BBC, BBC Worldwide, which sells series and other programs all over the world – successfully.

THIS is the BBC

link to beta.companieshouse.gov.uk

” Company number RC000057

Company Overview for BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION (RC000057)

Company type
Royal Charter company “

Petra

It might have been going on since 2009 Thepnr and be old news for you (and we), however for the vast majority of Scots it will be “new” news. Additionally they’re now ready to change the locks on their doors and throw 300 people on to the street with their bag and baggage, not sneak one individual out of their back door in the middle of the night: Followed by the Home Office deporting them, if they can get away with it. The situation in this country is worsening day by day and I say well done to the National for making it their front page news.

Thepnr

@Petra

It was “new” news for me too until tonight when Highland Wifie posted the website name of righttoremin.org where I read about the Home Office having a policy of ignoring MSP’s

I say well done to the National too, this really is the major issue with the MSM as far as I’m concerned. Just why haven’t we been told of this before if it has been Home Office policy since 2009?

This is why sites like Wings are very important, you get more truth and facts hers in a single article than you would get from the MSM in a year. Damn the BBC.

Petra

@ Thepnr …. “Sorry but those who have already been fooled won’t be fooled again.”

Spot on Thepnr. They’ve finally run out of ammunition.

………

Robert (P) I keep meaning to ask how you’re doing? Keeping your chin up following such a devastating event in your life? Whatever the case, I think about you often and I’m sending you all my very best wishes X

Dr Jim

Bernard Jenkin and Lesley Laird are behind the new and shiny glisteny devolusionary vowie offery for Scotland

So yeah! cannae wait

Still Positive

I taught the children of the first asylum seekers who were relocated to Glasgow in May 2000 and a more delightful bunch of children you could not hope to meet.

In fact one mother from Somalia used to hug us all every time she came to the school because we were teaching her children who had been denied mainstream education for 3 years before they arrived in Glasgow.

All of the parents were grateful that their children were being educated.

Thepnr

@yesindyref2

Had never heard of a Royal Charter Company before and saw from your link there there is no requirement to disclose who the directors are or to file any accounts.

Had a wee look and in 2017 there were 859 of this type of company from a total of over 4 million companies in the UK. Fascinating spreadsheet I found on a link, for example there were less than 1 million companies in the UK in 1983.

Have a gander, Table C1 shows the number of Royal Charter companies. It’s a direct link to the download of the XLS file with a massive number of characters so I’ve used tinyurl.

link to tinyurl.com

yesindyref2

OT
Sometimes I’ll say about some celebrity or presenter “He / she is a clown / idiot / whatever” and my wife will say “a very rich clown / whatever”.

Petra

Same here, Thepnr. I’ve learned more on here, politics, history and so on, than I’d learned re. these particular subjects in my prior lifetime – pre-Wings. This site is extremely innovative, influential and therefore totally indispensable, hence the constant attacks on Stu. The Establishment are attempting to use the military tactic of ridding themselves of the Officer class in the hope of throwing the rank and file into disarray. Not quite working out for them is it, lol.

BJ

Donalda MacKinnon, Director BBC Scotland, a grand title for someone who in my opinion is nothing more than a ("Quizmaster" - Ed) and a well paid BBC plant.

She couldn’t care less about trust as long as she has the power.

yesindyref2

@Thepnr
Interesting, some types there seem to be so few. Don’t know how accurate, but there’s a list in wiki:

link to en.wikipedia.org

Thepnr

Can’t find a list of the 859 Royal Charter Companies but they mainly comprise if Institutions (think British here) like the British Standards Institute or the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Chartered Accountants etc. ect.

Get the picture?

Ken Sewell

@ Thepnr 12.30
Yup twas new News to me also.I’m not sure you can place the blame on the BBC for no notification of what appears to have been a Home Office instruction sometime in 2009 unless the HO had, at that time, some method in place to ensure that a restriction of this nature be placed in the public domain. Fat chance methinks! It strikes me that perhaps a FOI to said HO requesting the minister in charge at that time to advise
1. Who initiated this restriction?
2. When?
3. How the terms of this restriction be broadcast?

