New Media for a New Scotland

Bella Caledonia will be announcing plans for an extended service, and our new ideas for improved content next week. We will be reaching out to readers for your support.

We are going nowhere. We are the 45. This is just the beginning.

In the meantime, enjoy this film from The Drum which explores some of the problems in our existing media landscape:

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  1. stroma1 says:

    I for one will welcome wholeheartedly a stronger Bella and urge others to give their support. We live to fight another day, and we never ran away.

  2. Jamie Burns says:

    Reblogged this on SKiFFiE and commented:
    We are going nowhere. We are the 45. This is just the beginning!!

  3. In advance, I offer Bella and her readers free use of my 47 “Parables for the New Politics” on Facebook.

    – The author

  4. Wullie says:

    Sadly it’s the post-war baby boomers, their brains raddled by years of reading the Daily Mail/Express & Sunday Post, scared for their pensions, bank accounts & funeral plans. Brought up when the Union Jack actually meant something and unable to let go of the myth. More interested on Asda 2 for 1 deals than backing a younger more clued-up generation who were ready & willing to make a go of it.
    Would make ye greet with disappointment & frustration at the stupidity.

    1. Valerie says:

      The Hootsmon is gasping it’s last. I will ensure I buy the Sunday Herald and nothing else. I am cancelling my TV license, people want the composting and guidance on all these little acts of defiance we can peacefully take. So a pinned article on that would be good. I have a few crummy shares in Standard Life which I will cash in. This would be part of the Butterfly rebellion. Yes Scotland page came out this morning to say he is turning the page over to the wider groups, and that is a great focus point.

    2. Not so Wullie. Two over fifty yesses here (husband and myself), plus two over 70, three over 60 and one over 80 (and he’s English born). We all voted yes.

      1. Ben says:

        I don’t doubt that you and many others of the baby boomer generation did vote yes. As did my mum and her friends, but it is pretty clear that overall, the over 55s swung the vote towards no.
        Plenty of exceptions I’m sure , but taken as an age grouping , the majority did betray the younger generations.
        However, nobody is responsible for the actions of others and no sane person would blame someone because they happen to be a similar age to those who sold us out

    3. J Kelly says:

      Too much of a generalisation, Wullie. I am of that generation and, along with my wife and several similarly-aged neighbours and friends, voted “Yes”. You really need to take a more informed look at the issue. You could also do with remembering that the generation to which you refer is the one which has paid for whatever education and health care you have enjoyed in your (presumably) short life. I cannot resist the temptation to point out, too, that the word you intended to use is “addled”, and not “raddled”. So much for the “clued-up” generation.

      1. brobof says:

        Just dropping in to ask you to remind one and all north o’ the border: that this was a poll by a Tory Peer (Conservative Peer Lord Michael Ashcroft) Tories are by nature treacherous and duplicitous. The results designed to split the Scottish people into more managable chunks and set the community against each other. Old vs Young English vs Scots. With the passage of time the NaySayers will realise their mistake. The issue is not settled for a generation! Hope is our Duty!

      2. Exactly. We need to find ways to pull together, not point fingers. No matter who voted what for why – what do we do about it now? How do we rebuild and reconnect? Those are the important questions.

      3. Robert Dunn says:

        That was a bit condescending of you.

    4. deewal says:

      Ok. Enough of this shite. I’m 68 and a Member of the SNP and have been campaigning for the last four years non stop. My Yes Stickers are still on my windows and they are staying there. I no longer consider myself as a Subject of the UK and I will not accept any of they’re Rules or Laws. I will abide by Scottish Law. I have stopped my payment to the ECB and I do not read English news rags.
      I was born at the end of WW2 in Liverpool and we lived in a prefabricated cabin because the city was in ruins. My mother had a Ration book. We ate pigs feet and tripe and scouse We had it really fucking easy.
      Oh yes. I am also technically English. I’m a member of The National Collective and helped crowd fund WOS.
      Find your scapegoat somewhere else.

      1. BSA says:

        Bravo Sir, from a Scottish pensioner

    5. flit2013 says:

      Scapegoating a particular demographic is ageist, prejudiced and illogical. I’m a rUK born over 60 and fit the NO voter mould on both counts and I really resent the stereotyping that my over 55 contemporaries are either stupid or merely self interested. Given the main reason for voting NO was economic/currency related then this points more to a hole in the Yes campaign, and an inability to reassure, then surely made worse by MSM and BBC scare tactics (who both played a blinder on behalf of their paymasters in the establishment).

      So what do you want next ? – a Gaelic Soylent Green where anybody over 65 who doesn’t fit your world view is compulsorily euthanased ? Because that it is the logical conclusion of your rather spiteful and ill informed rant.

      Blaming the voters is simplistic and unlikely , with your mindset, to make you a useful advocate for the next campaign. Best stay at home, as believe me, you will persuade nobody with these views for the next indyref, as there will surely be. I just hope it’s in my lifetime, preferably before my brain gets raddled by the Daily Mail, which btw I wouldn’t even use to wipe my erse, and while I can still contribute something to the promotion of a just, egalitarian and democratic society for my students and their ability to identify and discard propaganda. Who do you think kick started the younger generation to get more clued up ? They’re certainly not all autodidacts. I suspect that helping people of all ages to think critically for themselves is a better way forward. Its certainly more democratic.

