WHAT’S THE STORY?

BBC News’s Scotland editor Sarah Smith has apologised for her wrong choice of words on News at Ten on Monday night when she said the First Minister had “enjoyed the opportunity to set her own lockdown rules”.

The daughter of the late Labour leader John Smith is actually one of the BBC’s better journalists – honest, she really is – who is held in some professional regard by her colleagues, even if some are not great personal fans.

The real problem for Smith on this occasion is that she let the Beeb side down with her unpleasantness towards Nicola Sturgeon, who has accepted her apology.

For although she has admitted that she meant to say “embraced”, she did say “enjoyed” and no amount of taking to Twitter with apologies will persuade people that she was not committing a Freudian slip and revealing the true mindset of the BBC and its Unionist cohorts.

Of course, she could have used the words uttered by, among others, Hillary Clinton and Diane Abbot and most famously, President Donald Trump, and said “I misspoke”, but she knew it was a bigger boo-boo than that, and at least she admitted it and apologised – many Unionist types never do.

OTHER ‘MISSPOKE’ MOMENTS?

AT the conclusion of Alex Salmond’s trial Smith’s face looked as if she was choking back an eructation of the dry boak as she informed viewers that the former First Minister and SNP leader had been cleared of all 13 charges against him.

As Paul “Wee Ginger Dug” Kavanagh wrote at the time: “Was it just me or did she seem to be barely containing her displeasure as she reported the verdict?” No Paul, it wasn’t just you. And to be fair, she was not alone in the Unionist mediacrity (sic) over the failure to see Salmond destroyed.

READ MORE: Sarah Smith sorry for report on Nicola Sturgeon's virus strategy

She was once accused by Jeremy Paxman, no less, of being “pushy” to which she replied that she was.

The perils of live broadcasting were shown last September when a man on a bike cycled into the water behind her – not her fault, that one.

HOW DID SHE GET INTO BROADCASTING?

NOW 51, Smith famously started work with a paper round in Edinburgh, where she attended Boroughmuir High School – a state school. She then graduated from her father’s alma mater, Glasgow University, before undertaking a BBC traineeship that led to a career at the Beeb, Channels 5 and 4 and back to the BBC again just in time for the 2014 referendum.

IS SHE A PROPAGANDIST FOR THE UNION?

ISN’T everyone at the BBC? The clue is in the brand name...

Again, to be fair, she excoriated the Labour Party in a BBC website article before the last General Election – and left her dad’s old mob in shreds.

She does give SNP ministers a tough time, but would she be doing her job if she didn’t?