Latest news with #Unionism
The National
6 days ago
- Politics
- The National
I called out BBC Radio Scotland for bias – here's how it went
As the paper notes: ECONOMIST Richard Murphy clashed with a BBC Radio Scotland presenter as he ripped into the corporation for being 'biased against the nationalist cause'. Murphy took part in the phone-in on the Mornings show presented by Connie McLaughlin on Wednesday when the pair got into a spat. Midway through an extensive discussion on impartiality at the BBC, Murphy came onto the programme to say he did not have confidence in the BBC, highlighting that the 'nationalist community' does not trust the broadcaster because it is 'so absolutely pro-Unionist'. After former BBC political editor Brian Taylor was brought back into the discussion – having spoken on the programme already – alongside ex-BBC Radio 4 presenter Roger Bolton, Murphy and McLaughlin then got into a heated back-and-forth. Eventually, after many interruptions from the presenter, who seemed totally unaware that the producer had invited me onto the programme because, apparently, they could find "no one in Scotland" who had a word of criticism to make about the BBC, I was allowed a word in edgeways and got to say: The BBC is biased in favour of big business, it is biased in favour of the right wing media because it uses that as its news sources in the main for discussion, it is biased against the nationalist cause in Scotland, it is biased against the Palestinian cause in its claim and its right to have a state, [and] it is biased in favour of Israel very clearly. The bias was staggering. In a supposed discussion on bias in the BBC, which had BBC employees or ex-employees appear one after the other to sing its praises, including the fact, as one suggested, that in 35 years he had never seen editorial bias, I was interrupted from the moment I began to criticise it, as if to prove that everything I had to say about bias was justified. READ MORE: Zarah Sultana restates 'We are all Palestine Action' in parliament Even more bizarrely, when they introduced me, they said I was a "columnist" but would not even mention The National newspaper that I write for – so biased are they against it. I had to correct them. Never doubt that the BBC is biased. And most especially, never doubt that it is very biased in Scotland, where Unionism is the only cause that it represents. No wonder no one wanted to go on: The odds were grossly unfairly stacked against me as a critic. And that, apparently, is an absence of bias in the BBC lexicon.
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Reform's charm offensive on Nationalists calls its Unionist credentials into question
Is Nigel Farage's Reform UK a Unionist party, in the sense that its raison d'être is the maintenance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, no matter what? The question arises because if it is, why is it seeking to recruit overtly nationalist recruits – you know people who have in the past supported, or who continue to back, an independent Scotland – to its ranks of parliamentarians? In recent days, I was told by a prominent nationalist that they had been on the receiving end of a blatant 'join us' offer from Reform. It was made plain that joining the party's ranks was, given its current strength in the opinion polls, a sure-fire way of winning a seat in the Scottish Parliament elections next May. My informant was surprised by the approach and rejected the invitation out of hand. Polls point to SNP continuing in power It is certainly true that the current polls point to Reform winning as many as 16 seats at Holyrood, six more than the Scottish Tories, which would make it he third biggest party, equal with the Scottish Greens, in the 129-seat assembly. The SNP is expected to be the biggest party but without an overall majority, which would mean that Reform and the Scottish Greens would be able to decide who would become First Minister. That would be expected to be John Swinney, the current holder of the office, which would take the SNP into its third decade of government in Scotland. Although Richard Tice, Mr Farage's deputy, is on the record as saying that Reform would block any attempt by the SNP to stage another independence referendum, the Reform leader has already made it plain that there are no circumstances in which he will do a deal with Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader, saying he did not want Mr Sarwar as first minister. He accepted that this was likely to mean the SNP again forming the Scottish Government but in a newspaper interview he said he was not worried about the SNP, adding: 'Scotland is not going to leave the UK.' However, his confidence is not shared by the other parties, who claim that Reform's entry into the race is a boost for the SNP. Farage has eyes on England, claim opponents According to both Tory and Labour sources, there are already at least five or six pro-independence candidates – those who are known to have voted for independence in the 2014 referendum – standing for Reform in winnable Scottish Parliament seats. The Conservatives – both north and south of the border – have the word 'Unionist' in their official title, Labour constantly re-states its commitment to oppose any form of a separate Scotland and, traditionally, generally needs Scottish MPs to form a government at Westminster. But while those two are happy to constantly re-affirm their commitment to the Union, there are many in what Mr Farage calls the 'old parties' who believe that while he's going hell for leather to form a British government, what he really wants is to be at the top of an English government. As for the Scots, I can almost hear some Reform-ites muttering: 'Well, they can go and do whatever they like.' And, to be fair, I understand there might be several people not necessarily attached to Reform who would be glad to be rid of the 'Scottish problem'. 'We shouldn't really be too surprised by any of this,' claimed one former minister. 'After all he (Farage) is an English nationalist.'
