ACCORDING to the latest BBC News promo video, “without context the news is just words”. Setting aside more cynical suggestions that the seemingly deliberate lack of context at the BBC is evidence of disinformation, rather than misinformation, why is it that night after night on Reporting Scotland, stories relating to the Scottish Government are generally presented without wider context unless apparently showing the Scottish Government in a bad light?
On drug deaths, for instance, we are not only regularly informed that Scotland has the highest drug deaths in the UK but the highest in Europe. In addition to often failing to mention that drug policy is controlled by the UK Government and that these high numbers have built up over decades of poverty and deprivation – resulting from orchestrated under-investment and de-industrialisation – more recent factors such as the pernicious growing influence of England’s “county lines” gangs or the fact that the use of new synthetic drugs is alarmingly increasing across the UK, are rarely reported or discussed on current affairs programmes.
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Renewable energy is a topical news subject worldwide, but how many times have we heard comparisons of the relatively very high percentage of Scotland’s renewable energy generation with that of the rest of Europe, never mind other countries of the UK?
Within Scotland the performance of the NHS and education services are regularly under scrutiny, but how many times has BBC Scotland provided statistics comparing the performances of these services with those provided by Britain’s other devolved government in Wales, where even after 25 years in power Labour are struggling to emulate the performances of the SNP Scottish Government? Not once on the BBC’s Sunday Show on November 3 did Gary Robertson raise the competence of the Labour government in Wales with the sanctimonious perpetrator of the vacuous soundbite, Anas Sarwar, in spite of repeated denigrations by Sarwar of the competence of the Scottish Government. Perhaps Gary hasn’t yet seen the video about necessary “context”?
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On another favourite subject of BBC Scotland, the (dual-fuel) ferries, when did you last hear any comparisons with the UK Government’s procurement of massively over-budget and delayed aircraft carriers, support ships, and armoured personnel carriers, or the performances of ferry services in other parts of the world such as Canada or New Zealand?
As at this time Scotland remains in the so-called “voluntary union” of the “United Kingdom” (although neither Labour nor Tory politicians, including Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, can provide an answer as to how we can actually leave), it seems reasonable to expect the BBC to honour its own statement and provide UK context to all stories relating to the Scottish Government. Instead of routinely subjecting Scotland’s people to partial information and slanted UK propaganda, surely the only way to ensure that they are provided the trustworthy information required to objectively assess the performance of their government across the full range of public service provision is to include appropriate “context”.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
I AM indebted to Brian Lawson (Letters, Oct 30) for informing me that the previous disclosure that he had become speechless referred to a temporary condition. This clarification has allayed my concerns over this matter. However, his revelation that the loss of of speech was caused by the resignation of Murray Foote, a member of the SNP’s backroom team, had an effect on me. As I read on, I was struck by a spontaneous bout of incredulous head-shaking.
Apparently, according to Mr Lawson, Murray Foote timed his resignation to coincide with the start of the homeward journey of one of Scotland’s greatest sons, Alex Salmond, following his untimely death. It seems to me that even amidst the shock and gloom over the passing of the mightiest Scot since Robert the Bruce, Mr Lawson was on the lookout for political points to score.
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Personally, I was too interested in the respect shown by the Macedonians and Alex’s homecoming to note when precisely Mr Foote’s resignation was announced. However, if we are being asked to believe the claim that the resignation was specially timed (as if it matters), I must ask Mr Lawson: to achieve what, exactly?
Malcolm Cordell
Dundee
SO the great SIR Billy attacks one of our great folk heroes (Connolly: Rob Roy was a criminal, not a folk hero, Nov 5). I wonder how he would have lived then. I remember when he came from Drumchapel to Drumry to practice his banjo with my brother in my father’s house and he was no saint then.
The phrase “if you sleep with dogs you will catch fleas” comes to mind. Maybe he just craves publicity. From a so-called radical to a SIR is some leap.
Michael McDermott
Old Kilpatrick
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