ALMOST 20 years after it was first proposed, the BBC is again making noises about graciously permitting Scotland a news service that informs us about the news where London isn’t, instead of telling us more about English policies that don’t affect us than Scottish policies that do.

Naturally the usual suspects have been frothing at the mouth at the very idea that Scotland should have a news service that wasn’t filtered through the prejudices of the metropole. Imagine the audacity of thinking that a country where the great political question is a degree of self-government within a union versus outright independence could possibly have a distinct view on big questions like Kurdish autonomy or Palestinian self-rule.

The Anti Scottish-Six lords who have embraced the dark side of the Cringe are apoplectic at the very notion that there could be such a thing as news from a Scottish perspective. All that there can possibly be from a Scottish perspective is teacakes, deep fried alcoholism, and an unending round of SNP badness. Just look at the Republic of Ireland with its state broadcaster, they don’t have any news at all over there, just a presenter sitting in a studio with his pals enjoying the craic before it’s time to go to the pub.

That’s what the Scottish Six would be like, froth the Unionist media nay-sayers. Just like the empty Irish news but with heidbangers instead of leprechauns, because trading in stereotypes is the means by which our Unionist media short-changes the people of Scotland. If all you are is a stereotype, then of course there’s no need to represent your perspective. Their refusal to acknowledge that there can be such a thing as a worthwhile Scottish national news service only highlights their own incompetence, small-mindedness and lack of ambition. It makes the Scottish Unionist commentariat the only media in the world that is proud to be incapable of reporting to its own audience and readership.

But then they lap up the words of Fluffy Mundell, a government minister who tried to short-change his own country, and never seek to ask why the so-called voice of Scotland in the UK cabinet has become the voice of the UK cabinet in Scotland. The Scottish Unionist media don’t want a decent public news service in this country because it might hold their masters to account, and it might hold them to account too.

Holding the Unionist establishment to account is what the Unionist establishment really fears when it complains that any devolution of broadcasting would lead to SNP propaganda on the airwaves. That would be SNP propaganda as opposed to the British nationalist propaganda that they insist represents a lack of bias. The Unionist establishment maintains its rule in Scotland thanks to our lamentably one-sided media, so naturally any attempt to make the Scottish media more representative of Scottish opinion is going to be fiercely resisted.

What Scotland really needs is its own public broadcasting service, just like every other devolved or self-governing country or territory in Europe has. However, according to our Unionist frothers, Scotland, uniquely among the self-governing lands of Europe, does not require such a thing. They never explain just what’s so special about Scotland. They can’t, because acknowledging that there’s something special about Scotland would mean acknowledging Scottish distinctiveness and that would never do.

The proposals for a dedicated, hour-long Scottish news programme at six o’clock don’t come anywhere close to a national public broadcast service for Scotland, but they are a baby step in the right direction. The worry, however, is that they’re being implemented from the top down from management in a panic response to stave off calls for the devolution of broadcasting. There are reports that staff are angry because they have not been consulted or kept informed. Management is reportedly demanding that a pilot show is produced within three weeks from a standing start, giving staff little time to prepare or plan.

It’s not entirely cynical to imagine that the Scottish Six is being set up to fail and what we will get will be a puffed-up version of Reporting Scotland, a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Unionist nay-sayers full of world fitba, foreign murrdurrs and exotic cute kittens. Then the Unionist press can crow that Scotland can’t do broadcasting and that we need London to save us from ourselves.

Scotland needs its own dedicated public broadcaster, not a sop in the form of a one-hour news programme that will be way down low in the BBC pecking order when it comes to funding and resources. Only a national Scottish broadcasting service can promote and foster the journalistic talent that Scotland currently haemorrhages, and can counter the ridiculous bias in our print media where there are many times more Conservative commentators than there are Conservative politicians. Scotland needs a broadcaster that looks like Scotland really is, not like how London expects Scotland to appear.