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Politicians say all kinds of things about The National. This is a side effect of having a strong political stance and holding actual values. We are all very used to it and actually, we often laugh about various insults in the newsroom.
I remember Anas Sarwar claiming we blamed the SNP's poor Rutherglen by-election result on poor weather ... which was absolute nonsense. It was pretty amusing for those of us staying up until the wee hours covering the count, though. I can recall Michael Gove saying we were the worst newspaper in the world, which was quite entertaining. A newspaper hated by Michael Gove is a newspaper I'd like to be a part of, and I reckon plenty Scots feel the same way. That's why we put up the billboards.
Then there's all the usual suspects having a go at us on social media. Murdo Fraser always seems to be personally victimised by whatever we're covering. There's historic beef with Alex Cole-Hamilton. Politicians of all colours in the Better Together rainbow have had their say, and we've never been massively troubled by it.
However this week, I was genuinely infuriated by the words of a senior UK Government figure. There was nothing to laugh about here. In describing a news story we broke as "clickbait", David Lammy attempted to discredit us and silence us on the most important story of our times – Israel's genocide in Gaza.
The story was about how the Labour Government, in the last quarter of 2024, exported more weapons to Israel than the Tories did from 2020-23. We broke this news last Thursday and it was widely shared, including by independent MP Zarah Sultana. She brought the figures (which came from the UK Government themselves) up to Lammy in the Commons this week, and he accused the MP of sharing "clickbait" online.
The official Oxford Languages definition of "clickbait" is: "Content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page." Labour would know plenty about this. For instance, many years ago Keir Starmer shared his infamous 10 pledges website, hoping to attract attention from potential voters within the Labour membership pool before swiftly backtracking on all of his promises and deleting it when it became politically awkward. Labour also shared fancy graphics promising cheaper energy bills, hoping for clicks and engagement, before doing precisely nothing as energy bills continued rising when they came to power.
What is not clickbait, however, is well-researched stories, based on official verified figures. Even when it is shared by a news outlet that you don't like because it actually bothers to hold you accountable. We at The National stand by our story. How many of Labour's claims can they stand by?
To dismiss such a serious matter as the export of arms to a state which is clearly breaching international human rights law as "clickbait" shows us how intellectually lazy this class of government ministers is, and how morally bankrupt they are.
You can say "clickbait" as many times as you want, Dave. It doesn't change the facts. You exported more weapons in three months than the Tories did in three years. If you want to be complicit in Israel's assault on Gaza, at least have the guts to own it.
