The Age of the Corrupted and Biased Media; The Scottish Labour Party demands impartiality probe into 'The Nicola Sturgeon Show' on the BBC, it is looking increasing clear that the Holyrood 2021 is being manipulated, will Sturgeon and the SNP use lockdown measures to suppress political campaigning in targeted areas where they are under threat, with the BBC seemly corrupted and biased, will it take Ofcom or the Courts to get a fair election for Scots, and in a wider sense should the role of the BBC as the nation's public service broadcaster be reviewed

Dear All

It's 14/12/2020, the year is nearly at an end, ordinary people are focused on two things, the last two biggies of the year. Xmas and New Year, xmas for the weans and new year so the adults can get pissed. This time of year is very emotional, it's the time when things come to a head, arguments simmering for ages explode and all manners of accusations fly about the place. One argument which has been running for ages, is the fact that SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon has used the coronavirus briefings on the BBC as party political broadcasts. It took the main parties several months to click onto something which I flagged up within a couple episodes of watching The Nicola Sturgeon Show. As I was calling out what her show was, a party political broadcast, it took circa six months for my call to be taken up.

Here is another prediction, Nicola Sturgeon will want covid briefings on the BBC to continue well into the middle of next year, if she can get away with it, right up to the 'short campaign'. The question which follows is will she expand who gets to do the briefings, with people re-standing for election or will she hog the limelight as the SNP run with a narrative of Nicola, the 'Saviour of the Scottish Nation'. Basically a Scottish poundland Joan of Arc with the tackiness that entails. If the SNP run with 'Saviour of the Scottish Nation', we can expect the SNP to roll out how Sturgeon done a magnificent job. The two obvious candidates for telling Scotland what a wonderful job that Sturgeon done are, Jason Leitch and Professor Devi. Depending on how thick the SNP think the Scottish public are, it will be either subtle or a sledgehammer approach in that messaging.

We now have less than six months to polling day, the BBC know this but still they allow the SNP leader to not just dominate the TV screen, but also they fail to provide other party leaders with equal opportunity to comment. Pro UK parties aren't getting fair opportunity and equal access to the public. Do the BBC know what they are doing? Well they certainly do, and they do know that The Nicola Sturgeon Show unbalances an election in 2021. Scottish Labour has complained before, but then they drifted away from complaining, they should never have stopped. The Covid Briefings can and should be done by BBC Presenters, there is no reason that they cannot perform the task of a daily briefing. Sturgeon holds no qualification in medicine or any field which could impart knowledge that a broadcaster could simply read out. Scottish Labour should have acted sooner, the six month delay gave Sturgeon legitimacy to continue the broadcasts. How many times on this blog did I hammer home the need for Scottish Labour leadership to be more on the front foot?

Too many!     

Now, it seems, nearly a year after the Nicola Sturgeon Show started, Scottish Labour is demanding an impartiality probe into Sturgeon’s daily briefings on BBC. This is a matter which cannot be left to just the Scottish party, it can't be left to one individual, it has to be front and centre of the National Party. Both Kier Starmer and Richard Leonard must act together on this issue. At present, the UK broadcasting regulator, Ofcom has been asked to investigate whether Nicola Sturgeon’s daily coronavirus briefings breach impartiality rules. The answer to this is yes, and the breach is multiple times, and done deliberately to pass on an 'anti Tory message'. The Labour peer George Foulkes says BBC Scotland need to change the TV coverage to remove the First Minister. It is clear that the section of journalist questions should be removed as a bare minimum, this is the part of the Sturgeon Show which is the worst offender, but more than that, Sturgeon needs to be replaced. The idea that she is needed to front a Scottish Government briefing is a nonsense. George Foulkes also highlights, the fact that BBC Scotland, the scene of Nationalist protests in the past wouldn’t do so without being forced. He added this is “because they feel intimidated by the overbearing attitude of the Scottish Government”. The BBC should recognise they are one of the main arteries that gives the SNP oxygen, if the BBC cut back on their coverage or gave others equal footing, the SNP would be lesser in the eyes of the public. The lack of alternative views and the undue focus on Holyrood makes Scotland a rather inward looking place. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, but we are continually feed a 'Scottish diet' of division and grievance by the SNP using the BBC as a medium.

