The second-class licence fee
Today the BBC finally officially revealed what everyone already knew.
So now Scottish viewers definitely know where we stand.
The Corporation doggedly refuses to publicly reveal what it pays for its entire TV and radio coverage of Scottish football, presumably out of embarrassment, but we already know because the SPFL told us in 2015.
1/60th of £68m is a pathetic £1.13m a year – almost exactly half the £2.25m combined salaries of Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.
We don’t begrudge either man their pay packet – Lineker especially is a talented presenter and entitled to take what he can get, the same as anyone else with a job, although we doubt Match Of The Day’s viewing figures would be substantially lower without him. But Scottish football fans pay the same licence fee as everyone else, and the entire point of a public-service broadcaster funded by a compulsory tax is that it’s not supposed to be affected by ratings.
It shouldn’t matter, under the terms by which the BBC operates, that Scottish football gets a lower audience (of course it does, it’s only shown to 8% of the country – it used to be actively blocked to the rest of the UK). Scottish viewers are entitled to expect the same service for their money as those south of the border, and that means getting a decent programme at a reasonable hour with a budget not measured in pennies, and the Scottish game being funded fairly compared to the rest of the UK.
(Saying that Scottish football should get less money because it’s of a lower quality is a bit like complaining that your dog is too skinny when you only feed it a couple of dog biscuits every day. On a per-capita level the BBC is underfunding the Scottish game by around 80%, and that’s clearly going to be reflected on the pitch given the shoestrings that most of our clubs run on.)
It wouldn’t matter so much if it was only football. But we know that the BBC massively underspends in Scotland in general, with Scots viewers subsidising the rest of the UK to the tune of around £150m a year. The country now gets just 35 minutes a week of dedicated Scottish political TV programming, for example – five minutes a day.
(Whether more BBC political coverage of Scotland would actually be a good thing is of course an entirely separate debate.)
A new £30m Scottish channel due to start in 2018 barely makes a dent in that. Viewers getting a second-rate service shouldn’t have to pay a premium subscription.
I don’t watch or pay for any kind of tv, so i could not care less, the point for me is this, none of my money goes to pay for the bbc
Maybe if all the folk who supported or would like to support Scottish football stuck in a quid or so a week Scotland could have it’s own channel and not rely on National Broadcasters who couldn’t give a monkeys anyway
I have no idea how much that might be but like everything else in Scotland if we don’t do it ourselves we’ll wait till we die for the folk we actually do pay to supply these things
Of course that might mean Independence for our country and there’s some who don’t like that idea preferring to wait for somebody else to benevolently do it for us while at the same time moaning that they wont
Of course we could just have British football where Scottish players don’t get a shot in the team like our Rugby guys, if you like that sort of thing, a bit like us shouting at the screen (He’s Scottish!!) when Andy Murray’s on because like everything else he’s been claimed as the nondescript Nationality that is British
You never hear them refer to golfers as British except when it’s a multi country event
Are you YES yet?
Given the posts which I’ve read here about the sectarian nature of Scottish football, it might be a very good thing if it were to wither away.
My how we’re shysted by beeb gimps in Scotland. BBC’s a loony bin, a red and blue tory loony bin.
On one tory hand, BBC r4 for example tells England it’s the most wondrous place with the most amazing people in the world. On t’other hand, BBC Scotland gimps tell Scots we’re shite, in a shite little region, that beeb Scotland gimps own.
Life, BBC life, isnt fair.
oopsee:D
The bbc,licence,what’s a licence? Oh i remember,that thing i last paid sep 19th 2014.
I stopped funding it after the referendum. However, that was the straw. I had a whole list of grievances before including the topic above.
We are second class citizens, as this, HS2 and every other project where we are forced to contribute to for little, or no, or dubious benefit demonstrates. Or as the UN classes us, a colony!
Please let’s get the next referendum result right!
I see Hannah Bardell is wearing the Scotland Woman`s football top in the mother of all parliaments,
the Scottish woman play England tonight in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 in the Netherlands,
first time our team have reached a major final,
some extra funding by Nicola and Scot Gov has helped them train full time for lead up to finals,
our group is Eng,Spain and Portugal,
C`mon Scotland,
Channel 4 at 7 o`clock.
(Saying that Scottish football should get less money because it’s of a lower quality is a bit like complaining that your dog is too skinny when you only feed it a couple of dog biscuits every day. On a per-capita level the BBC is underfunding the Scottish game by around 80%, and that’s clearly going to be reflected on the pitch given the shoestrings that most of our clubs run on.)
Spot-on, Rev. Beyond Aberdeen, the Embra clubs and the Glasgow two, other Premiership clubs can barely afford to buy English 3rd and 4th tier players. Scottish football is withering on the vine, not helped by the SFA’s poor stewardship of our game.
The BBC love ramming home Renton’s Lament ar Corrour.
Great living in the Last Colony, innit?
Second class telly for the region where you live.
Partnership?
I’m sorry, but I don’t subscribe to the fact that Lineker’s pay packet is defensible. He works one night a week, and gets paid the better part of two million a year?
So what’s he on? Forty grand a show?
It’s absolutely obscene, and in no way justifiable for a service that forces you to pay for it under penalty of law. The fact that Scotland is so badly short-changed is just the icing on this overwhelmingly bitter cake.
Fuck the BBC.
Not on Wings twitter so sorry about doing it here but did May not lie when she stated that the Government is not putting money into Hinkley Point did it not guarantee EDF money so that is coming from the Tax Payer.
Very good at lying she is.
The BBC can go hang for my money. So can Scottish football. it’s so bad. A couple of million isn’t going to fix what doesn’t want fixed.
O/T News coming out of the EU this morning is the bulk of the British automotive industry is to move to the EU post Brexit
as the 27 remaining countries have demanded the EU cease to consider the British position as important to them
Apparently this is being led by Germany and France, and well everybody else
Oooohh! Although you can’t blame them, we drive on the wrong side of the road as well
“I’m sorry, but I don’t subscribe to the fact that Lineker’s pay packet is defensible.”
I didn’t say it was defensible. I said I had no beef with HIM about it. If someone offered you £1.7m to do your job you’d take it, you wouldn’t go “Och no, that’s way too much”.
It’s plainly ridiculous for the BBC to pay him that much for a show that pretty much everyone who watches it would watch no matter who presented it. But he’s entitled to take it if they offer.
[…] Wings Over Scotland The second-class licence fee Today the BBC finally officially revealed what everyone already knew. So now Scottish […]
Evidence continues to mount people in Scotland are empirically stupid, incapable of reasoned thought and rational behaviour. There’s not much you can do about that and feels like increasingly less time in which to try and break them out of the habit.
Haven’t paid the tv tax for years now, never miss it at all. Can’t stand the BBC, and not sursprised they are shafting Scotland regards sport or in any other way. Like the UKOK so called government, ie, regime, they undermine, lie and ridicule Scotland, while taking peoples’ money.
Win win, what a goal, great result, for the yoons taking the absolute rip out of Scotland and Scotland’s people. There is only one team, (Scotland is the mascot) one end of the pitch that has a goal, and with no keeper, the britnats are laughing all the way to the bank! Ha ha they say, ha ha ha ha!
People are happy to be paying towards a rich guy being given a ‘wage’ of £2million via their tv tax? While some will be working god knows how many hours just to pay the bills, and the all but compulsory tv tax. It is a strange world indeed.
This kind of thing just drives me crazy, 1/60 th that is terrible. Our highlights programme is on far too late. And I can’t stand it when people think that the English game is the big one that everyone wants to watch. That’s fine just turn over if you don’t like it, but it doesn’t deserve to be stuffed extra cash. The money should be split proportionally.
Scottish Football equates to four Ian Beales
So Scotland subsidising needy English interests once again.
Just one of the many hidden English grabs on Scottish resources.
From HS2,to National Grid charges,to the 600% BBC subsidy from Scotland to English football.
They even tell us they subsidise Europe to the tune of £350m a week.They are in for some shock.
England.
Probaly the world’s least self aware subsidy junkie.
It’s not just football, we don’t really have Scottish programming, very little that reflect anything remotely concerned with our culture or history that hasn’t had the butcher’s apron flapping about. The Commonwealth games coverage from that perspective was appalling. Basically we get English tv.
Very pleased I don’t pay the bbc tax.
The BBC funding for Scottish sport in general, particularly the football coverage is an outrage.
However, we should not be surprised.The way The UK is funded is always a loss to Scotland, they suck us dry in a myriad of ways, always have, always will.
Until WE put a stop to it.
I cannot see another country in the world that would allow this to happen and not prefer to want to run their own affairs.
I have not paid the BBC their Extortion Tax in years purely because they are politically corrupt against Scotland, but given that they treat us as a second class nation, I’m not sure why anyone in Scotland would be happy to pay them at all.
BBC r4 vote tory lunchtime news keep saying “world class broadcaster BBC” and “massively important to democracy in this country.”
How is say another 50 years of Dr Who world class etc?
I refuse point blank to be forced to pay for the government’s propaganda campaign against the SNP and Scotland.
Yet again in the “glorious union” we are shown to be what we are, a cash cow. Whilst our game in OUR country struggles for funding and at the same time must be pretty much the only country in the world that can’t show its OWN national sides games, we see money from the licence fee heading down to England to pay for English “things”.
We did this in 2014 etc but again we must campaign to stop people paying this colonial tax as that’s all it is.
Behind the scene there must be major goings on in BBC Scotland – what with the recent senior resignation over content.
No one knows how much beeb dudes like the greatest living Englishman David Dimbleby get paid. They set up their production companies, making non BBC show Question Time. BBC gimps pay the Dimbleby production company, Dimbleby then pays himself, from his own not BBC production company.
Therefore, no one knows what they earn.
You can make a rough guess though. Torygraph in 2011 says Dimbleby’s a lovely chap but underpaid.
Back then,
“The five-year contract covers a whole range of work for the BBC — Question Time and everything else,” said Dimbleby, who added that he had been approached by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky.
“I am very, very loyal to the BBC. It’s nice to be asked to work for Sky, but the likelihood of my leaving the BBC is not great.” He was reported to have been offered £2.3 million to host 30 editions of Question Time a year, at about £15,000 each, earning him £450,000 per annum.”
Cant imagine his contract, sorry his company’s contract’s been reduced some how.
Can pay – won’t pay.
I like David Attenborrough and eh, eh, no that’s about it
A rich toryboy like Dimbleby makes into USA satire too.
Cant think why a tory like that would cut off Mhairi Black MP like this, she’s only an elected representative and he’s a BBC ligger, much more important, n shit.
link to youtube.com
“We cant hear Scotland’s voice, which to my ear sounds like a pot bellied pig running a triathlon…”
Beeb gimps also announced their “new” bbc tv satire show coming soon. Its just one more world class broadcaster beeb rip off, of American telly like the John Oliver show there but at least they’re being honest about it.
Wonder what might actually hamper beeb satire shows though, given the tory gimpery they glory in.
“A new £30m Scottish channel due to start in 2018 barely makes a dent in that. Viewers getting a second-rate service shouldn’t have to pay a premium subscription.”
In that link from the article above it states “The new channel will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made north of the border.”
I see “news” still not being categorised under “factual”, quit a slip-up there don’t ya think? Aye, it’s that old saying, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Anyway, what is it Westminster takes from Scotland every year, over £300 million is it? And the same old story, we get some pocket money back and are expected to produce some magic.
Scotland will be better off putting all her own finances into creating her very own broadcasting set-up, fit enough for the 21st century and to serve a modern Scotland’s needs.
Boycott the BBC and their licence fee – Roll on independence!
They are not there to enhance our culture, quite the opposite! We should demand better. They won’t change though so may aswell stop paying for the crap. They are cultural cleansers. I hate them so much
I don’t care about the obscene wages of the top earners, but I do have a morbid curiosity about what they paid Saville, and paid others to shut up about Saville. And Stuart Hall. And Dave Lee Travis. And Rolf Harris. And Gary Glitter…
Obviously the 30 pieces of silver paid to BBC Scotland staff doesn’t amount to £150 grand cut off for disclosure.
Like other wingers, hubby and I stopped paying the BBC tax after 19th September.
We are not prepared to spend our hard earned cash to be patronised and lied too.
I must admit, I don’t miss it at all, better for the blood pressure too.
Aye @dakk says at 1:06 pm
“England, Probably the world’s least self aware subsidy junkie.”
Wait ’til Brexit bites and the EU funding dries up (BBC will continue pushing the Establishments Propaganda).
If Scotland manages to become Independent (in spite of the BBC endlessly pushing the Establishments Propaganda).
We will have an openly hostile, Militaristic, Fascist 3rd World Economy Country bordering us.
Now,
Just imagine for one moment that the BBC actually did the job of an impartial public service broadcaster.
Do you honestly believe anyone but the ‘No Surrender knuckle draggers’ would consider voting for the Parties of The Dug, Colonel Gadaftie and Wee Wullie 1p?
Thought not.
The BBC are the REAL Opposition in Scotland.
Support:
link to indiegogo.com
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to informscotland.com
There has never been a more urgent time for a high profile non-violent “Don’t Pay the Propaganda Tax” Campaign.
The next GE and Indy Ref will be hamstrung by the BBCs unchallenged transmission of The Establishments Anti Scottish Propaganda if not.
Just think what £6.8m could do for Scottish football. Rangers could afford to buy a one-legged Tore André Flo.
Thanks for the clarification Stu that Lineker’s wage is practically double what the BBC is forking out for TV and radio coverage of Scottish football. Absolutely horrendous on at least two counts … the amount of money he’s (and others) making as millions in this country go hungry and the BBC’s attitude towards the Scots.
Scotland is being robbed blind and ripped off by the ESTABLISHMENT at every turn. When are the Scots going to waken up to the FACTS? And where’s Donalda when you need her? What’s she got to say about this? Nought?
Meanwhile the last item to be covered on BBC’s Politics Today by Coburn and Neil was zooming into Hannah Bardell wearing a Scotland Woman`s football top in the Commons. Does this breach Parliamentary protocol they ask. Will someone speak to her about this? Or as Coburn points out she may just have returned from the Commons sports events but I doubt this is acceptable. The country is ready to implode, the Commons is not fit for purpose, the Unionist politicians are a bunch of lying gits but let’s all talk about SNP Hannah Bardell’s top. I wonder how much Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn get paid for spouting such trash / lies about the Scots / Scotland on a daily basis and running the SNP down to the ground constantly?
…………………………………
This is the party that Rape Clause Ruthie supporters in Scotland voted for. Great, eh?
link to thecanary.co
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And another:
link to parliamentlive.tv
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PS … And for those on here that say sending our SNP MP’s to Westminster is a waste of time maybe they should take the time to check out Parliament Live on a daily basis. If they did they would see that our SNP politicians are the only party at Westminster standing up for the Scots, holding the Tories to account constantly and more than anything informing the public about issues that other political parties sitting in the Commons dont seem to be too keen to do.
I hope every single person who voted YES in 2014 has stopped paying the TV licence fee by now
I may be wrong, but as I understand it the BBC gets their money from central government, and our licence fees go into the UK taxation pot.
Which means, even if we all stopped paying the licence the BBC would still function as per, still getting paid out of general taxation.
I hope this is incorrect!
But, as has been said, if we cannot stop the incessant BBC anti-indy propaganda then there will be little hope of us ever winning.
If you agree folks please sign and pass on:
Scotland’s electoral system needs reformed
Our politicians should be there on merit alone and we should have the ability to reject them without their parties gerrymandering another place for them. Rewarding failures is not democracy.
link to parliament.scot
@tinto chiel.(12.38)
There is another aspect to underfunding Scottish football.
Transfer fees for talented Scottish players are held at a lower level than the player talent deserves.
Bigger clubs outside Scotland know our clubs are desperate for cash so what might have been a say, £500,000 offer, becomes £200,000 for example, and the club cannot refuse as the man at the bank says..”why on earth did you turn down £200,000″?
Clubs in Scotland had to adapt or wither, investment in youth is critical to surviving.
Grow talent, play them, get them noticed, sell them.
Falkirk are an example of this. They have even managed to attract decent transfer fees for fairly young players as they have a growing reputation for producing talent. There are ex bairns youth players playing in the EPL now.
Surprised more teams do not adopt the academy system falkirk have.
Dr Jim
If 1m people in Scotland want to support football (that seems like a low estimate and you never know if ex-pats would also like to also) and paid £1 a week for it to be given a good telly deal or whatever, the game would get £52m a year.
As with many of the above comments I would advocate not paying for a BBC licence and encourage others to do likewise.
I find it also very difficult to support Scotland’s National Team from any Sport being that I know not if those representing Scotland are giving 100 Percent or if they chose for Scotland to be governed from elsewhere.An example being Andy Murray declaring for Yes Scotland and several well known Scotland Rugby Players declaring for Better Together.
It’s always seriously pissed me off that the EPL always gets the Saturday night slot, whereas we only get the graveyard slot on Sunday. No other country in Europe has to put up with that and it speaks volumes about how the BBC thinks of us.
But, as has been said, if we cannot stop the incessant BBC anti-indy propaganda then there will be little hope of us ever winning.”
They are unstoppable. They’d just broadcast at Scots from NI or Carlisle if they had too.
They ofcourse have a hit list of SNP elected MP’s and SNP’s, all of them, a lot like this really.
link to en.wikipedia.org
You can buy this BBC pack of cards, in the Pacific Quay gift shop.
They got some SNP MP’s last snap GE, like Mhairi Black but Top of the deck was Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson. And beeb gimpery is working down their SNP bad list, day by BBC day too.
If BBC Scotland alone can block indyref2, you have to accept that they are going to win, in a snowball effect. They always do, sadly.
Last weekend I had the privilege of doing two talks for the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Queens Park football club on 9 July 1867. That’s the club who founded modern world football. You probably missed it, because the mainstream media certainly did. Ironically, the only journalist who was present to interview me at the first of my talks at the Hampden Bowling club (site of the world’s first international football ground) was a German. Glasgow City Council had a civic dinner for old players on the Friday night. Apart from that – almost nothing.