If my memory serves me right, the Minister in charge at that time was is now in charge of the

Thepnr

@yesindyref2

Holy shit! That is some list, I think you’ve just highlighted what the “Establishment” actually is.

Ken Sewell

ooOps hit the wrong key
Ach it was the Maybot.

Jack collatin

Caught Distorting Scotland’s ‘beefed up’ piece about sacking Mundell at teatime.
The Red Tory Shadow Secretary of State for North Britain is calling for a Constitutional Convention. Fuck.
I can’t recall her name, since she is a serious Nobody plucked from the ranks to do a Nothin’ Job, but she is 100 light years behind the current mood in Scotland, as is the Branch Office.
We are leaving your precious Union, M’am.

Petra

@ Dr Jim …. “Bernard Jenkins…”

They must think that we button up the back, Dr Jim. Iain MacWhirter highlighted in his “High noon Sturgeon faces May” article in the Herald in March just what he thinks of the Scots. And that’s not a lot, far from it. Now he wants to rid us of the Scotland Office. You couldnae make this stuff up. Well we couldn’t. They do …. over and over and over again. No more.

yesindyref2

@Thepnr
Yes, some are what you’d expect, but some are a bit dubious:
“Royal Masonic Institution for Girls ”
“The Institute of Taxation”
“The Chartered Institute of Linguists” (that’s cunning)
“The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants ” (isn’t that some kind of contradiction?)
Here’s one for David Leask: “The Worshipful Company of Launderers”

I’d better stop now, I’m being most unroyal! Bang goes my chance of ever getting a worshipful royal charter. Oh well.

Thepnr

@Ken Sewell

I thought it was the Maybot as well but she didn’t take over until May 2010. Still the other website could have had the date wrong, who knows.

My point I think was that by now it should have been common knowledge among Scottish MSP’s that the Home Office would refuse to respond to queries by MSP’s and I wonder why no one has raised a stink about that before now.

These MSP’s represent us and are surely entitled on our behalf to make enquiries of the Home Office that affect their constituents.

Just another example I think of the democratic deficit of happening to live in Scotland where it seems that Westminster departments can ignore your elected officials at their whim.

Can’t be doing with that and it’s high time Scotland became Independent.

yesindyref2

Before I go back to work I thought of something earlier, something like:

“Independence isn’t X, it’s a neccessity”, like

“Independence isn’t for fun, it’s a neccessity”.

But I firget, maybe it was “a dire neccessity”.

Anyways, you could have a whole load of “Independence isn’t for …” followed by the last bit – for different occasions.

Thepnr

This is a beauty from the totally demented rag Daily Express.

Brexit bonus! Brits MUST have own passport lanes at airports after we quit EU insists May

Sorry for the state of the archive link, all grey and no idea why but I will never give a direct link to that rag.

link to archive.fo

Petra

I’ve just been checking out that Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Bernard Jenkins Chair, plus four Tories and five Labour MPs (one under the guise of being Independent) and then one SNP MP.

There’s an awful lot of talk about devolution being created after we joined the EU and that changes will have to be made now. Something stinks, imo. There’s some data on sovereignty on their latest paper. Worth a read. Sorry I can’t post some of the interesting links using my IPad. Will do tomorrow. Or maybe someone else will take a look. Post links.

yesindyref2

Your man on Countdown was well robbed. Symphoria is a truly wonderful word, and having just finished a marathon job, it definitely describes me to a T. Summon up the cymbals, bang on the old bass drum, blow your trumpet, let there be music!

