BBC Scotland’s look at nuclear through Labour Rose tinted glasses

The bias of the BBC, particularly BBC Scotland, against the SNP Scottish Government in particular and the wider Scottish independence movement in general is well documented by pro-independence campaigners, but ignored by the Scottish media which is itself overwhelmingly biased against Scottish independence, the somewhat less than half of the Scottish population which opposes independence has its views reflected and platformed by 97% of Scotland’s news publications. BBC Scotland, the broadcasting wing of the Labour party in Scotland, is for all its unconvincing claims to impartiality merely yet another of Scotland’s chorus of stridently anti-independence media outlets, an especially infuriating one given its statutory duty to impartiality and its public funding.

In recent weeks BBC Scotland has covered the story of deaths and infections in the new Southern General hospital in Glasgow using the framing and attack lines favoured by the Labour party in Scotland and implicitly laying blame directly at the door of the Scottish Government. This is markedly at variance with how similar stories are covered by the BBC in other parts of the UK where those primarily held accountable for failings in NHS facilities are the health boards responsible.

BBC Scotland has glossed over the uncomfortable fact for Anas Sarwar and the Labour party that the political appointees on the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board at the time the hospital was opened were predominantly Labour councillors given that all the local authorities covered by the health board had at the time either majority Labour administrations or minority administrations in which Labour was the largest party. The lack of SNP influence on the board is evident from the board’s decision, made without consultation with the public, to name the new hospital after the then Queen Elizabeth. You’d almost think that an election was in the offing. All recent polls in Scotland strongly point to the likelihood of an SNP/Scottish Green majority following May’s Holyrood election with Anas Sarwar’s branch office, the erstwhile Saviours of the Union struggling to hold on to second place before the far right Anglo-British nationalist ghouls of Reform UK, whom the BBC has ruled must not be described as far right by its reporters.

BBC Scotland appears to be in full on damage limitation mode, pulling out all the stops to minimise the losses faced by the Labour party in Scotland. We have seen how BBC Scotland has adopted the framing of the Labour party in its coverage of an NHS Scotland story, not coincidentally the NHS is one of the issues on which the Labour party wishes to focus as we head into the Scottish election. Of course neither Labour’s nor the BBC’s Scottish branch offices wish to draw attention to the woeful performance of the NHS in Labour run Wales nor the truth that the NHS in Scotland regularly out-performs the NHS in England. They definitely don’t want to mention the tens of thousands in donations that Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting receives from the private health companies he wants to open the NHS to.

Another issue on which Labour wants to go large in the upcoming Scottish elections is nuclear energy, and surprise surprise and entirely coincidentally on Wednesday of this week the edition of Politics Scotland broadcast that afternoon on BBC1 in Scotland chose to focus on the issue of nuclear energy and the Scottish Government’s opposition to it in what was essentially a half hour long party political broadcast for the Labour party. There were of course the nods to the positions of the SNP and the Scottish Greens on the issue, so that BBC Scotland could continue to maintain its pretence of the BBC impartiality we all know and loathe, but the thrust and tenor of the programme was very clear.

Much of the report was taken up with interviews with Scots working at nuclear power plants in England. They said that they had had to move in order to work in the nuclear field and there was heavy emphasis in the report on a so-called ‘brain drain’ with the very clear implication that the Scottish Government’s anti-nuclear stance was costing Scotland skilled jobs and driving educated workers away. The report could not have fitted into Labour’s campaign agenda more smoothly had it been broadcast as part of an official Labour party political broadcast. However it was broadcast as part of normal BBC programming, which is what made it so insidious.

Viewers were left with the clear impression that Scotland is losing out due to the Scottish Government’s opposition to nuclear energy and created fertile ground for Labour campaigners to push their pro-nuclear messaging.

The truth is however very different. Nuclear power ruinously expensive and projects are plagued with delays. The European Power Reactor (EPR) configuration currently being installed at Hinkley C in Somerset is forecast to cost around £45 billion when it finally comes online sometime next decade. Construction began in March 2017 and completion was expected in 2025. The project was originally expected to cost £18 billion. The forecast completion date is now sometime after 2029 and the cost of £45 billion does not include operational costs or decommissioning costs. This is not a project which is going to reduce anyone’s energy bill.

For Scotland, Labour’s proposal is even worse. Labour is proposing that Scotland plays host to small modularised reactors (SMR). These reactors are as yet unbuilt and untested. They have not been manufactured, tested, or installed, anywhere in the world. Labour’s claim that it can roll out a programme of SMRs in Scotland on time and under-budget is for the radioactive birds, but even if they could the power they generate is surplus to Scotland’s needs and would be exported south with the Scottish producers being financially penalised by the UK National Grid. Labour’s nuclear fantasy is not about what’s good for Scotland but about what’s good for England. England gets the electricity, Scotland gets the risk of radioactive contamination and the eventual decommissioning costs and waste. We can be sure that Labour will also seek to use Scotland as a dumping ground for the nuclear waste all these reactors produce.

Nuclear energy does not guarantee energy security, the UK will remain dependent on other countries for supplies of uranium for fuel rods. As we have seen with the fascist clown show in the White House, even a nation which is supposedly a reliable and stable ally will not necessarily be so in ten or twenty years time.

Scotland has no need for nuclear energy, the country already generates more electricity from renewables than it requires for domestic consumption and does so considerably more cheaply than is possible with nuclear. The argument is made that nuclear is needed to ensure base load supply at times when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. Yet this can be addressed in quicker and more economical ways than investing in new and as yet experimental nuclear technology. Battery technology is improving by leaps and bounds, allowing the storage of renewably produced electricity until it is needed. Tidal energy technology is both renewable, and produces a reliable year round stream of energy irrespective of weather conditions. An investment in tidal technology would produce quicker returns than nuclear.

Existing gas fired power stations can continue to be used for now to guarantee base load supply, eventually they can be converted to burn hydrogen which can be produced from sea water using Scotland’s excess renewable electricity. All these can be developed and brought on line more quickly and efficiently than by ploughing billions into nuclear. All these strategies would help to bring down Scottish energy bills, create skilled Scottish jobs, and contribute to carbon zero energy security. It’s no surprise that none of this was explored in BBC Scotland’s look at nukes through Labour Rose tinted glasses.

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