Scotland invented modern world football. This fact is ignored in England because it doesn’t suit the ahistorical nonsense that is spouted about the FA. I am not surprised that the BBC is so disrespectful to the home of the world’s most important sport. What angers me is that those people governing the game and reporting on it in Scotland, seem to have no desire or intelligence to do something about it.
SPFL just signed a 4 year deal wae the BBC for £10.2 million did they not?
One of the highlights on my weekly sporting timetable is the spot on Monday morning’s Highland News on Good Morning Scotland when their sports correspondent gives a full report on Highland League football and shinty results for fixtures that were contested the previous Saturday!
For those of us living above the Highland Boundary Fault this is truly “the news where you are.”
How many pubs in Scotland pay circa 20K a year to show SKY TV?
Of course SKY are a private company – so free to do as they wish. However it is worth considering the vast majority of their revenue goes back into English football – even if the drinkers in the pub wish to watch Scottish games…
There is clearly a massive market for football on TV in Scotland – but the rules / system mean much of the revenue is directed south.
Agreed, geeo @2.28.
We should never forget how poor the SFA have been in producing the conditions to improve home-grown talent and negotiating deals. Remember Roger Mitchell turning down £50 million from Sky many moons ago and then hitching his barra to the ill-fated Setanta?
Out the country at the mo, so seeing the BBC for the first time since last year. Their smug, patronising Britnat Wonderland narrative is boak-inducing but at least I got to see Hannah Bardell wearing her Scotland jersey proudly.
‘Mon the wummin!
Discrimination is at the heart of EVERYTHING the BBC does.
They live in an imperial past, somewhere just over half a century ago.
Scots? We have no chance! The Greater England Empire, ethnically white and male dominated, is their world.
Gender….
” Only a third of the corporation’s highest-paid stars are women and the top seven are all men, with the highest-paid man (Chris Evans, on at least £2.2m last year) earning more than four times more than the top-earning woman (Claudia Winkleman, on at least £450k) …. only two women employed by the corporation, Winkleman and Alex Jones, earn more than £400,000 – compared to 12 men “
Ethnicity ….
” The highest-paid BAME stars are George Alagiah, Jason Mohammad and Trevor Nelson, who each earn between £250,000 and £300,000 – considerably less than the highest-paid white men. While the highest-paid BAME woman is Mishal Husain, who earned less than the BAME men at between £200,000 and £250,000. “
link to tinyurl.com
Brian @ 3:10pm:
Seems so.
£2.15m a year.
So instead of 68 times as much, it’s only 34 times as much.
What pisses me off isn’t the money they get paid but the fact most of these presenters are/have been getting away with murder regarding their tax/NI.
Their “personal service companies” are in direct contravention of IR35 (google it) unless of course the BBC agreed to a right of substitution. That means that if the presenter isn’t available their company will supply someone else.
Think that ever happens? Lineker goes, well actually guys Spanish TV have offered me much more to cover La Liga so for 3 months my mate up the road will be presenting MOTD. I say he’s competent to do it. Dream on.
Im always surprised by how much English football and lack of Scottish games people here put up with from the BBC. Sums this country up.
Still paying the bbc tax? More fool you.
I must disagree with you on only focusing on football and agreeing that some of these people are DUE their income, this is a London based organisation and as such the monies will stay there on the main, how many BBC programs are made in Scotland ? compared to English ones.
If there`s a murder in London you won`t hear the end to it for a week, as in Glasgow you might hear of it in the Scottish news are we worth less !
Time for a different Scotland
BBC figure is now around £2m for Scottish Football but Denmark and Norway both get much more than Scotland from selling their League football rights.
Latest Deloitte annual review of football finance for 2015/16 shows that the rich get richer and Scotland gets a shocking broadcasting deal compared to Denmark. Denmark gets 79m euros per annum from TV rights while Scotland got 31 million or £19 m in total.
https://www2.deloitt…ll-finance.html
Not just Denmark but Norway gets a far better deal yet Scottish league has far more world wide appeal in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
In December 2015 Discovery Networks Norway acquired the domestic media rights to Norway’s top two soccer divisions in a deal reportedly worth just over US$278 million.
The media and communications company will broadcast matches from the top-tier Tippeligaen and second-tier OBOS-ligaen competitions across its TVNorge, MAX and Eurosport channels between 2017 and 2022.
The six-year deal, signed with the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) and Norsk Toppfotball, is worth some NKr 2.4 billion (around US$278 million), according to Sportcal.
http://www.sportspro…_sports_history
What is it about Denmark and Norway that they can get their commercial broadcasters to pay a fair deal for local league football?
They are not part of Great Sweden or Great Germany.
O/T
I know we’re asked to donate to so many great causes however I wonder if those who can afford to would consider donating to this worthy cause also?
‘Sponsor a Scottish Child plea as back-to-school uniform bank struggles to meet demand.’
‘SCOTS are asked to “sponsor a child” this summer – by buying uniforms for deprived youngsters in their own communities.
The country’s Back to School Bank network launched two years ago, providing free school shoes, ties, blazers and more for primary and secondary pupils from struggling backgrounds.
Initially developed by members of Women for Independence, the volunteer-run groups aim to provide “dignity” to children who would otherwise lack essential items,and have spread to Northern Ireland, England and Wales. Until now, the autonomous groups have relied on informal donations of new shirts, gym bags and stationery from supporters. Now a coordinated effort is underway to collect hundreds of uniform sets as demand for the referral services grow…..’
Check out Back to School Banks in your area.
link to thenational.scot
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‘Yes hub is ready to open in Danny Alexander’s former Inverness office
INDY-supporting Yessers in Inverness have set a date for the opening of their new shop in what used to be the constituency office of former LibDem MP and one-time chief secretary to the Treasury Sir Danny Alexander.
The waterside building at No 45 Huntly Street will be officially opened on August 5 by The National columnist Lesley Riddoch.
Artist Morag Frame inherited the premises from her mother and will now share it with the Inveryess2 group’s YesHub sitting alongside her own gallery………….”
link to thenational.scot
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An interesting snippet from the National:
Article XXV of the Articles of Union (1707) states ”All Laws and Statutes in either Kingdom, so far as they are contrary to, or inconsistent with the Terms of these Articles, or any of them, shall, from and after the Union, cease and shall become void, and shall be, by the respective Parliaments of the said Kingdoms.”
Does this not mean that any backsliding to the 16th Century and it’s Laws are void also? If Mrs May is so wedded to Henry V111-type ”laws” perhaps she should look out. Richard Easson, Dornoch.
Nobody should be surprised by this. I’m just glad I don’t pay the BBC’s propaganda tax. Mustn’t grumble, however. Criticising the BBC for being England-centric is “parochial” according to unionists. Scots can only be cultured and outward-looking if we are spoon-fed English news and culture. Focusing on Scottish issues and culture is just backward and silly.
Ah, the wonderful world of the Scots unionist.
Scottish Steve says:
We could claim exactly the same for the reverse situation. How many Scots find Radio 4 news and current affairs to be anything other that parochial SE England output?
Well, perhaps some SE England facing Scots won’t see it. The rest of us do!
And what about the DAB radio roll out? Our we hill top relay eventually got DAB. The 21stC arrived!
Aye, but as things turn out all that is transmitted in ‘English Radio’! No BBC Radio Scotland or Alba.
WTF is the only constructive comment that comes to mind.
The BBC do not set out to service the UK. Their mission is project the established/official/acceptable SE England subset across all of these isles.
Fortunately I finally wised up and stopped paying my licence fee earlier this year. Meant to do it sooner but with one thing and another never got round to it until they were about to bill me for it again.
Honestly the best thing I ever did. Cancelled my Sky TV after they sent a letter saying they were increasing prices again, no more licence fee to pay and all in all saved myself a small fortune.
Cutting the cable (or satellite in this case) is a great move these days.
Not just with Football that such injustices occur in ‘Scottish’ broadcasting. Only the Olympics & World Cup events exceed the number of tickets sold for Edinburgh’s festivals but last year national coverage of this leading world art event was limited to three half-hour magazine programmes on BBC2.
Michael Sandle’s sculpture, “A Mighty Blow for Freedom: Fuck the Media” is owned by Glasgow Museums but is hidden away in storage. It depicts a figure dramatically smashing a TV. It is time it was sited at Pacific Quay.
O/T
Wee Ginger Dug annual crowdfunder…
link to indiegogo.com
I know it’s tough at this time of year with holidays and what-not but spare what you can, folks. Must keep the dug biting the hand of project fear. Oh, and Paul too…
Seems that my first post hasn’t appeared, so I’ve now cut out the links!
Thanks for the clarification Stu that Lineker’s wage is practically double what the BBC is forking out for TV and radio coverage of Scottish football. Absolutely horrendous on at least two counts … the amount of money he’s (and others) making as millions in this country go hungry and the BBC’s attitude towards the Scots.
Scotland is being robbed blind and ripped off by the ESTABLISHMENT at every turn. When are the Scots going to waken up to the FACTS? And where’s Donalda when you need her? What’s she got to say about this? Nought?
Meanwhile the last item to be covered on BBC’s Politics Today by Coburn and Neil was zooming into Hannah Bardell wearing a Scotland Woman`s football top in the Commons. Does this breach Parliamentary protocol they ask. Will someone speak to her about this? Or as Coburn points out she may just have returned from the Commons sports events but I doubt that this is acceptable. The country is ready to implode, the Commons is not fit for purpose, the Unionist politicians are a bunch of lying gits but let’s all talk about SNP Hannah Bardell’s top. I wonder how much Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn get paid for spouting such trash / lies about the Scots / Scotland on a daily basis and running the SNP down to the ground constantly? More to the point how many Scots are actually paying for this ‘service’?
I also see now via the National that Hannah Bardell had been wearing a jacket on top of the sports top. Did they wait until she took it off for a moment and then zoom in on her?
The television license really is fantastic value for money. *rictus grin*
Scots and Welsh launch DUP deal challenge
link to archive.is
I see the yoons are out in force decrying Hannah Bardell on social media. What has Scotland done to deserve such a nation of cringing uncle jocks? It’s truly toe curlingly embarrassing stuff reading their hundreds of anti Scottish comments.
I remember a few years ago the highlights from the weekend’s Scottish football wasn’t shown on the BBC on the Sunday night but the following Wednesday! How about that? Our national game, which we used to see every Saturday night (BBC Sportscene) and Sunday (STV Scotsport) and we had to wait until the next midweek when folk had forgotten about the last match and were looking forward to the next round of matches. Only in Scotland.
It would seem a number of BBC journalists are in the top 1% for earnings. So is it any surprise that during the election they seemed to be less than impartial. BBC News presented to you almost exclusively by the top 1%,
Now we need to know if these salaries are paid directly or into a tax avoiding ltd company.
It is time for our leadership to become more assertive.
Not just in campaigning for #scotref but in all sorts of casual ways & with maybe throwing a little grit in the machine.
Attacking the DUP deal (and go large on that) see @Call me Dave above
Open criticism of bbc salaries v Scottish football funding
Casually asserting the uk is a state not a country
Questioning Westminster sovereignty-even just in an abstract way, as an assertion
Celebrate 1820 bicentennial
Call for the Elgin marbles to be returned to Greece, that always generates some fun
Just find things to be bloody thrawn about
No point anymore in playing by the rules, they aren’t our rules & they are designed to stop us winning.
Why should anyone be surprised by the machinations of a English state broadcaster. You just have turn on your tv to see that the BBC is jammed packed full with programmes full of English content.
Scots know very little of their history through watching tv programmes, Because there aren’t any. We have to a certain degree, through watching the box been Anglicised, who can recall any Scottish childrens programmes as a kid, Glen Michaels Cavalcade aside.
We must be the only country in the world who are spoonfed another countries media 24/7 and pay for it.
Roll on independence.
I stopped paying them. There is loads to see and do without the BBC. (I do listen to Radio 3 and the odd Radio 4 programme but they are still “free”).
@galamcennalath 4:38pm
Agreed. The BBC is just the propaganda arm of the British state. London and the SE is all-important. The rest of the UK can rot as far as they’re concerned.
@Andy B 5:21pm
Good point. There is practically no history documentaries that focus on Scotland (unless you count Neil Oliver’s dross!) The only documentaries I have seen that even involve Scotland at all either mention it fleetingly or it is presented through a British prism. Plenty of docs talking about kings after the Union of the Crowns but little to none about Scottish kings.
I recently watched an episode of Great British Castles which was about Stirling Castle. It mostly focused on how the English kept capturing and attacking it. It spoke about how the castle played host to figures such as William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Mary, Queen of Scots.
But by the end of it, the presenter said Stirling was a “very British castle” because it was where James VI was educated. I had to roll my eyes.
Yeah, just like other normal countries, Scotland (being a country) should have its own dedicated, prime-time sports and general television channels for news & entertainment etc, which is crucially an independent broadcaster from that other television corporation company based in London, that’s the country of London don’t ya know yeah?
We should always have the rightful freedom to broadcast to our own people.
Give people a choice of channels and they will choose.
I’d subscribe to ScoTV, to get it up and running.
I don’t pay the London Tax either.
Don’t do TV at HOME.
Let’s go forward to the future in an independent Scotland..
The year is 2020 (five new ScoTV channels added + further oil found!)
“Good evening Scotland, you are watching for free, on ScoTV, and now with the game everyone’s been waiting for, we take you over live to the final from Hampden.”
“ScoTV comes to you in association with and sponsored by yerself.”
Say Aye to watch your Scottish football team on TV for free.
Congratulations Scotland!
Well done you.
More disparity. There will be more.
All the accounts should be published. £3.7Billions. What is it spent on?
I’m quite encouraged by the number of people who don’t pay the TV licence fee. (Assuming that means they aren’t watching telly at all)
If anybody out there is cheating and watching telly without paying the licence fee I’d say ‘don’t do it’. You are missing the big advantage of no telly which is not the money you can save, but the amount of head space and time it frees up.
Time to have a life rather than watching other people pretending to have a life.
A society that pays Gary Lineker £2 million to do what millions of people love to do (talk about football) while refusing to pay essential public servants a decent wage has got some serious questions it ought to be considering.
Returning to 2014 and vows on pensions
That worked out well didn’t it?
Scottish Steve @ 5.43
During the Indy Ref the BBC did do a short series on the Stuart kings but that is about the only time I can ever remember them dealing with that topic in any stand alone series.
The timing of course was just coincidental…not.
Legerwood says:
19 July, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Scottish Steve @ 5.43
During the Indy Ref the BBC did do a short series on the Stuart kings but that is about the only time I can ever remember them dealing with that topic in any stand alone series.
The timing of course was just coincidental…not.
Same time, same place, Beeb gimps paid Rory the tory to make this amazing British fantasy vote NO Scotland, non existent Scotland and they’ve logged under BBC “factual” too. No idea how much he got for his Middleland malarky because that’s how BBC dictates.
Its not just that Rory the tory is a ghastly example of tory twat, although I kind of wish I was a tory sometimes, totally devoid of any morality, common decency, fair play, honesty etc, just keep control, by any means. Life must be so simple for toryboys.
link to bbc.co.uk
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Flashback, Rory the tory did get massive beeb coverage, but he’s got it all toryboy style, product of upper class inbreeding, probably with goats, never done a days work in his life, born in the colonies, Eton, Oxbridge, private tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry probably was work, hammer of the Scots, you can’t make this shit up really, toryboy style. And ofcourse, hero of tory BBC.
@Legerwood
@heedtracker
I really don’t understand the love and devotion many Brits have to the BBC. They do some good drama programmes and I admit some of their docs are good. But their news coverage is dire. And I hate the “we are so impartial” claim too. Their salaries are ridiculous too.
I think many Brits need a comfort blanket to reinforce their worldview. The BBC and monarchy are two examples of the British comfort blanket.
I also have stopped paying the TV tax and watching TV. Again one of the best things I have ever done and I got the refund for the remaining time too. When they asked for reasons for cancelling I just told them straight that their broadcasts did not cover my interests of points of view and were completely irrelevant to my life. I was no longer watching and certainly was not paying for it.
When I stopped it was still legal to watch iPlayer. I did look through the menu once in a while but never saw anything that I was interested enough in seeing that I bothered turning it on, and went back to the Amazon Fire Stick that I can watch free with Prime. But usually I just find something more interesting to do. Not hard!
Scottish Steve says:
19 July, 2017 at 6:58 pm
@Legerwood
@heedtracker
Isnt the BBC core audience tory anyway?
How much of teamGB is tory, down the leafy driveways, in the vast OO dominated housing estates of Glasgow’s hinterland?
Half of the UK loves the tory BBC because half the UK is tory. Which is pretty much all you need, to justify vomiting so much tax money over yourselves like this. Who’s to stop you.
We should be prepared though, us leftie vile seps of the BBC’s greater English region of Scotland.
BBC destroyed the miners and Scargill, with incredible attack propaganda. They got Thatcher in and kept her there. They kept red tories like Blair and Brown in No.10, and they went to UK war in the middle east with them but only until their time was over, decided by beeb gimps.
So we should be prepared to accept that the BBC Scotland reign over us means that 2014 indy ref was in fact really the beginning of the end of the SNP and ofcourse Scottish independence, because the BBC will make it so.
Its really going to hurt but still, life isnt fair in teamGB, we have to be ready.
@Ken says:
19 July, 2017 at 12:12 pm
Given the posts which I’ve read here about the sectarian nature of Scottish football, it might be a very good thing if it were to wither away.
It only needs one club to wither away (and it would have already if the football authorities and the SMSM weren’t so wedded to it).
jfngw @ 19 July, 2017 at 5:17 pm
Not only for during elections but at all times. It keeps them on message for selling the agenda of the top 1% to the masses and making that message believable.
As seen by the figures, it is the life’s ambitions of everybody in the journalistic class to be get their snout into the BBC trough. This keeps them on message as well.
As I mentioned, if Scottish indy benefited the establishment and their trougher underlyings, the journo’s would be singing the benefits of it from the rooftops.
PacMan says:
19 July, 2017 at 7:56 pm
jfngw @ 19 July, 2017 at 5:17 pm
Is that why Lesley Riddoch of The National hasn’t been seen on BBC Scotland since 2014?
