Should Sarah Smith be taken off air

[Opendraw]

Aibu to think this kind of biased opinion has no place on the BBC

“It has been obvious that Nicola Sturgeon has enjoyed the opportunity to set her own lockdown rules and not have to follow what's happening in England and other parts of the UK”.

Sarah Smith, BBC News at 10 (18/5/20)

She apologized for the comment

No idea who Sarah Smith is but what's the problem?

Nicola Sturgeon has every right to enjoy doing the sensible and right thing. It's just a shame for England that we don't have somebody with the same common sense making the same decisions here.

Wrong, although most journalists are well educated, (Oxford PPE being a solid grounding) Most go up the ladder on merit. Sarah Smith used daddies chums to elevate her far above her ability.

Just 7% of the British population are privately educated. But according to the Sutton Trustin 2016, 51% of Britain’s top journalists are privately educated. Just 19% attended a comprehensive school — unlike nearly 90% of the population.

According to the ‘Elitist Britain’ report — published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission in 2014, 43% of newspaper columnists are privately educated; just 23% went to comprehensives. Two thirds of new entrants to journalism came from managerial and professional backgrounds: more than twice the level of the rest of the population.

According to another government study, journalists are second only to doctors when it comes to the dominance of those from professional or managerial parental backgrounds. In other words: journalism is one of the most socially exclusive professions in Britain.

The issue is not just class. A study in 2016suggested that 94% of journalists are white and 55% are men. While 5% of Britons are Muslims and 3% are black, just 0.4% of journalists are Muslim and 0.2% are black. Women are paid considerably less, and men dominate senior roles.

Nicola Sturdeon is not enjoying it, she was almost in tears when asked about nursing home deaths.

And what of tears? Tears of regret for her lack of action? Tears of sympathy for those who have died due to her lack of action? Why have care home staff not been able to access tests since March? Why have care homes struggled to find PPE? Why was there no lockdown of care homes sooner? Why where hospitals pushed to discharge elderly patients to care homes without testing? These are all her responsibility.

Other political reporters state their opinions as fact all the time, Laura Kuenssberg anyone? I really don't get the big deal about this off-hand comment Sarah Smith made.

Did she apologise for the comment or for having phrased it in such a way that some people could misunderstand it?

I hope for the latter. But despair that she needed say anything at all!

"Banging" on about independence is the reason for her parties existence. That is never going to change. If and when Scotland gets independence they might cease to exist to

Quite. It's a bit like complaining that the ANC leaders kept "banging on" about apartheid.

Oh dear Bella clearly Scotland is not for you ....

@TheSandman I have no idea what SNP you've experienced but it's sure not the big picture! My dad was a member and left because there was so much anti-English sentiment within the party. A party that wants checkpoints at Carlisle doesn't exactly sound welcoming to the English does it? A party that will give free uni tuition to students from any EU country EXCEPT England?
There are way too many nationalists that have watched Braveheart once too often! 🙄

Not my favourite film. Not from any nationalistic point of view, I just think it's not a very good film. (Apart from the fun I had spotting the friends and neighbours who were in it).

I suspect that a lot of the perceived Anti-English feeling is not as as a result of any Anti-Englishness on the part of the Scots involved but the perception of the English 'victim'. I'm no way impugning your dad here but a case of 'Anti-Englishness' locally made the the television news when I first moved here. A hooha was made about a 'Local businessmen' ostracised because he was English. The locals had stopped using his hotel, the only bar for miles, and he'd had to sell up. As soon as people saw who it was there was a general murmur of "oh for fucks sake. He wasn't ostracised because he was English - it's because he was a twat."

We don't tolerate twats - of any nationality.

"Banging" on about independence is the reason for her parties existence.

Yes, but they are getting paid as elected MSPs and ministers to run the country.

Oh dear Bella clearly Scotland is not for you ....

opendraw, did you just effectively tell someone to go home to England because they don't like the way the SNP are running things?

I'm Scottish and I feel exactly the same as Bella, as do lots of other people who live here. Are we all going to be exiled to England come independence, or should everyone who doesn't vote SNP just leave the country now? Clearly we're not really Scottish.

This is nationalism, it's not nice, is it.

Wrong, although most journalists are well educated, (Oxford PPE being a solid grounding) Most go up the ladder on merit. Sarah Smith used daddies chums to elevate her far above her ability.

@Speckledhen10 how do you know this?

No I was not suggesting exiling anyone! Bella sounded extremely unhappy with the current state of affairs in Scotland and as she said herself she would considering heading back to England . Don’t be so provocative Rubbish!

And at what point did I say I voted SNP or otherwise provocative and presumptuous .

@TheSandman We don't tolerate twats - of any nationality.

What - we are different to people of every other nationality? 'We' tolerate plenty of twats. Looking at SNP supporters specifically, as that's probably who you're claiming exceptionalism for, I can think of plenty of twats holding positions in the party. For example, the current split relating to the recent course case involves a few. Twats are tolerated if they support particular political goals. And people who aren't twats are treated as such if they don't support that goal.

It's the SNP that's not for Bella, not Scotland. Her complaints are about what they're doing, not about this country.

As for encouraging the English Home my mum is English, my husband is English and half of the rest of my family are.... you guessed it English. @RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime

Of course she’s going to work this crisis to her advantage and do her best to undermine the union/ Westminster at any opportunity. It’s her party’s raison d’etre and I can’t see why it’s a contentious statement.

I am not a supporter of independence at all but i have a lot of respect for how good NS is at playing the political game. She is running rings around Westminster and deflecting attention from the awful situation in Scottish care homes. Superb politicking.

@Aesopfable. Great summary of a nice piece of deflection regarding care homes. A few crocodile tears and the story becomes about that rather than the absolutely shitshow that her government have overseen. If she has genuinely been sad and remorseful she work have taken responsibility for the failures.

@Bella2020
I don’t recognise your description. I live in Glasgow . There are drugs and gangs but in what way is it worse than any other large city in the UK. I feel quite safe here.
I worked for the nhs , and although things were not great - when I was at conferences with colleagues from England they described a far worse situation there.
NS has tweeted about how she felt about the comments . There has been an apology of sorts , and she says she wants to leave it there.
But feel free to hurry back to the totally principled government in Westminster. Where is Boris btw

Nicola Sturgeon has way overstepped the mark during the CV crisis. What's not true about what the BBC reporter said. But the point is the BBC should be unbiased. Therefore an apology is not enough.

Criticising the Scottish government does not mean you think the UK government is perfect, or any better at all. You could even think the Scottish government is better than the UK one while still not being in thrall to it.

So enough with the silly 'go back to your beloved Boris' comments to anyone who dares to want a better political situation for Scotland than we have now.

There has been a lot of Scotland bashing that’s for sure. We were a few weeks behind England in the curve so it makes sense to hang fire and now she says we will start following easing at the end of the month or a few weeks after England. To say she is trying to get one up is DM nonsense

Yes, Smith showed her personal bias and lack of professionalism, and like many, she seems to think Scotland should do what England are doing. Sturgeon is Scotland's First Minister, she can do what is best for the Scottish people. Smith or Johnson don't have to like it.

Oh ffs, do you really have nothing else to worry about than some perceived criticism of NS?

Personally, I’m more concerned by the horrific number of deaths during this global pandemic than the sensitivities of SNP supporters,

Actually, I don’t think Sarah Smith needed to apologise but she has.

I’m sure I’m not the only poster to remember John Smith and wish that he hadn’t died when he did.
Scotland might actually be a country I’d want to return to.