By G.A.Ponsonby
In my predictions for the coming year, published on Hogmanay, I said that media coverage of the independence referendum would move away from real issues and onto areas of little interest to the general population.
My exact words were: “The No campaign is now relying to an even greater extent on the esoteric issues of the EU and currency. BBC Scotland will play its role in keeping these issues simmering, to the exclusion of the real referendum issues of welfare, opportunity and a fairer society.”
I added: “Westminster will continue to issue reports highlighting the perils of independence. BBC Scotland devours such reports, and this will also continue. Currency will be pushed more and more as we near September 18th.
“Expect to see Westminster attacks appear more and more on Reporting Scotland. The tea-time news programme is the most effective vehicle for getting the message across to the public, and it doesn’t allow questions to be put to those making the claims.”
It’s panned out pretty much as I expected it to with BBC Scotland playing its role to perfection. Cameron and Osborne have featured prominently, with the latter’s visit to Scotland last week dominating the BBC’s Scottish news output for almost two days before the Conservative MP had even spoken.
Unsurprisingly, Osborne – despite eventually commanding no fewer than four days news output at BBC Scotland – managed it without facing a single broadcast interview from BBC Scotland. Salmond, Sturgeon and Swinney were grilled on the subject of currency, even Blair Jenkins from Yes Scotland was interrogated, but Osborne faced no scrutiny.
The BBC has now taken on the role of cheerleader for the No campaign when that campaign issues attacks on independence, and the bodyguard for the same campaign when it finds itself in trouble. The latest diversionary tactic in the shape of another interview with Jose Manuel Barroso is just the latest in a string of interventions by the BBC which has now lost credibility as it struggles to contain the move towards a Yes vote in seven months’ time.
The latest comments from Barroso, made yet again in a televised interview by the BBC, have served only to highlight the blatant holes in the broadcaster’s claims to be neutral in its coverage of the referendum. The BBC is not, and never has been, neutral – it will do all it can to persuade Scots to vote No.
Marr’s interview with Barroso was not designed to elicit anything new as far as the independence debate was concerned. It was designed to deflect from the damaging fall-out that followed George Osborne’s poorly conceived visit to Scotland.
Within hours of Marr’s interview, which produced precisely the kind of coverage the No campaign required, Barroso’s comments were being torn apart by people with the kind of intimate knowledge of the subject Marr failed to demonstrate.
On Paul T. Kavanagh’s excellent blog, Wee Ginger Dug, the blogger and one time Newsnet Scotland member tore Barroso’s claims to shreds.
Highlighting Barroso’s political past, Kavanagh writes: “Barroso is a member of the European Popular Party. He belongs to the same centre-right cabal as the Spanish Partido Popular, and the UK Tories (before they went off in a collective huff and left the European Popular Party to join up in the EU parliament with far-right Latvian holocaust deniers).
“The Spanish PP has spent considerable time and effort persuading fellow members of the European Popular Party to adopt its line that states which become independent from existing EU members must leave the EU and reapply for membership.”
Readers of Newsnet Scotland will recall how, in November 2012, we revealed the secret meetings between the Conservative Party and the Spanish PP.
Readers will also be aware how we exposed as lies, official statements from the office of Barroso after it rubbished reports that a senior Vice President had given an interview in which she said there was no international law that would force a newly independent Catalonia out of the EU.
The interventions from Barroso are not new. He pops up every few months uttering a variation of the same line that always seems to fit the requirements of the No campaign, but he is rarely unequivocal and always claims he is not specifically addressing the situation of Scotland.
This time though Barroso went further and suggested Scotland’s situation was comparable to that of Kosovo.
In a bizarre show of contempt for the office he holds, the EC President said: “We have seen that Spain has been opposing even the recognition of Kosovo, for instance, so it’s to some extent a similar case because it’s a new country and so I believe it’s going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, a new member state coming out of one of our countries getting the agreement of the other [existing member states].”
