On 8 June this blog broke the news that not only did Obama make his statement of support for Unionism at the request of No.10, but that the BBC was in on the set-up and had been briefed by No.10 and the FCO to ask the question.
I have this from an impeccable, eye-witness source. But I nevertheless set out to double confirm the story by checking with No. 10. 52 days ago I sent them a written question, to ask:
“Whether the BBC journalist who asked President Obama the question about Scottish independence, had any prior briefing or discussion with any government minister, official or other employee.”
Answer came there none. After a series of reminders I finally today received a “reply” from the Scottish Office, nearly two months later. This bears no relation whatsoever to the question I asked, and does not even refer to the question I asked.
(if you keep clicking on non-answer when it comes up, eventually you get to it).
Personally I have always been 100% certain that my source could be trusted and the BBC were indeed actively involved in setting up this unionist stunt. The extreme delay and evasion in replying to my question only goes to confirm this.
BBC Governors putrified in ‘trustees’ that cannot be trusted. Period
Craig, you might want to remove your address from that pdf ?
At least your letter eventually fell into the hands of some lowly admin assitant who is able to cut and paste from the internet and other sources, must have been trained by Mr. A. Campbell’s office.
Parky
Thanks but I am in the phone book and on the open electoral roll, and my address is in Who’s Who. I rather disapprove of the modern idea of keeping your address secret.
At least Sebastian Coe has the good sense to pull out from the BBC’s Trust head honcho job. Why would anyone want to walk into a swamp of political correctness, depravity, decay and corruption such as that?
Thank you Craig. Their manipulation is breathtakingly awful. Hopefully not much longer.
I got a similarly annoying non-answer to a question I posed to our MP this week. Isn’t there some way we can force the issue when MPs ‘answer’ with huge and irrelevant statements of govt policy?
Isn’t there some way…?
Yes. Ask a question implicitly critical of Alex Salmond…
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/alex_salmond_on_tour_in_the_unit#outgoing-16957
Full and frank disclosure guaranteed.
Secret addresses. Try a search for any of this years LAMBETH STOCKWELL WARD’s LABOUR PARTY elected local Councillors. Zero. All have now been deliberately suppressed. I noticed today that for STOCKWELL WARD even the online document that in MAY had listed the names and addresses of all election candidates had now been deleted/suppressed. Maybe with no local public Stockwell loos now for 20 plus years they’re scared folk will turn up to use their pedestals. For sure the toilet pedestals in question are about the only one’s they’re fit to have ownership of.
Nice house Craig; what’s the statue of in the front garden? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.338438,1.412507,3a,75y,13.59h,86.27t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1ssqdXKlVHo819TvYZnsK1LA!2e0
What happened to Let Them Eat Quenelles? Did I dream it? Or did you have a sudden conversion to royalism and conclude that they are marvelous value for money and well deserve their thousand quid bottles of Krug?
Sadly that is not true of any of the officialdom, getting in touch with any number of governmental departments, which is usual by phone these days, the operators do not so much as divulge their surname, and any amount of insistence about their positions of authority comes with a terse reply; no need to be known. This is true of local authority operatives too, and now becoming true of the private sector too.
BBC have no credibility their quest to serve their masters has resulted in their pupation into; “there is no truth in the news and no news in the truth” situation. The sooner people realise the “news” kabuki is for the benefit of keeping them dumb and ill informed the quicker will be the progress towards their demands for transparency and accountability!
MODS –
as KingofWelshNoir said above, the Let them eat quenelles thread has disappeared.
To quote the Information Commissioner: “Any letter or email to a public authority asking for information is a request for recorded information under the [Freedom of Information] Act”
By taking 2 months to reply, they’ve already breached the requirements of the FOI Act and, of course, by not providing you with the information you requested.
Maybe the UK Government is forearmed with information about the result of the referendum: “The Government recognises the enormity of the decision that the people in Scotland will make in September.” (If you don’t get it, look up “enormity” in a dictionary.)
the Let them eat quenelles thread has disappeared.
I suspect it was intended to. Another menu may be available for foodies…
“Enormity, n. Monstrous wickedness; crime”. No other meaning given.
However, before looking it up, I would have interpreted “enormity” to mean “very large”.
There is no entry for “Enormity, a”. Using “enormity” as an adjective appears to be grammatically wrong.
“What happened to Let Them Eat Quenelles? Did I dream it? Or did you have a sudden conversion to royalism and conclude that they are marvelous value for money and well deserve their thousand quid bottles of Krug?”
Turned out to be a load of bullshit propaganda again.
(You won’t get this nosh from the Trussell Trust….
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/queen-corgis-steaks-gravy-footman-brian-hoey-506160)
“(You won’t get this nosh from the Trussell Trust….”
I know an elderly lady round here does that. Buys her little dog best meat from the butcher’s, steak chicken and things, cooks it up and serves it.
It isn’t all that unusual.
I knew a similar old lady. Lost three Pekinese in a row – perforated gut due to feeding them cooked chicken on the bone.
Summerhead
Thanks. It’s a pleasant naked lady – it was there when I bought the house. But I think it’s modern. The google maps photo is pretty old, from before I bought the house (that’s not my car!)
ROFL I like your cool retort!
I am learning from you Craig.
“Buys her little dog best meat from the butcher’s …”
I was visiting my Mum a few weeks ago when a stray cat came sniffing round at her back door. “That blessed cat is always hanging around here,” she complained while she produced a saucer of warm milk from the microwave, and popped it outside for the cat.
I have met the girl in your front garden on more than one occaision, I remember it well it was……ah, well, it was very late at night and duties needed to be gotten on with in the morning.
Still rough about the pool game I lost 6-4 to this young snooker ace. Are the vodka’s still served in the the same size glasses in the Lithuanian/ Russian restairant?
memories…..
Nobody wants to talk about the brontosaurus in the room, they ARE going to rig/stop the referendum. Just how is the big question, especially if its going to be a paper vote.
I can imagine what kind of debacle would follow the splitting up of California. Now THAT is a perfect foil for political/media opportunists.
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80882559/
You are right, they did not answer your question, I suppose it would have been too embarrassing to reveal the truth.
The BBC did respond to my complaint on a much lesser matter and again did not deal with the questions raised, it was just patronising pap, I suspect automatically generated.
Apparently, in a pluralistic democracy, we need to be well funded pressure groups with bulging brown paper envelopes before anyone takes regard of our concerns.
You sure that you meant to say scam? could you have gotten one letter wrong?
Craig – although I admire your stance on the ‘address’ question – a warning :
An internationally-acclaimed UK-based paleontologist used to contribute to the old BBC Message Board ‘Religion’ discussion pages. He sometimes asked religious zealots to look at the evidence for evolution on his suberb website.
I don’t think he expected what happened next.
The shocking abuse and threats he received eventually led to police involvement, and he pulled the site and quit the Messageboards.
My own personal details were also passed on to another vicious religious fanatic by one of his ‘devout’ sympathisers in the relevant BBC department. What followed was a nightmare.
So be careful, and if similar abuse/threats start – keep EVERYTHING for the police.
These cowards need to be exposed for what they are – no matter who the ‘target’ is.
However, your ‘response’ from the Scottish Office is scarily similar to every response I’ve had from the BBC. It’s almost as if the writers went to the same school, or had the same training.