Talking-up Scotland

Only hours after the Justice Secretary tells Scotland’s football clubs that he will act if they don’t, to root out the ‘vile cancer’ of sectarianism, the Express suggests that a Celtic player is mocking Rangers. Here is what he said:

“The gap at the top certainly helps,” he told Four Four Two.

“You can go into the game very comfortable, but even though we don’t need to win, we want to win and we want to win convincingly, that’s for sure.

“Our league lead allows us to go into the game with a little more comfort, and allows us to play our game, especially at home.”

“Before I came to Celtic, I was very aware of the Celtic versus Rangers fixture,” he continued.

“This game is talked about and discussed and analysed all over the world.

“Everyone knows it’s one of the biggest derbies in club football, and it’s a highlight for me to be part of.

“I really can’t wait to feel the atmosphere, especially at home, I think that will be great.

“Hopefully we can win this game, no matter if I start or not, and hopefully extend our lead at the top of the table to 13 points.”

Now maybe I’m under-sensitive but I see no sign of mocking anywhere there, only fairly calm, objective observations from a professional who cares little for the madness that can ensue in matches such as that today.

The Express would no doubt argue that I’m being over-sensitive to their choice of words, but we all know that it takes little to cause real offence in this context. See:

 

Readers will note the above balance.

Footnote: Jeremy Toljan is a German youth international eligible to play for both the United States and Croatia. Whether he is Catholic or Protestant is not mentioned thus limiting the full potential of the Express headline writer.

In his piece in the Guardian on 28^th March 2019, BBC Director General, Tony Hall, made no reference to Scotland. Given his awareness of the heated debate on BBC bias against independence in Scotland, during and since the referendum, this is interesting.

Driven by accusations of impartiality in reporting of Brexit and, in particular, imbalance in the level of exposure offered to ‘charismatic’ Leave figures such as Farage, Rees-Mogg and Johnson, Hall clearly felt the need to respond. Here’s an extract:

‘The BBC’s director general has admitted that the corporation’s reputation as a provider of impartial news has taken a hit in recent years, while insisting the corporation is committed to giving coverage to all sides of controversial debates…The impartiality of the corporation’s news output has come under attack from all sides in recent years, especially following the Brexit referendum. It has been at the focus of discussions over whether the national broadcaster should be giving airtime to individuals who represent extreme views in the name of balance.’

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/mar/28/bbc-must-stand-up-for-impartiality-says-director-general

Does ‘all sides’ include us?

It’s not quite an apology but it is a first step toward the critics, recognising the legitimacy of their opinion. By contrast, in Scotland, we’ve only had indignation and denial.

After a wee dash of sociology and a dog walk for reflection, I see why. Apologies if you were there before me. The Brexit debate is between elites while the IndyRef debate was between elite groups and a predominantly mass movement. There is no need felt by any elite group to apologise to any mass movement they have defeated by deception. In both cases, working-class people were co-opted (fooled?), on the EU Leave side by exploitation of their understandable fear of mass immigration and on the Scottish Independence No side, by their understandable fear of economic uncertainty.

Private Schoolboys on Both Sides of Brexit

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leave (Eton and Oxford), Dominic Grieve, Remain (Private School and Oxford), Tony Hall BBC DG (Private School and Oxford)

Both sides in the Brexit debate and the BBC are led by predominantly privately-educated, Oxbridge elites who continue to meet at high-level political events, on corporate boards, at sporting events, at receptions and on holiday. They are constantly exposed to peer-pressure in these places and this must be resolved to enable them to survive. For the BBC elite, however, they are under extra pressure, from both sides, and so must try to reduce the level of hostility by some kind of admission of guilt which will enable them to retain their presence in these elite places. They did the same in 2003 under peer-pressure from Labour Party leaders to admit they had not reported the run-up to the Iraq invasion fairly even though, as later research proved, they had been essentially supportive of Blair’s campaign.

No conspiracy is required for this to happen. The members of these elites act without the need for much reflection, always in their own self-interests (survival, advancement) which are also the interests of their elite group as a whole.

