Truth and its misuse in the separation debate

By Johnny BossymanHead of News and Bias

curran lieWe were warned that the Separation Referendum Debate would become increasingly fractious and nasty as the debate proceeded. Regrettably the separatists have gone down that line by challenging the utterances of Unionist politicians and their loyal allies.

Let me make it absolutely clear. BBC Scotlandshire is even-handed towards all sides in the separation debate who act in a manner that we consider ethical, honest, truthful, trustworthy and who avoid scaremongering.

That is the only reason that we give greater coverage to the Unionist side than the unethical, dishonest, lying, treacherous, scaremongering tactics of some in the separatist camp.

These rogue cybernat separatist elements include the SNP, SSP, Greens, Labour for Indy, Liberal Democrats for Indy and others. All others receive fair and balanced coverage by not being mentioned at all.

Regrettably, the latest round of attacks have concentrated on straight-speaking Shadow Secretary of State Magrit Curran and myself. That these attacks are shallowly disguised by minor name changes, such as naming Magrit as "Margaret" and myself as "Boothman", doesn't mask their vicious tendency to dredge our backgrounds for so-called "facts" to traduce our reputations.

jolieThe current trumped-up accusations centre around an interview that a woman claiming to be "Margaret Curran" gave last Saturday on the spoof BBC in Scotlandshire with separatist hate-person Derek Bateman.

We have absolutely no proof that this woman was who she said she was. She might have been a consummately skilled actress and look-alike for Margit - Angelina Jolie, for example.

If so, then her claim that "I wasn’t around in Denis Healey’s days" is ABSOLUTELY TRUE! Jolie was only 5 months old, born and living in a foreign country when Magrit joined the Glasgow University Labour Club and successfully campaigned for a new Labour MP to support Healey's government, even while calling for Healey's resignation as Chancellor.

If Jolie was, in fact, acting as Margit in the interview, then the reference to having "foreign" children is totally understandable. She has three adopted children from Asia and her first biological child has Namibian citizenship.

Even if it was Magrit herself who had been duped into appearing on the Bateman "Smear the Unionist Scum" show, then her comments are totally explicable by anyone with a smidgeon of imagination.

Alzheimer's is a distressing condition - especially in one so young as Margit. If she sometimes forgets everything in her own past and seems to live in a fantasy world, that deserves care and sympathy, not the vicious condemnation from separatists.

That she has chosen to forget that she was actively opposed to devolution in 1979 seems unfortunate, however. That is one of the most glorious achievements of her career. Delaying the foolish notion that Scotlandshire could manage of its own affairs, and ensuring that the region remained under Tory control is an honourable mention that should be engraved on her tombstone - in the event that she is killed by a hit and run bus driver.

As to myself, I am used to unfair criticism due to my long association with, and active membership of Labour in Scotlandshire, as well as my position of control of the news agenda at BBC Scotlandshire. Such calumnies deserve an honest response.

Yes I was privileged to be elected to senior positions in the Labour Party while I was a student. I was a believer then, and am a believer now. My actions are governed by a deep religious belief in the need for the common herd to be told clearly what to think. This text from the SLAB Bible faces me as I write -

1 Corinthians 13:11
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man and was paid big cash to support the Union, I put away childish things like truth"


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