The Elephant in the Room

I watch the news on TV every day. I like a mixture of news, so I dip into Channel 4 News, Euronews, rt and Sky.

I watch the Sky press review because I like to know what the opposition are saying. Sometimes, the journalists doing a wee turn are pretty good: Kevin Maguire is good on a Monday night and on Tuesday night it was great to hear Ian Dunt (no, I don't know who he is either) laying into Melanie Philipps. Tonight was astonishing: two journalists and a presenter showed the front page of every paper published in the UK and talked about Brexit: Brexit and Northern Ireland; Brexit and Eire; Brexit and Michel Barnier; Brexit and how much it was going to cost the UK to leave the EU.

But they managed to ignore the fact that every single front page flashing in front of them had a series of photos showing a man in court in the Hague taking poison in the dock. He had been found guilty of war crimes in the Balkans. I'd heard about the poisoning on Euronews earlier and I watched in horror - and so did the judge - as this man killed himself live on TV.



But the Sky people, all of them journalists, remember, managed to ignore the incident. I can only conclude the Sky editorial staff and management are so obsessed with Brexit, nothing else counts. I'm afraid my reaction to this man's actions was: Fine, that'll cost us less. But the programme I was watching was a review of the newspapers. How do Sky manage to ignore a story like that?

Earlier on, I was emailing on the computer and the TV was on behind me. It was BBC Scotland News. All I can say in my defence is I'd had Pointless on before that. But I should know better. There's no quicker way to raise my blood pressure than to watch this steaming heap of cack. 

Every single story in the 10 minutes I listened to (before I lost my cool and turned the telly off) involved the Scottish Government and every story was bad news:

- The new bridge across the Forth has hit snagging problems.
- Police Scotland is in trouble.
- There are rumours that Roma parents in Govanhill are selling their children for sex.

On the new bridge, lanes are closed. Cars will not be able to cross at motorway speeds. But they will be able to cross. I once bought a new house and snagging took 5 months. What's the problem?

Police Scotland: Willie Rennie was on his feet in Holyrood demanding action. But am I not right in thinking that the Lib Dems and Labour and the Tories included a single police force in their Scottish manifesto, as did the SNP? Don't they want it to work?

As for the Roma story in Govanhill, this has been circulating for about 5 years. Every time it appears on social media, people like me and others with experience of child protection urge people with evidence of child abuse to go to the police. So are people making allegations really concerned about the kids or looking to embarrass the Scottish Government?

What do these stories have in common? They are non-stories. Some are so weak they don't even make it on to the BBC news website.

And what do all the Sky Brexit stories and the Scottish Government non-stories have in common?

They are trivial beyond belief.

It's not only the Harry Meets Meghan story that's a diversion from what's really going on. So is this stuff. 

Channel 4 meanwhile was dealing with the man who killed himself in the dock in the Hague; home-schooling and whether it should be registered; Brexit with Vince Cable (a bit of intelligent relief from David Davis); and Trump's response to fake Britain First videos.

I know where I'll be switching on to tomorrow night and it won't be BBC Scotland or Sky.