TV unfair to SNP

It’s laughable that we live in a country where there’s almost complete media support for Unionism yet the independence side are regularly accused of trying to bully or silence critics (Letters, 23 January). The SNP’S party political broadcast was a very succinct response to those, invariably male, pub and golf club bores who repeat the virulent anti-s np headlines emanating from the “Scottish” editions of the London-based tabloids without looking into the facts.

As broadcasting remains reserved to London, the SNP must be the only government in a democratic country that doesn’t get fair coverage on the main news and current affairs programmes beamed to the electorate. Uk-wide coverage usually ignores the distinctive Scottish element on any issue, such as in the recent PFI debate, and the SNP, as the third force at Westminster, gets minimal exposure compared to when the Lib Dems were in that position. When political coverage is from Scotland we normally get three opposition parties arguing against the SNP while the Greens, who have more elected representatives than the Lib Dems and Ukip put together, are often ignored.

The proposed new BBC Scotland output, if not on one of the main four channels and with its main news bulletin up against the most popular TV peak viewing programmes, will not resolve this democratic deficit, although we may actually get some political satire relevant to Scotland. The agenda for UK broadcasters, not just in the political sphere, is set by the London-based right-wing publications that dominate our newsstands, which is yet another reason we need a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation that properly reflects 21st-century Scotland.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh