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Islay McLeod
The Lady of the Isles
I have been following with interest the recent articles on the misuse, even the abuse, of language.
One of my own pet hates is the misuse of the word only. In Tuesday’s Scotsman editorial, there was the latest of many to annoy me, referring to the Scottish football team’s
1-0 defeat by the Czech Republic.
I am less concerned about the team’s 4-6-0 formation than the observation that: ‘We only lost by one goal’. To me that means: ‘We, alone, lost by one goal’, which, of course, is true, but not, I suggest, the truth which the editorial wished to express: ‘We lost, only, by one goal’.
‘Only the Lonely’, a Roy Orbison song from way back then, could be transcribed to ‘Lonely the Only’. Perhaps, indeed, this is not rocket science, but it is certainly a no-brainer.
Please just blame this on a classical education, now sadly largely missed and please excuse any of my grammatical errors.
Ian Petrie
I have begun to despair of Radio Scotland’s journalistic standards. ‘That’ll do’ seems to be the maxim, particularly in its flagship. Good Morning Scotland. where the standard of technical presentation – dead air anyone? – let alone lack of incisive interviewing, really belies the millions spent on the new Pacific Quay HQ. Can we say – threadbare?
Bill Fraser
Michael Elcock
Tom Gallagher
Caricature by Bob Smith
www.bobsmithart.com
Little noticed in the media scrutiny of who had excelled in obtaining places on the SNP Holyrood list for 2011, was the success of two journalists, Joan McAlpine and George Kerevan.
The SNP probably has more justification than any other political force for employing a small army of spin doctors and at times looking on nonchalantly as bloggers excoriated its traditional foes. After all, the party lacks the power bases in Scottish society which still enable Labour to be a formidable vote-gathering machine even if it stopped being a talent factory a long time ago. The SNP constantly needs to look for new openings which will enable it to make up for thinly spread influence. Besides, it is common not just in Scotland for nationalist movements to pour a great deal of their resources into winning the propaganda war.
Storming the commanding heights of the media has to be a priority. A strong communications strategy brought the Parti Quebecois in Canada from obscurity under the television journalist Rene Levesque in the 1970s. Catalan nationalism and, over a much longer period, Irish nationalism sought to advance to the centre of power by projecting their worth through the media.
Institutions like the churches, law and the universities, as well as the main economic interest groups, have usually not enjoyed such a close relationship with independence movements in stateless nations. Today the media may be cash-strapped but, arguably, it has eclipsed in importance these other pillars of civic, professional and economic life. Globalised universities and a consumer economy dominated by retail and leisure outlets with head offices usually far from Scotland, enable the media’s influence over the political world to be greater than ever.
Little noticed in the media scrutiny of who had excelled in obtaining places on the SNP Holyrood list for 2011, was the success of two journalists, Joan McAlpine and George Kerevan. These two happen to be regulars in the Scotsman opinion pages and indeed they had articles in the paper on the same day the choices of the SNP membership were announced. Party members liked what they would bring to the SNP so much that they placed them well above sitting MSPs.
It is likely that spin-doctors who in recent weeks have been writing persuasively that the SNP ‘has got back its mojo’ or that the ruin of Ireland’s economy should not deter Scots from grabbing their political freedom, will seek to follow in the wake of better-known journalists. By contrast, the professionals in the economic and business field whom the SNP used to court, are now coy about entering, or staying in, politics. Jim Mather is standing down and Andrew Wilson refuses to be tempted back from his chief economist post at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
But a word of warning. Journalists in politics usually distinguish themselves in inter-party struggles rather than as administrators. They are individualists, sometimes with rough edges, who can be impatient with party discipline and sometimes highly flexible in ideological terms. Such insouciance enabled journalists to move effortlessly from newspapers of the left to the right and vice-versa.
This year the SNP has shown its flair in the persuasion game by encouraging the emergence of consensus-minded SNP bloggers and encouraging the cybernats to take an extended break.
In a party like the SNP, drawing ever closer to the media is sure to alter its image. More emphasis is likely to be placed on professional presentation rather than the delivery of policies. After four years in which it has shelved most of its ‘flagship policies’ it could hurt the SNP if it is seen to be bound up with style and contemptuous of substance. But what if none of its rivals can devise appealing policies due to financial constraints or having lost touch with most non-elite Scots? Then a party’s skills in the dark arts of media warfare may come into their own.
This year the SNP has shown its flair in the persuasion game by encouraging the emergence of consensus-minded SNP bloggers and encouraging the cybernats to take an extended break. Its own language of confrontation with Whitehall and Westminster has been substantially softened. It has also masterminded clever initiatives such as the call from the leaders of the three UK devolved administrations for London to re-think its plans for massive spending cuts.
If a long period of austerity is unavoidable, then the danger is that politics may be reduced to the grim business of managing shortages. Then the SNP’s husbanding of media skills could enable it to break free of the rest of the pack with eye-catching policies. The decision, last week, to outlaw forced marriages was a very welcome and overdue return to civic nationalism. But it remains to be seen whether this year’s conference in Perth or the months leading up to next May’s elections will reveal a party with a raft of fresh policies that address real Scottish needs.
If the SNP currently lacks inspiring policies, then who better than members of the fourth estate to proclaim that freedom is an end in itself and independent government, by its very nature, the solution for most of our ills.
A new edition of Tom Gallagher’s 2009 book, ‘The Illusion of Freedom: Scotland Under Nationalism’ is published by Columbia University Press this month.
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