By Liz S

This is a long comment but it exposes BBC bias against the SNP and the BBC’s support For the Labour party.

The BBC have another new radio and TV programme called “Scotcast” which they promote as being a ‘Scottish’ news podcast.

It is broadcast Monday to Thursday on BBC Radio and also on the BBC Scotland TV channel 9 and later on BBC Scotland channel 1 .

It is hosted by Martin Geissler.

Last night they covered Waspi women.

Martin said at the outset “The UK government has gone to war with the Nation’s grannies, surely on so many levels that’s a fight you don’t want to have”

So straight away the tone is set, as one that diminishes the seriousness of the subject and the clear betrayal of Waspi women by Labour UK as the new UK government.

He then promised to look in detail at this for those who were not fully unaware of what it was about.

Martin then stated “it’s always going to be controversial if you are picking a fight with old ladies” .

A bit disrespectful as Martin had as a guest, Anne Potter, who represents Waspi women across West central Scotland and he also said the other guest was their political correspondent Kirsten Campbell to look over the “politics of it”.

He said to Kirsten Campbell “This is coming up in the commons today, Stephen Flynn is introducing a bill. Firstly do you think it’s going to change things” ?

Kirsten responded ” No is the short answer” but then she expanded her answer by then saying “it’s a bit of a political stunt by Stephen Flynn who’s the SNP’s WM leader” and she then explained what this bill was and that it sought to get the backing of MP’s in the HOC to back it.

She also surmised that Stephen Flynn wants to “exploit it and that he was really seeking to highlight divisions between the Scottish Labour party and the UK Labour party because Scottish labour have been a bit more vocal in saying that they think the UK government has maybe made a bit of a mistake”.

She then proceeded to trivialise the significance of this bill being introduced by Stephen Flynn in saying “it will eventually get lost in the machinations of WM”.

Two points here, one being 10 Labour MP’s, including Brian Leishman the new Labour Alloa & Grangemouth MP all voted for Stephen Flynn’s bill so were they too complicit in the supposed “political stunt”?

Also why did Kirsten Campbell not emphasise that many SNP MP’s, including Stephen Flynn, have always been supportive of Waspi women, as have the SNP MSP’s, so why just make out it was Labour in Scotland who were “more vocal in supporting” Waspi women .

Also worth noting how bad WM is if things just “get lost in the machinations” as in bills that are introduced and are very important to sections of the public are then just lost and not addressed by this parliament.

As all of this was being said Anne Potter was listening to it and rather than challenging it and also praising the SNP , especially Stephen Flynn , for doing this in the HOC she was instead quite submissive and accepting of this biased interpretation from Kirsten Campbell.

Brian Leishman, the new Labour MP, sent a message advising Scotcast that he would be supporting this bill.

Kirsten’s take on this was that “Brian has become a bit of a serial rebel” which she said while laughing , of course Kirsten forgot to note that Grangemouth too was also betrayed by Labour so let’s have a laugh at Grangemouth’s expense, as well as laughing at the Waspi women.

After all we have a Labour party to save and a 2026 Scottish election where Labour in Scotland need the BBC to try and help them win it.

Then Martin mentioned ‘Scottish’ Labour and Kirsten said “They’re frustrated frankly, there’s a lot of eye rolling going on, and she then said they have supported Waspi women in showing placards of support and signing pledges but then, in a get out of jail card moment, she reminded everyone that “it was not in their manifesto, and that’s worth pointing out when people are accusing them of breaking promises, there was no mention of Waspi women in ‘Scottish’ Labour’s manifesto for the last GE”

Sorry but UK Labour MP’s also did this too when they were in opposition to the Tory UK government , as in sign pledges and show placards that confirmed they too wanted justice and compensation for Waspi women , and it was a vote to elect a UK government in 2024, as we were not voting for Labour in Scotland , so who cares what was in ‘Scottish’ Labour’s manifesto in 2024!

Kirsten then spoke about Labour UK’s broken promises on the winter fuel payment, two child cap and said that the “SNP were seeking to exploit it” I mean that is a very partisan way of looking at this, why can the SNP not just be making valid points on how the Labour party have let down the most vulnerable in society after they, Labour UK, promised us change ffrom the previous Tory UK government if Labour won the GE and now they have not delivered for those who need the most help and support within the UK?

Kirsten also forgot to mention Grangemouth too which is strange as they had just been talking to and talking about Brian Leishman the MP for that area who also opposed what his party had done to Grangemouth, as in Labour UK letting Grangemouth down in lying about saving it, which Anas Sarwar also said Labour would do if they won the GE.

Kirsten did not want to go there obviously as that would then expose Sarwar as having promoted something that now has proven to be a lie.

Martin then said Anne Potter had passed him a card signed by Keir Starmer , when Starmer was an opposition MP, where Starmer stated ” I support fair and fast compensation for 1950’s women” and Anne said she had quite a few signed cards by other Labour opposition MP’s like for example Ian Murray, what was interesting was that Anne also said she had statements of support from Scottish Labour, Scottish Greens and Scottish Tories but she did not mention the SNP’s support ????

Martin asked Kirsten if there was any chance the Scottish government could mitigate this ?

Kirsten then decided to be honest this time and said this was a reserved issue.

Anne also came in on this and said she would not expect this to be mitigated by the Scottish government as they paid their money to a UK government.

Basically , this debate, just like the Gaza vote in the HOC where Keir Starmer and the Speaker stitched up the SNP, is now being promoted by the BBC as a political stunt and as an opportunity for the SNP to try to embarrass Keir Starmer and exploit divisions in the Labour party.

The victims , Waspi women and with Gaza the Palestinian people, are considered to be less significant when the BBC are trying to save Labour any embarrassment or obscure Labour’s lack of principles and also in the BBC attempting to portray the SNP as being deceitful and dishonest in their true intentions in their words and political actions.

I mean one could argue that when Labour UK were formerly in opposition at WM they were seeking to “exploit” the Waspi situation and that they were pulling ‘political stunts’ only to try to “embarrass” the Tory UK government on the Waspi situation.

I would argue it is the BBC who seek to “exploit” political situations to try to create an advantage for Labour in Scotland , and so the BBC try to “embarrass” the SNP in accusing them of being false in all of those matters that they, the SNP as a party, support. The only “political stunts” we witness are the many stunts that the BBC tries to pull on behalf of Labour in Scotland against the SNP.

It seems no matter what the SNP try to do the BBC political editors in Scotland will always misrepresent their true intentions and so fail to give them any kudos in case the public in Scotland sides with the SNP’s position.

That is currently a huge problem for Scotland as it then means we are not getting Political news from the BBC that is fair or balanced but instead it is heavily weighted against the SNP and way more supportive and seemingly in harmony with Labour in Scotland.

The British Broadcasting Corporation are certainly very much living up to their name in Scotland as far as their pro British political output is concerned and that should be a warning to the public in Scotland , that the BBC’s lack of politically impartiality in politics in Scotland, means that they cannot be trusted as a reliable and honest source of any political news.

The BBC political news in Scotland is tainted by their allegiance to Britain.