By Professor John Robertson
In the Guardian editorial on John Swinney, today:
Scotland’s new first minister is an experienced and unflashy politician who can read the public mood. Almost everything that John Swinney has said and done since replacing Humza Yousaf this week shows he grasps the palpable wish – south of the border as well as north – for more effective government that is led by more sensible politicians who do not spend their time playing to the gallery. The question, after 17 years governing Scotland, is whether any SNP leader can now deliver this.
Mr Swinney therefore owns Scotland’s current problems. The proof lay in the eagerness with which both the Conservatives and Labour attacked him on Thursday – Mr Swinney is both a former education and a former finance secretary – over Scotland’s educational decline and its acute teacher shortages this year. It also lay in the difficulty Mr Swinney had in answering their charges. He took refuge in blaming inflation and UK austerity, as the SNP routinely does, but refused to admit that the SNP was re-elected in 2021 pledging to recruit 3,500 new teachers and has failed to do so. There was nothing fresh about that approach.
All of my Stirling University, 1975-1979, friends (not John Reid or Jack McConnell!) who live in England, mostly Corbynites, believe that the SNP in government has failed across all public services. They get that from, especially, the Guardian, or in some cases, the truly left papers.
Today, the Guardian uses Swinney’s previous role as Education Secretary and an implied teacher staffing crisis to try to undermine him. A 10 minute search would have found this:
The above from the Scottish Government today shows the pupil/teacher ratio in Scottish schools being maintained at 13.2 for the third year in a row despite around 6 000 more pupils in the system since 2019, with nearly 2 000 extra teachers.
Pupil to teacher ratios in maintained schools were lowest in Scotland (13.2) and similar in Northern Ireland (17.4), England (18.0) and Wales (18.4): https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk
These are big differences in the load faced by Scottish teachers compared with those elsewhere in the UK.
I won’t delay you with repeats on comparable evidence that the SNP in government has meant far lower crime yet more police officers or the many superior NHS outcomes. You know where they are:
Talking-up Scotland / Facts on NHS, Crime, ferries and everything else you can think of 
The Guardian article on John Swinney ( and Scotland ) and its lack of accuracy does not reflect well on the state of English Education .
Or was this deliberate misinformation ?
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No ? required.
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Narratives can also manipulate, oversimplify, and reinforce biases if not crafted responsibly.For example, the landscape of politics is, at its core, a vast storytelling battleground. The politician is the storyteller, their policies and ideologies are the characters, and the nation is the setting. A powerful tool that can be a double-edged sword, driving the plot, inspiring unity and progress, or fostering divisions and misunderstandings.
However, building a narrative also comes with potential pitfalls.It can manipulate and spread misinformation, exploiting the audience’s emotions. Narratives can also oversimplify complex issues, ignoring important nuances and creating an inaccurate representation of reality. Furthermore, narratives can reinforce stereotypes and biases, which can have harmful consequences.Lastly, narratives can contribute to the creation of echo chambers and polarisation, limiting perspectives and intensifying divisions
https://medium.com/@azeemsquest/building-a-narrative-a0a10fa92671i
Just as well we can access alternative narratives to balance things out, pity there are so many unwilling to look at both sides
brobb
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“Just as well we can access alternative narratives to balance things out”
You and I may access alternative narratives; you and I may ensure we’re well informed on the ‘narratives’ being used by opponents of Scotland’s independence: we may (rightly) judge that we need this knowledge to refute opponents and to hone our case making.
But for the many voters currently supportive of the Union – and the many voters presently intent on NOT voting for a pro-Indy party in upcoming elections – what you and I access in terms of ‘alternative narratives’ , candidly matters little.
The article at the link provided has this: ‘‘ .. important to crafting a narrative is understanding your audience and the context in which the narrative will be delivered.’ (my emphasis)
It’s what the yet to be convinced ‘access’. If they are proactive seekers they may well come to access these ‘alternatives’ (including of course those that reveal division within the Indy ‘movement’): if they are passive receivers then the pervasive, the endlessly repeated narratives they will they will encounter will be pro-Union, anti- independence and anti-SNP. That is a long standing challenge.
Your btl post certainly got me thinking : what is (or are) THE prevailing pro-indy narrative/s in use now as we face up to new electoral challenges?
