The contrast between BBC Scotland and England

The BBC has a clear website presentation for BBC Scotland. It tells us about its flagship nightly News programme, the Nine. That takes “a global view on the news whilst maintaining a distinctive Scottish voice”. There are plenty of advertised Scottish news specials  and supporting cultural programmes and events. There is no such statement about an English news programme, no news presented with “a distinctive English voice”.   English viewers and listeners  seeking BBC England on the website are invited to share their post code to be sent down a regional and local rabbit hole on the site, palmed off with phoney regional loyalties to regions that do not want elected assemblies . We have no need of  mock  declarations of loyalty and cultural harmony to South easternness or to Rest of the south-eastness or to Thames Valleyness or to South westernness or whatever. England gets the UK news product, complete with  plenty of exposure to Nicola Sturgeon, a person we cannot vote for nor remove from office.  I have never heard a satisfactory explanation from the BBC of why they treat England so differently from Scotland, and why they always seem to have shared the old EU wish to balkanise England into regions which fail to resonate with voters and have no place in our  history to draw from.

 

The BBC is particularly weak about following France, Germany and the EU. It gives little airtime to considering the twists and turns of their politics. It rarely reports the extensive legislative work of the EU Commission government, and views all things EU through its anti Brexit prism, using pro EU UK establishment figures to give their inaccurate minimalist and positive   account of EU ambitions and actions. Where  the BBC is rightly ever ready to criticise the UK government, and has just spent four years attacking every feature of the Trump administration the Democrats disapproved of, the BBC has been almost completely silent when it comes to criticisms of the government of the EU or of the leading countries on the continent that are our immediate  neighbours. It rarely comments on the small  shares of the vote most of the leading parties in continental democracies now command and ignores most of the struggles to lead Germany after Mrs Merkel  or to control the Italian government.  In the battles over the pandemic the BBC has nearly always sided with the pro lockdown arguments, giving plenty of airtime to SNP and Labour criticisms of the UK/England response when the Scottish and Welsh governments took a slightly tougher approach. Understandably  it has proved to  be a robust defender of the UK government’s vaccine strategy because it commands cross party support. The BBC looks to some as if is helping Scottish independence, regularly making it a topic on its broadcasts. It ranks  Nicola Sturgeon’s news conferences alongside the Prime Ministers and airs them regularly in England though they are nothing to do with policy in England.  The BBC scarcely recognises England and when asked about it usually turns to trying to break it up into artificial and unpopular  regions or explores local government matters.

As we enter a new phase in the arguments about the Union the BBC needs to revisit what is fair, and see that the different ways it treats different parts of the UK is a live part of the debate itself.

220 Comments

  1. formula57
    February 22, 2021

    Do your points not show that the BBC is now well beyond redemption?

    If your colleague O. Dowden was going to do anything about it, would he not have acted well before now? To show he is not, he has permitted the appointment of a new BBC chairman whose early statements include expressing satisfaction with the inappropriate licence fee funding model.

    1. Lifelogic
      February 22, 2021

      I tend to agree. The government do not seem to be remotely serious about BBC reform. They have not even decriminalised the licence fee yet? It is hard to see how the BBC can be reformed easily as the people who work there (with perhaps one in a thousands exceptions) all have the wrong headed BBC views. Namely climate alarmists, left wing, woke, pro Biden/anti Trump, pro the EU and invariably art graduated with almost zero grasp of maths, physics, logic, engineering or real economics.

      To change it and get balance you would have to fire nearly all senior people and presenters at the BBC. I was happily watching Ski Sunday yesterday when the idiots started going on and on about the lack of BAME people skiing. BBC Country file even thinks the “countryside” is racist! Who cares? BAME people can ski (or go to the countryside) if they want to or not if they do not it is called freedom of choice? The BBC really are at war with their viewers and licence tax payers.

      1. Stred
        February 22, 2021

        Let’s hope that the BBC succeed and Scotland and all of the Scottish civil servants and BBC executives become independent and go home. They will come crawling back after England turns off to gas generated electricity going north to keep them going during the 60% of lack of wind, excepting the from Holyrood., their daft Spanish designed waffling chamber. They will come crawling back for a loan just as before, when they messed up in Panama.

      2. APL
        February 23, 2021

        Lifelogi: “The government do not seem to be remotely serious about BBC reform.”

        In case you haven’t noticed, the BBC has been explicitly running government policy for about a year now.
        Anyway, you cannot reform an organisation that is irredeemably corrupt.
        Best to just kill it off, just like the BBC killed off the aviation industry this last year, along with all the support infrastructure.

    2. Everhopeful
      February 22, 2021

      +1

    3. formula57
      February 22, 2021

      Of passing interest also is as you are doubtless aware that the BBC has been busy appeasing bullying of it by the SNP through more Scottish-centric programmes (that often enough attract comparatively few viewers) but that has of course not been enough as the SNP is keen on capturing a greater part of the licence fees raised in Scotland for BBC Scotland pending creation of a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation.

      1. a-tracy
        February 22, 2021

        So how does this work formula57, does Scottish talent get a double-dip on jobs both at BBC Scotland and BBC RofUK? Or are they hiring UK talent on the Scottish station?

        1. formula57
          February 22, 2021

          So far as I know, they hire locally. The viewing figures of some of the programmes run at c. 4,000 apparently so it perhaps matters little who presents them.

          1. a-tracy
            February 23, 2021

            The reason it matters is the pay rates for the talent costs the same and if opportunities to workers from the whole union aren’t considered then the Scottish talent gets to double-dip on BBC opportunities the UK wide, and there aren’t that many opportunities.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        February 22, 2021

        They had their very own news slog but viewing figures were really low. Most of their news is full of complaints about Westminster or a virtual lesson in Scottish history.

    4. Hope
      February 22, 2021

      JR, your Govt. had ten years to change the BBC. Fake criticism, fake hope of change to get votes. It is the Marxist propaganda arm of the Fake Tory Govt. end of.

      1. Lifelogic
        February 22, 2021

        +1 – BBC average salary is now ÂŁ43,000 WITH GOLD PLATED PENSION – UK AVERAGE ÂŁ31,000

        1. Lifelogic
          February 22, 2021

          Not with pension but + pension!

    5. Ed M
      February 22, 2021

      Conservatism should be a movement that covers every area of public life – including BBC.

      The problem is some / a lot of Tories think Conservatism is all about Politics / Money. Rubbish. Conservatism is also about things like Family, Arts, Patriotism and so on.

      The problem is we don’t have enough Tories in the Media / Arts. If we did, then we’d have more working in the BBC. But we don’t. Instead lots of lefties in it. Let’s man up and accept our responsibility as Conservatives for this.

      And instead of destroying something like the BBC that does do great stuff like Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (1995) which ironically is a very sort of Conservative-style TV, let’s reform it so that is more Conservative in spirit. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater because we’ve failed to incorporate The Media / Arts into Conservatism, and not produced enough Tories to work in The Media / Arts. It’s time for some IMAGINATION / CREATIVITY and not destruction (of the BBC).

      Sure, the BBC needs cutting down big time, and so reducing the license fee. Don’t deny. But we still need a decent broadcaster to make great BRITISH PATRIOTIC CONSERVATIVE programmes such as Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and that also challenges the left-wing / social-liberal narrative.

      (And can people please not get snarky with me for rocking the boat – I am rocking the boat ultimately in the interests of British Conservatism – and British Patriotism – and glad to rock the boat and throw up some sparks if we can get a BBC that creates more great programmes that are Conservative in spirit).

      1. John Hatfield
        February 22, 2021

        Ed. Agree with everything you say but it is inescapable that if you don’t watch the BBC you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

        1. Ed M
          February 23, 2021

          Hi John,

          But my argument is for a publicly-financed broadcaster. Everyone pays taxes for which they don’t necessarily directly benefit from (some people live long lives without ever going to hospital, saving ÂŁÂŁÂŁ for the nation).

