The picture spin quiz
When an alert reader pointed us to a story yesterday in the comments, we were too busy to get round to covering it and now all the mainstream media has picked it up and we’re behind the times. But having looked at the media’s reporting of it, we couldn’t help noticing something strange.
Can anyone spot the word that’s curiously missing from all these headlines, straplines and opening paragraphs?
Got it yet?
When oil is volatile and running out, it’s in Scotland. When it’s the source of a £200bn “bonanza”, hey, look what country it belongs to again all of a sudden.
£200bn over 20 years is £10bn a year. Allocating the appropriate geographic share would, very roughly speaking, double the average annual revenue coming in to an independent Scottish Treasury from the North Sea, comfortably plugging Scotland’s entire deficit of £3.4bn with billions left over.
So it’s quite the mystery why none of the press headlines, even in Scottish newspapers, take that particular angle to reporting the story, wouldn’t you say?
UK or Scotland
Silly man, of course they won’t mention Scottish independence here, oil is a burden for us but a boost for Westminster, thought you knew that
Surely we’ll see Darling and BT hurrying to rubbish this report, which clearly contradicts their iron-clad analysis that the oil is going to run completely dry almost as soon as we become independent, no?
Well spotted!
You can’t tell them its Scotland’s oil! So Seventies
Yup, North Sea Oil and Gas = Andy Murray, but worse: Andy doesn’t get the ‘British when he wins/Scottish when he loses’ treatment by ‘Scottish’ media.
Nice Scotland, good Scotland, pat, pat. How would you like Devo max written into the referendum question after all?
Surely some mistake, according to Better Together it would run out in a few weeks and be worth 50 pence after 2016 if we vote Yes.
I think the Unionists, in their desperation to bribe us, have just plucked a number out of the air. They can’t just make assertions like ‘200 bn’ – we need facts and certainties before we would even contemplate the leap into the unknown that forging a Union with England would entail. Scotland’s six million people deserve to know the truth!
Out of all of those “clips” above there is not one use of the word Scotland not one. As Rev stu points out. Only the Evening Times mentioned Scottish and that is only used in describing Sir Ian Wood as a “Scottish oil tycoon”
Do all of the editors phone each other up and collude on these matters I wonder. It all seems a bit to much of a coincidence to me. Or do they have an “Editor’s guide to pro-union headlines” manual that they consult. Either way it is pathetic.
TMiJ
I think they must work to written central standards but emanating from where and written by whom?
It’s just so funny really. I mean it’s one thing for the English MSM to report like this but the Scottish MSM act more every day like the patsies they are for BT.
That’s another one for my wee website!
Wid ye look at the size o’ that squirrel!
Sod this Scotland or British Oil it’s Aberdeens.
Republic of Aberdonia NOW !!!
The Hootsmon’s initial report actually referred to a boost to “Britain’s oil and gas reserves” in the opening sentence but this has now been removed and I didn’t save it alas.
A £200 billion “bonanza” for the UK, a £200 billion “burden” for Scotland.
Of course the people of Scotland and the Scottish Government are too wee too poor and too stupid to maximise any profit from north sea oil. We would only waste it by drinking it or using it to waterproof our clothes or something. After all what dose Alex Salmond know about oil anyway.
It should be remembered that this extra revenue is not because more oil has been discovered, it is already there, it just becomes available if the UK Government changes the rules on regulation. It should also be remembered that a recent OECD forecast put Scottish oil revenue at 4 Trillion. That is 2.5 Trillion more than even the Scottish Government’s forecast. There is much more oil out there than has already been extracted, the trick is Scotland voting YES so that Westminster does not get to use it to fund foreign wars etc. Of course none of these forecasts take into account what oil might lie off Scotland’s West Coast i.e. Clyde Basin, Hebrides. The recent revelations by the Sunday Post really need further investigation and exposure. We need a good investigative journalist to do the business. Wonder who that could be?