Evidence of the social characteristics of these interlocking elite groups was exposed, in 2016, when the BBC’s own Sutton Trust found:

‘Three-quarters (74%) of the UK’s top judges went to a fee-paying school, and nearly eight in 10 (78%) went on to Oxford or Cambridge University. Among top military personnel, some seven in 10 (71%) were educated in the private sector, although just 14% were Oxbridge educated. Slightly more than half of leading print journalists and solicitors (51% each) attended fee-paying schools. Just over half (54%) of these journalists attended Oxford or Cambridge, along with 55% of solicitors and 51% of the senior civil servants included in the study. In politics, half the Cabinet were privately educated (including old Etonian Prime Minister David Cameron) compared with 13% of the shadow cabinet, and around a third (32%) of MPs.’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35641061

 

In Scotland, local Labour ‘chiefs’ form an additional elite group

In Scotland, the elite groups are slightly different but equally influential. As in the UK, there are the same pro-Union groups within the Conservative Party, business, the military, Rugby Union (Union!) and in the Arts. A key difference lies in the role of senior Labour party members, mostly excluded from elite membership in England, but allowed day-to-day management of Scottish institutions as long as they remain loyal to the Union. Dominant in Scotland for 50 years, the Labour Party has had a powerful presence in BBC Scotland.

Head of News in 2014, John Boothman, lost a grievance case against a daughter of the late SNP politician, Margo MacDonald, after she had recorded him being abusive about her and her mother. Boothman’s marriage to a Labour politician, Susan Deacon, also cast doubt on his impartiality.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/16/bbc-scotland-news-executive-john-boothman-moves-jobs

More serious accusations of Boothman ‘acting at the behest of Labour’ had been made in 2013:

https://newsnet.scot/archive/former-bbc-scotland-presenter-questions-head-of-news-links-to-labour-party/

Earlier evidence of over-familiarity came with the disclosure of the family friendship and holiday home-sharing between senior BBC presenter, Kirsty Wark and Labour First Minister, Jack McConnell.

More recently, Sarah Smith, daughter of the late Labour leader, John Smith, was anointed BBC Scotland Editor, in 2017, before going on to make a major blunder in the reporting of A&E figures with the effect of seriously misrepresenting the performance of NHS Scotland.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/15825905.bbcs-scotland-editor-forced-to-apologise-for-reporting-wrong-ae-figures/

Together, these traditional elite groups, with the Labour party and the media as their functionaries, were able to co-opt working-class groups distinctively loyal to the Union and together mount a fear-based campaign which in the end, triumphed.

The Yes movement, though by no means homogenous or especially working-class in terms of its leadership, was essentially a leftist mass movement with no notable elite membership or funding and relying almost entirely on social media activists for its communications.

 

The numerical response to the above parliamentary question came in the form of this table showing a dramatic fall in the number of charges made under Section 50A, by almost 50% in only the last 8 years:

91% of the 2017-2018 cases went to court.

The reporting of hate crime has also been falling in Scotland, so the above trend is explainable:

‘Racial crime remains the most commonly reported hate crime. There were 3,249 charges reported in 2017-18. This continues the downward trend since a peak of 4,547 charges reported in 2011-12 and is the lowest annual total since consistent figures became available in 2003-04.’

http://www.copfs.gov.uk/images/Documents/Statistics/Hate%20Crime%202017-18/Hate%20Crime%20in%20Scotland%202017-18.pdf

The fairly large gap between the number of offences reported and the number, less than 40% actually charged, will be due to the need for two sources of evidence to proceed and to the nature of some offences considered not serious enough to proceed.

Labour’s Neil ‘Eton Rifles’ Findlay calls for Richard Leonard to condemn private schooling

From a parliamentary question yesterday:

More burning issues reported here:

Wake-up Reevel! Scotland has nearly twice the number of firefighters per head of population as England and deaths are falling

March 26, 2019johnrobertson8348 Comments

Once again Reevel Alderson looked positively uncomfortable as Jackie bird tried to get some vim and vigour into his report of another supposed crisis in public services. This time it is volunteer and retained firefighters whose numbers are falling. Driven…

BBC Complaint re inaccurate report on Police & Fire Review

March 25, 2019johnrobertson8347 Comments

I often tire of this but I won’t let the liars lie.

