by Rab Bruce’s Spider

There has been a right rumpus over the BBC Leaders’ Debate, with many Yessers complaining about a fairly obvious Tory plant in the audience. The lady in question said she was a nurse who has had to go to food banks, and who attacked Nicola Sturgeon for the parlous state of the NHS. What raised the ire of many CyberNats is that this same lady recently appeared on Question Time, making the same point. There were claims she was either the wife or the daughter of a Tory Councillor, and that she works for BUPA rather than the NHS.

Some of the saner voices on Twitter did tell people to stop repeating unfounded allegations unless they had proof, but the Twittersphere was alive with loud accusations which will only play into the hands of the media who will no doubt delight in proclaiming a CyberNat witch-hunt.

Now, I know nothing about the lady in question. It does seem odd that she should appear on two BBC programmes when others find it impossible to obtain admission to even one, far less be allowed to ask questions both times. Other than that, though, nothing else is known about her. It may be odd that someone on a nurse’s salary must rely on food banks, but many people suffer financial difficulties and we don’t know whether she is a regular attender at food banks or whether it was a one-off issue.

The real problem here is not so much the nurse as the culpability of the BBC. While her complaint may be justified, the BBC know full well that Health, like Education, is a devolved matter. This Debate was supposed to be about the Westminster General Election, yet the bulk of the time was spent attacking the SNP over their handling of matters which are the preserve of Holyrood and nothing to do with Westminster. This was clearly deliberate, because questions are selected in advance, and all it did was play into the hands of the Tories who are desperate to talk about devolved issues in order to avoid any scrutiny of their own UK-wide policies such as Welfare, pensions, Immigration, Defence, etc.

If the nurse in the audience is suffering such dire financial problems that she must rely on food banks even though nurses in Scotland are paid more than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, then she deserves some sympathy and understanding. It is the BBC who are at fault for misleading the public by concentrating on issues which are irrelevant to the Westminster debate, and thus aiding the Tories by allowing them to escape examination of their policies.

As for Scottish journalists, they should know there is a story here. If that nurse really is suffering, her story should be told in order to highlight the plight of people like her and to ask the question why food banks are necessary at all. Instead, most of them will focus on attacking the SNP over the NHS, and Yessers for repeating unfounded allegations on social media.

What they really should be asking is why anyone should need to rely on food banks and why the BBC is so blatantly aiding the Tories.