Wag the Nob

If you've never seen Wag the Dog, do use all the guile of the interweb to see it. It's even worth buying the DVD if you're a traditionalist.

Vote Nob Orders don't seem to realize that the film was satirical comedy at its best. For them it is a training manual. However, they lost something in the translation as their productions are truly cringeworthy. Heralded by the BBC as a "spontaneous", "grassroots" response to the dire efforts of Better Together, VNB is in fact the brainchild of Malcolm Offord, Tory-donor (your peerage is in the post) and wealthy banker in concert with Acanchi Ltd, a London-based astroturfing agency whose previous crowning achievement had been "rebranding" Israel by the convenient means of airbrushing those pesky Palestinians from history and the present day.

Acanchi was in dire financial straits in 2011, but its fortunes turned round dramatically in 2012. In 2011 they made a loss of £197,003. In 2012 they made a profit of £103,292. The income from sales went from £25,631 in 2011 to £348,835 in 2012. This dramatic turnaround was explained by a director in the financial report for 2012 as follows:

“The nature of Acanchi’s business is that the award of government contracts is subject to external delays beyond the Company’s control. As stated in last year’s financial statement, the Directors’ forecast that there would be a significant improvement in these financial statements. This was achieved as the result of the company being awarded contracts in the current period which had been the subject of long on-going discussions in the past.”

We know that Acanchi started work on the independence referendum in 2012 because an intern had it on her CV, which has since disappeared from cyberspace. So it appears that as well as the generous Mr Offord, Acanchi has been getting Government money to Wag The Nob of the Scottish people for Vote Nob Orders and U KOK (what is it with all the phallic imagery in Better Together?).

Thankfully, whereas VNB has mair money than sense and certainly mair money than wit, the cack-handed VNB advertising campaign, greeted with derision in cinemas across Scotland has now spawned some real wit from the Yes side:

The VNB Original "Fantastic".

The Fantastic Spoof.

The VNB Original "Passport"

The Spoof Passport

What of the staged and scripted Vox Pops done by a Cambridge photographer? You'll only appreciate the quality of this excellent satire by Ayr teenager Mark Thorburn if you've waded through some of the Cringetastic VNB originals. Quite a few on Twitter and YouTube were taken in and thought it was an actual VNB Video.

If you find any more, tweet me at @logicsrock with the #WagTheNob hashtag.