I genuinely cannot believe what I have just seen on the BBC national UK news. A report on the general election in Scotland in advance of tonight’s Scottish Leaders’ Debate. I know we have become used to the unfettered Tory bias of the BBC, but this was at a level of propaganda which has left me seriously disturbed.
In the 6 minute piece, four different BBC presenters told the viewer that the election in Scotland is dominated by the issue of a second independence referendum – which is not true, but is precisely the way that the Scottish Conservatives are trying to frame the debate in every single one of their leaflets and broadcast appearances.
They then had a piece by Sarah Smith from Kelso – a walk from the border with England and the second most Tory place in Scotland. Why choose somewhere so entirely unrepresentative? Then in Kelso they found an “independent” journalistic commentator to explain the situation to us. This “independent” journalist was the Conservative’s arch Conservative, Alex Massie of the Spectator, of Murdoch’s Times and often of the Daily Mail, possibly the most right wing man in Scotland.
Did the BBC introduce Massie as a Conservative, or at least as from the Spectator, known to be the Tory house magazine? No. They passed him off as an independent journalist. Did they balance him with another commentator who was not a raving Tory nutter? No. Did Massie’s contribution count against the time allocated to the Tories in the broadcast under election rules? No, he was “independent”. What did he tell us? Why he confirmed exactly what four different BBC presenters told us in the piece, that this election is all about the second Independence referendum. Exactly as the Conservatives say. Because nobody in Scotland ever thinks about anything else, obviously.
You are not going to believe this. Even as I type, at 18.24. a fifth BBC journalist has just told us tonight’s debate will be about “that fault line in Scottish politics, a second Independence referendum.”
This insistence on framing the entire debate in Tory terms, of trying to ensure that the metaphorical battle takes place only on Tory chosen ground, is disgusting. The second referendum has already been initiated by the Scottish Parliament after the SNP and Greens won a majority of both seats and popular vote in the last Holyrood elections. That is where the competence to initiate the referendum lies.
The BBC approach would at least have a certain honesty if they were saying that, as this election is, according to the BBC and the Tories, all about a second referendum, therefore if the SNP wins in Scotland there should be one. But that is not the terms in which they are framing it. What they have told us, in terms, is that should the SNP win less than 90% of the seats, that represents a rejection of the second referendum. Yes, that really is the BBC narrative, day in and day out, again and again and again, here in Scotland.
Just to complete the intellectual dishonesty of the snivelling hacks, the same people who characterise 35% opinion poll showings for Corbyn in England as total disgrace and failure, characterise 25% poll showings for Ruth Davidson in Scotland as the most sensational victory and triumph.
Of one thing I am sure. After Independence, the Imperial Broadcasting Corporation at Pacific Quay does not need to be reformed. It needs to be immediately closed down on day one, and every single employee needs to be handed their P45. Every single last one. Anybody who has worked in this obnoxious state propaganda organisation can have no part in building a new society.
Unless they have another vocation, like shovelling horseshit. I have never seen so many horses in Scotland as featured in the BBC report from Kelso. Tally-ho boys, what?!
Hardly anyone bombed The Scottish and The Irish during WW1 & WWII. I am not suggesting that this is because – you guys weren’t doing anything useful – but that it was just too far for the Bombers from NAZI Germany to Fly and get back home for their Breakfast.
Meanwhile the German NAZI’s bombed England and Wales to hell
When I was 7 years old, I was still playing in bombed out mills with my friends in Oldham – and that’s Northern England…Did they get as far as Glasgow?
Meanwhile you brainwashed people will fight for your Animal Rights – but most of you really do not care – or show little signs of it..that our Governments (using our taxes) are still bombing to hell – completely innocent people in The Middle East and Africa instead of doing something useful with the taxes (our money).
Not only that – but you actually vote for these people.
Why do you do that?
Why do most of you not complain?
Tony
Eh, what are you on about WW1 & WW2 for? Who are you addressing here? Glasgow Clydebank was bombed..as was a church less than a mile from me in Rutherglen I guess you did not get Georgraphy at school either..Germany was closer to UK Via English Channel! Scots do not Vote Tory in General it is a low vote.
Where the fuck do you get off calling people concerned with animal rights “brainwashed”?
You’re sounding as stupid as RobG used to, insulting all and sundry from an assumed position of all-knowing superiority.
Stop being so arrogant and explain – if you possibly could – how being concerned about the welfare of animals somehow means we are unconcerned about innocent people being bombed.
Your thinking – if this drunken rambling can be described in such terms – is obviously rather confused.
Just for your interest, Tony, in WW1 the German Navy used zepplins to bomb Edinburgh.
In WW2 they used aeroplanes to bomb Clydebank.
