Scotland's Comedians - Pull Their Punches

Private Eye has become a national treasure over the years and gave inspiration to another great comedy institution - the UK's long-running TV show 'Have I Got News For You'. 

The Eye was founded in 1961 and is all about taking the establishment down a peg or two, so the magazine pokes fun at all politicians and their parties without fear or favour. 

Hero worshipping politicians or putting them on pedestals is anathema to their comedy 'schtick' because their role is to prevent the great and good from taking themselves too seriously and lording it over the rest of us.

Scotland's politics doesn't come under the Eye's spotlight too often, but there is an abundance of well-deserved jokes to be made at the expense of Scottish institutions - our MSPs, MPs, councillors, captains of industry and so on.      

A big part of the reason for this is that lots of Scottish comedians are very active Indy supporters (Janey Godley for example) and as a result of this political activism they either pull their punches, or don't throw any punches to begin with.

In effect, the SNP and its track record in government get off very lightly compared to their counterparts in Westminster at least - because Indy supporting comedians feel guilty about poking fun at their heroes and heroines. 

The result is that Scottish Ministers' many failings tend to be passed over in favour of the latest shambles at Westminster and while other media covers these issues it's not quite the same as getting a verbal kicking from Private Eye or HIGNFY.

The same is true of past Labour scandals and those of other parties as well, eg Glasgow City Council's behaviour over equal pay went largely unreported for many years despite being such a rich vein of 'comedy gold'.

But the SNP have been in power since 2007 and have benefited most from the absence of a satirical spotlight on Glasgow's Covid shambles, Patrick Harvie and the Greens flouting the Covid rules, the farcical Salmond/Sturgeon saga, Derek Mackay's resignation, Margaret Ferrier's travel adventures, Patrick Grady's suspension, Scotland's exam results fiasco, the latest Forth Bridge farce, BiFab going into administration etc etc.  

So while BBC Scotland's 'The Nine' programme has an annual budget of £30 million, Private Eye does so much more with so much less and you can subscribe for the remarkable price of just £34 a year.  

Lang may its lum reek.