ENGLAND has a major sewage problem. Untreated filth is repeatedly discharged in to its rivers and on its beaches, putting the public at great risk. But Scotland has a similar problem – not with a water company but with a state broadcaster.

The public here is daily, and sometimes ­hourly, exposed to untreated or maltreated ­political sewage. Most times the BBC sewer ­produces ­deliberate foulness, and ­occasionally its ­effluent is accidental. But it’s commonly negative; whether by design or neglect. BBC Scotland are founding members of ESIC – ­Everything ­Scottish is Crap.

Take curling this week. The Scottish men’s and women’s teams are doing well in the ­current ­European Curling Championships. Want to watch and cheer them on? Don’t try the BBC, the so-called national broadcaster. ­Despite its ­multi-million-pound budget, BBC Scotland ­cannot deliver.

Likewise, when it comes to coverage of the successful Scotland men’s football team, you need to go elsewhere to see games live. Another BBC failure.

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While it may be poor at providing Scottish coverage, it is red hot about what you may not see. At the recent Scottish Bafta awards, ­complaints were made about the situation in Gaza. All were swiftly edited out by the ­“impartial” Beeb. It has form. But sometimes its antipathy to all things Scottish puts Scots at serious risk and may indeed have resulted in needless deaths and sickness.

At the peak of the Covid pandemic, the ­Scottish branch of the BBC actively sought to undermine the Scottish Government’s essential public health messages, at one point construing these as “political” at the prompting of a few ­unelected politicians. It put Scots in danger.

BBC Scotland vigorously promoted scare ­stories about care homes et al. Sometimes these tales emerged from a single individual, but all were treated as if they were holy writ. ­Government ministers’ time was constantly abused as they were quizzed repeatedly over nonsense. And this happened at a time when everyone was needed to deal with real people getting really sick.

Worse, any baloney emanating from ­Westminster at that time was given top ­billing. UK Government twaddle was commonly ­reported uncritically. There was little or no ­analysis. If it came from Downing Street, it ran – unedited. No British ministers were ­doorstepped. No untutored critics of British health policies were headlined, in contrast to their Scottish counterparts.

The BBC errors were sickening. People died. But drivel from Westminster was ­stoutly ­promoted. Now, it turns out, a lot of what Downing Street was saying and doing was truly “political”. Health experts were ignored over the need to push political fads.

For example, we now learn that Eat Out To Help Out – the disastrous wheeze concocted by the present PM when chancellor – was ­introduced without any consultation with health officials. Witnesses to the Covid inquiry presently under way claim that people died ­because of UK Government decisions.

Anyone watching BBC Scotland at that time could have been forgiven for thinking that Eat Out To Help Out was an excellent idea. ­Without a qualm, they went overboard promoting the views of Scottish Tories, saying this was a ­super idea. We will possibly never know quite how many Scots died because of this politically ­inspired gibberish.

Some say the BBC is not free of scrutiny. And this is true. It is scrutinised by Westminster and, as in most things, Westminster gets what ­Westminster wants – thanks to our crap “constitution” that puts politicians ahead of the people.

Officially, the BBC is overseen by Ofcom, the body responsible for media matters in the UK. But, in common with its counterpart covering the water companies, it is largely toothless. What is truly extraordinary is that the British government sought to remove the few teeth it has.

According to Alan Rusbridger, former ­editor of The Guardian, they tried to fix Ofcom. The Tory-run BBC actually bid to put its own man in as head of Ofcom – and their favourite was none other than the then editor of the Daily Mail!

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Think about this for a second. A body overseen by a regulator wanted to pervert its own regulator. In a sane world, the BBC ought to have no part in choosing who scrutinises them. But the British media world is far from sane.

I know that some folks will counter there are honest people in the BBC and that these folks strain for more balance in its reporting.

In ­answer I would paraphrase the late, great Iain Banks: “I am not saying there are no decent people in BBC Scotland, but they are like bits of sweetcorn in a turd, technically they have kept their integrity, but they are still embedded in shit.”

What’s particularly worrying is that absent ­direct oversight by the Scottish people, the lie of the land may damage even more Scots.