Belfast was bombed heavily in April and May 1941
That is deeply offensive and you should remove your post
. Scotland suffered in the blitz. E.G. in a two day period, one single town was hit so badly less than 0.006% of the houses were undamaged. IN TWO DAYS!
That sort of damage was repeated again and again, over and over in similar towns throughout Scotland. My family bear the scars and always will.
Take your lies and peddle them elsewhere.
[ Mod: Caught in spam-filter ]
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Shame on your ignorance.
The Clydebank Blitz of the nights of 13th and 14 th March 1941, largely destroyed the town and resulted in the worst destruction and loss of civilian life in Scotland during WW2.
528 people died, 617 were seriously injured, and hundreds more were injured by blast debris.
Out of 12,000 homes,only seven remained undismayed, with 4,000 completely destroyed and 4,500 severely damaged.
Over 35,000 people were made homeless, including my father, who was 9yrs old when his family were bombed out of their house in the middle of the night.my father and his 7 year old brother, were separated from their family in the horror, ran away from the fire and destruction of their bombed house through the streets, got lost and were rescued by two English sailors who took them to a makeshift refuge in another part of the city – their family found them two days later , having presumed they’d died.
The extent of the casualties of the Clydebank Blitz went largely unreported in BBC news bulletins afterwards, not even the service men in the forces whose families had been affected, were informed till many weeks later.
When I was seven years old, I had a wild pet rat in the cellar of a bombed out department store cellar, you had to slide down a concrete pillar to reach the bottom the only way out. All of Barmbek and most of Hamburg lay in ruins due to the firestorms and bombing…… baaaaaahhhaaaa
You don’t say much Tony, but if you think that increased animosity towards the EU and talk of hard Brexit, whilst actively seeking war with Syria/Russia/ anyone really, being prepared to push buttons in a first strike, will get you excited, don’t hesitate to say so.
you can say anything on Craigs blog.
Because opposing war and the death and destruction it brings might mark them as “radicals” or ‘Assadists’ or whatever smears the media can get to stick, and we can’t have that, it might make them feel uncomfortable and force them to consider that maybe the western system of political economy is corrupt and rotten to its core and not salvageable.
But what we get instead is a virtue signalling chattering class that loudly and shrilly condemns what it considers to be racist and misogynist speech. They even march in solidarity with the US neoliberal Democratic Party appalled at having lost the election to Trump. The fools marching on command in Canada, the UK, Germany apparently forgot they have no influence over foreign politicians.
And when the hated Trump lobs missiles into Syria and threatens war against Iran and North Korea? Jubilation across the mediasphere as pundits sing Trumps praises and eroticise the death and destruction he has unleashed. The spineless, morally bankrupt sycophant western leaders for whom Trump was the reincarnation of Hitler praised him and offered their full support when he started killing people. When the war against Iran kicks off they will be there waiting to fellate Trump or whoever is president at the time.
Yes, offensive and belligerent rhetoric will get you denounced as Hitler 2.0 and acts of war and actions that increase the likelihood of nuclear annihilation are praised by all. Murdering millions of human beings in the pursuit of global dominance, as America has done, is something both Trump and his opponents on the liberal fake-left support.
We live in a sick and moribund society that is becoming increasingly unhinged from basic reality.
Clydebank was the most heavily bombed, bar none town in the UK in WWII.
Of 12000 houses only 7 remained undamaged.
The troll who posted the ludicrous comments above should apologise unreservedly.
Search wikipedia Clydebank blitz for rererence.
During WW2 Greenock and Port Glasgow were bombed, my family were “Blitzed” during the raids.
Hardly anyone bombed the Scots? That comment shows a level of ignorance that could fill an encyclopedia, and is quite frankly offensive to the many Scots for whom the War is still a living memory.
Glasgow and the Clyde dockyards were frequently bombed during WW2, as was Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee. The evidence of Glasgow’s blitz is still very much apparent to this day, where in one area of Govan in particular, there are obvious gaps between rows of tenement housing where entire streets disappeared under Nazi bombs.
The first air raid to take place over mainland Britain during WW2 was not over the green fields of England, but at Rosyth Naval Base near Edinburgh, on October 16th 1939. My grandfather knew that date well because he was stationed there with the Royal Marines when he saw his first Heinkel bombers.
Perhaps you never heard of Scotland’s blitz, or the fact that Wales and Northern Ireland also suffered from German air raids, because there’s a tendency among the UK’s largely south-east based media to only re-tell England’s point of view – either that or you simply never bothered to find out. So which is it ?
Even places like Banff (Duff House) were bombed during the World Wars.
Shetland was bombed too FGS.
Trying to make out that only England and Wales were “involved” in the World wars is ignorant dishonesty at its worst.
My father was an ambulance driver/first aider and attended after bombings in Glasgow and Clydebank. I played on bombsites too. You are somewhat proof that people in England are ignorant of Scotland (which is definitely not a region of England and larger than the skewed BBC weather map).