Spain of course has already officially stated it will not seek to block the EU membership because Scottish independence will have come about with the agreement of Edinburgh and London. Kosovo declared its independence unilaterally without agreement from Belgrade, which (given the situation in Catalonia) is why Spain refuses to agree to Kosovo becoming a member of the EU.
The issue of course isn’t Barroso’s contempt for his own office and the views of the EU members he is misrepresenting – although it should. It rather underlines the breathtaking ineptitude of the BBC, which has reported Barroso’s claims uncritically.
Indeed this very point is highlighted by former BBC presenter Derek Bateman who is scathing of Andrew Marr’s inability to challenge Barroso on this most basic aspects of the interview.
In a swipe at Marr and his London based colleague James Naughtie, who last week refused to employ the same aggressive tone with coalition minister Danny Alexander as he had with Alex Salmond, he said: “Does Andrew Marr receive any pre-interview briefings, or is he too important like Mr Naughtie?”
On the Kosovo comparison, Mr Bateman writes:
“What was somewhat galling to those of us who are Europhiles and look to Brussels to provide some leadership on international matters, is the linking of Scotland with Kosovo, where a million ethnic Albanians fled or were forcefully driven out, more than 11,000 deaths have been reported to the UN prosecutor, nine Serbian and Yugoslavian commanders have been indicted for crimes against humanity and in one the accused were charged with murder of 919 identified Kosovo Albanian civilians aged from one to 93, both male and female.
“Kosovo declared UDI, it did not got through a legal process and is in such a relatively poor state that the EU is nursing it towards normalization. Does that sound like Scotland? The most outspoken country opposed to Kosovo’s recognition is Spain which objects to any EU or NATO initiative on which refers to it as a state.
“Just where the comparison is found between Kosovo, created from the fire of war, and exemplary, modern Scotland, meeting every acquis and with a 40-year record of membership is hard to say if you are applying logic, rather than Barroso weasel words. Isn’t it also a little presumptuous of Spain, a member since only 1986, to imply blocking us?”
“Spain would be wary of setting a precedent…” with regards to Catalonia, said Laura Bicker on the BBC news last night. The breathtaking ignorance of Marr was clearly infectious.
Bicker was either ignorant of the issue she was presenting to hundreds of thousands of people, or she was deliberately seeking to mislead viewers by failing to inform them that Spain has already officialy stated that there is no similarity between Scotland and Catalonia.
My feeling is that Bicker, like Marr, was deliberately presenting what both knew to be contrived propaganda. In doing so, they have become the antithesis to that which they aspired when both set out on their respective career paths.
The BBC is behaving as I expect it to behave and it will continue to behave in this manner.
It isn’t a conspiracy, what’s at work is the intrinsic and unavoidable reaction of a state broadcaster to what it views as a threat to the state it is designed to protect. Its employees, from Andrew Marr to Laura Bicker and James Naughtie, are merely carrying out the roles they have been conditioned to carry out – they are conforming to the BBC’s internal pro-British culture.
The BBC is the bedrock upon which the modern Union has been built. It has replaced the navy that once sailed the world maintaining the empire. With the UK no longer a world power in any real sense, the BBC has replaced the navy and continues to project this image to the home audience.
Marr and his colleagues are living in the past. As part of the machine that projects the image, they have become duped into believing their fantasy is real.
The referendum has brought cold, hard reality into their cossetted and insulated existence. Ordinary people, the people Marr and Naughtie left behind years ago, are about to burst this bubble
A Yes vote in September is a nightmare scenario for the Union, for the BBC and for people like Andrew Marr and every other Scot whose power, influence and privilege is under threat.
They will fight a Yes vote. Win or lose, they will destroy the BBC.
Comments
A YES victory in face of a campaign of fear and intimidation will shake Westminster to its foundations.
Scots should hold their nerve and deliver a resounding blow to the No campaign.
1. If the people in Scotland vote for independence and Scotland has to apply to be a new member of the EU, what does this mean to the people who live there?
2. Will Scotland be expelled?
3. Would they (the residents)lose their EU citizenship until Scotland re-joins the EU?
4. Who would determine which residents of Scotland at the time of independence were Scottish and therefore no longer EU citizens?
