It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it

By Panda Paws

Alastair Campbell has a new interview out in the Guardian’s Scotland pages from which we quote:

“Campbell suggested that the SNP received uncritical coverage from sections of the media, in stark contrast with SNP supporters who argue that the media – in particular the BBC – displays bias against the party.

"He said: 'I do think the SNP have managed to cast a spell on large parts of the media. They certainly don’t get covered in the same way that we did when we were in government.' "

(Well I had to get an orang-utan in somehow!)

One commentator pondered, rather politically incorrectly, if he was back on the drink. But this is Campbell we are talking about; since when does the truth matter to him when spinning a yarn. The only other explanation is that the common sci-fi trope, beloved of Star Trek in particular, and a pet theory of theoretical physicists everywhere, is true – parallel universes do exist. 

There is one where the MSM is on the SNP’s side, one were Dundee is filled with No-voting, SNP-hating people and the number of failed Labour candidates is so high that the odds against two of them being picked to pose questions isn’t astronomical. 

And then there is the one the rest of us live in. 

What makes his epic 'SNP bad' rant even more odd is that it came during the launch event for his old pal Ken McIntosh’s bid to retain his Holyrood constituency seat, Eastwood.  

Ken has two claims to fame, first Ed Miliband had no idea who he was, and the second, he was beaten by Kezia Dugdale for the SLAB leadership (let that sink in folks).

So it was just a ploy to discredit his pal’s nearest challengers for the seat you ask? 

Well no. The polls suggest that the Tories will win Eastwood. It’s certainly a big target for them. But was a word said against their closest rivals and erstwhile Better Together colleagues? No, a big fat no. 

It was SNP bad all the way. 

Meanwhile, Ruthie the tank commander is making a blatant play for those Labour voters that are staunch Unionists - solidarity not being a big thing in Tory circles. And if Ken does lose his constituency seat there is little comfort on the list.  Three seats predicted for Labour and he is 4th on the list. 

Still there is always his previous occupation as a BBC producer, but would they accept someone with close Labour ties?

A BBC Producer with Labour Ties?

Perhaps he can get a job producing a segment for the Scottish Six called “It’s shite to be Scottish, but even worse to have Icelandic telly”

Hat tip to Wings!

One day I hope SLAB will wake up and realise that their real enemy is the Tory party. I suspect, however, that day won’t occur before the 5th May nor indeed the 24th of June.

Until then it might help their cause if they at least realised just how toxic the Alastair Campbells of the world are and that just because they have a Scottish name that doesn’t mean they know heehaw about Scottish politics or its MSM for that matter.

BRAND NEW, FULL COLOUR TABLOID...SAME OLD BIAS

Today we get the first edition of the new tabloid-sized Dundee "Courier", which they euphemistically term “compact”. I would like to say that it’s a welcome, fresh and new face to the Scottish media scene but unfortunately, I can’t. The best I can do is say that it is shockingly partisan and riddled with mistakes. So no change there then!


I would have thought that it would be impossible for as paper as pro-Tory and pro-Union as the "Courier" to be more biased, but with its re-launch it has somehow managed it. 


Political Editor, David Clegg, launches the new paper with an interview with David Cameron, which is continued and fleshed out on page 10 under the headline “Leafy town key to fate of Union”. 

The leafy town in question is David Cameron’s constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire. What follows is one of the most pro-Union, pro-Tory puffs I have ever had the misfortune to waste ten minutes of my life on. You can just picture David Clegg simpering and drooling over the PM and failing to ask a single hard hitting question.


If DC Thomson wanted to increase the circulation of the "Courier", instead of tinkering with its format and rumoured price hike of a whopping 25% to 60p, a good way might have been to cater for the political aspirations of its potential readers. 


And that might have been indicated to them by observing the voting patterns of the folk in Dundee, Angus, Perth and Fife, which are most certainly not Conservative!

Instead DCT prefers to continue to frustrate them with this nauseating interview with the UK prime minister in which “Call Me” is allowed to expound the virtues of the Union and repeat ad nauseam that he “cares deeply” for it an that he “profoundly hopes” that people will vote for it.


Additionally, whilst in Witney, Mr Clegg conducted a vox pop of a supposed cross section of folk that he met. All, strangely, seem to agree with their leader. 


Clegg tells us that the majority of people he spoke to wanted Scotland to remain in the Union, which is a little odd considering that every poll conducted in England shows a majority for Scots leaving the Union. 


Is he trying to tell us that people in Witney in Oxfordshire are in inverse proportion to the rest of England? Or did he search out his respondents carefully before asking the question in an attempt to portray the English as dewy eyed lovers of all things Scots? (Instead of what they really think, which is mostly that Scots are a bunch of drunk, drug addicted, moaning spongers and subsidy junkies. 


Really, David (Clegg), if you are going to try that kind of thing, it might be a good idea to at least try to keep it within the bounds of reality and not in the most far flung realms of cloud cuckoo land where the sky is a bluer Tory blue and the birds sing out for England and St George.

Now on the paper itself. One would have expected that with the re-launch all the stops would have been pulled out to avoid the perennial "Courier" blunders. (For those of you who don’t read it, the "Courier" is hilariously badly proof read, in fact I don’t think it is proof read at all. Apart from the usual typos, repeat words, spelling mistakes and grammatical snafus, stories end, mid sentence, on a word like “and” with whole sections missing, and even worse, sometimes an entire story is repeated verbatim later in paper.) 


In the new paper I did not spot a mistake until page three, where we get the following “...Mr Hutchison said told the 'Courier'...”. Clearly Mr Hutchison at one point had 'said' something and later it was edited to him 'telling the Courier' but the word 'said' was left in. There are several more mistakes of a similar nature throughout the paper that are the result of sloppy editing and poor proof reading.


So all in all, not much change then... oh, except for the tabloid format and anticipated price hike of 25%.

DOUBLE YOUR MONEY AND SET SCOTLAND FREE

For a limited period, all donations to the SNP between £1 and £500 will be matched pound-for-pound.

Scottish entrepreneur Brian Souter has pledged to match all small donations received by 31 March up to £500,000, creating an incredible £1 million election fund.

So every £1 you donate will be worth double that - at no extra cost to you.

I don't care much for big business supporting political parties, nor for that matter for trades unions doing it, but life is life and we start from where we are, not from where we would like to be.

So, with the unions funding Labour and the big financial organisations funding the Tories, we have to be grateful that this money is coming to us.

Getting our message through with a hostile press and a hostile state broadcaster is a hard job. The rubbish that is printed about the SNP has been startling over the years, and the way that some achievements have been ignored in the main stream media, including the BBC, is jaw dropping. The curled lip of some presenters when the government is mentioned brings shame on a supposedly neutral state funded organ.

So we need to be able to get the message across with posters, ads, tv and most important of all, people.

The SNP is lucky. Its members get off their backsides and do what they can, whatever that is, from folding communications and putting them in envelopes to going out “chapping doors”. We are lucky that our main asset costs nothing. But other assets do cost money and we will have to pay for the advertising campaign which we must mount.

We need a million pounds. Let’s see if we can get it.

(As so often on this blog, my thanks go to Cynical Highlander for bringing this to my attention.)

Pics: Isn't it one of the prettiest and the best places on Earth (despite today's weather)