You Have Entered the Twilight Zone

_75308531_newstatesmansalmondSo here’s the four versions of the Alistair Darling interview with editor Jason Cowley:

Print version 1:

“I suggest to him that Salmond has successfully redfined the SNP as representing a civic nationalism.

“Which it isn’t,” Darling says.

But, I insist, that’s what he says it is. Why do you say it isn’t? What is it? Blood and soil nationalism?

“”The SNP does not offer a civic nationalism….at heart it is blood and soil nationalism. If you ask any nationalist, ‘Are there any circumstances in which you would not vote to be independent?’ they would say the answer has got to be no. It is about how people define themselves through their national identity.

Web version 1:

“I suggest to him that Salmond has successfully redfined the SNP as representing a civic nationalism.

“Which it isn’t,” Darling says.

But, I insist, that’s what he says it is. Why do you say it isn’t? What is it? Blood and soil nationalism?

Darling: At heart . . . [inaudible mumble] If you ask any nationalist, ‘Are there any circumstances in which you would not vote to be independent?’ they would say the answer has got to be no. It is about how people define themselves through their national identity.

Web version 2: “I suggest to him that Salmond has successfully redfined the SNP as representing a civic nationalism.

“Which it isn’t,” Darling says.

But, I insist, that’s what he says it is. Why do you say it isn’t? What is it? Blood and soil nationalism?

“”Ye– At heart. At heart .  . . If you ask any nationalist, ‘Are there any circumstances in which you would not vote to be independent?’ they would say the answer has got to be no. It is about how people define themselves through their national identity.”

Web version 3:

I suggest to him that Salmond has successfully redefined the SNP as representing a civic nationalism.

“Which it isn’t,” Darling says.

But, I insist, that’s what he says it is. Why do you say it isn’t? What is it? Blood and soil nationalism?

“At heart. . . If you ask any nationalist, ‘Are there any circumstances in which you would not vote to be independent?’ they would say the answer has got to be no. It is about how people define themselves through their national identity.”

 

Read the current version here:

Alistair Darling: “Salmond is behaving like Kim Jong-il”

So, which is it?

Will the New Statesman release the audio and clear the whole thing up?

Will Darling and Better Together apologise for trying to cover this up?

It’s stretching credibility to believe that these changes happened without interference. At what point did the inaudible mumble become audible?

 

 

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  1. “Will the New Statesman release the audio and clear the whole thing up?”

    Surely the person to ask for clearance to release the clip and clear this up would be AD himself?

  2. The first web version didn’t have blood and soil nationalism being put forward by Jason Cowley, it was included solely as part of Darling’s spiel.

  3. Morag says:

    Wasn’t there an original web version which was the same as the print version? Wasn’t that what started the entire stooshie?

  4. Illy says:

    Meh, Audio is so easily faked these days, video is harder, thats why talk shows have so much chopping between people, with the person they chop to looking throughtful, it’s to cover an audio cut that would be obvious in the video.

    If they stick to turning the camera then you can be pretty sure it’s not been messed with, but if it has lots of jumps, then in all likelyhood it’s nothing like what was actualy said in the studio.

  5. oldfella69 says:

    Well, Alistair says he was just making a wee joke. Can’t you misguided nationalist bigots appreciate his
    well recognized sense of humour?

  6. andygm1 says:

    Wings has the audio

  7. fehvepehs says:

    It’s officially no longer better together. That has been dropped (they could see that it wisna true) and the new slogan is “no thanks”.
    Let the fun commence.
    Are you up for taking responsibility for running your own affairs….Eh! NO THANKS.

  8. Civil War in BT….

    And now The Ego Has Landed….
    http://www.eezypeezylemonsqeezy.com

  9. C says:

    Having listened to the audio, the interviewer asks Darling if it’s ‘blood and soil nationalism’.
    Darling makes a noise that sounds like the start of the word yes but clearly decides as he starts to say it, to say something less definite and says ‘at heart’ instead. Then a small pause for end of sentence.
    New sentence begins, ‘If you ask any nationalist…’ Etc

    As an English person, who made my home in Scotland and who decided I’d vote for independence years ago for simple practical reasons, I’d like Darling to explain my ‘nationalism’ to me.

    He manages to be so offensive, so hyperbolic and so utterly out of touch with ordinary folk, it beggars belief that anybody left him in charge of anything.

  10. Nick says:

    Unionist Propagandist, are you prepared to accept that for the next 98 days you MUST tell the truth? . . . . er, NO THANKS!

  11. I really cannot think of any circumstances in which I would vote NO. For social justice- especially for favouring poor and disadvantaged people, for greater social and economic equality, for getting a government for which we vote, for being governed by ourselves, and not by our neighbour, for freedom from immoral weapons of mass destruction, for greater land reform legislated by more left leaning governments than the present Scottish government, for retaining our free at point of need NHS paid for by justly graduated taxes, for regaining a postal service which is a SERVICE for all the people and not for increasing the wealth of the already wealthy, for having more adequate numbers of representatives on international bodies, for having a government that does not sacrifice our fishers (women & men) for the sake of the SE of England etc.. Why on earth would anyone vote NO? YES is just common sense.

  12. C says:

    “It’s very difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon him not understanding it.”

  13. Listening to the audio, I was struck by how off-balance AD was by the proposition that he should explain how the SNP’s brand of nationalism isn’t civic nationalism. He was really hemming and hawing, I’d have liked the interview to let him twist in the wind a bit longer before letting him off the hook.

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