An Unhappy Nationalist

Bloggers,

I'd really like you to post this message from me on your blog. I'm very angry with the BBC!

A message from Miffed of Maerdy:

I'm extremely angry with the BBC's reporting of the launch of Plaid Cymru's Independence online venture - WalesCan.com. The last BBC poll to ask a question about how many people wanted an independent Wales showed that 13% of people supported the option. Even at the time the poll was reported I was rather surprised that they split the question into those in favour of (i) independence inside the EU and (ii) independence outside the EU.

But since the BBC Wales website's report on WalesCan.com, I now realise it was a clever ploy to make independence appear less popular than it is. The BBC's original story about the Independence Initiative on their website (it's now been altered), said this:

"A recent BBC Wales/ICM poll indicated 8% of voters wanted an independent Wales within the EU. "

Hey! Hang on. 13% of people supported it in total - it's really misleading to discount those who wanted independence outside the EU! I was so enraged at their bias that I sent a complaint on the BBC website. Minutes later they altered their reported to say this:

"A recent BBC Wales/ICM poll indicated 8% of voters wanted an independent Wales within the EU, and 5% wanted an independent Wales outside the UK and EU."

I'm now even more angry because instead of saying 'A recent BBC Wales/ICM poll indicated 13% of voters wanted a form of independent Wales" or something similar, the way they've written makes it look like there is less support than in reality.

Perhaps it's not a coincidence that the BBC website is biased against independence. Remember the charter of the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation says one of its functions is to 'sustain citizenship' of the UK, code for keeping the union intact.

The other tactic of the Union-loving Brit Broadcasters Corporation was to ignore the launch. I listened to Radio Wales almost all day yesterday and they didn't mention WalesCan.com once! Imagine if Gordon Brown had come to Wales to launch a Union-backing website, they'd have been falling over themselves to report it.

MofM