Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed “preparatory work is underway” to enable a second referendum to be held – a commitment both the SNP and their Scottish Green Party partners in Government made in their manifestos for last year’s Holyrood elections. But one Scottish resident has slammed the First Minister for her “divisive” plans. Speaking on BBC’s Debate Night, the audience member said: “The last independence referendum was horrendously divisive in Scotland and it set family against family.
“We’ve just come out of Brexit, there’s horrendous inflation, economic repercussions to come out of that.
“It’s all a question of timing.
“There is a debate to be had but is it the right time to bring all this into an environment which is in absolute chaos at the moment with the pandemic?
“We don’t know where we are economically, we don’t know where we’re going to be economically. I think it’s premature.”
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His comments come as the former Scotland editor of the BBC has spoken of her relief at moving to America after suffering abuse covering Scottish politics.
Sarah Smith, who was appointed the corporation’s North America editor last year, said she was subjected to hostility “most of the time” when preparing to go live on TV.
Speaking to Rhys Evans – the head of corporate affairs at BBC Wales – for a paper for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, the broadcaster said she had attracted “criticism, bile and hatred” from some sections of the Scottish population which she feared would damage the reputation of the BBC.
In one incident, she recounted, someone rolled down their car window and asked her: “What f****** lies are you going to be telling on TV tonight, you f****** lying bitch?”
“Any abuse she suffered is too much but if Sarah Smith is saying that politics over here is more vicious than in the US she hasn’t been paying enough attention to what has been going on over there, nor rest of UK.”
Her move to the US, Smith said, was a cause for “relief”, adding: “Nobody will have any idea who my father is.
“The misogynistic idea that I can’t have any of my own thoughts anyway, or rise above my family connections to report impartially, will no longer be part of the discourse.”
The first Scotland editor at the BBC, Smith said she had been “demonised quite heavily… amongst certain parts of the population”.
The BBC was the subject of scrutiny in the months before the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, and Smith said she believes another vote – which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she hopes to hold next year – would see the corporation under “enormous scrutiny”.
