Newsweek Scotland: Absorbing Election Influences

Derek, looking forward to your programme. I hope you ponder the curious absence of any costings from the Labour manifesto. Surely the people have a right to know?

Always interesting to listen to Angus McLeod and Peter Lynch of Stirling U on the normal election panel. But why did you need the blethering Gerry Hassan? If you needed a Labour insider to explain their campaign why not get Lorraine Davidson which might also give you gender balance as well as more insightful commentary?

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Lorraine Davidson and Angus McLeod together? Rather too much of a Labour/unionist view, dsurely. And you wouldn't want that. Mind you, as long as it isn't Magnus Gardham.

I've never heard of Magnus Gardham but I am fed up to back teeth of wall-to-wall Gerry Hassan who is also never off Newsnight Scotland with Gordon Brewer-bore.

Whatever happened to: Lesley Riddoch? Anne McKenzie? Peter McMahon? Give us serious journalism please! Nobody but Gerry Hassan cares about his "narratives".

If you do need a third panellist (revolving chair or not) what you could do is bring a series of seasoned broadcasters: John Milne, Murray Ritchie; or someone like Alan Smart (aka 'Citizen Smart') to act as a sparky off-the-ball foil to Derek Bateman. I basically tune in on a Saturday morning to hear Bateman's take on the week after all .... the rest are basically bit-players! So give more air-time to the organ-grinder BBC.

Or you could surely find some new voices within the young teams working on BBC current affairs programmes like Eorpa ..... or that American politics professor in Glasgow that you sometimes have on talking about the US elections .. she's good.

Have just sat down to read 'The Scotsman' on a sunny day in Dundee - and who do I find splashed across the comment pages (yet again) but Gerry 'Narrative' Hassan ...

Is there no escape from 'The Sage of Strathbungo'? The 'Daffy Duck of Dingly Dell' opines thereinin respect of the 1980's: 'There were thoughtful, iconocalstic radical magazines such as 'Marxism Today' and 'New Socialist', which spoke beyond the ghetto to a genuine community of interest' - oh and there was 'a small home rule movement which became more visible as the decade wore on'. But curiously 'The

Sage' makes no mention whatsoever of 'Radical Scotland' magazine which was the

leading politics and arts magazine in Scotland along with Cencrastus in the 1980's. That omission seems more than a little strange since the web-link BBC Scotland is giving to Mr Hassan's personal blog is desperately trying to market sales of a book he has apparently just edited called 'Radical Scotland' (sic) even though Hassan had little if anything to do with that seminal eight-year long magazine that was edited by Kevin Dunion (now Scotland's Information Commissioner) and Alan Lawson who is a Dundonian too and these days runs a Carnoustie brewery which I recommend.

The people most of us want to hear during an election, period, though on BBC Radio Scotland and Newsnight are not only proper journalists - are there any left in BBC Scotland apart from Derek Bateman or have they all been 'let go' to clear space for wall-to-wall Gerry Hassan and almost as bad wall-to-wall 'Call Kaye' [insert name of this week's stand-in - usually a helluva lot better incidentally than 'Kaye - I'm actually in London this week' Adams ..... the people we want to hear grilled are the politicians standing in the election!!!! And let's hear all of them this time ... the SNP were effectively taken off air by the BBC at the General Election with those debates between only three of the London party leaders which suited Labour in Scotland fine but was a complete affront to democracy .... You have a chance to redeem yourself in the next few weeks on other parts of the network - but Ian Gray is in hiding I hear and not doing press conferences .. That should not stop you covering the rest.

I'm voting osmosis ... but have just been told I've got to wait 180 seconds between posts .... hurry up .... my tea is getting cold ....!

Have just remembered you still have the excellent Isobel Fraser ... and of course Ken MacDonald! The heavyweight counterweight to 'Shereen'?! Aaaghhhhh!!!!!