I have no real time for conspiracy theories as people reading these blogs will know. Sure, some are fun but mainly they’re there to be dismissed so when before the Scottish Independence referendum there were people saying that the UK government had ‘blocked’ the broadcast of Outlander, a SF series set in 18th century Scotland I just treated these people pushing that idea with the contempt they deserved.
Except that thanks to the recent Sony emails leaked via Wikileaks I now owe those people an apology.As outlined here Cameron met with Sony to discuss Outlander among other things just as concerning as the censorship going on by ensuring a programme that deal with imperial attitudes to Scotland in the 1700’s is not shown til after the referendum. The full email is here but the salient point is this part:
The line that gives it away is this one:
From a SPE perspective, your meeting with Prime Minister Cameron on Monday will likely focus on our overall investment in the U.K. – with special emphasis on the jobs created by TOMMY COOPER, the importance of OUTLANDER (i.e., particularly vis-à-vis the political issues in the U.K. as Scotland contemplates detachment this Fall)
Yes, I laughed at the name Tommy Cooper too, but it looks as if Sony had a conversation with Cameron and the result of that conversation was that Outlander (a pretty popular series in the US and one eagerly anticipated this side of the Atlantic) was delayed. Now on the scale of things last year this is very minor but the implications are huge in that the UK government were so scared of an independent Scotland they used everything they could to stop it happening. There’s something frightening about that.
As the general election looms closer it’s worth people remembering this regards where in the UK they live.
My Little Underground 