          Same for TV. TV is about setting standards and broadcasting TV from the POV of putting forward a sense of Patriotism and that helps set the tone for what is to be British (whether people choose to watch that TV or not).

          But I am sympathetic to your position which is why I think we need to GREATLY reduce the licence fee. Something dramatic. At least in half. Whilst getting rid of all the rubbish that the BBC produces and broadcasts anyway – political rubbish but also TV programmes that aren’t original / innovative / creative but that any commercial broadcaster could do.

          (Again, I’m a Strawberries-and-Cream, Worcestershire Sauce, Sir Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, St Paul’s Cathedral, mini, Wimbledon, Cricket man – I love all these British icons – including the BBC and don’t want to see it go. Let’s cut it down to size but not throw baby out with bathwater).

          Best

    6. Lynn Atkinson
      February 22, 2021

      Too late. We have all switched off. The BBC must go. Other national institutions need to see that happen and decide whether they wish to remain anti-British.

      1. turboterrier
        February 22, 2021

        Lynn Atkinson.
        Brilliant

      2. bill brown
        February 23, 2021

        Lynn Atkinson,

        I wish you would really think before you write such nonsense sometimes

        1. NickC
          February 23, 2021

          Bill Brown, Can’t you think of a better argument than just saying “nonsense”?

    7. MiC
      February 22, 2021

      John would be the first to be furious, if the BBC covered in detail how France, Germany and other European Union countries provided education, public housing, occupational pensions, public transport, and fostered industrial relations and protected employment terms for their peoples.

      Folks here would quickly realise what a disaster repeatedly voting for the Tories has been for them.

      Reply you sound very rattled at the thought of proper analysis of EU successes and failures. How about starting with the no growth in Italy for the last decade pre covid, and mass youth unemployment?

      1. MiC
        February 22, 2021

        Yes, of course you could cover those topics, but you could also look at educational outcomes in France and Germany, the standard of rail travel, and the levels of both state and occupational pensions, the relatively low levels of crime, of STIs, of divorce, of unwanted conception, of suicide, of treatment for depression etc. in these countries compared with the UK too.

        You seem to want to conflate national successes or failures with those of the European Union where it suits your agenda, unsurprisingly.

        You also apparently want the BBC only to report matters which would tend to discredit its institutions and its officers.

        1. Peter2
          February 22, 2021

          A debate would be nice.
          With views presented from both sides.

      2. NickC
        February 22, 2021

        Martin, This is your EU empire. The EU foams at the mouth because an EU based factory – Astra-Zeneca – has teething problems and cannot produce the quantity of Oxford vaccines it had hoped. So to save their skins, the EU commission, and other EU politicians, rant, threaten A-Z, actually invoke Art16 NIP, and finally bad-mouth the Oxford vaccine.

        The EU manages to unite London, Dublin, and Belfast, and Nationalists and Loyalists, and even Leaves and (some) Remains – a feat never before managed. But the really hilarious consequence has been that EU citizens have believed their politicians and shunned the Oxford vaccine. So there are Oxford vaccines lying on the shelf; and the EU vaccine roll out has been hit again – solely because of the EU’s own vitriol and belligerence!

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          February 22, 2021

          Nick C if it wasn’t so serious it would be hilarious

        2. bill brown
          February 23, 2021

          Nick C,

          There is no empire and yes the EU made a muddle of the vaccine roll out as we did with more then 120.000 dead you really need to move on

          1. MiC
            February 23, 2021

            The UK is the only country with an NHS.

            That is what is needed for things like mass immunisation.

            Sociality works. It is resilient, and confers that on the nation.

          2. a-tracy
            February 23, 2021

            What are the total deaths in the EU bill brown all 27 states?
            It will be interesting to compare total deaths too.

          3. NickC
            February 23, 2021

            Bill, Definition of an empire (Cambridge English Dictionary): “a group of countries ruled by a single person, government, or country”. The EU is a group of countries ruled by a single government in Brussels. The EU is not (yet) a single country. Nor is it merely a trading agreement. The EU is an empire. Do keep up.

      3. Fedupsoutherner
        February 22, 2021

        Add unemployment in Spain to that and protests in France. Also the shelters ( tents) for immigrants. No wonder they want to come to the UK.

        1. MiC
          February 23, 2021

          Those are national matters, not institutional ones for the European Union.

        2. a-tracy
          February 23, 2021

          The UN criticises the UK for putting men up in barracks where soldiers used to live month in month out, yet in France they get away with leaving people in tents under underpasses, in empty offices without decent plumbing, without key benefits and in the mud at Calais waiting for the next dingy.

  2. Lifelogic
    February 22, 2021

    Exactly right. The BBC are dire, wrong headed on almost every issue and clearly a blatant propaganda outfit. People forced to pay to be bombarded with misinformation. Not that Andrew Neil has left they do not have anyone who is even in the middle politically.

    Far too much exposure to Nicola Sturgeon, a person we (alas) cannot remove from office. I have no wish to see her or Ian Blackford ever again. What do the Scots see these dire, droning (evil in my view) dopes and the appalling SNP?

    Good to see the United Airlines plane land safely with one engine down. Interestingly they are also designed to be able take off fully laden. Should one engine fail on take off the other is put into “overdrive” and the rudder automatically adjusted to stop the plane spinning round in circles. Generally a good idea to have competent engineers designing such things.

    Alas the UK’s energy system, the zero carbon lunacy and the NHS are under that charge of politicians with degrees in PPE, Law, History and the likes not competent engineers or physicists. Furthermore they are infatuated (as is the BBC) with the imminent climate catastrophe religion. BBC also very keen on the Mars mission landings. We have now had circa 50 Mars missions costing many ÂŁ billions. Have we had any value from these apart from a few pictures of rocky landscapes?

    1. Guy Liardet
      February 28, 2021

      The BBC’s censorship of the climate question arises from Roger Harrabin’s illegal secret conspiracy of April 2006, exposed by Andrew Montford now of the GWPF. Between Greenpeace and BBC high ups it was agreed to deny sceptics any airtime. Thousands were spent resisting FOI requests. Have you heard on the BBC that U.K. only emits 1.2% of global man made CO2 and, crash the car industry as you may, nothing we do will make any difference? The record of BBC bias in climate issues is worse than a scandal, it’s become a sort of neurotic perversion. Get rid of the Climate Change Act before Gummer ruins us

  3. Lifelogic
    February 22, 2021

    Ross Clark yesterday in the Sunday Telegraph:-

    “The Tories will be making a terrible error if they raise taxes post-Covid. Boris Johnson has been called a “British Trump”, which is unfair in two ways. Unfair on Johnson because he is not a narcissist nor a rabble-rouser; and unfair on Trump because the former president did at least deliver on his promise of tax cuts.”

    Tax increases (from the hugely over taxed and regulated to death position) would indeed be a terrible error. The next election might well be in May 2024, just over three years away. Donald Trump, for all his faults, was exactly right on ignoring the mad climate alarmists, going for cheap reliable energy and large tax cuts.

    Boris, (Carrie? one assumes) and Sunak seem to be wrong headed on all these issues. We shall see for sure in the budget in just nine days time. A (one off) wealth tax would be a disaster of jobs, confidence and the economy. We have huge wealth taxes already. Income tax was supposed to be temporary too.

    1. agricola
      February 22, 2021

      Essentially true. Taxation should be set to generate income and wealth for the individual and every commercial enterprise existing or future that can add by vastly increased activity to the nations wealth. Government should so act, taking a punt on a nett greater tax take on greater turnover. What money we have should be allowed to work frew of any extra penalty. The defecit is irrelevant at the interst rates it has been settled on.