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what is (or are) THE prevailing pro-indy narrative/s in use now as we face up to new electoral challenges?
Thankfully we still have alternative sources of info to balance out the constant pro union negativity, I would include the following
Blogs like this, Wee Ginger Dug, Bella Caledonia etc
The National, Broadcasting Scotland
Authors/researchers like Lesley Riddoch
Twitter/X – posts from politicians highlighting work they are involved in, mixed opinions
Political white papers and info on websites
Newspaper articles from beyond the UK
All of these creating a narrative that independence is normal, achievable and worthwhile, giving us info to challenge the unionist arguments, keeping the core indy support steady. We are then key to offering alternative opinions to those passive receivers of pro union, anti indy narratives in our conversations, not as missionaries hellbent on converting folk but as colleagues, friends and neighbours asserting our alternative political perspective.
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Noticed this when a poll that has SLAB getting 37% vs SNP 33%, I’m seeing Faux-indie accounts gloat on Twitter how the SNP are doomed while still being sore that the Indie vote Is the GE. What worse they never ever reply when told why would SNP voters shift to SLAB when Sarwar is -27 in favorably for being the FM in a IPOS poll?.
If the SNP do get 48 ~ 51% despite the misinfo war on X/Reddit and UK media. I can see a ton of them deleting their accounts and /r/Scotland imploding from people lashing out at the mods allowing trolls run free.
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Aye, and I noted Swinney in his STV interview being vigorously pursued on the exact same Tory/Labour attack lines….
It is hardly surprising your old college mates in England believe what they do when the media bombard them with arrant nonsense such as ” Scotland’s educational decline and its acute teacher shortages “, but look to the editorial framing of ” He took refuge in blaming inflation and UK austerity, as the SNP routinely does, but refused to admit that the SNP was re-elected in 2021 pledging to recruit 3,500 new teachers and has failed to do so ” – The view in England is simplistic because they haven’t a clue as to the details, and have no inclination to find out.
Yet beyond your salient point over teacher pupil ratios in Scotland, there is the not so small matter of finding qualified teachers in the fields required let alone paying for them – It’s not as if the Tory drive to lumber students with debt has not had the desired effect, driving personnel shortages…
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The question, after 17 years governing Scotland, is whether any SNP leader can now deliver this.
The small matter of independence looks large in most SNP voter’s minds too.
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*looms
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The great journalist John Pilger (RIP) named the Guardian a ‘pretendy lefty paper’ and how right he was. It’s a BritNat rag posing as left wing and balanced, and it really does manage to CON a lot of people including thsoe who should know better! that includes my highly educated pals in NE England, they really are anti SNP because of reading the pretendy lefty Graun and watching propagnada on their TV.
The ‘Guardian’ is ANTI SNP, pro Labour no matter how far to the right that English party has moved, and imo the Graun is anti Scottish…
As for the polls, wishful thinking and power of suggestion as well as propaganda on stilts, the BritNats are experts at it.
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“SCOTTISH Labour General Election candidate Wilma Brown has been replaced following an investigation into “dozens” of offensive tweets she shared on social media. Brown was initially suspended from the party in April and will now no longer stand in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, a key target seat for Labour”
Currently there is no room for this story on the BBC Scotland or BBC Scottish politics pages on their website….as of yet that is ….but on their Scottish pages they do have plenty of room to cram an excessive amount of stories relating to the SNP ……
As in…..SNP stories currently in their Scottish politics page…..where we have one story that is 23 hours old…..two stories are one day old..…five stories are two days old……two stories are three days old....and one story is six days old.…….
So perhaps there was no room (left) for this story re the Labour candidate after all this story re her being replaced is only nine hours old but for the BBC , as yet, it is not deemed as ‘Breaking news’……or maybe, as per, for the BBC here in Scotland, this #BAD story was connected to the wrong party hence no need to promote it on their BBC Scottish news/politics pages…..as they may need to make room for even more SNP stories on their pages…..many of which seem to have an uncanny similar tone in being all terribly predictable , as output, via the BBC Scottish news…..as in their, BBC Scotland’s news, relentless #SNPBAD vendetta…..which when covering the SNP via any story , well all of their BBC stories on the SNP, are somehow summed up by them, the BBC, as having a distinctly similar conclusion i.e. #SNPBAD
NMRN
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Re my above comment yesterday on Wilma Brown…I see that there is….
