BBC NEWS: [abysmal, unprofessional disgrace to broadcasting]
ITV NEWS: Hold our beer!
(Still not deleted/fixed seven hours later.)
Wings Over Scotland has been monitoring the BBC’s coverage of Scottish politics for over 11 years now, readers, and other than The Nick Robinson Incident we’re honestly struggling to remember seeing anything worse than this.
The Corporation’s “coverage” of Ash Regan’s campaign launch for the SNP leadership election ran for roughly seven minutes. And we suppose we should be grateful that it did at one point feature a brief, incidental cameo appearance from Ash Regan.
This is beyond insane.
Like, obviously Rangers aren’t better than Celtic.
We read some harrowing tweets this week from an Edinburgh SNP activist. Sensitive readers should look away now, as the following article contains potentially triggering information about the wild and lawless streets of [checks notes] Corstorphine.
Steel yourselves, folks. Unsettling images follow.
It’s remarkable how openly a certain faction of the SNP is now declaring surrender.
And it’s becoming increasingly clear that the events of the next few days and weeks will not just determine the future of the independence movement, but whether in any meaningful, practical sense it continues to exist at all.
The Indian Council of Scotland and the Muslim Council of the United Kingdom have this morning issued an extraordinary joint statement regarding their serious concerns about the SNP leadership contest. We reproduce it below at their request.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, December 2022:
And it was for Beth and for you guys that we were doing it, we were fighting it.”
Alex Cole-Hamilton, February 2023:
We wonder when Patrick Harvie, Ross Greer and Maggie Chapman will follow suit.
So we finally have two official runners.
And to be honest, we’ve never had an easier decision to make since that time when we caught fire while standing next to the sea.
When assessing who might be the best choice for the next leader of the SNP, and by extension of the independence movement, it’s a pretty good rule of thumb to beware of anyone being bigged up by the Unionist media.
(Not only because they don’t have the SNP or Yes movement’s best interests at heart, but also because these are the people who thought Jim Murphy would take Scottish Labour surging to triumph in 2015 and Kezia Dugdale would win the 2021 election.)
So let’s take a quick look at the runners and riders.
Can you spot the subtle change between these two National stories, readers?
Now, as they’re both in The National the standard of journalism is obviously completely dreadful, and so neither of them actually explains their headline. Nobody is named or quoted even anonymously, and there’s no elaboration other than that “[a member of] the NEC appeared to halt any proposal to use the next General Election as a proxy constitutional vote”, with no indication of HOW they “appeared” to do that.
But they DO raise the question of where on Earth – whoever becomes its new leader – the SNP goes from the smouldering bomb crater that Nicola Sturgeon has left it in.
Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
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