I like to have a specific topic to address, but today I haven’t. But since I didn’t blog yesterday, and since some regular readers rapidly reach the reasonable conclusion that I’m dead if I don’t blog for a couple of days, I feel obliged to give proof of life …
So I sit at the keyboard with no plan, in the hope that something will come from the Id at least as far as the Ego and perhaps even reach the Superego. I’m not entirely certain that I have an Ego or Superego anymore, but I’m in regular touch with my Id, something closely resembling its manifestation in Forbidden Planet.
Today’s Radio Times confidently states on page 56
BBC1
12.00 The Politics Show Analysis and debate. Includes News at 12.00 and at 12.30 Scottish stories.
Good old reliable BBC - my trusted public service broadcaster, telling the truth to the four nations of Britain, calling the rich and powerful to account, champion of the ordinary people of these isles, in this great united kingdom - Dunkirk, Churchill, muffins for tea, cricket on the lawn, stiff-upper lips, guardian of the free people of the world, men in fancy dress in great cathedrals, monarchs, Royal weddings, knights, Lords, Ladies, colourful ritual and spectacle, stronger together than apart, etcetera, etcetera. You know the rest …
No need to consult the online guide on my television - after all, it’s not a public holiday, although something called Pentecost has knocked The Big Questions out of its 10.00 slot. The Andrew Marr Show was the predictable load of old Westminster village pap it has become since not-so-super injunctions have killed the mojo of its eponymous host.
I switch on just before midday and wait expectantly, laughing in sardonic delight because the tennis has been rained off. May it piss down on that tedious game for evermore, a game that is healthful exercise and a legitimate pursuit for those who actually get off their arses and play the game, but an exercise in mindless voyeurism for those non-players who watch it …
I should have been warned by the fate of The Big Questions. Midday passes, and the mindless chatter of those under the umbrellas continues, with the kind a vacuous gossip and idle speculation that characterises acres of sporting commentary. Panic-stricken, I switch to BBC2, only to find more crap, so I belatedly consult the online guide. Nae politics today, mate. If we can’t have tennis, you’ll have to be content with Country File, or some such rural idyll.
So at the end of a week in which we have seen the care of the old and vulnerable across the UK threatened by the rabid greed of speculative capitalists, the continued revelations of criminal behaviour by our UK newspapers, a week in which the implications of the behaviour of the UK Supreme Court for the Scottish Justice system becomes even more worrying, a week in which more young men and women are dying in misconceived foreign wars, a week in which we contemplate yet another involvement in Syria, and a week in which the Brian Rix Whitehall farce that is called the UK Government - the ConLib Coalition - move seamlessly from one disaster to another, a week in which Miliband Minor’s relevance to his party and to the nation is placed under question, the main political vehicle for examining events and placing the powerful under scrutiny - and where Scottish affairs get a real discussion platform - is sacrificed to a tennis match that didn’t take place and some countryside rambles.
I’m your long-term friend and defender, BBC - but when you behave like this, I shout aloud for independence, for a free Scotland, with its own public service broadcaster, employing the fine journalists, presenters, creative artists and technicians that make up the present BBC Scotland, but freed from the dead hand of London.
And by God, we’ll have it, sooner rather than later …
Here to the Scottish Broadcasting Corporation - the SBC!
POSTSCRIPT
Roseanna Cunningham tweeted me to say it (?) was broadcast at 11.30 am. If so, I kick myself for missing it - but the criticism stands.
Stop press: I've now checked - it was broadcast at 11.00 am - now watching on the iPlayer. Will I apologise to the BBC? Will I ****! You ruined my morning - am I suppose to plan my day on not believing the Radio Times and cross check the transmission time of every programme if there's bloody sport on?
Posts
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteThe first video clip is absolutely outrageous. I commented on this blog, recently before the Holyrood elections that since there were indications that the SNP might be going to do very well, I was frightened the "SNLA" might make an unwelcome appearance, as it has in the past at extremely inopportune points for the SNP's electoral fortunes. I admit I was wrong. In this instance the bombs were associated with "sectarianism".
But bombs there were, though they had little impact on the SNP vote this time. It would not take too much imagination though for the media to begin spinning that "this is the future for an Independent Scotland - sectarian warfare", but I think that that ship has probably already sailed with the diminishing levels of sectarianism over the past several decades and a growing cynicism within the Scottish public regarding the veracity of their news outlets.
The police acting as agents provocateurs within the climate change movement in England, and the hiding of this information by the Crown Office from the Defence at the subsequent trial, by no means relieves my mind that much the same thing is not about to happen up here during the run-up to the referendum.
Call me paranoid if you like, but at this time I don't think you can be paranoid enough. After all the Scottish Crown Office has allegedly withheld vital information from the Defence in the Nat. Fraser trial. So no comfort there.
I think as responsible nationalists who condemn any illegal activity in such regard, we have a duty to attempt to prevent the occurrence of such a threat from the state "secret services and dirty tricks department" by talking rationally of the possibility of such a thing, and by pointing out the damage to the Independence movement such activity caused in the 1950's when Scottish Nationalists allegedly blew-up EIIR marked post boxes supposedly in reaction to her Majesty taking that title.
I really believe that the Unionists would stoop to any level to preserve their Union and that we should make the general public aware of the possible likelihood of such an engineered occurrence and that by doing so we reduce the likelihood of such an occurrence and reduce its effectiveness against us.
Regards,
Thanks, Rab,
ReplyDeleteWhere does realism end and paranoia begin?
The use of agents provocateur at times of political change is well-documented, but little is served by warning against them in apocalyptic terms. The SNP achieved an historic victory on May 5th/6th by projecting a positive image and positive messages. We are way beyond the victim status, and must abandon that kind of approach to win the referendum.
If and when the dirty games are played, we will counter them.