5.Would the loss of EU citizenship apply to people like me, my Scottish family and friends who currently live outside Scotland and are EU citizens?
These are some of the questions the media in Scotland should be asking of those who say Scotland will thrown out.
It effectively goes to the heart of the nonsense being talked about Scotland being excluded from the EU and demolishes the diversionary rhetoric of the ‘unionists’.
I too sent an email to Barroso’s office and got a reply back that is too long to post in this box. Perhaps newsnet should consider allowing us more room to post?
email address please. Ta
Quoting Leader of the Pack:I too sent an email to Barroso’s office and got a reply back that is too long to post in this box. Perhaps newsnet should consider allowing us more room to post?
email address please. Ta
Whose? Mine or Barroso’s office?
Not being in the EU doesn’t bother me, neither does being in it. I can see positives to both sides but I’ll be damned if I will let others (Westminster/Spain, etc) decide for me.
I know that broadcasting is a reserved matter, so until there are no reserved matters, the best we can hope for is to see the BBC publicly discredited through demands for its replacement.
If the public disgust for the BBC’s activities was to manifest itself in comments from YES and the Scottish Government, then the authority of the BBC would be untenable.
We should demand our own digital news channel.
British Nationalist Cameron has just renegotiated the UK membership of the EU on behalf of UK Independence Party without any requirement to leave the EU first. That is exactly the position which EU members Scotland, will be in post independence. It is estimated that this could take just several months.
The fear of Unionists and United Kingdom independents is that the European Union will use it’s rule of law and negotiation strengths to assist Scots in extracting the best possible deal during secession.
Even the BBC this AM repeatedly referred to Scots and Scotland as “THEY & THEM” expanding on the UK treasury claim that Scotland is not really welcome in it’s unions? BBC promises Analysis of its news, on this and that Pound, they have failed us.
I think the truth is that the BBC output on the referendum is being orchestrated and controlled by Whitehall every step of the way.
This is nothing new for the BBC was used extensively by Whitehall in WW2 to misinform and mislead the enemy and there are many other examples in history of the press being used by Whitehall to do the same thing.
Scotland is now the “enemy” so far as Whitehall is concerned and you can be sure that it is using everything its got, i.e. the BBC, spying, phone-tapping, computer hacking, in a dirty tricks campaign against independence.
this very point is highlighted by former BBC presenter Derek Bateman who is scathing of Andrew Marr’s inability to challenge Barroso on this most basic aspects of the interview.
I read Derek Bateman’s piece yesterday and formed the opinion that Marr knew exactly what he was doing and that was lending his reputation to a blatant piece of propaganda.
Mr Barroso was given freedom to comment on the membership status of a newly independent Scotland in the EU.
No questions were asked regarding the fact that (1) We are already EU citizens with EU passports (2) We are compliant in terms of all EU legislation and regulations (3) We have an abundance of natural resources which are in demand in the EU (4) Spanish fishermen alone take a substantial quota of fish from our waters – would they really want to lose that? (5) Scotland would be a net contributor to EU finances (6) Scottish/EU citizens and businesses would be restricted in their access to Europe (7) EU folk from other member states wishing to work in Scotland would have to acquire visas in the event of Scotland not continuing as a member state.
What we are witnessing is a co-ordinated barrage from the Unionists supported by the BBC. This will back-fire. We are not daft.
From an admittedly ignorant position on legality, I would like to know if the BBC, as a public funded body presumably being granted such a position due to its continuing duty of care to its Charter, is causing public distress by straying away from the bounds of that Charter?
Any legal beagles out there?
Ah, found a reference (August 2013 – Cardiff Uni, a major content analysis 2007 – 2012 so maybe a bit old):
theconversation.com/…/
It concludes: “So the evidence from the research is clear. The BBC tends to reproduce a Conservative, Eurosceptic, pro-business version of the world, not a left-wing, anti-business agenda”.
What do people think?
