HERE at The National, we are very familiar with the UK media’s failings when it comes to reporting on Scotland. During the election we even made a list of the worst ones about – which you are welcome to read if you want to start your Sunday in an irritable mood.
After years of exposing the most ignorant and ill-informed claims about our country, it comes as a surprise to hear something you’ve not come across before.
On Sky News this morning, Nicola Sturgeon came on for an interview with host Trevor Phillips.
Before she appeared on screen, Phillips gave a very strange introduction.
“Now party conference season is with us once again, but it’s not the fun type, at least not in Scotland where SNP delegates will only meet online. One thing never changes though, this autumn’s Scottish National Party conference is likely to be dominated by a renewed push for a vote on independence for Scotland.”
Inoffensive so far. Then Phillips continues: “Well, it would be easy to forget that for nearly 15 years the SNP has actually led Scotland’s government.”
Sigh.
Easy for who forget? Not the Scottish voters who have elected them time and time again, so we’re going to assume that Sky is just ignoring a large part of its audience here.
Even beyond that, the statement makes little sense and Phillips fails to qualify it with anything. What makes it so easy to forget? The fact the UK mainstream media happily ignores the Scottish Parliament until there’s some kind of row to capitalise on, maybe?
What a way for a news channel to demonstrate that it’s had basically zero interest in one of the countries it covers for over a decade. It’s incredible, really.
We wish it was as easy for us to forget about this ridiculous comment as it was for Phillips to forget about our elected government …
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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