Scottish Steve @ 19 July, 2017 at 6:58 pm
There are two BBC’s. One that shows without commercials dramas and related programming that is on the whole enjoyed by a lot of people. The other is the news service that is heavily biased towards the government of the today which is required for the BBC to keep it’s privilege of being financed through public taxes.
To get the message through, we really need to differentiate the two by acknowledging that the BBC makes good entertainment but highlight the ridiculous bias it’s news services has, not only on Scottish matters on a whole range of ones as well.
‘The country now gets just 35 minutes a week of dedicated Scottish political TV programming, for example – five minutes a day’.
I think that’s probably less time than we get hearing about the trials and tribulations of the English Cricket team each day. (Who, of course, are never, never referred to as the British Cricket team).
Any time I see these sort of insane level of SALARY I get infuriated, and yes I would refuse it if offered unless I thought I could add that much value to society. Think of the difference between a living wage and this, and think about the value of the work they do. I am very glad I stopped paying the licence tax, the BBC are charlatans.
I spotted the petition someone posted a link to, for reform of the electoral system, but didn’t feel able to sign it, I think the reform needs to be more than this (not allowing candidates to be on the list), even introducing STV for all elections. What I would actually like to see, improbable though it is, are political parties done away with, candidates have to apply to stand as individuals, with a cv like for any job, they get interviewed & their credentials and qualifications checked, once they are cleared as suitable they are allocated a set amount of campaign money to spend as they will (but all spending must be accounted for and never go over that amount) – level playing field so that candidates are chosen on merit and skills, not wealth or political affiliations – and then we can each vote for our preferred candidate safe in the knowledge that they aren’t a complete womble (though not all job interviews are that successful). This ends mass voting for rubbish candidates just because they belong to a party yer granda used to vote for. I haven’t figured out how to form a government yet though, but I’ll get back to you on that one.
O/T – but I hope you will all enjoy the latest Yew Choob song, as woven into today’s events!
link to eurofree3.wordpress.com
O/T
Well worth it.
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
@Ken says: 19 July, 2017 at 12:12 pm:
“Given the posts which I’ve read here about the sectarian nature of Scottish football, it might be a very good thing if it were to wither away.”
Generally speaking, Ken, Scottish Football isn’t sectarian. Just a couple of clubs are but these clubs are also over strongly represented in the Scottish football authorities and get far more than their fair share of publicity from the Scottish MSM and broadcasters.
So much for Bbc transparency on salaries , outsourced productions ect ect , payments made through employee companies , that’ll be the offshore hidden tax revenues , btw they mentioned Dimbleby but no mention of Brillo or did I miss that bit.
I changed my mind, and did sign the electoral reform petition. Small steps & all that.
@Pacman
@heedtracker
It depends on who you ask. Many Tories, including one I know personally, despise the BBC for its supposed lefty views and bias. Others, like myself, revile it for being right wing and arselickers of whoever happens to be the government.
The British state does not play fair. It will deploy all weapons, including their propagandists in the BBC, to preserve their “precious, precious Union” and all the money and privilege which underpins it.
Jock McDonald @ 5.19
I have been thinking along those lines as well Jock.
We really should start being a bother to the state.
My thoughts were that we should go all Shawshank redemption on them
A letter a week to the head’s of government in the EU…we are still citizens are we no?
Our version of what we perceive is going on.
Telling them we are behind what Nicola said about the citizens from the main land being welcome and valued.
Making sure they know we don’t think that it’s right our government isn’t in the talks and asking that they tell the UK negotiation team they don’t mind if someone from Holyrood is there.
Something similar with the EU Broadcaster’s…..ask them to verify news as the BBC can’t be trusted.
Also the head’s of the health care companies….letting them know NHS Scotland isn’t for sale,that we would campaign to by pass their companies some how and give them no custom.
Start makin the news.
I’m sure we could think of something for Trump and Putin as well….
We might even make it Trendy for world leaders to have gotten their letter from Scotland.
We have no loyalty to Westminster let’s tell the world what we really think of them and what they get up to that the BBC hide.
@sassenach says: 19 July, 2017 at 2:18 pm:
“I may be wrong, but as I understand it the BBC gets their money from central government, and our licence fees go into the UK taxation pot.”
You are 100% correct, sassenach.
What you pay is a fee to the UK Government for the right to watch broadcast TV from any source.
That is why it is called a TV Licence you do not pay the BBC for the propaganda and other crap they broadcast. These days the BBC does not even collect the money anymore. That is farmed out to a private debt collecting agency.
So do not even dream of going to court with a defence that you do not watch the BBC for what you pay for is the government’s permission to watch any form of broadcast TV from any source.
MJack 3.24pm. All i hear from most ‘scots? When i go home on holiday is!ach scoatish fitba’s sh**e anyroads. We don’t need the English to take the p**s out of our game. Self loathing scots do a good enough job themselves.
I just don’t get get how powerless Scotland is in this Union we cant do anything for ourselves. Cant someone show a bit of intelligence and show how good we really are? I mean if someone promoted a Independent Scottish TV channnel that backed Scottish sport, ilm, tv, business etc. surely that would attract at least the 50% yessers to subscribe?
Its great Wings is getting the facts but we all knew it to be as bad as it has now shown up to be. Nothing will change as we are stuck in a neverending story of how top wee, too poor & too stupid with BBC/STV/Sky telling us how shite we are. ARRGGHH!
Scottish Steve says:
19 July, 2017 at 9:02 pm
@Pacman
@heedtracker
Yes that is true, tories do think the beeb is full of trotts. But they know its not, really.
BBC’s great power is simply to not inform and educate us. If you don’t really know about the way this country or the EU or the whole world works, why would you see any problems or want to change it?
BBC is basically the Daily Telegraph, on screen and radio. It was once great, in the 60’s and 70’s but that’s when the English let in the working classes, to the establishment, through uni mostly.
They’ve learnt from that mistake, as elites that thrive always do. That’s why they’ve set about Scottish democracy. They take down each threat to their existence now, as they appear.
2014 was pretty close though. BBC Scotland probably saved them all really, the whole UK elite, what would happen if an actual democracy really did break out in teamGB.
We’ll probably never know. Mind Jacky Bird and Flipper Darling at the end of their BetterTogether campaign on the BBC Scotland national news, as UKOK looked like losing, “So Alistair, tell us about the Vow, lets call it, Devo Max…”
Bird deserves a knighthood for that act alone.
Help expose the BBC
link to indiegogo.com
@Scottish Steve
@heedtracker
Of course the BBC is full of Trots, much like the Guardian. However, these are Trots that aren’t stupid and don’t bite the hand that feeds them. They go on about democracy movements all right the world yet do everything in their power to stop one right on their doorstep because it affects their bottom line.
This sums up everything these Trots believe in. They go through the motions with comradeship with the workers but as soon as it’s looks like the workers are in a position to get a bit of the power that’s theirs, it’s a totally different story.
It’s simply a case of scratching beneath a liberal and you get a Tory.
O/T (Cod)
BBC news tonight said our heroic fisherman had lovingly tended cod back from virtual extinction by making great sacrifices. Funny that because rewind to 2003 – seems it was scientists and the EU wot dunnit…
This year the scientists have advised that in order to save the endangered cod stocks, there should be a total ban next year on fishing for cod and associated species in waters around Britain.
The proposal will be haggled over by ministers at their December council in Brussels. But already fishermen have denounced it as unrealistic and unnecessary.
The dispute between scientists and fishermen over the state of cod stocks has become an annual ritual.
Every year the fishermen say the scientists are exaggerating the danger to the stocks, while the scientists say the fishermen are threatening their own long-term livelihoods by ignoring their warnings of an imminent collapse of cod in the North Sea.
link to news.bbc.co.uk
@PacMan
@heedtracker
Scots know the solution. The hard part is convincing enough of them to vote for it.
I have a sinking feeling we will lose a second indyref. I just don’t think Scots have the stomach to go it alone. To turn an old phrase, “Scots are clinging to their Westminster nurse for fear of finding something worse.”
Scottish Steve says:
19 July, 2017 at 10:23 pm
@PacMan
@heedtracke
I think ref2 is extremely winnable, me:D
That’s why it’s been blocked.
@heedtracker
I’d like to share your confidence but I disagree. Too many Scots are addicted to the Westminster teat. And the majority of English residents here are unrepentant No voters.
I know there are English Yes voters and English groups for indy but the majority will not abandon loyalty to the motherland. I don’t know why so many Scottish nationalists are afraid to address this elephant in the room.
I’m not trying to stir up anti-English sentiment. I’m just stating a fact.
Just in case anyone didn’t already know that Brexit is a complete shite show …
link to archive.is
” EU figures in Brussels are “baffled” by how unprepared the British side has been for negotiations. “
Scottish Steve says:
19 July, 2017 at 10:39 pm
@heedtracker
England will be extremely diminished losing control of Scotland but there are not enough English British nationalist voters in Scotland to make a big difference. Although one of the beeb tricks is to make it appear as if there are.
Brexit showed our imperial master baiters of the beeb, that they do not entirely brainwash us.
@heedtracker
Apologies. I’ve just been a bit salty and pessimistic since the Tories won seats north of the border.
heedtracker says:
I completely agree.
No one is suggesting it is imminent. It will only happen as a response to a completely disasterous Brexit.
There were only ever three possible outcomes to Brexit IMO. Everything else is just hot air.
1 The hardcore Brexiteers won’t accept reality, and jump off the cliff with no agreement. The economy contracts dramatically, the lucrative financial services sector is decimates, interest rates rise, as does unemployment rates.
2 The UK accepts what the EU offers. I guess this might be 5 years transition inside the EEA. Customs union, free trade, free movement and ongoing contribution. The world continues much as it is, for now.
… and we have to consider the non-Brexit outcome …
3 Brexit gets cancelled.
IndyRef2 will only happen with 1 above. Under those circumstances, if we don’t choose Indy, then we probably never will. The case for continuing the Union will be impossible to make and Indy will look like the safe and secure option.
‘Safe and secure’ is important because many Scots previously voted NO because that was what they thought best for themselves, their jobs, their savings. If Indy becomes more attractive, as it surely will with a crash and burn Brexit, then the better off and the BritNat elderly will put their purses and wallets ahead of nostalgic allergies to the Union!
Then we win.
Scottish Steve says:
19 July, 2017 at 11:07 pm
@heedtracker
It does seem to have emboldened yoon culture in Scotland but a lot of YESers just didn’t turn out for a very Englishee snap GE. Why would they, for just more UKOK bullshit.
We’re out of the EU. No matter who you voted for a few weeks ago, it had fcuk all to do with Scots, unless you’re tory Scot. That’s who voted.
The BBC are not licenced to licence anything, the tax goes straight to the treasury then the BBC make a bid for what they want and it’s dealt with accordingly by the government of the day plus the BBC is a commercial enterprise no matter what they tell you or they wouldn’t be able to sell their programming to 196 countries around the world and keep the money
How do you suppose they used to pay for Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson and pals and others in that income bracket not even counting the directors and executives and shareholdery types Lord Hoo Hahs wages which haven’t been all over the news today
Yes indeedy how we’ll be transparent and declare the stuff we’re not too worried about to the huddled masses, that’ll take their mind off the Arse we’re making of Brexit for a day or two don’t you know
Tomorrow a celebrity will hopefully drop dead or Elvis will be found alive and we’ll be off the front pages till after the weekend
Phew!! Safe!
What kind of nutter sees the iniquity of the set up with Scotland and the BBC, complains about it and then pays them money in the form of the TV license thereby allowing them to keep on doing what they do? By paying them you’re telling them you approve of their actions and encouraging them to keep going. This not rocket science. If you’re not willing to take the simple step of giving up live TV to avoid paying the license then you have no right to complain about the BBC’s behaviour. If you won’t help yourself then why should anyone else?
@heedtracker
Those Tory Scots, especially the fishermen and farmers in the North East, will be the first ones to whine and stamp their feet when they don’t get their own way. And whose fault will it be? Those nasty nationalists in Edinburgh. They could never ever criticise their beloved overlords in London.
Next time the farmers moan about late payments, the Scottish Government ought to tell them to moan to their new Tory MPs down south. Why should the Scottish Government waste its time on Tory voters who despise them? If they love the Union so much, they can ask Westminster for help.
I am sure English Tories will be very eager to throw money at whinging Jock farmers.
Ged O’Brien says: Agree with you Ged..Scotland invented modern fitba, but as usual…the English patented it..and by institutionalising it with a Scottish founder and Scottish players..the ‘professors’ from the industrial heartlands..they’ve claimed it and stolen our birthright.
And so it continues… the crisp eating snideball Lineker gets twice what our 42 clubs get off ‘our’ BBC. I recall somebody from that corrupt organisation last year defended this as based on the English game being more ‘popular’.
By denigrating what was our nationally most popular game both in coverage and funding, the deliberate undermining of our cultural identity gathers pace. Aided and abetted by ‘Sky’ and the SFA/SPL run by English carpetbaggers…like so many institutions in Scotland…our game’s status sags and falls into insignificance as does our national pride that used to fly so high in the middle and late years of the last century when a team in dark blue was humbling the auld enemy or even qualifying for world cups on a regular basis.
Yet salvation…as ever…lies in our own hands. As suggested by me previously… and others on this thread…if Scottish football united behind a determined boycott of Sky and BBC and demanded a population allocation to our game, it would yield millions of pounds. SKY get more than 8% of its UK sports subscribers from Scotland and the threat of probably losing 10% of their revenue rather than re-allocating that amount from the collosal over the top handouts to English clubs would be a realistic possibility.
I have suggested this to Old Firm fans…and you can guess which ones are less than enthusiastic. The dumb reactions shouldn’t surprise me or the shrugs…after all football and politics for half our population seem to be beyond any kind of blue sky thinking. I don’t pay the BBC tax anyway……and if more boycotted it…and hundreds of thousands would if the clubs supported this campaign for equal payment, well we might create a spark of political consciousness in those amongst the fitba masses who have not yet woken up to the iniquity of treatment of our nation by the colonial masters and reap a political gain from their struggle.
Stoker says:
19 July, 2017 at 9:58 pm
Help expose the BBC
link to indiegogo.com
@Cal
Given the disconnect between the BBC and the licence fee I.e. they continue to be funded by the Government, how many of us have to stop paying before it makes a blind bit of difference?
And who do we write to to explain why we’re not paying if the BBC don’t care?
Highland Wifie
Don’t pay them and don’t watch or listen to their output. They’re under a lot of pressure to get Scotland viewing their massive SNP bad stuff alone. Its probably the only thing that they fear, a falling viewer base.
Everytime a Scot switches off BBC Scotland for good, an angle farts.
I had a moment of joy earlier this evening when one of my FB friends posted 3-0. As she is the Women’s officer in our branch of the SNP I assumed she was referring to the Scottish Women’s team – but alas she was referring to the Celtic score.
Commiserations to the Scottish Women’s team.
I taught one of the members of the Scottish Women’s team who retired 2 years ago.
@galamcennalath
That’s a fact.
Saw a little clip on Monday TV News?
All round the negotiating table.
EU delegation on LHS with piles of paperwork and books and on the RHS Davies & Co for the UK with not even a fag packet on view.
Nothing! 🙁
@ heed tracker
So write to the BBC then? Happy to do so if it’s not peeing in the wind.
Highland Wifie says:
20 July, 2017 at 12:14 am
@ heed tracker
So write to the BBC then? Happy to do so if it’s not peeing in the wind.
Not saying what anyone should and shouldn’t do though. But underlying the BBC in Scotland is pressure to make us watch them. What’s the point of them otherwise. What is odd about them is that they do not show Scottish football, male or female much at all, which undermines my point too.
A lot of Scottish international football men’s matches are simply not televised but they used to be. If my theory was right, beeb gimps in Pacific Quay would be showing them all. Unless Scots watching their national teams is bad for UKOK unionism in Scotland?
Andy Murray is more or less treated like a club tennis winner, by said beeb Scotland gimpery too, certainly not THE Scots world No.1, far more of a success than anything England has ever produced, in any actual global sport.
It all has to be filtered through that great teamGB rule over Scotland BBC process.
BBC Scotland and the SFA both had a chance to take the bull by the horns and really promote women’s football in Scotland today.
Regardless of the result tonight this is the first major tournament for them.
However in the usual hypocritical way that Scotlands institutions operate, no doubt there will be somebody on TV soon to tell us ( like everything else) how Keech we are.
The irony is it is usually the expert who runs said institution.
That said Rev, I’m not sure even with Gary Lineker and Chris Evans wages combined it would make any difference to BBC Scotland , Reagan and Doncaster because it doesn’t seem to be money they lack but vision and talent.
£2m for football chat! So all those extra hours spent virtue signalling on twitter was part of a guilt complex.
Heedtracker @ 11-52 says
“Everytime a Scot switches off BBC Scotland for good, an angle farts.”
Would that be an acute fart, an obtuse fart, or (heaven forbid) a dreaded reflex fart?
I’ll get me coat…….
Most ” cutting” comment of the day by ” Breeks” at 0155pm
regarding the thirty pieces of silver paid to EBC Scotland staff somewhat
less than the £150000 disclosure cut off. Hopefully ” Union Jackie” gets the message.
Proud to say I have NEVER, EVER paid for this, and never will (live in Orlando, so it’s YouTube) – Mum and Dad are a different story/generation 😉
Mmmmmmmmmmmm…… BBC Reporting Scotland reporting that 8 frigates to be built at Glasgow. Are they not a bit mis-leading? I thought 3 were due and 5 are still to be confirmed by the MOD.
BBC Jockland announce the UK government are ‘giving’ 300 million to Scotland as part of the ‘cities deal’.
Much later in the piece we are told that the Scottish government is matching the amount.
Why is this a UK payment?
O/T
Can anyone tell me if it’s legal/acceptable to place stickers on lamp posts? Want to try and drum up support for pro-indy group offline that trying to get started and thinking of various ways (but which don’t attract the attention of lawmakers!) to do so.
Also don’t want to go off trying to order individualised (with specific group named and other details on them, I mean) stickers if they can’t be used for this purpose.