There has been far too much of people adding their tuppence worth without any official word from the EU, whether it is positive or negative, they are all interfering in what is our business. I would much prefer that all of them are reined in, than this, what can only be termed as personal opinions at best or involving themselves for some sort of gain from Westminster. The BBC is a disgrace and yes I agree they are destroying themselves, we can only wish they do it quicker.
So far the EU has said it will only give an opinion on (state) membership if approached by an existing member state.
The problem they have is that by failing to recognise new entities arising from an existing state,they are in effect removing EU citizenship from people affected.
This would be a serious blow to their democratic credentials.
Westminster is clearly cherry picking which aspects of independence they are prepared to discuss in public (Osborne and his pound fiasco) but this is one which will have to be resolved in advance.
They are going to have to say,categorical ly,whether we retain EU citizenship or not following independence.
If they don’t,we will have to assume the referendum includes an implicit question about EU membership as well.
French, Germany, Belgium etc. people living in Scotland should be seeking urgent clarification from their home nations as to the legal position. The responses would be interesting. For example if Barroso is correct then all the EU citizens coming to Scottish universities this September will have a very uncertain future. The interest in having their position as citizens of the EU clarified goes well beyond the limited sphere of domestic politics.
As far as the interview goes, what we were seeing wasn’t an interview, it was a piece of theatre. Why was Barosso invited on the show? was it so that he could talk about the EU or was it so that Marr could chuck in that little grenade near the end? A
A teenager on work experience would have picked Barosso up on the Kossovo comparison, an experienced hack like Marr would also have dredged up Barosso’s links with Rajoy’s party and explored the wriggle room in this and past statements. The reason he didn’t was because he and Barosso were acting out parts and Marr was also acting as prompter.
Nothing will change the way the BBC operates. The Yes campaign must continue to ruthlessly pursue its existing social media and on the ground strategies. It is working and we just have to keep at it as hard as we can..
“.. Let me immediately clarify that I have at no point disclaimed any of President’s Barroso’s remarks – may I recall – in response to a journalists’ questions on live television yesterday (or at any other point in time). I simply repeated what the President said himself, on the respect for the democratic process in the UK and in Scotland, and on his explicitly stated wish not to interfere with the ongoing process. At the same time, I put in perspective the general remarks the President made, which can be watched in full by replaying the Andrew Marr show. Should you require a transcript ..”
My reply was basically “this must be the 20th time the same unfortunate cycle has occurred. Like justice delayed, apology repeated loses its effectiveness”.
ec.euroCan anyone SERIOUSLY imagine that peaceful oil-rich Scotland would be kicked out of Europe?
It’s just manipulative nonsense to scare the hard of thinking.
the BBC will never be trusted after independence and im sure the license fee will be abolished in an independent Scotland as its a draconian tax that jails people for not watching there Westminister propaganda!
But where the currency debacle is concerned, I truly believe that Mr Salmond should call their bluff to the hilt, as I am convinced that Osbourne is trying to get the Yes vote to panic and change to the Euro
knowing that Scottish voters do not want to go their, so they will vote no in the referendum. I think the Scottish people like myself can see straight through this ploy!
Ian Bell, Herald, Friday 6 September 2013
“In reality, most the trust has gone. In Scotland, indeed, the BBC has a serious problem, one that will not disappear just because the fact is not reported on the BBC. A large proportion of an electorate inclined to vote against the British state and its institutions no longer has faith in vaunted ideas of impartiality. They see and hear state broadcasting.”
The 18 months will concentrate many Eurominds, including Barroso’s.
If I get a reply I’ll post it.
Since these polls hardly a day goes by without a story about Independence with the usual expected Unionist bias.
Alongside this increased media interest we get total distortion of what Carney said in his speech and press conference, Osborne’s flying visit to threaten us followed by yesterday’s Combined Operation by Westminster and The BBC with Barroso on the Marr show.
If ever there was any doubt that Project Fear are running scared it is now very obvious.
Furthermore the last few days have seen a massive increase in the number of Project Fear supporters with or without multiple ids on the Comments on the Scotsman & Record. Any comment supporting YES is deluged with ‘thumbs down’.
