BBC National News: Presentation

Regarding the current talk on BBC News' poor coverage of the nations, blame the nations for their crappy news bulletins.

The National news needs to focus on the areas with the greatest populace, thus catering to the majority, and not the minorities. So Scotland wants to be apart from the UK, fine, then if that happens, the BBC should stop covering them at all, as its remit is for the UK, they could do with BBC World News and scottish commercials.

Wales gets its own (or used to get its own) BBC Two service, let them cover their own areas, and if someone is interested in watching welsh or other nation's news, they can do so on iPlayer, the Internet, or Digital Satellite...

I'm sorry, but since when did "majority rules" come into effect.

Its very easy for someone like you, who lives in London, to say "to hell with the provinces".

You're missing the fundamental complaint that everyone in the UK who pays their licence is entitled to the same level of service.

I'm not talking about garden fetes in Pontypridd or East Kilbride, I'm talking about important matter such as health and education.

The BBC have always been guilty of announcing changes in legislation etc as if it aplies to everyone in the UK - and more and more these days that is simply not the case.

For intelligent people in Wales, Scotland and NI then we can make assumptions about what applies and what doesn't - but for those who don't realise the difference things should be made much more clear.

You're the one saying, "If Scotland want to be seperate..." etc etc. Don't go putting words in my mouth or any Scot thank you very much, London boy.

I just think (and this commission clearly agrees) that in devolved matters the BBC have an obligation to at least make clear what news is relevant to what parts of the licence paying United Kingdom.

There are more people in London and England, hence more license fee money comes from those areas, so those areas should be catered for above others.

Of course when the UK Government makes England only pronouncements, these need to be stated as such, but when it comes to prioritising welsh assembly news over other important UK, English or London news, then I think its an unfair use of the time on the BBC Bulletins, and makes the Nations news service redundant!

No, Martin, they shouldn't.



That would satisfy me - more clarity and less assumption would resolve many of the complaints.

It may be that a Welsh, Scottish or NI Six might be discussed (again) in light of this, frankly I don't think this old chestnut will ever go away.

Just to be absolutely clear - just because London and the South East have 15+ million residents, it does NOT negate the needs and expectation of the rest of the UK. You are not more important or have a greater need for an accurate news service.

And frankly its insular, selfish attitudes like that which keep the argument running,

Looking at the populations of the UK, its obvious who should be catered for most, and the priority of who's news should be covered most...

London - 7.5 million
England (includes London) - 25.2 million

Compared to

Northern Ireland - 8.6 million
Wales - 2.9 million
Scotland - 5.1 million

a total of 16.6 million


Now you tell me why the Nations should get priority, and if they should, should London get its own National Bulletin, and regional scheduling and opt outs?

Well said!

i hate how London seems to think itself to be the centre of eveything. They don't seem to know that there's such a thing in England as "the midlands". Leicestershire, for example, is not in "the North", thank you very much (as i once saw implied in a London newspaper)!

Presumably a lot of Londoners think that Newcastle-upon-Tyne is at the edge of the universe, and don't even know that such a thing as scotland even exists?

The London/southeast region may have by far the largest proportion of the UK population, but it's geographic area is a pretty small one. To suggest that the population of the other 95% of the UK's surface area should take one hell of a back seat, is ludicrously arrogant! <rant>

Aren't you forgetting an 'English Six'? Perhaps, once again, the English (as second class citizens in this Union) would be left with the generic UK version just as we are with Parliaments and Assemblies.

Are you mental or do you just absorb everything the Mail tells you?

If you want an English assembly then campaign and vote like the rest of us had to.

Close 1xtra thats what I say. Can't have the coloured folk having their own radio.

If everyone ends up unhappy wanting their own national bulletin, it would end in a ludicrous situation. It would end up with endless duplication, a waste of resources etc.

It makes more sense if the scottish, welsh and northern irish pay extra out of their license fee for improvements to their news services, and the english pay their part for their own. Rather than having a single license fee shared out. The amount of money generated would give the regions a service comparable to their population. I for one being an Englishman and a proud Londoner, object to paying for scotland to get their own service, when the scottish parliament wants to make themselves independent, and their first minister gives anti-english speeches and want to dictate what news is shown nationally, when their population is such a minority to England.

The Welsh Assembly are not so bad, as they don't take with one hand and criticise with the other.

Northern Ireland politics has never really been ignored Nationally, so I don't see how they could have complaints, so I have nothing negative to say about them.

Again, we either have a National service which caters to the majority of the UK Population, indicating where needed that a change is for England or Nation specifically, and not be focused on minority groups who have decided to set themselves apart from the UK Parliament, and feel they have more importance.

Or we go in a silly direction, and scrap the National News, and follow in a more US route, where each region would provide an hour long bulletin, which pooled national reports and interviews, and mix in the regional content along side the international and UK wide stories. Which still leaves you with the problem of people in England not hearing about the scottish parliament, welsh assembly, and the northern ireland coalition!



In short...

The UK Parliament is more important to Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, than their Assembly, Parliaments, and Coalitions are to England...

Are you saying that there are no Black people in the Nations?

there are less black people in white people. therefore they shouldn't be catered for.

I fail to see how this differs from your "there are more southerners" argument above.