Thanks for any guidance anyone can offer 🙂
On GMS ” lets leave David Mundell to one side”.
Yes please!
Tis is an abstract from my post yesterday over on WGD on the 3 1/4 hours of BBC English Breakfast hegemony every morning.
““NHS spend on private agency staff has more than doubled in 5 years according to figures compiled by Scottish Labour
The Party CLAIM the SNP (That’s the BAD EssEnnPee. Ed.) is mismanaging the Health Service leaving staff under -resourced.
The Scottish Government says the amount paid out by the NHS on agency staff is tiny.”
This is headline news? A tawdry wee piece of lazy summer filler Labour junk?”
1 minute and 56 seconds of ‘news where you are’, and they still manage to slip in a Labour SNP BAD piece.
BBC Scotland is a lost cause. The lack of investment in all aspects of broadcasting to the Colony comes as no surprise.
We are to smothered in English culture, because England is ‘Britain’.
Free Scotland must have a Public Service Broadcaster publicly funded but independent of Government.
The BBC/ITV and the cable channels Down There are owned and manipulated by the Filthy Rich with whom Lord Mandelson cavorts and the traditional Oligarchy of royalty, the nobility, the Bankers and Merchants.
It is all powerful and controls all communications; this should come as no surprise to any of us.
Every now and again they ‘tolerate’ satire, and anti Establishment material. Then the Darlings of the New Wave/Alternative Comedy/Satirists are bought off, and subsumed into the ruling Class.
David Frost,Ben Elton, Peter Sellers, Billy Connolly…
Money, honours, British icon status, will do it every time.
I have watched BBC output all over the world…Yet Davidson will threaten that we won’t get ‘Strictly’ when we take back our country from the oppressor?
Want to watch a Scotland international on the telly?
Not on Free To View.
England’s team?
There would be an uproar if the English had to pay Sky or BT to watch their heroes fail yet again.
Having been lifted by the polis in 1960 for putting stickers on lampposts I would affirm that it is!
Flyposting is illegal and can be very annoying. The person who put little saltires on the reverse of road signswas good as everyone thought it was the manufacurer who did it. Posting is only legal on private property with permission unless it is in breach of planning regulations.
Vehicles and trailers,even bicycles are all good. Lapels and tshirts are also good.Ibrox,Easter Road atc could be tried for banners if you are courageous!
BTW, WGD has a Fundraiser at the moment.
We need Paul and Stu more than ever now.
Dig deep, guys, if you can. I know many of us don’t have two farthings to rub together thanks to Ruth and Co.
Onwards.
What are these cities deal? Just another abuse of power having cut Scottish Block grant 19% a year since 2010. Now cut £3Billuon. Allowing Unionists to waste even more taxpayers money, on groteque projects of no value. Getting into even more debt. Just another excuse to underfund local essential sevices for projects of no value. Unionists getting into even more debt. While cutting essential services Education/NHS etc. Hinkley Point, HS2 just a total waste of public money. Making journeys throughout the UK and especially Scotland take longer and be more expensive. With no customer base, Any time gained 10 minutes will be lost changing trains. Maybe even to another station. Just a total waste of £Billions of public money. Some of which could have been spent on improvements of the present system and on essential services etc.
The Tories are sanctioning and starving vulnerable people to death. They have cause the worst migration crisis in Europe with illegal wars, bombing the Middle East to bits. Causing poverty throughout the world and ruining the world economy. Wasting £Trns.
Hinkley Point just a waste of £Billions of public money. Two tidal barrages £20Billion would have produced more energy. Been safer, cleaner and much cheaper.Scotland has to pay the loan repayments for the borrowing in these projects, while the Scottish economy is denied the investment this money would have brought to Scotland, Trident, Heathrow. All a waste of public money.
Brexit will cost even more. It will cost more for less. So the Tories and their cronies can line their pockets with public money. Getting illegal donations to their Party. While they destroy the fabric of society. They are useless, clueless and dangerous.
All of the BBC accounts should be published. They are still hiding massive payouts to production companies etc. Allowing tax evasion to take place. Sanction by the Westminster Gov using public money. £3.7Billion. What is that spent on?
Get rid of SKy polluting the environment with lies. Licensed by the Westminster Gov. The Unionists control the airways and reports from the Westminster Press Office. They break every Law ion equality, fairness and justice. Another total scandal. Mundell and the unionists wasting £Millions in the Scottish Office on propaganda.
The Scottish Gov should publish the CAP payments to farmers/landowners. Publish who gets what and what politicans are benefitting. These multimillionairesc getting even more tax payer money and denying essential services for other people.
Highland Wifie
If everyone thought like that nothing would ever get done. As one person, few of us have any real power but together we can move mountains etc… You know the script but it’s demonstrably true.
Apart from that you’re sending a message far louder than any letter could just by voting with your feet. You don’t need to tell them why you’re giving it up. Tell the people around you you no longer watch tv. That’s much move effective. It’s a great way to start a conversation because people usually ask why you gave it up and that’s your chance to plant the seed that maybe they should too.
I have a wife and kids and none of us watch it. It’s remarkably easy to give up and mentally you feel so much better. Plus there’s the added bonus of knowing you’re not funding their poison (at least directly).
Occasionally, I’ll see an advert on a billboard featuring someone who is obviously a famous tv “star” endorsing a product and I have a chuckle to myself accompanied by a warm glow when I realise I have no idea who they are 🙂
Famous 15:
Thanks for that – will avoid stickers on lamposts then, haha!
Leaflets may be the way forward. Could do with the exercise of going up and down stairs anyway!
Is it not time to ask the question:-
Should a state broadcasting organisation funded by a compulsory license or TV Tax be in the entertainment business paying obscenely high salaries to entertainers?
Would it not be better to restrict it to news and current affairs while flogging off the rest to the commercial sector funded by advertising.
Agency nursing cost a few £Million. £12Billion is spent on the SNHS. The final decision on minimum pricing is going through the Scottish courts. This will save on the SNHS and social services, police etc. It has taken over four years since the unionists objected it.
OAP’s from other cities can’t use their off peak travel passes on the Trams, They when without to pay for it, Another decision wasting public money. Having to run more buses.
@SandyW says:
19 July, 2017 at 8:18 pm
I think that’s probably less time than we get hearing about the trials and tribulations of the English Cricket team each day. (Who, of course, are never, never referred to as the British Cricket team).
That’s because they are the English Cricket Team. There is a separate Scottish Cricket team but you don’t hear much about them because they ain’t very good. BBC Scotland doesn’t report on English cricket so why complain if English media does? Some folk need to calm their goat-antelope cloths and accept that not everything is an English media plot.
Of course if Scottish media was to actually try to report on the much wider range of Sports in Scotland rather than the few they do we all might be better informed on this.
All over the world they can watch anything on the internet. Including the BBC who also get payment selling programmes and the content. Not only can they watch ‘Strictly’ and ‘Talent’ shows on the internet. They can are brought in. Other countries have they own similar shows and productions. Most folk are sick of watching TV and do it under their own choice. In most countries.weather permitting going outdoors. Or watching sporting events, films etc under their own choice.
Young folk bypass traditional broadcasting. Many do not have TVs but use the internet. More people spent time on the internet exchanging views etc. Rather than watching gormless programmes. On cooking or house hunting. Just a load of rubbish. People being sanctioning and starved to death by an oppressive unionist Gov trying to control the airways. Beaming in endless cooking, baking programmes to households they are starving, along with the vulnerable. Travel programmes can enlighten to see how other folk live and manage. Or historical to keep up to date. . An example. To counter the propaganda given out by certain governments. Trying to hide the truth under the Official Secrets Act.
As I’m not an SNP member, just wondered what activities the SNP have organised during the summer to promote independence or the SNP, now that they have three months free from Holyrood and WM work?
Re OAP Travel Passes and Labour’s Edinburgh Trams Fiasco – the reason OAPs from outside Edinburgh can’t use their passes on the trams is as far as I can recall that if that was allowed free travel would have to be made available in respect of the Glasgow Underground and trains operated by SPT.
Colin Alexander — why don’t you google for your answer. Go onto the SNP website and see what meetings are taking place. Give them a phone. In other words stop mixing it like a wee innocent.
Re BBC pays. Its amazing listening to Tory justifications for £1/2 million payouts to the great and good (from their perception),
As for laboratory workers in hospital, nurses, OT, physiotherapists, junior doctors and public sector generally they can get stuffed.
Caring torys.
Maybe I’m just annoyed with the weather.
BBC news online examples of “news”..
In Canada the Governer General assists an old German woman in her 90s to descend steps. This is now a diplomatic incident because touching the old lady is not allowed because she is the English queen.
The Welsh and Scots governments appeal the DUP deal. In comments someone called “Fyrish” moans loudly about the nasty Nats presumably while looking up from his/her house in Evanton, Ross-shire, at the monument on the hill above built to provide work to poverty stricken locals post Union many moons ago. That was a Union dividend for sure “Fyrish”, ye of little knowledge and unintended irony.
Meanwhile just along the road HMS Brunhilda is sitting tied up apparently needing repairs. A dry dock may be required but there isn’t one available in Blighty (there is one but it’s occupied by Brunhilda’s sister ship the Prince of Battenburg-Saxe-Gotha-Bratwurst-Hollenzollen-Borussiamochengladbach). On Savetheroyalnavy the comments suggest that ghe Nats are somehow at fault for closing down dry dock in Belfast, Plymouth, Trumpton-on-sea and various other locations.
Anyway I don’t care because I’m heading for Rewind and 80s nostalgia. If it rains I guess some will be calling for Nicola’s head.
@Hamish100
That was an open question that was an opportunity for SNPers to promote the party’s summer activities.
That’s no mixing it.
But thanks for the advice to check with the SNP website. I don’t usually go there as the general consensus seems to be that it’s not very informative or very interesting.
sassenach says:
20 July, 2017 at 1:29 am
Heedtracker @ 11-52 says
Funny. BBC Scotland and Angel farts do make sense, as much sense as editorial meeting of very high paid beeb gimps o Pacific Quay. “Nothing SNP good will ever pass out of these studios” tattooed on their big flabby BBC butts.
Seriously, BBC Scotland is Orwellian but even they have to ensure Scots watch their endless Scotland’s shite, SNP are worse, worship royals stuff. I used to read the Guardian, who are horrendous on Scottish democracy but they are losing money hand over fist, just to Facebook alone. Their tax dodge scam is being an nontaxable trust. But they’re still in trouble.
If your average BBC Scotland ligger aint producing the view figures, and we know that they flat out refuse to make public their view stats, why they can refuse to show Scots how many of us watch their shite is another example of their very shady outfit, er…
forgot my point:D
CA
Happy to help.
Do these presenters pay there own expenses, I wonder?
O/T but interesting:
From: link to journalonline.co.uk
“In the Scottish constitutional tradition, previous case law is said to be binding not, as in English law, by reason of its authority, but because of the authority of its reasoning.
Miller on devolution simply fails to persuade. But, on the devolution aspects, it is a unanimous 11 judge decision of the highest court in the land.
Unless the Supreme Court is going to make more of a habit of sitting in plenary session en banc, its decision in Miller constitutes the final and binding word on these matters.
“By closing off the possibility of even the threat of recourse to the courts as a means of resolving constitutional disputes between the devolved nations and the UK Parliament or Government, the judgment will, if anything, exacerbate political tensions between them.”
Giving goose
The Queen may be many things but can hardly be described as a “wee German woman”.
Her father George VI was married to Elizabeth Bowes Lyon of Glamis. so that makes her half Scottish.
I’m not a royalist by the way, but facts are facts.
It is not only the bbc itv are at it as well I watched The Loch there was more English actors in it than scots also a few coloureds we who invented the television and every bloody thing else are to stupid to solve our own crimes we have good Scots actors who could play these parts but o no not allowed and they were of course ridiculing the Loch Ness monster anything to run down Scotland they maintain to want to keep you in the union and there method is to threaten and insult you at every turn but hey the brothers and the o.o. Love it they celebrate it they don’t realise they are only being used against their own country and by the way I am a Protestant but I saw through it all years ago thank god
The Trams are a replacement for the bus service, The Trams were paid for by all taxpayers money. Edinburgh is the only city with taxpayer funded council transport. Subsidised transport. The wealthiest City in Scotland. All the rest were privatised with higher charges. The Trams are under subscribed with less than projected use. All Scottish taxpayer paid for the Trams, including OAP’s who went without. Supposed to be an National asset. Edinburgh OAP can use travel pass off peak. Some of the wealthiest in Scotland. Including to the airport. A major airport is situated there.
Funny story.
link to archive.is
HOME / NEWS / POLITICS / SCOTTISH POLITICS
Tunnock’s adds Union flag to wrappers to appeal to the Japanese
Its odd watching management like Tunnocks struggling with their branderising now.
BBC Scotland are interesting too, union jack wise. They never have a union jack anywhere on public display on the £400+ million PFI Pacific Quay studio yet they are the most British thing in their Scotland region imaginable.
Their giant lit up BBC Scotland signs bolted to the side of the edifice, are the union jack right enough.
BBC. British- English sewer pouring into your living room 24 7 365
Further to my previous comment, I take from that the courts – or at least the Supreme Court – shies away from constitutional matters as being political conventions.
Does that apply to The Union? The partnership of equals thing has no legal basis.
The convention is that Scotland has been subsumed into England’s parliamentary and England’s constitutional conventions:
Westminster rules: so it’s Westminster’s rules.
That looks bad, but it’s also good. In Scotland, we believe in popular sovereignty, what the will of the people of Scotland is what counts.
If so much of it is convention, would Westminster be able to legally enforce any action against the Scottish Parliament if it declared itself sovereign within the Union by popular political mandate?
If the majority of MSPs are elected on a manifesto mandate that they will declare Holyrood the sovereign legislature for Scotland on the basis of the mandate of the sovereign will of the people of Scotland, what then?
Would the courts shy away from that as a political matter?
( I know the usual responses: “distraction from indyref blah blah blah”, but currently there is no indyref, there are no elections, nothing.”
So, there’s problem in discussing constitutional matters affecting Scotland, as so many on here don’t watch the TV.
gus1940 says:
20 July, 2017 at 8:43 am
Is it not time to ask the question:-
…Would it not be better to restrict it to news and current affairs while flogging off the rest to the commercial sector funded by advertising….”
Restrict it news and current affairs? It would need root and branch reform and improvement just to raise itself up to deliver news and current affairs.
As for the hogwash these obscene wages being driven by market forces, privatise the BBC, make itself entirely self financing and then we’ll see whether market forces can run to such obscenely over paid and under good “entertainers”.
I reckon my business could afford the best staff in the business if it was bunged £3.8 billion a year, but I wouldn’t dare to be so disingenuous to claim the wages were driven by market conditions, unless my competitors got their own £3.8 billion bung.
The BBC is doing what it does best; rolling in profligacy and trolling in self righteous denial.
The ‘Supreme’ Court can not undermine Scottish Law or right of sovereignty. Two separate legal systems. Under the terms of the Act of Union Scotland was guaranteed a separate legal system forever. Or the the terms are broken, without agreement. The ECHR was set up by Westminster after 11WW. To deny Scottish sovereignty under the separate Scottish Law is illegal. They have denied Scottish citizens right to appeal to the ECHR. Illegally blocking a right to justice, supported by unionists. Not possible with a (SNP) Scottish Gov. It gives people more rights to justice. Is more equal, fairer, happier and prosperous. Less need to pursue rights under the Law.
The ‘Supreme Court would be breaking the Law and breaking the terms of the Act of Union which under the terms can’t be changed without agreement by both countries representation. It would break the UK Union. If the ‘Supreme’ court wants to do that it is up to them. Break the Act of Union terms. Can be challenged at the United Nations, if not at the ECHR. The Law Lords would be breaking the Law and the Act of Union terms. Breaking Scottish/UK/EU/International Law.
Westminster unionists being ignorant of the Law is nothing unusual. They try to break it with impunity. Hiding their criminality under the Official Secrets Act. The UK Law is being broken. In other countries they go to jail.
None of the TeamGB nonsense with the golf reporting today. From the BBC Live page from 8.00 am:
The Englishman has been close, but not close enough.
it is Danny Willett who sinks it. The Englishman confidently drills in
Scotland’s Russel Knox and Sweden’s world number nine Alex Noren
The Englishman jabs at the warming Lancashire air with a clenched right fist
Wales’ Stuart Manley said earlier
The Englishman drains another lengthy putt
England’s Tommy Fleetwood
England’s Danny Willett drops back
young English amateur Harry Ellis
American Gary Woodland and English debutant Harry Ellis
The Englishman dumps his approach to the 6th green
ready to gatecrash this all-English party
The red and white of the St George Cross is splattered all over the top of the leaderboard.
The 41-year-old Englishman, back in the groove
He moves back above compatriots Justin Rose and Alfie Plant intot he outright lead.
Three Englishman at the top of the leaderboard. Could it happen? No Englishman has won the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Plant, the English amateur,
The Welsh player gets up close and personal
It’s in Lancashire. England.
…Would it not be better to restrict it to news and current affairs while flogging off the rest to the commercial sector funded by advertising….”
They’ve been doing this for ages. Programmes that were popular were handed to the presenters and became private production companies.
David Dimbleby got Question Time for example but there are literally hundreds of others. You give the presenter the BBC programme and then they can make it themselves, while taking profit, or what the BBC pay them for it all.
Chris Evans for example, seems to be the kind of beeb ligger the beeb just love to shower with loads of money. But Evans has made over £200 million, on the whole beeb concept of presenters taking the shows they present and making them themselves. I think Evans did it with Channel 4 but they’re really only the BBC with adverts.
wiki
On 14 March 2000, Evans agreed the sale of Ginger Media Group to SMG plc for £225m. The sale made Evans the highest paid entertainer in the UK in 2000, estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List to have been paid around £35.5million.
Following poor reviews of TFI Friday, and Evans himself handing over presentation of the last series to a series of “friends”, the show was cancelled in December 2000.
Doesnt matter how shite their product is, just get it out there.
