We’d all love to know how many search warrants BBC Scotland have requested so they can raid the houses of those who have stopped watching in disgust at their ongoing commitment to misinform, under-educate and titillate. For some 2017 statistics, including evidence that search warrants here, are almost non-existent, see:
A very recent request got the usual response and the usual hilarious justification.
Though avid users of the Freedom of the Information service themselves to bombard the Scottish Government in sneaky wee trawls for dirt, they don’t like to be asked any questions themselves.
See this for evidence of their growing enthusiasm for FoI, in the post-McConnell era:
Best, however, in a long list of waffly reasons for not revealing anything, is this:
If an individual was to write that kind of self-justification after a life of endless fibbing of the kind Reptilian Scotland specialises in, we’d worry about their sanity. That kind of cognitive dissonance can lead to a widening gap between the public self and the inner private self (RD Laing, 19canteen), resulting, in some cases, in schizophrenia. In the USA, such cases have often resulted in mass workplace shootings. We must hope that no one at Pacific Quay is armed.
Notably, another FoI, has gone in asking key questions:
Clearly stumped, the response answered none of the questions. Woof!
Talking-up Scotland 
Thank you for bringing this up again John, I missed Ludo’s article the first time round I think.
Are figures on ‘evasion’ based on those people proved to be watching live telly while not paying, or just numbers of people not paying the TVs licence? I wonder how they prove it, and if it went to criminal court surely they’d need corroboration as well – that is, a confession would not be enough, so what form might their corroborative evidence come in? Sounds difficult and may account for lack of custodial sentences in Scotland – or can civil courts give out custodial sentences? Ach, I don’t know enough about it, but doubt it.
I don’t watch live telly, and don’t pay the TV licence fee. All legal and above board, so you’d think I could have moral superiority in this? Not really, because there is an automatic assumption that anyone not paying the tv licence fee is doing it illegally. A presumption of guilt. Why? What happened to innocent until proved guilty? If assumed guilty, then the onus is on the accused (a person not paying the fee) to prove innocence – and that is equally as difficult as proving guilt.
It is a shit stupid tax and should be done away with.
It doesn’t even go directly to the BBC to make their fluffy documentaries, so what is the point?
LikeLiked by 4 people
Can I plug Lindsay Bruce’s crowdfunder for countering the BBC misinformation machine?
https://www.gofundme.com/scotland-its-time
I like to see people that are organised and motivated, and I think the action she takes compensates well for me sitting on my fat arse and doing nothing – giving a little bit helps alleviate the guilt for me, and she always sets out clear goals of where the money is going.
Too many people expect things to just happen, for someone else to take up the cause or do the deed, while we sit and moan about the state of the world – I count myself in that category, btw. In fact it might just be me. Anyhow – it takes all sorts and we need a large diversity of ways not just to counter anti-independence rhetoric, but a large diversity of ways to promote independence, and that takes a large diversity of people, opinions, viewpoints, political-leanings, etc. Each contribute.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The lengths to which the BBC will go to influence public opinion, being actively involved with staging the Douma attacks,
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/451623-bbc-staged-footage-douma-chemical-attack/amp/
Can we actually believe there is any morality or trustworthyness within the BBC? They are a sham.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If not paying for a BBC TV british propaganda license was de-criminalised how many people that currently have one would pay it? Is this a form of corporate extortion? i.e the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats – so if you do not pay your TV license we will take you to court or ‘threaten’ to take you to court?
LikeLiked by 3 people
There is an old Russian proverb loosely translated into ‘Everyone is equally responsible for everything’ … clearly a remnant of the Communist era but still rather pertinent here. Visitors to this site and others know what the BBC are upto and are frustrated by their ability to bring them to book. The BBC response that by divulging this information, which you rightly say is in the Public interest, would somehow jeopardise their efforts suggests to me they are unable to collect a significant % of fees they feel legitimately due to them. I am not advocating breaking the law but we must as individuals decide upon what action is appropriate to combat this abuse of power.
LikeLike