BBC Scotland - the launch

Well you've said the UK one should stop quite often, so its a bit rich complaining from the opposite side on this occasion?

Surely this is exactly the type of thing the BBC Scotland channel is for, seeing as they no longer want to put it on BBC One anymore. Not showing it makes the channel even more pointless than it already is.

Without wishing to stray away from TV and onto politics, there were a number of occasions where the UK-wide government coronavirus briefings had only the most tenuous of links to coronavirus. There were several where they were used to announce non-Covid-related government policy while on a national TV and radio platform. The broadcasts via BBC local radio were particularly poor, because they would broadcast the ministerial statement but none of the scientists' statements or follow-up questions from journalists, meaning you got essentially a party political broadcast.

My view at the time was that the briefings should have stuck strictly to coronavirus-related public health information and not strayed, for example, onto the dualling of the A66 or vouchers to fix your bike. They should have been led by the medical and scientific officers, not random government ministers. If there was no public health information to relay, there should have been no briefing. Mercifully, we are now at the stage where the briefings in England take place only when there is information to give.

Quite ! It's 30 minutes of low cost original content per day. Surely It beats simulcasting BBC 2, and pretending to be a different channel during those periods ?

BBC Scotland is still off the air during the day now, the BBC2 simulcasts haven’t happened for a while. It makes sense to put it on BBC Scotland over BBC1, as half of the conference gets cut off due to the BBC News at One.

Same happens with the Welsh ones, where they would at least have the option of BBC2 Wales but have had them on BBC1. And to be fair it happened with the Westminster ones when they ran past 6pm too.

This is, quite possibly, the worst decision the BBC is Scotland have made.

Most people will know someone that does watch the briefing for information on Coronavirus and what the latest guidance is, particularly when there are new restrictions across Greater Glasgow. I have a 79 year old relative who watches it. She has a laptop, but would have no idea how to go on to the gov.scot website to watch it online, and would not be inclined to do so. Further, she has just renewed her TV licence after 4 years of not having to pay.

It really makes no sense.

The question of bias is a difficult one because the Westminster briefings certainly did swerve into party political broadcast territory at times, as mentioned above. The few Holyrood ones I've seen seem to have avoided this - though I'll leave judgement on that to others further north than me - but the tension between Holyrood and Westminster is newsworthy and central to how this emergency is being handled. I wonder if the worry is that there is no analysis on BBC Scotland - the programme just ends when the briefing is finished - so there is no opportunity to put what viewers have just seen in context in the lead-up to elections there.

Stupid decision, though, especially with the second wave starting. Good to see the tradition of the BBC punching itself in the face continuing under the new boss.

Wonder if STV could sacrifice Loose Women (maybe call in a favour down south an ask for it to be shown on ITV2) and an hour of ads to grab the moral high ground.

I don’t really understand how the government announcing things they are doing is considered party political.

I know three people who are not remotely political and have cancelled their license fees today. It’s criminal negligence from a public broadcaster. A shockingly stupid act and one that I genuinely believe BBC Scotland will not recover from. If independence doesn’t happen, the BBC will need a full root and branch review and shake up - everyone from on air staff to senior management will need to be reshuffled. I’m still absolutely baffled that they did this. I’m a big defender of having a decent public broadcaster. It raises the bar for others and shapes a healthy media industry. Today’s announcement basically removes all of this. There will be HUGE repercussions and I have no idea where it will end. 2020 really is the year we would all like to forget!

Seems a touch over the top.

The thing is most days there was nothing new to announce. Even as a political nerd, these got really boring and highly repetitive. I've only dipped in once a week or so lately.

Only a couple of weeks ago, the FM herself was talking about reducing the frequency of these briefings. The appearance of multiple govt ministers often meant they would stray into all sorts of other government policies being promoted. Ministers also gave their unchallenged view of the success of their policies so far, with no opportunity for scrutiny from other elected politicians.

I expected Nicola Sturgeon (who is a savvy politician) to realise that sometimes less is more. Just do these announcements in Parliament when there is something significant to announce - and those announcements will be covered, and they can be scrutinised.

It's important to remember that these lockdown changes are enforced by laws and regulations, and those should be scrutinised by elected politicians.