BBC Scotland with Tories INSERTS LIES about ‘systemic problems’ as Police and Fire reform leads to actual and major benefits

March 25, 2019johnrobertson834Leave a comment

The report does not use the word ‘systemic’ to indicate any deep, pervasive, problem, at all. It’s not a word you bandy around unless you can really back it up with hard evidence. Only Justice committee convener Margaret Mitchell MSP…

News of improved fire safety standards for Scottish homes but all quiet in the home of Grenfell Tower

February 4, 2019johnrobertson8342 Comments

From the Scottish Government news website: ‘New rules to reduce deaths in household fires have been announced today, with improved standards introduced for fire and smoke alarms in Scottish homes.  The improved standards will mean every home in the country…

Vital fire safety checks nearly twice as common in Scotland as in post-Grenfell, Tory-led England

December 21, 2018johnrobertson8341 Comment

From BBC UK News today: ‘Fire safety checks across England have fallen by 42% over the last seven years, according to the new watchdog for fire and rescue services. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services says brigades do…

Major reductions in anti-social behaviour in Scotland at Hallowe-en and on Bonfire Night with no officers injured

November 7, 2018johnrobertson8345 Comments

You’d never know it from our Nomedia, but Hallowe’en and Bonfire nights in 2018 saw reductions in calls to the police including a massive 87% reduction for crimes involving fireworks. My house was ‘egged’, just the one, at Hallowe’en, so…

BBC Scotland’s dishonest reporting of firefighter shortages in Aberdeen

August 10, 2018johnrobertson83416 Comments

(Image: Alistair Linford) BBC Scotland news have been making much of their recent discovery that: ‘Three Aberdeen fire engines stood down due to staffing problems’ The headline is quite dishonest and tabloid-like in its attempt to scare. In fact, one…

Scotland’s ‘already more advanced’ fire sprinkler legislation to be further enhanced but the story lacks the kind of news values Reporting Scotland’s editor requires

June 21, 2018johnrobertson8341 Comment

(c) wisetradesmen.com From the Scottish Government site today: ‘Legislation to make sprinkler systems compulsory in new social housing is to be taken forward. Housing Minister Kevin Stewart confirmed that the Scottish Government will take forward David Stewart MSP’s proposal for…

 

Note: Found this in my drafts folder, forgotten

I know it’s not a necessary condition for the Scots to be really different from their neighbours to then deserve independence but, if it’s there, it can help in articulating a rationale which helps. Yesterday, in the Guardian/Observer, we read:

‘Three-quarters of NHS hospital trusts in England are using private debt firms to chase treatment costs from overseas patients and refused asylum seekers in a practice branded “inhumane” by critics, the Observer can reveal. Data released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that 77 of 102 hospital trusts have used private debt firms to pursue ineligible patients. Of 60 trusts that provided patient numbers, 8,468 patient debts were referred to private debt collectors between 2016 and 2018. However, of the 48 trusts that provided full financial details, only about £1.5m of the £21m of debt referred to private firms during those three years has been recouped – barely 7%.’

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/23/nhs-trusts-use-bailiffs-collect-debts-ineligible-patients-asylum-seekers-immigrants

I searched and searched but could find no evidence of a single case of a Scottish health board pursuing the sick for the cost of treatment. Tourism is booming so there will have been a few. I’d have been horrified if I had. That wouldn’t be the better country I want to live in.

Mind you, maybe our health board accountants had already worked out that it would cost more to pursue than we’d get in return – canny!

Add the above to the list below to see that we are collectively, in our behaviour and values, a wee bit different.

More evidence of a difference as 73% of Scots back increase in taxes for higher public spending

Are Scotland’s employers also different – more willing to pay a decent wage?

