Ferret Underground: Soirée seems to be the hardest word

Hi ,

Last night* was The Ferret's annual staff soirée.

It was an interesting and thought-provoking evening with guests sharing bons mots and high-level political analysis.

Any suggestions that it involved too much wine and nonsensical pub chatter are unfounded, defamatory and the accusers will be hearing from our expensive legal team.

Don't worry, we will be continuing our reporting, fact-checking and investigating up until Christmas and beyond, and expertly gift-wrapped content will be with you across the festive period.

* This newsletter was written before the event.

Campaigners have published 30 photos which they say expose the marine wildlife killed by “destructive” and “wasteful” fishing for scampi around Scotland.

The pictures, mostly garnered from fishing industry social media accounts, show that trawling the seabed for langoustines to produce scampi also traps many other fish, including young white fish, flatfish, starfish and sharks.

The campaign group, Open Seas, says that for every kilogram of langoustine, at least another kilogram of other marine life is caught in bottom-trawl nets. It is urging supermarkets to “say no to scampi”.

How did ‘fake news’ cause Scotland’s witch trials?

On for Fact’s Sake this week we’re taking a look back to some historical misinformation – Scotland’s witch trials.

Ali and Paul speak to Dr Zoe Venditozzi, a writer and teacher who presents the Witches of Scotland podcast. She campaigns for posthumous pardons for those prosecuted for witchcraft in Scotland.

We spoke about Scotland’s witch trials, how the persecution was led from the top, and the parallels between the ‘fake news’ that drove women to be persecuted then and today’s moral panics.