In recent years, we’ve often seen evidence of the feeder role played by Scotland’s serious press in the content dominating Reporting Scotland. Many of their staff live within that same ‘Commentariat’ bubble, educated together and with their first jobs in media environments utterly dominated by the Labour Party.

More recently, however, I detect signs of a drift away from a consistent Unionist agenda in the Herald and the Scotsman, toward a more pragmatic, commercial strategy. I’m basing this suggestion on the online editions. Perhaps, the paper versions remain more ideological – anti-SNP?

Neither could be considered in any way, pro-Independence or even SNP-tolerant, with regular petty and ill-informed contributions from the likes of Gordon, McKenna and Brian ‘Bad Vibrations’ Wilson not to mention their frequent but wholly inaccurate accounts of NHS Scotland.

Today, at the top, just under the celebrity death story, we read:

A GROWING number of senior Scottish Conservatives are in favour of holding a second independence referendum, according to a former party spin doctor.The idea of holding another vote has always been a firmly rejected by party leaders, with the official stance of “No to Indyref2” appearing throughout the general election campaign of last year.

And:

AN independent Scotland would leapfrog other countries waiting to join the European Union and move into a “fast-track line”, an expert has said. James Ker-Lindsay, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said Scotland could “overtake the other countries in short order and join the EU relatively quickly”.

Any way you look at them, these reports are bad news for Unionism and, of course, Jackson Carlaw.

Will BBC Scotland look at these? Gordon Brewer is on this morning. Even if he does tackle either will he use the notorious Clegg and Hutcheon team to demolish them as scare Tory stories?