Scottish Six insult goes to heart of independence question

IS Scotland a nation or not? If you believe, like this newspaper does, that we are indeed a nation equal to any other, then it is beyond ridiculous, beyond insulting and beyond toleration that Scotland is being denied its own nightly news programme. Any free country must be able to reflect the world as it sees it through its own independent media

s such the decision by BBC chiefs in London to permanently rule out a Scottish Six TV news programme could not be more toxic. Scotland’s will is already being flouted over Brexit – and now grey men in London have added insult to injury by crushing the opportunity for us to have a simple news programme.

Campaigners have been making the case for a Scottish Six since before the devolution era. There will be those who view the BBC’s decision to kill it off as reminiscent of Tory governments sneering at Scottish aspirations.

The SNP sees the move as a politically motivated decision aimed at concentrating power in London at a time when a second independence referendum is back on the agenda. Who can blame them?

Scotland is being treated like a region. We are not Yorkshire or Cornwall or the Welsh valleys or the Glens of Antrim – we are a country. When the BBC’s director general Lord Hall appears before Holyrood’s culture committee on Thursday he should be told exactly what an insult he has dealt this country and he should be left in no doubt that if this decision was taken to quell the Yes movement then it has backfired horribly… as so many BBC decisions do.