WE regularly find ourselves frustrated by the London-centric media when it comes to politics, but its reporting of the weather in the UK truly takes the biscuit.
Over the weekend, lofty temperatures were recorded in the south of England and on Monday a high of 33.5 degrees was hit in Heathrow as the media declared the UK hitting its all-time hottest May temperature.
No one is disputing these records or suggesting we should not be concerned about them.
But headlines talking about the country sweltering in record heat coming through on your phone when you’re sat in a back garden in Glasgow in your jumper wondering whether it’s just about warm enough to sit outside for lunch for an hour do start to get on your nerves.
Headlines that came through over the weekend included Sky News saying a “tropical night” was possible in the UK on Sunday and the BBC questioning whether the country needed to bring in maximum working temperatures .
Again, no one is suggesting that in a world of wild weather and serious climate change that debates about working temperatures should not be had, but the temperatures in Scotland at the weekend were quite a way from inviting this sort of conversation.
Some places in Scotland are still sitting well below 20 degrees. It's hardly sweltering heat.
ITN UK News "The country is sweltering in a heatwave" pic.twitter.com/Cj8nyKQhZl
— Johnny (@JohnnyDundee) May 23, 2026
It is another way in which Scots can feel disconnected from a lot of UK mainstream media when there are so many headlines warning of heatwaves which are not going to affect them.
The assumption that lofty temperatures in Kew Gardens are of relevance to people north of the Border is quite irritating when you rightly expect journalists to ensure they distinguish between different areas of the UK.
The Twitter/X account @JohnnyDundee summed up how Scots feel very well in a post that said “ITN UK News ‘the country is sweltering in a heatwave ’” accompanied by a picture labelling “the country” as London and the south east.
Yes, these headlines are accurate, record temperatures have been hit in the UK. But are they informative? Not so much when there will no doubt have been people in Scotland expecting it to be much hotter than it was – and potentially making what they thought were appropriate plans – because of these lazy reports.
The BBC in particular has a duty to ensure licence fee payers are getting information that is meaningful to them and that includes those in Scotland, yet the headline on the live blog on Monday afternoon is “Hottest May day ever recorded in UK as temperature soars to 34C in west London”.
All we're asking is that the mainstream media say England when they mean England, or London when they mean London, rather than treating the UK as one entity and causing unnecessary alarm.
