And now, news from Scotland
The First Minister has been on the TV a lot in the last couple of weeks, because the infection and death rates from Covid-19 have dropped dramatically in Scotland. I wouldn't go so far as to claim the FM is responsible for that herself. I tend to the view that we, the people, have done it but politicians listening to the scientists and following the advice of people working in public health certainly won't have done any harm.
Tonight Channel 4 News decided to give us a new angle on Covid-19 in Scotland. A 'human interest story'. On came Ciaran Jenkins to introduce a wee fillum from North Ayrshire. North Ayrshire is one of our more deprived council areas. It was a heavily industrialised region but has suffered high unemployment for decades now. There's a lot of under-achievement in its schools and it has historic levels of poverty.
It's also where the First Minister and her family come from. Coincidence? Well, only if you believe in coincidences. I don't.
He reports from Scotland a lot, does Ciaran. And I've come to dread his appearance on the screen. I've given up all hope of him striking the right balance between guessing what's going on and providing the kind of background interviews that will tell viewers across the UK what life is like here.
Ciaran interviewed a mother and two of her 3 children against the background of a ratty set of steps in what might be - from the photography - a pretty run-down council housing estate. The interview was all about what the family don't have. No computers (although their mother said they do have tablets). No income (the family are on benefits). There was no mention by Ciaran of what the family do have: 4 healthy kids (3 happy but one who refused to appear on camera - I'll bet that's an adolescent boy), a roof over their heads, and a wish to get back to school (elicited through a series of badly planted questions).
For some reason, Ciaran omitted to mention the shiny white Mercedes sitting in the car park next to the family's house. I don't know who owns that. Not the family, I think.
The message coming over loud and clear was that education in Scotland is a mess: the computers that were promised to families that don't have access to online services haven't appeared. The mother of this family felt she'd been abandoned. No one from the teacher unions or the Scottish Government or North Ayrshire Council was interviewed so the only opinions we heard were those of Ciaran and the family he was interviewing and missing laptops was the only problem he identified.
A few minutes into Ciaran's fillum I was squirming with embarrassment. I'd recognised what I was watching. Fifty years ago, both BBC Scotland and STV specialised in cringe-making 'reports' from Scotland. The BBC's reports were often nostalgic trips to places that looked good but were utterly unrepresentative of real life in the real Scotland. In fact, they may still be doing that. STV specialised in reports about the shiny new face of Scotland: like Cumbernauld and East Kilbride - and Irvine, the scene of tonight's report. In every case, Scotland came over as a pitiful place full of deprived and uneducated people. The reporters were seasoned journalists but they still managed to patronise the people they spoke to. God help us, sometimes these 'reports' found their way onto UK telly. I can only wonder what the hell viewers in other parts of the UK made of them - and us.
It seems I'm one of C4 News's top fans. Who knew? So, armed with that information, I have devised a cunning plan. I'm going to ask the news editor to do 3 things: make sure Ciaran is accompanied by a local every time he goes out into the community in Scotland so the tone is right; make sure he takes strenuous steps to ensure his reports reflect what is actually happening in Scotland; takes a course in not exploiting the people he interviews.
We're not a set of curiosities for the audience to chuckle at, Ciaran.
And before anyone asks: No, I don't have a link where you can watch this report. Google it yourself.
Tonight Channel 4 News decided to give us a new angle on Covid-19 in Scotland. A 'human interest story'. On came Ciaran Jenkins to introduce a wee fillum from North Ayrshire. North Ayrshire is one of our more deprived council areas. It was a heavily industrialised region but has suffered high unemployment for decades now. There's a lot of under-achievement in its schools and it has historic levels of poverty.
It's also where the First Minister and her family come from. Coincidence? Well, only if you believe in coincidences. I don't.
He reports from Scotland a lot, does Ciaran. And I've come to dread his appearance on the screen. I've given up all hope of him striking the right balance between guessing what's going on and providing the kind of background interviews that will tell viewers across the UK what life is like here.
Ciaran interviewed a mother and two of her 3 children against the background of a ratty set of steps in what might be - from the photography - a pretty run-down council housing estate. The interview was all about what the family don't have. No computers (although their mother said they do have tablets). No income (the family are on benefits). There was no mention by Ciaran of what the family do have: 4 healthy kids (3 happy but one who refused to appear on camera - I'll bet that's an adolescent boy), a roof over their heads, and a wish to get back to school (elicited through a series of badly planted questions).
For some reason, Ciaran omitted to mention the shiny white Mercedes sitting in the car park next to the family's house. I don't know who owns that. Not the family, I think.
The message coming over loud and clear was that education in Scotland is a mess: the computers that were promised to families that don't have access to online services haven't appeared. The mother of this family felt she'd been abandoned. No one from the teacher unions or the Scottish Government or North Ayrshire Council was interviewed so the only opinions we heard were those of Ciaran and the family he was interviewing and missing laptops was the only problem he identified.
A few minutes into Ciaran's fillum I was squirming with embarrassment. I'd recognised what I was watching. Fifty years ago, both BBC Scotland and STV specialised in cringe-making 'reports' from Scotland. The BBC's reports were often nostalgic trips to places that looked good but were utterly unrepresentative of real life in the real Scotland. In fact, they may still be doing that. STV specialised in reports about the shiny new face of Scotland: like Cumbernauld and East Kilbride - and Irvine, the scene of tonight's report. In every case, Scotland came over as a pitiful place full of deprived and uneducated people. The reporters were seasoned journalists but they still managed to patronise the people they spoke to. God help us, sometimes these 'reports' found their way onto UK telly. I can only wonder what the hell viewers in other parts of the UK made of them - and us.
It seems I'm one of C4 News's top fans. Who knew? So, armed with that information, I have devised a cunning plan. I'm going to ask the news editor to do 3 things: make sure Ciaran is accompanied by a local every time he goes out into the community in Scotland so the tone is right; make sure he takes strenuous steps to ensure his reports reflect what is actually happening in Scotland; takes a course in not exploiting the people he interviews.
We're not a set of curiosities for the audience to chuckle at, Ciaran.
And before anyone asks: No, I don't have a link where you can watch this report. Google it yourself.
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