BBC decision to stop airing the daily briefings

[Srictlybakeoff]

Just as things start to get more worrying again, the BBC have decided to stop showing the First Ministers daily briefings. There is an implication that the decision is political. It seems o me to be a very biased move.

[quote Arkadia]@RamblingFar, the point is that there is no need for a briefing. Should there be an emergency, or an important announcement to make, then by all means, have the sign language guy.
Sign language at the moment is being used simply to make the "briefing" look important.

@MadameBlobby, I think very few people's first language is written English.[/quote]
Written English is the same as spoken English.
Written English is not the same as BSL - different word order, different grammar. It can cause deaf and hard of hearing children great difficulty in learning to read. BSL is a language in it's own right.

Signing is being used at the moment as it is an official Scottish government briefing, not to make it 'look important'.

Thank fuck. It's all lies anyway.

I'm pleased they're stopping - they were turning into a party political broadcast. There is nothing that can't be included in the BBC Scottish News.

@RamblingFar
Signing is being used at the moment as it is an official Scottish government briefing, not to make it 'look important'.

But there is nothing to brief the population about. That's the whole point. When there will be something you need to brief the population about, then OK.
At the moment is 100% theater (sign language and all).

Rules are changing regularly across the UK, we're no longer under blanket stay at home conditions, so regular updates are really important just now, as is the questioning to establish the implications of the rules. And as someone said up thread there's nothing else on BBC Scotland at that time.

Yeah yeah, but what is Janey Godley going to do now for content?!

I can't believe it costs the BBC a lot of money to show these, especially as there is literally nothing on BBC Scotland at that time of day. I think they should continue as they are very useful.

I would also like to see a daily UK briefing with the same format.

Yep. What are they going to replace it with? More second-rate journos interpreting what someone else thinks of what someone else said she said? Why not just treat us like grown-ups and let us watch the briefings and make our minds up for ourselves?

I'm disappointed that it won't be shown daily, especially as there are so many local restrictions now and I don't always get to watch the evening news.

I also find some of the journalists' questions interesting, good to hear a different view point.

Where are the broadcasts going to be available?

But these changes don't happen every day. When there is an important change she can have a televised address, but if there is nothing to say, what is the point? What is she supposed to say?

I personally find it really valuable, I understand the rationale behind decisions so much better than if it was just a list of guidelines on a website.

But I can choose to watch on my phone if needs be; I'm thinking of older people, people with no internet, etc, who can only watch it through the BBC. Why should they not be able to, it's a public health issue surely.

@Ecosse

I think it’s great that the BBC are going to stop broadcasting the daily Sturgeon Party Political Broadcasts.

It suits Sturgeon’s election and independence agenda to keep us all in a state of panic beholden to what the dear leader says indefinitely.

Absolutely. She has been using these for wider political purposes from the start and thankfully the BBC have finally had the guts to stop these SNP political broadcasts every day. Fine if there is an important change in rules etc but every day was just her scaring/ pontificating.

Sign language is theatre?

What a selfish and twattish thing to say.

I suppose guide dogs are just props for attention-seeking blind people too.

Can anyone explain why it can’t be shown on bbc Scotland alone? My family in Wales always turn off when Nicola comes on, so I can see the point of not showing it to the whole of the U.K. though.

Sorry @RamblingFar, I was clumsily trying to express that BSL users may not be fluent in English as it isn’t their first language and may therefore struggle with subtitles. I’m sorry if I worded it offensively

I dunno @peakotter I always assumed it was only shown in Scotland, can't understand why it would be any different from say, the Scottish news bulletins.

About bloody time the SNP daily party political broadcast was stopped. Any Covid updates are given on the national and regional news anyway, so we dont need this pandering to Sturgeon's ego.

@MadameBlobby

Sorry *@RamblingFar*, I was clumsily trying to express that BSL users may not be fluent in English as it isn’t their first language and may therefore struggle with subtitles. I’m sorry if I worded it offensively

No offence taken, my point backs up yours ☺

I think a lot of people assume BSL is a lot more similar to written English than it is. I'd expect most BSL users to be able to use written English, as BSL doesn't have a written form. However few people seem to realise how different the languages are. For a deaf person with BSL as their first language, then written English can be hard to learn.

I grew up using spoken English, but my pronunciation was awful until I learned to read as I can't hear all the speech sounds. It was like a whole new world of sound.

@dementedma

About bloody time the SNP daily party political broadcast was stopped. Any Covid updates are given on the national and regional news anyway, so we dont need this pandering to Sturgeon's ego.

Your bias is showing.

So, what is the point of the "briefing" if the announcements are always made elsewhere, like .... Today, or the previous times further restrictions were imposed?

@Arkadia

So, what is the point of the "briefing" if the announcements are always made elsewhere, like .... Today, or the previous times further restrictions were imposed?

To give NS free airtime every day to spout whatever crap she feels like dragging into the Pravda-esque Covid updates?

So, what is the point of the "briefing" if the announcements are always made elsewhere

Speaking for myself, I watch it on the television as that is the most accessible format. I watch it because you get all the details in one place, different media outlets tend to editorialise what is said by Sturgeon and the various medical people. I find it really helps (me) having as much detail as possible which you don't get in the press reports. The science from the various medical officer type people is very interesting too. I also think the press questions are very important, it's effectively the country holding Sturgeon to account, and can sometimes be quite revealing.

I didn't realise it was shown across the UK, I always watch on BBC Scotland, if it's being shown in other countries of the UK that is a bit odd.

And as I said above, I really, really wish the UK government did the same thing as that would be equally valuable for the same reasons.

They have high ratings- around 320k a day viewing. It is a political move as showing up the beyond incompetent UK Gov. Before yesterday's update re 6 can meet, the last time Boris was in front of a camera giving info was July.
It's really bad they 've done this with so much going on, schools back and rates rising.
Of course, despite all this, there is an upcoming election so the British Broadcasting Corporatiom can't have the leader of a pro independence party do her job as they must keep the union together.

Good to see that everyone is very concerned about the hard of hearing and the elderly. Pity that the same sympathy and concern is not extended to those who are medically unable to wear face masks. I’m personally delighted that the daily party political broadcasts from the FM are being discontinued, apart from ones with relevant info. I’m quite elderly myself and don’t know any other aged people who are unable to use the internet on various devices so using that as an argument to keep the FM daily briefings going seems a bit spurious. There’s always newspapers and the evening news.

About bloody time I say. They had turned into party political broadcasts

@MadameBlobby

I am not a fan of NS or an SNP voter but I think the briefings should continue to be shown on TV. People don’t need to watch it if they don’t want to but they should be able to do so.

This