The National:

THE BBC is always being called out for their correspondents’ bias and partiality against the case for Scotland’s independence and National readers can’t make up their minds if the worst offender over the years has been Laura Kuenssberg or Nick Robinson.

Actually there really isn’t any doubt – it’s Naughty Nick, who committed the single worst act of editorial interference, not to mention bias and misjudgement in the run up to the 2014 referendum.

You will recall that Alex Salmond gave a press conference during which Robinson asked the then First Minister: “Why should a Scottish voter believe you, a politician, against men who are responsible for billions of pounds of profits?”

As The National has reported: “Having earlier watched the live broadcast of Salmond’s concise and comprehensive answer, one could only gasp in disbelief as Robinson presented an edited interview that same evening, without transmitting Salmond’s response, confidently stating that Salmond ‘didn’t answer’.”

When he left his TV job for the Today programme on radio, Robinson said he regretted the subsequent row which his actions caused, not least the anti-bias demonstration outside BBC Scotland’s headquarters. But he didn’t say sorry then and indeed compared the demo to something out of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, a remark which Alex Salmond called “ludicrous” and added that Naughty Nick’s coverage had been “disgraceful”.

Now the reason for that lack of contrition has emerged. In the latest edition of the BBC’s in house online magazine Ariel, Nick emerges as the King of Impartiality. No, seriously, he has penned an article for Ariel in which he gives lessons in impartiality to his BBC colleagues because it’s a “core value” for the state broadcaster.

We’d love to show you exactly what he says, but no doubt the legal wallahs at Auntie Beeb would get all miffed at us for breaching copyright on articles which are most definitely not for public consumption – Ariel used to be a freely available magazine but it stopped publication in print format in 2011 and in 2015 moved behind the BBC’s internal channel Gateway.

You who haven’t cancelled your licence still pay for Ariel with your licence money but you are not allowed to see it, which is a pity because Naughty Nick’s take on impartiality is a hoot.

Take the headline “impartiality gets me out of bed in the morning” which he states in the article. Seriously? Is this man for real?

Or the heading “no one is naturally impartial” – well certainly not Nick Robinson and certainly not when it comes to Scotland.

We can tell you this without bias and with complete impartiality – Naughty Nick doesn’t mention the 2014 independence referendum in his article.

The former chairman of the National Young Conservatives and president of the Oxford University Conservative Association now has a new title according to Ariel: chief presenter, Flagship News. Didn’t see the advert for that job, did you?

Robinson is a dedicated promoter of BBC impartiality. He once tweeted some time after the Brexit referendum campaign: “Do not adjust your set. Normal service from the BBC means you will hear people you don’t agree with saying things you don’t like. That’s our job. My message to Remainers and Leavers who attack the BBC.”

He does say in his article: “When we choose to be broadcasters or to work for the BBC, it doesn’t mean we don’t have opinions or care about the world – we’ve just chosen to leave them at the door when we go to work.”

Oh really? With respect for Robinson and the BBC, there’s only one thing to say about that and it rhymes with rowlocks.