Professor John Robertson OBA
In my interview above, 11 March 2014, to defend my research revealing a quantitative 3 to 1 bias in BBC Scotland coverage of the referendum campaign, 36 min in:
Neil Bibby (Labour):
Is it your belief, stated publicly, that the Labour Party is ‘fatally corrupt?’ There’s a quote from an interview you gave to Open Democracy, where you said ‘There are good people in the BBC. Mindless loyalty to a now fatally corrupt Labour Party is not uniform.’
Me:
‘I don’t think I should have said that last bit. I think the first bit I should have said because I’m not having a go at the BBC, against anybody, except defensively now because they had a go at me, and I don’t see why I should take it lying down. I think the ‘fatally corrupt’ Labour party thing was inappropriate. I regret saying it.
Bibby:
If you regret saying the ‘fatally corrupt’ do you still believe that BBC employees are loyal to the Labour Party?
Me:
I don’t know. I think Kirsty Wark is.
Bibby:
Where is your evidence for that?
Me:
[Guffaw] Jumping all over Alex Salmond on TV every opportunity she could get. Anyway, we’re getting away, wandering off, this research into my personal views or is that because you think that undermines the research?
Bibby
I think your view appears to be that, OK, you’ve retracted what you said about the Labour Party being corrupt, but..
Me:
No, I haven’t retracted it, I’ve regretted it.
Bibby:
OK, you…
Me:
I don’t retract it.
The chair stops this line.
That was 11 years ago. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t regret what I said?
Why?
And:
This excoriating piece expressed the movement’s fury with the Labour government that has, finally, started to make some of the right noises and yet continues to arm Israel, to send RAF surveillance flights over Gaza from Akrotiri, Cyprus and, despite ostensibly suspending talks on trade negotiations, Labour Lord Austin was in Israel.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/gazas-blood-will-always-be-on-starmers-hands/
The Corruption Behind Starmer’s Rise Has Finally Been Exposed – Longtime watchers of Keir Starmer with questions about his murky rise to leader of the Labour party will have noted with interest the investigation by Gabriel Pogrund and Harry Yorke in last weekend’s Sunday Times. Based in part on materials from investigative journalist Paul Holden, whose forthcoming book The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Labour Together, and the Crisis of British Democracy is due out early next year, the Sunday Times article reveals the slush fund of undeclared, unregulated, and unlawful dark money – more than £730,000 of it – that financed the reconquest and reclamation of the Labour party by its far-rightwing using Keir Starmer as front man.
https://novaramedia.com/2023/11/14/the-corruption-behind-starmers-rise-has-finally-been-exposed/
The Hidden Scandal: Dozens of Labour Figures Exposed in Child-Sex Offences Cover-Up A forensic dossier reveals high-profile Labour councillors, advisers and MPs convicted or charged with child-sex crimes—party insiders knew and said nothing. They weren’t fringe extremists. They were entrusted with children’s welfare. From Harrow to Rotherham, Labour power-players have faced charges ranging from grooming to thousands of indecent images—but the party apparatus repeatedly buried the truth.
https://thomaster.substack.com/p/the-hidden-scandal-dozens-of-labour
And as if the above were not enough:
Source: https://youtu.be/L8cZ04MeEAw
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
A truly shocking situation to be in. It was impressive how the media and Labour right managed to smear Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong anti apartheid campaigner promoting genuine socialist policies, as antisemitic.
I remember the Newsnight expose with Corbyn’s head superimposed on a red tinted silhouette of the Kremlin. An antisemite AND a communist! Two stereotypes merged into one. It was essentially a coup IMO destroying what was then the largest political party in Europe.
Beam us up Swinney!
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Yes Capella , I too remember that “Newsnight (supposed) ‘expose’ with Corbyn’s head superimposed on a red tinted silhouette of the Kremlin”…..they , the BBC, could not have been more obvious in their underhanded tactics and their nasty ploy….but of course at the top of BBC HQ , there were (and still are) ….Tories.
One being Robbie Gibb, the then Deputy editor of Newsnight, who former Newsnight host, Emily Maitlis, outed as ‘an active Tory party agent shaping BBC Newsnight output’.
Robbie Gibb, brother of Sir Nick Gibb a (now a former) Tory MP.
Also he, Gibb, was also once the Chief of staff for former Tory MP , Francis Maude, in the late 90’s.
Then Gibb was also once Tory PM’s Theresa May’s Downing Street Tory Director of Communications between 2017 and 2019…….as to the BBC connection ……..well Robbie Gibb joined the BBC board in May 2021 as a ‘non executive’ Director……
A ‘non-executive’ Director at the BBC – well apparently that is where:
“A BBC non-executive director provides external strategic guidance, challenges management, and ensures the board upholds corporate governance, public interest and the BBC’s mission to inform , educate and entertain.
Well much of that above, as a job description, is a big fat Fail……thanks to people like Robbie Gibb……..I mean what else do you expect from a Tory.