      I doubt very much whether the arrogance of your clued-upness will deter you from expressing these bampot opinions again – but I’ll tell you this – if you ever get to lobby me you’ll certainly turn me off your vision of iScotland.

    6. Pam McMahon says:

      I am in my 60s now, and have been fighting for independence since I was 14 years old, when a family member stood for the SNP in a safe Labour seat and lost. I have not stopped since that time, and nor have many of my family and friends. I did my 6 mile round trip to the polling station on Thursday with a glad and hopeful heart and, like all of my friends and family, are devastated and despairing at the result.

      You have done us a grave disservice Wullie, and thank you for the additional pain. Maybe it’s time to go back and sit on your wee bucket.

    7. As one of the 45 who is fast approaching 60, I’m pleading with Wullie and people who agree with the sentiments he’s expressed above: Please stop of thinking in age stereotypes – there were YES voters from across the age spectrum (ask my 90 year old mother). Looking for a scapegoat group to blame won’t change the referendum result and will make it easier for the establishment to continue playing the game of “divide and conquer”.

      Regardless of age, what we need to do now is to unite in our common purpose. I’ve been delighted at the wonderful energy, awareness and desire to work for the benefit of all members of the community that I’ve seen develop among young people over the course of the referendum campaign and I’m happy to applaud it, despite my advanced age. It’s inspirational, and it’s something that I thought had gone forever, snuffed out by the increasing erosion of social values that began in the Thatcher era, and still continues.

      We may not be heading for the Scotland we wanted any time soon, but we can work to make the Scotland we have the kind of country that we sought. Campaigning will continue. I’ve also seen the stirrings of a peaceful resistance movement among the 45 on Twitter and there will be the opportunity for all of us to use our energy and ingenuity to devise creative ways of using both to drive the agenda forward.

    8. bellacaledonia says:

      My dad has bought the Express for as long as I can remember. He’s worried about his funeral plans. He’s been Labour all his life. He goes look for deals at Lidls. He’s 81 and his health is declining. He voted YES.

      KW

    9. budgeup says:

      “a younger more clued-up generation”

      Conceited little arse.

      You don’t know, what you don’t know, and you know next to nothing.

      Your “post-war baby boomers” are part of a well educated socially experienced and politically informed section of your community. Were it not for them there wouldn’t have been the cultural and social revolution that allows you to express yourself as pathetically as you do.

      It was the baby boomers that maintained a level of political engagement whilst almost every other strata of the community were apathetic enough to allow our governments to pervert the political process. Had our youth engaged in the subject of ‘boring politics dude’ instead of ignoring it as an inconvenient interruption to selfish hedonism, there may have been sufficient political engagement to ensure our politicians didn’t take their default positions of demi-gods.

      Many boomers are already drawing their hard earned government and private pensions, insulated from all but the most extraordinary financial conditions which gives them the unique perspective of their own independence and an objective outlook.

      But you can’t think that far, you are too wrapped up in your own youthful, ignorant, selfish conceit.

  5. Grant says:

    Booby Hain, saying that BBC and STV are impartial, no opinion, unbiased. You joking?

    1. Dean Richardson says:

      The first step an alcoholic (or any other type of addict) has to take is to admit to having a problem in the first place.

  6. Lynne McGregor says:

    I’m in. My Herald sub is cancelled and my money is better spent on creating a new media and I love what Bella has to say.

  7. Linda Hughes Graham says:

    My hubby was born 1949 ….I was born 1950….we have fought tooth and nail all our working life …..and in our day walked out of jobs for our pricipals …..sadly something that can’t be done to-day…..please stop mud slinging as this only causes splits and fuels the fire and the hate …..try and educate your eldery peers not everyone can think like a young dynamic brain can…..every day we live now is a bonus as we will not see 21 again….We all made mistakes with this INDY REF……I myself would have applied …..You must have the birthright to vote IE. Scottish by birth …..and my cut off would have been 16yrs to 70yrs but then I am very bitter now and the hardest pill to swallow is defete ……By the way newspapers have been banned in our house since the MINERS STRIKE along with all realalty TV……now theirs brainwashing

  8. David B says:

    I’m in too. Likewise I cancelled my Herald subscription during the referendum campaign.

  9. I like many feel dejected and rejected,I am 62 and can understand why so many vote no but I think there were more younger ones voting yes.I am suspicious of all the new registrations,I wonder where they came from and if the just manage to vanish this weekend and get back to where they came from.The amount that registered was just enough to win for the no,and the unprecedented amount of postal votes that also arouses my suspicions.If as I am certain,will happen,none of the “extra powers” will come our way,there are wars to start and conflicts to send the Scottish troops in to.I can also see Scottish Water being sold off to a new company full of Tory donors and members of the party,it will be sold for a£1. so that they can raise money,and prices,to build the new infrastructure that they need to build.Of course they also own the companies supplying the materials to do the building,I would like to say to all those no voters thank you very much and if you lot are going to die in the next couple of years why did you leave this mess for our grandchildren to clean up.Thanks for getting rid of our country Scotland is no more you lot officially condemned it to history.Thanks for letting me get this off of my chest,I feel so sad Glasgow voted yes and then we had the unionist foot soldiers attack the goodbye party the yes supporters were having.Perhaps my hopes shall like a phoenix shall rise from the ashes of my despair.