Yesterday on newsnet there was an article about MOD blocking oil valuation by BP in the firth of clyde, in the 80’s. The article went on to suggest that there are potential very large recoverable oil & gas Deposits in scottish waters off the west coast. It is also believed that on shore Scotland has very good potential for oil & gas deposits. The monetary values being quoted wereastronomica, mind blowing, and they were talking of several hundred years of reserves. This is not just some theory dreamed up by a cyberNat there are many academics and oil industry personel who are aware of all this information. the west coast is reckoned to be 4 or 5 times the value of the North Sea fields.
The masters in westminster didn’t want to upset the thick nervy jocks so after we vote NO they will arrange to have it quietly taken away and disposed of for a small fee, so as not to distress us.
Time to wake up and smell the oil before it’s to late again.
Now I know why ALL the Westminster parties give NO definitive answers, just scares and doom an gloom about the nasty oil. they may have to come cap in hand to Scotland. So they are herding us into the political corral for fleecing.
I realy do feel that when Alex got the mandate in the last election he should have said the people have spoken. We ran on a independence ticket and that what it will be. None of this buggering around with a referendum. That was done before and the people said yes. Then we were fucked over. I just hope that Alex dosen’t do a John Smith before the big day.
Marcia: “Surely some mistake, according to Better Together it would run out in a few weeks and be worth 50 pence after 2016 if we vote Yes.”
Marcia has kind of hit on it here. It’s only worth £200 billion if we remain in the UK. If we separate from the loving bosom of Westminster, it’s not worth £200 billion. In fact, people probably won’t want the oil at all, because the world will shun Scotland for daring to leave the UK – beloved by all countries bar none – and our oil will be worthless.
They can spin it any way they please but when it comes down to it they can tax it any way they see fit but we will pay for it at the pumpsand everything will get that little bit dearer, is it not better to think of a way where we pay less at the pumps and go further?
Many years ago I saw a full page advert about Scotlands oil in one on those big English newspapers. It was a full page caricature drawing of an oil rig, with the words printed below.
PROOF THAT GOD IS AN ENGLISHMAN
Certainly made me puke. i wish I had kept it.
It’s spent already.
HS2, along with the project costing more than the proposed £100 billion and Boris’s new airport.
Besides, these reports DON’T mention how much oil is actually left….so you have somewhere around £1.5 trillion worth left, not including what lies in the West of Scotland and this £200 billion.
Actually, this story proves that the too wee, too poor, too stupid staple of BT and the MSM more often than not boils down to just one of the Unionist Holy Trinity – Scots are too stupid. Of course ‘The Uk could net..’ and ‘Britain could extract’ but the idea that Scots could do the same simply isn’t on the table. We’re too stupid.
The QUISLING MSM & BBC are being used by the “Privy council” in Westminster” to direct ALL the power at its disposal to deceive and fleece Scotland and convince us it’s for our own good. The tragedy is some people even believe it. Thanks London, Thanks westminster, and a very big thanks to SLAB for looking after yourselves. Ta
REV, Yer actin like Anus / Johann ( ah canny fit them aw in ) onnywi you ask a ? then answer it yersel ( ah need tae keep the Gray Matter Flowin ) a wee teaser noo n again helps people like me , yer skelped , dont dae it again
As I long suspected, the oil running out is just part of the too poor myth.
If they cannae keep a lid on this news now, god knows what they might still be hidding from us (there is also the west coast bonanza to be had once we clear off the RN and its nuclear submarines). The people in Scotland are sitting and watching this, taking note and will turn out to vote yes. A picture is worth a thousand words..
I got bumped off a BT site for suggesting that if oil was volatile etc for us Scots then the same would apply to rUK! I wonder when we’ll get the ‘too wee, too stupid’ tag hurled at us – don’t think the too poor bit will be there though!!!!
I thought oil revenues weren’t counted as “scottish revenue” by the GERS report?
And the taxes from most of the supermarkets were counted from their head office in England, rather than from the point of sale.
And Westminster isn’t even looking at the oil off the west coast because of their American-managed missile subs.
And even with all slanted against it that we still rate the third most wealthy country in Europe?
