Kenny McBride is a Wings reader. This is his personal experience and view.
A couple of weeks ago Ian Small, BBC Scotland’s Head of Public Policy, wrote an article for the Scotsman addressing the question of anti-independence bias at Pacific Quay. Naturally he defended the Corporation strongly, but he also made what seemed like an invitation:
“The issue over BBC content being posted online brought a further consequence, with over 200 people turning up at Pacific Quay in Glasgow last week to demonstrate against BBC bias. We offered to talk. That offer still stands. We want to engage, constructively, in dialogue with those who question our journalism or are suspicious of our decision-making.”
I was sceptical, of course, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I decided to act.
Last night we stumbled across an interesting little statistical wrinkle to our story from Wednesday about voters’ satisfaction with Scottish public services.
The middle set of figures there is especially revealing.
Chris McEleny is an SNP councillor. This is a personal opinion.
The open sewer of some newspapers has been in full torrent this week. However it surged over the overflow pipe with the hysteria in last weekend’s Sunday Mail.
In a deranged editorial it actually argued that Alex Salmond should stay out of the SNP “whatever happens with his legal challenge and the subsequent police investigation”.
In other words, “regardless of innocence or guilt, regardless of whether the procedures are judged just or unjust we just don’t like him”.
Actually it’s not what they like or don’t like. It’s fear that motivates much of the mainstream media against Salmond.
As alert readers will have noticed from the third paragraph, the headline is actually an inexplicably negative spin on the fact that journeys on the line INCREASED last year by 5.8% to a new record high of 1.5 million.
This year’s Scottish Household Survey is out, and the press is in an absolutely gleeful orgy of misery over it. Here’s the Times, for example:
The paper’s leading line is that “only half of those polled were happy with schools, the NHS and transport provision in their area”. So readers would naturally assume that the other half were DISsatisfied, right?
Perhaps the single most striking feature of everyday non-constitutional Scottish politics is Labour’s constantly-recurring habit of highlighting some supposedly unsatisfactory statistic about the Scottish Government’s performance, only for it to be revealed that it’s vastly better than the comparable figure for Wales, where Labour has been in power ever since the Assembly was created in 1999.
So let’s crank up the machine again and see what it says, shall we?
New polling out tonight from British Polling Council members Deltapoll.
Excluding don’t-knows, both of those sets of figures come out at 52-48 margins: for Yes if Brexit goes ahead, for No if it doesn’t. If Brexit isn’t mentioned in the question at all, the results are 49% Yes 51% No.
Excluding don’t knows, the figures for Northern Ireland are 57-43 in favour of a united Ireland in the event of Brexit, and 60-40 against if Brexit is averted.
It’s an almost impossible task to identify the most despicable sewer-dredging piece of “journalism” that the Scottish press has spewed out in the past 10 days or so of demented obsession with as-yet-unsubstantiated allegations by two unnamed women against Alex Salmond, but today’s Sunday Mail must be a strong contender.
The paper runs a four-page orgy of hypocritical moralistic shrieking based on Salmond’s outrageous and unacceptable behaviour in, um, thanking the people who donated to his crowdfunder to challenge the process by which the story was improperly leaked to the media. The monster.
And if you think that’s a ludicrously thin basis on which to create a front-page splash and three pages of screaming drivel inside, wait until you actually see some of it.
While ploughing through hundreds of pages of hysterical drivel about Alex Salmond in the Scottish press this week, extra-alert readers may have also been aware of quite a stushie going on between the SNP-controlled Glasgow City Council (GCC) and a group of representatives and fans of Scotland’s newest professional football club The Rangers FC, such as Tory list MSP Adam “WATP” Tomkins (pictured below).
