Lochend, on the pension thing, people were undoubtedly telling pensioners would lose their entitlement in an Independent Scotland.
I heard Douglas Alexander, live on radio, refuse to confirm to a pensioner her pension would be safe, knowing fine well it would be. Totally despicable.
Not only that but telling Polish people they would be deported from an Independent Scotland!
However, I'll soften a couple of my points slightly. You are right, its not just the BBC, the newspapers are largely supporters of the Union too, although that is a commercial decision on their part so I have less of an issue with that. The BBC is supposed to be impartial. I'm sure the newspapers did have an influence on people too and its therefore quite remarkable that 45% voted Yes when only one of I think 37 mainstream publications available in Scotland actively supported Independence and it was a Sunday Paper.
To say though, everyone who voted No did so because of the media, would be an insult to those who actively researched the arguments and decided Scotland was better off in the UK. I'm not suggesting that, only that if will have had an effect.
Take for instance the way this 'Vow' was reported, firstly in a newspaper (which is entitled to it editorial stance) but then latched on to by the BBC without even a hint of a challenge. This vow of more powers was simply a re-hash of what we heard before, only that a timetable was put in place in which to implement them. We still don't know what these powers are or if we will ever see any of them but what angers me most is the way this was engineered in the campaign as if it was something new, which is wasn't and also that the media began to describe it as 'Devo Max'.
What Better Together did was falsely tip the balance in favour of No by creating a situation where (some) people believed voting No was a vote for Devo Max. It is noting of the sort. The BBC were complicit in this and although I said earlier the interview Dimbleby did with Gordon Brown last Tuesday was fair, I'm now recalling he made several references to 'Home Rule'.
I know its hard to define Devo Max / Home Rule but if Independence results in Scotland controlling 100% of revenue and spending, then Devo Max is around about the 80/85% mark. What is being offered in the Vow is an increase in revenue collection from around 10% to maybe 40% being generous. Spending capabilities won't really budge from their current 60%.
So this is the Vow, get Scotland to collect more of it own tax so Holyrood is more accountable for the money it gets to spend. This to me is code for cutting the Barnett Formula Block Grant.
For the record, I would take Devo Max for now. We know from other surveys the people of Scotland want a far greater say in the running of the country and there is no way 55% voted for the 'Status Quo' A large chunk of that would have been in the hope of Devo Max at some point in the future worse still the people who voted No in the belief that is what they were getting right away.
I hope the people of Scotland realise pretty quickly we have been deceived on a massive scale.
Now, for balance, if Devo Max was an option there is no way Yes would have achieved 45% either as a large chunk of that vote would also have been for Devo Max if it had been an option. As it happened, 1.6M people voted to leave the UK, which is a staggering amount of our electorate. At least it should put an end to the old media line that barely a third of Scots support Independence.
lochend wrote: I personally am delighted that we still have a Union and hope that with the almost certain rejection of the Tories at the next election we can unite and feel more comfortable partners once more.
Maybe I should give up trying to predict the future for a while but I'm interested to hear why you think there will be a rejection of the Tories in May 2015?
They are already polling about on par with Labour for the GE and I have a feeling that a fair bit of the UKIP support in the polls will drift back to the Tories in the FPTP system for a fear of letting Labour take the marginal seats down south.
Labour may get a boost from the Lib Dems' voters, although that might depend on how they handle the storm brewing over devolution in England and the gathering support to exclude Scottish MPs voting on English only matters. In Scotland, Labour could lose some previously solid seats following their referendum campaign, which saw a large amount of its core vote support Independence. All eight constituencies in Glasgow, which are solid Labour, voted Yes last week. If these people remain angry at Labour it could be very interesting.