Every half hour BBC News is running a three minute puff piece which is even more sinister for what it hides than for what it says – and By God! That is sinister enough.
“Now the BBC has learned about an alternative No campaign which calls itself No Borders a group determined to rouse the emotions many feel about being Scottish but also British. Gavin Essler has this exclusive report:”
GAVIN ESLER: “A recording studio on the outskirts of Edinburgh. A group of musicians putting the finishing touches to a song which they hope could save the United Kingdom”
(Pretty girls caterwauling unpleasantly). The song is part of a new campaign called No Borders. Their website goes live today on the anniversary of the Union”
(Long speech by Malcolm Offord of No Borders – not a single question asked).
GAVIN ESLER (orgasmic voice): “Here in the very heart of Glasgow in fact almost anywhere you go anywhere in Scotland you’re never far away from our three hundred years of shared British history…. Putting the passion into the campaign to save the United Kingdom is exactly what No Borders say they are about.”
(Another statement from Malcolm Offord. Still not asked any questions).
GAVIN ESLER ‘The idea is a grassroots campaign to rival that of the pro-independence campaign, based on those who wish to remain in the UK. A retired care nurse from Glasgow Elizabeth Bashir is one of those who has given her testimonial.
(Pro-union view from sweet old lady.)
(14 seconds to spokesman for Yes campaign – presumably this is BBC “balance”.)
(Pretty Girls Caterwauling Again).
GAVIN ESLER “In the music industry they say you should never rewrite a hit, and No Borders say the Union has been a great hit worldwide for three hundred years. But others say it might be time to sing a new song.”
Now this long propaganda piece for the No campaign is disgusting in itself for its internal bias, and for the fact that the very much larger grassroots movement the Radical Independence Campaign has never been given any publicity by the BBC (and the failure to reference the longstanding anarchist No Borders movement). It is not even news – it is two days since “Vote No Borders” was given an even longer bout of free publicity on Newsnight Scotland.
But what makes this propaganda utterly unforgiveable is that Vote No Borders is not a grassroots campaign at all but a government organized campaign which has mysteriously acquired start-up cash of 400,000 pounds with no declared origin.
The registered office of Vote No Borders, a private limited company, is at 24 Chiswell Street, London, EC2Y 4YX . Which is perhaps surprising for a “Scottish grassroots campaign”. The directors are Malcolm Offord and Fiona Gilmore.
Now pay close attention: Fiona Gilmore is chief executive of Acanchi a PR Consultany which specializes in “Country Branding”. Its clients include Israel, Dubai, Bahrain and “England”. Yes, it actually specifies “England” on the company website. Acanchi also works for DFID – in short, it gets UK taxpayers’ money, plus Israeli and Gulf Arab money. Are you familiar with the word fungibility?
Malcolm Offord, it turns out, has donated over 120,000 pounds to the Conservative Party plus made personal donations to Michael Gove. He is the author of the report “Bankrupt Britain” on the Conservative Home website. In his paper Offord suggests that further cuts in UK public spending should continue to be made even after the present debt crisis has been passed and urges government to:
“Reform the bloated benefits system of this country to reduce the burden on the state and, just as importantly, boost the growth rate of the country”
And the wee retired care home nurse Elizabeth Bashir? Well, she’s not quite as “grassroots” as shown by the BBC either.
That picture is definitely the “grassroot” Elizabeth Bashir interviewed by the BBC. There is also an Elizabeth Bashir from Glasgow on Facebook who “likes” Vote No Borders [reference here deleted as it has been pointed out, I think fairly, it was to something probably meant as a joke]. This lady has expensive tastes for a grassroot, her other “likes” are Svarovski Crystal, the swanky Aura club in Mayfair and Faz Collection clothes. Strangely although she calls herself Elizabeth Bashir, Glasgow and supports Vote no Borders, everything she “likes” which has a geographical location is in London. It is conceivably a different Elizabeth Bashir from Glasgow, perhaps a daughter, but the coincidence of the Vote No Borders like is very strong.
It took me an hour with google to find all this. That the BBC continues to propagandise this fake “grassroots campaign” without revealing Offord’s Tory Party credentials, his belief in never-ending cuts in public spending and welfare benefits, and Acanchi being a consultant paid by government to boost the UK image is completely beyond anything that can remotely be described as legitimate.
It is the most abhorrent example of a fake story, entirely contrived state propaganda, being put out by a state broadcaster.
UPDATE
From commenters below: The “Vote No Borders” website domain was registered by Gary Waple, who works in the Prudential Regulatory Authority of the Bank of England!!!! Before that he worked at the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates – that British government and Gulf money connection pops up again.
ANOTHER UPDATE
The Guardian also is pushing it. Amazing how neither the BBC nor the Guardian noticed who Mr Offord was, or who his fellow director is, or asked where the money came from. We have a huge responsibility in social media to combat the ultra-powerful combination of the entire mainstream media with the British state, the City of London and their overseas neo-con allies.