Too poor my ARSE!
This is what Douglas Fraser (BBC’s Business and Economy Editor) has to say about the report:
“What, then, of Scotland plc, and the nationalist case for taking over control of these reserves?
I could find no mention of the independence debate in Sir Ian Wood’s paper, just as I have heard little critique from nationalists of the way the Whitehall licensing regime has operated (as opposed to the tax regime).
But all the same issues would apply to an independent Scotland. It could be an opportunity to set up more robust regulation, if Whitehall flunks Sir Ian’s test.
But ask yourself this question: would Scotland be in a better negotiating position to make demands of the offshore producers, or would they need them even more than Whitehall continues to do?”
Apart from the deeply patronising use of Scotland plc which betrays the contempt that he obviously holds the democratically elected Government of Scotland in, and colours the tone of his words, he goes on to hint that Scotland wouldn’t be up to negotiating anyway.
I know that I would far rather have AS, NS and JS negotiating on our behalf than any of the clowns at Westminster.
the rest of his article is here: link to bbc.co.uk
Salmond accused of misleading voters about huge oil deposits.
Oil deposits “longer” and “deeper” than expected say analysts.
Gloomy outlook for North Sea as volitility of oil price set to plague Scottish economy for generations.
More oil means lower prices. This simple economic reality leaves Salmond with no answers.
Swinney miscalculates health of Scottish economy. Secret report uncovers the truth about oil reserves.
Dundee University’s 5 Million Questions project exposed as a Unionist front for Better Together.
big quege,s fur OIL EXPLORATION LICENCES The Bastards will still wont their Coin the Scottish Gov should declare NO LICENCE AGREEMENTS WILL BE HONOURED POST INDEPENDENCE ONLY AGREEMENTS WITH S G WILL BE HONOURED NOT UK GOVs
Just last week we found out for certain that back in the 80’s, the MOD blocked an oil boom in the Firth of Clyde. Chic Brodie MSP led a team that got the damning evidence (now de-classified) from the National Archive. The unionists have been falling over themselves telling us how the RN contracts for T26 ships would be removed from the Clyde if we vote yes to independence when we now know that if the MOD hadn’t blocked the oil industry on the Clyde, many of the shipyards the employed 300,000 people would still be there. Why did they block it? To prevent inconvenience to the passage of their disgusting weapons of mass destruction in their passage into the Faslane base and the Holy Loch.
The true economic implications for the people of Glasgow and the surround area are mind bending. The only silver lining out of that set of facts is that the oil is still there and will create a burgeoning economy on the Firth of Clyde once independent and the additional revenue will be used to improve the lives of the people without being squandered by Westminster.
It’s time to put an end to Westminster rule and time to build a better Scotland.
Kindest regards,
David Milligan Lvss
I suppose if Scotland votes no next year, the £200bn will just about cover the cost of the South of England’s HS2 project by the time it is finished.
However, I am not sure that saving some people 20 minutes on a train is more important than the future of Scotland.
The estimated £200 billion is on top of what is being generated at the moment and looks to be based on a price of £50 for a barrel of oil. Aye right, imagine what would happen if the price of a barrel of oil was to rise to £80 or £90 a barrel. Currently a barrel of brent crude costs 106.40 US dollars, which is the equivalent to £66.92 at todays exchange rate of 1.59. So even the £200 billion is a conservative estimate. The truth of the matter is that we could easily survive on the amount of oil revenue being generated at the moment and save the rest.
It proves the point that Scotland can create an oil fund with the additional +£200 billion being an estimate of the value of that fund in twenty years time.
Twice as much oil revenue is twice as bad, obviously.
This is just another example of the Andy Murray effect. When he wins, he’s British. When he loses he becomes Scottish again. Simples.
So now that the cat is out of the bag I guess Alistair Darling will be switching to his stand-by bollocks argument that even if there is plenty oil it won’t belong to an independant Scotland.
Too late to put the oil genie back in the bottle. But the oil is a bonus and will allow us to quickly escape the clutches of Westminster while we sort out where were heading in terms of social policies and economic progress.
