Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Scottish Independence and Scotland's Future
Ed Means Column
Newsnet Scotland – A mixed message in the Scottish news


In earlier columns I stated that Newsnet Scotland (http://newsnetscotland.com/, a relatively new internet news provider, served Scotland well when the Scottish ‘mainstream’ press, the London press’s Scottish editions and the BBC were fervently anti-independence. As years passed, Newsnet’s increasing exposure of the casual mendaciousness, duplicity and perfidy of the United Kingdom government became increasingly influential among Scots. The Scottish ‘mainstream’ papers lost readers in droves and were forced to make a turnaround or go out of business.

BBC Scotland is another story. The BBC once had an impeccable reputation for unbiased coverage of general and political news. But they were, and still are, blatantly hostile to Scottish Independence. They now have a complete stable of dirty tricks: heckling and purposely interrupting interviews with Scottish independence supporters, selectively editing news stories, ‘stacking’ debates with independence supporters, and so on.  But they are protected by their ‘apolitical’ masters. Newsnet Scotland has made some progress with BBC Scotland, but there is still a long way to go.

All that said, Newsnet Scotland has a glaring defect: subtly treating Scotland’s membership of the European Union as a ‘done deal’ upon independence. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has for decades believed that the EU will be the salvation of Scotland, and has had a policy of ‘Scotland in Europe”. The Scottish Government ignores the fact that Scotland's existing membership of the EU through the UK's membership is the worst calamity to hit Scotland since 1707. Considering the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) alone, The CFP virtually destroyed the Scottish fisheries industry. This policy alone is costing Scotland considerably more than £1,500 million in lost wealth creation every year. The EU has destroyed tens of thousands of jobs through the CFP. And the incompetence of the EU's management of the CFP continues to this day.

I will have more to say about the EU in later columns – if Electric Scotland will continue to publish them. Meantime, let’s get back to the current subject, which is about Newsnet Scotland. Comments posted in Newsnet are subject to moderation, and most of the moderators appear to be members or strong supporters of Scotland’s membership of the EU. Any commenter such as myself who points out that the SNP’s dream, ‘independence in Europe’ (meaning the EU) is an oxymoron is extremely unlikely to see his comment in print.

The SNP and First Minister Alex Salmond refuse to believe that Scotland could never be independent in the EU. Scotland would merely be exchanging its overlords in Westminster for overlords in Brussels.

If the commenter on Newsnet also points out that a YES win in next year’s Independence Referendum does not give the First Minister – or anyone else – any authority to subject Scotland to EU membership, that comment is also highly unlikely to be published.

(I should point out that I have been banned from commenting in Newsnet.)


Return to the Ed Means Column Page


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast