Altered State - A critique on the first Scottish Independence Referendum on what needs to be done before the next...

This is part 1 of a series.

It also appears on youtube in the public domain at the following address if the above doesn't work...https://youtu.be/PJ90uKQmcGQ.

This video has also appeared on the Wee Ginger Dug blog which can be found at ...https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/.

SCOTLAND WAS ROBBED OF ITS INDEPENDENCE

This is my response to any NO VOTER who tells me to just get over it and accept the result that Scotland VOTED NO in September 2014.

If the Scottish Referendum had been conducted FAIR and SQUARE then the result would have been considered to be more acceptable to the people who campaigned for and then voted "YES".

Unfortunately by any measure it wasn’t. David Cameron himself said, and I quote " The Scottish Referendum is a matter solely for the people of Scotland to decide".

From that moment on the people of Scotland and down south were bombarded with scaremongering lies and deceit from Westminster, Better Together and mainstream media which includes the newspapers, the broadcasters with particular reference to the BBC.

Westminster was virtually put on hold when it looked despite all this that Scotland may have the temerity to vote Yes with 100 Westminster Labour MPs shipped up to Scotland by train to try to force a NO vote.

Bus loads were brought from England and Wales (paid and fed I may add) to canvas for a NO vote whereas Yes campaigners were largely doing everything for free and were from Scotland.

Scottish Pensioners were phoned in their homes by Better Together and told that they could lose their pensions and put them at risk if they voted "YES". This was then backed up by Labour people at the gates of polling stations telling those on benefits or pensions that they would lose them if people voted YES.

Scottish SUPERMARKETS and BANKS and BUSINESSES were called into Downing Street to frighten the Scots about prices going up and businesses moving south and mortgages costing more if they "VOTED YES".

Scotland was told that the NHS would be at risk if they VOTED "YES". But we now know from Labour General Election campaigning that it is at risk in the Union. Gosh what a surprise! People were told that Scotland’s OIL would run out in 20 years; and 2 days after a NO VOTE they were told that the Oil would last at least 120 years. None of the economics of a Yes vote was based on oil being anything other than an added extra.

The USA was contacted to speak out for the Union; Russia was contacted to speak out for the Union; Spain was contacted to speak out for the Union; The EU was contacted to tell Scotland it would not be allowed in the EU. Even the British Embassies around the world were contacted to support the Union.

Every dirty trick in the book was used by Westminster against Scotland voting Yes. The only thing they did not do was put tanks on the streets and threaten to blow Scots off the map.

In spite of all the lies, the might of "THE ESTABLISHMENT" and dirty tricks etc being launched against them 45% of all the Scots VOTED "YES".

I think under the circumstances people in Scotland therefore have every right to vigorously pursue self determination and independence for their country. Justice will be seen to be done and honesty will prevail.

Any reservations I may have had before the vote have now gone thanks to what occurred during the campaign and on the day of voting. Until the day of Scotland’s independence, the fight goes on. Of that the world can be rest assured.

BBC News Channel and its 50 minute party political broadcast for the Labour Party on 08.09.2014, and mainstream media bias during the Scottish Indyref

I heard last night that the BBC news channel gave Scottish Labour an uninterrupted 50-minute party political broadcast for no obvious reason.

I understand it mainly took place at Loanhead Miners’ Welfare, and featured speeches from a warm-up man, then Johann Lamont, and finally the star attraction Gordon Brown.

I also heard that the actual event justifying this extraordinary coverage lasted just 2 minutes 36s.

If they’re offering us something new that directly relates to the Scottish Independence Referendum — they’re breaking the “purdah” electoral law.

If they aren’t, then it’s all a big fat lie. My personal view it is the latter.

Unfortunately I missed this extravaganza from this unbiased public service broadcaster (Aye right?), but seeing it was Gordon Brown who was speaking for the aforementioned 2m 36s I have to know; did he mention pensions? Or how about gold sales? No more return to boom and bust?

