BBC Scotland’s favourite thinktanks are ALL in the worst group for funding transparency

I’m grateful to Ruth Henderson https://twitter.com/RuthHen05786097 for alerting me to this Open Democracy exposé at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/who-funds-you/

Our Scottish Future, These Islands and Reform Scotland appear regularly on BBC Scotland with ‘research’ pointing to some inherent weakness in Scotland in its potential be independent.

All three feature in the lowest of the 5 categories where annual income, funding and the names of funders are not disclosed. In sharp contrast, the excellent Business for Scotland, rarely if ever seen on BBC Scotland, is in the top category with full transparency.

Transparency is, of course, essential so that we detect any suggestion of an agenda determining content to suit the funders.

7 thoughts on “BBC Scotland’s favourite thinktanks are ALL in the worst group for funding transparency”

  1. Oh yes don’t we know it
    Another thing , I’ve always wondered about why McConnell spent so much time in Malawi , what drew him there how did it all start

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  3. Whilst I agree transparency over funding is a valid gauge of which may be a front for vested interests, but I have a problem with “Ultimately this is less about campaigns and think tanks than the journalists, civil servants and politicians that listen to or write about them” as it presumes they strive to be honest brokers.

    This is beyond questionable in the case of BBC Scotland, who will be selective not only of which “think-tank” they cite, but which parts of a which particular paper they quote from, more often than not stripped of context to further their particular agenda.

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  5. I would not be surprised to find out that the Tories were funding some of those Think tanks……especially Gordon Brown’s one…LOL

    In 2021 it was reported that a meeting was held where…Michael Gove and Gordon Brown shared notes on how to save the (non) Union ……well ‘funding a Think tank ‘ with some TORY financial aid might have been one of conclusions of that meeting……anything is possible with them…… the eternal BT campaign has been ongoing since 2014 but unlike the Independence campaign it is not subject to constant scrutiny or criticism…….as somehow their BT campaign is considered to be one that is valid and essential……for THEM perhaps…..but not for us !

    It does defy credibility that all of this time, effort and money is being spent by THEM to retain ONE country (us) within their UK that THEY constantly declare , that as a country , it has NO viability to be an independent one and thus NEEDS the security of the UK to survive……as if the UK is our benevolent benefactor (forgetting of course that WE currently ARE a part of that UK)….and tis as a position unique to us (and Wales) within the UK but never highlighted to be also the case for England….yet strangely simultanously we also hear from them about the wealth generated FROM our country via OUR resources that fill the coffers of their UK Treasury……is there any Think tank willing and able to conclude and thus promote that fact…..and too any media who will give them a constant platform to do so……NOPE…..I THINK that would TANK as a possibility they would ever consider……..

    The problem with Gordon Brown’s Think tank is that the only FUTURE he wants to promote for SCOTTISH people and OUR country is one where we are held captive within his UK…..and for many of us in Scotland the only REFORM we want is for us to be an independent country within THESE ISLANDS…..and where, when we are independent, the only Think tanks that will exist will be the ones that seek to promote and seek benefits for OUR country……and NOT, as now, do this for another country’s benefit …….that is a country that is disguised as a UK state but really all they, Think tanks, do and say is all for ONE country alone……i.e. England’s benefit and survival…….

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    1. Westminster govt funded methinks would be a more plausible answer. If they won’t provide evidence of their funders we’d be entitled to draw just such an assumption.

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