Beyond Corporate Media

Corporate media in Scotland is bland and uniform. Not only is it overwhelmingly, disproportionately male pale and stale (Pass the Mic report that only 2.1% of those quoted or interviewed in the news in Scotland were women of colour) but it represents the same politics over and over again.

Right now, below radar a campaign against public services is being waged. Right now, as Elon Musk swings a chainsaw at the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) with Javier Milei right beside him, and Nigel Farage complains that “In Britain you can’t say anything because you might get put in prison”

BREAKING: Elon Musk, who is wearing sunglasses indoors, wields a chainsaw to celebrate the tens of thousands of federal employees he’s fired indiscriminately and without explanation. pic.twitter.com/VMsW1MDmzh

— Trump’s Lies (Commentary) (@MAGALieTracker) February 20, 2025

… a war is being fought against public services in Scotland. John Boothman at The Times (Scotland) quotes Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative leader, saying Scotland should have its own version of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the US to end the “big-state circus”.

Conor Matchett at The Sun tells us that: “Anas Sarwar promises to establish a Scottish DOGE, a la Musk.”

The Radio Scotland phone-in today with Stephen Jardine was asking folk if they want to pay more council tax. They had an identical phone-in around seven weeks ago with Kaye Adams.

Sarwar’s big idea for the Scottish NHS is more use of the private sector. It’s the same message you get from Wes Streeting.

Any time there is a call for more progressive taxation within Scotland’s limited range of tax varying powers it is monitored by Scotland’s fleet of business people on speed-dial to the commentariat for whom such policies are anathema.

The world over the message is the same as it has been for forty years: “public bad / private good”.

When Anas Sarwar was questioned by Colin Mackay from STV News about Labour’s betrayal of workers at Grangemouth his stock (repeat) answer was simply that “it’s a private company”.

The ideology these politicians are locked-in, and their media repeats ad nauseam is that the private market rules, and that any deviation from this orthodoxy is unheard of. Even when this programme of neoliberalism and privatisation has proven to be a complete failure we must remain tied to it, forever and always.

This surround-sound of a single political/economic outlook is disastrous for Scotland, leaving us trapped in a narrative about our society that is controlled by a tiny group of people representing the status quo.

Bella Caledonia has been trying to create an alternative story about what Scotland could be, how we desperately need a different economy, a different set of values and higher aspiration than the message of managed decline and failed politics that is repeated every day on almost every outlet of your media. To continue to do this we need your support. Help us build the alternative media and build an antidote to Tory Gaslighting. Click on the link below to support us  …

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