Obviously I am so unhappy that he never got re-elected to the office of PM – to which as I recall he was never actually elected in the first place.

How could a Miners welfare afford the fees for him to attend anyway?

Honestly another 10 days of this bilge presented as news and debate!!


They have really over stepped the mark this time, especially the BBC. The Electoral Commission will be down on them like a ton of bricks and force an apology and give free airtime to YES. Any minute now, just wait, will be along soon, yes sir, just you wait, its coming, any second now… anybody?

Can you imagine the storm if they gave David Cameron 50 minutes unquestioned and uninterrupted to make a pitch for the 2015 election?

We really need to complain to electoral commission and the BBC. That way we can have the best of both worlds.THE BBC COMPLAINTS LINE IS 03701100222

I thought this an excellent opportunity to include the video about John Robertson Professor of Media and Politics whose study on the BBC's independence referendum coverage has been silenced by the BBC and ignored by the mainstream media in general, Ofcom and the Electoral Commission.

Scotland's mainstream media really needs to take a long hard look at itself after the Independence Referendum. Is it there to serve the Scottish people; or is it there to serve the rich London and Westminster powerful elite and let the latter get away with anything they like?

The BBC is definitely not the only culprit, but it is by far the worst given that it meant to supposedly be unbiased. You can after all decide not to buy the Herald, the Scotsman (also now known as 'The North Briton' in many circles) and nearly all of the other print media (with the great exception of The Sunday Herald). You can also decide to ignore SkyNews. However you can't ignore the BBC, since it is everywhere and supposedly everybody in the UK and in Scotland has to pay for it through their BBC Licence Fee.

The NUJ of which I am a member must be wringing its hands, and crying in disgust at how the reputation of journalism has been further diminished by this. Gone are the days of Woodward and Burnstein (Watergate and President Nixon) and the heady days of ITVs World in Action, First Tuesday and the like.

The mainstream media bosses and owners seem determined to make journalism a joke, and the BBC seem determined to completely undermine the very good case for a public funded broadcaster. The whole thing reeks of corruption, nepotism, etc. and the sooner we can be shot of the lot of them the better.

Vote Yes for all this utter garbage to end, and for a radical re-alignment of the media to begin.



For the alternative side to all the mainstream media rubbish you may also like to refer to the following websites...
www.wingsoverscotland.com
www.newsnetscotland.com
www.bellacaledonia.org.uk

Reasons To Vote YES For Scottish Independence as if Scotland needed any more, and the BBC in Scotland.

A wonderful video. It sums everything up and puts it fairly and squarely in the hands of the people who live in Scotland, and who are over 16, in 2014. It also tells the rest of the World why Scotland is voting, what it is voting about and why it is so important. I strongly believe that Scotland will be better off after independence. I also believe that the other nations in the UK will better off after Scottish independence. Scotland can do its bit for everyone better by being able to engage with Europe and the World on its own terms.  If you live in Scotland Vote YES on 18th September 2014.

 

It also helps balance the horrendously skewed referendum coverage being churned out on a daily basis by the mainstream media in general and the BBC or British Broadcasting Corporation in particular (the clue is in the title I suppose). Embarassingly though for the BBC, it is the part that is most meant to represent Scotland (BBC Scotland) which seems to have its needle most stuck in the wrong groove. Perhaps because we would expect it to reflect the views of ALL of the people who live in Scotland who it purports to represent, educate, inform and entertain. In its broadcasting it has long made a big thing about being balanced, fair, impartial and unbliased, and it has been so blatant in its failure on this extraordinarily important occasion. Instead ALL of the people of Scotland just seem to have to pay for it, but not expect to be treated with respect in return. There is a very strong case for a broadcaster funded in Scotland in the same way as the BBC. What a pity the BBC seems determined to undermine it, over and over again, to a greater or lesser degree, day after day. Please see below several of many examples.