Why do you think the government passed “Marine offences Act” in 1967 Craig? Solely because they want control of everything we read, see or hear.
Forgotten how they silenced Radio Caroline with a little piracy on the high seas? Read it here:
http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#history/history_part_10.html
On Saturday August 19th the unthinkable happened. The large Dutch vessel Volans with armed officials on board closed in on the Ross Revenge as did the British launch Landward.
By means of violence and force of numbers the Dutch took control of the ship and as chaos reigned, the disc jockeys relayed a blow by blow account of events to the astonished listeners. Then when the transmitters were silenced the Dutch stripped the ship of all broadcast equipment while the British attempted to interrogate the crew under threat of arrest. All this happened in International waters where the boarders had no official powers. In the early evening, Caroline’s British tender, posing as a press launch, reached the ship with some genuine journalists on board. The raiders immediately left taking with them all of the records, studios and transmitting equipment and leaving behind some vandalism and deliberate damage. They also left behind the British crew who refused to desert their ruined ship.
Of course, at the time you were climbing the greasy pole at the FCO, so you are somewhat late with your awareness/concerns
Indeed I remember it well. Actually when I was the head of the FCO maritime section I had quite a row about it with an FCO Legal Adviser called David Anderson (a very pleasant man) who had drawn up the legislation. Though when it happened I was not in fact in the FCO, I was 9 years old, so you can’t really blame me.
According to the latest poll in the Kelso neck of woods 82% WILL vote SNP. Same in dumfies and Galloway and 86% in tweeddale.Depends who you speak to.
@ gloria harkin May 22, 2017 at 00:59
There’s polls and there’s ‘fixed’ polls.
I also have a problem with the last two paragraphs. Whilst I agree that people need to strive to ensure their actions are “social responsible”, individuals have varying degrees of personal freedom with which to enable ethical choices. Individuals might not have viable ethical employment options available. Also, are people not capable of change and atonement?
“Individuals might not have viable ethical employment options available. ”
What about all those innocent people in the whip manufacturing business – they’d really feel the lash (if you will) with the impending abolition of slavery back in the US around 150 years ago. Surely it wouldn’t be right to take away their livelihoods? No – best to keep the institution going until something everyone agrees on is settled.
WTF?
Gerintium. The lad appears to wish others forgo the means of maintain and sustaining mind and body in order to satisfy his particular ethical egotism.
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/246768/Bibliography.pdf?sequence=11
Great article until the last paragraph.
There are plenty of indy-supporting people at Pacific Quay (I’ve worked there myself). Most are very, very quiet about their independence support because it is career suicide there to be a nationalist. The place is run by Labour apparatchiks, which does make one wonder why they’re so pro-Tory.
Sweeping generalisation is never a solid argument and you have insukted a lot of good, independence supporters there. I expect better of you
As in “I was only fighting on the English side at Bannockburn because I needed a job”.
They may think they support Independence, but if they are in any way working in the propaganda machine against us they are working against us. Full stop.
Craig, we know how it works. However, it is not working. I am not expecting a tsunami but will be pleased with something that is reasonable. It will happen, eventually. I have just returned from a few weeks in Poland. Where I was staying there has been an influx of Ukrainians to bring the population of Wroclaw to 15% Ukrainian. Yet, the man in the street still supports Scottish Independence.
The EU loves us and understands the knuckle-draggers are not part of us.
We can do it. We will do it.
PS while I was away, WoS and ‘Craig Murray’ was blocked. It will get worse.
Do the Gaelic language services , including that from Belfast, have greater latitude in terms of content and comments?Or are fluent Gaelic speakers regarded as hopeless cases by the BBC
Glad to see people are now waking up to all the bias lies and backstabbing in the BBC….I agree get rid of the vermin or maybe the torries could hound the down hunting..
the CBC. The Conservative Broadcasting Corporation.
Or even the BiBiCee. Wait for today’s output on Trump’s visit to Israel.
Public Broadcasters, when funded by a State are, by extension, an arm of the government of that State. The BBC is no different in this respect from any other such institution found anywhere.
In its old form, the BBC was a model copied by many. It has a long and distinguished history in the UK and throughout the world.
In its essence, it was and is a public infra-structure project. One passed on to us by preceding generations. The intent, naive though it may have been, was to provide a platform upon which a range of political points of view might have a forum to test their ideologies with the general public. It did this reasonably faithfully for almost 70 years. Accusing a bunch of buildings, camera’s and radio frequencies of bias is patently absurd. Inanimate objects don’t vote and have no favorites.
But, when that same infra-structure is captured by a singular narrative, the buildings, cameras and radio frequencies become powerful weapons in the hands of those who would shape debate and discussion to suit their own ends. Such is the current nature of the BBC – nurtured over the past 30 years of neo-conservative control.