What is needed now is non partisan public health officials and BBC presenters to present the Covid facts rather than SNP politicians. It's time to end the reign of President Sturgeon, who should use the Scottish Parliament for her political statements instead of accessing our public broadcaster. George Foulkes is right as he said if the live briefings continued into next year’s Holyrood election campaign it would be an “outrageous breach of the impartiality rules which Ofcom has a responsibility to uphold”. This to me is so obviously the plan, but how can the SNP do this, well it is simple, they slow down the rate of vaccine inoculations, they have a series of targeted mini lockdowns in areas where they are expected to do badly, they complain about Westminster holding back vaccines, everything will be done to make the narrative that Nicola, the 'Saviour of the Scottish Nation' is 'saving us. All of this is simply about gaining time, Sturgeon needs lockdown to extend into the middle of next year to hamper parties, she needs to stall the Alex Salmond Inquiry, and she needs to hold up reports on her failures across the entire government spectrum.

Nicola Sturgeon wants another 5 years, I suspect by then, she will have salted away enough money and pension contributions so she can step back as leader or fly the coop to another job. So, far it seems like all SNP leaders in the post leadership world, job opportunities post leadership seem remote for her. When was the time you heard of an SNP leader ending up in a high paid and prestigious job after they stepped down? They don't end up in the EU, they don't end up at the UN, they don't end up as UK Ambassadors, they don't end up on the boards of Fortune 500 companies, they don't end up on the boards of prestigious NGOs. You might ask yourself, why is it, but you can work it out easily, it's their governmental record. You see in the uncompromising cold light of day, the SNP leadership are incompetent, so why would anyone drag people like that into their operation?   

How successful will Labour peer George Foulkes be in the latest effort by Scottish Labour to reduce the amount of airtime of Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP Government. Well, the wheels grind slowly, so nothing will be done this side of 2021. His case which I said should be fronted by Kier Starmer and Richard Leonard doesn't lack substance, but what it does lack is bite. Solo efforts as 'part' of a campaign is a nonsense. Even last August when the party demanded an urgent meeting with the head of BBC Scotland, they should have brought in National leadership. Their approach was 'half in and half out' because the party wasn't willing to commit fully to this because they didn't want the charge leveled at them that they were anti public health. The Scottish Labour instead decided to hedge their bets and send out a single person to complain and thereby given deniability and distance to the Scottish Party leadership. Inability like this is why Scottish Labour struggles, people respect strength, they also respect people who have a clear vision, what they don't respect is sending someone else out as a proxy for them to do their job. Seven days ago, I was writing about what Scottish Labour needed (again), I wrote about the three main things.

'Three things that the Scottish Labour lacks are loyalty, unity and purposeful leadership'.

This is a party matter which should be taken up by the National leadership!     

As well as Scottish Labour complaints,  The Scottish Tories also accused Sturgeon of using the briefings “to promote SNP policy and stir up resentment”. I suppose you could ask where is their Ofcom complaint? Where is the Lib Dems Ofcom complaint? Where is the Scottish Greens' Ofcom complaint? Sturgeon knows that there is a case against her for her removal from our TV screens which is why she counters with the weak argument that this could undermine public health messaging. Public Health messaging has already been undermined, it got undermined at the start by her own government Health Officer who was caught breaking the rules. As cases climb, Sturgeon's broadcasts achieve nothing in terms of public health messaging, basically the public are doing their own thing now.

Finally, clearly the BBC is unwilling to act, the new BBC Director-General Tim Davie did have a meeting with George Foulkes but he then pass the ball down to the new BBC Scotland director Steve Carson. Who is Carson doing to pass the buck down too? Ofcom, it seems is the only hope unless a grounded case for court action is possible under breach of impartially rules which compel the BBC to remove The Nicola Sturgeon Show. What does this sorry episode tell us, in essence we are learning that our media is staffed by people who have been corrupted. The BBC was held in the past to be a beacon of trust, in 2020 it seems any pretence of impartially has gone. Is the 2021 Holyrood election going to be rigged to favour a particular party, well looking at the all events of the past year, it is looking increasingly likely that this election is being manipulated or if you prefer 'rigged'.

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University