PS:
When is a YES not a YES. We could have two referendums if it’s a close YES or if the turnout is too low. Aye right!
archive.is/bx5Hv
I suppose the same rules apply if it’s a close NO.
Now that I think about it, would it be worth an article that takes the GERS report and points out all the places that it’s methodology causes it to remove whole swathes of income that would go to an independant Scotland?
Oil revenue, taxes from companies with their head office in England, and I’m sure there must be others if you start to look.
I’d write it myself, but I unfortunately don’t have the time or knowledge.
I think the reporting of this is – at least in part – indicative of the low standards of current journalism to be found across the UK. As so often happens all that seems to have been done is to regurgitate a press release, in this case from the DECC/UK Treasury . You would have thought however that someone would at least have attempted to put the report in context given the previous form of Darling and others on oil.
The full press release is here – link to gov.uk
(Sorry tried to shorten URL but didn’t work – perhaps because it is a https document).
The quote from Ed Davey is interesting – ‘ Our offshore oil and gas fields are one of Britain’s great national assets, and I’m determined that they should stay that way’. He goes on to say ‘ There are people who would try to talk down their untapped potential…’ Who could he possibly mean?
Sir Ian has also said (P&J) that ‘his recommendations would not change if Scotland votes for Independence’.
But what I found profoundly funny was that his first recommendation was to scrap the Department for Energy and Climate Change, which commissioned his report in the first place, as it was ‘no longer adequate’ to meet the challenges of an ‘increasingly complex’ sector.
It really shews the Westminster mindset, spend, spend, spend. Yesthe volatility of oil is a problem if you intend spending it as fast as it comes. How can you possibly contemplate HS2 when you don’t know where your next billion is coming from. BUT and its a big but, if you are putting the revenues into a fund for the future generations that wont have the oil, volatility doesn’t matter.
Funding the oil money also helps with the big problem that McCrone saw with the oil back in the 70s that it would make the Scots currency too hard, unaffordable. The SNP view on this is to prevent it by continuing to use the pound, but instead if the oil money is funded and invested furth Scotland then there is no leakage into the Scots economy and hardening of the “Thistle”.
Westminster hasn’t and isn’t working for Scotland. YES and let us make our own mistakes.
Dundees Uni 5 million questions project , ah hope the person that thunk that wan up kin get them typed up before the Referendum , never mind answered. EDUMACATED IDIOTS
Daily Record demands no gagging orders in referendum debate – Hypocrites
Remember the vilification of Dr Elliot Bulmer in the Scottish media?
with wealth of this magnitude about then we need to be very vigilant. The dirty tricks brigade will bar nothing and I do mean nothing to get their grotty little paws on this loot. The great and the good didn’t Become great and good by hard work, it was more rape, pillage, plunder and oppression or suppression, as the old empire colonies will confirm. Nowadays I think they might to call it asset stripping. Or just theft!
I would not trust this lot in Westminster one inch, they have form And a lot of blood on their hands. keep you friends close and your enemies even closer!
ronnie anderson says: Dundees Uni 5 million questions project
Evidently they forgot to ask Professor Chris Whatley one important question, “Are you a member of Better Together?”
North Sea oil reserves are something I would like to rub a Unionist face in!
Sorry that is a very crude response
Eddie Barnes notes in “The Scotsman” are an utter disgrace. For the first time in months I dirtied my hands and picked this up in the office.
His view is that the additional £200billion undermines the case for an oil fund!
seriously!
Imagine finding £200billion quid you never even thought you had, but taking the view that absolutely none of it could ever be considered a nest egg.
The man is a moron.
Prof Chris Whatley in attendance at inaugural Better Together meeting in Dundee.
@Gillie
I see BT’s usual trick of showing ‘part of a large audience’ is being employed in the photos of that gathering of the moribund.
That’s my local councillor’s blog – *shudders*
200 billion?
Far too much for wee Scotland to handle – think of the volatility!
