{"id":2601,"date":"2019-09-12T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2019-09-10T19:54:33","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T19:54:33","slug":"brexit-undefined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=2601","title":{"rendered":"Brexit Undefined"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brexit <\/strong>n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The undefined being<\/strong> negotiated by the unprepared in order<\/strong> to get the unspecified.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI first started to print this on shirts, mugs etc way back in 2017\nlittle did I realise just how apt the words were. Sure, we knew that\nthe Government had no strategy, vision, plan or destination in mind\nbut most of us assumed that there were enough adults in the Civil\nService to ensure that something semi sensible would emerge and be\naccepted by the Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh\nhow wrong we were!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nperhaps worth recalling that in 2016 one of the aims of the Leave\ncampaign was to get \u201cour\u201d laws made by \u201cour\u201d Parliament\nwithout interference from Johnny Foreigner or any of his mates. Now\nwe have the utterly bizarre prospect of the PM who rebelled against\nand resigned from Theresa May\u2019s Tory Government throwing out 21 of\nhis own MPs, losing his own brother from his Government, losing his\nfirst three votes in the Commons and now threatens to disobey the law\nmade in \u201cour\u201d Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s\noften mentioned that \u201cthose whom the God\u2019s wish to destroy they\nfirst make mad\u201d. In which case the blonde buffoon and his ERG\ncomrades are surely doomed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nare advised that the Prime Minister of the so called \u201cMother of\nParliaments\u201d could ignore the first Act of Parliament passed under\nhis Premiership. Just let that sink in for a moment. The PM could\nactually break the law made in exactly the circumstances he demanded\nin 2016. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nto cap it all he suspends Parliament in case it takes back control!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\ndoes this leave us? Anyone\u2019s guess!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nwill certainly have a General Election soon, probably in November but\nit would be a very brave or stupid person who claimed to know the\nlikely outcome. We are certainly in a good position to be going into\na campaign thanks to the steady and sure footed way in which Nicola\nhas navigated the storms of the Brexit debates. Certainly, those who\nadvocated unilateral action over the last 18 months or so must\nrecognise that we are in a much stronger position simply because\nNicola has steered a calm, careful pragmatic and principled course\nthroughout and remains head and shoulders above any other Party\nLeader in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis of course a matter of real regret that the bulk of the Scottish\nprint and broadcast media remain so totally enthralled to the #SNPBAD\nline. As I posted on Facebook recently we had watched the movie\nSpotlight. It tells the story of a Boston Globe investigation into\nsexual abuse in the Church and the fight to suppress the story and\nthe ultimate publication of it. Like All The President\u2019s Men it\nshows what good honest investigative journalism can do. But it also\nhighlights just what a craven crew the media are in Scotland. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s often claimed that there are lots of good honest journalists at work. With the exception of The National and to a degree Channel Four News, I don\u2019t see the evidence. When Channel 4\u2019s Head of News recently described Boris as a \u201cknown liar\u201d and a \u201ccoward\u201d (https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2019\/aug\/25\/boris-johnson-interview-criticism-head-of-news-channel-4<\/strong><\/a>), they were frozen out by No 10. Instead of uniting the journalists to defend their right of free speech, they, with few exceptions, said virtually nothing. Even in the US when Trump tried to ban Jim Acosta much of the media gathered round the CNN reporter. No such support for Dorothy Byrne sadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nByrne\ntold the BBC, “If someone has deliberately spoken an untruth and\nwe have evidence, we have to consider saying that what is said is a\nlie.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn\nher MacTaggart Lecture, she said, “What we all need to decide:\nwhat do we do when a known liar becomes our Prime Minister? I’ve\ntalked to journalists from several television organisations about\nthis issue. They said they would be loath to use that word ‘liar’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n“Remember\nwhen Andrew Marr told, [former defence secretary], Penny Mordaunt her\nclaim that the UK couldn’t stop Turkey from joining the EU was\n‘strange’?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n“It\nwas strange, but it was also untrue – a lie. Is it time for us to\nstart using the L-word? I believe that we need to start calling\npoliticians out as liars when they lie. If we continue to be so\npolite, how will our viewers know that politicians are lying?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nShe\nadded that it “isn’t necessarily obvious” to the audience\nwhen politicians are untruthful in interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n“They\nare not journalists, they don’t have all day to research stories,”\nshe said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, “Journalists\nhave a purpose. We go away and study and research whether what\npoliticians say is true and then we ask them informed questions and\nmake them accountable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nonly that was the case Dorothy! Maybe if they had we would all be in\na much better place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brexit n The undefined being negotiated by the unprepared in order to get the unspecified. When I first started to print this on shirts, mugs etc way back in 2017 little did I realise just how apt the words were. Sure, we knew that the Government had no strategy, vision, plan or destination in mind but most of us assumed that there were enough adults in the Civil Service to ensure that something semi sensible would emerge and be accepted by the Government. Oh how wrong we were! It\u2019s perhaps worth recalling that in 2016 one of the aims of the Leave campaign was toRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2603,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions\/2603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}