SMILIN’ Nicola Sturgeon is getting all precious over recent coverage in the blogosphere of her inelegant exit from a shopping centre in Glasgow East. She was in the middle of an interview with the BBC when she was reminded by a member of staff at the centre that she didn’t have permission to film there. She immediately waved away the member of staff with a high-handed (literally) “I’m speaking!”
Security guards in Glasgow East know how to handle this sort of arrogance, and Ms Sturgeon was marched forthwith from the centre.
After the heroic blogger Kezia Dugdale broke the news this morning, Sturgeon emailed her personally demanding that she withdraw the post. She didn’t deny the truth of the story (well, she couldn’t – it was true), just demanded it be removed. Strange.
What’s even stranger is that the BBC, who were conducting the interview and who had the whole thing recorded, have refused to use it. Presumably it will be a centrepiece of BBC Scotland’s Christmas party, but isn’t there a public interest in seeing how an SNP “cabinet” minister behaves towards working class people trying to do their jobs?
Why on earth are the BBC keeping this under wraps? Something smells.














Thursday 17 July 2008 at 7:46 pm
‘Something smells.’ It certainly does. ‘Follow my leader’?
Just like they won’t make any critical comment on others of Salmond’s cronies like Osama Saeed either.
Far more important than politics is ‘political culture’ – the way we interact in debate, handle critics and criticism.
It galls me to say it but there is a thuggish, craven intolerance in Scottish political culture that is instinctively authoritarian.
Thursday 17 July 2008 at 8:01 pm
I once had to escort Julian Pettifer off a building site in Milton Keynes whilst he was filming a report for Panorama on the housing shortage (Yes we have had them before).
The BBC didn’t show that one either.
Thursday 17 July 2008 at 8:01 pm
I agree, wouldn’t it be great if all of our media was even handed and un-bias … sadly most of it’s pro Labour.
It’s funny how much stick the Scottish Political Editor of BBC Scotland gets for being pro-labour, or how about the infamous anti-Salmond interviews on BBC Scotland …
Thursday 17 July 2008 at 8:24 pm
If it was George W. Bush they would have shown it!
Thursday 17 July 2008 at 10:52 pm
She sounds almost as totalitarian as Brown.
Thursday 17 July 2008 at 11:12 pm
If it had been a Tory they would have shown it, but no one else.
Friday 18 July 2008 at 9:47 am
I imagine they aren’t showing it because it makes them look incompetent. They are the ones who should have sought permission.
Friday 18 July 2008 at 12:59 pm
I can’t believe we got a Labour MP accusing the Beeb of being biased…. look at your own coverage Tom!!