Damn, damn and double damn, every time I think we are progressing as a nation some funny bastard go’s and finds more oil $ gas.
What is wrong with you people !!! you know fine the more oil & gas we have the more likely we won’t be able to handle its volability, we dont have Westministers ability to pour it down the drain, or how to pretend with the money it produces we are still a so-called world class power or does even the simple fact their is very little room to do anymore major building projects in London, why do you think they are building a High Speed rail line up to Birmingham.
Because their is no more f-ing room in London.
Come Scotland get a grip, stop finding more oil & gas its bloody embarressing.
My take on it.
link to norrie.wordpress.com
The truth finally arrives, lol.18 months of negative spin doon the drain.
We need the broad shoulders of the UK to manage any fluctuations. What if it’s only worth 180 billion instead of 200?
@Norrie
My take on it.
link to norrie.wordpress.com
Norrie – your cartoons are magic but why no share buttons? These things could easily go viral.
Over to you, Mr Darling. You have a case to answer.
The truth finally arrives, lol.18 months of negative spin doon the drain.
Let’s make sure it is not another 30 years of wasted revenue down the drain.
“Wake up and smell the oil”
While we’re all in a fash over Scotland’s ‘wasting’ assets, look at what those clever Noggins at Statoil are up to.
“More oil found father north
Meanwhile, farther north on the Njord- and Hyme oil fields in the Norwegian Sea, state oil company Statoil reported new oil discoveries that were estimated to amount to as much as 100 million barrels. It’s the third time in recent months that Statoil has found oil in the vicinity of existing fields.
“We’ve made three new discoveries around Norne, Åsgard and Njord,” Gro C Haatvedt, Statoil’s director of exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf, told news bureau NTB. “This is oil of high value that gives us the possibility to extend the lifetime of our installations.”
And talking of austerity,
“Taps into more oil revenues, within limits
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that the new budget uses an additional NOK 4 billion of the country’s oil revenues to fund the various tax relief measures. All told, however, the new conservative government’s budget is still using an amount that only equates to 2.9 percent of the size of the state’s oil fund, the same as that proposed by the former left-center government, because the fund itself has continued to grow during the past three weeks. It’s generally allowed to use up to 4 percent of the fund, which means Jensen and her colleagues could have tapped into many more billions but chose not to, likely to silence critics who fear that use of more oil revenues will overheat the Norwegian economy.”
Bully for you Scotland! Let’s have a look at what you could have won! From 2010 link to newsinenglish.no
The truth will out, rather inadvertently it seems.
This the Telegraph’s approach over the last few articles on the ‘Scotland’ page.
Headlines:
Scotland stupidity over.. something.
Independent Scotland’s Universities would lose out..
Scotland’s sporting estates must be forced..
Scotland’s shipyards will only be safe if there is a No vote
UK’s economy could be boosted by £200billion..oil review.
anybody finds £200 billion layin aboot couldye be kind soul n send me a few quid fur a pair o trousers ah hiv been PMSL laughin wie the posts own here noo am keaichin masel the sweet smell o diesel oil wid be a breath o fresh air tae me the noo
It seems that Prof Chris Whatley is revisionist who has attempted to rewrite Scottish history which is sympathetic to the union.
Quote, “Why does Whatley try so hard and with such ingenuity to obscure the blatant facts? A similar attempt, although with less scholarship, was made in the 19th century when it was unfashionable to criticise the Empire or the Union by virtue of which Scotland was a partner in it. Evidently the idea was to persuade the Scots to take a more favourable view of the Union. Does Whatley have the same objective, perhaps with an eye to the Election in May?” – Paul Henderson Scott, Feb 2007.
Alastair Darling’s usual response: link to huffingtonpost.co.uk
Aye, imagine if the report had suggested revenues were going to fall by £200 billion. The journalists would be having a great time – Salmond’s Scottish independence journey lost in £200 billion black hole.
Dave Beveridge
Click on the title takes you to a seperate page for the individual toon, the links are at the bottom.
