Earlier today we reported on the mysterious failure of the Herald to notice that its front page lead story about supposedly poor ScotRail punctuality figures made a number of serious errors with regard to the facts, most notably confusing the excellent figures for last month with a 12-month rolling average which was significantly worse.
But as we read the rest of the papers, we noticed the oddest thing.
Today’s edition of The Times contains a textbook example of a phenomenon that we highlight regularly: how newspapers gradually unpick their own dishonest headlines to grudgingly admit a truth which is often the polar opposite of the initial claim.
The BBC’s Reporting Scotland is, in our view, directly responsible for at least 80% of Yes supporters’ belief that the UK’s state broadcaster is biased against independence. Almost all of the worst examples of unbalanced or downright dishonest coverage over the last five years come from the flagship teatime bulletin.
Today’s Daily Record covers the story we mentioned yesterday about a report from a Scottish Labour campaign group making the pretty factually-uncontestable point that the branch office’s dismal strategy in last month’s election held the UK party back.
Broadly speaking, the psychological phenomenon known as the Pollyanna Principle is a tendency to neurotically see the most positive possible view of a situation. It’s not generally widely found in newspapers – for whom bad news as a rule sells much better than good news – but for some reason the Scottish press makes a uniform exception when it comes to military shipbuilding.
This, for example, is today’s Herald:
Now, in itself that headline is – unusually – true, so far as it goes. But it only takes until the first sentence of the article text before things start to fall apart.
Hanzala Malik has been a Glasgow Labour politician for 22 years without anyone noticing. His Wikipedia entry sums up his contribution to Scottish politics over that time in a single 25-word sentence amounting to “served on some committees”.
But he got noticed yesterday.
Because so committed was Malik to the core ideological principle of Scottish Labour – namely that absolutely everything bad that happens anywhere is the SNP’s fault – that he somewhat overstretched himself and blamed them for the closure of six Jobcentres in Glasgow, despite the startlingly obvious facts that responsibility for the decision lies solely with the UK government and the closures have been opposed consistently by every SNP MP in the city, two things Malik can’t possibly have not known.
After an outcry on social media when an alert Wings reader spotted the falsehood, Malik quietly amended the Facebook post twice, first from an attack on “the SNP” to the rather ambiguous “Government” and then finally to the accurate “UK government”. But “SNP BAD” will always be Labour’s instinctive default reaction.
We’re always loath to criticise political journalists for feeble stories published during the summer season, when parliaments are in recess and there’s nothing much happening to fill space with. But the Sunday Post has started pretty early this year.
Let’s see if we can put a number on the degree of “dilution” here, shall we?
The Labour Party’s current state of euphoric hubris about losing another election is at least partly explicable. Jeremy Corbyn increased his party’s 2015 vote in England and Wales by a thumping 40%, took the highest vote share of any Labour leader since 2001 (beating Tony Blair’s 2005 victory by five points), the highest actual vote since Blair’s 1997 landslide, and deprived the Tories of their overall majority.
Those achievements are tempered by the fact that while Corbyn vastly overperformed expectations and certainly gave Theresa May a bloody nose (and might well end up depriving her of the Prime Ministership once her party gets a challenger together), the morning-after reality is that Tory rule has been extended to at least 2022 – by which time Corbyn will be 73 – with the nasty hangover of the empowerment of the DUP.
(With both Labour and Corbyn personally now leading in the polls it’s pretty much impossible to see the Tories losing a vote of confidence which would trigger another exemption to the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. Any new election would very likely lead not only to a Labour government but to a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government, a prospect to chill even the most rebellious Tory into meek and sober compliance.)
But it would be churlish to dispute that Corbyn has put Labour in its best position for nearly 20 years. The same is emphatically NOT true of Scottish Labour, which hasn’t stopped the Scottish media from desperately trying to pretend otherwise.
She’d insisted explicitly several times that a Jeremy Corbyn administration WOULD block a new indyref, even after being shown a video clip of Corbyn from earlier in the day saying he wouldn’t, and she repeatedly urged readers not to listen to the party’s leader and to instead go and look at the Labour manifesto.
We hadn’t been planning to talk any more about the curious case of Claire Austin, the suddenly publicity-shy Edinburgh nurse who – how can we put this? – seemed a rather ill-chosen figurehead for the good cause of getting more pay for a group of people who are rightly well-regarded by the public.
But yesterday, the release of a letter from Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale re-opened political hostilities after last week’s hiatus for the Manchester terror attack by shoving the now-reticent Ms Austin right back into the spotlight.