Nana

I live on a remote Scottish island and we are starting to plan food stores and increased food production because of a Brexit which Scotland consistently opposed.
link to threadreaderapp.com

link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com

link to randompublicjournal.com

THROUGH A SCOTTISH PRISM- THE THREE BEARS- THE SEQUEL
link to viloud.tv

Nana

“Anybody reading this document would be in no doubt that the notion that this, the key European trade artery, can be ready for a no deal Brexit within eight months is probably impossible.” @faisalislam’s exclusive on Dover’s plan for a “no deal” Brexit
Video here
link to twitter.com

link to publiclawforeveryone.com

link to freemovement.org.uk

link to opendemocracy.net

Nana

Brexit: past the point of no return
link to eureferendum.com

This is the extraordinary @MarcusFysh on #Newsnight. This is how a Conservative MP treats business nowadays, even trade associations, trying to explain the potential risks of hard Brexit – with arrogance, smugness, and impenetrable stupidity, calling them silly and unpatriotic.
link to twitter.com

link to thepeoplesnewsonline.co.uk

link to rt.com

Highland Wifie

Thanks for posting the link Thepnr.
If this has been policy since 2009 I’m surprised it hasn’t come to light sooner. It must be so frustrating for MSPs who are trying to do their job supporting their constituents but have their hands tied by that monolith that is the Home Office. It just makes a mockery of any pretence that we have control over what happens to our citizens.
Control over immigration is fundamental to control over our economy but we’ll never be allowed to have that as long as WM has any say .

Dorothy Devine

Thepnr , we will have – it’s called a queue!

Dorothy Devine

Thepnr , or ‘unwelcome aliens’

Highland Wifie

Ha ha ha. No queues please, we’re British.
Is there no end to their sense of exceptionalism?
Good luck with that attitude at European airports. The rest of the world queue is over there….

Terry

OMG. Wings on radio shortbread!

Breeks

Something which describes itself as “The Worshipful Company of…..” is likely to be a London Livery Company.

Traditionally these were trade Guilds within the City of London dating back to medieval times, and most big cities had them to regulate the performance of its Trades. More recently, it’s relevance to individual Trades is tangential and symbolic, but London Liverymen will all have the Freedom of the City. That isn’t the Honorary Freedom of the City which Heroes and the Famous can get, but a vestigial “freedom to trade within the city” which these days is 100% symbolic.

These Guilds are (mostly) very old and very rich, but all are dedicated to the prosperity of London. If you want a Scottish Comparison, Dundee has its Nine Trades. London had more, and kept them going.

They are what they are. But if you trawled a net full of them, I believe you’d catch a lot more decent and honourable English patriots than you’d catch screaming BritNats, but of course, ask them to a pick a side, and there is only one side they’ll ever pick.

Another snippet of info is that most cities had similar bodies of city fathers, but Coventry did not. That’s where the expression of being “sent to Coventry” or shunned, for doing something wrong. If you disgraced your trade, you’d be flung out your city, and have to go to Coventry to make a living.

Thepnr

Thought the Rev did pretty well there on Radio Scotland, at least Gary Robertson gave him some respect and he got to say his piece, very good.

Highland Wifie

Excellent interview by Stu. Calm, reasonable, factual as you would expect.
Loved that he got the reference in about it being a state broadcaster.
Good outing.

Thepnr

@Breeks

Still learning something new everyday here, ta. Thanks too for the links Nana, your apprentice wisnae bad either 🙂

Macart

@Nana

Cheers Nana. Appreciated as ever. 🙂

Honestly though? Feeling like a half shut drawer this morning. Wondering if the world could possibly stop throwing stuff at us for the next day or so till we catch up on sleep?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……..

Les Wilson

Well a bit of a low key fudge by Gary Robertson, EBCs apparently do not know about the fair use issue, their London legals have not answered them with clarification.They will keep “Trying” apparently,aye so they will.
No usual raving from Robertson, knowing perhaps lots of us would be listening to every word.

Rev was calm and direct with his replies.

Robertson is no fool, he knows the rules ok, the obnoxious auntie just trying to calm us a little. That ain’t going to work, the natives are more than restless and they know it.

Craig

Well done Rev for your handling of Gary Robertson this morning.

