Scottish independence: Jeremy Paxman of the BBC raises the issues of ‘hatred of the English’ in the referendum debate, Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon spent a generation doing grudge, grievance and malcontent, this is their legacy to Scotland

Dear All

One of the good things about Veteran BBC broadcaster Jeremy Paxman is that he is blunt; some people want to soften people up before they tell them bad news.

Not him!

Paxman gives you it straight between the eyes.

He says that Alex Salmond's referendum for Scottish Independence is being fuelled by a "hatred" for England.

The leadership of the Scottish National Party have spent 30 years cultivating grudge, grievance and malcontent; it literal spews out of them, and trickles downwards.

At the bottom end of the food chain is the angry wee Nationalists known as the cybernats.

At the weekend, I found myself on the receiving end of three idiots, one is a clown attached to Pollok SNP who presumably has discovered Nationalism. When I say discovered Nationalism, what I mean is that in my time at Pollok SNP, he never worked with me.

As he and the rest of the 'Nationalists' turned up at the Pollok car park, they stood about for the best part of an hour before setting off to campaign. As they walk through the Better Together event, presumably to prove a point, one idiot said to me, 'you told lies about us'. At this point, after listening to him speak; he only confirmed to me that he had a low IQ. I just looked at him and thought 'idiot', also is worth mentioning their lack of organisation, bad planning and dress.

Dressing like tramps in need of a bath!

One wonders what impression people would have of them coming up the garden path?

The other incident was a Nationalist type who had a problem counting, he was doing the SNP mantra of Scotland puts in more money than it gets back from Westminster. It doesn't, but he wasn't open to being convinced, got angry and started swearing in front of women. He said something which I found funny when he said Westminster was 'my' government, so I told him, I didn't vote Tory so it wasn't 'my' government, but also mentioned by his logic, it was also 'his' government to which he replied, he rejected them. I was then blamed for wrong figures from the Treasury, do I work for them? No! After failing to score any points, and seeing I wasn't upset, he started swearing. Not exactly a great advert for Nationalism is it.

The third one was someone having a go at me because I support Better Together, when he thinks I should support independence. He suggested since I didn't like the SNP, I should join the Scottish Greens. To which I replied, 'are you having a laugh!'

I was obviously in the wrong places at the wrong time even on Facebook.

I was wondering if this had anything to do with me ripping SNP MSP James Dornan, a new arse on Brian Taylor's independence special on the BBC on Friday over the SNP's bogus childcare policy.

Mr. Dornan raised the issue of trust, you can't trust Westminster he declared and I torn it apart by the fact you can't trust the Scottish Government led by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon either.

Back to Paxman, speaking on Radio 4's Saturday Live programme said:

"The thing I like about British identity is that increasingly, since there's such a head of steam building in ... Scotland for hating the English, I find myself describing myself as English when in fact I'm a quarter Scottish."

This received an angry response from Yes campaigners.

At the weekend, some people attended a protest at the BBC's Glasgow HQ at Pacific Quay.

What was their complaint?

The same one that they have been running for over the last few years, it was rejected then and it got rejected again.

Alleged anti-Yes coverage of the referendum, they want to silence debate, they have protested before as I said, however, their claims of bias are unfounded in my opinion.

The Yes Campaigners want Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon's nonsense to go unchallenged.

Professor John Robertson, of the School of Creative & Cultural Industries at the University of the West of Scotland, has produced a new report in time for the demo examing a perceived institutional anti-independence bias in BBC news reports.

So, armed with his opinion, the little band of Nationalist complainers suitably outraged, got the bit between their teeth and did their picket. Well, it was a good day for protesting, weather was good, bring the sandwiches; bring the family; bring the Police.

One of the things which pops up in the independence debate is; what is it to be British?
 
Paxman said:

"The thing I like about Britishness is that it is inclusive. You can be Belizian British, Asian-British, English British, Scottish ¬British ... Northern Irish British, even. Britain was essentially an invention to do with the growth of empire and religion. There were many things that made up Britain and empire was one of them."