Today, only one ideology is promoted by the old broadcaster. Although the output is slightly more subtle than what passes for journalism in North Korea, the current crop of political editors at the BBC are, without exception, entirely of one political stripe – Conservative. By their actions, they have compromised the once venerable institution in the eyes of many. Reaction is inevitable. They will be replaced in time. They must be endured for the moment. The old institution will rise from the ashes once more, of that I am sure.
With independence, it is my hope that the BBC will find an even keel in short order, at least here in Scotland. With no fish to fry in our resolved constitutional debate, it will become like any other foreign broadcaster. We can subscribe to its services at our leisure. Today though, it is an enemy of the Scottish People and our nascent democracy, and it should be recognized as such.
But, I for one do not wish the first act of our restored nation to be the censoring an agency of the fifth estate. Even one as odious as the current BBC. There are better ways of accomplishing our need for justice other than indulging in a purge.
With independence, we will have the means in our hands of restoring a healthy media to its rightful place within our society. The first independence debate unleashed many alternative news sites and voices to counteract the monochromatic nature of the establishment message. To the overall benefit of our People. This very blog is an expression of our new reality. The days of the single Public Broadcaster in our nation are numbered, if not already past. If the BBC, as a foreign news agency, wish to rebuild trust in their institution with the Scottish People, let them start from scratch.
My own solution would be to renegotiate the BBC’s lease to operate out of Pacific Quay, or any of their other studios in Scotland. There must be some price paid for their willing collaboration in undermining the democracy of our country. Making the BBC governors pay through the nose for the privilege of participating in Scottish democracy seems to me to be an eminently more satisfactory response. Rather than denying ourselves the taxes derived from their well heeled employees, we should be increasing our take. It is a solution that brings a certain poetic justice to the argument.
Cancel your tv “licence”. Don’t pay them for their propaganda. Actions speak louder than words.
Really enjoyed reading that article, As an ex British Ambassador there is something very refreshing to hear you let fly with such passion. I wish I could be as precise with my disgust for this corrupt system. I am guessing that at the time of writing you weren’t even aware of the controversy surrounding the “member of the audience” given the question on the NHS ( not even an issue in the Westminster elections) who attacked Nicola Sturgeon and got 2 follow ups to continue attacking her…. She was apparently a nurse working in A and E, claimed to be surviving on foodbank charity, was on last weeks QT sitting next to the Tory Councillor who also got a lot of attention, has a facebook page full of life in the fast lane… fancy restaurants, new yearS Eve in New York etc… unbelievably exposed in the Scottish Sun Newspaper of all places.
A complete and utter disgrace !
I am relieved you may not have had that info to hand when writing this article as I would have real concerns for your blood pressure 🙂
The website report makes a lot of that too. Below a photo of the nurse is the caption –
‘An audience member who said she was a nurse attacked Nicola Sturgeon over NHS wages’
followed by:
‘The debate also saw Ms Sturgeon come under fire from the ++politically balanced audience++ (me Ha!) over the SNP’s record on health and education – both of which are devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
One member said she was a nurse and had been forced to use a foodbank.
She said that colleagues were considering leaving nursing, adding: “You have no idea how demoralising it is to work in the NHS.”
‘Austerity policies’
Making a direct plea to the first minister, she said: “Don’t come on your announced visits, come in in the middle of any day to any ward, to any A&E department and see what we’re up against.”
Ms Sturgeon told her “My sister works in the National Health Service, believe me she tells me exactly what she thinks about these matters.”
She said the “austerity policies” of the UK government meant public sector workers had had pay rises capped at 1%.
And she stressed that the Scottish government had a policy of no compulsory redundancies in the NHS and wider public sector.’
and further on
‘The first minister is a skilled operator when it comes to this political sparring though, so she held her ground reasonably well; it was a member of the audience who landed the most notable blow on her.
The nurse in the audience who took the first minister to task will go down as the most memorable moment of the debate, and will no doubt be the element which leads tomorrow’s headlines.’
Election 2017: Scottish leaders clash in heated TV debate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-39995184
Her Twitter is strange. Full of retweets for restaurant ads and the like.
https://twitter.com/ClaireNursey
You’re trawling through this woman’s social media because she thinks nurses are not paid enough?
What sort of a country are we becoming.
No. Her social media output is under the microscope because it makes a liar out of her!
I think it was the people who said she worked for BUPA, who said she was married to a Tory Councillor, who said she sent her daughter to public school who are the liars don’t you?
Will you be trawling through the private lives of everyone else who asked questions in the Leaders Debate?
I agree with Fred. It;’s very sinister behaviour and does not augur well for developments in Scotland under the SNP.
