stewartb

‘… despite strong criticisms of their record on the NHS and schools, the highest rate of death from drugs in Europe and ferry orders that are late and over budget ..’

The shallowness of understanding and therefore of analysis available from the BBC’s political editor [Chris Mason] here is in full view.

And at root is the BBC’s inability – more likely its determined unwillingness – to present the Scottish Government, its achievements and its failings, in context. And its unwillingness to address the ‘perspective void’ that characterises BBC coverage of Scotland. All this despite its supposed politically neutral, balanced and public service position.

1) ‘despite strong criticisms’ – all governments in a democracy – all parties of government – get ‘strong criticisms’ from opponents who want them out of office as well as from supporters who want them to more, more quickly or differently. We expect more from a ‘political editor’ than the self-evident!

2) ‘record on the NHS’ – I wonder if – to gain perspective – the BBC’s political editor has EVER spent say one hour genuinely, honestly comparing and contrasting NHS performance data from England, NI, Scotland and Wales.

And he surely(?) must know the crucial context: the severe constraints on the budgets of governments in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh are NOT and NEVER experienced by the government responsible for NHS England!

3) ‘record on schools’ – one wonders what the BBC’s political editor knows about the nature of education in Scotland. Has he just heard opposition politicians repeat ‘PISA” endlessly!

(On Newsnight yesterday, the BBC’s Ms Wark was claiming failure to close the attainment gap in Scotland based on a statistical comparison of 2022 exam results with the previous year’s teacher assessed grades – and she got away with it!)

4) ‘drug deaths’ – apart from recent improvements in the statistics due to actions taken by the Scottish Government and others, most people in Scotland have a sense of the underlying causes of such social ills and don’t attribute them just to the past 15 years or to the SNP.

They know that Scotland is not alone in having social and health problems although they wish them to be solved. And they know that Westminster has refused to permit the introduction of drug consumption facilities.

Many voters in Scotland do know about context and have a sense of perspective on this drugs issue and many others too!

5) ‘ferries’ – has the BBC’s political editor NEVER read even the executive summaries of a long string of National Audit Office reports on Westminster’s procurement track record?

Given how little coverage of Westminster’s awful track record we learn about from the BBC, probably not!