    1. LMS says:

      I feel exactly as you describe here Charles, the sadness of what Scotland might have become had Yes won, will stay with me for a long long time,and like you I can’t understand the mind set of the younger people who voted No.I also have grave suspicions over the handling/counting of the postal votes and the aprox 800,000 ” missing” votes of the allegedly 4.2 million who registered.
      I’ve decided, the only way to proceed now, is to join ranks with ” the 45″ and carry on tenaciously with the struggle to regain our Independence – Saor Alba Gu Bràth.

      1. g says:

        Yes! Devastated… but I’m with you. Up the 45… don’t let the despair get you down. From Scotland with love to provide an alternative to scaremongering, austerity, hopelessness. Soar Alba.

    2. Paula Rose says:

      The phoenix is preening her feathers.

    3. budgeup says:

      Charles, the greatest legacy the YES voters could have left Scotland was to lose the vote. Westminster will be pointing fingers at who they think nearly lost the union. Scotland will get more devolved powers because Westminster can’t ever allow this to happen again, be it in Scotland, but now in Wales and NI. Holyrood has the opportunity to change the face of British politics, and the rest of the world is watching. On the international political stage, Scotland has now been recognised as a country with the most engaged community on earth. Every country in the world admires that and is seeking ways to replicate it. It has been enough to, I believe, ignite interest in British politics and I believe there will be an increased turnout at the forthcoming general election.

      Scotlands NO vote legacy is immense, a YES vote would merely have consigned it to another struggling independent country. The NO vote elevates it to a country with a community of participants in democracy thanks to YES voters.

      We all have to understand the positive message we have sent to the world, not simply wallow in the misery of defeat.

  10. Sarah says:

    Glad you’re not going away. But how can anyone else join you if you limit yourself to being the 45?

  11. Abi Cornwall says:

    I’m in x

  12. Fed up with the lies and propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    I stopped buying ‘Scottish ” newspapers about 15 years ago, I was sick and tired of their anti Scotland bias, like rabid BritNat creep Alan Cochrane of the Torygraph, Daily Record ( Der Sturmer ) and the Scotsman, I really don’t know why it’s called that ? shouldn’t it be retitled ‘ the North Briton’ ?

    I recommend Yes supporters to boycott all UK and Scottish newspaper rags, just like Liverpool stopped buying the Sun after the Hillsborough football tragedy, after all it’s just brainwashing propaganda, celebrity gossip and football, bread and circuses, you’ll be saving £10 a week, £40 a month. Watch their sales drop, put them out of business, plus you’ll be saving the environment since they have to chop down forests to print their garbage, it’s highly invigorating not to buy their lies anymore.

    1. gonzalo1 says:

      Just say No.

  13. Selkie says:

    Charles – never give up!

  14. yerkitbreeks says:

    I will be saving £145 in due course, so this becomes available.

  15. Fed up with the lies and propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    From the Scotsman,

    ”ISLAMIC extremists are threatening to kill Scottish aid worker David Haines to help secure a Yes vote in the independence referendum, an intelligence expert has claimed.”

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/scottish-independence-link-to-isis-scots-hostage-1-3534191

    Some people actually believe this garbage, shameful ” journalism.”

    1. Ricardo Khan says:

      Wow. That is barrel-scraping bollocks coming from the erroneously named bogroll.

      Why would ISIS kill a Scottish captive just to help bring about a Yes vote? Whatever else the theocratic maniacs are, they aren’t stupid. If they had any understanding of Scottish politics, they’d recognise that such an act would stimulate Islamophobia and militarism, both of which are strongly associated with British Unionism. Alas, their murder of David Haines probably did just that.

      Most likely they didn’t give a damn about or a single care towards Scottish politics. They murdered Haines to provoke a response from the UK.

      The erroneously named bogroll, however, saw an opportunity to associate the Yes campaign with ISIS. There was no link between ISIS’s reign of terror and Scottish independence until Unionists tried to make one.

      This is deeply disturbing stuff. Back in 2012, I held out a hope that my island (I’m English) would set a positive example to the rest of the world for how to conduct a civilised debate over constitutional matters. I hope that the UK’s press freedom ranking will drop even further to reflect the downright disgraceful behaviour of the media in the Scottish referendum debate.

  16. muttley79 says:

    I will continue to support Bella Caledonia and other pro-independence blogs in promoting democracy and positive, progressive social change in Scotland. The struggle goes on and the dream shall never die.

  17. allan sayers says:

    I am a magazine publisher who was lucky to have a teacher called William McIlvanney. I will help fund Bella and am willing to help advise on how it can be sustained. I was disgusted with the media bias during the referendum where even The Guardian and my old magazine The New Statesman showed bias.. A strong free press is essential if we are to get the message over and win our independence. The BBC I had already realised were the tool of the state so we need to up our game on free radio and TV.

