It is indeed a very complex situation which under Alex Salmond the SNP have exploited every weakness of the devolved administration, a very accomplished politician (although I am not a fan). You are of course correct about the state of journalism in Scotland, we only need to examine where most of STV’s funding comes from. Thank you for your steadfast and intelligent commentary on the subject.
It's the original sin of the devolutionary settlement in that it initially created a domestic politics of spending without any fiscal powers. Our devolved politics became a spending shop, with the easy blame London when money ran out. No discourse on productivity, innovation etc, no competences for it in Holyrood. Meanwhile devolution meant that UK wide news media slowly detached and lost interest in devolved Scottish politics. And our domestic Scotland-only media is underfunded, lacking in resources and struggles to hold the powerful to account (no fault of the journalists, it'd help if more people bought a newspaper app, subscription or physical paper)
It is indeed a very complex situation which under Alex Salmond the SNP have exploited every weakness of the devolved administration, a very accomplished politician (although I am not a fan). You are of course correct about the state of journalism in Scotland, we only need to examine where most of STV’s funding comes from. Thank you for your steadfast and intelligent commentary on the subject.
How blinkered and short sighted of the FM, how depressingly predictable.
It's the original sin of the devolutionary settlement in that it initially created a domestic politics of spending without any fiscal powers. Our devolved politics became a spending shop, with the easy blame London when money ran out. No discourse on productivity, innovation etc, no competences for it in Holyrood. Meanwhile devolution meant that UK wide news media slowly detached and lost interest in devolved Scottish politics. And our domestic Scotland-only media is underfunded, lacking in resources and struggles to hold the powerful to account (no fault of the journalists, it'd help if more people bought a newspaper app, subscription or physical paper)