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You may have noticed this rare occurrence: a positively-framed headline about NHS Scotland was published (December 23) on the Scotland page of the BBC News website: ‘A&E waiting times improve ahead of busy festive period’.

On long waits, the BBC reported that during a week in mid-December: ’14% of patients waited over eight hours, compared to 16.9% the week before, and 6.9% had waits of more than 12 hours, down from 8.6% previously.’

The headline’s positivity was soon countered in the article by the BBC sharing with us the views of opposition politicians. Displaying the usual BBC blind spot over notions of perspective or context in its reporting on Scotland, the article goes on to amplify the views of the British Labour Party’s health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie: “It is shameful that thousands of Scots are still facing long waits in A&E, despite Health Secretary Neil Gray promising to get on top of the issue.

“It is quite clear that the SNP government has no real plan and no ideas about how to address the problems in our NHS to restore it to the level the public need and deserve.” (my emphasis)

Only the week before, one of BBC Scotland’s ‘go to’ advocacy bodies, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) issued a press statement regarding NHS Wales (December 18) where of course Labour has long been the responsible party of government: ‘When will the record setting end?’: Emergency Departments in Wales experience worst-ever November performance ‘

Here we’re told: ‘Emergency Departments (EDs) in Wales are under significant strain as new data revealed they experienced the worst November on record for four, eight and 12 hour waits.’ Spot the signs of Labour politicians having a ‘real plan’ and ‘ideas’ about how to address this situation, anyone?

We also learn that ‘one in seven patients (10,107) waited 12 hours or more in major EDs’ i.e.14.3%. Recall, the NHS Scotland figured quoted by the BBC (see above) was just 8.6% in one week BEFORE the improvement to 5.5%!

Then on December 17, the RCEM looked towards NHS England and the Westminster government: ‘‘Corridor care can only be stopped in the corridors of power” – MPs receive striking festive greetings card from RCEM’

Referring to NHS England, RCEM President is quoted: “December 25 is just another day, which means thousands of patients will be stuck waiting hours upon hours in noisy, chaotic and dangerous conditions in A&E because hospitals don’t have the capacity to take them in.

And in a direct reference to the Labour government in Westminster: “This is happening because of a lack of political will to address this crisis. The problem has been neglected for far too long and this must stop. So-called ‘corridor care’ can only be stopped in the corridors of power. I hope MPs, when they open the cards from us, take our message to heart and use their positions to push the government into action.“

Signs of Labour in government in Westminster having a ‘real plan’ and ‘ideas’ about how to address this situation?

BBC Scotland ignores all of this UK context. It considers that voters in Scotland don’t need to know of Labour’s actual track record in government in Cardiff and Westminster whilst it amplifies, wholly uncritically, the views of British Labour Party leaders in Scotland who claim to have the ‘solution’. Baillie et al clearly haven’t been sharing their distinctive plan and big ideas with their own party leaders in government elsewhere in the UK.

BBC Scotland – with its shallow, uncritical, context- and perspective-free journalism – is simply complicit in enabling the British Labour Party in Scotland to deceive voters over the party’s credentials on the NHS in the run up to the Holyrood election in 2026.