Sunday, February 8, 2015

Allan Massie and the Mail on Sunday tell a direct lie about Alex Salmond

I've just been reading through the barking mad Allan Massie piece in the Mail on Sunday that RevStu linked to this morning.  Apparently, thanks to the SNP, we're now living in communist East Germany, or North Korea, or somewhere.  Tucked in at the end is this claim -

"Actually the SNP’s intentions in Westminster are absolutely clear...They hope to exasperate the English to such an extent that eventually they will tell the Scots to clear out – even though 55 per cent of us voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. As Salmond, defeated in September but hoping to return to the Commons as an MP, charmingly put it, he hopes ‘to hold England’s feet to the fire’."

The juxtaposition of the words "as Salmond charmingly put it" with the quotation marks around the words "to hold England's feet to the fire" convey to the reader that Salmond used those exact words. But, of course, he didn't. Massie is lying - either that or the Mail employee who edited his article is lying. The feet-to-the-fire line was used endlessly in the weeks after the referendum by several leading SNP politicians (to such an extent that it started to grate on me), but it was always in reference to "the London parties" or "Westminster" or "the UK government", and never, ever "England".

It's official : the London media establishment are so scared of us that they're quite prepared to tell Big Lies in an attempt to defeat us. Hmmm. Doesn't that behaviour remind you of a certain totalitarian regime?

28 comments:

  1. The 55% in favour of No in September are now the 55% in favour of Yes. So who are The 45 now? I'd say its those against independence. Anyway what's a 'direct' lie? Is lying so prevalent now that we need to qualify it to show how bad it is?

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    1. There are ways of creating a false impression without technically lying. But this example goes way beyond that.

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  2. I used to have some respect for Massie as a thoughtful Unionist Tory but he has really degraded himself with this crude propaganda piece

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    1. You're thinking of Alex Massie. This chap is Allan Massie.

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    2. Allan Massie has had his moments of thoughtfulness as well - I remember him taking a fairly non-swivel-eyed approach in the early years of devolution. But it seems those days are long gone.

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    3. He is generally pretty circumspect when he writes in the Hootsmon. His DM persona is altogether darker - like this corker: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619458/So-happens-Scotland-votes-yes-Camerons-quit-Queen-furious-Shetlands-taken-oil-Scottish-economy-tanking-A-brilliant-imagining-life-Union.html

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    4. Ah right - thanks for clarification Craig.

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  3. This is playing merry hell with me and confusing me so much. My views are the same as they were last week, but I was a Nazi then and a Stalinist now! I don't understand. Help!

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  4. Johnny

    Don't worry. You're not programmed to understand! Don't try. It hurts!

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  5. Since Westminster is effectively England's parliament (ours is Holyrood),isn't this being acknowledged by Massie by using England in this context?

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    1. He can acknowledge whatever he likes, but what he can't do (or shouldn't do) is lie about what other people have said.

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  6. It's definitely a further sign of unionist desperation. If anyone it's Massie who is stoking up English resentment.

    DDH

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  7. Have been watching Korean food made easy, okay South Korea, but the people look a damned sight happier than we are. I suppose I could live there, maybe import a bit happiness back home.

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  8. Perhaps Mr Massie got this from the New York Times' Morning Briefing for 29th September last year:

    "Uncertainty in Scotland.

    Alex Salmond, the outgoing first minister, told Scottish politicians they need to hold England’s “feet to the fire” over promises made before the Scots rejected independence last week.

    It was the Scottish Parliament‘s first session since the referendum."

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/us/latest-news-syria-strikes-un-climate-summit-jimmy-choo.html?_r=0

    A US paper making this mistake is one thing, but a UK columnist is quite another.

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    1. Looks like the Mail accidentally on purpose misplaced the inverted commas, turning the NYT's misleading statement into an unequivocal falsehood.

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  9. it's the same trick Farage pulled when he was routed in an Edinburgh pub during the referendum campaign. He said he was told "to go back to England" thus citing racism at every turn after the incident on every news channel. What was actually said, in the recordings and, ironically, from the Daily Mail's own transcript, he was told "to go back home, go back back to London" before several rounds of "Nigal is a bawbag". Anyway it's naked opportunism to spread a lie denigrating others for political gain, welcome to Indyref part 2.

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  10. propaganda is a dangerous weapon

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  11. The Daily Mail liked the lie so much, they used it TWICE in the article. Once in the text, and once in a photo's caption.

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  12. Project Fear never went away.

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    1. I'd say this is more the mutant sibling of Project Fear: it's not being used to get Scots to vote No, but to get Kippers in England to revert to the Tories.

      It's interesting how the exact principle which Labour used in the referendum - that a society can only function if its richest members are happy - is now being deployed against them by the Tory press.

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  13. Another indication that there are toes already toasting in Westminster, and the paws of their running dog lackey scribbling liars at the Daily Mail (and ilk) are feeling the singe.

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  14. I see Foulkes was complaining about Ashcroft only polling Yes-voting areas. Isn't there another tranche of polling still to come from him in No-voting constituencies? Or did I imagine that?

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    1. Ashcroft said in his article introducing the results last week that he was going to conduct polls in other parts of Scotland.

      "Most of the seats in this survey are in areas which returned a particularly strong yes vote in September, where the SNP attraction will naturally be greater; in future rounds of research we may find a different pattern where support for independence was lower."

      The problem for this kind of analysis is that the swings required are lower, because the Tory (and, in some places, Lib Dem) vote is stronger in other parts of Scotland. As Curtice says in his research piece for the Electoral Reform Society (published today), there is a level (40%+) at which the SNP's even spread of support becomes a help rather than a hindrance.

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  15. Or does that make me a Maoist cadre within the True Yes fanshen?

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  16. Populus sub-sample SNP 46, Lab 28, Con 16. Populus have clearly adjusted their methodology in respect of Scotland; there is little down-weighting of the SNP in this poll. SNP are down-weighted 61-58, although Scottish respondents are up-weighted 170 to 180. There is still some adjustment there, but nowhere near the level of adjustment that was done until a week ago.

    http://populus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/OmOnline_Vote_09-02-2015_BPC.pdf

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  17. Interesting analysis by Euro-sceptic group "Business for Britain" of EU referendum polls. Shows more EU support in Scotland and the "west" of England + Wales.

    http://businessforbritain.org/2015/02/09/next-eu-referendum-could-be-an-east-west-contest-2/

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  18. I was on a flight Edinburgh to London yesterday and picked up a free copy of the Mail it is absolure nonsense with Hamish McDonell (fake name I bet) - The Voice of Scottish Politics spouting nonsense about the SNP. Apparently Cameron will win a majority because of the SNP. Eh how many Tories does he think Scotland will return?
    I couldn't read any more of the horrible paper so I missed Massie column but maybe that is merciful.

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