Complaint
In answer to a question from the presenter of the programme about the possible outcomes of the next UK General Election, a correspondent said that βIn most UK elections, Scottish votes have been crucial to deciding who takes powerβ.Β Two viewers complained that this was not true of most general elections since 1945.Β The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
The ECU considered the complainantsβ arguments and the analysis offered by the Reporting Scotland team in support of the correspondentβs statement, in the light of UK general election results in the last 45 years and since the end of World War II.Β It noted that the only occasions on which there could be certainty in the matter were those when the largest party would have had an overall majority even if it had won no Scottish seats (and so would certainly have taken power irrespective of Scottish votes), and that those cases were a minority in both scenarios.Β It considered that, while a case could be made in support of the correspondentβs claim, it necessarily fell short of certainty because it rested on hypotheticals, and concluded that, because the it was phrased as a statement of fact rather than an arguable proposition, it went beyond what the evidence could sustain and fell short of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs standards of accuracy in this context.
Upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Scotland and discussed with the programme team.