athgray – Member
…I am yet to discover what is so wrong with the BBC that iS will require a new national broadcaster?

Well seeing as it is functioning as a Westminster propaganda unit it will be obsolete after independence.

So we will need a Scottish Broadcasting service.

Why does everything come to politics? I look at the service the BBC provides and on the whole I reckon it is pretty good. Will the program output of a Scottish service be better? I doubt it.

I can understand whatnobeer no problem

Well there you are, there’s nothing to explain then – the BBC has a policy of allowing its programme editors to take whatever biases they want, all the ones in Scotland has decided to support the No campaign, and those responsible for Radio 4 have decided to be unbiased and evenhanded, apparently.

Either that or the nats have tailored their criticism of the BBC to suit their agenda and are making completely contradictory statements. What do you think?

I have no idea where in the UK you live Ernie, but if you’ve seen some of BBC Scotland’s output you’ll know what it’s coverage is like. There was even a thread about it before this one.

On other issues I’ve seen the BBC Trust uphold complaints about how things have been reported. As far as I can tell BBC Scotland operates with it’s own staff in it’s own location. I have no idea how influence the rest of the BBC have over it, but in my experience Radio 4 usually covers certain things better than BBC Scotland.

konabunny – Member
“maybe Austerity Alex can take a much wider global role uniting previously waring parties, He seems to be an expert. He could join Tony Bliar.”

Oh, God, using these stupid nicknames makes you look like such a tiresome pillock.

What a sensitive wee bunch 😉

Meanwhile, add the youth to the ever growing list – so remember the youth who will be supporting the rapidly ageing population when you guys vote!

Athgray I feel there are a lot of good services provided by the BBC. I am really disappointed by the poor quality of some of the news output from BBC Scotland not only the referendum coverage, though it took the referendum to make me realise it.
It makes me wonder about some decisions taken at pacific quay cutting staff levels particularly.

Gordimhor, I have always thought that we have Reporting Scotland and the Proper News.
I also don’t like when Newsnight becomes Newsnight Scotl….. change channel. About the only output from BBC Scotland I like is The Adventure Show.

What a sensitive wee bunch

How many folk have to say something before you reflect on your behaviour?
Is it everyone on the thread?
Is it still just me trolling you ?

Duckman/ aracer I cannot keep up – can you just argue with each other without making me referee 😉
I am calling it a score draw as i like you both

I think that hiring Kezia Dugdale to co present the program during the run up to the referendum is very shortsighted. I think the overreaction to Prof Robertsons criticism is bullying and I cant understand why at time when bbc scotland journalists are complaining of being overworked due to staff shortages, BBC Scotland are cutting staff again. This inspite of the fact that BBC Scotland has been allocated extra short term funding for referendum coverage. Then there are the recent arrivals of James Naughtie and Sarah Smith neither of whom have so far been any better than those they replaced imo . (edit)

😉 the tummy rumbles on 😉

Anyway feel the lurve from south of the border

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5473566a-ed9a-11e3-8a00-00144feabdc0.html#axzz33tl57riN

Athgray The Adventure Show is good, I thought newsnicht did pretty well until the last round of budget cuts. If you have gaelic or dont mind subtitles there is some good referendum coverage on BBC Alba notably Rathad an Referendum- Road to the Referendum.

I might look into it gordimhor. Up to now I have avoided everything referendum related apart from this cursed thread. 🙂

This (thread)too will pass 🙂

athgray – Member
I might look into it gordimhor. Up to now I have avoided everything referendum related apart from this cursed thread.

Which is the right thing to do. The real debate is over in a few seconds thought, but the fun goes on much longer.

Sorry – I only brought you into it because I thought he was referring to my Sir BS line 😳

duckman also appears to have misunderstood the intent of my post – apologies if it came across as suggesting Scotland is nothing without rUK, that certainly wasn’t the intention – I was simply having a pop at AS suggesting that iS would be just as important an ally to the US as rUK.

Though I guess if I’m having to explain my post a page or so later it hasn’t really worked 🙁

aracer – Member

I was simply having a pop at AS suggesting that iS would be just as important an ally to the US as rUK

Which of course, he didn’t do.

independence for Scotland would mean: “America has two great friends and allies here rather than one”

?

Yep, exactly. “Two great friends and allies” not “2 equally important friends and allies”

Do you want me to referee this one then 😉

OK, so I was having a pop at Sir BS suggesting that iS would be considered a great ally in the same sense as UK or rUK then if you’re being picky.

Feel free JY – post edited just for you 😉

not “2 equally important friends and allies”

So Salmond recognises the lack of importance that an “independent” Scotland will have ? I can’t say that came across when he made the comment “yes we can”.

aracer – Member

OK, so I was having a pop at Sir BS suggesting that iS would be considered a great ally in the same sense as UK or rUK then if you’re being picky.

