Casting off PQ

Candidates for the role of next BBC DG had better start working out a response to "Devo Max".  Lord (Michael) Forsyth told Scotland on Sunday that David Cameron is playing into the SNP's hands by promising more powers to Holyrood, if the referendum falls only slightly short of a mandate for independence.

On Saturday, the Scotsman gave space to Ken Garner to argue for Scottish Local Radio for Scotland. "Whatever the referendum result, eventually, surely, powers over broadcast services originating in and serving only Scotland will be devolved to Holyrood. It is not even complicated to do, assuming the full break-up of the UK is not imminent".

On Friday, 80-year-old Rupert, currently in London, opined thus...

Meanwhile, the BBC has refused to disclose how many complaints it has had about a recent Thought for The Day, in answer to an FOI, claiming that such a stat is protected because it is held for the purposes of journalism. The BBC plays these stats both ways - happy to share totals of Clarkson complaints, and remind people that there were only a handful about Ross/Brand before the Mail ran with it.

The Thought in question came from a man who sounded like he was pitching to be priest-in-attendance when King Alex plants his buttocks on the Stone of Scone in Edinburgh Castle. He's called John L Bell of The Iona Community; hymnwriter, stripy-t-shirted darling of The Greenbelt Festival, and beard-wearer of Catweazle lineage. Here's the key paragraph that failed to draw the pencil of the Today duty editor; the BBC may have its FOI defence right - it reads like journalism, not ruminations on religion.


I sometimes wonder what people of my age in the South East of England would have felt if their school history books had been written in Aberdeen. Or if their accent, religion and culture was regarded as the stuff of comedy. Or if the area which they consider their heartland was spoken of as if it were a far-flung outpost of the Empire. 


So when the opportunity comes to consider the future of Scotland, the primary issue is not whether there should be one or two options on a voting slip. We are dealing with something much more mysterious. I would even say holy. We are dealing with the dawning of a liberated self- consciousness. We are dealing with how a people can best fulfill their potential to prosper according to their own lights, to live peaceably with others and to be responsible stewards of the earth. And that - from a biblical perspective - can only happen when a distinct people in their distinct land are free to determine their own future. 


We are dealing with a very different heavenly charter from that which requires guardian angels to sing Rule Britannia.