I ask every single person who reads this to do what they can do to get this news out – it may open eyes about the BBC, media in general and the hidden hands behind the No campaign. Feel free to copy and paste anywhere you want. But please everybody either blog or tweet about it, put it on your facebook page, email people about it or if you can’t do any of those, just tell three people. The only way we can beat the massed forces of the state and the ultra-rich is by a deliberate and purposeful exercise of people power. That will never happen unless everybody tries. Do something. Now. It does not matter where you are in the world. Knowledge is universal – that is the root of every power the people can hope to have.
FURTHER UPDATE
Brilliant! This post is currently being read by more than one person every two seconds. I hope it’s being read some other places by now too. Don’t stop, we need much more than that to equal the numbers who will view the execrable mainstream propaganda.
In Offord’s favour, he proposed a 50% tax rate on high earners, in 2009
Against: he’s close to the Government (any Government), and buys the Daily mail line on benefits. Worth a look:
http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/UserStorage/pdf/Pdf%20reports/BankruptBritain.pdf
The CfSJ page for Offord is no longer there.
watch how it’s done…
“A campaign AGAINST Scottish independence, but let’s not split hairs. Nobody had heard of Vote No Borders until its website went live yesterday. Less than 24 hours later the BBC has managed to arrange a substantial news package for it. Allowing for planning and organising, the broadcaster must have decided that said “momentum” was “gathering” within literally minutes of the site’s appearance.”
http://wingsoverscotland.com/watch-closely-students/
O/T, like ESLO…
http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-26-biggest-bromance-moments-between-george-w-bush-and-vl
(adimir Putin, that is)
They all like him. Even Farage.
Great work, sir – very great work indeed. A bit OTT at the start, but by God you have discredited this outfit very well indeed.
That said, they were discrediting themselves already. I just blogged about a cove who was playing golf with his mate who was going on about Universities, FE and the health service, things which this man was clearly not interested in. That’s why he’s voting no!
I have updated the post to include your information. Again, great work.
Ba’al; Dubya is a Dood-Bro, man. He even held hands with Prince Bandar.
That’s just my Man-splanation. 🙂
There are some truly astonishing deficits on the books of the Edinburgh companies Charterhouse Nadia 1 thru 4 Ltd, of which Offord was a director until 2012, and is still listed as being on some company info sites. Hundreds of millions…
https://www.duedil.com/company/SC358124/charterhouse-nadia-2-limited
O/T Craig,
Any comments on the arrest of Gerry Adams?
Mosstrooper: Paid a dweud Prydeinig, pam ti’n golygu Saesnig, plis. Meaning: “Don’t say British when you mean English, please” – but written in the oldest continuously-spoken language still extant in The Isles.
It’s the English imperialists who have the form, whether in India or Alba. And in my country too, and Eire, and in lots of others. Doesn’t really matter which mercenary soldiers, from which imperial province, actually shot the balls and thrust the bayonets, that damned empire was always an English-ruling-class project, at bottom; and an armed-robbery racket from the first, as empires always are; and still at it today, even reduced as it now to a tonto of the US overlord.
Craig’s British, I am, Mary is; most here will be. Yet we three are each of one the several nations of the island of Britain also. It’s important to call English imperialism – oppressing and exploiting the English commoners just as much as anyone else it can reach – by its right name. It was always a strictly English ruling-class racket, though with plenty of provincial compradors and switcheroos from plenty of other nations bandwaggon-hopping, when it seemed politic to do so, natch.
We have only the one viable option in The Isles, which is to get along well with each other. That will be better served when the fag-end of the English empire is finally dead. The liberation of the other nations of The Isles, followed, you have to hope, by the liberation of the poor rank and file English from their criminal English-raj bamboozler/exploiters, is best served by the sequential break-up of the damnable uk-state, to be succeeded by something more egalitarian, federal (or possibly confederal) and genuinely democratic. No reason why it shouldn’t be velvet, rather than bloody…
Eslo
No word from you on Liebour Lord George “Bomber” Robertson making the case for Russia to be admitted into NATO, you won’t here that reported in the shitrags and BBC etc. Sheers hypocrisy from the msm and wastemonster
Trawling Facebook for people who might be the one you’re looking for, and then holding up the person you find’s ‘Likes’ as evidence that they’re, what, ‘not real’?
Creepy, tenuous AND irrelevant. Quite a package.
The caterwauling women are called “Flowers of Union”.
So’s Flowers of Union Ltd, set up by Fiona at the Acanchi trading address in December 2013.
I think we can take premeditation as read.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bkOD2GNI3tQJ:https://www.duedil.com/company/08820627/flowers-of-union-ltd%2Bflowers+of+union+ltd&client=firefox-a&hs=3pu&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbs=ctr:countryUK|countryGB&cr=countryUK|countryGB&hl=en&&ct=clnk
(paywall – this is the cache)
As Guano commented; how Ninja-like, are our bodhisattva bots?