 

Protest Against BBC Scotland Referendum Bias 2 : 1st June 2014

A wonderful turnout for the second protest at the BBC against its perceived bias against independence during the Scottish independence campaign. I say it is perceived, it is more than that - IT IS BLATANT!! Another protest is imminent and will hopefully be even more popular.

As a result of this bias on this very important but specific issue I now doubt the BBC in general and in particular their news, specifically BBC Scotland news on everything. I am now getting to the stage that I doubt the date on BBCi and the weather forecast unless it is corroborated by someone or something else.

I have renamed many of the media organisations in Scotland.

BBC Scotland is now BBC North Britain
BBC Reporting Scotland is now BBC Reporting North Britain
BBC Good Morning Scotland is now BBC Good Morning North Britain
The Scotsman Scotland's National Newspaper is now not worthy of the name, and comes under the heading The North Briton, North Britain's Regional Newspaper.

Vote Yes for a media that actually fights for the people of Scotland, not the people who currently run Scotland i.e. the Westminster establishment.

Mainstream media bias in Scottish Independence Referendum Campaign

You may not have been aware of it as it was not mentioned on any UK based mainstream media that there was a demonstration on Sunday 1st June 2014 at the BBC headquarters in Glasgow against their biased coverage during the Scottish Independence Referendum campaign.

Again the demonstration was mentioned on the Russia Today (RT) news channel, meaning as per the occasion of the Scottish Independence Rally in Edinburgh in 2013, the Scots must rely on foreign news services to report their own local news.

There is something very wrong with the mainstream media in Scotland when it is actively working against the interests of the people who it is supposedly meant to serve. The very worst culprit in this matter is the BBC as the people it is consistently not serving are the people who are directly paying for it.

I personally believe that if the Scots were actually told the facts regarding Scotland's position within the UK there would be no doubt as to a YES vote in September as there is so much evidence from which to choose as to how Scotland would be better off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ICN_g1EvolQ

And there is the further matter of the continuous bar on comments on internet stories relating to the Scottish Independence Referendum. Why is it when it comes to Scottish politics people are not allowed to comment but when it relates to all of the UK, or any other part of the UK people are permitted to comment freely.

More than a year on and unsurprisingly the BBC still refuse to open up comments for their hapless and generally baseless unionist Scottish Independence Referendum  propaganda. This was even mentioned on their own BBC News Channel Newswatch programme some time ago but nothing has changed.

A once great and beloved institution continues to tarnish and destroy its own reputation. If we cannot trust them on this very important occasion one wonders if we can trust the BBC on anything every again.

 http://youtu.be/cmdRnb3Ic7M

http://t.co/uzaXQdNy9K Mainstream media bias continues #BBC #bbcbias #Scotland #indyref #YesMovement #freescotland #YesScotland #Yes2014
— Dean Brown (@scotcitizenblog) June 2, 2014

Petition to the BBC to report fairly in the Scottish Independence Referendum as so far the words that spring to mind are 'Fat chance!'

BBC:http://t.co/2g2ltzowH2 without bias in #indyref 2. Respond to "Fairness in the first Year?" UWS http://t.co/pX0I5MVbLE via @UKChange

— Dean Brown (@scotcitizenblog) March 25, 2014

Gains of Yes: 3: Media Bias

 I am for YES because I want Scotland to have a mainstream media that actually promotes the interests of Scotland to the Scots and not the exact opposite as has been the case so far throughout the Scottish Independence Referendum, and long before. 

This is generally insidious and on many occasions subliminal but there have been many more obvious cases. 

The one that sticks in my mind at this moment as it was such a whopper was the Independence March and Rally on 21.09.2013. As I wasn't there due to illness and lack of money I thought I would watch live coverage on the BBC News Channel. Nothing was mentioned not then or in later UK wide bulletins, the latter applying also to ITV News and Sky News. It was only when I got to the RT news channel (yes the one based in Moscow, Russia) that there was live coverage from the event. 

It is a sad day when no UK broadcaster is showed an event occurring in their own country involving between 20000 and 30000 of their own citizens. I am sure if this number marched through London it would have received blanket coverage.

