By stewartb – a long read

This is to ‘showcase’ BBC Scotland’s journalism. The example is taken from its coverage of CalMac ferry services in which anecdote is used in negative reporting characterised by the absence of context and the absence of perspective.

Negativity in the case of ‘ferries’ has only been challenged, balanced or countered with any consistency in one place, on Talking up Scotland. In stark contrast to BBC Scotland  and other mainstream news media that supposedly ‘serve’ Scotland with ALL their resources, only here on TuS have a number of things – simple, reasonable, arguably obvious things – been pursued better to inform the public:

• the nature and extent of the public subsidy of the CalMac ferry services, including to small population centres, has been explained
• the performance statistics of the ferry services have been reported in the round rather than cherry-picked for negative headlines
• the level of support for CalMac ferries from public funds has been compared and contrasted with how other UK and international service comparators are financed and their services to users priced
• the performance of CalMac services has been compared and contrasted – benchmarked – (favourably) against a number of international comparators
• the age of the CMAL/CalMac fleet has been compared and contrasted – benchmarked – (and not unfavourably) with international comparators.

Those following media coverage of ‘ferries’ will know that the Isle of Mull has figured prominently. A feature has been use of quotes from disgruntled island residents. The purpose of this blog post is simply to offer a bit of ‘perspective’ – aka the capacity to view things in their truer relations or relative importance!

A business perspective

The issue of media reporting of personal anecdotes uncritically came to mind when re-reading a BBC News website article from March 23, 2023. Headlined: ‘Businesses are paying the price for poor ferries, say Mull residents’, the article profiles residents with business interests expressing negative views. (See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-65051138)

One Mull resident – referred to in the present post only by initials, NK – is reported stating that she ‘and her family run construction and marine services firms on Mull, which employ about 300 people.’ She tells BBC Scotland: ‘Island businesses are being hit with extra costs due to ferry disruption’ and “We’ve had trucks booked on the ferry, only to be turned away due to capacity issues, this means the driver is has to sit about for three or four hours”. And: “You often can’t then pass these costs onto customers, they’re not going to pay for an extra five hours work because we couldn’t get on a ferry”. 

So far so reasonable you may argue: who doesn’t find transport disruption unwelcome?  However, it is the following quote that motivated a search for ‘perspective’: ”We’re in the midst of a ferry crisis in the west coast of Scotland. It is so bad people are being driven away.”

Anyone suffering delays to a journey on public (or indeed any) transport is likely to be unhappy but is it possible to find out just how badly businesses on Mull are suffering? Fortunately Companies House is a rich source of information and insight!

A Google search for ‘construction and marine services firms’ on Mull discovers one firm whose director (ADK) has the same surname as the BBC Scotland contributor, NK. Moreover, the company website has profiles of senior staff: these include a head of business development with the same name as NK. This Mull-based business, incorporated in 1979 is described in Companies House records as conducting these activities: ‘SIC 41201 – Construction of commercial buildings; 42990 – Construction of other civil engineering projects not elsewhere classified; 49410 – Freight transport by road; 51210 – Freight air transport.’

The following three paragraphs extracted from the latest annual report (for the year to 31 December 2022) for this firm are noteworthy for their positivity, their reporting of substantial achievements and the optimism of the forward look. Recall the reporting year end was just 3 months before NK gave BBC Scotland the alarming report of a ‘crisis’ and conditions that are ‘so bad people are being driven away’! The firm’s accounts, including its positive ‘Review of Business’, were signed off by the directors on October 19, 2023.

December 2022) for this firm are noteworthy for their positivity, their reporting of substantial achievements and the optimism of the forward look. Recall the reporting year end was just 3 months before NK gave BBC Scotland the alarming report of a ‘crisis’ and conditions that are ‘so bad people are being driven away’! The firm’s accounts, including its positive ‘Review of Business’, were signed off by the directors on October 19, 2023.

The annual report itemises the firm’s ‘risk register’: nothing on ferries or transport links. The biggest negative impacts on the company’s profitability in 2022 were: (i) high inflation impacting costs of supplies for the construction business; and (ii) a sub-contractor leaving the firm in the lurch with expensive consequences.

For further context, the same company back in 2018 won the accolade from Business Insider as Scotland’s ‘Fastest growing SME300 Company’.

It seems reasonable to argue that this Mull-based company’s ‘extremely’ positive view of its status and future prospects provides relevant and important context to the alarmist language of “ferry crisis” that is “so bad” amplified uncritically by BBC Scotland. This surely must be all the more relevant when the source of these views is seemingly intimately associated with this same, successful firm!  Why did BBC Scotland not ask its contributor the obvious question about actual business performance in order to provide some perspective?