When did he do that? Seriously, you’re reading something that’s just not there.

So he did actually say what I edited it to then?

You are “having a pop” about things you imagine he’s said, which he hasn’t. It’s not “being picky”, it’s just stating the bloomin obvious- when you find yourself having a go at people for things they haven’t done, you probably need to have a rethink.

Or failing that, imagine something more fun, I didn’t like it when David Cameron got high on glue and shat on Greyfriars Bobby.

Or failing that, imagine something more fun, I didn’t like it when David Cameron got high on glue and shat on Greyfriars Bobby.

Did he not steal the money for the glue from Scottish orphans who’s parents had died due to Tory cut backs in the NHS? But the BBC didn’t report the whole story,so we will never be sure.

An OTT article but with one obvious pearl

The Scottish government’s determination to retain the currency of what would be a foreign country, having no control over what interest rates are set and therefore having no real monetary policy, is bound to have caused a sharp intake of breath in these capitals. Such elementary carelessness renders a financial crisis almost inevitable. Before an attentive Better Together audience at Leith Academy in Edinburgh on Thursday evening, Professors Adam Tomkins and Ronald MacDonald, both highly thought-of constitutional legal experts and economists, set out the all-too-likely consequences of such recklessness for the living standards of Scots paying mortgages or juggling precarious family budgets.

And the historical evidence is clear for all to see. Elementary carelessness indeed.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomgallagher/100275242/why-europe-and-america-dont-want-an-independent-scotland-run-by-shape-shifting-alex-salmond/

ndependence for Scotland would mean: “America has two great friends and allies here rather than one”

Yes, I’m sure the Americans see it that way

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/6078767/US-senator-calls-for-investigation-into-Scotlands-decision-to-free-Lockerbie-bomber.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6073466/The-full-letter-from-the-FBI-Director-on-the-Lockerbie-bomber-release.html
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/aug/20/lockerbie-bomber-release-libya-obama
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6064071/Barack-Obamas-fury-as-Lockerbie-bomber-flies-home-a-hero.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8226585.stm

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHWzwfX48i0[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmMGteNrFfQ[/video]
Swedish documentary on independence subtitles are not translated by me 🙂

Shape-shifting Alex Salmond? Has someone been watching too many David Icke documentaries? #fnord

Oh come on. That’s a 30 minute video FFS.

I can’t watch all that. Can someone give a biased summary?

AS is the DO and he will eat your babies to get the pound and he still wont have freedom.
He will then turn iS into North Korea and the population will starve

Happy?

Moderately.

But that has more to do with the massive fruit scone in my belly.

What, not even a whiff of NATO?

Is there a new scare story? Same as the old scare story?

Anyhow, for those people who said it was absolutely ridiculous to suggest Obama weighed in at the request of the UK government:

http://news.sky.com/story/1278462/downing-street-asked-obama-to-back-union

Yeah, it’s from across the pond this one.

googling Scotland NATO veto should find The Times article.

Its quite clear there are only bad outcomes from the US’s perspective with an iS, things like a government more likely to be anti US, likely complexities with the Faslane base for example. From speaking with American friends the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber was very unpopular, most didn’t understand before that Scotland could do such a thing independently of the UK government. The UK may well have asked Obhama to make a public statement of what it knew the countries previously privately help views where.

Here’s hoping the next 100 days pass as quickly as possible so we can get this over and done with.

Double post for some reason.

for those people who said it was absolutely ridiculous to suggest Obama weighed in at the request of the UK government

Who said that ? What is ridiculous is the suggestion that the US president says stuff at a joint press conference with a British Minister without first discussing it with them.

Equally ridiculous is the suggestion that a US president says stuff concerning the integrity of the UK because he has been forced to do so by a British Prime Minister.

Obama gave his opinion because he chose to, no other reason.

Personally I think he should mind his own business and focus on being US president instead of interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, but that’s a different issue altogether.

And if Scotland an “independent” Scotland wants to be a member of NATO you best get used to it anyway.

WTF is going on with journalism these days ?

Right they seem to have covered all bases with that article 😕

NATIONALISTS have been warned that the US will veto Scottish membership of Nato in the event of independence, following President Barack Obama’s intervention in support of retaining the United Kingdom.

The head of the Royal United Services Institute, an influential defence think tank, said there was “zero chance” of Scotland joining the organisation if a Scottish National party government tried to remove the UK’s nuclear weapons from Scottish waters.

In addition, a former SNP defence adviser, Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Crawford, claims a source close to the White House told him last year the US would block or delay Scottish Nato membership if it insists on Trident submarines being quickly withdrawn

Well, if we weren’t a member of Nato we would be more vunerable,however if we didn’t have a Nato member’s nuclear subs in our waters(yes I know,annexing Faslane has been floated,but stay with me)then we would be a less attractive target.