All the BBC are doing is making it possible for the Yes side to justify and quantify media bias on a grand scale and call for a further Ref if its a No. One which will no doubt be blocked every which way but still. They are doing themselves an even bigger disfavour than normal.
Don’t you think it more likely that the British establishment are going to get right up everyones nose and tell them to stuff their undemocratic system where the sun doesn’t shine?
Currency union? Makes sense. But, if Westminster says no, it’s hardly a catastrophe because there are readily available alternatives.
Europe? If we remain members & negotiate terms, or we’re expelled & have to re-apply, or we’re expelled & choose not to re-apply, I can live with less than optimal outcomes. Just for the record, redefining the terms of our existing membership does seem the most logical option by far.
In or out of NATO? Haven’t lost any sleep on the matter.
I can take all these Unionist ‘bonfires’ & on every occasion, their worst case scenario just doesn’t alarm me.
Only Unionism promises to take away all our oil. Only Unionism will privatise our NHS. Only Unionism will keep Trident. Only Unionism ends free healthcare & education. Only Unionism assures us of endless poverty.
I don’t want to be robbed, whether it’s in £’s, Euros, $s, or post apocalyptic bottle tops.
Mr Barroso and other EU commission officials are due to step down when their term ends at the end of October, but there is no evidence to suggest a new commission would take a different view of Scotland’s membership rights.
I picked this upin the Sydney Morning Herald.
We’re getting these lies because the UK Government refuses to go straight to the EU and ask for the facts because they know for a fact they will not support their case. the rUK will never be the UK it can never be the UK as the UK can only exist as a Parliamentary union with the Scottish Parliament.
I know it was recorded by the BBC and STV and even Channel 4.
I know it is a very important speech that follows on from the Chancellor of the Exchequer – Osbourne who spoke very defiantly against independence.
But where is it to be seen?
What tin-pot attitude of a country are we living in that seeks to minimise this?
Very odd programs. Several times over the series he blamed Germany for the war saying they wanted to conquer the world which is a new one on me. They were armed to the teeth because they had been surrounded by the Alliance of France and Russia plus the Entente Cordiale. France were spoiling for revenge for their defeat in 1871. Paxman took the view of those responsible for The Versailles Treaty and we all know what that resulted in.
I can’t recall a single mention of France by name anywhere in the programs only an occasional reference to The Allies.
His long rambling bit at the end arguing that Britain came out of the war a better and Greater country fitted in nicely with all the other BBC Great British Series.
While not celebrating the war it certainly bigged-up Britain.
To quote Prinz Eulenberg, friend of the Kaiser, from an essay written in 1912 “Therefore war. If we succeed – tant mieux. Then we can become pour de bon a military state and organise and rule the conquered lands with a firm military hand. Arm in order to conquer. Honestly and ruthlessly.”
The difference between the Kaiser’s Reich and the Fuerher’s Reich was of degree not kind.
concluded.
Right from the time of German Unification under Bismarck The UK, France and Russia were concerned at Germany’s increasing industrial and commercial power and set out to contain and minimise it. If that wasn’t provocation to arm oneself I don’t know what is.
Eulenberg’s statemnent was only a reaction to being surrounded by a military alliance.
The same thing is happening all over again today with China – The US is terrified of the rise in China’s industrtial and finacial muscle and continues to spend more on what they call ‘defence’ than the rest of the world combined and is using Japan & Korea as proxies to stir up trouble with China. Is China supposed to just lie back and not arm itself.
The post-No scenarios are become clearer by the day. If we don’t take independence on Sept 18th, when we will be in a position to negotiate terms, we will end up with independence imposed on us by an angry English electorate in 5 years time.
The answers available on the ballot aren’t Yes/No; they are Yes/not until they say so. Take yer pick.
Don’t you feel that’s exactly what Westminster want us to think?
i.e. Let them vote no and let them think someone else will decide for them.
For me that’s an argument for the union,Scots aren’t smart enough.
Another take on the…
Too wee,too poor,too stupid divide and conquer romano german politics emanating from Westminster.
So stick that up yer nose Cameron !!!
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