A Scottish News Programme: Yes or No?

There's a deal of controversy over the proposals for a "Scottish Six".

Would it just be an extra half hour of poor, biased reporting by the wider and extended Labour family that rules at Pacific Quay?

If that's all it is, then I guess most of us could do without it. More snide snarling from Union Jack ie Bird is more than most of us could take.

On the other hand those of you who watch the BBC news at 6, will know that article after article is given over to very specifically English news. What is happening in the English Health Service; the English Education Service; Justice; Environment; Roads, etc, etc.

Unless some massive story erupts, no one bothers about anything that has happened in Scotland,  Northern Ireland, or Wales (although to be fair some English matter affect Wales too).

The Union Jack(ie) gets upstaged and doesn't look happy.

Those of us in the peripheral countries have to wait till the region news programmes to get our information about matters which are devolved. These are low budget poorly put together magazine programmes

But English regions have devolved news too; what's going down in Melton Mowbray, or Wolverhampton. Cats stuck up trees in Slough or Blackpool.

So, the BBC sees English national news as UK news, and anything else is regional.

Look North (well, we'd have to look south)

That's OK. We know that 85% of the population of the UK lives in England and so it is not unreasonable for it to dominate UK news.

But it is of absolutely no interest to us. They might as well tell us what is happening in Angola, or Andorra, Zimbabwe or Zambia.

Worse than just being boring, it is also misleading. 

People hear that there is to be a doctors' strike, and immediately start worrying about their appointments for clinics; their chemo, speech therapy, physio ...will it be cancelled.

They don't know whether it's illegal to boycott good from the occupied West Bank, as announced by the London government?

Do the A level results affect us? Why do we have headlines in our country about exams that aren't taken here?

Yep, all standing up and clapping for her because... erm, she was born.

Are universities really going to charge more for tuition?

Are the police really being semi privatised?

And so on...

So, despite the possibility that the News at Six in Scotland will be fronted by a sour faced bunch of cringing misery, be underfunded to the point of ridiculousness, and generally be the cringeworthy stuff they spew out from Glasgow, I tend to be for it.

What about you?

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Delighted to say that Shaun's campaign to raise funds for the North British News was successful.

Thank you to Munguin Readers for their support.