Another step on the way to becoming a ‘Living Wage Nation’ and a ‘Better Nation?’

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

80 000 lowest paid workers in NHS England still on poverty wages as NHS Scotland follows Scottish Government policy to pay a living wage to all public-sector employees

Scottish care workers to receive Living Wage for ‘sleepover’ hours while English care workers receive only the National Minimum Wage.

At 78% level of satisfaction with NHS Scotland is impressive 36% higher than for the NHS across UK

UK Government urged to follow Scotland’s praised lead on employee ownership – another 8% story?

8% of the population but 11.8% of the charitable donations – ‘punching above our weight?’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

BBC Scotland lie and distort to try again to spread violent crime crisis into Scotland despite it having only 3.5% of the gangs for 8% of the population, falling levels of violent crime and because of falling levels of fear of crime?

Wha’s like us? Damn few and they’re a’ deid!

From reader William Henderson:

This piece is a naked attempt to portray the SNP as a tricky, treacherous bunch of political chancers who don’t follow the arcane rules of British politics and who are obsessed with the drive for Scottish independent nationhood. It stems from the voting pattern adopted by the SNP during Westminster’s day-of-freedom on Wednesday past and some comments thereafter.

Should Sarah happen to read this, or have it drawn to her attention, may I point out that the SNP exists as a political party for the core purpose of bringing Scotland’s governance home. For the SNP it is the soul of open-ness to consider independence to be a factor in everything it does. For a political editor to attempt to make this seem ‘sneaky’ is running close to using a script based on Orwell’s 1984.

As for the way the SNP’s MPs voted on Wednesday, Sarah and her unionist companions should appreciate that every vote was carried out in line with the preferences for action openly advocated by the SNP (and totally ignored by Westminster and its obedient media) since 2016. It was a novelty – a political party actually doing what it promised its electorate. For this they are to be vilified.

To claim that this article was balanced in a sense that normal people view balance would be absurd. That it was the work of a ‘national’ broadcaster is obscene.

More on Sarah Smith here:

BBC Scotland High Heidyin, Sarah Smith, ponders why a fire won’t light when she and her kind have denied it oxygen

(c) National

In recognition of their contributions to political debate, Professor Walter White, Dean of the School of Journalism and Drug Abuse at the University of the West of New Mexico and visiting professor at the College for Propaganda Studies in Ayr, has agreed to confer the degree of BA Citizen Journalism on a number of leading political bloggers in Scotland including the combative Stuart Campbell of Wings over Scotland. Campbell has denied he is White’s lovechild.

Professor White (pictured) said: ‘The lines between the amateur and the professional in journalism have become blurred as a consequence of technological advances and of events such as the Arab Spring in 2011 and the Scottish Autumn of 2014. In Scotland the catastrophic decline in mainstream journalism after the death of Ian Bell, has left so-called ‘bloggers’ the champions of investigative, evidence-based, journalism. Consequently, I suggest all so-called bloggers and cybernats refuse these contemptuous descriptors and proudly insist on being referred to as Citizen Journalists’

In recognition of the democratic nature of citizen journalism, anyone feeling left out of the initial virtual awards programme below should email thoughtcontrolscotland@gmail.com to demand and receive the award by return.

Graduating Cohort 29^th March 2019

Stuart Campbell                      with Merit in Martial Arts

Craig Murray                           with Merit in Human Rights

Paul Kavanagh                        with Merit in Public Watchdog Methods

James Kelly                              with Merit in Arithmetic

Mike Small                              with Merit in Schismatics

Gerry Hassan                           with Merit in Blairite Studies

Grouse Beater                         with Merit in Anonymity

Note: Professor Robertson of Talking-up Scotland told us: ‘Get lost sonny!’

Guidance: As soon as I post this you have the award and may use the title.

