The Newsagents Re-Writing of the 2014 Independence Referendum

We’ve talked before about the new brocasts are a simulacra of alternative media (‘The Problem with Normcore Publishing and Podcasts‘) and here’s a great example. Here’s three ex BBC journalists spouting absolute nonsense about the media coverage of the indyref of 2014 with complete conviction:

“What if… Scotland had voted YES to independence | The News Agents

The sort of smug anglo-centric monologue declares glibly: “It wasn’t a campaign mired by … it did get ugly at times … but it didn’t get mired in misinformation” says Emily (at 15.28 in).

I mean, sure. The level of self-hypnosis here is extraordinary.

We, as the saying goes, have the receipts.

I’ll bore you with the facts in the comments but this is Memory Hole stuff.

It’s a sort of desultory cos-play of alternative media by ex-corporate media luvvies loosely re-branded as Edgelords. Their ongoing rambling incoherence is hilarious, but, there’s more. Despite the glossing and nonsense, our good friend Cockney Campaign reminds folks that:

Just, finally, it’s also historically complete untrue that iScotland couldn’t or wouldn’t have been allowed into the EU as blithely declared by the ‘News Agents’, as has been evidenced multiple times.

First, we were already members of the EU. Second, Spain’s attempt to thwart this was on the basis of an ‘illegal’ transgressive attempt at membership. A deal signed under the Edinburgh Agreement would have been utterly undeniable. To suggest otherwise is horseshit.

What you are left with is ex MSM individuals pretending to be ‘alternative’ because they have set up a wee podcast but continuing to broadcast their unreflective misinformation on their own. Just as Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell (The Rest is Politics) went from completely miscalling the US election, to continuing without pause for reflection, or Bernard Ponsonby and Alex Massie (“the two biggest names in Scottish political journalism“) chuntering on (and on) in their smugcast, these are closed-loops of self-satisfaction. It shows the failure of the mainstream media that these podcasts have emerged – but also the betrayal of the potential of alternative media.

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  1. Claire McNab says:

    Yes, that was a spectacularly crass episode.
    But The Newsagents is always a comic excercise in bloviating. If someone had wanted to construct an experiment where entitled presenters were put in air without the support teams of researchers and resources and editors, this us what it woukd look like. Entirely unsurprisingly, the whole Newsagents show is pompous hot air.

    1. 241231 says:

      And yet, you listen to it, Claire…

      1. Alec Lomax says:

        And ?

  2. Katy says:

    Amazing re-writing of history – although their point that the Brexit campaign learnt from the (problems faced by the) Yes campaign to just use vague promises rather than a detailed plan was unfortunately probably true.

    1. 241231 says:

      Vague promises indeed. The Brexit campaign learned a lot from the Scexit campaign. And it worked in England and Wales. I like to think the Scots weren’t so easily taken in.

      1. Alec Lomax says:

        ‘Scexit’. A Scotland in Union cliché.

        1. 241231 says:

          ‘Brexit’. A UK in Union cliché.

          1. Drew Anderson says:

            Apples and oranges. The UK was 1 of 28 members of the EU, there were only 2 parties involved in creating the Union. You can’t “exit” a bipartite union, you can only end it.

          2. 250101 says:

            True, Drew.

          3. John says:

            Brexit was a term used by both sides to describe the UK (an independent nation state) leaving the European Union.
            Scexit is a term dreamt up by opponents of independence to try and make Scotland (a country within the nation state of UK) becoming an independent nation state analogous to Brexit because Brexit is unpopular in Scotland. The fact that the electorate of Scotland voted nearly 2:1 to Remain in EU (including all regions of Scotland) and were still taken out of EU is for many people a demonstration of why Scotland should be independent.
            The UK can call itself what it likes after Scotland becomes independent but it will not be the same entity and will require to change many of its symbols. (The Union Jack will no longer exist).
            I suspect the rUK will try to muddle on as if nothing much has happened even though Scotland is independent because Scotland is marginal to Westminster and the London centric media. The rest of the world may see the rUK as a diminished and weakened nation state and question its favourable status in many international bodies.

  3. Cathie Lloyd says:

    Our leaving the EU still hits me with enormous regret whenever I hear of something happening that I know we’d be stopped from doing – freedom of movement being foremost for me. Every time there’s news of new restrictions on travel it just sounds like dystopian fantasy not reality. Remembering the pleasure of finding euros from different countries in my change, the first time to use the tunnel on a eurostar, or even to use a cash dispenser anywhere – so mundane. I still have my expired passport as a European citizen.

    1. 241231 says:

      It was indeed a sad day, Cathie. Unity is strength.