  18. Martin D. says:

    I would like to help in any way I can to support an alternative to the mainstream media who’s hands are tied by the large corporations and untrustworthy Governments that have once again taken the food out of the mouths of the poor and disenfranchised and lined their pockets with the resource revenues of a Nation that they see as only a cash cow.
    For too long have the voices of fairness, equality and objective reasoning been in the background.
    Change will come, of that I am certain. It may not be tomorrow and it may be a number of hard fought campaigns away but the groundswell of support for a better and fairer society has made it’s mark.

    Already I have seen a number of articles calling for people to remain engaged and I fully endorse it.
    I urge all 45% AND the large number of electorate who took part to take a keen interest in the what goes on and filter it through an objective lens. It is a sad commentary in democracy that too many voters go to the polls either uninformed or worse yet entrenched in a view they have not examined and vote out of loyalty to a cause they do not fully understand. The key may be in attracting readership with balanced views put forth in such a way that the logic of the need for change becomes obvious to all and from there gathers it’s strength to create the change so desperately needed.

    1. freethinker says:

      I agree that many of the electorate vote out of loyalty to a cause they do not understand. I don’t think you have understood the concept of freedom of speech and from this fact all your troubles stem.

  19. Fay Kennedy. says:

    Please continue with this journalism. Although I can only be a distant subscriber I cannot imagine it not continuing for it’s been like a beacon of inspiration from first reading. Thankyou all who participate either writers or commentators and as I leave this place of my birth in the next few days I go with sadness for what might have been but also with encouragement that the day will come again when the naysayers will be in smaller numbers and the young will have their fair share of everything that this country can be as Alisdair Gray said.

  20. I’d be very interested in being part of thing… I was one of the 45. However, I stall when I see wean Morrison listed as one of your contributors. He publicly went over to vote no. He’s not one of the 45 . I’d need to be sure there’s more integrity than that in this whole thing before I’d commit to it.

    1. Sean McNulty says:

      With all due respect, I disagree. Surely the point now is to convert the No’s, not exclude them. #the45 is a great rallying point, but the point is for it to become #the60, #the70…

      #onwards.

  21. lizard100 says:

    Time to build on the successes.

  22. rockysimson says:

    BELLA keep your online Referendum TV going strong, and even start a News radio station online.

    Scotland needs reliable impartial unbiased news outlets, and we’re not getting it. Scotland needs this before next elections. Even consider using ethical advertising to fund stations!

    We are the 45, need someone with the brain of a planet to take control and cobble a new pop-up SINGLE political party, which the 1.6million YES can join and vote for in next elections, and demolish all UK parties in Scotland.

    At the moment we are multiple parties, which is great for UK Union’s divide and rule techniques.

    1. Patrick Hogg, Biographer of Robert Burns says:

      Good stuff Rocky. We can keep the Yes Scotland banner and use it in the election of May 7th next year if the SNP candidates decide they are okay standing under the heading of being YES SCOTLAND candidates with some other candidates from the YES team such as Blair, Jeane Freeman, Cat Boyd, Lesley Riddoch and so on. Then we can take them on with one issue: vote for Yes SCotland’s team for Independence and if we win both the majority of MP’s AND the majority of total votes cast, we declare UDI and demand that negotiations start asap.

  23. Onwards says:

    Unfortunately, I don’t think social media / political blogs are enough.

    Traditional papers are better in getting their view across to non-political people and old folks.
    Front page propaganda gets their message out every day to thousands of shoppers.

    They help to set the agenda. All the little things add up.
    ‘Real’ papers with online editions are also more successful in getting articles syndicated across Google/Yahoo news etc

    What we really need is a pro-Scottish Daily Record or Metro style paper, with news, football, entertainment etc. Something that you would find in a coffee shop rack.
    Articles could perhaps be donated by blog owners for publicity.

    It would be great to see the Weirs or Brian Soutar invest in a daily paper !!

    1. Sean McNulty says:

      Mass boycott of one Unionist paper and the TV license, setting aside all funds saved to buy the paper when it nears collapse. Shares in the new pro-indy paper at least partly offered on production of letters/emails cancelling license fee and newspaper subscriptions. Shares in the now healthy (in every sense) title then proudly handed down through the generations.

      The BBC and the paper in question watching their cash drain away to such a project… Need I say more?

      And if the above plan fails, then what if anything has been lost? I’m sure we’d find some other use for all that saved-up cash.

  24. Ged Brockie says:

    I’m a professional musician with massive experience across a wide range of areas including the music industry (running a music festival), the web (I run a content based subscription Institute online – many video), composition, tuition (created SQA approved courses as well as Uni courses etc.), small record company, performance across Europe etc. I would love to offer my services to you and be involved (I live in Edinburgh) if my skills and knowledge are of use to you. How do I sign up to this?

  25. brianmchugheng says:

    That is great news to hear Bella. Likewise my support is going nowhere.

    This is just the start. 🙂

  26. Ali M says:

    Thanks for my political reawakening Bella, will gladly subscribe.

  27. Patrick Hogg, Biographer of Robert Burns says:

    Superb news.