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/30/sinn-fein-leader-gerry-adams-arrested-connection-with-ira-murder/xUrADTJZCIhQMZSExLiAlM/story.html
Bush/Blair; How many mother’s deaths are you complicit in?
Mary, please go away if you have nothing sensible to add to the subject of the post. Your conspiracy theories do not belong in this thread.
To get back on topic: Offord’s campaign is getting a hammering on social media (largely thanks to Craig and Wings Over Scotland). However, money can buy a lot of misleading ads and puff pieces, so the Indyref campaign can’t get complacent about them. The media’s fawning treatment of the No campaign and the monstering of Salmond, has really opened my eyes to the extent of political bias against Scotland in the rest of the UK. I’m English-born and bred; I realise now that this bias has always always present, but I’ve only noticed it now that I’m on the other side of the border.
If I can just lower the tone here:
Someone on facebook just realised that this new “grass roots” body uses the same marketing managers as those who devised UKOK:
VoteNobOrders…
Sorry..
The BBC has moved beyond the corrupt stage to putrid.
I commented on this story in the Guardian giving many of the details, the comment seemed to be well received judging by the up votes.
Hab; Are you a Mason?
Malcolm Offord’s Centre For Social Justice (heh!) page has been removed, but the cache is still there:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DEzaB70wSUMJ:http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/about-us/advisory-council/malcolm-offord%2Bcentre+for+social+justice+offord&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&hl=en&ct=clnk&gws_rd=cr
(You’ll probably have to physically copy this into the search bar, it’s too long to link directly)
He is a member of the advisory board. Social justice? (Hmmm. Sounds good, I’ll have some, please). It was set up by Iain Duncan Smith in 2004. (Oh. Just a minute, waiter. Can I have a look at the bottle?). It promotes making those famous IDLE SHIRKING SCROUNGERS WORK (for nothing) among other things. Fine, says Habba (not that I’d know). But just a little contentious, eg;
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/02/21/our-new-cardinals-attack-on-ian-duncan-smiths-benefits-reform-policies-shows-that-he-has-a-lot-to-learn-about-the-spiritual-blight-of-welfare-dependency/
Clearly, Offord is in a position to advise government on policy*. Let’s not wonder why or how. Looks like a safe pair of hands, that’s all.
*These things happen. Rather a lot:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/nov/05/iain-duncan-smith-adviser-lobbying
Bit late for a grassroots unionist campaign now.
Nrs Grimble Are you a tr-ll newly arrived here?
After reading the whole post, great investigative work Craig. Thanks for exposing this.
Sorry,this is OT,but….
I posted a comment last night on the Guardian website about their article on “freedom of the press”.
My post was basically a list of 48 of the Guardian’s OWN recent headlines – my criticism of their fearmongering and bias re Scottish independence.
On the advice of another CiFer I took a screenshot of my post in case it was taken down –
which it was a few minutes later.
My original post listed 48 recent headlines,though the links below to the screenshots miss out the middle ones as there wasn’t enough room in two pics.
http://imgur.com/u6q3PEP
http://imgur.com/g253zUq
Fandanfan; The Guardian has made a shift to the Dark Side lately, as well. Surrendering all their Snowden files is the harbinger.
Mary,
Mrs Grimble may be a troll, alternatively she may not be a fan of half-baked conspiracy theories which inevitably involve a connection Israel.
Well, technically they didn’t ‘surrender’. 🙂
“It resulted in one of the stranger episodes in the history of digital-age journalism. On Saturday 20 July, in a deserted basement of the Guardian’s King’s Cross offices, a senior editor and a Guardian computer expert used angle grinders and other tools to pulverise the hard drives and memory chips on which the encrypted files had been stored.
As they worked they were watched by technicians from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) who took notes and photographs, but who left empty-handed”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/20/nsa-snowden-files-drives-destroyed-london
Yes will win over no, good over evil . Great article, sharing now
Yeah,what gets me is the Guardian self-image of “progressive,left leaning” etc.
A lot of people are still fooled by that – at least with the Daily Mail most…MOST!…
people know what they’re getting.
I’ve been a Guardian reader for around 30 years,and I don’t remember such a sustained and cynical attack on anything that ticks their boxes so much as indy SHOULD!
I’m ashamed now that I’ve spoke up for (and recommended) the Guardian to people not only in Scotland,but in other countries where I’ve lived.
“I’m ashamed now that I’ve spoke up for (and recommended) the Guardian to people not only in Scotland,but in other countries where I’ve lived.”
No shame necessary. Paul Revere had to change horses several times on his famous ride. 🙂
Which ‘conspiracy theories’ would they be Mick?