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.
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “‘Hoo did they dae that wi weapons that dinna work and F16s that cannae get aff the groond?’ Cause they…” Mar 4, 14:25
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “With absolutely nothing going on in the world to keep it busy, I fear the UN will have voted to…” Mar 4, 14:23
TURABDIN on Two Men Unalike: “SEND IN THE DRONES…..i mean clowns. https://archive.is/WDIfY” Mar 4, 14:22
sam on Two Men Unalike: “Hearing in Junec, I think.” Mar 4, 14:04
Aidan on Two Men Unalike: “Nothing – C-24 has no remit to consider territories not on the list of NSGT’s agreed by the general assembly.…” Mar 4, 13:56
100%Yes on Two Men Unalike: “Its now the 4th of March 2026 what’s happening with the UN-C24 and Scotland case?” Mar 4, 13:23
TURABDIN on Two Men Unalike: “The constitution and US Presidents’ capacities to exercise office. https://archive.is/AhTjT” Mar 4, 13:22
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““The mad don will soon have to start wearing a scarf” Here’s a thought. If he wears a tea towel…” Mar 4, 13:06
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““used to mow down over 1 million Iraqis & seize Syria” Crivens! Hoo did they dae that wi weapons that…” Mar 4, 13:02
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “Aye, Iain.. those skin rashes & lesions look real nasty. The mad don will soon have to start wearing a…” Mar 4, 12:50
Iain More on Two Men Unalike: “I would have thought the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution would be enough to remove the Syphilitic Child Rapist.” Mar 4, 12:09
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “Shiteface, No need to suss anything..it’s straightforward. They are Western puppet tyrant regimes that their populations absolutely despise. Those fake…” Mar 4, 12:05
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “Cause it’s the exact same playbook they used to mow down over 1 million Iraqis & seize Syria. I forgot…” Mar 4, 11:49
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Dunno. Why do you reckon the Gulf States and the other near countries in the region have been quietly working…” Mar 4, 11:13
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““tour the world pretending to ‘negotiators’” Good point, Geri. Do you reckon their speech is as syntactically mangled as yours?…” Mar 4, 11:05
auld highlander on Two Men Unalike: ““nukes” Why am I reminded of Blair and chemical weapons.” Mar 4, 11:03
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “The US do have mechanisms in place to remove a sitting president. I forget the name of the clause tho…” Mar 4, 10:42
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““Geopolitics street” Michty. Ah hope the cabbies have been telt! Was that an initiative from local government to clean things…” Mar 4, 10:37
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “It’s very likely that the people who need to know will know who the “régime’s operatives” are. Some crew-cut, slightly…” Mar 4, 10:32
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “The Geopolitics street. Where strategists talk sense instead of bumping their gums with racist shit all day. You should put…” Mar 4, 10:18
TURABDIN on Two Men Unalike: “Removing an elected president for diminished responsibility is a complex matter which it would seem the US system has no…” Mar 4, 08:56
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Did Kipling or Churchill ever write anything about oath breakers?” Mar 4, 08:50
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “‘An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last’ Winston Churchill” Mar 4, 08:39
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Hmmm. Every total a multiple of 100. What are the chances? Indicative to me of somebody in charge of an…” Mar 4, 08:19
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Pop one in every Baby Box. Get Scotland’s future citizens accustomed to reality at a formative age.” Mar 4, 08:13
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““it’s actions” It’s “its actions”, Geri. Key to the restaurant business is presentation. That’s true, even when you’re naught but…” Mar 4, 08:05
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Good link, TURABDIN, and probability theory most certainly tells us that if we all read online articles for long enough,…” Mar 4, 07:47
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““word on the street” What street is that, Geri? Of far more interest, what are you doing there? BTW, did…” Mar 4, 07:34
Young Lochinvar on Two Men Unalike: “Oi Vey! Guys! Guys! Settle.. What you’ve both just railed about came direct courtesy of Uncle Sam! BIGLY FACT! Jesus…” Mar 4, 03:19
Young Lochinvar on Two Men Unalike: “Hmmmm.. Try: I could not dig, I dare not rob Instead I lied to please the mob. What tales shall…” Mar 4, 03:05
