Colonial Media

The UK media’s gaslighting of Scotland underscores our colonial status

The UK corporate media’s gaslighting of Scotland underscores our colonial status within this supposedly united kingdom. There is no Scottish-owned media outlet which explains the uniformly anti-Scottish and pro-unionist coverage to which Scots are subjected daily. 

The powerful right-wing, tax-allergic corporate owners are happy to subsidise failing media businesses because they can buy the agenda. The massively over-centralised BBC, the British State mouthpiece funded by the regressive license fee, doesn’t spend as much in Scotland as it takes in license fees. So, like so much else, Scotland is subsidising England.   

Media coverage of Scotland’s NHS is full of anti-Scottish bias. Recent Royal College of Radiologist reports on the UK cancer treatment workforce show Tory-run England, Labour-run Wales and Northern Ireland to be worse than Scotland on every measure.[1] Scottish cancer patients have the shortest treatment waiting times in the UK.[2]

Did you know NHS England spends 60% more on temporary staff than NHS Scotland?[3] Or that where lives are at risk, Scotland treats patients 14 times more quickly than England, has better A&E response times,[4]provides more hospital beds, doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and health visitors per head of population than England?[5]

Probably not. Scotland’s better performance within the UK is never covered by the mainstream media or unionists like Alex Cole-Hamilton, Ian Murray and Jackie Baillie.

Like an abusive partner, a coloniser gaslights their colony to destabilise and deligitimise its confidence and beliefs – think of the ‘Scottish cringe’. To end the abuse, we need to end the union.

Leah Gunn Barrett

14/06/23

[1] https://www.rcr.ac.uk/clinical-oncology/rcr-clinical-oncology-workforce-census-2022

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65764755

[3] https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2749#:~:text=An%20investigation%20by%20the%20Labour,staffing%20exceeded%20£1.7bn; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65821861?at_link_id=CDD99680-046B-11EE-A8D7-3A223AE5AB7B&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_origin=BBCScotlandNews&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_medium=social&at_link_type=web_link&at_format=link

[4] https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p332; https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-18-weeks-referral-to-treatment/nhs-waiting-times-18-weeks-referral-to-treatment-quarter-ending-31-december-2022/

[5] https://res.cloudinary.com/studio-republic/images/v1684400862/RCEM-Explains-Hospital-beds-across-the-UK-May-2023/RCEM-Explains-Hospital-beds-across-the-UK-May-2023.pdf?_i=AA; https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/05/22/40-more-nhs-dentists-in-scotland/; https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/05/16/scotland-has-nearly-three-times-as-many-health-visitors-per-head-of-population/