Still no room today on the website for BBC Scotland and their Scottish politics pages for them to note, via an article, that this Labour candidate, Wilma Brown, has now been replaced as a candidate because of her sharing “offensive” tweets…..yet there is still plenty of room for loads of (now) older stories relating to the SNP…..where some SNP articles have been on their , BBC website, Scottish politics pages for days….indeed one story on John Swinney entitled “Will John Swinney change the SNP fortunes” has been on their BBC website Scottish Politics page since the 4 May ….that’s now 8 days as a BBC article !….plus there is also still room on their Scotland page…..for……
Patrick Harvie’s attack on Kate Forbes at FM’s Q’s….according to him she is too Conservative apparently….yet on the same BBC website Scottish pages there is still no room for any article on Labour HQ welcoming one of the most right wing Conservative people into their Labour party, as in Natalie Elphicke, via her recent defection to them…..surely that also warrants an article and a response/reaction from the branch office manager & his Deputy on the BBC Scottish Politics page of their website….as both Sarwar & Baillie are never shy in giving their (partisan) opinion on the SNP and too respective members of the SNP as a party, as in respective new and old cabinet members , of the Scottish government (much of which, as their critique of the SNP, is to be found on these same BBC website Scottish pages)………..so surely, as we are now in a UK GE year, Labour deserve to be exposed or at least mentioned when there are significant political stories relating to them as opposed to the BBC just continuing to ignore all and any political stories that may be assumed to have a negative impact upon the Labour party ! (why are the BBC so shy with Labour yet clearly brazen with the SNP ?)
If you do believe the current polling in Scotland that notes in it’s findings that Labour are higher in the polls than the SNP and wonder why ?…..then you need look no further as to why that could possibly be….and the BBC in Scotland have a part to play on the false perception some voters in Scotland may have in respect to Labour as a party….where they the BBC , as a organisation via their branch office , are shielding both the Labour branch office and their HQ from scrutiny and criticism……they do this by cramming their website with #SNPBAD articles….headlining their News programmes with #SNPBAD reports ….while topical and relevant political stories connected to the Labour party are either ignored or downplayed if negative…..plus we are also seeing STV news and Scotland Tonight join in with this opposition , as in join with the BBC, in also copying this same behaviour and same agenda via the SNP and the Labour party.
Trial by media in Scotland via Politics sees them, as a media, acting in defence of the Pro UK parties, and currently in Scotland they are defending the Labour party….on the opposing side they , the same media, also act as those who are prosecuting the SNP….and they have reached a verdict upon both of these parties….which is that Labour are the innocent party and the SNP are the Guilty ones !
One hopes that the Scottish public will judge both political parties based on more than just what the media in Scotland are basing their (flawed) biased arguments upon…..that is they, the public here, will hopefully seek to come to a final decision/conclusion based upon all of the facts and truth available to them in order to make a final more informed decision….as opposed to being swayed by those in the media whose allegiance is compromised in favour of a pro UK party, which currently is the Labour party in Scotland, while also they , the same media here, are simultanously also compromised by their relentless opposition and targeting of another party supportive of Scottish independence….as in the SNP.
Now that is the facts and truth upon the (lack of real) media that we in Scotland are constantly subjected to……as in not getting the actual (whole) news where we are….. but only the news that they, the media, decide as being the only news that they ,as a so called ‘media’, are willing to cover and report as news to us, the public, in Scotland…….
NMRN
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“If you do believe the current polling in Scotland that notes in it’s findings that Labour are higher in the polls than the SNP”
Worth noting that there are some who are wary of political opinion polls via some polling companies…..indeed some say ‘ Opinions polls exist to try to influence public opinion and not to reflect it’….I guess that also depends on who the polling company is and how they conduct their polling.
Based on that we see, via media behaviour in reaction to certain polls, where both the BBC and other media, as a media , pick and choose which opinion polls to promote and which to ignore (as do the Pro UK political parties also) as part off their , media, active participation in all political campaigns within the UK in support of anyone but the SNP.
NMRN
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Have noticed that The National seem to be revelling in this poll……very strange for a “pro-independence”………mmmmm!!!
JB
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Meant to put “paper” but mmmmmm!!! will do!!!
JB
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HARVIE MUST GO
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div>NO ROOM
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