Politics Watch: Brewer v Johnson, how about it, PM?
IN Scottish newspapers it is called putting a kilt on a story. To wit: taking a subject, be it Uk-wide or global, and looking at how it affects Scots. The most infamous example of “putting a kilt on it” is usually held to be the Press & Journal’s reporting of the Titanic disaster under the headline, “Aberdeen man drowns at sea.” The tale is not strictly accurate, however. On the first day of coverage there was no mention of Aberdeen; on the next there was a subheading, “Aberdeen people on the Titanic”, but it was some way down the page. Still, the legend persists.
Over the years, the Scottish media as a whole has become adept at putting a kilt on items when required. Occasionally, Londonbased political programmes have a chance to return the compliment and feature Scottish stories, but they rarely do.
Yesterday was a prime example. As you may have noticed, there was a big story in Scotland last week. Finance Secretary, text messages scandal, having to resign on day of his budget, ring a bell? While one did not expect The Andrew Marr Show and Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday to take the Derek Mackay story and go wall to wall with it, the subject was surely worth a stand-alone interview.
Instead, the line-up on Marr was Liu Xiamoing, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Dr Rosena Allin-khan, who is standing for the deputy leadership of Labour, and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland. Sophy Ridge, meanwhile, spoke to Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, Dawn Butler MP, another Labour deputy leadership candidate, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, and the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
Of the two line-ups, perhaps only Ambassador Liu was of direct relevance to viewers in Scotland. Given the threat from coronavirus, what the Chinese Government has to say is of vital importance to everyone on the planet. “We believe the virus is controllable, preventable, curable,” said the ambassador.
Nor did Scotland come up in the paper review on Marr. No surprise there, since the Scottish Sunday newspapers do not feature unless the programme has decamped north. Yet Broadcasting House, in many ways the Radio 4 equivalent of Marr’s show, makes a point of inviting Scottish paper reviewers on to the programme now and then, and encourages them to talk about stories from their patch. How difficult would it be for the Marr team to set up a link to Scotland, or Wales and Northern Ireland, to find out what stories are making the headlines in the rest of the UK?
Perhaps in the case of Marr the thinking was to leave the Mackay story to Sunday Politics Scotland. It was the first topic in host Gordon Brewer’s review of the week with Jenni Davidson of Holyrood magazine and Peter Geoghegan, investigative journalist with the website opendemocracy.
The main interview was a pre-recorded sit down between Brewer and Keith Brown, depute leader of the SNP. The news line from this was Mr Brown, at the third time of asking, saying it was very difficult to see how Derek Mackay could continue as an MSP.
Talk eventually turned to the budget. Some 44 per cent of people in Scotland were now paying more tax, said Brewer. According to SPICE, Holyrood’s research arm, he went on, the Scottish Government raised £500 million more than it would if it stuck with the UK policy. But when the block grant adjustment was taken into account the Scottish Government ended up with just £46m more. “People in Scotland might be prepared to pay more tax if they thought the money was going somewhere useful,” said Brewer.
Brown said the money was going somewhere useful, public services, and that the majority of people in Scotland paid less tax than they would in the rest of the UK. “Scotland’s got the lowest tax rate in the whole of the UK,” he said. Mr Brown, a former cabinet secretary for the economy, did not move off the front foot. It was a robust ding-dong, as it should have been, ending with a challenge from Mr Brown when the looming shortfall in tax receipts was brought up. “Look at the whole context in which we have this budget,” said the constituency MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane. “I asked you on this programme a year or so ago why you never interview UK finance ministers …”
Brewer interrupted to promptly invite Chancellor Sajid Javid on to the show. “If he’s watching, happy to interview him”.
Why don’t UK ministers come on to Scottish television as a matter of course? You could argue it was not constitutionally polite to ask London-based ministers when there are opposition politicians here who could step in. Yet such niceties do not stop ministers commenting regularly on
Scottish matters in the Commons. Boris Johnson, indeed, has made it a regular feature of Prime Minister’s Questions.
Given the Cabinet boycott of the Today programme and Good Morning Britain, and if Mr Johnson is as keen on being the Minister for the Union as he says, Number 10 might even welcome sending ministers outside London. Gordon Brewer and Boris Johnson: how about it?
It would be easy to set up a link and find out what is making headlines elsewhere