The Guardian will still do anything to oblige the war criminals who invaded Iraq. The Bitter Together campaign has crashed in the polls. It has done so because people are not stupid, and they can work out that the cold logic of the unionist argument boils down to an assertion that Scots are too stupid, work-shy and poor to make a success of running their own nation.
The Bitter Together campaign therefore sees a need to be getting over a “positive” message. How do you do that? Well you get that brilliant economist Gordon Brown, the man who gave the bankers years of your and my earnings so they can gamble and snort cocaine again, to make a speech. The speech says that Scots are too stupid, work-shy and poor – and Gordon added unhealthy – to pay their own pensions. Then, at the last moment, you tack on a paragraph at the end about “five positive reasons” to support the union. Then you get a pisspoor, press release regurgitating, salary pocketing mainstream media lickspittle like Severin Carrell to promote it under the heading “Scotland has ‘five big positives’ to staying in UK, Gordon Brown says.”
Despite the fact that the exact same paper ran the story about the exact same speech yesterday, but using the old “warns” meme. It is so obvious it is laughable.
I analyzed a few months ago the BBC’s state propaganda linking the words “independence” and “warning”. I can guarantee you, now that one backfired, that one month from today, I am going to be able to present a similar table of BBC stories which link the words “union”, “UK” and “positive”.
Brown was at Glasgow University I also object fundamentally to the hosting by universities of closed political rallies. Universities certainly should host political debate – that is a function of a university. But for a university to host a political function where nobody – including members of the University – who holds a contrary view is allowed near, is absolutely wrong and the antithesis of the function of a university. The fact that the public are not allowed in to key Bitter Together meetings, and that Brown is scared to accept questions other than from handpicked cronies, should alert people to the fact that his arguments do not stand much scrutiny.
The BBC have given a fair amount of space to the words of Dr Eilidh Whiteford of the SNP who derides what Brown had to say. Their headline though goes along with the propaganda.
Scottish independence: Brown says Scotland’s pensions protected by UK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-27106954
Her profile – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilidh_Whiteford
I like the sound of her.
Mary
Have drafted piece on Aaronovitch for posting tomorrow morning. I think you’ll like it! Thanks for the heads-up.
Craig
I don’t know if anyone has told you but negative campaigning doesn’t win voters it just strengthens the convictions of those who already support you and annoys those who don’t.
Resident Dissident
You have been annoying me for years. Don’t see why I shouldn’t reciprocate sometimes.
You are welcome Craig. I remember his interview with BLiar and his unforgivable promotion of the bloodbath in Iraq. I think he said he would take it all back if WMD were not there.
Chapter and verse from the Medialens eds.
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2008/529-david-aaronovitch-a-different-kind-of-compassion.html
BBC newsnight implied that Tony Blair is a proven winner today while discussing football! have a look
Well said Craig…
bbc have been biased from the start.
you have most likely seen the study, carried out by researchers at the University of the West of Scotland, headed by Dr John Robertson
The research, which covered the period from September 2012 to September 2013, took in 730 hours of early evening TV news coverage broadcast by the BBC and STV. The results revealed the No campaign benefited by a ratio of 3:2.
The report found that an overwhelming number of news items were styled in a manner the research team concluded was favourable to the anti-independence campaign.
Also…
the simple numerical preponderance of anti-independence statements over pro-independence statements on Reporting Scotland and STV News, was clear.
i’m sure i posted about the report and so too, did someone else…but
more on the report @
http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/8598-broadcasters-favouring-no-campaign-according-to-new-academic-study
Just back from Scotland. Fantastic weather.People are thinking about it bigtime.My wifes mother who was pro, has just backed off because of the “scare” about pensions….. Her pension is guaranteed but she’s 91 and worried and still listens to Gordon.
My friends and family are quite split surprisingly…. but if the split is anything to go by, then it will be a yes.
There is an electricity there just now whether London want it or not… I really feel the genie is out of the bottle.
But it isn’t just the Guardian that is guilty of bias.The Scotsman’s just as bad as the G or the Telegraph.MSM in Britain is anti Independence for Scotland.Which newspaper is pro ?
The Scottish CBI have just shown their colours(Bitter T’gether) and as a result several Uni’s have left the organisation along with companies. Not because they are pro SNP , or Pro Independence, but because they do not want to be associated with an organisation that is aligned.