Scotsmans Burden
Got ye. I was clicking on the pic…
Not drip, drip more a raging torrent: link to macandroid2014.wordpress.com
On Sky news this morning on rising energy prices they stated that UK gas was running out.
Well maybe in some parts but new gas fields coming on stream off the West coast next year with 20% of UK gas reserves and predicted to last at least 30 years.
From Shetland Times on 17th October link to archive.is
but not worthy good news in the eyes of the BBC / MSM which makes banner headlines out of every negative scare mongereing story produced by the Tory funded Better Together campaign
BETTER TOGETHER INFORMATION NITE, 7PM THURSDAY 21ST NOV CORNERSTONE HOUSE ESK WALK CUMBERNAULD G67 1EW WHO,S THE MEETER,S & GREETER,S C MON LAD,S LASSES YA KNOW YA WANT TAE
Well of course the UK gas is running out. The Scottish fields are about to go away as far as Westminster is concerned!
I see the Guardian piece is well tucked away. If it had been a reduction in oil estimates Severin would have another big “we are all doomed” spread. The Better Together fan boys are utterly without integrity. There is no lie they would not tell.
Tell me what is someone who works for a ferengi called Answer Traitor,we better not let these ("Tractor" - Ed)s hold any position in an independant Scotland.
you,s cant miss the opertuneity of going to the BT meeting one ? you want Information They want Information People all over Scotland why is the MSM / BBC TV /RADIO putting forward a BIAS Pro UNIONIST Arguement // then £200billion oil reserve MOD stopping Oil Exploration on Firth OF CLYDE ED DAVEY,S comments £200bil Great for The British Economy no mention of SCOTLANDS ECONOMY BEFORE AFTER A REFERENDUM / INDEPENDENCE
O/T but the two comments on this article are a slap fest to the author link to heraldscotland.com
Dave Beveridge
Made simpler added the share buttons to bottom of all toons front page as well. I’m just a bit dumb.
@Ananurhing
“We’ve made three new discoveries around Norne, Åsgard…
Gee, I hope someone got permission from Odin first
@Norrie
Happy to trade a link with you from my site as well if you want. Goes for anyone else with a blog too.
O/T BBC News – Prestwick Airport value written off. Looks like the Scottish Govt will get it for a quid after all.
It’s well placed to serve the future South West / West coast oil industry!
Sorry don’t have time to read all posts so maybe it’s already been said. I am thinking, shouldn’t the rich boys in Westminster be thinking about how it would be in their interests to actually start negotiating with the Scottish Gov about what agreements could be made for rUK regards the oil which, when we vote YES will not belong to their precious UK. It might be a good idea for them to start that dialogue, and to do it in an intelligent grown up way, instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water. We really are a decent lot North of the border.
How interesting, Boris Island to cost £47Bn, well bang goes a sizable chunk of the £200bn. Still, I’m sure that Westminster will look out for us (chortle).
@Hetty
Them lot down south aren’t too bad either: “We English, who are a marvellous people, are really very generous to Scotland.”
O/T Does anyone know if The Case for Left Wing Nationalism is selling in bookshops?
Bob Brown,
As a former worker at Sullom Voe from 1979 to 1983 I can confim that the Clair oil field was discovered in the late seventies.It was capped and is now finally on stream feeding into Sullom Voe oil terminal.This Atlantic oil field has oil reserves in excess of 8 billion barrels of oil.Moreover Total oil co.are building a500 million pound gas and condensate terminal next to Sullom Voe for new fields north west of Shetland.These fields will produce 20pc.of the UK,s gas needs plus oil condensate.
How Alastair Darling can maintain that there is only 2billion oil barrels is beyond me.However,if he,Tony Blair and Gordon Brown can annexe 6000sq.mls.of Scottish waters, efectively moving the Scottish/Engish border up to Carnoustie then he is capable of anything.Finally,I would like to point that this act of piracy was carried out at the same time as they were handing over the keys to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.Furthermore,this act was carried out in secrecy under a statutory instrument thus avoiding having to go through parliament.