Don’t blame the BBC for making an advantageous deal. The people to blame are sitting in committee rooms at Hampden and board rooms of some SPFL clubs. Your ire should be directed towards people like Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster, Peter Lawell and his gang if sycophants.
stu macs says:
BBC Scotland doesn’t report on English cricket so why complain if English media does?
True.
Except that your equating the main BBC, UK wide, output with “English media” and the small underfunded BBC Scotland with “Scottish output”.
@Ken500
But it seems Scots Law has accepted first the HoL and now the SC as the higher court.
If those higher courts refuse to rule on constitutional matters such as the the terms of the Union are being broken, there’s little Scotland can do in law.
Conversely, there is little WM can do either.
It seems it’s mostly all politics and political conventions, not law.
So, on that basis, if Scotland’s Parliament decides it’s the sovereign legislature for Scotland – mandated by popular consent, by people voting for that – it seems the court’s can’t / won’t stop that.
They make legal decisions on the law, they don’t do politics.
So, then it’s up to WM to politically recognise or reject that sovereignty of the Scottish Parliament within the Union.
Personally, I think there are many Unionists that would struggle to support WM sovereignty over the sovereign will of the people of Scotland if they decide Holyrood is sovereign in Scottish matters within the UK.
If Scotland became independent, then this would all be irrelevant, but until that happens, then these questions still need to be answered about Scotland’s place within that Union.
For one, it could help people decide that independence is not only the best option, but the only option, if Scotland’s people’s sovereignty is to be respected and upheld.
Your ire should be directed towards people like Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster, Peter Lawell and his gang if sycophants.
Why?
Beeb gimps do not want to buy Scottish international matches for example, at any knock down price, why should we blame SFA managers?
If you cant even give away your product…
Graun explains how BBC works, kind of, its like a labyrinth of Orwellian unaccountability, or the same great British management profession that thinks Gogglebox is great telly.
link to archive.is
Currently the BBC guarantees 50% of its hours for in-house production, 25% for independent producers and 25% in a so-called “window of creative competition”, or WoCC, open to all.
O/T and Brexit related:
UKOK Bully Boy Approach with more threats today (courtesy of the Graun today).
“Britain has warned the EU that it could return boatloads of radioactive waste back to the continent if the Brexit talks fail to deliver an agreement on nuclear regulation.
In what is being taken in Brussels as a thinly veiled threat, a paper setting out the UK position for the negotiations stresses the right “to return radioactive waste … to its country of origin” should negotiations collapse.”
“The UK paper, detailing the British government’s hopes for future cooperation once it leaves the Euratom treaty, at the same time as leaving the EU, further stresses the “strong mutual interest in ensuring close cooperation in the future”.”
“Britain currently has a 126-tonne stockpile of radioactive materials originating from EU countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden.”
And at the end of today we will have another Month to wait until EU and UK negotiation teams sit down again.
15 Months remain ’til October 2018 when the EU 27 expect to have something to ratify by the EU parliaments prior to the 2019 withdraw date.
Brexit Clock will however continue to tick, tock.
Still O/T and Brexit related:
Compare and contrast,
1.
Posted by @galamcennalath says, 19 July, 2017 at 10:44 pm
“Just in case anyone didn’t already know that Brexit is a complete shite show …”
link to archive.is
” EU figures in Brussels are “baffled” by how unprepared the British side has been for negotiations. “
2.
From todays Independent
“Brexit: Liam Fox says securing a UK-EU free trade deal will be ‘one of the easiest in human history'”
“Securing a free trade deal with the European Union should be “one of the easiest in human history”, according to Cabinet minister Liam Fox, as he insisted Britain could also “survive” without a deal.”
“The comments from the International Trade Secretary, who will today meet with the director general of the World Trade Organisation, come as Brexit Secretary David Davis returns to Brussels to resume negotiations with his EU counterparts.”
“But downplaying the importance of securing a free trade deal with the bloc, Mr Fox told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Britain could “survive” if negotiations collapsed and the UK was forced to crash out.”
So there we go.
Now, call me ‘Tin Foil Hatted’ but….
add this to the ‘Beastly Foreigners demanding Brexit Divorce Cash’ and David Davis and his ‘team’ sitting down without even a pen and note pad:
What do you get?
UK out of the EU before the end of the years with no deal.
As per the fictional Sherlock Holmes, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
Scots Law has not accepted anything. Unionists politicians have tried to impose illegal conditions which as usual have come unstuck as they are finding out, before they are voted out of Office, because of their illegal behaviour. Most of them should be in jail. Destroying the world economy.
Scottish Law cannot be superimposed, by unionists unless they break the terms of the Act of Union. That is what they are finding out. It has not been concluded. In any way shape or form. As the unionists are finding out. Especially the Tories, tying themselves in knots. Before bye bye. Good riddance and good luck. Not long to go. Trying to destroy the world economy. Illegal wars, financial fraud, tax evasion. The Westminster unionists breaking the Law with impunity being pursued called against in judgement after judgement. How much longer will the majority in Scotland put up with this farce.
O/T Which? Has just published some of their findings re.broadband speeds in the UK.
Surprise surprise Orkney has the slowest download speeds in the UK (ave. 6.3Mbps) with Shetlands and Highlands 2nd and 3rd lowest (8.4 and 8.8) Compare with highest of 30.4 and UK average of 17)
Are we supposed to believe that in taking Nuclear Waste for re-processing The UK is acting charitably and doing a favour for the dastardly Johnny Foreigners.
I would be surprised if the deal was not a financially profitable one for The UK.
@colin alexander says: 20 July, 2017 at 9:20 am:
“As I’m not an SNP member, just wondered what activities the SNP have organised during the summer to promote independence or the SNP …
Now there’s a surprise?
I note CA is on this thread already with diversionary disruption and Ken500 took the bait.
two sad bunnies.
I scroll past as always.
heedtracker @10.56
I know all that.
However, the fact remains that the programs are on The BBC and however and by whomsoever they are made they are still paid for by the mugs who have to pay the license fee whether or not they watch said programs.
Jockanese Wind Talker
Of course any country can survive but the UK will be plunged into chaos and the SE with London will be the part protected at the expense of the rest.
If Scotland goes along with what is happening then it gets the kicking it deserves.
Sorry folks but I just saw Brillo get a doing from David Lammy worth seeing it again he did not like it up him.
Agreed @gus1940 says at 11:51 am but you know how it will be spun by BBC/MSM
Nice little earner for someone £Billions(and taxpayers cash too).
“Reprocessing plants include the THORP nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, the Magnox nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, and the Waste Vitrification Plant.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
“The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, or THORP, is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, England.”
“THORP is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and operated by Sellafield Ltd (which is the site licensee company).”
“Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors is reprocessed to separate the 96% uranium and the 1% plutonium, which can be reused in mixed oxide fuel, from the 3% radioactive wastes, which are treated and stored at the plant. The uranium is then made available for customers to be manufactured into new fuel.”
“THORP is due to close in 2018 once all existing reprocessing contracts have been fulfilled.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
“All the UK’s Magnox Reactor Sites (apart from Calder Hall) are operated by Magnox Ltd, a Site Licence Company (SLC) of the NDA. Reactor Sites Management Company (RSMC) holds the contract to manage Magnox Ltd on behalf of the NDA.”
“In 2007, RSMC was acquired by American nuclear fuel cycle service provider EnergySolutions from British Nuclear Fuels.”
“On 1 October 2008, Magnox Electric Ltd separated into two nuclear licensed companies, Magnox North Ltd and Magnox South Ltd.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
Troops, 7-days left to see if we can get this to double up:
link to indiegogo.com
@Fireproofjim says: 20 July, 2017 at 10:23 am:
” … The Queen may be many things but can hardly be described as a “wee German woman”.
Her father George VI was married to Elizabeth Bowes Lyon of Glamis. so that makes her half Scottish.
However, Fireproofjim, the Queen Mother wasn’t actually Scottish by birth.
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, youngest daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis who later became the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland.
Her Mother was Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck who was descended from former British Prime Minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and her father was Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the elder brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
Her place of birth was London but the exact location is disputed as being either her parents’ Westminster home at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, or in a horse-drawn ambulance on it’s way to a hospital. Other likely places are said to be Forbes House in Ham, London, (home of her maternal grandmother, Louisa Scott).
What is NOT disputed is that Her birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores’ English country house, St Paul’s Walden Bury. This was also given as her birthplace in the census the following year and she was Christened there on 23 September 1900.
So there you go – her paternal family had both English and Scottish titles and her maternal family were English and she was born in London.
Her parents children were counted in double figures and she was their tenth child. Her main Scottish connections were that her brothers & sisters were farmed out around the several family homes and, being the tenth in line, she was well down the line of those nearer the parents so ended up being in the care of a nanny in a very much northern Scottish Castle.
Her parents never expected she would become Queen as her husband took over from the king who abdicated.
I only knew the real truth after refereeing a bitter argument between a Scottish Nationalist and an English MP.
I held bet money and had to assess who won the bet. The casting vote was that the rank of the English family titles were of higher rank than that of the Scottish family titles.
It is, though, a fact the late Queen Mother was very fond of Scotland and probably considered herself Scottish.
What happened to my comment about Brillo and the spat with David Lammy not a very happy Brillo.
The Brexit farce won’t even get through Westminster never mind the ECHR. The Tories will get voted out and leave their mess behind them as usual. Their illegal activities are being called out in the Courts repeatedly. It is just a question of time. Shortly.
It looks as though, once again, the Lords have more ken than the Tories in the Commons.
‘Brexit a ‘fundamental challenge’ to keeping the UK together, peers warn.’
‘The government must ‘raise its game’ in its talks with the devolved administrations or face dire consequences
Brexit continues to threaten to break up the United Kingdom, as a committee of peers warns that the government must “raise its game” in talks with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The Joint Ministerial Committee (European Negotiations) was set up to allow ministers from the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to discuss the process, but a new report said it “is clear that at a basic level its meetings are not being treated with respect or organised efficiently”.
Peers on the House of Lords EU Committee insisted “this needs to change” as they said the committee should be allowed to agree common positions on the Brexit issues of most importance to the governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast………..’
link to independent.co.uk
Ian Duncan ex MEP rejected MP now a Lord “fool”suggesting Alex Salmond should go to the HOL what kind of stuff is Duncan on,AS as a Lord his followers would crucify him.
@ Blair Paterson says at 10:26 am …. ”It is not only the bbc itv are at it as well. I watched The Loch there was more English actors in it than scots also a few coloureds we who invented the television and every bloody thing else are to stupid to solve our own crimes we have good Scots actors who could play these parts but o no not allowed and they were of course ridiculing the Loch Ness monster anything to run down Scotland ….”
The Loch had a great story line with many twists and turns but what really annoyed me was that the Scottish cops were deemed to be unfit to solve the crimes hence cops marching up from Manchester and taking over. It’s this drip, drip, drip of attempting to point out how inadequate we are that contributes to the Scottish ‘cringe.’ I also wonder if this actually happens in real life? Would Police Scotland put up with cops from England taking over from day one (first murder)?
Putting to one side that six out of the eight top cops in Scotland now are English!
………………………………………………………………
The other thing of course is that historically, famous Scots somehow miraculously turn into Brits, often on Wikipedia too. For example I was watching a programme recently, Secrets of the Bible, one of a number that had scientists (and others) trying to prove if biblical stories were believable or not, such as the story of Moses and his staff. To cut a long story short two ‘British adventurers’ found a staff in a tomb in Petra southern Jordan. When they returned to the UK it was sold to a collector in England and is now in the Birmingham Museum. A number of people believe that it is Moses staff but for some reason they won’t allow a radio carbon test to be carried out to prove if it came from the Moses period (around 1350 BC) or not, but say if it’s genuine it would attract millions of people from around the world (it should be in Scotland, imo). Anyway as is the norm for me now when the word ‘British’ is mentioned in relation to adventurers and so on I check it out and low and behold the two Brits who found the staff (Moses or not?) in 1839 were Scots: The painter David Roberts and his friend John Gardiner Kinnear, banker. Sad to say there’s very little mention of Kinnear’s life online.
‘British adventurers’ mentioned at 23 mins in on the video.
Has the Staff of Moses been discovered? (TV Documentary)
link to youtube.com
link to en.wikipedia.org
link to forgottenbooks.com‘s Khazneh – A World’s Wonder
7Petra (Jordan)- A World’s Marvel
link to youtube.com
……………………………………………………………………………………
If you want to donate to Paul’s worthy crowdfunder you can donate directly to him and avoid paying fees.
weegingerdug says at 3:29 pm …. ‘’If you email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com I’ll send you my bank details and then there are no paypal or indiegogo fees.’’
I see that I can’t post this. Too many links or too boring, lol? Will break the post up anyway.
@ Blair Paterson says at 10:26 am …. ”It is not only the bbc itv are at it as well. I watched The Loch there was more English actors in it than scots also a few coloureds we who invented the television and every bloody thing else are to stupid to solve our own crimes we have good Scots actors who could play these parts but o no not allowed and they were of course ridiculing the Loch Ness monster anything to run down Scotland ….”
The Loch had a great story line with many twists and turns but what really annoyed me was that the Scottish cops were deemed to be unfit to solve the crimes hence cops marching up from Manchester and taking over. It’s this drip, drip, drip of attempting to point out how inadequate we are that contributes to the Scottish ‘cringe.’ I also wonder if this actually happens in real life? Would Police Scotland put up with cops from England taking over from day one (first murder)?
Putting to one side that six out of the eight top cops in Scotland now are English!
………………………………………………………………
The other thing of course is that historically, famous Scots somehow miraculously turn into Brits, often on Wikipedia too. For example I was watching a programme recently, Secrets of the Bible, one of a number that had scientists (and others) trying to prove if biblical stories were believable or not, such as the story of Moses and his staff. To cut a long story short two ‘British adventurers’ found a staff in a tomb in Petra southern Jordan. When they returned to the UK it was sold to a collector in England and is now in the Birmingham Museum. A number of people believe that it is Moses staff but for some reason they won’t allow a radio carbon test to be carried out to prove if it came from the Moses period (around 1350 BC) or not, but say if it’s genuine it would attract millions of people from around the world (it should be in Scotland, imo). Anyway as is the norm for me now when the word ‘British’ is mentioned in relation to adventurers and so on I check it out and low and behold the two Brits who found the staff (Moses or not?) in 1839 were Scots: The painter David Roberts and his friend John Gardiner Kinnear, banker. Sad to say there’s very little mention of Kinnear’s life online.
‘British adventurers’ mentioned at 23 mins in on the video.
Has the Staff of Moses been discovered? (TV Documentary)
link to youtube.com
Following on from my previous post!
link to en.wikipedia.org
link to forgottenbooks.com‘s Khazneh – A World’s Wonder
7Petra (Jordan)- A World’s Marvel
link to youtube.com
……………………………………………………………………………………
If you want to donate to Paul’s worthy crowdfunder you can donate directly to him and avoid paying fees.
weegingerdug says at 3:29 pm …. ‘’If you email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com I’ll send you my bank details and then there are no paypal or indiegogo fees.’’
This situation within the BBC is mirrored in a thousand different ways in all spheres of cultural life.
Kaye claims to be self employed even though she broadcasts with Beeb equipment over set days and times, how can that be?
Scots contribute to the national arts and heritage projects, ballet, NAT. Theatre, orchestra s, etc.
Channel 4 part funded by BBC pays Edinburgh fringe venues to set up and extract 25% fees back down to London along with around 60% of ticket sales.
Meanwhile on top of our contribution to UK Institutions we get to pay for our own cultural institutions.
It’s all about extraction of the maximum amount from every facet of Scottish industry in order to make sure we cannot be seen to be able to compete with London and the “home counties”!
I have very little interest in football but this is the sort of information that needs to be shared far and wide among the loyal fans of every Scottish football team.
Oh well I see that the forgotten book has disappeared altogether, lol. I’ll try another. ‘Cairo, Petra, and Damascus, in 1839, with remarks on the government of Mehemet Ali’. Author John Gardiner Kinnear, SCOT.
link to amazon.co.uk
@Breeks says: 20 July, 2017 at 10:41 am:
” … Restrict it news and current affairs? It would need root and branch reform and improvement just to raise itself up to deliver news and current affairs.”
‘Fraid not, Breeks & Gus. The BBC has a charter from the government which funds it to do, among other things, News and Public Service Broadcasting.
As for BskyB and the commercial TV and Radio services these have, also as a condition of their licence to broadcast, clauses written into their contacts that compel them to carry news and other public service matters including weather, gale,snow and storm warnings. Etc.
BTW: The Satellite companies also have written into their contracts that they must also carry the BBC broadcast services.
@ Lanarkist says at 1:04 pm …. ”This situation within the BBC is mirrored in a thousand different ways in all spheres of cultural life.
Kaye claims to be self employed even though she broadcasts with Beeb equipment over set days and times, how can that be?
Scots contribute to the national arts and heritage projects, ballet, NAT. Theatre, orchestras, etc.
Channel 4 part funded by BBC pays Edinburgh fringe venues to set up and extract 25% fees back down to London along with around 60% of ticket sales.
Meanwhile on top of our contribution to UK Institutions we get to pay for our own cultural institutions.
It’s all about extraction of the maximum amount from every facet of Scottish industry in order to make sure we cannot be seen to be able to compete with London and the “home counties”!”
Great post Lanarkist and it should be spread all over the social media because our local MSM dross ain’t going to inform the Scots anytime soon, that’s for sure.
O/T Absolute cracker on page 43 of The Scotsman (Then and Now)
1304 Edward 1st of England took Stirling Castle, the last rebel stronghold in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Anglo-centric Scotsman sub editors (based in Cardiff I understand) strike again.
To those questioning how Kaye Adams can claim to be self-employed. It is simple really.
Kaye, like many people operating within the media, and I am one such person, is a freelance. We do not work for a single employer, we do not get our NI contributions paid, we do not get statutory sick pay and so on, but, in exchange, we are generally able to extract a better rate for our toil.
Hiring freelances helps media companies cut costs. Indeed, the modern media is, I feel, now more and more a freelance-driven industry. That said, one or two things are not right in it.
