AS The Nine news programme ploughs its lonely graveyard furrow for Scotland, England has an embarrassment of riches with experts and politicians, journalists and pundits covering the minutiae of England’s epidemic. Oblivious to and completely irrelevant for the other three nations, the coverage has graphically shown the extent to which there exists a stark disparity within UK broadcasting that is meant to serve all four nations.
READ MORE: Newsnight journalist accepts Covid-19 hospitalisation graph could cause 'confusion'
However, no blame should be attached to English broadcasters. The fault lies in politicians’ determination not to allow the three other nations their own public service broadcasters. Within the rolling news coverage tokenism is rife; a 15-second insert for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland satisfies the news editor’s remit. Despite the deluge of information available south of the Border, Unionist Labour and Tory politicians still whine about the hour-long daily Covid briefings from Nicola Sturgeon.
Shackled to England, Scotland will have to wait for independence to have our own broadcaster.
Mike Herd
Highland
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