    Strategy for keeping Yes going and making the General Election in May a Day of Reckoning is as follows in my view:

    Top people in Yes Scotland and the SNP can, if willing, discus and come up with a strategy of fielding candidates for the 2015 election under the banner Yes Scotland for Independence with a two prong aim of getting a majority of MP’s and more important, over 50% of the actual votes cast. With an 80% turnout in 2015, taking away most of the younger voters who will be barred from voting, we would need to hit a target of around 1,7 million to get a majority of votes cast. With a majority of votes cast and a majority of MP’s I think a declaration of Independence in Holyrood would be made and a legitimate statement of the will of the Scottish people. If any candidates are already chosen from the SNP for each constituency I am sure some of them would be able to put country before party and step aside for other colleagues from YES Scotland’s various groups such as Business for SCotland Women for Independence and so on. Jeane Freeman, Cat Boyd, Ivan Mackee and so on would be fantastic candidates………. needs key people to come together and agree this idea and then work out the practicalities. Your thoughts Mike?.

  28. Robert Graham says:

    anyone supply the correct way to legally stop paying the BBC tax (ie) the most painless way thanks

    1. All details on Wings over Scotland

    2. iain t says:

      Full details on a Wings article today.

  29. Susan Macdiarmid says:

    This would be a much better use for our TV license money than giving it to the official state propaganda broadcasting service..

  30. iain t says:

    Since I don’t have any campaigning to fouter about with at the moment, let me know if you need any pro bono help on legal stuff. I’m just along the road in Fife.

  31. arthur thomson says:

    I guess that Wullie was, like me feeling a mixture of anger, frustration and sadness. I am sure he has got the points made. I will definitely support the development of a Scottish media. Like others, I like the notion of ‘the 45’, bearing in mind Sarah’s point. I also agree with Onwards that we need a newspaper on the news stands to counter the rags. How good it is that we have the indomitable spirit to fight on. Let’s make it the smartest fight ever.

    1. Patrick Hogg, Biographer of Robert Burns says:

      see me comments above Arthur of how we turn the General election into a day of reckoning by keeping the Yes Campaign for a Yes vote in the May 7th election.

  32. Good to hear that Bella will continue. We need every kind of media format available to represent this extraordinary awakening of grassroots politics. Carpe Diem. We also need to include everyone; I mean by that all age groups, and not least the ’55’. We must put out a sincere hand of friendship to the ’55’, because we can win over some of them and we must accept even the intransigent, because we must be, and must be seen to be above small-mindedness or the self-defeating, destructive route of nursing old wounds or resentment; not least because the demographics are with us, not Westminster; the future is ours.

    With this in mind, while I can understand the appeal of the “45” (#45), it seems to me conceptually to be too ‘clubbish’; too exclusive (and too Jacobite). I am not going to try and be a brand-developer (not my specialism), but I think something that expresses the idea of “45to100” would be far, far more appropriate; expressing what we aspire to achieve. We must have Big Aspirations, we must be open and inclusive; and not express a kind of inverted elitism of the ’45’.

  33. mary vasey says:

    Great stuff Bella, I’m a yesser, in fact still wearing my badges and intend to leave all my YES posters up. btw I’m a pensioner. I have not watched tv for a long time. I will admit to enjoying radio 4 but have also given that up also tho I do miss a decent talk radio, so look forward to unbiased media.

  34. G. P. Walrus says:

    I too will have £145 to disburse on an annual basis to support a better media. This is a good time to coordinate action as folks reconsider their use of media.

    I think the big sites and other players should get together rather than all try to fund themselves randomly and intermittently. How about setting up a Scottish Media Trust to commission TV, radio, film, music, sport, and print content from various sources?

    I’d rather give my money to that than to the BBC.

      1. Sean McNulty says:

        TV licence of 145 = 12 x 12 quid.

        So 12 quid a month seems an appropriate figure for this new venture.

        Tens of thousands of subscriptions at twelve quid a month and you might well blow away the rest of the Scottish print and online media.

  35. Wendy says:

    Where do we sign up?

  36. Lynn says:

    I too would support this, all MSM are not worth watching or buying. I also would like to say that I don’t believe that the over 55’s lost us the vote, I know lots of folk in the age group and they were all voting yes. Great work Bella and long may you continue and flourish.

  37. Davythemidge says:

    I agree totally with Onwards (16.41 on 20th). If you look at the age profile of the vote……the over 65’s were 73% NO’s. There is no doubt that social media played a huge part in galvanising support and exposing MSM misinformation and bias. But it has to be said that an awful lot of the older generation particularly outside the middle classes are non-participants in social media.

    There is also a wee worry in the back of my mind about the astonishing increase of activity on Indy sites constituted a lot of the same folk moving around between them……that’s OK but it might give an over estimation of support. I know I shifted from 50:50 confidence to real optimism by the 18th.

    So if we go for alternative media let’s go with traditional formats including all the elements that appeal to the masses…..sport etc as well as social media. This is particularly so for the older population. It’s no coincidence that young people who are social media “savvy” overwhelmingly got the message and voted overwhelmingly in favour.

