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.
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““A convincing case for independence doesn’t need the colonial frame” How else can we explain to Scots: – the ‘union’…” Oct 23, 10:20
James Chey on Faces In Sand: “Fact checker. You are entirely correct in stating that there is no equal union, What you omitted by default through…” Oct 23, 10:10
Northcode on Faces In Sand: “I’ve been thinking about why the “Scotland is a colony” argument is actually counter-productive. A convincing case for independence doesn’t…” Oct 23, 09:43
James Che on Faces In Sand: “North code, Did not have time to respond fully to you yesterday, Which and what Sovereignty works nowadays and where…” Oct 23, 09:14
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Humza Yousaf has a new book out – just in time for Christmas – although it’s inconceivable that could ever…” Oct 23, 08:35
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Robin McAlpine claims Jackdaw will add 35 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere that wouldn’t otherwise have got…” Oct 22, 21:02
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Good post, Lorncal. As I’ve often observed, we should never underestimate the popularity of a government policy that enables people…” Oct 22, 20:32
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Faces In Sand: “Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) extensive interview with VZ on 16 Oct 2026 www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x9dkYIRb58” Oct 22, 20:24
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Excellent questions, Confused. Well worth repetition. How come you’re an EXPERT ON INTERNATIONAL LAW? How come you’re an EXPERT LEVEL…” Oct 22, 20:10
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “@Geri 1:04 I absolutely love your posts and so I’d like to help you out. Teach yourself what 24/7 actually…” Oct 22, 19:52
Lorncal on Faces In Sand: “H McH: it was noted post WW II that few people in any of the affected countries expressed pre war…” Oct 22, 18:47
agentx on Faces In Sand: “• Ultimate Competence: Under UN General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV), the UNGA established the specific criteria for what constitutes a…” Oct 22, 18:10
Aidan on Faces In Sand: ““You could be on 100K a year for some place with a nice wine cellar” – I am thanks (more),…” Oct 22, 17:34
Dan on Faces In Sand: “AIDan says: “Modern cars are more complex and aren’t always designed well, and come with the risk of very difficult…” Oct 22, 17:29
Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “Yeah great analogy, Confused. Not. Stay in lane with James, there’s a good lad. This is grown up talk.” Oct 22, 17:28
Confused on Faces In Sand: “Northcode would tell us a turd is not a turd because he found a peanut in it.” Oct 22, 17:16
factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Interesting, Confused. You say ” if an equal partner in a union we can just tear the fucking thing up”.…” Oct 22, 17:08
Northcode on Faces In Sand: “Aidan — yes, exactly. That’s the core point I’ve been trying to make. Whatever people believe about historical treaties or…” Oct 22, 16:51
Confused on Faces In Sand: “it has been explained many times the nature and necessity of a multi-layered strategy for independence and the importance of…” Oct 22, 16:44
Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “”… and would appear to be linked more to the obsessions and eccentricities of the proponents” Not to mention self-delusion…” Oct 22, 16:42
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““The SNP of 2026 has two faces” Correct Rev, one face shows the saltire, on occasion, while the other face…” Oct 22, 16:37
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “Why is it @Alf – that you comment almost entirely in riddles and abstraction?” Oct 22, 16:13
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “I would also add that the circumstances around the formation of a treaty 300 years ago is an issue that…” Oct 22, 16:10
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““Scotland currently has full civil rights” A colonized people are a subordinated people subject to cultural erasure and economic extraction,…” Oct 22, 16:05
Northcode on Faces In Sand: “James — whatever people believe about 1606, 1707, treaties, petitions, parliaments, monarchs, or historical grievances, none of that changes how…” Oct 22, 16:04
factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Thanks for all the rational analysis, NC. Democratic legitimacy is indeed the key. Apart from anything else, the Claim of…” Oct 22, 15:43
James Che on Faces In Sand: “North code. If the Scots are not a Colonised people, and the monarch of England withdrew the parliament of Scotland…” Oct 22, 15:38
sam on Faces In Sand: “It is true that legally Scotland will not be recognised as a colony. It is also true that it was…” Oct 22, 15:25
James Che on Faces In Sand: “North code, I like the phrasing you used, So what would or could Westminster actually do or achieve if it…” Oct 22, 15:21
sarah on Faces In Sand: “Rev, will the gathering that you attended in London last night that included Maya Forstater and other like-minded people, be…” Oct 22, 14:24
