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)

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.

Do the Scottish people get a say in this? Sturgeon doesn't own us any more than Johnson does. We need journalists to be holding our governments to account. We also don't all agree that everything that's being done is the best thing, just like I'm sure you'll happily agree that not everything the UK government does is the best thing.

but i have a lot of respect for how good NS is at playing the political game ...... Superb politicking.

She learned from the master - Salmond. One of the most politically brilliant of recent times, even though I loathe everything he stands for he's a master of politicking. He taught Nicola well.

When he takes her on ... and he will, when the time is right ... it will be something to behold.

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

Bella2020
Lived in England recently? Checked out the gang violence and drug scene in London, Leeds, Liverpool or Manchester, Bradford? All major cities have issues with drugs and violent crime in certain areas.

Been on a NHS waiting list in England? Think you'll find it's exactly the same - and a good few hospitals have failed their inspections (before Covid 19 hit.

Checked out the Ofsted reports of some English schools and the scramble for places at the better ones to avoid the worst ones?

Think you need to spend times in both countries and use their services to make a fairer judgement.

Yes, I would imagine there are many journalists who know what’s going on behind the scenes in the SNP and have to be remarkably restrained with what they can report.

I still can't believe this thread title. What kind of country do you want to live in? Where journalists fear for their jobs (or worse - there are places where journalists are killed) if they say something the government or their supporters don't like?

I’m sure I’m not the only poster to remember John Smith and wish that he hadn’t died when he did

Your not - a great man.

Stone of Destiny, care to enlighten us as to why drug deaths in Scotland are so high ?

@LakieLady that's how I understood at the time.

@FannyFernackerpan. Oh yes. That battle has been put on hold temporarily but can’t see AS holding his tongue indefinitely.

The Scottish papers have plenty of other sex scandal/ abuse (depending on which way you look at it) stories about him but have been told to bide their time as he’s pretty Teflon coated at the moment.

The care Home crisis is not just in Scotland and I don’t think anyone would shed crocodile tears on that subject. I assume decisions were left to medical staff at that stage and it’s been a cock up. At what point did Boris and NS know there were problems and did they act fast enough? This and other issues will be rightly investigated.....

@RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime I think you are trying to pick and provoke rather than make any valuable comments. @PickUpThePieces I am pretty sure London and some other cities have way more drugs and stabbings and gangs but that’s not the point I wish nowhere had these issues.
You are not the only one - John Smith what a brilliant man and is virtually the only person I have thought was up to the job.

The divisive atmosphere the nats have created is sickening; they carry IRA/Sinn Fein supporting placards on marches. It's awful, it really is. Sturgeon rules her party, and the regional assembly she calls a government, with an iron fist. In the daily briefing, journslists' microphones are switched off after they ask the question so they can't challenge her. She uses a lot of words but says nothing. She demands they call her First Minister while she refers to the PM as Boris

Wow - that's a lot of selective observations.

Boris Johnson actually negotiated with Arlene Foster (DUP) to join forces to keep him in power. Arlene Foster actually leads a right wing sectarian political party. Foster brought her bigotry to Scotland to lead an Orange Parade - waving sectarian banners and singing sectarian songs. To quote you "it's awful, it really is".

Journalists microphones are switched off so they can't challenge her Johnson won't actually send ministers to be interviewed on several major TV channels, or turn up himself to be questioned by journalists - he wouldn't even enter the TV debate at the General Election!

she uses a lot of words but says nothing
That's simply untrue. She is clear, articulate, coherent and on point and willing to be scrutinised on TV. Johnson - or Boris as he prefers to be called - (and he does, as party of his 'I'm cuddly Boris image") is inarticulate, adopting a blustering approach to discussion. He is often advised to say nothing because he can be offensive, racist and prone to putting his foot in it.

@opendraw. England dropped the ball in the early days on care homes as well. The difference is that they’ve got a quicker handle on it than in Scotland. Our current published infection rates are worse than theirs due to the poor handling in care homes.

Question for you. If we in Scotland locked down earlier in the curve as was stated back in March (as all the backseat virologist were screaming for and NS stated as she was all about protecting Scotland (trademark) ) and had stringent lockdown measure then why are we experiencing worse rates than England?

