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)

[Opendraw]

@LagunaBubbles that made me laugh !

[Opendraw]

It is pretty obvious - she thinks being there every day is important along with selected experts. Boris is not there because he can’t be trusted not to mess it up. That briefing of his was truly awful when he set out England’s plan and easing of the rules. As for playing games he was asked by the FM to make clear that his new rules were only for England instead he made a point about being PM for the whole of the Uk and from memory didn’t once say this is England only. I may be wrong as he was waffling so much it was difficult to listen to.

[Bartlet]

@SoleBizzz. If you’re not interested then why comment. Do you think anyone gives a shit about your little England’s stance?

[PickUpThePieces]

Stone of destiny, so it’s not true that Scotland has the highest number of drug deaths per capita in Europe ?

I would have so much more respect for differing political views if you could just admit to that fact that the SNP isn’t perfect and has some fairly major domestic issues to solve.

How’s the CalMac ferry fiasco going btw?
Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital up and running yet?
Has Mr Charisma, himself John Swinney solved the problems of the once great, Scottish education system ?

[Opendraw]

You missed out the Edinburgh Trams debacle :-)

[Opendraw]

Stone of destiny, so it’s not true that Scotland has the highest number of drug deaths per capita in Europe ?

Apparently Estonia has the highest overdose in Europe

[Opendraw]

How do you bold things ?

[Bartlet]

According to this pretty detailed study, Scotland is top of the table for drugs deaths.

www.sdf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Comparing-European-countries-with-high-or-increasing-drug-related-death-rates-Andrew-McAuley-Glasgow-Caledonian-University.pdf

[Opendraw]

Yes actually I think you are right Bartlet I think what I was looking at was comparing
uk saw another one that showed Scotland out in front. Wil be interesting to read that and as to why that’s the case it won’t all be down to SNP

[FannyFernackerpan]

You have to laugh ... nine pages because a journo used the word 'enjoyed' in a report about Saint Nicola, resulting in demands for her to 'be taken off air'.

Look at some of the appalling vitriol and shit that has been hurled in the direction of so many other (non SNP) politicians. Not so much as a murmur of dissent .. in fact most Mumsnetters join in and give them a good kicking.

But not when it's Nicola. Heavens no, she's somehow exempt from criticism because she's so wonderful, and direct and precise and instills confidence and blah di blah bollocks .. in a way that none of those hated 'Westminster' politicians are.

The fact that she's a nationalist socialist and one of the most divisive politicians of her generation is of no consequence, apparently.

She's 'great' because she hasn't eased lockdown at the same time as Boris. She's going to ease it, just a few days behind ffs. She's going to do exactly the same as the UK Government has already done, just a little later. They don't give out sainthoods and Nobel peace prices for delaying.

This crisis has given Sturgeon and our own wonderful Prif Weinidog (yeah I'm Welsh) a chance to pontificate on a daily basis and pretend they are in charge.

But both are going to follow exactly where the UK government have gone. Just a few days behind. It's a little bit of muscle flexing, and a chance to do a bit of politicking, but we're all going the same way on this little island of ours and that's an easing of lockdown restrictions.

And as for Saint Nicola ... she's 'enjoying' it, she's 'embracing' it, who gives a shit? No way should this journo be 'taken off air' over it. And she won't be. Unless the perpetually offended and outraged continue to try and make a massive deal out of it.

[MissEliza]

@PickUpThePieces I've been saying that all along. During the swine flu epidemic, NS was the health minister. She did all the briefings. Yet now she's decided that's the job for the First Minister.
I'm proud to come from Glasgow but I have noticed a decline. There were always 'dodgy' areas but now even in Glasgow city centre there are streets I don't feel safe in. Last year, I walked down Queen Street and into Argyle street with my dd and we passed so many obvious drug users, I crossed the road a couple of times. My older dcs, as they became more independent, have gone shopping by themselves in town and have come back shocked by the number of 'crackheads' they saw. Both my boys regularly go into central London with their friends so they're not sheltered.
Oh, and I'm disgusted that both my boys reported feeling hostility because of their English accents in Glasgow. I sent ds2 up to Glasgow to spend time with my df last year after GCSES. As I drove him home after picking him up at Heathrow, he said a lot of people were 'absolute twats' to him because of his accent. Nice.

[Opendraw]

NS is only delaying as the R number is still too high nothing to do with flexing.,they are all getting the same advice so I imagine easing will look very similar indeed - I don’t think anyone was disagreeing with that.

[PickUpThePieces]

That’s interesting and depressing Miss Eliza.
My DH and I are both Glaswegian but moved away many years ago.

All 3 of our DC have had similar experiences recently with regard to their English accents in Glasgow.

[Experimenopause]

BBC has reached its expiry date. We, as a nation, should LTB.

[Allnamesaregone]

More people die each day in Scotland from cancer and heart disease than are now dying from corona virus.
I’m struggling to see why we need to remain in such a strict lockdown.

[Experimenopause]

Allnamesaregone
If lockdown = Coronavirus deaths equal cancer and heart disease

Then no lockdown =?