Nothing wrong with being a freelance, it is a good life, but, as with all occupations, occasionally, there are problems.
Don’t get on to Kaye for being a freelance. She is simply not that good at her job, criticise her for that.
Slightly O/T. With the first steel being cut for HMS Glasgow today. I see Missreporting Scotland are persisting in the claim that 8 frigates will be built on the Clyde.
Yet more bullshit propaganda on behalf of the Unionist Westminster establishment.
The Herald subs are the ones in Cardiff.
Where JP’s subs are located I don’t know – that’s if they still have subs which is v. doubtful given the rubbish which gets into print.
@Ken500
Breaking the terms of the Union, but perhaps not breaking the law, as much of what people regard as the Union now seems to be regarded as political convention, statute, but not a legally enforceable law or legally able to be challenged in court.
Though, having said that, the Supreme Court appears to have deliberately avoided the issue of the Union and the nature of the UK’s make-up, not only with regard to Scotland, but also Wales and N.I.
The court was not required to judge those and so didn’t. It was required to judge whether the Scot Govt et al could use the devolved “powers” such as the Sewel Convention to block Brexit.
The court did rule on that, saying conventions, even if legislated by parliament, are for politics, not law courts. The Sewel convention is not worth the paper it is written on. A worthless guarantee.
The Scottish Parliament is legislated to be a “permanent” fixture. Again, convention.
Meaningless.
As I’ve said, WM has used convention to it’s advantage. Why can’t the Scot Govt do the same?
Challenge the convention that WM is sovereign. Especially by a political mandate.
I believe the vast majority of NO voters would also agree – and believe – that Scotland’s people are sovereign. These “proud Scots” who say “the people decided” are making a declaration of the sovereignty of the Scottish people.
In 2014 they decided Scotland’s political sovereignty is not best served by Scotland returning to being an independent country, but they DID NOT and do not say Scotland’s people are not sovereign.
Therefore, though we support independence, we can find common ground with NO voters. We can establish Scottish Parliamentary sovereignty without the need to debate independence at all.
If Scotland’s people used their sovereignty to vote for Scottish Parliamentary sovereignty then the Union as it’s been with Westminster acting as sovereign over Scotland would be dead.
The Kingdom of England convention that Westminster Parliament is sovereign – the supreme power in the UK – would no longer apply to Scotland.
Westminster would have to accept a new Union with Parliaments of equal sovereignty or there would be no Union. Clearly that’s not a federal system, as a federal system has subservient parli
This way totally avoids an indyref where there is still such division. An indyref if done under WM patronage would still be under the “Westminster is sovereign” convention, so an indyref would not achieve independence, it would only be an indication of the political will in Scotland.
Independence would still be something that had to be negotiated with WM, as would a Parliaments of Equals Union.
The only way out of negotiating under the “WM is sovereign” convention is by declaring UDI, thereby declaring we are not under WM jurisdiction but already an independent country (but people don’t have the stomach for that). It remains to be seen if people have found the stomach for full independence too.
It’s a huge gamble that could win, but it’s not the only solution to putting our sovereignty into effect.
For most of us, I think that’s the most hated thing about the Union, Westminster abuses of power and domination of Scotland’s politics.
As people point out, we aren’t anti-English, we are pro-Scottish political sovereignty. A Union of Equal Parliaments would allow us to work in parternship and co-operation with our closest neighbours but it would end Westminster domination.
We would have a confederation – not a federation. As legislation by the general government, such as on defence, would need to be ratified by our separate sovereign parliaments to become law, as our Scottish Parliament would be sovereign, as would England’s Parliament.
The general UK govt would be subservient to the national parliaments of Scotland, England etc.
O/T
Latest crime figures for England and Wales.
link to archive.is
Crime rising – police numbers falling.
Robert Peffers @ 11.52
He’s also back tae the catch phrase (Scottish Sovereignty Within the Union)
Never once answering the question about Westminster’s role in all of it.
No just why would it…..but as you know that when it comes to diluting it’s own Sovereignty….How could it…
This,if Westminster ever agreed to it …. and could convince the English electorate of the need to change the the system of government to keep the Treaty of the Union in place…..would be another lie.
We would get our so called Sovereignty,on the basis that Westminster….well,,, EM !!! Can make or unmake ANY Law and that any Parliament Cannot bind it’s successor…
In other words no change there then.
He also never answered what the actual role of the Treaty is in all of this….
Is it set aside….(yay.. there’s nay Union noo)
Is it ammended…..(is that even possible?)
Or left as it is…..(again only the illusion of a change then,we might even get it proclaimed as Devo Max by sum Wummin on the BBC!)
Like many he seems to speak as though he is unaware that it’s a TREATY agreement that we are saying is no good and needs to go.
Mibbi sumbudy should advise him to spend his summer working on his own proposal and come back when he has some answers!
And leave the SNP to it’s member’s.
Brexit latest…
Barnier reveals that latest round of talks have failed to find agreement.
Barnier insists EU citizens must be protected by ECJ, and UK must recognise their financial obligations.
Oh dear, no progress and talks have stalled.
Colin Alexander,
How did you get on with the snp? Did you contact them or just not bother since you just wasting time on here. This is not an open ended question. Lol
Frigates?
Remember when they used to say thousands of jobs protected on the Clyde
Now it’s hundreds
Not be long now before they just say “Jobs”
Robots will be building them in Milton Keynes shortly, there’ll be a job for the man who oils the robots though
Mr Fallon the Tory government robot says they’ll be sailing the world protecting our Nuclear Deterrent and projecting Britains POWER!!
Does that mean our Nuclear Deterrent isn’t safe or isn’t deterring anyone?
I think the world’s made it pretty clear how much they respect Britains power projecting
Two weeks ago they were saying if Argentina decided to take back the Malvinas there would be nothing Britain could do to stop them
Their new Carrier’s got a turning circle of about 4 miles, now that’s no exactly nimble is it, you could creep up on that wae an oary boat
Maybe a slight exaggeration but you get the point, they’ve nae planes coz the ones they ordered are too heavy to take off, still they’ll look powerful and projecty I suppose
Captain Mainwarings Britain, what an embarrassment
Cannae even deter laughter
@Lanarkist, 1.04am, @Petra, 1.21am
It’s all about extraction of the maximum amount from every facet of Scottish industry
Thanks for that summary of colonialism in one sentence.
Jockanese Wind Talker says:
20 July, 2017 at 11:18 am
Still O/T and Brexit related:
“Compare and contrast…..”
It’s a good point you make JWT, but risking the wrath of the SNP as I seem apt to do, it’s the same feeling I get whenever Scotland enters into constitutional debate with Westminster. We seem to leave an awful lot of important paperwork back in the office. We repeatedly don’t seem to be in full command of our constitutional brief.
We are spending time and resource fighting arguments that don’t have to be won, that don’t matter or change very much, and we downplay and sideline a whole suite of arguments that cannot be lost and would utterly change everything. It makes no sense to me.
It’s as if the Scottish Governemt is playing a game of cat and mouse with Westminster. You hope that’s because the feline Scottish Government has absolute confidence in the aces up its sleeve and is just biding it’s time waiting for the right moment, but then they’ll say or do something which panders to Westminster’s narrative, and suddenly you cringe! and all of a sudden you’re wondering whether the Scottish Government is the Cat binding its time to strike, or the mouse who is merely a flotsam passenger held by the tail in the greater scheme of things.
Just once, I would like to see Nicola, or even Joanna Cherry just nail this issue of sovereignty right on the door at No 10 Downing St. Do it. Get a hammer and nail, and fix a proclamation that ring fences Scottish sovereignty with minefields, machine gun nests and razor wire, and a big sign saying “Abandon hope all ye who think you have any claim, title, or command over Scottish sovereignty”.
You do realise, don’t you Westminster government, than sooner or later, you DO have to talk to Scotland, and address this issue of Scotland’s inalienable sovereignty? You can duck this issue, evade the argument, bluster all you like, but in the end, it WILL all come down to the illegitimacy of UK Parliamentary sovereignty coming unstuck before the primacy and legitimacy of Scotland’s ancient and perpetual popular sovereignty. This is the writing on the wall. Ignore it at your cost.
Take all the time you need Westminster, but understand, when all the shouting is over and legal issues have been fed under the microscope, there is only one possible outcome, and that is the death of the Union, which has enjoyed 300 years of vitality it never once earned or deserved.
If the SNP crew now says to me, oh yes, that’s all very well, but we still need a popular majority, then I fear I may retire to my Study with the revolver.
All us SNP folk are on holiday doing nothing but drinking Pina Coladas on sun drenched beaches don’t you know
Me and the First Minister are having a right old gab and comparing the fruit cocktails in our glasses and wondering how we could manage to do even less than we already are in between texting all the other no good lazy members in the SNP to find out if they’re doing even less than us for our vastly overpaid wages
Yes indeed we’re all in it for the money
Ya scabby wee Troll!
Capella – Golfers have always been identified as English, Scottish, Welsh etc.
Anyone hear Naga Munchetty on BBC Breakfast this morning, talk about “that building” and it looking a little odd with whicker around the windows? She had clearly never clapped eyes on it before and didn’t even know what it was. It was the Scottish Parliament! This is a BBC journalist presenting a news magazine programme. Pathetic.
Dr Jim..@ 3.18
Yer talking rubbish man…
Everybody knows ye only drink Pina Coladas when yer caught in the rain.
Are you trying tae confuse him ???
Breaking the terms of the Act of Union without agreement of each country’s representatives is breaking the terms of the Act of Union and the Union. Under the terms of the agreement of the Act of Union. Separate legal system, separate church, shared Protestant monarchy and treated equally. Both countries should be treated equally, which has not happen since 1928 and before. The wishes of the majority in Scotland being totally ignored. For complete fiscal autotomy/Independence.
Just keep on voting SNP, SNP. To stand up for Scotland. They know the score. To protect Scotland’s interest. Vote for Independence in the EU.
Here are the news headlines where they are:-
UK & EU at odds on, Brexit, (a.k.a UKExit), “Bill”.
The UK & EU are still at odds over Citizens Rights and the amount the UK will pay to leave the bloc.
Largest annual crime rise for 10 years.
The total number of crimes in England & Wales rose by 10% to almost 5 Million. Violent Crime up 18%; robbery up 16%; sex offences up 14%.
Rail Electrification plans scrapped.
The Westminster Government have scrapped rail electrification plans in Wales, The Midlands and the North of England.
Male BBC Presenters could face pay cut.
Any solution except increasing the pay for the female presenters. If the BBC can justify the idiotic remuneration of a bunch of untalented male numpties then surely their logical solution is to increase the remuneration of their bunch of untalented female numpties.
Vince Cable set to become LibDem Leader.
Wee Willie Sumdy in Scotchland will get a new boss.
UK, “Can Replicate”, EU Trade Arrangements.
The UK can replicate its existing international trade arrangements outside the EU, UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has said.
That claim is poppycock. Any country that already has a trade deal with the EU is unlikely to ditch their EU deal in favour of a UK deal as the EU would obviously never allow any of their trading partner to offer the same EU negotiated deal with the a UK outside the EU.
Labour: No plan to write off English and Welsh student debt.
Labour has, “no plans”, to write off existing Student Debt and has never promised to do so. Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner accused the Tories of, “Wilfully misrepresenting”, Labour’s Plans amid claims it would cost £100 Billion.
Seems to me the Westminster Government are it somewhat more of a sad decline that Holyrood but you would never think so if you just tuned into the MSM and Broadcasters.
What a sorry state Scotland is now in, a Scot creates tv,yet Scots have no tv channels. Oil and gas are discovered Scots are worse off for it. Scots can’t even decide who stays in their own country, just about all our newspaper are for keeping the status quo, as are our radio stations.
We’re so compliant that we even host a foreign nations nuclear weapons and subs. Some of us are so used and comfy with this arrangement that we think its the norm.
Even our money is seen as second class South of the border by some.
Breeks says:
You are right ref Scottish sovereignty and I totally agree this needs to be shoved down Westminster throats.
It always seems to be ducked by both sides which seems odd to me.
It is something that should be pushed and pushed until even the naysayers have to agree.
For those in doubt, perhaps the only way to put this into it’s right place is a court of law, in Scotland and in the hands of those who truly believe it is so.
That may just instill some Scottish pride that we actually do have the right to veto this corrupt Union, and do not have to endure any more Westminster deceit.
Hi harry mcaye at 3:28 pm
You typed,
“Anyone hear Naga Munchetty on BBC Breakfast this morning, talk about “that building” and it looking a little odd with whicker around the windows? She had clearly never clapped eyes on it before and didn’t even know what it was. It was the Scottish Parliament! This is a BBC journalist presenting a news magazine programme. Pathetic.”
It wasn’t Holyrood she was speaking about. She mentioned “wicker balconies”. Scroll down on the link below for a pic beside this text.
“Barrett’s Grove is a cross-laminated timber housing scheme in London’s Stoke Newington, which is set in a conservation area. The judges said: “The staggered hit-and-miss brick skin of the façade makes a larger-than-usual pattern, which fits the tallness of the overall building. Wrapping the skin up and over the roof, emphasises the simplicity of the building’s form.” The winner will be announced on 31 October.”
That’s the building with the wicker balconies.
link to bbc.co.uk
Aye I saw that @Snode1965 says at 2:48 pm
“Barnier insists EU citizens must be protected by ECJ”
But in Theresa the Appeaser says (according to the Graun):
“Theresa May has vowed to take the UK out of ECJ jurisdiction and the EU’s demands are seen as “judicial imperialism” by London.”
Judicial Imperialism…mmmm…….I wonder…
I wonder if that’s the same “judicial imperialism” that Westminster thinks is OK when the UK Supreme Court thinks it’s English Legal system trumps Scotlands??
😉
Breeks @ 3.17.
Don’t dae that Breeks…..ye don’t want to miss oor Indy party.
And just as an FYI…. I am not SNP.
I do get the impression though that part of the problem is that Westminster doesn’t address our Sovereignty because it doesn’t know how.
It knows it wants the Union and that by now it needs the Union,not us obviously the resources of Scotland.
But just like the story line of an old movie…. about neuks…
That the only winning move is not to play the game.
It cannot make a political Union with a shared Parliament work unless it is in charge.
This was probably always the intent..who knows but we are where we are now.
The maxist of Devo Max is no answer either …. because it says nothing about our Sovereignty….Devolved government is perhaps the answer to a different question!
There’s only two ways to claim and retain the exercise of Sovereign power and that’s by agreement or at the point of a gun.
But even that sort of Sovereignty is the doing of it, not the concept of it, that’s why Westminster thought that the argument that Scotland was extinguished argument might fly..
The thought they got it and had kept it for 300 odd year’s so it was now theirs….do you see why I say they don’t know how to define and keep it.
But the get to keep it by default if they don’t define it.
They do this with their Constitution as well.
So what I am trying to get to is….to find a way forward with Scottish Sovereignty,can at this time and in these circumstances really only be settled by the people.
The Courts and the Parliament’s can’t decide this thing…
And if you think about your Sovereignty as yours …you wouldn’t want them to….
If the Courts have any real role it will only be to determine what a law’s that the Parliament has already written is for.
So we have to go with Indyref2 Breeks.
Anyhoo I have to shut up now before I get in trouble for going off topic AGAIN… I am sorry.. really.
Also in a continuation of the sustained
“Big Bad EU punishing Plucky and Courageous Bwitain for leaving, the bwutes”.
Graun also has this:
“Britons living in Europe could lose right to live in another EU Country”.
But does the Gruan say anything about EU Nationals losing their right to live in ‘England’s Green and Pleasant Land’
No, Not so much.
@ harry mcaye – and why should golfers escape the Britishising treatment?
Andy Murray is British – Sammi Kinghorn and Maria Lyle are British as is Laura Muir.
link to bbc.co.uk
When did all this TeamGB stuff start? I would have thought the default state would be to say which country a player comes from. And as Mr Peffers has pointed out a million times, the UK is not a country, the British Isles is not a country and don’t include Ireland in it. It’s the Atlantic Isles for them.
Fireproofjim, I note your facts and by your logic I stand corrected on the name of the 2nd ship currently building.
It should of course be named The Prince of Athens-Corinth-Papadokoulis in light of the fact that the present prince is in fact half Greek.
Logic is logic.
BBC short headline lead of £1bn UK city deal. This is the government angle that Scotland is now getting similar funding as NI through city deals, and now being pushed by BBC. Of course when you look at the details you find only £300m is from the UK government.
I’m sure that the city deal is also open to cities in NI if they cared to apply. Looks like another bogus union agenda at the BBC, since I don’t remember them ever highlighting it in these terms in the past.
It looks like Mr Bateman’s assertion that there is no intention unionist bias at the BBC is looking thinner by the day. This sudden change in the reporting of city deals is not accidental, this level of co-ordination doesn’t just happen.
Ken500,
“Break the Act of Union terms.”
It has been broken countless times since it was enacted.
The “plebs” of Scotland have never been “sovereign”.
Any document that suggests otherwise is not worth the paper it was written on.
Any Scots wanting a definitive answer about their pretendy “sovereignty” would have to put their money where their mouths are and take the matter to the highest court in Scotland.
But they will never do that because they won’t then be able to pretend that they are “sovereign”.
Truth Always.
Vince Cable is the new LibDem leader. At last a two faced, mealy mouthed centrist leader the MSM can get behind. I expect wall to wall coverage of his every utterance and he and Swinson will never be off the TV ( although she hasn’t been off since there was a sniff she might be reelected).
I watched Scottish Questions live yesterday for the full horror experience that it is. It struck me that for all the bluster and assault on the SNP by BetterTogether, they do not know their audience. The only people who watch SQ are people interested in Scottish politics and if you are, then you are fully aware of what is going on. Is anyone going to change their mind based on that charade?
BetterTogether standing up and denigrating the SG at every chance shows they see a propaganda opportunity, but for whom? I do regret that their rubbish gets recorded in Hansard seemingly without rebuttal though. The SNP have to address the misinformation which goes out at PMQs and SQ with smarter questions. Tommy Sheppard seems up to the job. I really wish he was their Westminster Leader. He seems able to anticipate the comebacks and speaks with eloquence and common sense.