    2. ian@Barkham
      February 22, 2021

      @LifeLogic
      +1 to a up to a point. This isn’t a Conservative administration, once you get past the need to spend as a result of Covid-19, this is a tax and spend left wing administration. All personal and somewhat private views and dogma are based on tax spend to be on WOKE message. With no thought to the why or how these things should play out

      1. Caterpillar
        February 22, 2021

        ian@Barkham

        It may not be a conservative administration, but it is a Conservative Party administration. The Conservative MPs have not removed the dear leader, therefore they and the party are complicit. The Conservative Party cannot get a free pass on either the tax-borrow-create and spend policy, the woke agenda or the removal of basic freedoms policy.

      2. Lifelogic
        February 22, 2021

        Seems so, plus Oliver Lewis has resigned too (so the lefty, socialist pushers of green crap do seem to be taking over at No. 10). The Gove, Shapps and Carrie types. Gove who even idiotically wanted 20% VAT on private school fees as I recall.

        Someone (on the BBC questioned if people would be being as unpleasant about Carrie if she were not a woman). Well if Boris were gay and his partner was pushing moronic and hugely damaging socialist green crap then yes I would be just as critical. Critical of the policies that is I am sure she is pleasant enough just totally misguided and misguiding Boris. Especially if their understanding of energy and climate was limited to say a degree in Theatre Studies.

      3. jerry
        February 22, 2021

        @ian@Barkham; “This isn’t a Conservative administration, [..//..] this is a tax and spend left wing administration.”

        True, but that’s why a majority of the electorate voted for it’s manifestos and promises, over successive recent elections, rejecting the more fundamental right-wing policies of both UKIP and TBP. The UK is, politically, broadly centrist, rejecting ideological mumbo-jumbo of the political fundamentalists when they become to dominant, left, right or centre.

        1. NickC
          February 22, 2021

          That’s all very well, Jerry, if the “centre” does not move. Actually UKIP’s policies are broadly in support of: independence for the UK; patriotism; sound finances; the free market; and the family of mother, father and children as the basic building block of society. In other words their policies are based on the Judeo-Christian values that the people of these islands have believed in for most of the last 2000 years. A number of other parties – often offshoots of UKIP – such as the Heritage party and the Reform party, have similar values.

          1. jerry
            February 23, 2021

            @NickC; Thank you, I you made my point far better than I did!

          2. NickC
            February 23, 2021

            No, I think you made my point, Jerry – “the centre” is in the eye of the beholder. Your strictures apply to you, as well as me.

          3. jerry
            February 23, 2021

            @NickC; Except, for at least the last 70 years, the UK has been a multicultural, multiracial, multi-religion country.

        2. JoolsB
          February 22, 2021

          I would suggest the reason people don’t vote for other parties is because Labour and the Fake Tories have got the voting system stitched up between them and it doesn’t matter what they vote in most constituencies.

          1. jerry
            February 23, 2021

            @JoolsB; Nonsense, if that was the case the need for a Coalition govt in 2010 would not have happened, instead, due to shared commonality of certain polices many otherwise LibDems votes would have gone to Labour meaning we would have had a 4th successive Labour term.

        3. a-tracy
          February 23, 2021

          Didn’t TBP stand down their candidates Jerry and remove that choice?

          When the British public got to vote for the Brexit party in the EU elections they surprisingly won a massive majority.

          1. jerry
            February 23, 2021

            @a-tracy; TBP stood 275 candidates in the Dec. 2019 GE and received 2.9% of the vote (644,257 votes), meaning the Greens gained more votes…

            TBP did stand down in constituencies were there was a committed leave candidate from another party, which actually tells us quite a lot about how electable even TBP believed themselves to be!

    3. Javelin
      February 22, 2021

      Agreed. Government employees just sit at home eating tax funded cake while the rest of the country starves and go bankrupt.

      The only solution is to adopt a micro-Government party that cuts the Government back by 50%. Cut MPs back by 50%. If you are not on the front line in Government then get the sack. Anybody who can be legally made to leave the country then get them to leave.

      Don’t just cut to the bone amputate all the rotten limbs.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        February 23, 2021

        I’ve had two interactions with national government this week. In the first, HMCTS finally gave me a grant of probate – after some nine weeks. Not good enough. And today, the DWP answered an email sent at the beginning of January. They wanted information I had already sent to them a few weeks ago. Across the land, one administrative process entrusted to Whitehall after another, is collapsing. And my local council? Actually, it seems much better.

    4. Fedupsoutherner
      February 22, 2021

      Ian Blackford already pleading for more financial help for Scotland when they’ve just been given a further ÂŁ1b last week.

      1. a-tracy
        February 23, 2021

        It’s time England asks him why his region should get more? What extra taxes are they proposing to pay to get more?

    5. Ed M
      February 22, 2021

      @Lifelogic,

      Important as taxation is (whatever one’s argument), there is FAR MORE to Conservatism than just taxes / money / politics.

      Conservatism should embrace civilisation in general, including Education / Arts / Media – then we’d have far more people following more Conservative principles (i.e. taking more personal responsibility for self instead of relying on the State) – and then taxes would tumble down as a result.

      You’re simply over-focusing / exaggerating one area of public life (what chancellor can do regarding taxation) instead of looking at what Conservatism can achieve as a whole. And if you try and over-use politics, you end up like Prospero in The Tempest, over-exerting his power and in wrong way with negative, unintended results.

    6. Timaction
      February 22, 2021

      Indeed. We do not have a conservative Government but a left wing Tory Party. They follow all the left wing tribute issues including mass immigration, high taxation, climate change baloney, BLM and Extinction Rebellion, HS2, high welfare and social housing, regional Government and mayors. A huge lovey Lords where they place their cronies, even those who have committed what in past times would have been considered treason following the referendum, colluding with the EU. I cant see many conservative voters voting for this at the next election. No way am I supporting Doris’s ban on the ICE or gas boilers. Utter stupidity, it will bankrupt us and put us a a huge disadvantage to other Nations. Talking to an electrician and plumber this week, I don’t think many aspiring self employed have much support for “nut nut’s” plans either.

      1. JoolsB
        February 22, 2021

        +1

  4. Mark B
    February 22, 2021

    Good morning

    Who cares ? No really ! Who cares ?

    So the Scottish First Minister out does our hopeless PM with an 80 seat majority for air time. Boo-hoo !

    What the BBC decides is its business. And whether or not those that consume its output wish to continue to do so is theirs. The BBC affects little.

    But tell you what does affect me and my fellow Englishmen, is not having a parliament of our own and having to accept City Mayorships which no one wants. And who foisted Andy Burnham on the poor people of Manchester? You guessed it, the Tories. You people creates this mess and you are just going to make it worse.

    Here is a little piece of advice. The next time the other nations of our Union get upperty, rather have the PM rush off to them, why not demand they come to London and meet the Minister for their respective country. And whilst we are at it, where is England’s Minister. You could do the job. After all, were you not the Secretary of State for Wales?

    1. agricola
      February 22, 2021

      Mark, I agree in essence with your last two paragraphs, however the reason I care is that we are taxed by the BBC ,whether we like it or not. Would you pay for the Guardian to be delivered to all your neighbours, which is what you are in effect doing by legally watching anything on TV.

      1. Christine
        February 22, 2021

        We are also paying for The Guardian to be delivered to the BBC which is a backdoor subsidy to keep the left-wing rag going.

      2. Lifelogic
        February 22, 2021

        Exactly – does anyone (other than the BBC) actually pay for the Guardian?

    2. hefner
      February 22, 2021

      Mark_B, I always read your contributions with interest even if I rarely agree with them. But today I am 100% behind you.

      Sir John’s moaning is real funny, he has been a MP for thirty-three years, supposed to be influential within a number of c(C)onservative think-tanks (the Bow Group, the Bruges Group, among others) … and what has he achieved regarding today’s topics, the BBC and a voice for England? As far as I am concerned, his end-of-term report shows ‘diddly squat’.

