Immediately after the shocking scenes of Yes supporting ‘attack mobs’ shouting at and then egging Jim Murphy of the No campaign in 2014, SNP leader Alex Salmond, forgiving the confusion about who was actually leading the Yes campaign, was quick to condemn those whom the Scottish media were keen to present as the extreme wing of ‘his’ movement. Manfuly shrugging of the death threats and road rage he had experienced, Salmond said: People shouldn’t throw eggs at somebody full stop, that’s something that happens in elections. I remember John Prescott getting a bit energised about it in a UK election. It … Continue reading Will Scottish Tories follow Alex Salmond’s example in 2014 and condemn Loyalist violence?

In the Herald yesterday: AN SNP MSP has blasted the co-chairman of the Scottish Government’s education recovery group – insisting that controversial blended learning proposals are “absolutely unacceptable”. Who is the co-chairman? Stephen McCabe, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA), Children and Young People spokesperson (co-chair) Stephen McCabe is a Labour councillor. The blended learning proposals are the work of the Education Recovery Group. It is not a government department but around 20, mainly teachers and trade union leaders, and only 3 SNP politicians. https://www.gov.scot/groups/covid-19-education-recovery-group/ Continue reading This Herald headline on schools is just a barefaced lie

A vulture flies over the factory attracted by the decaying aroma of Tory politics. From BBC Leeds and West Yorkshire, yesterday: A coronavirus outbreak at a meat factory was shrouded in “secrecy”, it has been claimed. Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed at Thursday’s daily briefing there had been cases in Kirklees, West Yorkshire. Resident Alan Hair said he was “angry at the level of secrecy” while MP Tracy Brabin branded the announcement as “incredibly careless”. Kirklees Council said no-one at the factory was seriously ill, or had died, but the BBC understands about 100 people have been asked to self-isolate. … Continue reading As Scots face risk of covid-contaminated meat products will Jackson Carlaw call for resignation of Matt Hancock

In 2003, the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Firdos Square, Baghdad, received saturation media coverage which fuelled the perception that the war had been won. This event along with George Bush’s hackneyed declaration of victory aboard a battleship in the Persian Gulf, diverted attention from start of a long and costly conflict. In the same way,the statue toppling of Confederate generals across the US and the slave trader in Bristol is diverting attention from what really matters to the Black Lives Matter movement – real social change.  These violent emotional TV dramas have shifted the debate on to what, … Continue reading Why statue-toppling is a distraction that suits the powerful

On BBC Scotland’s flagship radio news show, today, they interviewed the makers of Unsubscribe, a 29-minute horror movie shot entirely on video-conferencing app Zoom which made $25,488 in ticket sales on one day, securing the US box office top spot. Hearing that the film’s ‘first night’ was in an empty theatre, presenter Bill Whiteford then says: ‘Maybe we should make radio for nobody to listen to, Laura?’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000k2vn This comes days since Ofcom revealed that only 8% of Scots were using Radio Scotland for news, the same as Channel 5 and only 1% ahead of Snapchat: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/157914/uk-news-consumption-2019-report.pdf Continue reading BBC Good Morning Scotland accepts that it may have to broadcast to an audience of ZERO listeners

The Herald’s Helen McArdle throws her critics into confusion as she reveals the truth of what has been happening since the SNP, as Jackson Carlaw likes to label the Scottish Government, diverged from the UK Government’s heartless death-drive. Covid-related deaths, even using the unreliable Public Health England data are now three times higher in England than in Scotland. Will BBC Scotland catch up with these facts? Can they? Not, so far: I could be wrong and hope to be proved wrong but I think we might not hear anyone on Reporting Scotland say the words in that Herald headline. Of … Continue reading If the Herald can catch up with the truth about Covid deaths, will BBC Scotland?

At Scottish Affairs, yesterday, John Lamont (Con) clearly hope he might get the expert to be critical of the new SNP Government slogan ‘Stay safe’ but he was to be disappointed. He asked: You said you were a behavioural scientist. This was thinking back to what the First Minister announced today that the new slogan in Scotland is going to be ‘Stay safe, protect others and save lives.’ And comparing the criticism that she levelled at the UK Government when they changed their slogan to ‘Stay alert, control the virus and save lives‘, the First Minister criticised that advice, I … Continue reading Leading behavioural scientist praises new ‘Stay safe’ slogan to disappoint Tory MP

Yesterday’s Scottish Affairs Committee had this in mind: The Scottish Affairs Committee hears from a panel of constitutional, public health, and economics experts as it probes the UK and Scottish governments’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The witnesses were: AP: Akash Paun, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government; LB: Professor Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health, University of Edinburgh; DB: Professor David Bell, Professor of Economics, University of Sterling (sic); NM: Professor Nicola McEwen, Co-Director, Centre of Constitutional Change It’s good to know that the committee admin know where Sterling is and that Professor Pennington was unavailable. The video is at: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/a9db3cd7-ad46-4d90-95fc-2c4221687c80 … Continue reading 4 leading scientists praise Scottish Government’s handling of crisis after divergence from deadly 4 Nations ‘strategy’

Yesterday, in the Herald, Professor Bauld is headlined as saying something like this: Scientists have ‘no idea’ where the evidence for some Scottish Government lockdown decisions is coming from. She did say something like that but only well into the session and only after she was persuaded by the wheedling questions from Alberto Costa (Conservative), pressing her to think of just one example where the Scottish Government’s decision-making had been less transparent. After numerous earlier statements praising the Scottish Government’s transparency by her and by the other witnesses, Professor Bauld, hesitating, came up with a concern about the timing details … Continue reading Upset by twitter ‘abuse’, Herald’s Hannah Rodger petulantly insists on her right to fake the news again

By stewartb I’ve looked on with interest at how BBC news outlets have covered the extreme far right activities in London and Glasgow over the past week. I have been disappointed at the seeming equivalences being drawn by BBC Scotland’s output between ‘protests’ by right wing extremists and those protesting legally in support of the rights of refugees (‘No Evictions Glasgow’). I have been disappointed at the lack of contextualised assessment of the two groups in Glasgow. See also: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/06/17/bbc-scotlands-cowardly-and-dishonest-labeling-of-both-violent-racists-and-their-innocent-victims-as-merely-rivals/ One other notable feature in the difference in coverage of what happened in London and Glasgow is in the choice … Continue reading BBC Scotland hiding the nature of extremist violence because it’s Unionist