WE’VE found the whole debate around the Scottish Six a little bit bemusing this week.
Having followed the story with keen interest, we’re still confused as to how anybody can think it’s a bad thing.
We do understand the frustrations of staff at BBC Scotland, who appear to have had this thrust on them with little consultation and a lot of disrespect by their London colleagues.
If it was put to them with a little more courtesy, we're sure they’d be delighted by the opportunity to have £5 million a year to spend producing a Scottish-based hourly news show.
And to those Unionists who believe that because the SNP want something it must be a terrifying prospect and sure to lead to the break-up of their beloved nation, well, we’re not sure that we’d ever be able to convince them.
As for the concerns raised by those on our side of the argument?
Like most of our readers, we have our issues with how our public broadcaster covered the referendum. But we’re sure you’d agree that BBC Scotland, for the most part, handled it a hell of a lot better than London HQ. Why not let them handle the whole shebang?
We enjoyed broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove’s piece on Bella Caledonia at the weekend, “Don’t Cringe in My Backyard”, in which he drew up a rough running order of what a well-resourced, competently made Scottish Six might look like.
It seemed interesting, informative and something we’d enjoy watching. We hope it happens.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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