      But that does not prevent him from continuing on his quest for the MSM, the remoaners, the whatever-he-wants-to-call-them as obstacles to his bright ideas … most of them sucked out from ‘luminaries’ like the US Newt Gingrich!

      1. Peter2
        February 22, 2021

        If you are an MP you are 1 in 650.
        Your real influence and power on government policy is minimal compared to Cabinet Ministers.
        So your post is unfair and ill founded.
        Should MP’s not push for improvements or changes to policy?
        Is this what you want Sir John to do?
        Just keep quiet instead of “moaning” as you call it?

    3. SM
      February 22, 2021

      The concept of active, rather than largely ceremonial, Mayoralties was introduced by Mr Blair/Labour. There was a Greater London referendum on this proposal, for which there was a very poor turnout, and ‘Yes’ won; Ken Livingstone was what we Londoners ended up with. The Conservative Party, then led by William Hague, argued against the concept.

      1. JoolsB
        February 22, 2021

        Manchester said they didn’t want a Mayor but one was imposed on them anyway – by a Conservative Government.

    4. graham1946
      February 22, 2021

      It’s not just mayors, but Police Fire and Crime Commissioners that need to be culled as a complete waste of money. They do no good whatsoever, policing in particular has degraded since their inception and I reckon that we could have an extra 6 coppers for each one with the cost of their salaries, assistants and offices. Same with the mayors and particularly the London one who seems determined to ruin his city. Just another layer of self serving politicians, no-one except politicians looking for a cushy berth want.

      1. M Davis
        February 22, 2021

        … Just another layer of self serving politicians, no-one except politicians looking for a cushy berth want. …

        Nail on head!

    5. NickC
      February 22, 2021

      Mark B, You are right, it is getting increasingly ridiculous that England is disregarded, downplayed and derided by useless regional politicians from Scotland and Wales, by the BBC, by the government, and by Remains desperate to cling on to the EU at any cost.

      There must be a UK referendum on the future of the UK with three options: a unified country; a federal country (where only foreign policy, defence, the UK single market, and the currency are common); or independence for England.

      1. bill brown
        February 23, 2021

        Nick C you really must move on and change your subjects with the on going agenda

        1. NickC
          February 23, 2021

          Bill, You really must move on and actually engage in a discussion.

          1. bill brown
            February 24, 2021

            I do but you still live in the past it is now 2021 and we are no longer part of the EU

    6. JoolsB
      February 22, 2021

      +1 Spot on as usual Mark B. Notice John has removed ‘speaking for England’ from his heading. The Tories are as hell bent on balkanising England into competing regions as Labour are with no national recognition whatsoever, unlike the devolved nations. No unified voice for England and no representation is the way they intend to keep it. Personally I do not see the point of voting for them anymore – anti English and fake Tories.

    7. James1
      February 22, 2021

      “What the BBC decides is its business”.

      No it’s not. As long as I am forced to pay for it it’s my business as well. I don’t want it to be my business, but their whole bloated edifice needs to be cut down to size. Their bias is so rampant and incessant, I think they should be taught a lesson that won’t soon be forgotten. Perhaps something along the lines of President Reagan’s response to the American air traffic controllers.

  5. Grey Friar
    February 22, 2021

    What a depressing whine. We have left the EU, you have got what you wanted – yet you are still not happy. You never will be. There will always be someone or something out there that you want to pretend it stopping you getting what you want

    1. agricola
      February 22, 2021

      Now we have what we want, as you obviously do not, it would make sense to remove the EUs principal tool of propaganda in the UK.

    2. Roy Grainger
      February 22, 2021

      It’s not a whine. It’s just asking that the BBC cover European politics rather than just USA politics. As a hyper-Remain organisation it is quite ironic that they have no interest at all in Europe but would rather act as if UK was a colony of the USA. You are a Remainer I assume – here’s a question for you – who has been elected to take over from Merkel as CDU leader ? You have no clue have you. Why not ?

      1. hefner
        February 22, 2021

        Armin Laschet. Only people unable to look outside the BBC or the usual newspapers would not know that. The information regarding the three CDU candidates had been able for months (and the actual election on 16/01) to anybody sufficiently interested to take off their UK-(English?) focussed glasses.
        But this type of ‘continental’ events might be out of scope for people only interested in the ‘Anglosphere’, might it not?

        Reply So why doesnt the BBC run programmes about the replacement Chancellor in Germany given how they do so much on elections in the USA.

        1. hefner
          February 22, 2021

          Not ‘able’ but ‘available’. Sorry.

        2. NickC
          February 22, 2021

          Hefner, And then we get the more extreme Remains on here telling us we must not discuss the EU.

          1. hefner
            February 22, 2021

            NickC, If one day you stop seeing all topics in terms of black and white, leavers and remainers, you may cross some epistemological divide and might start writing intelligent comments.
            Till then I am afraid your comments do not carry much weight.

        3. hefner
          February 22, 2021

          Reply to reply: I do not have an answer to this pointed question. I would have thought that you as a MP would be more able than little me to put such a question to the BBC and to get an answer from them. Are you telling me that you are such a ‘weakling’ that even being from the party with a majority of 80 you cannot bring such a question to the attention of the Secretary of State for DCMS, Oliver Dowden?

        4. bill brown
          February 23, 2021

          Sir JR,

          Nor do any of the other commercial channels in the UK

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        February 22, 2021

        Totally agree Roy. We hear hardly anything about ‘our friends in Europe ‘ and too much about USA politics . I’m not even aware of the Covid position in Europe at the moment. Nothing about illegals and not much about any elections coming up.

      3. MiC
        February 22, 2021

        But you and John only want the BBC to cover things which go wrong across the Channel, rather than the greater number which generally go better than they do here.

        He should be pleased with how it is, really.

    3. formula57
      February 22, 2021

      @ Grey Friar – It was because Sir John and others whined about the EU in the first place that we eventually won our liberation. But there was no suggestion that that was the only issue afflicting us or that as an elected representative of the people Sir John should confine his campaigning to the single issue of the Evil Empire. In the outside world new issues arise all the time, since all the world is a changing – even if in your Friary the old order changeth not perhaps?

    4. JayGee
      February 22, 2021

      Well said, Grey Friar.

    5. Sir Joe Soap
      February 22, 2021

      The only real cause for alarm is that the taxpayer backs this biased institution whether or not we watch the output. As Parliament has the option of changing this, that is where your persuasion skills must be directed.

    6. ian@Barkham
      February 22, 2021

      @Grey Friar – when did we leave the EU? The EU gets to trade with the UK on their terms. The UK must accept EU laws and rules in its own territory and is not permitted self government in the interest of any UK citizen. It is what the un-elected, un-accountable EU Commission deems as punishment for ‘trying’ to deny their rule.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        February 22, 2021

        +1

    7. Martyn G
      February 22, 2021

      Why bring the EU into the topic? Sir J’s article is about BBC bias e.g. giving better cover of Scotland but not England and largely ignoring any potentially important political and financial happenings within the EU.
      In short, so far as the BBC is concerned, it is good to highlight Scottish interests and laud the EU whilst largely ignoring English matters. I haven’t watched anything on the biased BBC TV for 2 years past, nor do I watch or record live TV, as there are many far better and more accurate news agencies out there. Mind you, I tend to not believe much that I hear or see on the media these days, since most if not all sources have their own agenda and slant their news accordingly.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        February 22, 2021

        You may not watch it but you pay for it.

    8. IanT
      February 22, 2021

      What’s this got to do with the EU – apart from Sir John’s correct observation (in my view) that the BBC is staffed by Remainers who are reluctant to throw any light on the inner workings of EU politics?