Here’s some more bbc creative accounting:
link to munguin.wordpress.com
Ken 500 @3.36
Of course ye don’t need anybody tae tell ye that the term and conditions of the Treaty of the Union has been broken many times….infact a couple of years in some man was hung under English law a bloody big no no….
But… Truth….be told ye know that Ken, and comment on the obvious is boring..aye?
Sovereignty funnily enough is a lot like Truth you really can only depend upon it when backed up by something powerful…
A bit of integrity mibbi…..or A people who demand it?
An idea who’s time has come?
I would much rather be re-establishing Scottish popular Sovereignty than the bloody mess around the English peoples one right enough!
At least we have a half an idear we have got it in the first place.
They are still under the impression that it’s the Crown’s and don’t even recognize the appointed by the Crown judge’s right to say a thing about it.
Anyhoo the Truth of it is… ours is just fine,still there and just needing dusted off a bit to be presentable.
Please remember…..Truth and Lies have very little to do with the Law.
It has ALWAYS been thus.
Haven’t managed to read all comments yet,( though skipping over the Gish Gallopers does make it a swifter read 🙂 )
Re the EBBC’s treatment of Scotland, Scottish viewers and general scorn for the people of Scotland :
When someone has treated you badly, and does it again and again and again, and you keep waiting and hoping that they will change and treat you well, or at least not harmfuly, then you are being abused.
The BBC’s conduct is abusive.
AND HOW do these talk show hosts get paid so so much ?!
Is it an awfully dangerous job?
@Ghillie 7:22pm
About as dangerous as interviewing Rod Hull and Emu.
jfngw says:
20 July, 2017 at 5:28 pm
‘It looks like Mr Bateman’s assertion that there is no intention unionist bias at the BBC is looking thinner by the day. This sudden change in the reporting of city deals is not accidental, this level of co-ordination doesn’t just happen.’
I agree, with practice it’s easy to spot what they’re trying to do. Yesterday’s fishing report on the cod was a good example, no mention that it was the EU that forced the fisherman to reduce their catches. The implication was that the fishermen did so voluntarily.
Why? because they now don’t want Scots to be pro-EU, for obvious reasons. There will be no mention of anything good that the EU has done.
Andy B 3.46
Scots are responsible for those situations, Scots accept them.
@Giving Goose says: 20 July, 2017 at 5:13 pm:
“Fireproofjim, I note your facts and by your logic I stand corrected on the name of the 2nd ship currently building.
It should of course be named The Prince of Athens-Corinth-Papadokoulis in light of the fact that the present prince is in fact half Greek”
Well actually it shouldn’t. Here is the actual truth and you can certainly verify it with a bit of proper research :-
There are actually also genetic links to the former Russian Royal Family – The Romanovs:
There is an old Scots saying in the former mining village of Kelty that was applied to the villagers and could perhaps apply to the European Royals, “Thir aa earsehole connections”.
Meaning that while, perhaps not too closely genetically connected, they were very much intermarried and connected as in-laws and so very much interwoven by marriage.
Though factually the British Royals did have to bring in fresh blood due to genetic intermarriages.
Glamaig says:
Yesterday’s fishing report on the cod was a good example, no mention that it was the EU that forced the fishermen to reduce their catches. The implication was that the fishermen did so voluntarily.
If it was not for EU a lot more fish would have been scarce I well remember some fishermen having caught their quota and fish being plentiful casting nets only having to dump them when the fishery boat came on the scene and many scraped the boats and sold the licence to Spanish fisherman for a good price.
Alexander Burnett election expenses probe finds ‘no criminality’
Did not take police long on this case but still nothing about the SNP MPs any update.
Well Well Well- Yet another Tory implicated in Electrol fraud, and the ever vigilant authorities find no case to answer, who would have thought that now , Where there is smoke there is fire comes to mind, when that particular bunch of lying crooks are involved , suspicions are raised .
For those who are sick of the BBC’s lies, talking down Scotland and propaganda and who want to stop watching and paying the license fee here is a link to the appropriate site:
link to tvlicensing.co.uk
Don’t forget to claim for any pre-paid time you will not be using.
These city deals are being pushed a lot by the BBC, aren’t they?
Surely the rate limiting step for the total amount is how much the devolved governments and Local Authorities can put in as the UK government can easily match or exceed any figure put forward? To spin the story as if the UK government is delving deep to be overly generous is nonsense as the devolved governments and LA have the most limited resources.
It is exposing how little is spent in these areas on reserved infrastructure by the UK government, in comparison to HS2.
Capella – Believe it or not but Tim Henman was almost always referred to as British. Probably because of the Davis Cup. Murray is called a Scot far more often than Henman was called English. I say this as an avid watcher of Wimbledon since 1980.
Briandoonthetoon – Apologies to Naga Munchetty. It was one of those, did I hear that correctly and obviously I didn’t!
There has been various mentions of City Deals here and in the media in the context of the Tory deal with the DUP in return for HoC votes and the objections to it by the Scottish and Welsh governments. From what follows, it clear that Belfast has been working up its own bid for a City Deal for some time.
This is from November 2016 (link to irishnews.com) :
“Belfast authorities want more powers to take control of transforming the city. The (Belfast) City Council has made a pitch to government for a so-called city deal similar to those struck by Manchester and Glasgow.”
“Councillors are working with think-tank ResPublica, which has helped formulate the proposals and will now steer the political lobbying efforts. The strategic consultancy played a key role in Greater Manchester’s city deal.
ResPublica director Phillip Blond made the case for a tailored Belfast deal at a two-hour event in the Palace of Westminster. Among those attending were all four of Belfast’s MPs, Secretary of State James Brokenshire, senior Labour party figures Andy Burnham and Baroness Angela Smith and Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt.”
The Irish News goes on to report: “… Ms Wylie (CEO of Belfast City Council) also pointed to the Glasgow and Clyde Valley growth deal, which saw the UK and Scottish governments each pledge £500 million for infrastructure projects over 20 years, with the Glaswegian authorities contributing £130m of borrowed finance.”
The financial breakdown reported above is confirmed in the formal City Deal agreement (link to gov.uk ). Notably, the Glasgow City Deal was only possible because the Scottish Government provided match funding and the local authority agreed to take on new borrowings. Very different from the Tory ‘bung’ to the DUP!
@ScottishPsyche
The BBC’s roll now is to make the population of Scotland believe the bung to the DUP is not a bung, they have been tasked to push the city deals as the same thing as the bung that keeps the Tories in power. They believe the Scots are too thick to spot this deception.
New York Times overview of the current state of Brexit negotiations …
link to nytimes.com
… and these are the lunatics the Unionists want ruling Scotland!
We stopped paying the BBC tax a while ago and haven’t looked back – the other half is, at present, on Netflix.
On sport and media coverage – Is walking a sport or just exercise? Is watching fitba sport or entertainment? Is cycling a sport or a mode of transport? The internet tells me (though I don’t actually believe the list) the most popular UK participatory sports are, walking excluded, swimming followed by gym / athletics, football, cycling, golf, tennis, cricket, rugby and boxing. Scotland’s list will be different. TV coverage of sport has fitba first followed by rugby, tennis, cricket etc. Swimming, except at Commonwealth games and Olympics, does not feature.
Media sport coverage is lazy, avoiding technically difficult subjects such as most water sports, and follows sponsorship money. One developing participatory sport was started in Anstruther, has spread round the coast and abroad, but you will scarcely hear about – check out the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association.
Scotland has it’s sovereign parliament. Carrying out the mandate of the Scottish people who voted for it. Scottish national parliament. An SNP Parliament under Scottish Law. There will be another IndyRef soon. Within two years. Once Westminster breaks the terms of the Act of Union by usurping Scottish Law. It has already been passed in Holyrood. The Tories know that it is already envisaged. It depends on the majority vote. It is not the SNP’s fault people voted NO.
The Scottish Block Grant has been cut 10% a year since 2010. (Because people voted NO). Ie £3Billion. City deals giving back £300,000. Taking £Billions and giving back £Millions. The usual Tory way. A farce. The Tories have taken £Billions out of the cities and local Gov and given £Millions back. Taking money out of essential services, NHS/Education and wasting money on grotesque projects of little value. Lining their pockets with £Billions of public money for their cronies and donations to their Party.
NI settlement from Westminster total £42Billion. 1.8million pop. Norwegian levels of funding. Less than £28Billion is raised in tax revenues. IR has a much more successful economy. Voters in NI are sick of the DUP carry on. They are a Law unto themselves. Demographics mean they can vote to be reunited soon.
Snidey wee dig at snp fascists by Stephen pollard in Tuesday’s HM Daily Torygraph, using Sir James Macmillan as cover. And after waffling on about the virtues of national cultures too.
Soooo ironically ignorantly metropolitan, yah ?
@ harry mcaye – yes I do believe that Tim Henman would be called British. Because in the minds of the BBC commentariat British = English. They use the terms interchangeably.
link to caltonjock.com
Jock McDonnell @ 10.04
—Truth—– be told as it —always—- should be “snidey” seems to be the order of the day.
Espically towards people with no ability (at the moment) to reply!
It’s no too bad on here, boring mainly,but like many others I don’t watch TV,so can I ask Jock …..are you finding that it seems to be the order of the day,like they are all on the same page?
I remember the city deals were mentioned with regard to more autonomy for the North of England as far back as 2013/14 and latterly for a few Scottish cities. That the DUP deal is being used as some sort of comparator has been rightly called out for its dishonesty. There was a clip of a young man, Eliot, ripping into James Cleverly on the Victoria Derbyshire show about just that.
It just seems ludicrous that BBC Scotland is continuing to promote that line when it has been demolished elsewhere. Or maybe not.
Its the Scots indy hating Independent what’s really kicking the shit out of rolling tory Brexit catastrofuck.
Beeb gimpery makes it all seem so nice and lovely, like the slowing boiled toad/beeb viewer. BBC r4 10 pm news frauds were very sniffy on latest Barnier says tory’s are fuckwits news. Its not nice say nice posh chaps in BBC r4 vote tory beeb lalaland.
link to independent.co.uk
Has there been much/any mention by MSM ,either UK or Scottish ,about Scotsman Mark Beaumont`s attempt to cycle round the world (18000 miles) in 80 days?
he is averaging 240 miles every day,
no rest days,just time out for air travel between certain countries and continents,
think he is on day 19,somewhere in the middle of Russia,
the Tour de France riders do 100 miles a day in 23 days including 2 rest days,
this will be the greatest feat of endurance in the history of human kind,
if he makes it he will be `British cyclist Mark Beaumont`
if he fails it will be `Scottish cyclist Mark Beaumont`.
BBC reporting police numbers in England at a 30 year low – and crime at a 10 year high
BBC forgot to report opposite case prevails in Scotland
Brian Quail… a 79 year old pensioner languishes in jail for blocking the transport of weapons of illegal mass destructiom. Imprisoned ny our ‘separate and sovereign legal’ system for refusing to abide by an agreement to avoid these convoys and their immediate vicinity in future.Instead of being commended for standing up for the UN resolution on these murderous genocidal weapons.
What a complete and utter obscenity!…some tinpot ‘scottish’ sheriff applies arrant nonsensical and craven judgement by imprisoning the voice of sanity in favour of the dictact of insanity. His plea from jail is :would breaking of a car window be decreed more criminal than rescue of a person by this act if the car was in flames?..This challenge sums up the craven attitude of our judiciary and Legislature in the face of Westminster’s oppressive influence on our country.
Why are our leaders not challenging the imprisoning of brave and often isolated individuals like Brian Quail and the hounding from his profession of Professor John Robertson. Heroes prepared to stand up for justice and truth, not only in regards to Scotland but the world. We must expect better from our Parliament and supine judiciary. Are we to let Westminster and the Supreme Court fuck us and our rights..our very sovereign identity into oblivion? It’s time our politicians stopped posturing by wearing Scotland tops and voting on cutting off dugs’ tails and started fighting for Scotlamd and its people. And particular, for admrable patriots with principles such as Brian Quail
Add into the Brexit depravity of deportations of our residents, from well established businesses, and worse…from their families….what kind of Scotland are we allowing?…Scotland the Brave? or Scotland the Nave?
@Liz g
The Union Treaty may just be convention, not legally enforceable, just like Sewel. So all the “WM sovereign” stuff you’re quoting, may not be legally enforceable over Scotland if Scotland says it’s not.
If it is political convention, and political sovereignty takes precedence – which is commonly accepted to be the case in the modern era – then there’s nothing to stop the SNP, for example, standing for election on a mandate that the Scottish Parliament is the sovereign parliament for Scotland.
The Union is currently operated on the basis that Westminster is sovereign and devolves power, but remains sovereign.
The Union is based around the Kingdoms of Scotland and England. It’s a treaty between Kingdoms. If Scotland changes the terms of that Union unilaterally, then the Union as it was is over.
Scotland’s Parliament becomes sovereign, what most SNP supporters and other pro-indy people want, but we don’t seek full indy, we seek a confederation, a looser Union. Where Scotland has sovereignty but is still in a Union of cooperation. A confederation.
A confederation works like this:
Scotland’s Parliament = England’s Parliament = each separately sovereign over their own kingdom.
UK Government = subervient to both Scotland’s Parliament and England’s Parliament.
= UK legislation must receive Scottish Parliament AND English Parliament consent to become law.
So, we’d still have a UK Union, respecting the wishes of a significant number who do not want full Scottish independence.
We achieve political parliamentary sovereignty for Scotland. What Scottish nationalists want.
This assumes cooperation. We can’t make the rUK cooperate.
If that happens:
Scotland has declared parliamentary sovereignty and offers to continue in a confederation UK union.
A compromise to meet nationalist and Unionist sentiments.
If rUK/Westminster refuses to accept Scotland’s Parliament is sovereign within a revised confederal Union. Then any Union involving Scotland is over.
There can’t be a Union if Scotland Parliament’s sovereignty is not accepted by WM. As Scotland has already declared that Scotland’s Parliament is sovereign, not WM, Scotland would not recognise WM as being sovereign over Scotland.
These positions would be incompatible, but it would not be Scotland ending the UK. Scotland would be ending the WM sovereign model of govt but not ending a UK Union. It would be replacing it with a confederal UK.
It would then be up to the rUK / WM to accept or reject that.
Scotland would already have declared the Scottish Parliament sovereign for Scotland, so the UK Govt can’t continue with the WM sovereign type of Union involving Scotland.
The type of Union we have with England would need to change to a confederal Union or political union ends.
Not ended by the hand of Scotland, as we’d be offering a confederal Union. We’d be offering a UK of a Union of Equals with a subservient UK Govt whose legislation must be ratified by Scotland’s Parliament and any other parliaments in the confederation for it to become UK law.
——————————-
Keeping it on topic to satisfy the self-appointed moderators: Regarding a state broadcaster such as the BBC, in a confederation, Scotland could have it’s own state broadcaster or a UK one or both, but how a UK state broadcaster would be run would require scrutiny and ratification by the Scottish Parliament – so Scotland could veto BBC legislation if it did not satisfy Scottish requirements. As could England. Mutual consent would be required in a confederation.
@Hamish100
I’ve had a busy day Hamish. But I did check the SNP website, so thanks again for your suggestion:
Unfortunately:
“Events:
No events yet” is all it said on the website.
Lochside @ 11.32
Brian Quail was not tried in a Sheriff Court but in a Justice of the Peace court. Justices of the Peace – JP – are not lawyers and have minimal legal training.
My late husband was a JP but he never sat in the court as he said, “I’m no in the business to be sending single mothers to jail for no paying their TV licence.” I wholeheartedly agreed with him.
Otherwise I agree with your post.
There are 57 mentions of the word “football” on this thread, only 2 of which occur in the second half of the comments btl.
There are until now 71 mentions of sovereign or sovereignty, only 1 of which occur in the first half of the comments btl.
I can understand the first figures as that is what this article all about but not the second. Every other thread for weeks seems to be distracted by the continuing focus on sovereignty.
I’m pissed of with it, it may be important to some but for 99% of Scotland’s population it has no meaning, they come onto Wings having heard some good things that might matter to them and hoping to find out what that might have been.
They find that what they heard was bullshit, just a bunch of blowhards arguing things that meant absolutely nothing to their lives. Talk about distraction? This is all about putting off new readers to Wings.
I hope people can get back to some serious discussion about what actually affects peoples lives RIGHT NOW in the times we live in.
Nobody else really gives a shit about the rest if it matters not to them, the theoretical discussions on sovereignty that have gone on for absolute months should flit over to Off Topic and stop polluting the threads everyday with stuff that matters not a jot to your swithering No/Yes voter.
Get real, no one is inspired or encouraged by this navel gazing?
The distraction intended has worked big time as half are posts seem to be about it, let’s get back to basics. Wings is not an historical debating society and was never meant to be.
Calex
Good. Try giving them a phone next
Colin Alexander…as I said you should take some time out over the summer to work on your proposal… you really are not informed enough to hold more than a superficial conversation around the issues….
Thepnr @ 12.10… OK..
If the DUP wants to be “British” then they must campaign for a hard border and to hand out in all their Irish passports.
Scot Finlayson says:
Has there been much/any mention by MSM ,either UK or Scottish ,about Scotsman Mark Beaumont`s attempt to cycle round the world (18000 miles) in 80 days?
he is averaging 240 miles every day
Lochside says:
Brian Quail… a 79 year old pensioner languishes in jail for blocking the transport of weapons of illegal mass destruction.
Look at the contrast in recent posts, I never knew of the heroic efforts of cyclist Mark Beaumont though I did know of pensioner Brian Quail.
Others wish that these posts could be drowned out so as you don’t read about the amazing efforts of a Scot’s cyclist in attempting the impossible of cycling around the world in 80 days or of the bravery of a 79 year old opposed to Nuclear weapons.
Drop “sovereignty” for now, I think most get it.
I for one would appreciate if you took it to Off Topic. Come back to it of course when it is actually part of the Scottish Governments agenda for gaining Independence or of course when for whatever reason it becomes an issue.
