A new line of attack I've been hearing from both Unionists and independence supporters is along the lines of: Why does The National only employ English staff? Why are there never Scottish voices on The National's podcast and social channels?
Recently a young Labour campaigner took to X to bemoan the fact that we're apparently "stuffed full of English graduates" and secretly headquartered in Manchester. After I advised that he was wrong on both counts, he promptly removed the post.
There are two main reasons that National-sceptics make this argument. On the Unionist side, they seem to think it highlights an apparent hypocrisy at the core of The National's very being. A "they claim to be Scottish, but that's not even true, so you can't believe anything they say" kind of thing. Meanwhile for a minority of independence supporters, there is a suspicion that perhaps we aren't championing Scotland enough in our hiring.
I've often been annoyed about these comments. And I think I can break down my full response to them in 7 key parts. So let's do it.
1) Yes, we have some English staff at The National, on our team of journalists and among our commentators. Like anyone among our staff and freelancers, they are valued members of the team.
2) We hire the best people for the job and someone's nationality or accent would never get in the way of that.
3) We welcome people from anywhere wanting to work here. We've had staff from all over the world. Their varying backgrounds have improved the output of The National. It can sound cheesy or cliché, but I really do see The National as truly InterNational.
4) It's especially weird that Unionists keep complaining about this. I thought you wanted to see cross-Border collaboration?
5) As for independence supporters concerned about it, surely we need to be winning over more people from England living in Scotland to the cause?
6) In a way, you hear what you want to hear. If you go on our Instagram thinking "they're all English", you'll hear only English accents. In actual fact, just three of our reporters are from England. By focusing so much on that, you're erasing the much larger number of Scottish staff, or the many Scottish guests on our podcast!
7) A person's accent may sound English, but it doesn't mean they are English. Many people spend their lives living across the Border, picking up bits of different accents. I was born in Dundee, but moved around throughout my childhood, crossing between England and Scotland. Some people hear my accent as English, others hear it as Scottish, some people seem to think it's Canadian or American. Some people think that one of our Glaswegian reporters is Irish. Accents are a strange thing. They don't always tell the full story.
In summary: The National doesn't care where you were born, what your accent is, who your parents are, where you have lived. All that matters to us is: Are you a good journalist? Can you write well? Can you find good stories? Are you willing to turn your hand to new multimedia skills? Are you passionate about Scotland? If you can pass those tests, you'll be first in line when it's time to hire.