BTW the new ‘enemy of the State’ for the BBC and others within the establishment is Zach Polanski of The Green party….that is within English & Welsh Politics.
(Plaid Cymru in Wales will also be on the BBC’s ‘watch list’ and so they too will soon be deemed to be an enemy of the State as well )…..
So Mr Polanski and also Plaid Cymru, as a party , can then both join the SNP in Scotland , not literally join, but join , as in they can then also be treated as those who the UK establishment declare as being yet more ‘Enemies of their State’…..
The SNP are an enemy of the UK State being sustained to still include Scotland….as the SNP threatens the Status quo of the UK as it is now.………..mind you so will Plaid in Wales also one day be regarded as being the same.
Ironic is it not that those who accuse others of being divisive and extremists are themselves the ones who need to be and so should be both constantly watched and so reined in for their divisive language and extreme attitudes and behaviour…..
It’s an old trick the UK side deploy……be it a constant projection and deflection to stop more people seeing them as they really truly are….while they, the UK side, tries to pin all of the blame, the negativity and indeed the derogatory labels on everyone else…………like for example labelling us , who seek independence , as being “Separatists”……well the way things are panning out with this UK government acting like Dictators….it might be more a case of us having to be ‘Escape Artists’ with skills that match those of Houdini Ha Ha Ha………
All to try to gain another justified opportunity to vote once more on Scottish independence !
(Based on all of the false projections made by the NO side in 2014 and also on all of their unfulfilled promises to Scotland if we Scots voted to stay a part of their UK….so you see we now have more than a legitimate reason for holding another vote).
Liz S
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Don’t forget Rona Fairhead – Baroness – appointed as Chair of the BBC Trust in 2014, married to a Tory and succeeding one, Chris Patten. Fair Rona was, of course, a director of the notorious HSBC Holdings so an ideal candidate to oversee a public service broadcaster.
Rona was succeeded by Sir Roger Carr, Chairman of BAE Systems, weapons manufacturer, again a perfect background for the leader of a public service broadcaster. Who better to defend the realm?
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Aye Capella , there is always a ‘Tory’ connection with the BBC…even Tory Baroness Ruth Davidson once worked for the BBC…..that’s why we call the BBC part of the establishment within the UK…..as it’s a very fine (thin) line between politics and certain media….as in pro UK politics mainly.
As in all media actually…..
Like say for example ….the ex Sun employee , now the Tory branch office manager in Scotland. (Russell Findlay)
Another Tory MSP who also formerly worked for The Sun (also briefly worked at the Daily Record too) and then he defected to Reform UK recently. (Graham Simpson).
Not forgetting Labour also………
Who was it from The Daily Mail (in Scotland) who became Labour in Scotland’s new Communications Director when Keiza Dugdale was the Labour branch office manager….it was Alan Roden , now a Co-CEO of Quantum Communications since 2019.
Ex Daily Record Westminster editor (and also once with the BBC) now a Labour MP….(Torchil Crichton).
I cannot think of any more ex Journos who then became a politician…that is, of the top of my head, but I know there must be more……….
See they are all at it…. and I think it is disproportionate ( as in far more) with those former Journalists who become politicians with pro UK parties compared to those former journalists who join the SNP….I can only remember, or think of one, as in Murray Foote , the former Daily Record Editor , of the infamous 2014 ‘Vow’ declaration. (there is probably more).
That’s why many of them, Journalists, were (and still are) those who lack any political impartiality and objectivity in much of their coverage and output of political news……..when they were in their former positions as ‘news’ Journalists covering Politics in Scotland………..and then also their choice of Media employers…..as in they chose to work for anti SNP media.
Also many of those still employed as current Journalists and reporters are also very much still politically compromised with either the Tory party or the Labour party ……………
I mean did the Daily Record’s Paul Hutcheon miss his chance to become a Labour MP last year……that chance looks as if it will not come round again any time soon…….looking at the polls and also looking at Labour HQ’s terrible performance as the new UK government.
Liz S
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Or Labour e.g. John Boothman Head of News and Current Affairs BBC married to Susan Deacon who was a minister in the Labour Coalition until 2007.
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Labour are BBC in Scotland. Inter twined with Labour members. Totally corrupted. People voted Labour to keep the Tories out. Now they vote SNP. A majority want Independence.
The hypocrite Starmer attends a peace conference.
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“McSweeney funding scandal”
See Owen Jones ‘X’ account where he shows a video of Paul Holden (who has written a book called “The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy”) take a Labour MP, Emily Darlington, to task on what the Labour party, namely Morgan McSweeney, did to get Keir Starmer elected as the new Labour party leader…when he , McSweeney, was, at that time , in charge of ‘Labour Together’ and where Paul Holden said he, McSweeney, “Broke the law”………..
Owen Jones posted this on ‘X’ comment in respect to that video…..
“Wow. Keir Starmer’s goons conned their way to power. But now the chickens are coming home to roost”……
Liz S
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