Scottish referendum miscellany

The last hurrahs Yes campaigners in George Square, Glasgow, and No supporters applauding Gordon Brown's barnstorming speech at the city's Community Central Hall

The media, bias and bullying

Pretty much all reporters I chatted to yesterday agreed that the level of abuse and even intimidation being meted out by some in the ‘Yes’ campaign was making this referendum a rather unpleasant experience
And while I am sure both sides have been guilty, the truth - uncomfortable as it is to say it - is that most of the heckling and abuse does seem to be coming from the Nationalists
- Tom Bradby, ITN political editor, writing in the Daily Mail

Hundreds of Yes campaigners gathered outside the BBC's Scottish HQ to protest about Nick Robinson's "biased" reporting, specifically over coverage of an Alex Salmond press conference. The BBC said that Robinson had followed its guidelines on impartiality and balance.

"Robust debate is fine. Pointing out when journalists get their facts wrong is expected and welcomed. But NUJ members believe in a free press, a fair media, with journalists allowed to do their jobs free of intimidation
- Paul Holleran, the NUJ's Scottish organiser
after journalists in Edinburgh and Aberdeen faced abuse while trying to cover events run by both sides of the debate

A poll of over 3,000 Scottish people carried out by YouGov for BuzzFeed reveals how almost half of No voters have felt personally threatened by the opposition during Scotland’s independence referendum campaign
- Jim Waterson, Buzzfeed

Perhaps the most arresting fact about the Scottish referendum is this: that there is no newspaper – local, regional or national, English or Scottish – that supports independence except the Sunday Herald. The Scots who will vote yes have been almost without representation in the media...
Living within their tiny circle of light, most senior journalists seem unable to comprehend a desire for change. If they notice it at all, they perceive it as a mortal threat, comparable perhaps to Hitler. They know as little of the lives of the 64 million inhabiting the outer darkness as they do of the Andaman islanders. Yet, lecturing the poor from under the wisteria, they claim to speak for the nation
- George Monbiot in the Guardian
(his tweet to this has been retweeted more than 1,200 times)

I can’t agree with the people who fret that this has been a nasty and divisive and awful experience. It hasn’t. I mean, of course it’s been divisive and of course passions have been running high but that’s because it matters. You can’t have a non-divisive referendum. This is a good thing I think and I think this is an argument we’ve needed to have. If not now, when? At some point certainly, for it could not be delayed forever.
Sure, tempers have frayed in recent days and there’s been an uptick in boorishness and bampottery but, look, it remains the case that this has been a good and decent and civilised campaign...a carnival of a kind we’ve not seen in British politics for a long, long time
- Alex Massie in the Spectator

Mainstream Scottish media have gathered thousands of new followers on Twitter and Facebook over the past six months. It would be interesting to know how many of those were in England, where newspaper coverage was sparse until a couple of weeks ago.
See the changes on this infographic from Shaun Milne