“BBC apologises for ‘false claim’ on Scottish income tax” and “BBC Scotland is rapped over false Anas Sarwar report”. These headlines represent a denigration of the work of the SNP Scottish Government and a lack of scrutiny of the Labour Party in Scotland typically evident across BBC programmes.
“Are the delayed consumption rooms a panic measure by the SNP?” This was one of the questions posed by Stephen Jardine in the latest episode of BBC Scotland’s Debate Night (October 23) to another overtly unrepresentative audience of political/constitutional opinion in Scotland.
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Drug deaths are currently worse in Scotland but are increasing throughout the UK. You might think, given this is a serious and complex matter, that it would be inappropriate for the public broadcaster to be selecting such a pejoratively loaded question. Of course, as most who support independence would have known, you would be wrong, and you would also be wrong to have expected the host to have guided debate on to the actual causes of the delay, including the significant requirement of finding a legal path through current UK Government regulations.
The final nail in the coffin of objective political integrity in this debate was Stephen Jardine cutting off Fulton MacGregor MSP of the SNP with the remark “this is political point-scoring” when Fulton linked drug deaths to poverty and criticised the Labour Party for not removing the two-child cap, after Johanna Baxter MP of Labour had persistently criticised the SNP Scottish Government without any interruption from the host.
As the BBC makes further cuts in Scotland, it is now an urgent necessity that broadcasting is finally devolved to facilitate a similar level of comprehensive reporting, professional analysis and objective debate to that of regions in Europe (Germany alone has 21 public TV channels and 83 public radio stations) where devolved public broadcasting truly represents the views and opinions of the people covered, not the subjective views, as promoted by editors and directors, of the BBC’s London hierarchy.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
THERE is no doubt in my mind that BBC Scotland has a political agenda in favour of Unionists (at the moment Labour) and against the SNP and the Scottish Government.
Anas Sarwar promised during the election debate that a Labour government would save the jobs at the Grangemouth refinery. He also said he was in favour of scrapping the two-child benefit cap. He also previously stood up in Holyrood and asked the Scottish Government to increase the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners. He is not questioned on these issues or asked what happened.
READ MORE: The predictable truth about promises made by Labour? They are deceptive
The dogs in the street know that GB Energy will not actually produce energy but will be the investment vehicle for other companies to do so, and yet on Sunday Laura Maxwell spoke to Michael Shanks and allowed him to say GB Energy would produce energy and he was not challenged.
Last Wednesday we had STV News leading on a protest by Waspi women regarding their lack of compensation – this did not even make Reporting Scotland or the BBC Scotland website. Before the election, Deputy PM Angela Rayner said Labour would compensate Waspi women; Lesley Laird, the then shadow Scottish Secretary, organised Waspi women meetings; and Jackie Baillie made this an election campaign issue. Have the BBC asked any on them about their position now? Not likely – but they never tire of telling us that the Scottish Government could give the Winter Fuel Payment to pensioners despite this being cut from Scottish funding without any notice or debate.
Scotland is seriously let down by the BBC – just compare the way issues of health and other things are dealt with by BBC in Wales and the way they are dealt with here. In Wales, no blame attached to Welsh government and no ministers called to answer questions – in Scotland they will call for a minister’s head every time there is an issue despite Scotland performing better than other parts of the UK on many issues.
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
AS someone who was theologically trained and has been a life-long Fortean I am not given to claims of absolutism, either in terms of belief or science, as Mr Derek Ball claims (Letters, Oct 25). What I am given to is understanding is that there are indeed “complex human questions” surrounding all aspects of the human condition but key elements of these are ontologically true – that is, dealing with the very essence of their being.
The matter of ontological truth came up nearly a year ago at Renfrewshire Council during a debate on the significance of the Cass Report. Gay and lesbian colleagues spoke passionately in the chamber of to ask: if there are no immutable sex characteristics, if there is no male or female per se, where does that leave the historic, hard-won rights of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community?
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Compassion to transgender people must be a given. Decades ago in the SNP I knew a transwoman who was a warm, intelligent and humorous person who stood at least twice as an SNP parliamentary candidate. Dignity for the individual is fundamental, but that individual dignity can only be based on objective truth, because the fallacy of individual subjective truth only leads to factual erosion and a world of “fake news”.
I am sorry Mr Ball considers me “shouty”, but a much louder shout was given to the SNP leadership on July 4 by many former SNP voters who either defected to Labour or stayed at home. Far from being the only reason, but certainly a significant one, for that electoral slaughter was the SNP government’s obsession with trans ideology. What is worse is that it seems too arrogant to listen.
Cllr Andy Doig (Independent)
Renfrewshire Council
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