If Florid Nightingale would like to prove her foodbank use then I’m sure we’ll all take her claims more seriously.
Victims of SNP smear campaigns shouldn’t have to prove their innocence.
The nurse was given a great deal of time and attention but we have to take on trust that she is using food banks. A comment – but unfortunately anonymous – on another blog claimed that the lady earns £27000 pa, which is hardly food banks level, and makes a cryptic comment that said amount is enough to fund a trip to the USA, but again hint rather than clear assertion.
Keeping an open mind but she sounded a bit middle class to our household.
There were many claims made within minutes, she was married to a Conservative councillor, she was planted by the BBC, she worked for BUPA and earned a fortune
I think what this does demonstrate is that the SNP is not a political party it is a cult. When someone raises an issue with the other party leaders they don’t get people rooting through their dustbins to see where they do their shopping.
No. If you check you will find this prog was made by the same shower who do QT. Complete with audience plants!
Please also remember this was a general election prog yet Smith allowed questions throughout on devolved matters. It was a mess of a prog. Smith is a dreadful journalist but has connections obviously!
Anyway, some of us voted to leave the EU because of Germany’s key role in running the Syrian war for NATO, on the principle that the Al Qaida, Taliban and then Daesh terror would not be lifted from the Syrian people until they submitted to be ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood. Fat Chance of that!
http://www.voltairenet.org/article190102.html
The neo-conservatives and liberal hawks who have been preparing the war against Syria since 2001 have been relying on several states from the UNO and the Gulf Co-operation Council. While we know about the role played by General David Petraeus in launching and pursuing the war until today, two personalities – Jeffrey Feltman (number 2 at the UNO) and Volker Perthes (Director of the main German think tank) – have remained in the shadows. Together, with the support of Berlin, they have been using and are still manipulating the United Nations in order to destroy Syria.
Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 28 January 2016
When Craig comments on the lack of principles of BBC technicians, I have a right to comment on his lack of principles in turning a blind eye to the EU’s role in this war. ” The EU is a much less neo-liberal organisation than the UK or US ” Independence Live Interview.
He has a right to hold his opinion. I have a different opinion. In fact I would argue that the de facto removal of UK involvement through the EU in the war in Syria has tied the ultra right wing liberal hawk and neo-con Boris Johnson’s hands. Brexit was totally unexpected by the Tory party, whose opinion-collecting machine saw the popularity of racism in the electorate but failed to see the unpopularity of 30 years of continuous wars against Muslim countries. A blind spot they shared , being hawks, with the poor little crippled Hillary Clinton who was so hard done by recently.
It’s beginning to look like May and her shills the BBC have swallowed their foot entirely by counting on the racist vote to keep them in power. The British are a largely tolerant people, who have only been governed by psychotic fascists posing as the Tory party, since about the inception of the EU. Brexit is a job well done if that is true.
giyane
I would Go back to few days ago
Craig’s Point on the Elderly Vote.
It’s not even a Complex point.. Because of The bbc
Check Mark the Artist Taxi Driver –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BIAyXCIohA
That’s highly bizarre, voting for Brexit because of Germany’s supposed leading role in Syrian regime change. Germany has had virtually no role in Syria. Thierry Meyssan’s piece is all over the place, coming up with one single German academic who he says played a role, while on the other accusing the Germans of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The French genuinely have had a much greater role – the French govt is hand in glove with a group of anti-Asad Syrian intellectuals in Paris. But even then, that’s little to compare with the British and American effort. If Syria were really a criterion over Brexit, the logic would be to join the EU, not leave it. Leave the Atlantic alliance would be the sensible move.
Laguerre.
Did I make the high bizarreness of modern politics?
For example Mrs May and her strong and stable mantra. Which party decided to hold a referendum on UK membership of the EU and was it a strong and stable kind of idea? I am not inclined to believe you that Germany has played no part in the dividing and ruling of the Muslim world.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the political wing, the Sinn Fein, of the larger terror organisation Al Qaida run by the CIA and MI6. But things are different in the internet age than how they were in Northern Ireland. Back then people believed the official narrative being spun to them. Now, all the information is available about how governments operate. Just carry on sucking on the teats of NWO propaganda, but please leave it out accusing Muslims of sucking on the teats of religion.
Nobody here on CM blog who hates religion is ever going to listen to the information available about how the Muslim world is being stitched up because they secretly want it to happen.
How about making sense Giyane? How does Germany’s Herr Volker Perthes subvert the UN and or destroy Syria? explain what it is they do, apart from supporting Israel’s rogue state with subsidised submarines, what is their role in training Al Quaeda and Al Nusra terrorists? how are they subverting Russias influence?
Come up with something concrete or stfu. As if there is not enough bile being produced by this Government, now this pathetic article saying very little at all.