      1. hefner
        February 22, 2021

        If you want to know about the ‘inner workings of EU politics’ why not consult a site like politico.eu. And before you go saying it only reports EU propaganda, will you let me point to you that politico is an American News organisation with politico.eu their website dedicated to European affairs.
        Otherwise most of the decisions taken by the various EU27 ‘key players’ (Commission, EU Parliament, EU Council) can be found on ec.europa.eu , europarl.europa.eu, consillium.europa.eu.

        1. IanT
          February 22, 2021

          But not on the BBC Hefner – which was my point!

        2. a-tracy
          February 23, 2021

          hefner, today we are told the USA mourns 500,000 covid deaths headlines on the BBC, when did the EU pass the 500,000 covid deaths marker? I have searched politico headlines as you suggested, couldn’t find a similar one to:
          ‘U.S. surpasses 500,000 Covid deaths – POLITICOwww.politico.com â€ș news â€ș 2021/02/22 â€ș us-500-000-…
          1

          1. a-tracy
            February 23, 2021

            I would add more Brits will plan to go to the EU on holiday than the USA, we don’t know if they will all have vaccine passports? We do know what covid variants there are in the EU, do they even check as our research scientists are?

    9. NickC
      February 22, 2021

      Grey, Why do you suppose you have the right to both define what we wanted, and to judge whether we got it?

  6. Len Peel
    February 22, 2021

    Pro EU UK establishment figures – WHAT? WHO? Starmer ignores the EU, everyone ignores the LibDems. The establishment is 100% Brexit! It’s just that Brexit is rubbish

    1. NickC
      February 22, 2021

      Len P, The BBC, for a start, as JR stated. Most of the MSM – only the Express is forthrightly Leave. House of Lords, too. Labour, including Starmer, only ignores the EU because they lost – they’re still Remain. The civil service, which has undermined Brexit all the way. The universities. The establishment would still sell us out to the EU at the drop of a hat, if they could.

      1. bill brown
        February 23, 2021

        Nick C

        Boring

        1. NickC
          February 23, 2021

          What’s boring, Bill? Certainly not that our establishment would re-subjugate us to the EU at the drop of a hat. How could such a sell out be boring? Duplicitous for sure; treasonous possibly; but definitely not boring. Or did you mean that you were bored? That’s a reflection on you, not the subject.

          1. bill brown
            February 24, 2021

            No, Nick it is a reflection of you as Hefner points out seeing the world in black and white and not using a pragnatic approach and moving on from the past EU debate

    2. Fred.H
      February 22, 2021

      what ! ‘the Establishment is 90% EU supporting.

  7. agricola
    February 22, 2021

    So you do not like the BBC, nor do the majority of us english. You are in a position to do something about the BBC, we can only switch chanels. So can I suggest you actively start lobbying to remove the BBC as a tax collecting tool and consign them with all their totally inadequate news and current affairs coverage to the commercial world. Better still banish them physically to be propogandists to their banshee love north of the border. It would be interesting to see how many of their management would folkow them.

  8. jerry
    February 22, 2021

    No mention of BBC Wales nor BBC NI, I wonder why?

    So why did the govt allow the BBC to set up “BBC Scotland”, even more so considering a previous govt had already created BBC ALBA, all whilst at the same time requiring the BBC to cut back on regional broadcasting in England. Speaking of which, the lack of properly defined regions, such as our host often getting much news about the south coast but little of the M4 corridor, that is (again) the hand dealt to the broadcasters by govt and regulators, TX areas are governed by allocated RF and DVB frequencies. There was talk by a past Minister at DCMS of ultra local TV stations but since when a more recent Minister scrapped the idea.

    As for our hosts comment about the BBC news website, of course if one makes use of those silly postcode boxes the server is going to deliver (ultra) local content, that is the point of asking for a post code!
    The BBC does have a dedicated England news webpage and their RSS feed can deliver England only news. By comparison ITV’s news website offers only either UK National or regional news, Sky News only has a UK sections.

    Our host appears to be making a case for the EBC, having already secured EVEL rules for parliament, it must leave some people wondering just who is doing the better job of splitting up the UK, our host or the leader of the SNP…

  9. Andy
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC has dozens of separate TV offerings for each different region of England – as well as radio stations for each area and local websites.

    The BBC provides more coverage of European affairs than most of the right wing press. The Express publishes a bunch of predominantly untrue articles about the EU. I also read in the Mail this week Douglas Murray explaining why the EU is still going to collapse (it isn’t); Julie Birchill in The Telegraph was complaining about Remainers (we left so I am not sure what she is whinging about): Allister Heath also on The Telegraph also usually complains about the EU but last week moaned about how Conservatives are put upon. You have literally been in power for decade – despite the majority never voting for you – you have a huge majority in Parliament and have repeatedly run roughshod over everybody else but still he whines like a baby

    These papers – and most of the others – have published rubbish for decades. Repeated lies about the EU, followed by the usual hysterical xenophobia about foreigners – especially asylum seekers – and this is why we have Brexit. This is why there is border down the Irish Sea, why we have masses of new paperwork, and why we can’t sell fish.

    But it is always everybody else’s fault isn’t it?

    Tell it to the public inquiry. We are fed up with your epic whinging.

  10. Alan Jutson
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC will only change when it has to win over and retain its customers with a good service.

    That will never happen whilst it is funded automatically by all households.

    The BBC is in a very privileged position, it has abused that privilege for years now.

    1. NickC
      February 22, 2021

      Alan, That is just it – the BBC has abused its privileged tax position to peddle its pro-EU, pro-CAGW, pro-lockdowns, pro-woke propaganda. Time it was de-nationalised, perhaps with a golden share to prevent it being taken over by a foreign state.

      1. Original Richard
        February 22, 2021

        NickC : “Time it [the BBC] was de-nationalised, perhaps with a golden share to prevent it being taken over by a foreign state.”

        You’re too late, it’s already been taken over by a foreign state. First the USSR and when that failed, the EU and soon to be China.

        The incessant flow of programmes on how the planet will go up in flames is designed to instil in our children that they and our country have no future.

    2. Fred.H
      February 22, 2021

      precisely – a captive audience with Government forced income.

    3. IanT
      February 22, 2021

      I agree Alan, it acts (as do many other government agencies) without any of the usual commercial pressures such as needing to make a profit or retaining customer loyalty and repeat business. In return for these privileges it should be a truly independent and unbiased source of accurate information. In practice of course, the innate biases of the staff will tend to shine through – but this is where strong management should come in.

      Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the management is capable of the necessary (self) disciplines either….

    4. Jiminyjim
      February 22, 2021

      This statement should be repeated with ‘NHS’ replacing ‘BBC’

    5. Lifelogic
      February 22, 2021

      Exactly – they do not have “customers”. They just have victims they rob for a licence fee each year (demanded with menaces) then they use your money to pump propaganda at you!

  11. Everhopeful
    February 22, 2021

    Actually what needs to happen is what I believed (for 5 mins) Johnson was going to do. I think he said he would đŸ€”?
    Make the BBC pro English. Put pro English directors etc in place.
    Look how a compliant BBC has allowed Sturgeon daily covid briefings ( out of line with impartiality). SNP party broadcasts…DAILY! (No wonder support for independence is growing).
    We need a truly strong, conservative PM. ( Which will never happen now ).
    I imagine that both BBC England and Scotland are doing exactly what dear Boris wants!
    Funny how he can’t keep his Union consultants/advisers isn’t it?

  12. JoolsB
    February 22, 2021

    “The BBC scarcely recognises England and when asked about it usually turns to trying to break it up into artificial and unpopular regions or explores local government matters.”

    Glass houses springs to mind. You could equally accuse the UK Government of exactly the same. No recognition or mention of England but plenty for the other nations. Don’t mention England at any cost eh John? As for Sturgeon

    “England gets the UK news product, complete with plenty of exposure to Nicola Sturgeon, a person we cannot vote for nor remove from office.”

