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Earlier this month, an Ipsos poll for STV showed that for Scots, immigration was not on their top 10 list of things which sway them at the ballot box.
So in the newsroom on Friday when we were discussing ideas for the day, it seemed mighty curious the UK-France deal aimed at tackling small boat crossings across the Channel had been high up in the BBC Radio Scotland morning news agenda almost every day last week.
Listening back, we found the build-up to the visit by French president Emmanuel Macron and the agreement itself had been in the Good Morning Scotland bulletin every day from Tuesday to Friday, and on two of those days it was considered the top story.
In the Ipsos survey earlier this month, Scots had considered all sorts of subjects to be more important to them than this. Healthcare, education, crime, poverty, cost of living and housing were all of bigger concern.
In focusing largely on whether the new “one in, one out” deal would act as an effective deterrent, SNP MP Pete Wishart accused the BBC of presenting a “skewed debate” on immigration to Scots which is contrary to their interests.
“When we get into the realms of a debate and discussion about immigration, what tends to come out the UK-led debate about this is absolutely totally contrary to Scotland's interests,” he said.
“All we hear about is curbing migration, what we can do to make life as difficult as possible for the poor souls that make it here, whereas Scotland, just to keep our population up – which is already at crisis levels – we are totally dependent on immigration.
“What the BBC are serving us is a debate which is skewed to be against the Scottish interests."
The “one in, one out” deal will see asylum seekers who arrive in England by small boats sent back to France, while allowing some in France to be sent to Britain if they have ties to the UK.
On Friday’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the focus was on critics who believe it will not be enough of a deterrent, with a clip of shadow home secretary Chris Philp (below) being played during the 8am bulletin where he called the scheme a “gimmick”.
The way this story was pushed by BBC Scotland seemed even stranger after speaking to Emile Chabal, a professor of contemporary history at Edinburgh University who has published widely on the politics of immigration.
He told The National there is a “stark difference” between how Scotland and England view the issue of immigration.
“From all the policy and research work we have over the last 10 to 20 years, we know that immigration is just a less salient issue for Scots in general,” he said.
“We know that the Scottish Government has a different approach to the question of immigration, which is often characterised as either pro-immigration or pro-certain kinds of immigration. There’s certainly an idea that Scotland doesn’t have enough people and therefore having more is not necessarily a problem.
“Both at a kind of popular and policy level, Scotland is different to England.”
He went on: “It seems clear to me that most Scots feel that immigration would be a positive thing for the Scottish economy and they feel it would be beneficial demographically for Scotland. This is especially true in perhaps rural areas in a way that it isn’t in England where rural areas are often places which have a high degree of anti-immigrant sentiment.”
Tom Chivers and Tom Mills – of the Media Reform Coalition – both said the way in which the small boats issue was focused on by BBC Radio Scotland was an example of the corporation “reflecting the agenda of Westminster politicians” instead of honing in on what is important to its audiences.
Mills, chair of the Media Reform Coalition and author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, said: “Looking at news in Scotland is revealing I think because it shows the extent to which BBC news reflects the agenda of Westminster politicians and the right-wing national press, rather than the priorities of its audiences.
“In the end the BBC is accountable to politicians, not to its audiences. That’s the root of the problem and it needs to change."
News is news, of course, and the issue of immigration is clearly important to many people across the UK.
But the BBC surely has regional radio stations for a reason, and the way this story was thrust on people driving to work – who are likely more interested in how much their food is costing or whether they can get a doctor’s appointment – certainly does seem very telling about where the broadcaster’s priorities lie.