Michael Laing on The Long Unravelling: “It’s deliberate. He’s an unelected UK state plant. He’s just continuing the sabotage and destruction that’s been ongoing since 2014.” Nov 21, 23:11
Zander Tait on The Long Unravelling: “You do like your facts embedded in your fantasy future Dumpster CamelMan. Unfortunately for you Cancer FannyBaws the last two…” Nov 21, 22:58
Shug on The Long Unravelling: “I do hope Swinney and co turn up at Salmond’s memorial so we can tell them what we think of…” Nov 21, 22:52
wull on The Long Unravelling: “Flynn should also have known that Alex Salmond also donated one of the two salaries he had at one point…” Nov 21, 22:39
Campbell Clansman on The Long Unravelling: “Glasgow is an Indy stronghold. If these areas vote 2-1 Unionist parties, all the Alba/Salvo fantasies and all the lies…” Nov 21, 22:37
Zander Tait on The Long Unravelling: “There ain’t no medals for his kind of bravery.” Nov 21, 21:38
Mac on The Long Unravelling: “I have not bought a newspaper in 20 years but I have an X subscription which I bought just a…” Nov 21, 21:30
Mac on The Long Unravelling: “What Craig Murray is doing is beyond brave. I really thought he had a death wish this last couple of…” Nov 21, 20:56
Ian Brotherhood on The Long Unravelling: “Watching that right now. It’s remarkable, listening to these people, (regardless of whether you agree with them or not) and…” Nov 21, 20:50
znovak on The Long Unravelling: “Craig Murray’s argument about purity is fallacious. When organic chemists say that that the product of synthesis was 95% pure,…” Nov 21, 20:46
Zander Tait on The Long Unravelling: “And you are a thing of wonder, Camel Humpster TransMan. Let’s see, the last 2 polls on Scottish Independence clearly…” Nov 21, 20:31
Campbell Clansman on The Long Unravelling: “There are four council elections today. Three are in Glasgow, an SNP stronghold. I wonder if the “Indy” parties (assuming…” Nov 21, 20:12
George Ferguson on The Long Unravelling: “I was surprised Flynn didn’t know that Ross donated one of his salaries to charity when questioned on the Sunday…” Nov 21, 19:41
Zander Tait on The Long Unravelling: “And, of course, let’s not forget the double salary, double staff and double expenses. There are few more impressive sights…” Nov 21, 19:17
George Ferguson on The Long Unravelling: “Stephen Flynn finding out that double jobbing motivated by naked ambition is not a good look especially when sitting politicians…” Nov 21, 19:09
Stevie on The Long Unravelling: “Actually, people have been asking for decades what happened to huge donations left to the SNP in deceased wills” Nov 21, 18:45
Al Dossary on The Long Unravelling: “Cant watch that and Danny Haiphong / Mark Sleboda at the same time unfortunately……..” Nov 21, 18:33
twathater on The Long Unravelling: “NO he”s just a fucking corrupt moron elected by imbeciles” Nov 21, 18:25
Mia on The Long Unravelling: ““Close Holrood” No. I have a much better solution: get a political party to stand on a manifesto to: gain…” Nov 21, 18:23
twathater on The Long Unravelling: “I vote Alan that we get rid of the BIGGER more incompetent and more corrupt WM parliament and while we…” Nov 21, 18:23
robertkknight on The Long Unravelling: “Then vote to get rid of Westminster – job done surely?” Nov 21, 18:11
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “Zero One: Zero One: Welcome To The Future (instrumental): https://tinyurl.com/bdepyrzd #RealityWins” Nov 21, 18:07
Mia on The Long Unravelling: “I would say both. A plant and deliberately promoted beyond his abilities (the same as Yousaf and I would say…” Nov 21, 17:54
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “Elon Musk: You can measure intelligence by its ability to predict the future: “The right metric for intelligence is probably…” Nov 21, 17:39
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “Gilbert O’Sullivan: Himself: Nothing Rhymed: “If I give up the seat I’ve been saving To some elderly lady or man…” Nov 21, 16:54
Breeks on The Long Unravelling: “Judge Nap also has a livestream with Col Douglas Macgregor scheduled for 21:00… Probably don’t want to miss that…. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPJmh_bAxlA” Nov 21, 16:51
Breeks on The Long Unravelling: “www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILxOPAH1bVw As Jeffrey Sachs says, the warrant’s issue is also a measure of how impotent and isolated the US has…” Nov 21, 16:47
Dan on The Long Unravelling: “After another afternoon working on a tractor on a hillside in freezing temps I pondered this. One positive to keep…” Nov 21, 16:39
Robert Hughes on The Long Unravelling: “can I call you at the nursery , or are children not allowed phone calls ?” Nov 21, 16:28
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “re. “So what’s your excuse, gregor? No excuse – I’m gonna forever-hammer (publicly expose and dismantle, with zero physical violence)…” Nov 21, 16:16