    And England gets a U.K. manifesto whilst the devolved nations get their own. Also England could have a Labour/SNP Government foist on its the future with Nicola Sturgeon as Deputy PM. This could happen even if England voted Tory.

    Yes the BBC is anti-English but so is the U.K. Government, a Tory one at that.

    1. JoolsB
      February 22, 2021

      John, every time I write a comment accusing your Governent of its anti Englishness it stays in moderation for days. My Conservative MP is the same and refuses to accept there is a problem. Very disappointing. England deserves better.

  13. Old Albion
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC is long past it’s sell by date. It was (and still is) a mouthpiece for the EU and all views Left of centre. Scrap the licence fee and let it survive (or die) on it’s own merits.
    Of course the failure to recognise England falls at the Gov. feet. Like all Govs. since 1998, yours has not recognised the existence of England.
    Your Gov. still believes there is a Union of Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland and the UK.

    1. Fred.H
      February 22, 2021

      the Union is a ragtail of sewn together bits of old cloth purporting to be a fine weave.
      Instead of valuing and protecting, political division is steadily unpicking the ancient stitching and letting the pieces fall apart. So be it.

    2. JoolsB
      February 22, 2021

      +1 Despite the Tory party relying on English votes for their existence they treat the English with contempt. The biggest mystery is why we keep on voting for them.

  14. Everhopeful
    February 22, 2021

    Anyway..why are you bothered about Scottish TV when Johnson has paved the way for probably about 3 million illegal immigrants to get amnesty? Is that why the boats are being ignored?
    Give them an NHS number via vaccination and a Dr who will vouch for them. And then the digital identity thing. Sorted!
    He was itching to do similar when he was mayor of London.
    How does the Tory party manage to choose such leaders??

    1. Everhopeful
      February 22, 2021

      Oh yes…and not to mention the fact that we are waiting like starving supplicants to hear whether the above individual just might cede some of our rights back to us.
      Don’t ponder over BBC inequities!!

    2. hefner
      February 22, 2021

      EH, In July 2019 the Tory MPs gave us the choice between Mr Johnson and Mr Hunt. Two-thirds (66.4%) of the Conservative Party members who voted then chose Mr Johnson (92,153) and not Mr Hunt (46,656) out of a 87.4% turn-out of the potential 160,000 Conservative Party members.
      What are you complaining about?

      1. Everhopeful
        February 22, 2021

        I want JR to be PM!!
        That’s what I am complaining about!!
        So there!!!đŸ˜«
        And don’t try to be rational ….because I don’t feel remotely rational.

      2. NickC
        February 22, 2021

        Hefner, And what are you complaining about?

        1. hefner
          February 22, 2021

          Nothing, just stating a fact. Is that now forbidden?

        2. bill brown
          February 23, 2021

          Nick C

          we are all complaining about lack of competent choice

          1. NickC
            February 23, 2021

            Well, that certainly applies to your EU empire, Bill.

        3. bill brown
          February 24, 2021

          NickC

          Use arguments not silly questions to convey your message it would serve you better

      3. Fred.H
        February 22, 2021

        lack of competent choice?

  15. Roy Grainger
    February 22, 2021

    Off topic: When Boris reveals his lockdown lifting plan today he should also publish the predictions from the Imperial College, Warwick, and other models which show what they predict will happen to cases, hospitalisations and deaths with this exact sequence of lifting. So then we can see once and for all how accuracte their models are. To date (with one exception in Wales) we’ve only seen them predict scenarios which never happened (ie. projections of what would happen with no lockdowns). He won’t do this of course, but it would be instructive.

    1. Caterpillar
      February 22, 2021

      Roy Grainger,

      We have already seen the models are extremely inaccurate, they should certainly not be given another chance to gain credibility. Our dear leader should go out of his way to stress the modelling is junk.

  16. Newmania
    February 22, 2021

    Redwood whinges on about the lack of an English voice but contributes nothing to a new constitutional settlement whereby England can have a voice. Our worm eaten constitution is self evidently unfair to English voters in several ways . Firstly due to the asymmetric distribution powers known as the West Lothian Question .Secondly, and more importantly the farcical over representation of regionally cohesive constituencies over general opinion. That left UKIP with no MPs and the SNP with about 50 . a complete nonsense
    Both issues should be addressed by an English only second chamber elected on a 50% (lets say) PR basis and in general our dysfunctional constitution is more appropriate for Gilbert and Sullivan than for running a modern State .
    He will not give up a State Broadcaster than can be threatened an blackmailed any more than he will give up his cosy sinecure or the comfortable isolation for which he tell us all to go out and get the virus in trains schools and offices
    As for free speech , you try getting ay anti Redwood comment published … on his site . You are free to agree with him.

  17. Robert McDonald
    February 22, 2021

    I have to disagree. I think it is reasonable for a news outlet to show regional matters of import, and Covid is interest to us all. The Welsh and Scottish daily updates communicate with the widest possible uk audience, and there are many exile Scots and Welsh and Irish who wish to keep up with the status of their home land, and of course the government has the same opportunity in reverse and does a very good job in communicating the challenging and disturbing news constructively. Ok, Sturgeon does milk it, but many Scots see that as we are not fools. There are many many reasons to criticise the BBC, costs, method of paying, criminalising non payment, Lineker’s annual bung, bias, poor standard of output …. the inability to decide you don’t want to pay for it being of course the big issue. But BBC Scotland, poor fare though it is, is not one … STV news has a better audience than the BBC news.
    Who cares what is happening in the old EU and why should we get regular updates on their chaos, highlights are enough.

  18. James1
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC should remember that the first ‘B’ stands for British and not Brussels. Their funding should also reflect 21st century values and be based on a subscription model. It is inequitable that anyone should be forced to pay for a ‘service’ they do not use, not to mention that they might profoundly disagree with the rubbish that is unrelentingly trotted out.

  19. Bryan Harris
    February 22, 2021

    You have shown all too clearly why most of us think the BBC has it’s own agenda.

    It doesn’t inform us, it lectures us on what they want us to think about – they have not been a news provider for some decades, they have been a tool of the left establishment, always ready to walk us a bit closer to socialist heaven.

    I fear it will do no good in remonstrating with the BBC, it has a thick skin, and certainly would not change it’s ways for the likes of us, particularly when it feels it does such a great job.

  20. ian@Barkham
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC like most of the MsM do have agendas, but for the most part they are lead by the media releases handed to them. BBC Scotland is feed by an extreme dictatorial left wing administration, they think like the BBC. So a press release by the Scots Administration fits the BBC’s agenda. It is also the reasoning behind the Scots First Minister having disproportionate voice on the BBC UK News generally. A country that has a smaller population and GDP than Yorkshire gets an equal voice to that of the whole of the rest of the UK.

    In-partial and un-biased – pull the other one!

    Taxpayer funding for a political voice may go down well in some quarters, but in a fair reasonable and rational democratic society if taxpayer funding is created for agendas it should also be available to all view.

  21. No Longer Anonymous
    February 22, 2021

    Of lockdown, the BBC street interviews are always of people who agree with it or seem to think that it’s not going far enough. Where are the interviews with people who disagree ?

    In a recently murdered high street with clubs, pubs, cinemas, swimming pools, gyms, restaurants boarded up the interviewees will nearly always be chirpy (one suspects state employee) and one who says something like “Oh well. Very sad but it’s for the best.”

    They then often asked of people who agreed with lockdown why they thought that the R rate was going up (as it was at the time) and the answer would always be “Because people aren’t wearing their masks as they should and the lockdown is not strict enough.”

    Well. Where I am everyone wears their masks as they should. And we have gone through what looks like a strict lockdown to me – I’ve not been out or seen anyone for months. So, instead of asking pro lockdown interviewees their opinion on why the R rate was going up why weren’t BBC reporters asking people who weren’t wearing masks ? One suspects it was because they couldn’t find any and it wouldn’t have suited the narrative.

