Thursday, August 2, 2018

The Cry of the Buffoon, former SNP leader Alex Salmond Salmond is demanding the corporation prove it “is not pursuing a campaign against sites which support Scottish independence”, Salmond wants an answer from the BBC which satisifies the ‘Scottish public’, who voted Alex Salmond as ‘voice of the Scottish public’, his intervention has all the hallmarks of an ‘attention whore’
















Dear All

It isn’t usual to see Nationalists with their knickers in a twist, their sense of entitlement in unbelievable, they think they are special and can do what they want. The BBC has complained about 13 videos uploaded to indy website Wings Over Scotland, their right, their content. It isn’t however usual to see on youtube however clips and entire programmes, movies and documentaries on this platform.

Now, two indy people have had their youtube channels shut down, you could say censored or you could acknowledge breach of copyright, depending on who’s view you lean towards. Wings Over Scotland aka John Devlin Stuart Campbell and Peter Curran both are known for their indy stance, both their channels were shut down. Not shutdown by the BBC but by youtube.

I had an artistic video of mine removed by youtube which showed Nicola Sturgeon doing a bit of begging and attempting to rally her troops, I add in a green screen of a fake person who hanged himself, it was a parody that was greatly amusing, but had a message, indy was a dead duck, couldn’t find a duck hanging or I would have used that clip for the composite.

Alex Salmond?

Yes, Alex Salmond, former FM, former MSP, former MSP and now a member of the public has written to the BBC’s director-general to complain after two pro-independence YouTube accounts were suspended last weekend.

Salmond is demanding the corporation prove it “is not pursuing a campaign against sites which support Scottish independence”.

You can guess, where that letter is going, into the bin, the row which is nothing to do with Salmond, may feature on his tawdry RT show, The Alex Salmond Show, the lightweight foamy nationalists’ version of jackanory.


Salmond said his ‘concern’ over the legal action was in part because one of the videos on the blog was an interview with him in the run up to the 2014 independence referendum, it seems Salmond thinks his witterings are national treasures which should be made available for all time.

In an attempt to muddy the water, Salmond also said that “Unionist-supporting sites” have been allowed to keep “innumerable BBC excerpts in use on YouTube channels”.

Maybe their use is for educational purposes, a concept which might have escaped Salmond’s mind in his desire to ‘get a grievance’ on the go!

He continued:

“If memory serves, this news interview now removed from YouTube was a challenge from me to the then prime minister to debate on Scottish independence. It has now disappeared from the public record thanks to the BBC action.”

If memory serves, the SNP lied, deceived and attempted to cheat the people of Scotland, at every turn during the 2014 referendum.

Salmond added:

“Why does the BBC as a public service broadcaster presume to effectively expunge my interview from the public record without so much as a by-your-leave?”

Because it is their film, their copyright and done with their equipment, it isn’t his interview, it is theirs.

Salmond concluded:

“There is a considerable public interest in this matter and I look forward to an early reply and hopefully one that satisifies the Scottish public that the BBC as a public service broadcaster has not set its face against fair comment and freedom of speech and further is not pursuing a campaign against sites which support Scottish independence.”

As a member of the Scottish public, I don’t support Salmond, and from what I can tell Salmond doesn’t speak for the Scottish public, and never did, he was always operating to his own agenda.

Alex Salmond is:

Not an MP

Not an MSP

Not a Councillor

Not a First Minister

Alex Salmond just produces a cheap as chips, TV show on RT, which is so lightweight on all aspects that it is just a ‘look at me, I am on TV show’.

So, what response is coming back from the BBC?

The BBC denies being selective in its actions to protect copyright.

The BBC denies asking YouTube to shut down two pro-independence channels.

The broadcaster has said it takes action to protect its copyright “whenever we receive complaints about large volumes of our material being posted or used without authorisation”.

The key part of that sentence is ‘large volumes of our material’, it seems that they aren’t interested in the person who puts up the odd clip to make a point, or educate, or create a discussion.

The BBC object to industrial scale use.

When the people at the BBC see what they regard as abuse, they ask for individual videos to be removed by youtube.

Whether your video stays up is a matter for youtube.

If there is any comedy in this story story it must be Stuart Campbell launching a scathing attack at the BBC yesterday, saying the public broadcaster have operated “a plainly partisan policy, observably applying different rules and procedures to people with different political viewpoints.”

Well, he would say that wouldn’t he!

Campbell is a complete banger, and this time, he has got himself into soapy bubble, so rather than whine, he should follow the rules, or don’t they apply to this mutt? If you take the time to visit his website, Wings Over Scotland which he runs from Bath, you will see some of the usual suspects doing a collective moan on various topics, and bitch about other people, such as myself. Campbell once said of me, I know who he is, well I know who he is as well, and the term complete banger fits well.

Finally, isn’t sad that Alex Salmond seems to take any opportunity to attempt to burst through into the public spotlight, one thing which I am certain on is that jackanory had better value for money and a higher audience. Salmond must be so disappointed that disgraced Mark McDonald didn’t step down as an MSP. In an update to this story, the BBC has asked youtube to reinstate Campbell's channel and allow the 13 videos to stay up.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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