I still haven’t read any positive reasons for Scotland to stay in the Union.#
I did read this piece of drivvel about how Canada and New Zealand could never have been tamed without the Scots…as if all of the Scots that were shipped out from the clearances had gone to tame these foreign lands for Queen & Country.When did being canon fodder become an honour ?
Strong, Positive & Good – these are the dynamics of intention above indignity and aspersion. Good read Craig, thank-you.
Feasibly a flyer is born or even an anthem 🙂
Severin Carrell worked for The Scotsman when it was in the hands of the Barclay brothers following Thomson. That was before he worked at The Independent and now at the Guardian.
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/severin-carrell/33/4a5/1a2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scotsman
The Scotsman is now owned by the Johnston Press.
http://www.johnstonpress.co.uk/about-us/directors
Craig says’The Guardian will still do anything to oblige the war criminals who invaded Iraq.’
They have done it again. Rusbridger and Wintour have given more space for the war criminal to air his views.
BLiar is still in his Kill Kill mode.
Tony Blair to say battle against Islamic extremism is paramount
Former PM, who supported Egyptian military’s overthrow of democratically elected government, to urge west to take sides
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/23/tony-blair-battle-islamic-extremism-political-agenda
Will no one rid us of this turbulent……?
Craig, I think you should campaign for a different type of independence. Not Scotland breaking away from the rest of the UK, but the common folk of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales finding a way to divorce themselves from the deep state/Establishment maggots who run the place, and who are really responsible for the crimes that we lament on this blog. The Chagos Island issue being a recent example. The use of the BBC to orchestrate an unsubtle propaganda campaign against Scottish independence is another. No doubt the people who took the decisions to screw up your career is another. It seems to me that the common folk are generally pretty decent but the country is secretly ruled by a cabal who are sociopathic and shockingly amoral. We need to get rid of them. I’ll leave it to you to work out how 🙂
The Independent too it seems.
Tony Blair urges British intervention against Islamic extremists around the world http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/tony-blair-urges-british-intervention-against-islamic-extremists-around-the-globe-9275601.html
KOWN – here here – and don’t forget the Arabs with sore toes – Cornubians – at least twenty thousand bolshie buggers amongst our ranks would like reasons why!
King of Welsh Noir,
I agree with the aim – I just think the break-up of the UK is the kind of kick in the bollocks of the Establishment that will assist the process.
The record of Brown’s economic management of UK plc (or is it UK LLP, partners UK LP and UK Ventures (Cayman Islands) Ltd?) is one of the most potent arguments I can think of for severing all ties with London ASAP. I’m truly surprised they’ve wheeled the poor sod out to plead for Butter for Bankers.
Less surprised, though, that Blair has been rather quiet on the topic since announcing his support for ‘No’ in 2012. Maybe he sees that it is not a winner after all. Or maybe, as the fawning BBC Today interview indicated, (following his fatuous remarks on militant Islam at Bloomberg HQ today) he’s having serious problems with his voice as the inevitable result of never shutting the f*** up. He still wants to bomb Syria, btw. And no, I’m not linking to the publicity-hungry media whore.
I agree with the aim – I just think the break-up of the UK is the kind of kick in the bollocks of the Establishment that will assist the process.
Hmmm. Now there’s a line of thought to follow. Centrifugal fragmentation. Sanctions on London, even. If the means of production are not in the hands of the workers, they are at any rate in the remit of the regions.
“I just think the break-up of the UK is the kind of kick in the bollocks of the Establishment that will assist the process.”
I’ve always thought that’s what motivates you, rather than a measured assessment of the merits of independence.
It’s interesting, this use of words. To an extent, the words don’t matter, odd though that might sound. Basically, politics is all about power words, sharp sentences, psychology. There is an element of – unadmitted – hypnosis and mesmerism at work. They call it PR, but your average PR practitioner knows far better than I that what they do is essentially mind-manipulation.
If you think about it, it’s disgusting. I mean, venal and despicable. Rather than posit an argument, we have repetition of suggestive words. Political Rohypnol, if you will; making someone do what they don’t wish to do via means that are not known to the victim.