At many of the independence debates, there is a wee Nationalist who pops up and say; "I don't know what it is to be British".

Paxman's explanation is just as a good as anyone I have ever come across.

Paxman isn't alone in commenting about the rise of hatred of English in Nationalist circles, it is couched in warm fuzzy terms like 'Westminster' or 'Tories' but what the subtext is, English.

Of course the SNP make much of the fact they have English members, and we should also remember that in the BNP, some of their members are married to people of ethnic origin.
   
Paxman's BBC colleague Andrew Marr chipped in on anti Englishness while speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last August.

Marr claimed Scots' hatred of the English can be toxic, saying:

"There is very strong anti-English feeling and everybody knows it, there always has been. If you go back to the origins of the SNP and the origins of the debate about home rule, anglophobia was as well entrenched then as it is now. It can become serious, it can become toxic."

A spokesman for Yes Salmond, the umbrella group in Hope Street, Glasgow said he would be interested to read any book on Scotland by Paxman.

Education didn't work before, by the time they read any book, the polls will be closed and Salmond and Sturgeon will be cooked!

He added:

"He (Paxman) would realise very quickly, with only limited research, that he is mistaken in his assertions. We are fortunate to have a good number of lead volunteers who are from England".

People connected to the SNP clique, was he perhaps hinting at Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the ex Labour, ex Tory candidate and recently denied an MEP position.

Do people who stand to benefit financially count as "lead volunteers", prior to be a 'Nationalist' and an 'activist', in the 5 years before unpopular Nicola Sturgeon's election, Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh was missing in action. But you know, when someone waves a big pay day such as MEP, it is amazing how some people get really excited by the cause which previously she was when offered as a Tory candidate for Westminster.

The issue of alleged anti-independence bias at the BBC is becoming increasingly central to the debate with some Yes campaigners as they are losing so badly, they need someone to blame. That someone is anyone but Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. It isn't unusual through-out history that Nationalist groups look for a scapegoat.

As to Robertson report, he said:

"These broadcasts were balanced, in crude numerical terms, but in every other respect, unfair to the Yes campaign and favouring the Better Together campaign."

He says news segments often began with bad news for Yes.

And added that there was heavy repetition of such messages over several hours, well people like looking in on other people’s misery!

So, let's look at the Alex Neil case, Mr. Neil was outed as lying to parliament, he is a Minister of Crown, and all opposition including the Scottish Greens voted against him.

Did he do the honourable thing and resign?

No!

Was he sacked?

No!

Was he removed from post to another department?

No!

Is it important that there is news, bad news of a complete lack of integrity in the Scottish Government?

Yes!

If the SNP hadn't made a complete pig's ear of the Scottish independence campaign then there wouldn't be bad news, would there? Also how is the BBC supposed to spin lying as a good story for Yes Salmond?

What is the 'positive' of the SNP Government doing no work to prepare Scotland for independence?

Early to bed!

Robertson also raised the issue of interviewers adopting aggressive techniques with Yes supporters while only doing so on two occasions with BT supporters.

Is that because interviewers object to being treated like they are morons who should swallow any old shit?

Robertson said:

"The BBC clearly needs a system of monitoring and balancing of its content to limit the admittedly unavoidable intrusion of bias to a minimum. It is wrong that research of the kind reported here and earlier, regarding TV news, is required in a democracy."

A spokesman for BBC Scotland denied there was a bias towards a No vote, saying:

"We reject claims of bias in our reporting of the referendum in our output, including Good Morning Scotland. Our coverage of this major story continues to be covered according to our editorial guidelines on fairness and balance."

I wonder if the idea I had of telling the truth, being transparent and publishing all documentation without exception had been used then the Yes side wouldn't be up shit creek without a paddle.

The SNP clique decided to be 'cute', well as Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said in the Movie, 'The Running Man':

"Hello, cutie pie, one of us is in deep trouble".

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University