Written by Yesterday morning, the BBC Scotland morning news was most informative on the deficiencies of our little country.
Firstly, we discovered that returning soldiers were more likely to be unemployed in Scotland. Then we were usefully informed that it was more likely that those in mortgage arrears in Scotland would lose their houses than those in a similar position in England. Finally I was berated for living in the country with the dirtiest beaches in Britain.
I have a couple of issues with this approach to news. In particular, it doesn’t actually tell me anything. I’m no expert on statistics but wherever you compare two items, one is going to come out ‘worse’. The rest of Britain may have remarkably clean beaches and Scottish beaches simply have a couple of crisp packets blowing by. Or they may be knee deep in raw sewage. I’m none the wiser.
On a wider point though, why does Scotland obsess over its comparative position with other countries? Look through Parliamentary debates and you will see a common theme of ‘why don’t we do ……. like they do in England/Netherlands/Denmark (delete as applicable). There is a corresponding dialogue in our newspapers too.
Perhaps this isn’t unique to Scotland? But I just can’t see the French lamenting anything that they might need to do differently or the Germans debating how on earth the Danes do everything so well.
With a reasonable hat on, I understand you need to provide points of reference for your audience and an understanding of how we compare to others can be useful. For me, the telling point is that pretty much a whole news bulletin amounted to a bad report card without really mapping any ideas on how to improve things. Burns may have introduced the idea of seeing ourselves as others see us but I think it has become an unhelpful obsession.
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