Anoraks are people too

Political anorak pride!

In a contribution to the admirable, if somewhat constipated, Newsnet Scotland, journalist, commentator and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch sets out, not so much to contribute to the debate about Scotland's constitutional future, as to serve as midwife to that debate. (Will there be a genuine public debate about Scottish independence?)

I don't doubt Lesley Riddoch's good intentions. But I am ever wary of those who seek to define and constrain the space in which a debate proceeds. And even more suspicious of those who want to stipulate qualifications for participation.

Ms Riddoch seems to have a bit of a thing about "anoraks" and, while not explicitly implying that they should be excluded from the debate about Scotland's constitutional future, she appears to prefer that their role should be limited and to believe that they are certainly not the ones to be leading the debate.

But who are these "anoraks"? Is this not merely an unthinkingly derogatory term for those individuals who have the knowledge, interest and commitment to promote debate? Is it that the discussion is "anorak-heavy"? Or is it that anyone who seeks to lead debate is dismissively labelled as an anorak?

I am passionately in favour of participative democracy. But I am also realistic enough, and experienced enough, to know that participation is not something which just happens. It has to be facilitated. It has to be actively encouraged. And when it happens it has to be managed in a structured way or it simply degenerates into the very kind of disputatious dead-end that puts so many people off participation.

Do not despise the "anoraks"! Who but they will be the facilitators?

The Scotscum

The Scotscum

I kind of promised myself, and my precious handful of hopefully forgiving readers, that I would refrain, at least for a while, from commenting on the generally scurrilous conduct of what passes for the mainstream media in Scotland - particularly with regard to our democratically elected government and First Minister. But there's a piece of crude, unsophisticated propaganda in The Scotsman's online edition today (Monday 9 April) which simply cannot be allowed to pass unremarked.

The item in question concerns the MSP for Dunfermline West, Bill Walker, who has been expelled from the Scottish National Party for alleged irregularities in the selection procedure which saw him adopted as the party's candidate.

There are three clear issues with the item in question. Firstly, at the time of publication Mr Walker is no longer a member of the SNP. How then can this "newspaper" possibly justify the use of an SNP graphic. An image which is bigger than the article itself. An almost comically ridiculous size that has no editorial justification whatever. The sole purpose of this image is to associate Mr Walker's name with a party of which he is no longer a member - subject only to the appeal to which he is entitled under the party's constitution.

I am a Nat so...

Caption

Whatever else may be said of Scotland on Sunday Deputy Editor, Kenny Farquharson, it is unlikely that he will ever be accused of underthinking things.

At first glance, his somewhat rambling piece in today's edition (It’s the ‘I’m not a Nat but . . .’ voters who could tip independence scales) seems to make a bit of a laborious traipse of coming to the rather obvious and superficial conclusion that the outcome of the referendum on Scotland's constitutional future will be decided, not by committed nationalists nor fervent unionists, but by the large swathe of the voting population which falls into neither of these dichotomous camps.

Labour find lost steel plant?

While rowing down the River Twitter today with a few chums I encountered some outrage about a council election leaflet being distributed by "Scottish" Labour in North Lanarkshire. Curious as to what the fuss was all about, I dispatched a member of my dedicated research team to secure a copy of said local election literature. By which I of course mean that I asked somebody to email me pictures. They did. And I'm duly grateful.

I can also see what what was the cause of the fuss. The leaflet in question makes the bold claim that, "Labour would use Lanarkshire steel" in the construction of the Forth Replacement Crossing. A remarkable promise - not least due to the fact that the supply contracts for fabricated steel which they are promising to bring to Lanarkshire have already been awarded to firms in Poland, Spain and China.

We might be forgiven for wondering by what authority "Scottish" Labour councillors might be empowered to arbitrarily rip up these contracts. We might also ask of them what part of the council's budget they plan to set aside to cover the inevitably substantial penalties that would surely be incurred.

Big Brother's little brother

Cameron - Big Brother?

Nick Clegg just doesn't get it! It's not about process! It's not about procedures! It's about principle!

The very fact that he feels the need to rationalise his boss, David Cameron's proposed new snooping legislation with talk of "safeguards" should be ringing enormous alarm bells. If it requires safeguards then it is, by definition, dangerous. He cannot sensibly argue both that the UK government's intentions are entirely benign and that they are such that we would need to be protected from their implications and potential consequences.

 Clegg says,

Any measures will be proportionate. They will not sacrifice people's civil liberties, we will not create a new government database and we will not give police new powers to look into people's emails.

The mother of all scandals?

Anas Sarwar - cack-handed hatchet-man

Or the distant cousin of a damp squib!

I refer, of course, to the British Labour & Unionist Party's latest desperate effort to smear the SNP/Scottish Government and, by no means incidentally, to kill the referendum consultation process - by which I mean the real consultation and not Micky Moore's rather pathetic effort on behalf of his Tory masters.

As you will know by now - so long as you don't rely on the mainstream media for information - the whole thing ended in farce with "Scottish" Labour's cack-handed hatchet-man, Anas Sarwar, left standing with his trousers around his ankles and his union jack boxer shorts flapping in the breeze.

No decency in the name of the union

Jocky Wilson - Scottish sporting legend

I seem to find myself writing far more often than I would like on the subject of distortion, disinformation and downright dishonesty in the "Scottish" mainstream media. This is not so surprising, really, as the increasingly scurrilous behaviour of the anti-independence effort as conducted in the press is becoming a major feature of the independence referendum campaign. So I make no apologies for returning to the subject yet again.

What has irked me on this particular occasion is a couple of items which between them illustrate the sewer-bound direction of the "no" campaign. We start with a quite distasteful piece in The Guardian by that well-known anti-SNP obsessive, Kevin McKenna. (Don't let the prudes loose on Jocky Wilson). At first glance this appears to be another tribute to one of Scotland's great sporting characters, Jocky Wilson, who died recently at the relatively early age of 62. All is well until we reach the third paragraph, at which point McKenna abandons all pretence of simple human decency as he contrives to use the sad death of a man held in some affection across Scotland as a stick with which to beat the SNP.