What Thierry is claiming is that Germany has undermined the peace process with Iran, which was then in full flow, when in reality they were the first to help Iran after the sanctions were dropped. Germany, underhand and without much support from this Government or media, was also involved in negotiating the cease fire, stopping the attack on Ghaza.
I know international affairs and politics are complicated, but sometimes it is galling to hear the same old’ beware of the Hun’ rhetoric.
Thanks for calling me a racist. Germany currently exercises absolute power in the EU. Ask any Pole or any Greek if you don’t know. I am not privy to the expert knowledge you demand as proof for their involvement in Syria. You yourself obviously failed to believe the line you were being spun by your own nation’s elite, and I have failed to believe the line spun by the UK nasty party about the Arab Spring being a spontaneous eruption of popular insanity and self -destruction.
Thierry Meyssan has, over many years, put together a jigsaw of how USUKIS have employed Islamist terror to achieve geopolitical objectives. Unlike Craig I do not buy into the virtues of the EU’s neo-colonialism, swallowing Eastern Europe from the platform of Western Europe and now the Middle East from the platform of Israel. If you want to believe naievely all the USUKIS propaganda about the benefits of the NWO, that’s up to you.
Just watched the same on good morning britain with right wing piers morgan not letting people answer by talking over them very rude nasty man.
Correct in every aspect Craig, what also worries me is that there is no counterbalance to the BBC constant attacks. Even STV who you would think would be more knowledgeable about the Scottish situation do not come out to balance things up.I have sadly come to the conclusion that Scotland will never see Independence as it is not in the Establishment ‘s interests to let us go.
News agencies and TV stations mostly/very often cover the same subject as they do not want to be edged out of a scoop, want to be part of that ‘exclusive’, whatever sells and or ups the ratings, John.
Fact is, there is a plethora of news all over the globe and much of is is related to one or other decision taken in the western hemisphere, meaning it has been touched up, spun and painted in the appropriate agenda and its colours.
But its the editorial decision makers and those who pull their strings who decide whether we are allowed to see a Palestinian child being shot by a settler or hear of a child abuse case that does in any way touches on the establishment. And these same people also watch carefully who is appointed to one or other job in the propaganda operation, they ensure that the organisation stays on message which is, don’t attempt to change the status quo and fight everything that does look likely to do so.
Funny how the SNP are on QT and the Westminster Hour every week. Hell, they even had a QT in Cambridge with one of them on. But yeah yeah – BBC bias, sack them all, blah blah blah – toys out of pram. How terribly droll.
It seems to me that the BBC is attempting to preserve its imperial power over broadcasting in Scotland rather than supporting the Conservatives in particular. Their slant is still wrong, of course.
I agree Frank. I think their Scottish leadership is Blairite while their English leadership is Tory. But they can both unite in opposing Independence, the SNP and Corbyn.
Craig last week
“I have given up on expecting any honesty from the media. In future, I shall only blog on this subject when pleasantly surprised by an example of fairness or ethical behaviour in the media.”
Surely you didn’t believe me, Phil? You never have before 🙂
Of course I didn’t believe you. Media conspiracy is a central plank to your analysis. I did think you’d last more than a week though.
I would sack the whole lot of BBC personnel in Scotland, including those who harass me for a TV Licence.
Will you be in on 22nd May? Red stamp in the bottom corner Enforcement Officer VISIT APPROVED sig J Hales.
This is the latest threat from Gordon Smith, Enforcement Manager, Falkirk.
I have a pile of these threatening letters, in fact, I have 20 such letters, some in RED ink. Initially, I binned them, then I realised they were not going to stop, so I kept them.
The last Enforcement Officer who came snooping to my door told me, “it is only a job to me, I was in Iraq shooting people, while they pay me I do the job”. This revelation was in response to my question,”have you ever considered ethical employment?”.
Therefore, if the tea lady/cleaner is servicing the boss at the BBC then she is culpable just the same. FIRE THE WHOLE LOT.
Oh, how I look forward to that day, the sooner the better.
Clydebank was bombed repeatedly because of its ship building. My mother lived through it and watched as the area was turned into rubble and her neighbours killed. How dare you express such comments without doing your homework.Every UK war for the last 300 years has had proportionately more Scotsmen killed than any other part of the UK. For instance, 11.3% of the UK soldiers were killed in the First World War but, out of that figure, 26.4% of the Scottish soldiers died.That war transformed the Highlands in population,culture, language and mentality.Your comments are viciously disrespectful.
I am glad to see the gaps in Tony Opmoc’s knowledge plugged Alasdair, thank you.
Scottish Independence would prevent such needless slaughter of our people defending the English Monarchy.
Tony Opmoc may well have been in error but it is good to see your passion for the truth no matter how painful.