[MissEliza]

@PickUpThePieces it's so sad because I want them to enjoy visiting Glasgow and feel they have a connection to it. They will always want to go to visit their dgf but I would like them to feel comfortable there.

[PickUpThePieces]

I agree, Miss Eliza. I want my DC to have a connection to Glasgow and Scotland too, as do they but it’s not easy when the first restaurant we went into, the people at the next table were complaining loudly about the high numbers of English students at Glasgow University.

[MissEliza]

OMG that's absolutely pathetic. You should want universities to attract people from far and wide to raise so you're getting the very best you can. The hostility ds1 has faced contributed to him refusing to look at any Scottish universities. Unfortunately he regards Scotland as narrow minded, although he loves so many things about it, eg irn bru, square sausages, Scotch morning rolls and Frankie Boyle!!

[FannyFernackerpan]

but it’s not easy when the first restaurant we went into, the people at the next table were complaining loudly about the high numbers of English students at Glasgow University.

But presumably they would be perfectly happy with high numbers of French, German, Italian .. and other EU member state students studying in Glasgow?

There are hundreds of thousands of Scots living in England. They are part of every echelon of life from TV presenters, to politicians, umpteen prime ministers that I can recall, and Scots holding significant high office, and just everyday Scottish people living south of the border. They do just fine.

But in fortress Scotland if you so much as open your mouth with an English accent you are fair game for some sort of criticism.

We live on a small island. We are already one of the most densely populated places in Europe, only Malta beats us. The island is shared by the Welsh, Scots and English. We've been here for centuries. We've worked together, fought alongside each other and our ancestry and families, customs and every aspect of our day to day life from institutions, to currency, to humour, to psyche, to biology is so intertwined.

But the size of the chip on the shoulders of some nationalist Scots (and yes, I agree, some of us Welsh also) about what happened centuries ago, overrides everything and the desire to carve up a small island in the North Atlantic for some perverse nationalist ideal of autonomy and self governance, is just pitiful.

And what makes it even more pitiful is that the SNP once having secured its 'independence' from the UK, would immediately do everything it could to sign Scotland up the the EU, an institution that loathes nationalism in all its forms and is openly committed to the erosion of the nation state.

Nicola, the 'first minister' of Scotland, the leader of the SNP, has 'enjoyed' every minute of this, and you can attribute your own interpretation of the verb 'to enjoy'.

[MissEliza]

@FannyFernackerpan 👏👏👏

[TheSandman]

But the size of the chip on the shoulders of some nationalist Scots (and yes, I agree, some of us Welsh also) about what happened centuries ago, overrides everything and the desire to carve up a small island in the North Atlantic for some perverse nationalist ideal of autonomy and self governance, is just pitiful.

And what makes it even more pitiful is that the SNP once having secured its 'independence' from the UK, would immediately do everything it could to sign Scotland up the the EU, an institution that loathes nationalism in all its forms and is openly committed to the erosion of the nation state.

Do you not see the HUGE contradiction in what you just said? Somehow the UK - an entity which has only existed in its current form for less than 100 years is THE PERFECT sized state? A perfect state that for some 'perverse nationalist ideal of autonomy and self governance' withdrew from the EU? That's some fecking chip you've got there, mate.

And I'm sure people were saying:

We've worked together, fought alongside each other and our ancestry and families, customs and every aspect of our day to day life from institutions, to currency, to humour, to psyche, to biology is so intertwined.

in Ireland in 1921 and India in 1947 and all those other bits of the English Empire that got out from under.

[FannyFernackerpan]

It wasn't the 'English' empire. The Scots and the Welsh were every bit as complicit in imperialism as the English. It was the British Empire, writ large, loud and proud.

Don't pick and choose the bits of what I've written to suit your agenda. Don't bring India and Ireland into it, for some perverse anti 'English' bias.

It's about the 66 million of us who live on this island in 2020 who had absolutely no hand in what was historically done by our ancestors.

The British (British meaning those collective inhabitants of the island of Britannia Major - Great Britain) built an empire alongside every single other European nation from the Dutch to the Portuguese, to the French and Spanish. We were just better at it, because as an island we were, and are, a seafaring nation and our navy was more effective.

So keep wringing your hands over the fact that our ancestors - all of them Scots, Welsh and English - went off and colonised the world, which has absolutely fuck all to do with Scottish nationalism.

I don't mind having a debate with anyone but your post is so trite and ill informed, I can hardly believe you brought Ireland and India into a thread about 2020 Britain and a tinpot nationalist first minister, who at best, represents 1.2 million people.

[XDownwiththissortofthingX]

SNP being blamed for not tackling Scotland's drug death problem, when narcotics laws are still a reserved matter and Westminster has continually ignored all proposals to change them within Scotland.

But no, ESSENPEEE BAD!!!!!

[XDownwiththissortofthingX]

And another example of the astounding hypocrisy that

Totally incorporating Unions, i.e. the UK = Good and natural

Non-incorporating Unions, i.e. the EU = Bad, evil, and amoral.

Usually demonstrated by folk who like to harp on about Sovereignty, 'taking back control', and sneering at nationalism despite being the most egregious nationalists of the lot.