By Alasdair Macdonald

BBC ‘Scotland’, some unionist politicians, most of the ‘Scottish’ newspapers, and other UK media, probably via the Press Association have given the Cairngorms wildfire extensive coverage, but as well as than reporting on tackling the fire they have used vox pops from two people in the Nethy Bridge area to ‘slam’ the Scottish Government and Scottish Fire and Rescue. The chair of the local community council is a retired photographer who worked for the P&J in Aberdeen and it is likely that he has used contacts in the media to get his political point across. BBC ‘Scotland’, of course was happy to oblige.

When the wind direction changed suddenly, as happens in mountainous areas and some residential properties were threatened and were advised to evacuate, the theme was, ‘Why were we not given more notice?’ How much notice can be given of unpredictable events?

The fire service responded, the weather changed and the threat lessened and people returned to their homes, no one was injured or killed.

For the media, this is not just about a wildfire, but about attacking the Scottish Government and by extension independence. By suggesting the fire service was not coping is implying Scotland cannot cope.

Surprisingly, over a week ago Scotland on Sunday – on an inside page – had a constructive piece by the CEO of Scottish landed estates on the need for cooperation amongst all parties to deal with threats like this which are a consequence of climate change. The article recognised the responsibilities of private organisations like his in developing solutions.

The growing probability of wildfires in Scotland is something that has to be dealt with, for the safety of local communities and, more widely, for air quality. However, there needs to be a sense of perspective and scale as we see the enormousness of fires in France and Spain and, in previous times, in the United States and Australia.

Scotland is adversely served by its media, especially BBC ‘Scotland’.