Yours,B.Brown.[Carnoustie]
hetty
tell you wit you talk to the uk gov at the border
me and dramfineday will sneak past spill some oil at boris island and free the prisoners
by the way dramfineday do you know how to get to boris island
@Bob Brown, you’ll find moving the maritime border was a deal breaker for devolution.
C**ts to a man.
O/T but did I just hear the BBC are recruiting an extra 40 Journalists to cover the lead up to referendum? surely some of them will have some actual impartiality?
Gedboy – head for the Thames, get a boat, travel downstream and look for something like this.
link to independent.co.uk
Tattie-Boggle says: O/T but the two comments on this article are a slap fest to the author.
Aye, reviewed by Mark Smith, that boy who feels sick when he sees Saltires being waved.
link to archive.is
A2 3:18
If they want to keep their job at BBC they had better take management (and SLAB) guidance! Follow direction, keep their mouth shut.
Of course as you quite clearly pointed out, oil is a weighted debt when mentioned in the same breath as independence,according to the cannae dae it mob, but if oil is mentioned, around the corridors of Westminster, its a wonderful resource.
Hypocrisy, of the highest level if you ask me, like you say I’m surprised the press were bigging it up, knowing full well, that we would then use it against the BT charlatans, as a yard stick.
No doubt Osborne will gleefully be rubbing his grubby little mitts at the thought, of more revenue from oil/gas, and thinking now what can we build in London that costs plenty, of black gold.
OT
Hadn’t seen this until today, never knew this about Wee Douglie Alexander……(well according to a self confessed liar anyway)…..
link to huffingtonpost.co.uk
MacWhirter hints in ‘The Road to Referendum’ that Wendy was stabbed in the back by someone deep within Labour…….some even suggesting it was Gogsy Broon….never thought for a second it was her brother.
If the man is prepared to do that to his sister for political ends…..it’s genuinely frightening to think what he’d do to his country.
dramfineday
thats not boris island
thats f%&£%&g mars
Some really useful comments on here especially @ Allan28 @ David Milligan – a very Sovereign Scot
Only want to add that this highlights everything that is a fail about the Scottish media, the lack of balanced reporting and the reliance on PR fluffs by Labour SpAd’s is destroying the information value of the Scottish press and only results in them being ignored by the media aware, this stultifying lack of reactiveness will bring them further redundancies and newspaper closures.
The reporting by BBC Scotland is completely and utterly lazy, not just on the Indyref but on everything, it has zero depth. Media is changing, it is no longer a place where media barons and politically appointed directors tell us what to think, the new media is interactive it is place where people can come together and openly discuss issues.
It is not only the Labour party in Scotland who need a palace revolution, it needs to extend to ousting the cynical little clique who infest the Scottish media and who somehow manage to reduce everything to the parochial.
Well, I have pity for the poor anywhere, however to better help the poor you essentially you need enough funds to spread around to make a difference. In Scotland we have far too much poverty of all descriptions, we have poor infrastructure, poor communication for a modern age, we need better hospitals and care institutions and more.
We need a hell of a lot in order to help our own poor and our own ingrown problems, to do this we need, finally, to be able to make things better for our people in general.
For that we need to take control of ourselves in order to be able to carry out these necessary ideals. For Once, we need to take the issue of “Charity begins at home” We need to do this and that means control of all things that will improve life in Scotland.
We have all the tools to do this with all our resources and our outgoing spirit and to do it well.
Once we have carried out the improvements we should be benevolent to a degree that will help others anywhere we choose. Remember, all our taxes go to Westminster, which is corrupt, they have many poor people but choose to use their money and ours to bankroll all the wrong things and really do not show a caring for their own suffering people, they dwell on being good to the prosperous.
We can do things differently, with more compassion for the less fortunate, we should aspire to that. Westminster has squandered Scotland’s revenue on all manner of things. We will be more prudent and learn from their mistakes as time goes on, we will become a benevolent nation, it is in our blood.