Am I over-stating this? I guess it’s just words, and the intelligent person can decipher meaning. Except, it’s now a kind of science, and it’s broadcast everywhere. Take an example. I saw stock prices in A FUCKING LIFT today. Then I went to get coffee in a Oz-mall – and Sky News was on five (count ’em) screens. This is now normal, of course, but sometimes I wonder how this became normalized. Why the fuck do I need to see stock prices in an elevator? Why does anyone? Because the spooks wants full spectrum dominance – of propaganda, and much else.
So Craig will be proved right. Their power words and psychology hasn’t been working, now they’ll try something else. Does this not sound, just a little, like the mind-set of psychopathy? Troubling.
” I saw stock prices in A FUCKING LIFT today. Then I went to get coffee in a Oz-mall – and Sky News was on five (count ‘em) screens. This is now normal, of course, but sometimes I wonder how this became normalized. Why the fuck do I need to see stock prices in an elevator? Why does anyone? Because the spooks wants full spectrum dominance – of propaganda, and much else.”
This is an example of making a sensible point and then leaping to a wild conclusion. All too common around here I’m afraid.
Picking up some of the Blair references in earlier comments, there was a succinct summary of his presence in public life in a review by Michael Burleigh on 13 April in the Telegraph’s “Seven” magazine (page 27)of Archie Brown’s book “The Myth of the Strong Leader”:
“…as is the case with so many books nowadays, the ghost of Tony Blair hangs over everything. Brown cannot quite grasp the unique ghastliness of that figure’s deft fusion of unctuous Catholicism, neo-connery and mania to make money as he flits about the world’s stage.” Shakespeare (his day) had Blair’s measure: “Your breath first kindled the dead coals of wars..” (King John)
“This is an example of making a sensible point and then leaping to a wild conclusion. All too common around here I’m afraid.”
@ Anon.
Now now. All too common in my own posts, perhaps 🙂 Harsh on everyone else though.
Mary writes…
“They have done it again. Rusbridger and Wintour have given more space for the war criminal to air his views.”
If I am correct that the majority of the country despises Blair the more they see/hear/read him, then the Guardian is doing great work.
If the Guardian or Independent publishes Blair, with his record in the Mid East, demanding more war in that part of the world, then it might be seen as a very effective way to put readers off the idea.
Anon
Oh, I was inside the Establishment over twenty years. I measured it very carefully indeed.
Pro-EU, globalization, mass-immigration, Lib Dem…
Call yourself a member.
Subliminal persuasion –
http://www.slideshare.net/danielbatistagalvao/dave-lakhani-subliminal-persuation-influence-marketing-secrets#btnNext
I’ve been calling Anon a member for years…
‘If the Guardian or Independent publishes Blair, with his record in the Mid East, demanding more war in that part of the world, then it might be seen as a very effective way to put readers off the idea.’
Is that a troll’s version of reverse psychology? LOL
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Reverse-Psychology
And of course Mr Purnell’s ZBC is not leaving him out.
Tony Blair: ‘West should focus on radical Islam’
Comments (138)
Mr Blair told the BBC it would be a “mistake” to “forget” about the threat of radical Islam
Tony Blair has warned Western leaders they must put aside their differences with Russia over Ukraine to focus on the threat of Islamic extremism.
In a speech the former UK prime minister – now a Middle East envoy – said powerful nations must “take sides” and back “open-minded” groups.
Mr Blair told the BBC ahead of the speech the West would pay a “very heavy price” for not intervening in Syria.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27122008
Wonder what the psychopath thinks of the late Father Frans who did not see the start of the Syrian war as a ‘peaceful protest’ as we keep on hearing from the MSM. The life of Father Frans, a brave and principled man, has just been taken from him needless to say.
An Eyewitness to the Syrian Rebellion: Father Frans in His Own Words
http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/an-eyewitness-to-the-syrian-rebellion-father-frans-in-his-own-words/
No wonder the Scots want shot of the activities at Faslane and Coulport.
MoD report reveals over 260 safety incidents at Clyde nuclear base
Sunday Herald, 20 April 2014
Over 260 nuclear safety incidents have been reported at the Clyde naval bases in less than five years, according to an internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) report seen by the Sunday Herald.
http://www.robedwards.com/2014/04/mod-report-reveals-over-260-safety-incidents-at-clyde-nuclear-bases.html
“MoD report reveals over 260 safety incidents at Clyde nuclear base
Sunday Herald, 20 April 2014”
It’s reassuring these incidents are being reported and not ignored.