You seem to be suggesting that the Scottish population only fought the Nazi’s in order to defend the English Monarchy, which is not exactly a high motive to resist a regime that wrought incalculable devastation. It is however an explanation that would align very closely to the thoughts and views of one Arthur Donaldson, an early leader of the SNP. You can read all about his Nazi sympathies here (or perhaps you already know of them and are just seeking to reinforce the historical purity of SNP thinking)
http://www.scotsman.com/news/mi5-file-links-former-snp-leader-to-nazi-plan-1-1103305
Have you any idea how much death and destruction, rape and plunder the English Monarchy has created throughout the world?
My thoughts are NOT aligned to anyone. I just read the facts.
India lost almost as many people as the total population of Scotland while they greatly enriched themselves. The Scots helped them and also enriched themselves.
My friends and family members were there to see it.
Man’s inhumanity to man. (Rabbie Burns).
Please tell me how much death and destruction, rape and plunder the English monarchy has created. Is it more or less than the death and destruction created by the Nazi’s? More or less than the death and destruction created by Genghis Khan?
Is your argument that the English are in some undefined way uniquely evil? Do they get no credit for abolishing slavery and for improving the lives of millions via medical advances?
Comparing Scotland to India is either stupid or dis-ingenious. Some 46,000 Indians are killed annually as a consequence of snake bites. Can you imagine the reaction if every year 46,000 Scots were killed by snakes? Do you think that is an intelligent comparison?
The Tories have been allowed to wholly distort the election processes. Firstly we had the Local Government elections, fought on the Independence question, which had no relevance to local politics. The Tories had nothing to say about local issues. I received an election pamphlet about supporting Ruth Davidson in her fight against a second referendum. Ruth Davidson was not standing in these elections, and had nothing pertinent to say.
Following the silence on local issues, when we move on to the General Election, the Tories have been silent on Brexit, the apparent raison d’etre of this election. Again their emphasis has been on criticising the SNP’s governance in Scotland, rather than being prepared to discuss Westminster issues. The BBC consistently allow, indeed encourage, propaganda to be substituted for relevant comment. Can we protest by refusing to pay the licence fee?
We have this extra-ordinary position, whereby the English Tories want total authority to do what they want in Brexit, but won’t give us any information, and we have the Scottish Tories, who fall into line behind their masters, and at the same time fail totally to explain to Scottish voters the overwhelming advantages of being told what to do all the time.
What are the advantages of being a tiny minority in Westminster?
The absurd thing is that BBC Scotland don’t have a regular Question Time show for Scottish politics. SNP politicians have to appear on editions in England where the discussions are often about England only topics such as grammar schools.
Then BBC Scotland have a TV debate in the middle of a UK general election and want the discussions to be mostly about devolved matters, instead of the Tories having to defend Brexit, health privatisation etc.
All part of the BBC policy to misinform, confuse, deflect and control.
The offensive Tony_Opmoc has succeeded in distracting everyone from the original post , which is about Propaganda, BBC & the Tories. He is an obvious arrogant tory & just as bad as any of them in the bbc .
Well said, Annette.
It seems people are putting up a new slogan across London which will hopefully spread further afield because it’s blunt, and if the BBC unintentionally broadcasts it it will be interesting to see how they worm themselves out of it.
https://www.indy100.com/article/general-election-2017-theresa-may-strong-stable-my-arse-signs-up-across-london-7747081?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100
I think your comment that every BBC employee should be sacked after indy is a bit OTT. I know several people who work as journalists for the BBC (radio and TV), and to a man they are supporters of independence although they never show that in their reports as that would be professional suicide, and they are not generally reporting exclusively on political matters. Of course there are quite a few who toe the unionist line religiously and we can spot them a mile away, but don’t tar them all with the same brush.
You see, I don’t care what their private opinions are, I care about their actions. And if they are maintaining the state propaganda machine they are working against the people of Scotland.
Why limit it to the people of Scotland.
Myself i’m not convinced on independence. Like any governments who want people to back them rather than alternative actions proven to work, they divide the people.
In your head, predictably.
But we know obvious facts on the ground aren’t your strong point.
The Tory Daily Mail had the headline ‘Crush The Saboteurs’ the day after the general election was called. May refused to criticise the paper for that very extreme front page.
Yes, I agree. To accuse people of “sabotage” was one of the tricks used by the Soviet regime from its very beginnings.
“Several” “to a man” ?
So they know they work for a corrupt institution screwing people over but they are ok because they themselves “support” independence. ?
No they don’t. We are what we do, not what we think.
I have never heard of Tory voting BBC employees. Do they really exist ?
Oh yes Geoffrey – all kinds of Labour unionists vote Tory in Scotland nowadays. But you are sadly a decade behind the times. James Harding, Sarah Sands, Nick Robinson, until lately Craig Oliver. The BBC in London is entirely controlled by self-declared Tories nowadays.