However, as I say, ” charity begins at home ” and oil is a way to do it quicker, in our own Independent Scotland.
les wilson
I for one am with you on that
lets hope in the near future we can put our hand in our pockets and give
and not ask for anything in return we just dont do that here in scotland
This is truly, truly strange. A government-commissioned report at this stage in the proceedings – and, unlike the McCrone report, it’s being allowed out.
The absence of the word Scotland is just eerie. If it had been included in even a few of these headlines, it would be like the MSM were handing the Referendum to YES on a platter. This way, there’s no platter but the information cannot be denied later.
Are we being set-up to win, like Scottish Skier says?
You go Craig, I’ve long said we could, and should be a very wealthy city state. But with a decent infrastructure and roads to cope with the volume of traffic this oil and gas industry generates. Not sure if Glasburgh rule will be any better for us than Westminster! we will still just be their cash cow.
I think there’s a few words missing.
‘We are the Scottish Media Bastards who are working for Westminster’
Lindsey Smith,
” Not sure if Glasburgh rule will be any better for us than Westminster! we will still just be their cash cow.”
Cash cow? In what way? How far out do you think this city state’s territorial waters should extend? I think you’ll find Craig’s comment was tongue in cheek.
Bugger (the Panda) & TMiJ
“I think they must work to written central standards but emanating from where and written by whom?”
Now that is the question. Pity we don’t do investigative journalism in Scotland any more.
“We would only waste it by drinking it or using it to waterproof our clothes or something.”
The thought of all that money going to us sweaty jocks is giving them paroxysms.
@Papadocx
“The QUISLING MSM & BBC are being used by the “Privy council” in Westminster” to direct ALL the power at its disposal to deceive and fleece Scotland and convince us it’s for our own good.”
The answer to my question above will undoubtedly look some thing like this.
Papadocx says “The dirty tricks brigade will bar nothing and I do mean nothing to get their grotty little paws on this loot.”
You’re almost as paranoid as me, Papadocx! But then there’s this link to archive.is as someone posted earlier!
MochaChoca says:
“Prestwick Airport – It’s well placed to serve the future South West / West coast oil industry!”
And to be Scotland’s international hub.
@Les Wilson – me with gedboy too.
When I lived in Inverness in the 70’s and 80’s I had a pal called Davie. He had the strongest London accent I’ve ever heard. His parents were Scottish however, and Davie just happened to be born in London. He was/is one of the most passionate Scottish nationalists I’ve ever met.
He was a hotel bar manager and had a knack of getting people to talk and was able to draw out all sorts of information from oil engineers, geologists, rig contactors etc.
The fact that he had such a strong English accent made him appear more ‘trustworthy’ to those English oil engineers that were working in the North Sea and in other areas of oil exploration, so they just opened their big mouths when they had had a few pints or drams and confided in Davie as a fellow Brit about how things really were.
Davie used to tell me things that were almost incredible regarding the wealth that lay in the North Sea. We were being lied to constantly by the British about the wealth of course but years later it eventually came out that the information Davie had been getting from those slack jaws was in every respect accurate.
And now the cherry. Davie managed to get one of the big wigs in the oil industry to tell about how much oil there was off Scotland’s west coast. It turns out that the oil off Scotland’s western seaboard will make the North Sea oil industry look like very small fry.
There is so much oil out there that they just don’t know how to measure it; it is absolutely vast. It’s just a matter of finding the best way of getting it out and that is precisely what they are working on at this very moment. We mustn’t let them get away with it again. We and the world just can’t allow it to happen.
But….England won’t let it and us go without a fight. They just won’t.
Everyone above happily clapping each other on the back and making jokes about England or the UK: you do realise, don’t you, that the £200 billion is the wholesale value of these additional reserves? The independent Scottish Treasury will be lucky to see more than a tenth of that amount flow into its coffers, since it is from more marginal reserves that are inherently more expensive to extract.
Just an added note: in the US, old buildings are frequently “re-purposed” as Patrick suggests. In this case, it may be appropriate to repurpose the structure as a tourism office to teach about the history and prehistory of Carrizal.