Complaint
The programme included an interview with the former SNP Health Secretary Alex Neil, in the course of which the interviewer referred to polling which showed Scottish opinion evenly divided on the question of independence and asked whether Mr Neil would be happy for a referendum to be held now, “given that the outcome…looks like it wouldn’t be what the yes side are after”. A listener complained that the terms of the question were incompatible with the neutrality of the interviewer’s role. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ĢƵ’s standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The interview had been prompted by the First Minister’s call for Westminster to give the Scottish Parliament the power to hold a second independence referendum. Mr Neil criticised this approach and called on the SNP “to run a consistent campaign to build up support for independence to a much higher level”, arguing it was necessary to get public support to between 55% and 60% to demonstrate independence was “the settled will of the Scottish people”. The interviewer’s question engaged directly with Mr Neil’s points and her suggestion that the result of an immediate referendum might not be “what the yes side are after” was a logical extension of the position he had just outlined, not an expression of her own opinion.
Not Upheld