  38. matt dorans says:

    Would the Stv consider public funding?
    We the majority share holders?
    Simply as the BBC can go to… well you know…
    £1 per week say. Boycott BBC & license.
    We take autonomy.
    We take control.

    Simple…

    Matt

    1. matt dorans says:

      Look at the figures. 1m people @ £52 per annum.
      Thats only 1/3 of the fee, all voluntary.
      How can STV say no to 52 million per year starting? It’s what the BBC has done in it’s nationalist propoganda machine. Where is Scotland’s?
      Genius! 😉

  39. Ian FINLAYSON says:

    Any news on 45 badges posters stickers are any available yet or do I have to make my own ?

  40. Douglas says:

    Please don’t rant against the older voters. It is unfair and really doesn’t help. I was out leafleting with a determined team of spritely pensioners -I was by far the youngest age 53… many elderly really understand but many have been given false information.

    It was heartbreaking to hear some of the scares that they were exposed to. The most common were economic but I vividly remember a very elderly woman approaching our stand in the High street of Inverness in tears because her fear of Independence was that she would no longer be allowed to practice her religion. I don’t know who had told her this lie but it was firmly fixed in her mind and she was very very scared. Although she graciously conceded that I ‘seemed very nice’, she was inconsolable and could not be reassured -even by an offer to put her in touch with Christians (her religion) for Independence.

    The elderly are often not active on the internet and get their information from papers, BBC and figures in authority. I think it is a disgrace that someone had frightened her in this way, but it does not surprise me.
    We need to find ways to get the message to this age group -our own print, media and relatives.

    Not to blame them.

    1. Martin D. says:

      I couldn’t agree more Douglas. If movement forward is what is needed then to have a paper in print that includes issues, events and dialogue that appeals a wide cross section of the populace. One that informs them and points them in the direction of the help and services that they need, they are going to remember this help and become more comfortable and familiar with the ideas put forth. I have a belief that many of the elderly for example are intimidated by technology to a degree. Much of it is new to them and complicated at a time in their lives when simplicity helps them through their day. Such a paper can do much to unravel the disparities between what they may have been told by the mainstream and the real truths. In a new society of inclusiveness and greater powers for all it is incumbent upon the 45% to reach out to all those who may have been swindled not just the ones who were not.

  41. Bryony MacLeod says:

    What do people think of not just campaigning for devolving media control to the Scottish Parliament but the creation of our own cross platform media network? Including TV, radio and print media. A collaboration between National Collective, Bella Caledonia, Sunday Herald and the many other wonderful writers and exceptionally talented people of this noble movement for change. A real opportunity for balanced journalism and progressive modern media. There are 1.6 million of us, surely we could all contribute a wee bit to get the funds started?

  42. A Park says:

    Yeah maybe need to think again about the name of the movement ’45’ don’t want to exclude regretful no voters etc want all pro independence to get involved. We need a newspaper as had been said. Only left wing reads I know of are SWP paper and mag Red Pepper. Need to get the truth outvand re-educate people

    1. I agree. Maybe call it “The 100”? 🙂 Let’s be optimistic!

  43. Rosie says:

    So good to hear Bellacaledonia will live on, and a collaboration [not another coalition!] of the inspiring writers is a great idea. I’ve just removed my name from the Scottish Review and finished with New Statesman – the first was negative gloom except for Gerry Hassan, and NS was either light weight on Scotland, out of touch, or both. We can do better with a homegrown grassroots media – the skills and talent are there already.

  44. habibbarri says:

    As I’ve been chatting with folk, what has most impressed me is that most of the less educated people who don’t have computers and don’t access the internet usually said would vote NO because they don’t like Alex Salmons and/or Nicola Sturgeon or, in the case of old people because they thought that they wouldn’t get their pensions in an independent Scotland. A lot of people of all age groups thought that they’d lose the NHS in independent Scotland. Gordon Brown, right up to the last moment continued to the spread the lie that Scottish NHS would not be affected by privatisation in England.

    These less educated folk and old folk simply did not accept literature that gave evidence for the truth. Some read the trashy newspapers, Many don’t read even those. We need a truly independent Scottish television station that will broadcast non biased news, current affairs programmes and documentaries that are unbiased.. Is there anyone among us who has the knowledge and skills to raise funds for such a station? Is there anyone who could start such a station? Is there anyone could run such a station?If there is, please come forward. We desperately need you reach those to help us reach those people. .

    1. Dean Richardson says:

      The idea’s sound, but once you find the people with the skills and finance to run such a TV station (maybe a radio one, too?), you need to get a licence to operate. I don’t think Westminster will grant anybody permission to operate in competition with the BBC and STV. Even if it’s done online only, you come back to the problem of such a large part of Scotland’s population not having easy (or any) access to the web.

      1. habibbarri says:

        It could be done from a ship outside UK waters. I remember a radio station operating that way in the 1960s-70s

  45. habibbarri says:

    Is there anyone among who has the knowledge and skills to raise funds to start a tv station that would broadcast news, current affairs and documentaries that are unbiased? Is there anyone who could run the station? We need to reach out to and inform people who don’t have computers and don’t access the internet at their local library, and who don’t even read the trashy newspapers..

