Smith – A Constitutional fudge and the worst of both worlds?

Smith – A Constitutional fudge 

and the worst of both worlds?

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp (30/11/2014)

Anyone passing through the Glasgow underground, or any train station, or even looking at the back end of a bus, will know it’s pantomime season.  My favourite one just launched yesterday, written by a new scriptwriter called Lord Smith, it is called “Devolution to never never land”. The grand old dames are played by the London centric unionist press, the bad guys are the Unionist Westminster MPs who will attempt to derail any real devolution, and the audience who might soon regret buying a ticket (by voting No) are the people of Scotland.  It’s got a complicated plot but it all revolves around the unionists shouting “it’s devo max, and effective home rule, everything we promised” to which the audience shout “Oh no it’s not”.

Vow max or pantomime politics taken to the max?
First we have the Daily Record, the original publisher of the VOW, desperate to avoid a circulation drop to match the Scottish Labour parties poll ratings, saying the Smith Commission report was the vow delivered.  We also have Mr No Tuition Fees himself, deputy PM Nick Clegg, getting so excited about the Smith Commission that he seems to have lost the ability to speak in normal English and just uses a dialect called spin, when he said “We’ve not only delivered on that vow, on the timetable that we said, we’ve over-delivered on it – it’s ‘Vow Max’, if you like.”

Vow max? That really is pantomime politics taken to the max.  You would expect me or the SNP / SSP and Greens to be fairly disappointed with some (if not all) of the Smith Commission suggestions, but its worthwhile taking a moment to figure out who is shouting “Oh no it’s not” the loudest.

Read full article 

HERE

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G.A. Ponsonby: How The BBC Stole The Referendum

How The BBC Stole The Referendum is a book currently being written by GA Ponsonby.  The book will chronicle the role played by the corporation in the independence referendum and its influence on the final vote. Below is a draft of the first chapter, which may be subject to minor changes.  It is published here with a view to attracting funding to help with publishing and promoting the book when it is complete.  The provisional completion date is April 2015 ... in time for the UK general election.

Chapter 1 - Turning Yes into No

     The 2014 independence referendum was an historic event.  The SNP landslide victory in May 2011 meant that for almost three years it captivated a nation, dominated the news agenda and influenced almost every aspect of Scottish and UK politics.  Ordinary people who had never before engaged in the democratic process discovered an unknown thirst for information.  The referendum seeped into the Scottish psyche and gave rebirth to real democracy.  A nation went through a political re-awakening.
     Our media should have reflected this inspirational period.  Newspapers should have thrived, broadcasters should have excelled and journalists should have become heroes.  But that didn't happen.  Instead agendas were pursued, news was manipulated and old allegiances maintained.
     At the helm of what I consider to be the media corruption that poisoned the independence debate was the BBC.  At the eleventh hour, when Yes appeared to be on course for victory, the broadcaster pulled out all the stops to prevent a Yes triumph.

Read full first chapter

HERE

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Smith Commission: 'The Consolation Prize' (Chris Cairns cartoon)

Image by Chris Cairns

Evolution's Achilles' Heels

15 Ph.D. scientists present devastating critiques of evolution. 

Find out more: 

HERE

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Scottish Premier, East Kilbride
9.15 am-5.00 pm, Sat 6 Dec 2014 

Family Creation Discovery Day,  
Murray Owen Centre, 
East Kilbride, 
South Lanarkshire, 
G75 9AD, 

Incl Kids Activities / £5 ech £12

Speakers: Philip Bell, Dominic Statham, Phil Robinson

10.00 am - Life’s Origin? Evidence for Creation
11.30 am - Different Races or one human family?
2.00 pm - Dinosaurs and the Bible
3.20 pm - Evolution’s Achilles Heel’s Film Screening
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More info:
HERE
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Smith Commission falls short of devolution vow

Smith Commission 
falls short of devolution vow

by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp (27/11/2014)

     The Smith Commission report out today contains some positive measures that can be used by the Scottish Government to the betterment of Scotland.  It is also true to say that it is the largest movement of power from Westminster to Scotland since the formation of the parliament, but it falls well short of the vow made by the leaders of three of the four main Westminster Unionist parties.  It falls even further behind the promise of the No campaign’s official spokesperson Gordon Brown that Scotland would be as close as possible to a federal state within one or two years, or Danny Alexander who told us to expect  “effective Home Rule”. Federalism and effective home rule it isn’t, but that hasn’t stopped The Times from screaming from its front page “Fears of a federal UK as Scots get new powers”. 

Read full article 

HERE

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Smith Commission: And now for the truth

And now for the truth

by Rev. Stuart Campbell (November 27, 2014)

     It’ll be a brave Yes voter who buys a newspaper (other than The National) or switches on their TV or radio today, because Scotland is already enduring an outpouring of concentrated spin and outright deception that perhaps even exceeds that seen in the last few weeks before the independence referendum.

     Blood pressures will be soaring across the land as people are told things about the final report of the Smith Commission that are flatly at odds with the reality, by journalists and broadcasters who either know perfectly well that what they’re saying is false or haven’t bothered to try to find out.

     Below, you’ll find the facts.

Read full article

HERE

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BBC Scotland holds its breath on Holyrood accountability

BBC Scotland holds its breath 

on Holyrood accountability

Pacific Quay insider considers what the Smith Commission might say about Scottish broadcasting 

(26 Nov 2014)

Here in BBC Scotland very close attention will be paid to Lord Smith’s report this week.

The rest of the world may be rightly concerned about the high politics, and the detail of fiscal and welfare devolution. Our news department and its hangers-on will be telling the story in their usual way. The audience will have no problem discerning the Labour line, plus whatever the SNP government spinners have told Brian Taylor.

But here in the heart of Pacific Quay, and at BBC HQ in West One, all-knowing eyes will be searching furiously for a single little paragraph: Will there be any sort of devolution of broadcasting?

[...] I’ll tell you more about this all later, but the key point ahead of the Smith report is that Boothman, and possibly his boss, were allegedly kept in place by the BBC’s “big bosses” because of their Labour connections, and the value of that to the No campaign.

Read full article

HERE

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