I saw this report on the BBC News and I totally agree with you Craig, it could not have been more biased if it tried, the BBC idea of balance seems to be to present a selection of unionist/conservative voices to give us varieties of the same opinion. Now, whenever it claims to present an “independent” voice I feel obliged to check who they are before I can give that voice any credence. The basic impulse is to dismiss them all. The BBC are hopeless at news.
The Sunday Telegraph asked Theresa May to choose six people for her dream dinner party. Here is her list.
Lettice Curtis (aviator)
Edward Whymper (mountaineer)
Wilfred Thesiger (explorer/writer)
Stanley Spencer (painter)
Agatha Christie (writer)
Gertrude Jekyll (horticulturalist)
There’s nothing controversial about her choice of any of them and they were all quite eminent in their chosen fields.
However it should be noted that she could choose any people past and present to be her guests and yet her choice is quite narrow.
All these people were white. All from not just England but Southern England. All were from quite well to do backgrounds. Says a lot about May’s outlook.
Neither Whymper nor Thesiger seem to have been too struck with settling down in a leafy Surrey lane, though. I doubt if Thesiger would even have replied to the invitation, as the intention would obviously have been to provide entertainment for Theresa’s comfortable chums. (May would have received much-needed insights into life on the edge of subsistence and Arab politics if he had.)
A fair enough point about Thesiger Ba’al. Nevertheless he was an Old Etonian and my contention is still valid I think. That May has a very upper middle class, C of E, Southern England of yesteryear way of understanding the world.
Hmmm. So, substituting the CofE for the even stuffier CofS, she has no affinity with
KelvinsideNewton Mearns (3 Tory, 1 SNP councillors) or Morningside (Tory councillor), then?Just ribbing.
I’m sure she feels an affinity with right wing Scots Tories. She wouldn’t have them at her dinner parties though. They might steal the cutlery. Didn’t Ruth Davidson warn her about that?
Surrey lane? May lives in a village called Sonning in Berkshire. It is very exclusive.
DILLIGAF?
What a stunningly brilliant analysis. Still I suppose it serves as a useful diversion from explaining why, at one point, Scottish Nationalists were attracted to Nazism and why in 1975 the SNP were vehemently opposed to the the EU and today they are almost literally in love with the EU.
As Arthur Donaldson is dead we can no longer ask him who he would invite to his “dream dinner party” but we can make an educated guess that quite a lot of the guests may have been partial to Bratwurst.
Well it was useful in flushing out you two crackpots. You do realise that this ‘dinner party guest list’ question was the sole raison d’être of an article in the ‘News’ section of the Telegraph? It would be hard to imagine a flimsier attempt to divert attention from the real issues (you both realise that there’s a General Election on at the moment?). Reel guid deserves credit for noticing a little nugget of truth in the ridiculous puff piece.
I take it that by real issues you are not referring to historical Nazi leanings of the SNP? Is there any reason why this would not be considered a “real issue”?
In 2015 the German authorities charged a 91 year old woman with crimes related to the Nazi era. They obviously consider it a real issue. Or perhaps you simply despise the German legal system, in which case how to explain the SNP love in with the EU.
May opted entirely for white Christian middle class southern English people at her dream dinner party.
No Ghandi. Or Martin Luther King. She’s a cricket fan, so why not Yorkshiremen like Geoff Boycott or Freddie Truman? Or Gary Sobers, Viv Richards and Brian Lara.
How about Ella Fitzgerald? Ibn Khaldun or La Rochfoucauld. Elie Wiesel, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Toni Morrison. Rosa Parks or Jean Baudrillard. Bob Marley or Sitting Bull.
May could be asked to name a 20 guest dream dinner party and they’d all be ethnically, sociologically and natively similar to herself.
Theresa May only trusts white, middle class C of E people who always did their school homework.
Diversion? You do realise that this ‘dinner party guest list’ question was the sole raison d’etre of an article in the ‘News’ section of the Telegraph? It would be hard to imagine a flimsier attempt to divert attention from the real issues of the General Election. Reel guid deserves credit for noticing a little nugget of truth in the ridiculous puff piece.
Absolute rubbish.
My thoughts exactly as I watched it!
John Monro
May 22, 2017 at 08:52
“It depends where you come from. What about here, for instance?”
https://biasedbbc.org/quotes-of-shame/
“Undoubted, persisting and troublesome proof of the left-wing bias of the BBC.”
……………………………………………………………….
John,
Selective quotes put together by an apparent right-wing blog does not prove anything.
Who runs the above website? Who edits it? Who puts all these selective quotes together?
This is the editor.
https://gab.ai/DavidVance
I had a feeling that is was one of those CAMERA sites that defends the only democracy in the ME from perceived BBC bias.