BBC Scotland is reporting throughout the day on child poverty in Scotland with none of context nor the comparisons to reveal how much the Scottish Government is already doing to compensate for the austerity policies of the Conservative Government in London.
This, of course, contrasts with their reporting of drug deaths where comparison is all.
Missing from the BBC Scotland reports, this:
The comparative facts:
Scotland currently has 19% of households living in poverty, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said. This compares to a rate of 24% in Wales and 22% in England. The Scottish rate has declined from 23% in the mid-1990s to a low of 18% between 2008 and 2013, before rising slightly to its current level.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-51384174
Child poverty in Scotland’s larger families is at only two-thirds of the rate in England. Why?
Two reasons. More affordable housing (https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/poverty-scotland-2021) and the Child Payment:
The Scottish Government’s decisive and compassionate move to bring in the new Scottish Child Payment is the lifeline children and their families need, and is a beacon of progressive policy for the rest of the UK.https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/scottish-child-payment-will-turn-tide-child-poverty
What is the Child Payment, unique to Scotland?
Scottish Child Payment helps towards the costs of supporting your family. It’s a weekly payment of £20* that you can get for every child you look after who’s under 6 years of age. You’ll get the payment every 4 weeks if your application is successful.https://www.mygov.scot/scottish-child-payment#:~:text=Contents&text=Scottish%20Child%20Payment%20helps%20towards,if%20your%20application%20is%20successful.
*to be increased to £25.
Talking-up Scotland 
The Scottish Child Payment introduced by the SNP Government of £20
£25 soon ) may be partly mitigating the Universal Credit cut of £20 by the Tory Government last year.
Why does the BBC not highlight the Scottish Child Payment in its reporting or the much more critical role of the UK Government ?
( rhetorical )
The BBCshortbread mantra still persists – SNP baaad !
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Bodger Broon is using the Guardian today to pontificate about the almost certainty of increasing poverty over winter and beyond. Of course, what he is saying is correct, but, apart from a reference to what Starmer and Reeves are proposing, his piece is pretty vacant in terms of radical suggestions and the need for significant change. As usual, he makes no reference to what the Scottish Government has done to alleviate poverty. Indeed, he makes only one reference to Scotland and Wales (none for NI) and that at the very end almost as an afterthought, because throughout he speaks of Britain and Westminster.
He indicates that polling indicates a growing awareness of poverty and growing support for policies for change. The Scotland and Wales reference is that in both places this awareness and support is greater than elsewhere. He is seeking in his weasel word way to give the impression that things are even worse there and not that the electorates have never been as in thrall to Tory ideology as is the case for much of England and have rejected the Tories for decades and, in Scotland the very pale pink tinged Thatcherite Blair Broon government.
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