Letter: We need weather analysis

Was the tsunami blamed on the mayor of Phuket? Was the earthquake in Haiti blamed on its president?

BBC Scotland's news reporters showed little understanding of the myriad weather variations found within Scotland largely caused by the rain shadow impact of mountain ranges which usually "capture" the bulk of heavy snowfalls before it reaches densely populated areas such as the Central Belt.

Before the main blizzard a week last Monday, the greatest depth of snow had fallen in the eastern central lowlands, since the wind directions had been predominantly north east.

Consequently, the greater Glasgow area was less severely affected. This did not stop Jackie Bird, in a Sunday "special" on the snow crisis, holding up the East Renfrewshire education authority as a "model" in keeping its schools open when others such as West Lothian had blanket closures.

Not a cheep from Miss Bird after the great Monday blizzard then, when wind directions changed slightly, depositing large amounts of snow on the western lowlands. And guess what, East Renfrewshire schools were suddenly closed.

What about all those wonderful East Renfrewshire "plans put in place" which Miss Bird almost drooled over the day before? Thank goodness for the foresight of the West Lothian authority since snow was a metre deep in Linlithgow by Monday evening. Can I please therefore make a plea for a more objective analysis of future major weather events and far less sweeping media hype which attempts to "place blame" on politicians and public servants rather than carefully assessing cause and effect as well as responses to major natural hazards?

Can I also ask weather forecasters to refrain from using phrases such as "there will be more snow in Scotland" and apply more geographical precision with comments such as: "there will be large falls of snow in the relatively sparsely populated areas of the central Highlands but relatively light outbreaks in the main densely populated central belt"?

David J Wood

Back Station Road

Linlithgow

SNP parliamentary candidate Joan McAlpine's article on BBC Scotland's news coverage of the extreme weather is a one-sided and inaccurate version of events.

We believe strongly that our questioning of the Scottish Government was robust and in line with the BBC's journalistic values. It reflected what the public wanted to ask. It would have been equally rigorous whichever political party was in power.

Joan also questioned the impartiality of some respected BBC Scotland journalists.A number of the points she made about these people are not true - ironic considering her piece championed accurate reporting.

The best she could come up with was that one political journalist had to be biased because he had turned down a job with George Robertson, before leaving university.

The handful of people she mentions are highly regarded for their professionalism and fairness both within the BBC and within wider media and political circles. Our reputation has been built on our ability to report the issues of the day with accuracy, trust and fairness. We believe we did this on last week's weather story.

Scotsman readers, and BBC's viewers and listeners, shall be the judge of this.

Atholl Duncan

BBC Scotland

Pacific Quay

Glasgow

Joan McAlpine flies her SNP flag for the former transport minister, Stewart Stevenson, who resigned over last week's road chaos caused by snow. This decent man does seem to have been the victim of a witch hunt.

Whether the BBC capitalised on the nation's frustration to expedite his departure, or whether his initial hapless attempt at claiming the road services were "first class" was just too big a gaffe to recover from, are now only matters for reflection.

The underlying thread of Ms McAlpine's column is what interests me more. She names a few "Labour"-linked individuals at the BBC to support her theory that the BBC was out to get Mr Stevenson and that there is an anti-SNP agenda therein.

This idea is gathering pace and is also supported on the website, newsnetscotland. Its purpose, it was stated, is to support impartial and democratic news and media coverage in Scotland. It draws support from those who believe the media are anti-SNP and pro-Labour. Its drive seems to be to address this view and very little else and it is clear why the site was promoted on the SNP newsletter.

Before the opinion is formed that I am anti-SNP, or that I have any other agenda, had there been an election on 22 August 2009, I would have voted SNP, such was my joy in the decision taken to release al-Megrahi.

I consume media to be informed and entertained, not positioned and influenced.

The subtleties of language use and the selectivity of television make it very easy for the BBC superficially to adhere to its charter on impartiality. It is not impossible to present all significant known "strands of thought" without discreetly weighting one strand more than the rest.

It is this emphasis and repetition of one particular opinion that Joan McAlpine draws attention to in her article.She is right to do so, but would she articulate and highlight a similar pattern of events at the BBC if it presented a case for what appeared to be pro-SNP bias? True impartiality is an incredibly rare commodity.

Margaret Delussey

Oakleigh Drive

Greenock

Your report (14 December) states that education secretary Michael Russell feels that "people who helped out at schools during the heavy snow are in line to be hailed as 'heroes'". The rest of the report makes it clear that Mr Russell and "parents" were annoyed that many schools were closed.

I wonder how your report would have read if the clearance of school grounds and approaches by unqualified amateurs had resulted in concussions, broken limbs and possibly even deaths from falls on partly cleared paths.

Health and safety rules are there for a reason, which is, to state the obvious, that pupils should be healthy and safe enough to resume their education when conditions permit.

Or am I missing something?

Jim McDonald

Wallace Rod

Dunblane

Letter: We need weather analysis - not blame