    If the 1.6 million would make whatever sacrifice is necessary and contribute £100, that would be one million six hundred Thousand pounds. Would that be enough to start with?

    1. TheWealthOfNations says:

      Are you sure that figure’s right?

      Folks on WoS have been talking about crowd-funding a takeover of The Scotsman. I’ll happily pitch in£1000 to achieve that sort of beach-head.

      The Media are our real enemy here. They are the mouth-piece of the 1%.

      We will never achieve any sort of real victory until we can rely on a trusted, impartial Free Press that is owned and operated by the people, for the people.

      1. The sum should be £1,060,000

  46. twentyworld says:

    With regards names:-
    If this is to be a print media to encourage, inform and debate (along with provide everything the press does- sport economics etc), do NOT use any name dirrectly associated with the referendum.

    Whatever it gets called we ’45+’ (apparently in 24hrs of result SNP gained 3000 more paying members i heard) will know its name.

    Others who do not know its name will however have less of a barrier to reading it. After all the Scotsman isn’t called ‘Westminster mind’, and the Express, English media incorporated! (OK being a bit silly but you get the idea).

    Just give it a name that appeals to all the Scottish public. It is tempting to use recent events, to use that DIRECTLY to drive up readership among the 45+, but the 55 will not immediately be reading it. The 55 are more likely to adopt it more quickly, if the name has no direct issue. We 45+ will know via the social media that the ‘new media outlet’ is here for this reason and immediately switch and boycott the rest.

    The rest:-

    The media has to offer everything… news, politics… world…sport. It has to be a full replacement. Yes offer online media- cheaper quicker etc. But also a print media. Just price them the same- we online users would happily (i would of thought) see the saving made in online distribution go to sustaining a responsibly priced print media. It is the print media that will be the media that draws in the 55. Why would someone dedicated to 55 switch to reading Bella online now and ditch the ‘Union media’?

    The reduced subs to Union media has to be a priority. This is where the 45+ have the biggest immediate effect. Then as readership of print independent media increase, slowly becoming aware of online media such as Bella (you wouldn’t want outright campaigning within the print media- generally the public gets put off by this). Through the knowledge of Bella et al, they will then join the campaign against both Union Media and rule.

    Essentially what I am saying is you need a balance between ‘oh look here is whats happening down the street/Scotland/UK/World’ and ‘this is why we need independence.

    Finally:-
    Lots of offers around for both financial and individual help on here.
    Maybe Bella need to start a register of people willing to help, skills, times, experience, ways, locations in which they can help?
    Just for the media you need writers, negotiators (printers), typesetters used to layout with InDesign etc and reading for printers, photographers (with cameras of course!), people ‘knowledgeable’ in politics, science, sport, education, world history maybe? Of course people based around Scotland and the UK can help with this too to collect details of events quickly. Some actively looking for news, some maybe on a ‘RNLI system’ of emergency messaging if you hear of news/events in the area. (Obviously means you need a lot of London based individuals too, as sadly the relevance is still there).

    I am sure you could easily find all these from the society here. Eventually extending to some key paid staff- eventually a fully running media. Especially for sections such as sport as those interested and with a flair for photography could potentially get ringside seats in order to cover it.

    Like everyone here- I am willing to help in anyway. Just to dispel the myth further (of which many before me have here), I was born in England (although have some Scottish ancestry along with about 6 other nationalities) and moved at 18 to Scotland. But my home is Scotland, my heart is in Scotland, my head is in Scotland. Maybe the fact I have had another period out of Scotland make me see just how bad things can get south of the border.

    Thats my two/fifty cents anyway.

  47. I think its time we organised; all the various groups within YES to form an overall movement; and had one coordinated new Scottish media – a rich media, online and off, that could counter the BBC/SKY etc.
    Imagine what the creatives and journalists could do if we all came together – it would have to be a cumulative effort; the disparate different sites and groups were helpful to entice people from all walks of life into the campaign, but to be divided now would simply duplicate effort and wouldnt give us the critical mass necessary.
    What about a new, central YES media?
    A Scottish YES Movement – that encompassed all the parties and groups – not a party, but an entire national movement of everyone?

    1. habibbarri says:

      I think that this makes sense.

    2. Patrick Hogg, Biographer of Robert Burns says:

      That is excellent as it is what we created and what we still have if we stay united. We can field candidates at the election of May 7th 2015 under the banner of YES SCOTLAND if the SNP are okay with this. Country before party. This needs serious thought and could lead to us winning the overall majority of MP’s and an overall majority of votes cast with one objective: Declare UDI since we would have a mandate to do so.

  48. Simon Chadwick says:

    Also don’t forget that live broadcast TV requires you to buy a license in order to legally watch it… I know in theory people could cancel their license fee and put the money into a new station that they did not watch, but it seems to be a bit counter-productive.

    The new media should not try to gain readers from us, low-hanging fruit who already don’t look at newspapers or TV. We are fine, we have social media and online news. The new media should be in direct competition with the old media, trying to get people who currently read the Unionist papers to switch, trying to get the people who currently watch TV news every night to switch. That’s a much harder target market.

