BBC Network news - no longer relevant for the nations?

I think for me the question is if the law/rules/advice is changing in England, but not in Wales/Northern Ireland/Scotland, that is the important part of the story. Who’s getting it right and who’s getting it wrong, or are there legitimate differences in circumstances to dictate different rules? Just because the rules are changing in England only doesn’t mean that’s not relevant to viewers in Scotland, NI or Wales, and vice versa.

Likewise, an embarrassing Government defeat in the Commons is relevant to viewers outside England even if the issue only relates to England, because it builds a sense of the Government’s Parliamentary or popular strength and that has clear relevance to the nations.

In normal times, I think there is an argument that where the lead story on the national bulletins is genuinely irrelevant and of no interest to viewers outside of England, an arrangement should be in place so that the nations opt out of that story and replace it with their own lead story, before opting back in for story #2. But again, if news from the US or France or New Zealand is deemed to be of importance to UK viewers, even when it’s purely political in nature, it’s hard to fathom that English stories wouldn’t be of relevance to the nations (and vice versa).

Imagine a thread dominated by people who live in England on a UK-based forum.

I'm glad you've mentioned that, because Covid is another example of how London feels and operates so much differently from the rest of the UK. I think this every time I visit as well, its a totally different lifestyle. The England 'outside of London' covid stats should be been quoted throughout separate from London just like the nations were.

An example Covid story when building sites went back, we had stories of how builders were cramming onto buses and tubes unable to social distance and this was made into a big deal. In reality its pretty much just a London story as outside of London, people aren't as reliant on public transport in general and you were unlikely to see a bus or train with more than about 2 people on. Trades people are less likely to use public transport to travel to work and will turn up at the site in a van.

You need to familiarise yourself with both the March address - which announced the lockdown - and the May address which announced the easing. In the former, the PM was clear:

No caveats about it only being England or not applying to Wales.

In the latter, the PM was even clearer:


The PM went on to say:


I'm sorry if it's a little inconvenient, but both speeches were presented entirely within a UK framework.

Despite the Six and Ten are sharing the same editorial team, the Ten focuses more on international affairs e.g. the US protests, the Middle East crisis and the detention camps in China.

The Ten features more analysis because its viewers watch the bulletin more actively and the teatime audiences usually do other things when they’re watching the news.

On the presentation style, George always starts his bulletin with ‘Tonight/Today at Six’, Clive, Reeta and Tina say ‘Tonight at Ten’ (although the Saturday late bulletin does not have a Ten branding). Sophie occasionally begins with ‘Tonight at Ten’ and Fiona never says these.

That is absolutely correct. Boris Johnson was very careful to say that each nation of the UK was at a the deviation was not enough to apply different rules to different parts of the country. A few minutes after the PM's statement Sky News went live to Edinburgh to hear First Minister Sturgeon hold a live press conference. Now I will admit that I didn't watch the conference because I'd already heard what I needed to hear


That is a good point to make. A while ago I read a book by Quentin Letts called (and I'm not making this up) "50 People Who Buggered Up Britain". Greg Dyke was one of the 50 because of Dyke's decision to move the BBC's Nine O' Clock News to 10. PM Letts referred to 'a Britain of the regions'.

Apply that example to this discussion and it shows that Britain is not London. Yes London is the capital of the United Kingdom and (I know our Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish friends will hate this point) therefore London is the most important part of the UK but it doesn't mean what happens in London is copied slavishly by the rest of the UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/50-People-Who-Buggered-Britain/dp/1849011273

*In general*, the BBC is probably the media outlet that recognises devolution better than any other, particularly on TV (I heard one radio bulletin refer to Scotland "deviating from the UK lockdown" shortly after the English rules changed for the first time); ITV News is pretty good too. But the issue is much broader than the virus and speaks to the BBC's image of itself as a great unifier - even if that nation ain't particularly unified at the moment. As has been said, the current situation is messy, and I do think the current situation at least for Scotland is daft, but any solution would be messy too.

With regards to England and London - it was telling that one of the first things the BBC did during the crisis was to partially unwind BBC London on TV. Regional media in London is very weak indeed, and it does London damage for it to be seen as something that can be slipped into national bulletins as representing England or Britain, as well as winding up the rest of the country. It was striking that when the BBC's plans to cut Inside Out emerged, they were seen as an attack on journalism outside London even though the capital has its own edition of the programme.

Until there's some measure of proper devolution inside England, including London, it feels like that's always going to be the case.

Its always struck me as strange that local news within London has often been treated merely as national news with a local face. This has been true for both ITV and BBC. Rediffusion's local news for London wasn't even news. http://rediffusion.london/three-before-six

London isn't just the capital. It isn't just Westminster, Whitehall and the Square Mile. Its's Golders Green, Its Peckham, Its Muswell Hill and news happens there all the time.

In my opinion the idea of devolution within England is a good one. I'm a Yorkshireman and feel that the political establishment in London really haven't got a clue about what's going on here

Indeed, there does seem to be the opinion, and I've seen it on here a lot; that things that happen in London are London news stories.

There are national stories that coincidently happen in London, and regional ones - viewers outside the home counties don't care about tube strikes or whatever the GLA decided today. Its a region with about 12 million people in it, lots of local issues

They are two Londons. The London of politics, diplomacy and finance. There’s also the London of bus fare increases, council cuts and sadly and increasingly knife crime.

It’s as thorough The bbc in London as opposed to BBC London is blind to “normal life”.

I think ITV is more guilty of this. There are so many red-carpet stories and interviews with celebs, as if that’s a truly London issue.

The red-carpet stuff is an interesting point - until the 90s, films would often be released in the West End (or even Greater London) a week or two ahead of the rest of Britain ("in the West End now and across London from Friday!" was the line at the end of radio ads for films) so to some extent it's a throwback to those days.

If you can capture some of the excitement of a premiere and it's an interesting story then it's all part of the mix - premieres are still a reasonably big deal and a part of West End life - but if you just end up running stuff from junkets/ promo material, then it's not worth having in a regional bulletin for London.