First, a very quick good news story plucked from the variable content in Insider today:
‘The television and film industry spent £95 million in Scotland last year – the highest since records began – according to new figures. Productions shot in the country in 2017 include Avengers: Infinity War, Outlaw King and Outlander. Spending also increased on the previous year by £26 million, while it has surged by more than 300% over the past decade.’
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/film-tv-spending-creative-scotland-13114148
In sharp contrast however, we read in the Times:
‘‘The SNP has accused the BBC of “squandering” Scotland’s creative broadcasting talent after figures pointed to a fall in programme spending north of the border. The report examines spending on BBC One and BBC Two shows such as Still Game and Scotland ’78: A Love Story — commissioned at a UK level to be first aired in Scotland before potentially going onto the UK network. This fell by £4.8 million in 2017 to £43.6 million (a 10% cut in real terms).’
In 2015/16, the BBC raised £320.1m from the licence fee in Scotland but only spent 54.6 per cent of this revenue on programming in Scotland
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/bbc-ordered-stop-fleecing-scottish-10121639
Talking-up Scotland 
Great news about the consistent (and spectacular!) growth in film and TV production spending in Scotland over the past decade. A very telling comparison made with beeb spending in Scotland (slashing away at an already low spend).
Could the beeb Scotland paucity of budget partly explain the totally crap news and current affairs diet they serve up? (I’m trying to find excuses for the newsroom staff).
I am grateful to folk posting across on Wigs who have discovered that a media training company is actually using the recent Gillian Marles beeb Scotland ‘interview’ with Scottish Minister Jamie Hepburn as a case study to demonstrate ‘good’ technique in offering calm and considered responses by Jamie and ‘bad’ technique in hostile questioning by Ms. Marles – it’s short and worth a quick read – especially for any potential election candidates out there!:
https://www.mediafirst.co.uk/our-thinking/spokesperson-shows-how-to-handle-a-hostile-interview/
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