  49. Angry Weegie says:

    @Wullie (yesterday 13:26)
    I suppose I’ve just missed being categorised as a post war baby boomer, as I was born during the war. I voted Yes, as did my wife (same generation as me) and as did most of my friends, many of whom were really post war baby boomers.

    I’ve been a supporter of independence for almost 60 years, ever since I was an SNP candidate in a mock election in my school in 1956 (I wasn’t elected), so my disappointment runs much deeper than many of the (comparative) youngsters I’ve seen on many of the blogs moaning about nasty, selfish old people. When a 60yo dream gets trashed, you certainly feel it and it doesn’t help when there are people coming close to suggesting euthanasia for anyone over the age of 60 to make sure they don’t vote in any next referendum.

    I have devoted two years of my life to the independence campaign, latterly spending many hours every day, often at 3 or 4 different events, not getting enough sleep but still trying to convert the undecided and the unconvertible. I’ve spent both time and money, supporting Yes and many of the blogs and initiatives. OK, I’m retired now, but how many of the (comparative) youngsters are able to match this commitment. And I’m not alone, because many of the aforementioned baby boomers did the same.

    So let’s stop demonising the over 60s. They are not a replacement for the Tories in attracting the ire of the masses.

    1. Pam McMahon says:

      We’re an easy target, being lumped into a demographic which mostly voted No, no matter how many years we have spent keeping the wee small flame alive. Younger people do not see how much pain is caused by the fact that we will now die before the independence we fought for our whole lives, is achieved.
      I know we are used to being reviled and despised, as independence supporters for half a century, but it still hurts to have Yes supporters joining in. It has decided me to stop being an active supporter of independence. I will not vote in another election. I will not participate in another campaign. This will be my final post on any blog site. I will die, as I have lived, as a free Scot, but not living in a free Scotland.

  50. gonzalo1 says:

    Let’s campaign now to stop paying the licence fee.

  51. habibbarri says:

    The Westminster government violated the Edinburgh agreement and broke the lay by promising new powers within the purdah period. They squirm out of it, when challenged, by saying they were not promising new powers but only a timetable. Yet the kept on uttering that they were offering new powers. Why doesn’t the Scottish government take the Westminster government to court over this? It should be easy to prove from all the videos available.

    1. Shuggy says:

      I agree. However, on other pro-independence blogs, I’ve been surprised and disappointed at the apparent lack of appetite for pursuing such matters.

      The issue of purdah and in particular, the ‘Timetable’ given by Gordon Brown prior to the vote, printed in the Daily Record, is also of particular concern as the date of the first action – to publish a motion in the House of Commons on 19th Sept – was given in the full and prior knowledge that Parliament was in recess, so nothing of the sort would or could be done. This is a matter for which they can be held to account, surely.

      Similarly, I remember the anger about the mainstream media bias in general and specific incidents in particular (e.g. Nick Robinson’s misreporting) and the promises to hold the perpetrators to account. But this, along with the suggestions of ‘polling anomalies’ seems to have been put in the box marked ‘Leave it, it’s not worth it, let’s look forward not back’.

      That’s the sort of attitude that has left the electorate (throughout the UK) increasingly at the mercy of an all powerful establishment without a shred of accountability to the people it claims to serve. I really think we need to clean out the garbage before refurbishing the house.

  52. Breege Smyth says:

    Thank you BellaC – that is great news . . . 🙂

  53. John Page says:

    Have just unscrewed my TV aerial this morning and my wife is e mailing to cancel the license. Cancelled the Guardian in June. So I now have say £250 a year to support alternative media
    Four things are important
    1. We need printed output every month for the “information poor”……the rest of us can deliver around the doors
    2. We need a very disciplined electoral pact for 2015
    3. I hope the various alternative media creators collaborate
    4. Glasgow voted Yes……..the grip of Labour’s mafia on the City Council must be broken………

  54. wee e says:

    I think it’s quite urgent that 45 reconsiders its name.

    I always intended to vote YES, but it seems an exclusionary label even to me. Some of my relations who voted NO only because they were pessimistic, and who are furious now: the name is bit of a slap to them.

    45+, maybe? Or >45 (the math symbol for “greater than”)…?

    Also, I want to knwo who, exactly 45 are. Who is organising or running it? Are they a continueation of yES or compleetly separate from it? I wouldn’t expect a manifesto at such an early stage, but a basic mission statement…?

    1. Someone on the Facebook “We are the 45” group suggested “45 and beyond”

  55. Linda Graham says:

    Bella hate to be a pest but is it possible to get a thumbs up/down or a like so we can show our agree/disagree.

  56. richard heinsar says:

    Wullie,
    Most folk accept over 60’s were by a substantial majority NO. This doesn’t mean all were, and in fact in my family all in that category voted YES, including my 98 year auld mother in law, who rejected a postal vote as she wanted to be part of the occasion! She was bitterly disappointed and berated her NO voting friends for believing Gordon Brown’s claim that their pensions were at risk. Dinnae juist blame the auld folk. There’s plenty o glaikit/gullible young folk too. In fact blame Brown and his fellow rogues for putting our auld folk into a state of fear and alarm with project fear.

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