The Scottish media this week has started to rather resemble Argentina under General Galtieri’s military junta – everywhere you look are the ghosts of the disappeared.
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.
sarah on According As We Need Them: “@ GM: I agree. I can’t wait to see the back of them. We all know people in our own…” Jul 13, 21:53
Lorn on According As We Need Them: “You still haven’t told us who these paragons of modern political action are, Dan. Actually, I read very widely and…” Jul 13, 21:52
GM on According As We Need Them: “Aye Sarah, there are plenty of good people out there. That does not make the ‘Scottish’ elite any easier to…” Jul 13, 20:41
Dunx on Just Good Friends: “And English consumers subsidise Scottish renewables. Your point is ?” Jul 13, 20:28
holymacmoses on According As We Need Them: “A tweet from our Suzanne on journalistic integrity. Her kitchen is full of pots and kettles:-) “Suzanne McLaughlin @Suzemclaughlin Not…” Jul 13, 20:08
Dan on According As We Need Them: “Maybe try being a bit more alert and receptive to actually reading and taking in what other folk have said…” Jul 13, 20:04
willie on According As We Need Them: “The Scottish Government under the SNP and the Green is a quack quango Effijy. No one should be in any…” Jul 13, 19:38
sarah on According As We Need Them: “@ Lorn at 6.34: “who are these paragons?”. I think Dan may be referring to the Independents for Independence who…” Jul 13, 19:21
willie on According As We Need Them: “If they didn’t publicly fund these faux charities and their loon ball on line trolls to pump out their unwanted…” Jul 13, 19:20
agent x on According As We Need Them: ““The Scottish National party has voted heavily in favour of introducing all women shortlists and “balanced” regional lists, reversing decades-long…” Jul 13, 18:44
Lorn on According As We Need Them: “And who were these paragons, Dan? I have never in my life simply ticked a box because the candidate reflected…” Jul 13, 18:34
Effijy on According As We Need Them: “So much tax payer cash directed to nonsense quangos. I’ve never yet seen one of these bodies produce anything worthwhile.…” Jul 13, 18:33
Campbell Clansman on According As We Need Them: “Alba would have to “make a lot of ground” to get to 2% of the vote.” Jul 13, 18:26
twathater on According As We Need Them: “ALL of this pish is our own fault because we stood by and allowed these fuckwits to gain power, and…” Jul 13, 18:12
Frank Gillougley on According As We Need Them: “And so it goes. Incestuous faux academics shall speak unto incestuous faux academics funded by us the hoi polloi. The…” Jul 13, 17:58
Dan on According As We Need Them: “Some did try to start electing decent ordinary individuals who weren’t the usual political clone dross, but youse weren’t interested,…” Jul 13, 17:53
Bill Fraser on According As We Need Them: “I am wondering if this organisations status as a charity could be challenged under the “Charity Test ” it certainly…” Jul 13, 17:51
Anthem on According As We Need Them: “Alba could make a lot of ground exposing these so called “charities “, on how much they cost the taxpayer,…” Jul 13, 17:51
Captain Caveman on Just Good Friends: ““They’rrrrre grrrrreat!” https://www.frostedflakes.us/tony-the-tiger” Jul 13, 17:27
Lorn on According As We Need Them: “The one thing about politicians that I have discovered in my life is that, male or female, black or white,…” Jul 13, 17:24
Hatey McHateface on Just Good Friends: “Norway’s support per capita for our fighting friends in Eastern Europe is the highest in the world. I guess that…” Jul 13, 17:23
Gaelstorm on According As We Need Them: “Surlely te issue is what were the actual questions in the survey?” Jul 13, 17:06
Craig on According As We Need Them: “I fuckin despise Scotland now and what it has become, of all nationalities to be born, I had to be…” Jul 13, 16:46
Colin Dawson on According As We Need Them: “I wonder how much of the Scottish budget gets spent on supposed “charities” that are almost entirely funded by the…” Jul 13, 16:32
Young Lochinvar on According As We Need Them: “Oh oh! That’ll be you reported to the Polis hurry feels division Rev.. Tell them they’ll never take you alive,…” Jul 13, 16:22
James on Just Good Friends: “You boys spooning again? How sweet.” Jul 13, 15:59
Aidan on Just Good Friends: “Large in size, small in intellect” Jul 13, 15:45
Captain Caveman on Just Good Friends: “@Aidan In the interests of fairness and balance, Aidan, Fatso is anything but “little”. The twat can barely squeeze into…” Jul 13, 15:23
Aidan on Just Good Friends: “If it’s such a cracking idea, why hasn’t the private owner of Grangemouth realised it?” Jul 13, 15:08