Right now there are bigger issues, this doesn’t even make the top 100 in the lives of 99% of Scots. Think about that.
@ Still Positive / Lochside
I think it’s an absolute disgrace that Brian Quail and Angie Zelter are in jail.
But right now what they are in jail for is refusing to agree to bail conditions; their trial for the actions that led to their arrest is not until August 3rd. The three other people arrested with them chose to accept the conditions, and are not in jail.
They haven’t been tried for, or convicted of, anything yet. They may not be convicted (both have previously been acquitted on occasion, for similar activities). What is needed is for their actions not to be considered a crime in the first place – or, better, for there to be no WMD to protest against.
@ Boris at 10:34pm ….. “Pensions.”
Another really interesting article Boris. Thanks for that. Once again it’s too bad that the MSM in Scotland don’t seem to be too keen on informing the Scots of anything other than SNP Baad tall tales. If data like this had been passed around pre-Indyref1 it may have made a massive difference to the outcome. A condensed version of this could be outlined on a leaflet and posted through letterboxes / placed in SNP hub windows etc.
…………………………………………
@ the pnr at 12:10am ….. “Sovereignty…… Talk about distraction. This is all about putting off new readers to wings.”
Of course it is the pnr. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. The same old culprits. Day after day. Week after week. One actually wonders if this accounts for the rise in the number of spin doctors / costs at the Scottish Office?
…………………….
@ Dr Jim at 3:18pm ………
Thanks for the laugh Dr Jim. Meanwhile I hear that Big T, persona non grata, is heading off to Italy and Switzerland for three weeks holiday as her party disintegrates and England implodes. No complaints from the MSM as was the case when Nicola Sturgeon went to the US (not doing the day job!) to work her butt off on our behalf?
Re. Brian Quail and Angie Zelter. The National had this (excellent) on their front page today. ‘Free the Trident 2.’
There’s also a really interesting article about this in the National that highlights that comic book hero / writer Mark Millar, Scottish millionaire, was a former pupil of Brian Quail. Mr Quail said by Millar to be “blisteringly intelligent” was his classics / Latin teacher at St Ambrose High in Coatbridge when he was aged 11. He’s never forgotten him and is now in touch with representatives for Mr Quail and Ms Zelter following the National putting them in touch. Seems he’s going to be paying their legal costs. Some others, foreigners (from Madrid, Canary Islands), were arrested too but released on bail. Millar has also pointed out that “had this happened in North Korea we’d be up in arms about it, but somehow in Scotland we’re talking about the new Dr Who.” Looks as though he’s got the measure of the Unionist MSM too. I’m on my IPad so can’t post the link. Sorry.
Petra & Thepnr..
Naw,one actually wonder’s why the 2014 referendum wasn’t about Sovereignty, because it should have been!!
The deflection from it was so very good. …
But that’s really just my opinion!!
This is an issue that’s in MY life right now… because one of mine is involved in it… that’s why I know a bit about it,and…I thought that’s how we wanted the debate to go…so I thought I could contribute!
But as you have both said mibbi no..ok…fine!
@Petra
link to archive.is
Have to say, I haven’t followed ‘the beautiful game’ for some decades, but that’s not really what this is about. It’s about equality, fairness, transparency, accountability and relevance, every one of which is missing from the Scottish viewers experience of broadcasting.
Basically, we don’t get what we pay for. Indeed we pay over the odds for getting precisely the opposite of all of the above. You want your broadcasting to mean something? Then you know what to do. You put a mark in a box.
It really couldn’t be much simpler.
@ Robert Peffers
Ha ha re Prince Philip. So I was closer to the mark with the first name of the ship.
I did actually know but I prefer the Greek connection.
It really does, in my opinion, show the absolute nonsense of the “Johnny Foreigner” attitudes endemic in UK society.
SO there we have it, all the names are now in..
The “VOW II”, will have the following signatories, days before, ScotRef.
What a team.
No doubt the DR will brass neck it and print it again anyways!
Note: The above names are subject to topical change.
Have a great Friday folkspeople.
Will Vince sign it with his Sir or just his Cable 😉
Who cares, Yes will win this time.
2nd-class license fee BAD.
Will Vince sign it with his Sir or just use his Cable.. 😉
Who cares, Yes will win this time.
2nd-class licence fee BAD.
Scotland good.
Pardonaisse.. ach well.
What’s happening in the news this morning..?
Macart @ 4.11 am and Cactus @ 7.00 am
Both spot on !
Thepnr and Petra, good for Mark Millar ! What a way to honour your teacher ! What a teacher to have taught you = ) Brian Quail and Annette Zelter are now part of Scotland’s history, defending the World against the nuclear threat.
Jings. Missing Nana and Smallaxe.
Wherever you are, be well = )
Thoughts and prayers with the folk of Greece and Turkey and all visitors in the wake of the earthquake.
O/T
BBC still scraping the barrel
On Italian refugee crisis they interviewed ex PM of Italy Romano Prodi pm 2006-2008).
Seems only oddballs and has-beens will speak to the BBC.
One in five of the overpaid tax evading presenters have appeared on ”Strictly cone dancing’ Jobs for the ‘boys and gals’. Cost of protecting criminality BBC £3.7Billion.
Brexit is costing £Billions. Consultancies for all the Tories and their cronies. Ex Tory ministers taking up consultancies while the economy tanks. Wasting public money and sanctioning and starving the vulnerable to death. As predicted life expectancy is falling. The Tories are killing the vulnerable. They have caused the migration crisis in Europe bombing the Middle East to bits for years. Ruining the world economy.
Thanks to Brian Quaill and Angie Zelter and their bravery in once again raising the Trident issue. Thanks for everything you have done. Now support is rallying round. These issues are once again being brought to the fore. They are wonderful people. Thanks and thanks again.
Aweright Thepnr ~
Good observation you make above.
Maybe we could suggest a new dedicated thread called..
“Scotland’s Sovereignty”
A talk about.
X.
No one is forced to pay the BBC TV tax because no one is forced to watch the telly.
It’s a free will choice so if you choose to fund proBritNat propaganda, you shouldn’t moan about it. You got exactly what you paid for.
I haven’t watched the telly or paid the TV tax in years & how much more productive my life became would take Gary Lineker’s salary to explain.
Hello Wingers.Please bear with me while I get back on track!
Some links may be a couple of days old
Is there an Exit from Brexit?
link to scer.scot
link to scottishlegal.com
link to snp.org
link to indyref2.scot
link to randompublicjournal.com
link to autonomyscotland.org
link to scottovoce.wordpress.com
link to indyref2.scot
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
link to bloomberg.com
Scottish-secretary-evades-challenge-over-governments-deal-with-dup
link to archive.is
link to ukandeu.ac.uk
link to theconversation.com
link to bloomberg.com
link to thecanary.co
link to theneweuropean.co.uk
@Thepnr says: 21 July, 2017 at 12:10 am:
” … Every other thread for weeks seems to be distracted by the continuing focus on sovereignty.”
Which, as a blog mainly aimed at Scottish Independence is quite appropriate. Football is not the main sport indulged in by most Scots and probably not even the main sport most Scots actually spectate at.
“I’m pissed of with it, it may be important to some but for 99% of Scotland’s population it has no meaning, they come onto Wings having heard some good things that might matter to them and hoping to find out what that might have been.”
So when did those 99% appoint you as their spokesperson?
” … They find that what they heard was bullshit, just a bunch of blowhards arguing things that meant absolutely nothing to their lives. Talk about distraction? This is all about putting off new readers to Wings.”
Far as I can see what is putting people off Wings is the numpties who are constantly shoving SNP BAAD up people’s noses and the even bigger numpties who keep replying to them after the regular posters have long ago established that they are indeed trolls and worse still anti-independence, probably paid for, Westminster agents.
” … I hope people can get back to some serious discussion about what actually affects peoples lives RIGHT NOW in the times we live in.”
Yes! And so do all the other anti-independence trolls and Westminster agents.
It you seriously cannot understand the asserting sovereignty IS Scottish independence.
I’ve read some completely stupid posts on Wings but your load of anti-independence bullshit mast rank among the most stupid of them all.
Thepnr @ 12.10
Well said. Totally agree.
Hey Nana, kettle back on 😉 x
My thanks to Smallaxe for linking. I hope he will be well enough to post soon.
Good to see Mr Portillo accusing anyone who considers the government position a shambles as ‘Lord Haw Haw’ figures. If you voice that the government is not handling Brexit well you are now a ("Tractor" - Ed) in their eyes, I expect they miss the ultimate deterrent.
I wonder how much he receive from the BBC for this drivel?
Apparently the pathetic currency performance is awesome for tourism….panic over then…nothing more to see here…the economy is safe, all we need is 27Billion tourists..!!
link to archive.is
Hey Cactus, thanks for plugging in the kettle xx
Welcome back Nana. 🙂
Hope you’re keeping well.
Links timed to perfection as usual.
Nana GREAT to see that you’re back. You’ve been surely missed. Hope you’re feeling better X
And I’m sending my best wishes to Smallaxe too X
A few more links
link to newsnet.scot
Pound tumbles to eight-month low against the euro
link to archive.is
link to opendemocracy.net
Swedish train to be named Trainy McTrainface in tribute to Boaty
link to archive.is
I read that the prime minister will no longer meet directly with Scotland’s First Minister but instead the FM will have to deal with the secretary of state for Scotland. The reason they gave was that the FM is not senior enough and she and Mundel are of equal status!
Classic trolling from the British government here. A really unhealthy bully-coward relationship has developed over the last few months. The bullies are of course the British and the cowards the Scots electorate many of whom have slinked away just when the Scottish government needed their backing as they stood up to these bullies. The more the Scots electorate shy away from confrontation, the more emboldend become the British. The Scots have the collective power in their hands to break free from the debilitating relationship they have with their overbearing neighbour but they lack the sense or courage to act. It was ever thus.
Yesterday the msm was giving the impression that the Brexit negotiations were going so badly, getting nowhere, that we were on track for a crash and burn hard outcome.
Today we are being told that there will be a transitional deal allowing free movement for 2-4 years after Brexit. Of course having free movement really means having free trade, so why don’t they say so?
These two options, crash out or have a transitional deal to kick everything into the long grass, are really the only two likely outcomes. However I find it hard to believe we can shift from one position to the other overnight!
Effectively we have just switched from the hardest, to the softest! I believe none of it!
link to archive.is
@Macart
I’m not too bad Sam, playing catch up at the moment. Hope you are doing ok.
@Petra
Thanks Petra. I’ll pass on your kind words to Smallaxe.
@Giving Goose says: 21 July, 2017 at 6:37 am:
“Ha ha re Prince Philip. So I was closer to the mark with the first name of the ship.”
Indeed you were.
“I did actually know but I prefer the Greek connection.
It really does, in my opinion, show the absolute nonsense of the “Johnny Foreigner” attitudes endemic in UK society.”
The actual point, Giving Goose, is the highly successful propaganda of the Westminster Establishment that has brainwashed the entire World since the Romans left Britain in year 410AD.
From that time in history Britain has been mainly ruled over by various factions of the Germanic tribes. Starting with the mainly Angles, Jutes and Saxons.
Invasions of what became England between 793 and 1284 was followed by Viking raids and invasions and then the Norman conquest of England, (“Norman”, is a corruption of Norseman), then The Danish invasion of 1069–70.
These invasions were all from the Germanic Areas of Europe, (Not modern Germany), but more from the Scandinavian areas.
The Hereditary Peerage of the House of Lords are descendants of the Norman Aristocracy as are the United Kingdom royals. They gave us the feudal system and that system is still largely extant in Britain today.
So Britain, and the British Empire, has thus been largely ruled over by these elite ruling classes since the Roman’s left the British Isles.
For example George Gideon Oliver Osborne, is a British Conservative Party politician who is heir apparent to two ancient Irish, “The Ascendancy”, Baronetcies.
Note:-
link to en.wikipedia.org
“The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known simply as the Ascendancy, was a class of Protestant landowners and professionals that dominated political and social life in Ireland up to the early 20th century.”
Yet just try and find those facts openly stated as British History and you will search a long time. Our entire real history has been suppressed since the Romans left.
Great to see you back posting links again Nana. Hope you are fighting fit. There’s plenty to fight against this summer. Look forward to hearing from Smallaxe soon.
Thanks Capella, sending for boxing gloves later today lol
@ Cal says at 9:19 am ….”I read that the prime minister will no longer meet directly with Scotland’s First Minister but instead the FM will have to deal with the secretary of state for Scotland. The reason they gave was that the FM is not senior enough and she and Mundel are of equal status!…..”
Well hell mend them Cal. The House of Lords has just produced a report where it states that the Tories / T May will have to start showing the devolved Governments respect…. or ELSE! It’s clear that they can see that their arrogant, dismissive attitude could lead to the break up of the Union. The Tories meanwhile, pinball wizards, will continue down the road to ruin and destruction. In other words with the callous, corrupt, uncompassionate Tories in control and a catastrophic Brexit looming we couldn’t ask for a better time in our history to achieve our Independence.
We can opt out of the BBC licence fee by choosing not to watch or record live TV as it’s being broadcast and choosing not to watch BBC iplayer. STV and ITV etc offer catchup broadcasts on their websites. Or you can illegally watch live TV. I’m not suggesting anyone does this, but acknowledging it’s a choice some people make.
You have personal sovereignty on this matter. You can use your TV as a monitor, not for watching live TV broadcasts.
—————————————–
National Sovereignty:
Brexit. Scottish independence. Scottish democracy.
A confederal Union would be a Union. We wouldn’t be 100% independent. But we would have parliamentary sovereignty. Simply: Scotland would have the final say on any deals as part of a confederal Union, including being able to leave it at any time, as we’d always be in charge of Scotland.
Thus, these discussions are not hypothetical or historical they are about: what does Scotland do about Brexit? Scotland is powerless under the current constitutional arrangement.
I accept for those that want 100% indy, a repeat of 2014, any suggestion of a Union is unacceptable.
But what was the 2014 YES campaign’s main economic policy? A shared currency. But with Scotland having no say on that currency. Scotland also part of the EU.
As 100% independent we’d have no say on monetary policy on a currency of another country: rUK. But relying on another country deciding economic policy means we aren’t economically independent; we are dependent on another country’s economic policies.
As part of the EU, a large proportion of national sovereignty is loaned to the EU. Whatever it is, it’s certainly not independence.
So, those who reject suggestions of a confederal UK Union in favour of YES’ 2014 independence policies are wanting a repeat of policies that have already been rejected.
A YES campaign that claimed to offer independence, but in reality offered neither political independence ( EU membership is not political independence) and did not offer economic independence ( a shared Pound is not economic independence).
I would suggest that a fair proportion of NO votes were not votes in favour of WM rule over Scotland, but a rejection of a poorly thought out YES campaign.
An independence campaign that did not offer independence, for many only offered uncertainty. That’s why for many the decision was NO. The YES campaign lost, I’m sorry to say.
To repeat that 2014 campaign is to repeat the same mistakes. This is not to discourage, it’s to encourage people to create winning ideas. We need to talk about the past to learn from the mistakes and see how we can improve things.
If there is another referendum, it would be a bad mistake to ask: Should Scotland be an independent country?
I would prefer a multiple choice referendum. But if it had to be one question that question would be:
Should Scotland’s Parliament be sovereign, so that Scotland’s Parliament has the final say?
That’s not offering a false offer of independence. It is offering parliamentary sovereignty.
YES to that question allows a Union. It does not make a false promise of independence. It does not constrain our future constitutional arrangements.
It gives Scotland the power to democratically decide what’s best for Scotland, which is what we want.
@ Nana – I’m picturing you in your boxing gloves. They will go well with your night vision goggles. Got to be suitably kitted up for this job. But it will make the typing a bit slower. 🙂
Re The BBC:-
Last night we were subjected to the first edition of ‘The Mash Report’ which purports to be he latest in the long line of brilliant satire programs.
Such satirical programs normally combine political comment with a heavy dose of humour to illustrate the points being made.
Unless I have suddenly been afflicted by a sense of humour bypass I couldn’t detect anything remotely funny in what turned out to be one of the most boring 30 minutes I have ever spent in front of a TV.
The near hysterical laughter which burst out every few seconds seemed very suspicious and could have been of the canned variety or perhaps individual actual audience laughter bits had been recorded and replayed/inserted at random during the editing process.
Robert Peffers (to Thepnr),
“So when did those 99% appoint you as their spokesperson?”
Time for Thepnr to again sincerely apologise to Robert Peffers.
Robert Peffers says (to Thepnr):
27 March, 2017 at 7:40 pm
“Oh! For the Heaven’s sake stop being so bloody stupid. First of all you are not the person who decides what the purpose of the Rev Stu’s blog is. That’s the Rev Stu’s choice to make. Secondly you probably wouldn’t recognise a real Troll if it was chewing on your ear.”
Thepnr,
“I believe it is my fault that Robert Peffers has stopped posting and if it is it makes me very sad indeed.”
“I too wish to see Robert post again and if I upset you and caused you to leave Wings then please accept a sincere apology.”
Truth Always.
Capella:
the Team GB stuff started about 20 years ago- think it was SYDNEY olympics. It’s always been controversial because GB does not include N.Ireland and their athletes feel ignored. It also rules out Jersey, Guernsey etc.
I think it was something to do with it being easier for the Olympic committee to refer to a few initials – that’s the official explanation which we’re supposed to swallow without question.
I remember Gordon Brown getting strongly behind it all.
Urgent action needed to get decent DAB reception of Rado Scotland throughout most of the country. That’s a running disgrace
Farflung, I believe it’s the mountains that’s the problem!
Completely wrong Fred – here on the Fife Coast, fine DAB reception for all other available channels, problematic reception for Radio Scotland. Same on the Angus Coast. It’s positively discriminatory. I always wonder at the fuss about a Scottish Six and nothing ever raised about this issue
Farflung, not too many mountains on the Fife/Angus coast? Had this explained to me last week as my new Digital radio is useless in the mountains & why it won’t get any better. Hopefully this is wrang as the radio cost a bomb & has no reception what so ever, like zilch!