    There is more than a little “kill the Tories, kill Trump, kill capitalism, kill Brexit” behind all this too.

  22. Ed M
    February 22, 2021

    Apologies, didn’t mean to suggest people who want to get rid of the BBC lack imagination / creativity overall. But I do think on this particular issue they do.

    I love the BBC – or the concept of / the many great programmes its done in the BBC (Pride & Prejudice, comedy programmes, documentaries, Life of Birds, cricket, Wimbledon etc). The BBC to me is a great British icon like the mini, Jane Austen, Big Ben, strawberries and ice-cream, Wimbledon and Worcestershire Sauce.

    I agree with everyone here that it’s got lots of lefties / social liberals. This is unacceptable when it comes to trying to use the BBC as a platform for Socialism / Social Liberalism (I hate both as heresies – but not the people behind them). So let’s just scale down the political side of the BBC. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Also, lefties have always been tied up with the arts. That’s OK as long as they don’t use their arts to communicate socialism / socialism liberalism. Plus we should try and encourage more Tories to go into the Arts (Jane Austen was a Conservative – at least in the spirit of what she wrote).

  23. turboterrier
    February 22, 2021

    Having lived and had a business in Scotland for many years the one thing that became very clear is the normal sensible headed Scottish person the idea of independence is not what the SNP are flogging. They are doing untold damage and have created couldrons filled with hate and poison in an effort to achieve their goal. The Project Fear run against Brexit was just a tea party to what is always just bubbling under the surface. Toned down when they write for a ÂŁ95b bail out as reported on today’s DE on line. They are very clever not to completely bit the hand of the English but keep nipping away.
    BBC Scotland sucks it all in and it is always doom and gloom, wind in your face reporting. Never hard hitting questions about the major areas of failure after 10 years of power. The reporting by the BBC the morning after the no result was announced ,not one mention of the billions that transferred electrically out of the country feared of a SNP victory. Any country can rule Scotland as long as it is not the English.
    But the canny Scots know where the real money comes from.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 22, 2021

      Absolutely right Turbo.

  24. No Longer Anonymous
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC and Ms Sturgeon have often used each other to determine the pandemic response in the UK.

    So what if the vaccine doesn’t work ? What happens then ?

    1. ChrisS
      February 22, 2021

      The vaccines do work ! Can you not read ???

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        February 22, 2021

        So then there should be no doubt about us coming out of lock down. Unfortunately there is doubt about it.

        Variants.

        So what if variants render the vaccines redundant ?

        What is the plan then ?

    2. Fred.H
      February 22, 2021

      a lot more of us will die.

  25. ukretired123
    February 22, 2021

    The Brussels Broadcast Corps needs putting out of its misery.
    If you want to know what is really happening as I do look elsewhere esp world news. Even France 24 has more information than dumbed down BBC! I realised this when working in France 10 years ago. When you hear the BBC by contrast it is targeted at a narrow minority metropolitan republic sector audience agnostic to private sector enterprise.
    As an example Jeremy Corbyn and Dianne Abbott and their followers got more airtime in the last 10 years than anything worthwhile. “Made in the Factory” is the nearest one gets to reality.

  26. Denis Cooper
    February 22, 2021

    The most pressing problem for the Union, that is to say the British Union rather than the European Union, is not Scotland but Northern Ireland, where unionists are starting legal actions to overturn Boris Johnson’s crazy Brexit arrangements:

    https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-deal-northern-ireland-protocol-dup-complaint/

    I haven’t yet been through and checked whether either of the Acts of Parliament to approve the Withdrawal Agreement and the trade treaty expressly states that they shall apply notwithstanding the 1800 Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland, but supposing that they don’t say that and supposing that the Supreme Court holds that this is part of our constitution and is not susceptible to implied repeal, would Tory MPs then vote for a short Bill to make explicit Parliament’s intention that Brexit should break up the country?

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 22, 2021

      https://www.brexit-watch.org/why-weve-taken-legal-steps-against-hmg-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol

      “Why we’ve taken legal steps against HMG on the Northern Ireland Protocol”

      1. Know-Dice
        February 22, 2021

        Denis, many thanks for a sane analysis of the Northern Ireland situation. Too many quote what they think that the Belfast Agreement says without actually reading it.

    2. Grey Friar
      February 22, 2021

      It really doesn’t matter what the Supreme Court of the House of Commons does. The Protocol is part of a binding international Treaty – the EU/UK Withdrawal Agreement – and the UK is stuck with it. And President Biden will make very sure of that

      1. Denis Cooper
        February 23, 2021

        Oh dear, are you saying that your daddy is bigger than my daddy?

        This is why we have a diplomatic service, they just have to be told to put our case to foreign governments rather than continuing to go along with the rubbish spread by the Irish government and the EU.

      2. NickC
        February 23, 2021

        Grey, Just as sovereignty confers the right of a state to make an agreement with another state, so it enables a state to “un-make”, or abrogate, an agreement.

  27. Denis Cooper
    February 22, 2021

    Relevant to the above, here is a short letter I have sent to our local paper:

    “Prime Minister Boris Johnson told us that his trade deal with the EU was worth ÂŁ660 billion a year.

    Given that in 2019 the whole UK economy was worth ÂŁ2169 billion, that would be 30.4 percent of GDP.

    But now the EU has estimated that the deal is worth only 0.75% of GDP, or ÂŁ16 billion a year, to the UK.

    So what if a Tory Prime Minister has over-stated the value of a European trade deal by a factor of forty?

    Gross exaggeration of any economic benefit has been a consistent pattern for the Tory party for six decades, ever since Harold Macmillan sent Edward Heath to try to get us into the European federal project masquerading as an innocuous “Common Market”.

    However the question remains: what concessions did Boris Johnson make to secure this low value deal?

    As the most obvious example, did they include betrayal of our fellow UK citizens in Northern Ireland?”

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 22, 2021

      And just a reminder of the question posed in a comment published here last November:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/11/07/what-do-free-trade-agreements-add/#comment-1069397

      “So is it not the case that a UK-EU FTA may have only a marginal economic impact but Boris Johnson has staked the integrity of the UK on getting one?”

    2. Old Salt
      February 22, 2021

      Denis-
      As one Martin Selmayr once said “The price the UK would have to pay would be the loss of Northern Ireland.”

  28. ChrisS
    February 22, 2021

    We will never get fair treatment of English matters until our politicians recognise England as a separate Country as they do Wales, NI and Scotland.

    It comes back to the most basic of democratic principles : why do we not have English MPs sitting as an English Parliament to decide on all English-only matters ? Is the government scared of upsetting Scottish members ? The SNP are overwhelmingly anti-English so it would hardly make things worse.

    I believe the problem will be solved sooner rather than later when the Scots hold a second referendum when they will probably vote to leave. Unlike Brexit, it will be a clear vote for self-harm, such is the dire state of the Scottish economy. No matter, English taxpayers will be at least ÂŁ12bn a year better off and we will be rid Sturgeon and all the carping from Blackford and his deeply unimpressive SNP crew at Westminster.

    Sir John : perhaps you could put this to the Government :
    When Boris and Hancock hold their Press conferences to report on the pandemic in England, why are they not standing in front of the flag of St. George ? After all, they are exclusively reporting on the pandemic in England as they have no responsibility for health matters outside of our Country. At the very least they should have both the Union and English flags behind them.

    1. ChrisS
      February 22, 2021

      I see that Blackford was allowed to contribute to questions on the Prime Minister’s statement on the future handling of the Pandemic in ENGLAND, this afternoon. He came in immediately after the response from the leader of the opposition.
      Blackford was given this privilege ahead of Jeremey Hunt, the current Chair of the Health Select Committee
      and Ed Davy, leader of the Lib Dems. Shortly after, the Westminster Leader of Plaid Cymru was allowed to speak, yet neither her party nor the SNP puts up candidates in England, nor does the Government have any responsibility for heathcare in Scotland or Wales.

