Heartbreaking.
On and off the pitch, this team is the very best of our country.
They’ve done us proud.#EURO2020
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 11, 2021
“Our country”? Which country is that, Sir Keir? What’s its name?
Just for future reference at elections and so on.
— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) July 11, 2021
Waaah. Why didn’t the English man talking about the English members of the England team mention Scotland?
— Football Realist (@FootieRealist) July 12, 2021
Because as the leader of the British Labour Party, he uses the term “our country” in an entirely different way to try to deny Scotland its right to self-determination. Interesting, isn’t it, how pointing out this blatant hypocrisy touches such a nerve?
— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) July 12, 2021
I had a quick look at the betting markets at half-time last night, and at that point England were the equivalent of an 80% chance to win the trophy. So just for an hour or so we were in totally uncharted territory. Both Scotland and the UK have changed radically since 1966, and the dynamic of an English win in a major championship would have been totally different from that sole previous occurrence. I’ve never subscribed to the view that the insufferable triumphalism that followed would necessarily have driven people towards independence, but the theory would certainly have been well and truly put to the test. We could already see the signs of both the London media and political class over-reaching themselves massively by insisting that the England team’s run was somehow a success for the whole United Kingdom and that the whole United Kingdom must be at one in celebrating it. (A notable example was breakfast TV presenter Susanna Reid, who was clearly determined to believe – in defiance of all evidence – that the idea that a large number of Scots were supporting Italy was a wicked myth. Britain is required to be one big happy family, apparently, and that’s an end to the matter.) Essentially it was an attempted erasure of Scotland’s existence, and I’m not sure the population at large is quite as willing to tolerate that now as they were 55 years ago.
None of this would be an issue, of course, if Scotland had its own broadcast media. Stuart Cosgrove suggested yesterday that Scotland was the only one of the 24 countries in Euro 2020 that didn’t have its own homegrown TV coverage of the competition. Initially I thought he must be wrong about that, because Wales were also one of those 24 countries, but perhaps he was thinking of S4C’s limited Welsh language coverage. Either way, apart from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there was no country in Europe last night that was forced to watch the game through an English prism, with presenters and commentators alike talking at viewers as if they actually are English themselves. I was particularly struck by Jurgen Klinsmann’s demotion from the main BBC panel of pundits, even though there would have been obvious value in having insight from someone who had actually lifted the trophy in 1996. It seemed that the BBC’s logic was that this was an English event – it was taking place in London with the England team involved, and therefore there had to be an all-English team in front of the cameras.
But here’s the thing: by the same logic, the 2014 Commonwealth Games was a Scottish event. Glasgow was not hosting it as a British city – Scotland is an entirely separate nation in Commonwealth Games terms, with its own participating team. Not only did the BBC not allow a Scottish presentation team to front their coverage for all UK viewers, they didn’t even allow that to happen for Scottish viewers. Gary Lineker was one of the presenters, and I remember him reacting derisively when people asked where the Scottish presenters were, as if that was a ludicrously narrow-minded question to ask. It cuts both ways, Gary: where were the non-English voices last night?
Actually it was worse than that – the BBC’s coverage of Glasgow 2014 was a politicised disgrace. It was just a few weeks before the indyref and everything was very deliberately ‘Britished’ for viewers. The distinction between the various Home Nation teams was presented as a bit silly and artificial, with all the events functioning as a kind of training exercise for the glorious Team GB assault on the 2016 Olympics. There was even a preview of the Olympics, and not once was it even mentioned that the participation of Team GB was contingent upon the referendum result. A No vote and business as usual for Team GB was just assumed.
The London broadcasters are institutionally incapable of serving Scottish audiences adequately, let alone properly. Tinkering around the edges will never make any difference – the only thing that will cut it is the full transfer of legislative powers over broadcasting to the Scottish Parliament. If you agree, and if you haven’t signed our petition yet, you can do so HERE. Please also share it with your family, friends, and anyone else who you think might be interested in signing.