Another complainant profiled by BBC Scotland

In the same BBC News website article from March 23, 2023, other Mull business owners   (initials JR and DR) – owners of a bakery – also comment in ways that BBC Scotland then use to justify its headline: ‘Businesses are paying the price for poor ferries, say Mull residents’.

Business owners from Mull with the same names feature in a news item on the website of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) dated January 31, 2024: ‘ISLAND BAKERY TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND CREATE JOBS’. Here we learn: ‘A bakery on the Isle of Mull has embarked on an expansion project that will increase productivity, help it meet growing demand, and create new jobs’ (my emphasis) So yet another Mull-based business anticipating growth!

The HIE statement goes on: ’Tobermory based Island Bakery Organics Ltd has secured up to £78,200 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) towards a total project investment of £195,500.

‘… The business became a limited company in 2020 and now employs around 35 people.’

‘The main products are luxury biscuits for domestic and international markets and Island Bakery is looking to expand its sales further overseas and with UK retailers.

‘The HIE funding will contribute towards the costs of new automated production equipment …. The improvements will make the company more sustainable and competitive and enable it to meet growing demand for its products.’ Yet another reference to ‘growth’!

JR, a director of the firm is quoted: “This investment will transform a major part of our operations, fixing a production bottle-neck that has hampered growth as we emerge from the difficult Covid years.” 

More for a business perspective

The Crerar Hotel Group has ten hotels, nine in Scotland and one in Cumbria. Its portfolio includes the Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa, a hotel with c. 75 bedrooms located in Craignure.

Inspection of the Group’s ‘Annual report and financial statements for the year ending 25 March, 2023’, available on the Companies House website, reveals the following positives about trading on Mull:

This from the HIE website (dated December 3, 2021) is also noteworthy: ‘A £2m project underway to upgrade the Isle of Mull Hotel has secured up to £510,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE)’. Of course, HIE receives its funding for economic development from the Scottish Government!

The CEO of Crerar Hotels is quoted: “Crerar Hotels are injecting over £2.5m into this, and other improvements to the Isle of Mull Hotel, resulting in the development of more than 20 new jobs across the hotel. I’d like to thank the Muileachs for all of their support over the years and HIE who have provided us with this funding, allowing us to complete the work ahead of what we believe will be a busy and successful year for the hotel. All of this will help continue to push the hospitality offering on Mull.”

It seems reasonable to conclude that given the scale of private investment, the Crerar Hotel Group is taking a rather more positive view of business prospects on Mull than BBC Scotland and its local sources chose to adopt in March 2023! Or is that an understatement?

And yet more!

Again from the HIE website: ‘FUNDING BOOST FOR MULL COMMUNITY PROJECT (August 1,2023): ‘A community project to support local business on the Isle of Mull in Argyll has secured up to £250,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

‘The Mull and Iona Community Trust (MICT) is leading the £999,908 project, which is also being supported by the Scottish Government Regeneration Capital Grants Fund, administered by Argyll and Bute Council. The funding will enable the group to build four new business units in the Nonhebel Park Estate in Tobermory, Mull’s largest settlement.’

And: ‘The first phase of Nonhebel Park was completed in 2020, with six business units, eight lock up units, fenced compounds and 20 self-storage units. In spite of delays caused by the pandemic, all of this was fully occupied by March 2022, supporting 20 local businesses and 49 jobs.’

HIE’s area manager for Argyll and the Islands is quoted: “There is clearly strong demand for good quality business premises for existing businesses and start-ups in the Tobermory area. This is a great project by MICT that will enable local businesses to grow, support year-round local employment, and strengthen community resilience in a rural island location.” Above we evidenced positivity over business growth now we learn of demand for new business accommodation!

The general manager of MICT is quoted: “We now have the resources in place to build on the massive success of the first phase of Nonhebel Park, which achieved 100% occupancy within two years of opening, despite the opening coinciding with the first lockdowns of the pandemic. We are confident that the effect of this support will further strengthen the sustainability of our community on Mull.”

Does this ‘strong demand’, ‘massive success’ and ‘further strengthening’ accord with BBC Scotland’s messaging? We could go on and on!

To recap!

What messages did BBC Scotland opt to amplify without challenge, without analysis, without qualification – without concern for perspective?  

– ‘Businesses are paying the price for poor ferries, say Mull residents’

• “It is so bad people are being driven away”. 

(By the way, the Argyll & Bute Council website reports that the population of Mull at the time of the 2011 census was 2,800. National Records of Scotland reports that at the 2022 census the population was 3,083. At the 2001 census the population was 2,696.)