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.
James Che on The Promise: “As with the SNP, politics in America or Britain its good to remind civil servants when the time comes, there…” Jun 27, 14:24
James Che on The Promise: “Civil servants acting as the government, make a mockery of Westminster parliament, but then Englands parliament has no written constitution,…” Jun 27, 14:15
James Che on The Promise: “Thats because their busy still working in desperation at trying to make the union a reality for Westminster in 2026.” Jun 27, 13:45
crazycat on The Promise: “As Spartan 117 says, it’s for security. When I sent out messages to everyone on our Yes group mailing list,…” Jun 27, 13:35
Northcode on The Promise: “It’s time for another warning. First, in Scots: Ther scarce be a wird pit doun here fae colonialists (unyonists if…” Jun 27, 12:53
Alf Baird on The Promise: ““the UK will eventually break up. But when it does, Scotland will too. Probably into four smaller states.” Jings, Hatey,…” Jun 27, 12:26
Alf Baird on The Promise: ““the Civil Service isn’t politically impartial” Of course its not; the main political and ideological purpose of all (UK) civil…” Jun 27, 12:11
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Promise: “Worth noting here that a “state of exception” regarding impartiality was in play during the 2014 referendum campaign. When the…” Jun 27, 12:09
Captain Caveman on The Promise: “Oh, probably add “too indoctrinated”, “incapable of critical thought” and “too left wing” to the mix as well.” Jun 27, 12:02
Lorncal on The Promise: “They might charge a couple of ‘sacrificial lambs’, who would probably go on to be cleared anyway, but they will…” Jun 27, 11:59
Captain Caveman on The Promise: ““The wrong people got their hands on the power because the right people were too nice, too innocent, too tolerant…” Jun 27, 11:49
Lorncal on The Promise: “It would set a legal precedent, I think, Robert, for governments to be forced to use promised ‘ring-fenced’ funds only…” Jun 27, 11:48
Desimond on The Promise: “Subtle difference in first sentence of each email. I wonder if this was a prompt or just one of those…” Jun 27, 11:45
Spartan 117 on The Promise: “A large part of current issues are the fact that the Civil Service isn’t politically impartial. A sensible ruling that…” Jun 27, 11:13
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Promise: “NI CIVIL SERVICE IMPOSES STAFF ‘PRIDE’ PARADE BAN The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) has halted its participation in LGBT…” Jun 27, 10:08
Hatey McHateface on The Promise: “The wrong people got their hands on the power because the right people were too nice, too innocent, too tolerant…” Jun 27, 09:57
Hatey McHateface on The Promise: “Logic, Confounder? No way. When you start with a conclusion and then interpret everything that happens as proof of your…” Jun 27, 09:39
Hatey McHateface on The Promise: “That’s right Bob, amaze and inspire Scotland and the rest of the world with your profundity, erudition and scintillating wit.…” Jun 27, 09:15
Eric on The Promise: “Hats off to WoS and your summary also excellent. The SNP need this to go away or they will be…” Jun 27, 09:01
Captain Caveman on The Guilty Party: “Heh. Well, there is no “work” to blow out of the water, YL – unless you count 30 seconds’ worth…” Jun 27, 08:59
willie on The Promise: “Just to say another excellent article exposing the absolute scandal at the heart of the SNP and the supposedly hypothecated…” Jun 27, 08:29
David Blake on The Promise: “I think you are doing a great job exposing a huge scandal o am therefore reluctant to pick fault. But…” Jun 27, 06:54
Aidan on The Guilty Party: “Whilst that’s true Alf you aren’t entirely comparing like with like. The MV Finlaggan is a higher capacity vessel than…” Jun 27, 06:15
Young Lochinvar on The Guilty Party: “HMcH Whoa! Easy there tiger!! While I have a scintilla of sympathy with the thrust of what you are saying…” Jun 27, 04:17
Angus on The Promise: ““It’s time for action.” Those even more condemnable than the criminals are those who have deliberately failed to bring the…” Jun 27, 03:13
robertkknight on The Promise: “If it walks like a duck…” Jun 27, 00:48
Confounder on The Promise: “Yeah, but ‘No true Scotsman…yada, yada, yada.’” Jun 27, 00:34
Confounder on The Promise: “False logic in spades, there, I think.” Jun 27, 00:31
100%Yes on The Promise: “Thank you to you both, I never knew that.” Jun 27, 00:23
Spartan 117 on The Promise: “Quite possible, but I think Occam’s Razor would dictate its more likely they are just a bunch of corrupt degenerate…” Jun 26, 23:52