Perhaps he thought he had a foil for your complaints by referencing the Labour Councillor but you had your repost ready.

Capella

Excellent interview Stu. Gary ran through the standard BBC excuses and Stu effectively demolished them.

The fact that Scott Arthur had obviously privatised his videos in an attempt to look like balance was made. Also the stress on the London control and lack of cooperation or transparency was well made.

All that is missing is your ability to upload your interview to Youtube!

Baldeagle58

Highland Wifie says:

1 August, 2018 at 8:05 am

Excellent interview by Stu. Calm, reasonable, factual as you would expect.
Loved that he got the reference in about it being a state broadcaster.
Good outing.

Morning All.
Firstly thanks again Nana for all these LINKS

Secondly, as I don’t listen to BBC Shortbread, can anyone possibly post a link to Stu’s interview?

Thanks. 🙂

Nana

@ Baldeagle

Here’s the interview with Stu

link to pilaraymara.com

Baldeagle58

Nana says:

1 August, 2018 at 8:55 am

@ Baldeagle

Here’s the interview with Stu

link to pilaraymara.com

Thanks Nana. 🙂

Nana

Good morning Thepnr, Aye Smallaxe did really well 🙂

@ Macart I know how you feel, I’ll be hibernating soon as we are independent 🙂

Fred

Well done Nana, the plot thickens!

Nana

link to thenational.scot

Brussels willing to accept ‘fudge’ on Brexit pact
Vague declaration on future ties would help Theresa May avoid ‘no deal’ departure
link to ft.com

link to irishtimes.com

link to zelo-street.blogspot.com

Baldeagle58

Thanks for the link Nana.

I’ve just listened to the interview.
Well done to Stu and also to Gary Robertson who didn’t attempt to talk over him, but gave Stu the time to answer the questions put to him.

Les Wilson

Ok, so Youtube now appears to be in league with the BBC, no real surprise the US government has huge links with the UK in all aspects. They support each other almost all the time.
Youtube owned by google of course, who got a tax reduction from Westminster. Make of that what you will.

However, my main concern is that it appears to be co-ordinated plan. So what next, my fear is the website itself, which I feel certain the dark forces would be more than happy to obstruct it in any way they can.

Shinty

“I’ll be hibernating soon as we are independent ?”

Me too, trying to keep up takes up way to much of my time.

Call it Nicola. Let’s do everything we can to win back our Country. Then, sit back and watch as Scotland joins the world.

Shinty

‘too much’ (sorry)

yesindyref2

@Breeks
Thanks for that, never knew that about Coventry!

Al-Stuart

Hi Stuart,

In the other thread, I posited the question whether you would sell the Wings Over Scotland website for £250,000?

That was of course to illustrate the real value you had added since day 1 of WoS when the website was worth just £200. Part of my thesis that you have the financial muscle to start an online Scottish Television Channel, with high quality content.

If we fail to get a fair hearing for Indref2 we will fail to win that vote.

Alex Salmond knows this, which is why he utilised the only media vehicle available to his part of the fight: Russia TV.

We are Scots for goodness sake. One of our people invented the bloody television machine and we have ALWAYS punched above our national weight in inventing things and making a positive difference to the world.

So surely WoS can fundraise to start an online Scottish Television channel. 45% of Scotland vote that way, so thenre is an audience for such a thing.

The ancillary and profound benefit being we persuade an extra 10% to vote YES at Indyref2.

Stuart, you clearly have to fight the BBC and Youtube on this takedown. But the bigger picture is we need to get a fair hearing on Scottish media. The National is doing a brilliant job in their arena. But Unionist superstires hide the newspaper. The National may get us an addiitonal 2% at Indyref2. We need more.

Declaring UDI with a new Scottish Media online television service is a good way to go.

In fact, as a Scot, this whole issue of the Youtube WoS site takedown has given me some fascinating reading. Thank you 🙂 . Come join in and learn a bit about online media and jings, the money it makes! That could create a helluva lot of new jobs in Scotland….

link to theguardian.com


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