  4. John says:

    These political podcasts seem to be proliferating (Campbell/Stewart, Rigby, Davidson, Harmanetc). They appear to be run by media and politicians from Westminster bubble talking to themselves.
    At the same time news investigation programmes (eg Newsnight) are doing less reporting using better informed local experts and community representatives but more studio based discussions with more people from Westminster bubble and undemocratic think tank representatives.
    When I hear Westminster media talk about Scotland I feel like a teenage child at a family gathering who has the type of parents who patronisingly tells the relatives what I really think and what is good for me without actually asking my opinion.

  5. 241231 says:

    “What if Scotland had voted YES in 2014”

    Is there anything more pointless than a counterfactual podcast? Scotland didn’t vote YES in 2014.

    And the vote was ten years ago, now; Emily needs to get over it.

    1. I don’t think Emily has any problem getting over it?

      1. 241231 says:

        Evidently not if she’s still banging on about it after all this time.

      2. cathie Lloyd says:

        I suspect this is a way of getting herself a few headlines In the new year. Happy new year incidentally

    2. m. says:

      Emily has a better hair style & nicer hair than the majority of folk therefore in the visual medium she shall always win the day. Factually however there are many errors in this broadcast although the idea of voters & party politicians behaving like overgrown spoilt children is sadly very accurate in my humble opinion.

  6. Wul says:

    As soon as London-based media-commentator types speak about anything that we actually have experience of ourselves, they are revealed to be ignorant, parochial and muddle-headed.

    I’d guess that most of what they spout about other topics is the same.

    1. 241231 says:

      Don’t listen to it, Wul! That’s the solution. I wouldn’t have known about it had Mike not drawn my attention to it (though I do listen to one of Global’s sister shows, Here Comes The Guillotine, where Frankie Boyle, Susie McCabe, and Christopher MacArthur-Boyd share their ignorant, parochial and muddle-headed opinions on the chaos of the world).

    2. m. says:

      I suspect you would be correct.

  7. Squirreltowers says:

    Agree. My sister (she worked in the EU and lobbies the EU – so has a very clear understanding of how it functions both legislatively and in real politik terms) said that at the time.

    Scotland having followed a democratic, legal process to become independent would have been welcomed by the EU, Scotland meets the Copenhagen criteria, the EU is an expansionist organisation and on strategic grounds alone Scotland (location in the North Atlantic) would be welcomed as a member.

    How to show you don’t understand the EU is to make a comment about Scotland using the Euro or joining the Eurozone straight away, accession is a gradual process.

    1. 241231 says:

      I don’t see any problem with Scotland ceding some of its sovereignty to the EU, other than its having a hard border with England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and other non-EU countries. Or wouldn’t the EU trade rules apply in the case of Scotland?

      1. Rees McMogg says:

        Similar to the hard border Ireland has with Northern Ireland ?

        1. MrVertigo says:

          That’s the North of Ireland, Reese. Northern Ireland is a colonial misnomer.

  8. m. says:

    Seems the royal air force have taken the xmas fortnight off again. Expect to see the usual news story featuring a couple of Eurofighter jets heading off the Russians around February as per usual. Makes you wonder how determined the supposed enemy of these islands can be to commandeer a group of skittery wee islands 3000 miles away but heigh-ho that’s crab lossie.

  9. Mark Howitt says:

    Didn’t watch / listen beyond the first two minutes, couldn’t cope with the images of Snoopy stuck to Maitlis’s laptop, Charles Schulz turning in his grave. A live appearance at the Usher Hall on 11th March though, and heading for a sell out, so – worryingly – there are a lot people love this stuff.

  10. Derek Thomson says:

    That’s just spoiled my Hogmanay. Like Mark, I couldn’t watch it all, the comparison with tea and coffee from that smug coupon was too much.

  11. m. says:

    hmm, a wee bit hacked off since nobody seems to have given me any info on why what I will now be referring to as the Scottish Nato Party did their big U turn & signed up to NATO pre 2014 referendum making the entire thing a farce that the majority of us all seemed to fall for one way or another, I haven’t listen to this as bbc approved voices tend to turn my stomach but I would be careful in criticising the Maitlis whom as I recall is quite inclined to haul folk in & gie thim a thorough grilling, also, slagging off a lassie is nivir a gude look now is it chaps, slainte

  12. m. says:

    suffice to say also, that given the scottish nato party’s track record, in the highly unlikely event that Scotland ever does get independence it will be the biggest anti climax in world history

    1. Rees McMogg says:

      How’s the weather in Bath?

      1. m. says:

        I dunno why not ask someone living in bath, many thanks

  13. Graeme Purves says:

    Spot on, Mike!

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