Hypocrisy over Eurovision entries must be called out
colonial master holds Scotland, with just 8% of the UK population, fast:
● Scotland is 32% of the total UK land area and its total natural capital asset value was £230 billion in 2019, or 13% of the total UK value.
● Scotland’s ecosystem services – their contribution to economic and human activity – are valued at £15bn, 30% of the total UK value.
● Scotland’s value of provisioning services – products extracted, harvested or derived from nature such as food, water, energy, minerals, timber – was £14bn or 57% of the UK total value.
● Scotland provides 73% of UK fish landings, 78% of which were sustainable vs 35% of rUK’s.
● Scotland generates 31% of UK wind electricity, with 86% coming from onshore wind.
● Scotland accounts for 62% of UK timber production.
● Scotland extracted 28% less water between 2003-2017 partly due to fixing water leaks, another benefit of a publicly owned water service.
Scotland provides 73% of UK fish landings
● Scotland accounts for 11% of the UK annual value in cultural services, defined as the non-material benefit derived from ecosystems through recreation and tourism. 48% of Scots received health benefits from nature vs 37% in England.
Scotland’s natural capital should benefit the Scottish people. Instead, the UK coloniser has flogged the lion’s share to private corporations and foreign governments, leaving our citizens impoverished. This has been accomplished with the help of Anglo-Scots like English Labour’s Ian Murray and the devolved SNP administration that is a creature of Westminster.
So why are we still participating in this Union farce by sending MPs to the Westminster cesspit? Scottish MPs should quit the toxic English chamber and come home to help end this faux union. If they refuse, then the Scottish people must take matters into their own hands.
Leah Gunn Barrett Edinburgh
IHOPE I’m not alone in welcoming Steph Paton’s article “Boycotting Eurovision is a small but necessary act” (May 6). I’m going to look to see if there’s a #boycott that I can use, or maybe start one in an effort to show and garner further support for Palestine.
Yes, it would be a small act compared to, say, the students and marchers across the world. But the hypocrisy generated since October 7 – from ineffectual hand-wringing to continued arms and munitions sales and now, as S Paton says, the art-washing of daily death and destruction – needs to be called out everywhere and whenever possible. That should include Eurovision, run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The layering of memberships and functions of the EBU are multitude and frankly unctuous in the union’s ability to look, look away and overlook.
Membership of the EBU is for broadcasting organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area, as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, or are members of the Council of Europe.
Israel was permitted entry into Eurovision more than 50 years ago because the country’s national broadcaster was and is a member of the EBU.
The EBU announced it had conducted a recent review and concluded Eurovision was not a “contest between governments” and that Israel had not broken any rules. Russia, however, was excluded from recent Eurovision contests because of the way its broadcasters had flouted “membership obligations”. It would appear there are varying degrees of “membership obligations”. Causing 30,000plus deaths does not appear to fit the scope of flouting obligations. But then, on Sunday May 5 Israel shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel and seized some of its communication equipment. Freedom of the press? Free speech? Will the EBU respond?
The UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has already condemned that closure of Al Jazeera, by noting that “a free press provides an invaluable service to ensure that the public is informed and engaged”. And how ironic that the Foreign Press Association (FPA) based in Israel said the move was “a dark day for democracy” and “a cause for concern for all supporters of a free press”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it “sets an extremely alarming precedent for restricting international media outlets working in Israel.” This is the same committee that concluded preliminary investigations showed at least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began. It was only fitting that the committee issued that information on May 3, long ago designated World Press Freedom Day!
If all I can do is look for that #boycott and march, or write the odd letter, then so be it! I will #BoycottEurovision. Anyone else?
Selma Rahman Edinburgh
THERE is no doubt that the hypocrisy of banning Russia but not Israel will taint the Eurovision ideal for years to come. There is no justification for the continued presence of Israel at this event given the egregious ethniccleansing genocide being perpetrated in Gaza against a people with no standing army of defensive capability.
The West has abandoned all decency in its complicity with the far-right racist Netanyahu regime, and we can only hope that there is appropriate audience reaction when the Israeli entry performs at Thursday’s semi-final, hopefully thereafter to be off home with tail between the legs, nul points. Gordon Mulholland via thenational.scot