‘But what effect will it have? If previous attempts to take out senior SNP politicians is anything to go by then this smear will pass without any significant damage to the SNP.’ Indyref2
‘But what effect will it have? If previous attempts to take out senior SNP politicians is anything to go by then this smear will pass without any significant damage to the SNP.’ Indyref2
Talking-up Scotland 
These self-same people have declared the end of the SNP/peak Nat for years and years.
Chicken Lickin’ springs to mind.
Trouble is, there is a total lack of either honest journalism, balance or perspective in “Scotland’s” media. No alternative views allowed.
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We do not have Scots media only English to other countries this might seem strange,biased,but this is the way the billionaires living often in offshore havens, snipe,they are not alone B.B.C. is a state propaganda machine. Dictators use this tactic to preach false news. Their philosophy save what we take and help ourselves to Scotland,s resources.
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FFS, as they say, is this really what’s going on in the media? Are they a bunch of slavvering imbeciles trapped in an alternate universe? I suppose it’ll appeal to all those people that want to believe it’s true – I like the occasional fantasy book myself.
Can anyone explain to me what ‘personality cults’ actually means? Don’t quite get it. Wings had a good piece showing two newspapers reporting diametrically opposite things re Nicola Sturgeon – they also had different quotes, from Sillars I believe, the only thing the same was this ‘personality cults’ thing,,, cult,,, personality,,, I just don’t know how the two can be put together in a sentence.
This is a good lesson on how the media can whip up some real hysteria (storm in a teacup idioms spring to mind) from,,, eh nothing happening. Would anyone actually care if the SNP were having a civil war? The Tories have been having one for decades and they STILL haven’t fallen apart.
In the latest output from wings – I was so relieved that he hadn’t stolen another of my ideas before I’d even got round to expressing it, that I wrote a comment on there – an incredibly brave thing to do – to encourage a bit more creativity from the team, here’s a copy (because no one will actually notice it on Wings):
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I would have hoped for more than one alternative idea, got to keep creative, ducking and dodging, to stay in the game.
Now, even if a referendum on the Brexit deal is unlikely, say there was, is there any reason a uk-wide referendum couldn’t be split so each nation had a different thing to vote for? I mean, Scotland is just going to vote overwhelmingly for EU membership again – opinion polls show no shift in that I believe – so what’s the point in asking us again? The brexiteers would like it – takes a chunk of remain votes out of the offering.
So, say they decide to ‘ask the people’ (hahaha) with a new referendum on whatever to do with EU deals or membership, I say Scotland, and Northern Ireland, has a valid case for saying their question should be on Scottish independence (border poll for NI) – it would not cost much more than the original referendum, it’s more relevant to our situation, our original EU vote is unlikely to change much (barring the threat of getting hit by an asteroid if we vote one way or the other) so is a bit of a waste, our votes make no difference to an English vote (whatever they decide will be what we get anyway), the English really get a chance to choose for themselves without our interference, the state machinery appear to be for Brexit (they need the money laundering regime I suspect) so less likely to object to an Indy ref that removes all our remain votes.
Then, if we are running an Indy campaign while they are running a Brexit campaign – well what a fascinating thing this would be – what would the MSM do, a definite split I’d say, we’d be left with just the Scottish elements, the security services, though I’m sure still active, would be run off their feet (those figures for postal voting turn-outs really need to be investigated! 99% turnout in a London borough in the EU ref? I believe that could even be impossible), but we would be very very unlikely to have the attention of English MPs – they should not be involved anyway – so lots of good points if this was feasible and we would not be ‘wasting taxpayers money’ or ‘being undemocratic’.
Maybe we should start really pushing for a new Brexit referendum, howling about how we want a Remain option. Then we could at the last minute compromise for the good of these islands family of nations hoorah all in it together.
Get creative, however absurd an idea, it can spark other ideas. There are many paths and many ways to follow a path, but you need to have outline plans, ideas, so you know when to take advantage. Maybe the SNP already had the referendum idea, that’s why they were supporting the people’s vote? Keep the options open.
Of course, there is the issue that opinion polls only show a majority for Yes IF Brexit goes ahead ,,, would we be able to convince a majority for Independence while Brexit was still in the balance? Would folks be able to handle that?
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on distractions and bizarre reporting by radio Scotland: I left this comment on Craig’s site (they are pretty much totally ignorant of all things Scottish so had to explain what radio Scotland is – some key commenters are very knowledgeable I should add, just the vast majority don’t listen):
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Fascinating. Radio Scotland GMS, one of our propaganda outlets by the BBC here in Scotland, has introduced Bellingcat as a crowdfunded online research etc, finding out all the truth about the Skripals and Syria for us, blah blah, huge long interview (with such restricted time, at prime time, between 8 and 9 am) with a promise of an even longer interview online. This from the BBC that believes all online blogs are sources of fake news. It was treated with no scepticism, as is their wont, except when interviewing unionists. They must have somehow missed the leaked documents from the integrity initiative tying in Bellingcat to government funding because they didn’t mention that at all. I expect Bellingcat will have another revelation soon now that the BBC has bigged them up. Maybe just yet another Skripal smokescreen squirrel event to overshadow uk government incompetance manoeuvre. There can’t be anything happening politically that might need overshadowed can there?
The media here are telling us there’s an SNP civil war just now and this is the most important thing ever, apparently, so dunno why they need to throw in the Skripals too, seems like overkill to me.
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Why do they need to distract us from Brexit, are they planning emergency powers (that is, forget devolution)? I wish I could believe there would be total electoral reform as a result of this obvious show of complete uk incompetance. I can’t foresee any result of Brexit that won’t result in Scottish independence.
Have you seen to petition to the EU for them to consider immediate acceptance of Scotland if we were to choose independence before the end of negotiations (I assume they mean before the end of the next stage in the Brexit chat)? It would resolve the nonsense argument that Scotland would not be accepted – if anyone still accepts that argument though, I doubt they are for turning to sense, but it would save us having to listen to it. So, John, would you consider the merits of signing?
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The media are what they are, and what they’ve always been. Compromised by politics and bound by the corporate bottom line.
In the name of their political ideology of choice, a decent cash return and some notoriety? They will obfuscate, smear, quote out of context and sometimes outright fib. They’ll attempt to hold themselves as judge, jury and executioner. They wish to direct or alter public opinion and perception to suit their wants and needs. Quite heady stuff really. Act as our public watchdog and speak truth unto power though? Not so much in most cases.
Frankly, Leveson’s inquiry did us all a favour. It let us know who and what they truly are. End of the day they’re just people who pull their socks on the same way we do. People who hold themselves as our betters because they have a soap box with some big bucks and a bit of pull at their back. But just people nonetheless.
The UK media really, REALLY, does not like Scotland’s government. I think they’ve more than made that message clear over the past decade. They will continue to undermine trust in personalities, services and institutions (including endangering the public if/as and when necessary), so long as they are required to and so long as it suits their aims.
They’re predictable about that sort of thing.
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The media that operates in Scotland is colonial by nature. It has different priorities and reports news/politics etc differently here, than it does in England/UK.
The difference in reporting between the Damian Green case and Alex Salmond’s is stark.
But Holyrood has legal oversight on the news media here. It COULD insist on certain standards of journalism if they wish to operate.
Context, perspective, accuracy and set standards for factual reportage. Attribution where required. Independent fact-checking by another staff member. Correction of errors when found.
News media in a democracy and free society, should not require oversight from the State, but in Scotland they do, sadly.
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