DOUGLAS Ross has waded into the culture wars.
The Scots Tory leader spoke out against a drag queen story time event planned to be held in Elgin. Ross insisted that the event was "totally inappropriate" for young children, because he apparently believes that the sight of someone cross dressing is focusing on gender and sexual identity. He's going to freak out when he learns about pantomime isn't he. Oh no he isn't. Oh yes he is.
Green MSP Maggie Chapman accused Ross of desperately scraping the bottom of the barrel for more culture war nonsense.
READ MORE: Scots Tory council rebuffs Douglas Ross's criticism of drag queen Pride event
Drag as an art form is not inherently age inappropriate for kids any more than all stand up comedy is inappropriate for children just because some performers swear and tell jokes about sex and adult relationships. Some drag performers are for adult audiences, others just put on a show in fabulous costumes that are appropriate for any age – although not apparently for someone as immature as Douglas Ross.
In any case, children do not attend these events unaccompanied, they typically are taken to them by their parents. It's for parents to decide what is appropriate for their own kids not Douglas Ross.
Remember, his party got its knickers in a twist over the planned “named person scheme” a few years ago, insisting it was intolerable state interference with family rights. Yet now here's Ross interfering with the rights of parents to decide for themselves what is appropriate for their children.
BBC Scotland bias
THE academic Dr John Robertson (who the BBC allegedly tried to get sacked in 2014 when he presented clear evidence of systematic bias in BBC reporting which favoured the anti-independence side in that year's referendum) has carried out a new study comparing the framing of political stories by BBC Scotland with similar stories covered by BBC Cymru Wales.
Unsurprisingly to any independence supporter who has kept a keen eye on how the media covers the SNP, the Scottish Government, and the wider independence debate, he again discovered evidence of systematic bias in BBC Scotland's reporting.
We are now at the point with BBC Scotland where it would have been truly surprising if Dr Robertson had not found evidence of systematic bias.
Dr Robertson claimed: "It's a politicising of public services in Scotland that is not happening in Wales. Nowhere else in Europe would people think if there’s something wrong in a hospital you go straight to the government."
He added: "This is a very objective piece of evidence. A lot of research into media bias is very subjective, based on interpretation and so on. But objectively, BBC Wales did it by a ratio of 1:2 with BBC Scotland."
The big difference of course is that Wales has a Labour government which is committed to keeping Wales a part of the UK – and while there has certainly been a surge of interest in independence in Wales in recent years, support for independence remains very much in the minority in the country. The anti independence parties, and their supporters in the media, do not fear any imminent threat from the Welsh independence movement or Plaid Cymru, the major pro-independence party in the country.
READ MORE: Transport minister resigns from Scottish Government after two months in post
In Scotland, by contrast, politics are dominated by the independence question. Support for independence often exceeds 50% in opinion polling, and so the anti-independence parties and their supporters in the media are very much concerned to keep a lid on support with an urgency which is lacking in Wales.
Hence the relentless attacks on the SNP and the Scottish Government while far bigger scandals involving the Conservative party and the British Government pass with relatively little comment in the Scottish media.
The deposit return scheme
CONSERVATIVE ministers have rejected the request from First Minister Humza Yousaf to rethink their decision to exclude glass from Scotland's deposit return scheme, or rather to re-rethink, given that the British Government originally supported the decision of the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales – only to U-turn at the last minute without any consultation.
The U-turn came entirely coincidentally (no, honest) a short time after the Tories had accepted a donation from a drinks industry lobbying organisation. Michael Gove, Alister Jack and Thérèse Coffey wrote a letter to the First Minister confirming that they would not grant an exemption to the terms of the Internal Market Act, which regulates trade within the United Kingdom, in order to include glass in the Scottish scheme.
The unexpected U-turn on glass has thrown plans for the scheme into chaos, with Scottish ministers now having to reconsider how to proceed. This has generated a slew of negative press stories about the Scottish Government, which was most certainly the Conservatives' intention all along.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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