Andy Ellis on Holiday Relief: “On you go “James”…since you’re so keen on openness and making sure of the bona fides of those commenting, you…” Jun 21, 08:28
Andy Ellis on Holiday Relief: “@Breastplate 9.51 pm Could they? Yes. Would they? Probably not, because the overwhelming likelihood is that it would be discovered.…” Jun 21, 08:24
Andy Ellis on Holiday Relief: “@twatbynametwatbynature 8.50pm See, there you go again, hyperbolising and catastrophising to back up the threadbare nature of what passes for…” Jun 21, 08:14
Insider on Holiday Relief: “sarah… Tell us all when you have the latest news…. The Cromarty Firth by-election [Highland Council] is absolutely vital in…” Jun 20, 23:08
Alf Baird on Holiday Relief: ““Nine years – no rush then!” The SNP leadership has been content to run a colonial administration for almost 20…” Jun 20, 21:56
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Holiday Relief: “‘LONDON CALLING: HOW THE BBC STOLE THE REFERENDUM’ by GA PONSONBY KINDLE £1.99 Review 21 May 2015 — Verified Purchase…” Jun 20, 21:56
Breastplate on Holiday Relief: “Andy, “outlandish conspiracy theories about vote rigging”. The British secret services, I’m sure you will agree, exist specifically to protect…” Jun 20, 21:51
sarah on Holiday Relief: “Total votes 2410. Reform was knocked out at stage 7 with 396 votes. Having no inside information, it looks to…” Jun 20, 21:19
Scot Finlayson on Holiday Relief: “Scotland still to vote on their Assisted Killing bill, Brought forward by LibDem Liam McArthur who is funded by shadowy…” Jun 20, 20:58
twathater on Holiday Relief: “The happy-clappy relentless positivity of the campaign had some merit, and obviously played well in some quarters, but it ultimately…” Jun 20, 20:50
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “You’re defo onto something with the robotic wank arm, Dan. I hope you’ll still remember us and continue to post…” Jun 20, 20:38
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Fit happened tae yer CAPS LOCK key? Hae ye worn it oot?” Jun 20, 20:29
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “You could start talking in Scots. Where are you with learning your 500 words? Into double figures yet? Ah hae…” Jun 20, 20:22
twathater on Holiday Relief: “Tell the truth bastard tax you didn’t read it you got your nurse to read it and explain the words…” Jun 20, 20:12
sarah on Holiday Relief: “Result in the Cromarty Firth by-election [Highland Council]: Stage 1: Conservatives 48, Labour 77, Alba 91, Greens 92, LibDems 290,…” Jun 20, 20:07
Confused on Holiday Relief: “worse than a shooting range at a carny no exit poll = rigged. Exit polls are the early warning system…” Jun 20, 19:14
Confused on Holiday Relief: “– just a thought : is “being English” considered a disability? (- an “antisocial personality disorder”? Or a “narcissistic psychosis”?)…” Jun 20, 18:53
Confused on Holiday Relief: “The disabled will be “sorted” when assisted dying comes in. We are all equal in the grave. Equality at the…” Jun 20, 18:37
Andy Ellis on Holiday Relief: “The most obvious reasons are known and accepted by all sane folk tho’ James. Primarily, not enough Scots (whether native…” Jun 20, 18:27
Dan on Holiday Relief: “@ Aidan If the UK is so great then why does it have to import so much stuff and [eople…” Jun 20, 18:16
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Why would any one argue that a law abiding mostly safe country should follow and back slide to other countries…” Jun 20, 17:35
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: ““Although where there is a will, there is a way” Naw. That’s gullibility reinforced by the lucky accident of having…” Jun 20, 17:11
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Breastplate, Aye At what point does a censorship country make a regime change to a dictatorship country. Although where there…” Jun 20, 16:15
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Somebody had better check the small print. It could well be that at ScotGov, a “disabled” person is somebody trapped…” Jun 20, 15:40
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Sure, Bip. If only we had more cheerleading for poot and more bigging up of the lassie torturing tunnel skulkers…” Jun 20, 15:36
agent x on Holiday Relief: ““THE Scottish Government has launched a “milestone” report which aims to put disabled people’s experiences and concerns at the centre…” Jun 20, 14:00
George Ferguson on Holiday Relief: “@Alf Baird 10:03am The purpose of being an Independent Candidate is surely that you don’t have a party or organisation…” Jun 20, 13:40
James on Holiday Relief: “Alongside a toon cooncil franchise and 24/7 interference by a foreign media system….” Jun 20, 13:38
Breastplate on Holiday Relief: “There’s a sign that hangs on the wall of the retirement home in The Simpsons. It says “Thank you for…” Jun 20, 13:13
lothianlad on Holiday Relief: “The 2014 referendunm was rigged.” Jun 20, 12:17