A YES vote is the only way to change this.

IFS Report of 18.11.2013 shows Scotland cannot afford a NO vote.

New Report Illustrates Why We Can’t Afford a No Vote

A report published 18.11.2013 by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) highlights the dangers of continuing to have policies for Scotland decided at Westminster. 

BBC Bias

This directly contradicts BBC News’ and BBC Scotland’s interpretation of the same report which used it as yet another reason to vote No to Scottish independence showing the BBC incapable again of being unbiased and to inform the public only without prejudicing the outcome.

The new study acknowledges that Scotland’s public finances are currently stronger than the UK’s, but then looks at what might happen over the next 50 years under current trends.

Scotland's public finances are stronger than the UK's

In common with almost all developed countries, the UK and an independent Scotland will face pressures caused by increasing longevity and declining fertility rates.  The IFS paints a challenging picture of what our public finances would look like in 50 years “with our current set of tax and spending policies”. 

We need full powers to counteract this fiscal pressure 

That, of course, is precisely why we need a Yes vote – so we have the full powers to build a healthy economy and robust public finances.

The IFS report illustrates exactly why we just cannot afford Westminster “business as usual” with a No vote.

Its starkest warning relates to population changes. 

We cannot afford a NO vote

The report highlights Office for National Statistics projections of population growth for the UK of 22.8% in the period to 2062 – yet for Scotland the figure is just 4.4%.  Even more remarkably, it predicts a decline in population for Scotland in every age group under 65.

Thus the challenge we face is not that the number of older people in Scotland is growing faster than elsewhere in the UK – in fact the opposite is true.  And indeed, according to the IFS report, even in 2062-63 Scotland’s spending on health, long-term care, pensions and non-pension benefits as a percentage of national income would be smaller than for the UK as a whole.

The challenge we face is the loss of working-age people.

The falling number of working-age people has a doubly negative effect.  It means fewer people contributing to the public finances through taxation and national insurance.  And it means slower growth in the economy. 

 

Nothing inevitable about this and Yes vote means we could decide our own future

There is absolutely nothing inevitable about this.  With a Yes vote we will have full powers to encourage our young people to remain or return and work here.  Our immigration policies and policies to support and encourage families could and must also address this trend.

Page 8 of IFS report says projections are: “…inherently uncertain and could evolve differently if Scotland were independent"

But with Westminster in charge, nothing will be done – Scotland’s priorities aren’t Westminster’s priorities.  We simply cannot afford a No vote.

Scottish Independence Rally TV Coverage - 21.09.2013

The BBC recently stated that they would find it hard to provide unbiased reporting on the debate in advance of the independence referendum on 18th September 2014. If their lack of live coverage, and reporting of the Scottish Independence Rally on Saturday is anything to go by, they definitely are.

The BBC said in their Scottish News Summary that 8000 attended. Everyone else said between 20000 and 30000 attended.

As I wasn't there I thought I would watch live coverage on the BBC News Channel. Nothing was mentioned not then or in later UK wide bulletins, the latter applying also to ITV News.

I also checked Sky News coverage. You've guessed it, nothing either!  It was only when I got to the RT news channel (yes the one based in Moscow, Russia) that there was live coverage from the event.

It is a sad day when no UK broadcaster is showing an event occurring in their own country involving between 20000 and 30000 of their own citizens. I am sure if this number, or even the equivalent proportion of the English population (i.e. about 200000 to 300000 people) marched through London it would have received blanket coverage.

The BBC and Sky News unbiased in the Scottish Independence Referendum? If so then I am Jemima Puddleduck. Shame on you BBC and Sky News.

The BBC comes in for particular criticism though since those 20000 - 30000 are required by law to pay their license fee, and therefore are entitled to receive unbiased coverage of this debate and this particular event.

I have previously talked about the bias on this subject of the mainstream media here... http://scotcitizen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-bbc-is-loosing-its-long-held.html