The care Home crisis is not just in Scotland

That is irrelevant. NS oversaw it is Scotland resulting in hundreds of deaths. She didn’t act fast enough. It was the Scottish Government who told NHS Trusts to rapidly discharge elderly patients to care homes without testing. It was the Scottish Government who congratulated them on doing so. If she wasn’t aware then why had she not set up the surveillance to ensure she was? If she didn’t think to do so then why did she wait until after lockdown to set up an advisory group? What Boris did in England is neither here nor there.

No, the crisis in care homes is not just in Scotland ( although it’s been particularly bad there)
It’s across the board.

I hoped that this crisis might bring us all closer together as, you know, human beings, but it seems that some SNP suppperters are just that little bit more special, that little bit more sensitive.

There will be investigations into the handling of this by Westminster, Scottish, Welsh and N. Irish Govts and there might even be Indeyref 2 when the Scots will get their say, again.
At the moment Scotland is effectively a one party state with little or no effective Opposition.

Living in England, I’m delighted that we finally have a Labour Party who can hold the present Govt to account and journalists who are free to challenge.

@Bartlet I have no idea why our infection rates are higher, it could be more mismanagement than England, it could be a host of other reasons or probably a combination, we will need to see what comes out when we are through this and everything is looked at in detail.

I have said earlier I don’t think she is perhaps practically doing anything more than other parts of the UK it’s clear that the UK as a whole have made massive mistakes. She is however as @StoneofDestiny has said clear and articulate and most importantly VISIBLE every day sometimes taking over the same question asked a 1000 different ways.

No, I'm not trying to provoke, @opendraw. I'm saying what I think about your suggestion that Smith be taken off screen because she said something perceived to be unfavourable about the FM. Also what I think about the political situation in Scotland that has led to this kind of attitude.

And given that your whole thread is about a journalist losing her job for potentially being critical of the government, how was my last comment off the mark?

Do the Scottish people get a say in this?

Of course. At elections.

pickupthepieces

Sure - the same reason England and Wales figures are rising - underfunding, cutbacks is services.

Britain is facing a public health emergency as alarming figures for England and Wales show drug-related deaths have hit record levels, prompting calls for damaging cuts to treatment services to be urgently reversed

The statistics for England and Wales – which show a 16% increase in deaths from drug poisoning in 2018, the highest annual leap since records began – come weeks after figures revealed Scotland’s drug-related death toll had also reached record levels

Drug treatment experts, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, reacted angrily to the data, accusing the government of putting people’s lives at risk by cutting funding of vital treatments services. Victims aged between 30 and 49 drove the surge in fatalities

Studies have shown that councils have responded to central government cuts by slashing spending on drug treatment services by about 27% since 2015/16, and by more than 50% in some areas

@Opendraw. But that’s the point we’re making too. She isn’t doing any better at managing the crisis - just using the opportunity to further the independence cause and stir division through superb politicking.

Not very admirable but entirely predictable of a senior politician. If you can’t see that she plays the game just like Boris and co then you’re not looking dispassionately at her performances.

You can’t assume because I didn’t like SS comment that I’m a paid up member of the SNP. I’m not up for Indy Ref 2, but I’m hugely unimpressed with Westminster shoot me down but I actually liked May best of a bad bunch but I bet she is glad not to be PM now.

One thing I hope we all agree on is at least we don’t have Trump :-)

I disagree I don’t think she is using the crisis in that way at all but I am sure she is very aware that she is coming out of it better than Boris. IMO there is too much at stake too many things to get right for her even to be thinking of independence or using this as a vehicle or cause divide. This is purely DM crap. I can’t bive the headlines gazumped again just because her briefing is earlier I despair.

Why does anyine care about Scotland or whatever evrr its called fs

As for NS being VISIBLE every day, why is that?
Is it that she’s a total control freak?
Is it that she doesn’t trust anyone else to do it ?
Is there such a dearth of talent?

I think it’s correct that different Ministers of State attend the Westminster daily press briefings.
The public know what depts they are accountable for and they are put under scrutiny.
They don’t get to hide behind their leader.

Boris Johnson is PM but we have a Cabinet in govt with different remits.