Government to suspend Parliament

Anything happening at Wembley?

Personally I think posts like yours which are purely factual are very valuable and useful contributions. I've learnt a lot about politics and the current situation from posts like yours.


The problem is with political posts, ones that are making a point or an opinion, there's plenty of places online for those

I've certainly tried to keep my posts non-party political and more observational. There were a number of questions from Forum members from North America or other parts of the world, and our political system is sometimes quite complex for Brits to understand, let alone those just informed by current media reports.

I guess it is off topic - but probably quite useful to have somewhere - as it informs the discussions about 'What next?' and 'When can we start talking about Election sets?' (I'd be interested to see whether there are any 'odd' BBC Elstree D bookings in November or early December...)

Well, they have access to TC1 again now, so perhaps that's an option unless it's already booked for the 'shiny floor' entertainment shows.


I don't watch BGT, Voice or X Factor, but don't some of those fall during the Autumn period?

TC1 is blocked booked way in advance - I know The Graham Norton Show will be returning there in late September, The Last Leg will return there in late October, and I think TC1 is now the main entertainment studio for BBC Studioworks, and all election coverage will continue to be made in the much larger Studio D at Elstree, which has all the facilities for election coverage.

Problem with that is that all the comms facilities needed for a general election show were moved out of TVC and there isn't the space for an adhoc set up.

I think you can safely rule out TC1 ever being used again for elections.

TC1 doesn't have the connectivity to do an election. The TV Centre studios were originally no intended to be very well connected at all, it was only when ITV took over TC2 and 3 and put in their infrastructure that it did.

Studio D at Elstree has the BBCs election hub and multiple connections of various forms to and from the control rooms and infrastructure at BH and elsewhere

I don’t think I was that off topic this was about discussion of presentation - that includes things like cameras and their broadcast qualities.
The only thing I said relating to political is:

You right, the redevelopment of Television Centre which left the three main studios now is what changed the focus on the complex. The BBC knew that when they moved back to Television Centre, TC1 would be the main entertainment studio for the site, and especially since ITV Daytime have now block booked TC2 and TC3 for the near future, it means Elstree Studio D is their election hub, and I think has done very well indeed since their first election night there in 2015.

To pick up on the point made about the media failing to get to the root of this problem, I agree entirely and it is partly what led us to the outcome of the 2016 referendum. The modern media are far too concerned with creating entertaining news coverage whereby personalities are central to their coverage. They seem to think that a string of politicians and Westminster village types being paraded in front of the camera is enough.

I would argue that they really should be providing a great deal more contextual and analytical information. Although such reporting would probably be quite dull, it is vital to create an informed public. And in turn, an informed public leads to more responsible voting. Although the politicians are hugely to blame for their conduct over the past decade or so, probably from the expenses scandal onward, I don't think the media is entirely blameless in creating an uninformed and polarised populace.

Yes it seems to work well and it's certainly had a lot more use than they thought it would!