Professor John Robertson OBA

The Herald today with another of their tasteless, exploitative images and demands from charities, the latter lead by folk often more interested in honours from Sir Keir, to demand more from the ‘SNP’ government and, of course, failing to inform their readers of just what that party has already done to radically reduce child poverty, only here, and with the clear commitment, only here, to push for its complete eradication!

The Herald 18 October 2025 headlined their report on autism and ADHD waiting times with an apparently tragic image of tearful wee, Madeleine McCann-like, fair-haired girl of 3 to 4 years, to somehow represent it’s content.

While I’m sure the parents will be at times tearful, are the children likely to be upset about a wait for treatment they might find unpleasant or not understand? Is the Herald’s wee girl not more likely to be about to shout ‘BOO!’?

As well as tasteless, the image is misleading with fewer than 1 in 5 autism diagnoses and only 1 in 10 ADHD diagnoses in females under 5.^{1, 2}

On 2nd October 2025, the Herald had the above image of rough sleeper begging on the streets.

In 2023/2024, only 8.7%, fewer than 1 in 10, of the homeless in Scotland reported rough sleeping in the three months prior to application.³

On 5th October 2025, the Herald had:

Scotland has 46% more psychiatrists per head of population than England^4,5 and 50% of the around 20 000 adults referred for psychological therapies, every quarter, are seen within 4 weeks, 80% within 18 weeks.6

When the 90% target for Children and Adolescents began to be met they changed a bit but still kept the old imagery for lower down in the report:

It’s a long trail:

These images simplify complex socio-economic issues, and are a form of ‘poverty porn‘ which can cause ‘compassion fatigue‘ and distract from the data-driven reporting that is more likely to lead to fixes.^{7, 8}

Sources:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/autism/pdf/2023-ADDM-Report.pdf
2. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html
3. https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-in-scotland-2023-24/
4. BBC Scotland News broadcast 7 October 2024
5. https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2023/05/25/royal-college-of-psychiatrists-calls-for-urgent-publication-of-nhs-workforce-plan-as-psychiatrist-numbers-stagnate
6. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/psychological-therapies-waiting-times/psychological-therapies-waiting-times-quarter-ending-june-2025/
7. https://www.unicef.org/media/media_123456/guidelines
8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1786578