Yeh, yeh, Craig David likes Dundee too but what I really like is the avoidance of the ‘Too much tourism, SNP bad’ trope spreading around. Just as Scotland needs migrants, Dundee and many parts of Scotland welcome tourists and Dundee has earned them. See:

Is Dundee ‘punchin’? The only UK location in Lonely Planet’s top ten

From the ET yesterday:

‘Attractions in Scotland have outperformed the rest of the UK with a higher increase in visitor numbers, new figures have suggested. For the seventh year running the increase north of the border (19.07%) was higher than the UK average (8.68%) with the National Museum of Scotland the most visited attraction outside of London.

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/2019/03/27/scottish-attractions-outperform-rest-of-uk-figures-suggest/

 

(c) Eventbrite

A quickie from Insider:

‘The number of jobs advertised in Edinburgh has surged 80% in two years, according to new analysis. There has also been a rise in the number of people applying for jobs in Scotland’s capital, increasing around 36% from 178,584 in 2016 to 242,089 in 2018. Figures from job platform Totaljobs showed that the number of posts advertised rose 80% from 13,304 in 2016 to 23,943 in 2018.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/jobs-available-edinburgh-soars-80-14196721

As before, this news gives me the opportunity to remind you of previous good news on the jobs front:

Unemployment in Tory UK is 15% higher than in Scotland

Unemployment in Scotland 13% lower than UK and wages higher AFTER SNP government gives businesses more than £4 billion in rates relief

Further evidence of better employment practices in Scotland

Unemployment in Scotland below UK level and employment better paid

Or see below the merciful other reality of employment in modern Scotland?

Scotland’s ‘trends of high employment and low unemployment’ persist but our media prefer to headline only a wee bit of bad news

As oil prices soar and exploration increases, employment in Scotland’s oil industry returns to record levels

 

 From Reporting Scotland yesterday:

‘Poverty and income inequality continues (sic) to rise according to the latest figures from the Scottish Government.’

‘You deal with it!’

As always, we got the bare facts and a quick reference to the Scottish Government blaming UK Government austerity and the latter saying the Scottish Government could compensate for it. The remarkable opportunity there to probe the morality of the UK Government apparently admitting responsibility for the poverty increase and then arrogantly telling Scotland to deal with it, was not taken.

‘SG Actions to deal with it’

The obvious link, also, to some of the actions taken by the SNP to compensate was not taken. Click on these for a reminder of some:

Scottish Government fighting Tory austerity helps thousands hit by benefits cuts

New pregnancy and baby payments to offset Tory austerity in Scotland

Scottish NHS performance holding up despite massive increase in demand and Tory austerity cuts

Against the odds: Evidence of how SNP policies have defended Scotland against a least some of Tory austerity

How steep is the increase?

We often see graphs on Reporting Scotland when the evidence is useful. Why didn’t we see these revealing graphs?

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics-publication/2019/03/poverty-income-inequality-scotland-2015-18/documents/poverty-income-inequality-scotland-2015-18/poverty-income-inequality-scotland-2015-18/govscot%3Adocument

No one wants to see any increase in poverty at all, but this information is important. Is the relatively small increase in relative poverty for children and the flattening-out, at least in part, a consequence of the Scottish Government’s actions. Should BBC Scotland inform us of the possibility?

Comparison with UK and long-term trends

Journalists love to talk of context and journalism educators make much of it, so how does child poverty, in Scotland, for example, compare with the UK? See these:

Child poverty and related low-income in Scotland is less common than across the UK and though it has been in decline long-term, it has begun to increase again.

How much is poverty expected to increase in Scotland comparative to the UK?

Once more, any increase is to be abhorred and decreases will be our aim after independence but it’s informative to see that only the affluent South-East is expected to have as low or lower, for children, increases than in Scotland. Should BBC Scotland at least consider the effects of the Scottish Government’s moderation of austerity and inform us?

After housing Scotland has the lowest poverty levels in the UK

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN07096#fullreport

Could this be anything to do with Scottish Government action on, for example, building far more social housing and the unique ban on ‘no-fault’ eviction?

SNP Government builds affordable/social housing at almost twice the rate of Tories in England

We should be told.