      Why is this allowed ????

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      February 22, 2021

      Great point Chris especially when Sturgeon is so intent on flying the EU flag.

  29. A.Sedgwick
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC is in the big basket of how can this be and why does a fair and logical government not correct.

    2022 is its centenary, originally funded by the user from 1923 with radio fee and 1946 TV fee came in. 1955 saw ITV launched with a separate aerial. The world then changed for them and has continued to do so. The BBC, however has not, just become larger, more political and more generous with other people’s money.

    The reality, known to them and Government, is it would essentially collapse if subjected to technology and free choice.

  30. Julian Flood
    February 22, 2021

    Sir John,

    You write ‘no place in our history to draw from’.

    The push to establish the Eastern Region as a separate part of England happened during my brief political career. The Conservative group was generally keen, Labour avid, LibDems anxious to show their loyalty to the EU, and the council officers were ready to bite your hand off for a chance to have a bigger trough at which to feed. We fought it at every turn with the help of several honourable individuals from all parties.. To that end we contacted likeminded individuals in all adjoining counties and exchanged ideas and contacts.

    It was only late in the process that we realised that the counties involved made up the old Eastern Association. It would be nice to think that capitulation was avoided when the powers that be (Mr Osborne in particular) noticed that we were the grouping that produced Cromwell, but perhaps not: that would have required a knowledge of English history.

    We won without assembling the plain, russet-coated Captains that know what they fight for and love what they know (in spite of what you call Gentlemen and are nothing else) which was a relief. It was an EU plan to divide and rule, an attempt to change the political landscape to a patchwork of squabbling minor powers. Will the Scots notice that the same trick is being played on them?

    JF

  31. glen cullen
    February 22, 2021

    BBC not fit for purpose and its funding model is 1950s

    The BBC needs to be sold off and privatised and funds returned to taxpayer

    1. MiC
      February 22, 2021

      The BBC, bar news, is almost completely out-sourced to the private sector.

      It fell over itself to embrace Tory doctrine, with outstanding zeal.

      It closed its defined benefit pension scheme for new members, and relentlessly propagated the idea that such schemes were intrinsically unaffordable anywhere. The Continent gives that lie away – which might be why the BBC doesn’t talk much about it.

      There is virtually nothing left to sell.

      1. Fred.H
        February 23, 2021

        in that case why does it get ÂŁ5bn per year? Close it – Save money.

  32. Original Richard
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC is ashamed of the UK, England in particular, because of its history (Empire = oppression, Industrial Revolution = Anthropological global warming) and because it sees it today as still “hideously white” and racist and consequently the UK should be broken up and subsumed into a European and/or Global government.

    Consequently the news it broadcasts is highly selective and just as it reports very little European news now that Biden has replaced Trump as President you will find that the only USA news will be the reporting of natural disasters to advance its GW agenda.

    The BBC certainly won’t be broadcasting any lengthy Biden interviews.

  33. Elizabeth Spooner
    February 22, 2021

    There are a lot of Scots in the BBC huge parliamentary team – as well as Scotland having its own political team and a separate channel. Andrew Marr is an influential figure in the BBC who frequently mentions his Scottishness and has Nicola Sturgeon on his show, more often than he has any Southern English Councillors from a County or Unitary Authority.
    South Today the “local” news programme is a bit of a joke often just an echo chamber of the main news. I doubt if any of its journalists has ever covered local political issues.
    You are quite right about the imbalance of BBC reporting of US politics over EU ones. This applies even more to Sky News and to a lesser extent ITN.

  34. Iain Moore
    February 22, 2021

    Fed up of hearing Scottish BBC presenters talking to Scottish politicians over devolution and not dealing with the constitutional implications for England , it particularly irked me to hear Kirtsy Wark imperiously declare…. ‘of course the English don’t want devolution’… I took this issue up with the BBC asking… where is the English voice in this ? There being a BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but no BBC England.

    For some reason, via email, I got put through to the person who was designing the website for England , he disarmingly said…. ‘I am Welsh, any input to culturally identify the English would be helpful’…Clearly the BBC’s cultural sensitives does not extend towards the English.

    Next stop with my complaint was with a lady with a very foreign name whose job title was ‘Head of Diversity and English Regions’ , which rather than dispelling my concerns somewhat heightened them for here was England a regional after thought after diversity.

    In the end, to shut me up, the BBC sent me a document…. ‘Devolution , The BBC’s Programme Response’…. yet again the BBC, rather than assuaging my concerns, did the opposite , and confirmed that the BBC has no sense of there being an England, and can’t even be embarrassed into accepting that there is an England , for in this 20 page document mentions Scotland some 83 times, about the Scottish news programmes they were doing to lay on, about the mobile news crews etc , England it mentioned 3 times, and only in a regional context.

    In the intervening years nothing has changed, the BBC still sees England as no more than a place of regions. The failure to give us a voice has meant the British establishment have had an easy time discriminating against the English. The BBC cannot be embarrassed into giving England a voice, it cannot be shamed into it either, it cannot be reformed , the only way the English will get a voice is if an English broadcasting entity is created, and we choose where we buy our licence fee, the BBC or the say EBC, creating a market
    and that may get us out of BBC’s closed shop, and moving towards a subscription service.

  35. bill brown
    February 22, 2021

    Sir JR,

    Interesting article on the bias of the BBC, which you of course is against you own persuasions.
    The fact that the government parties of a number of European countries are small is the reason for so many coalition governments.
    But if I look at Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden this has been the case for years, so I am thought of wondering, what your argument is on what you wish the BBC to cover in terms of European government parties?

    Reply I wish to hear balanced and informed re[porting of their governments and politics. Why are pro EU people in the UK so keen to keep everything EU countries and the EU do a secret? The bust up in the Italian coalition and the drama over finding a successor for Merkel are interesting and important so why do we not get the same sort of reports as we do about Trump and Biden?

    1. MiC
      February 22, 2021

      It’s great, the way that Draghi has got even Salvini to accept a pro-European Union position, isn’t it, John?

      Your party’s brexit utter shambles made that far easier for him, I think.

    2. Fred.H
      February 22, 2021

      reply to reply….But news from over the pond can be much more entertaining – circus like. More detail about Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden much more likely to result in the off switch being pressed.

      1. hefner
        February 23, 2021

        Fred.H, agreed. The ‘entertainment’ value is certainly a criterion of choice in reporting news from abroad.
        When the ‘gilets jaunes’ were all over the place in France we had reports in most of the UK MSM, BBC included in particular from Lucy Williamson their French correspondent (29/11/2018, 06/12/2018, 11/12/2018, 14/12/2018, 05/01/2019, 12/01/2019, 15/01/2019, 18/01/2019, 31/01/2019, 07/02/2019, 16/11/2019, all these dates corresponding to BBC reports still available on the web).
        It is a similar story with the German anti-lockdown demonstrations. The BBC had reports on 01/08/2020, 29/08/2020, 30/08/2020.

    3. bill brown
      February 23, 2021

      Sir JR,

      There is no story of a cover up as a European , I believe it must be because the audience are not interested, but your note on the governing parties in Europe being small is really very old news and not worth repeating.

      1. a-tracy
        February 23, 2021

        Maybe you are correct Bill but when today’s headlines are the USA surpasses 500,000 covid deaths where were the headlines when the EU surpassed 500,000 covid deaths and we are comparing 50 States with 27 EU member states.

        A quick count of the notified deaths from just 19 EU member states comes to 530,000.
        Don’t you want to know how Italy and France only have 95,718 deaths and 83,393 when the same set of stats say the UK has 120,580 deaths and they were ahead in deaths? Was allowing holidays abroad all summer long deadly to us. Was the counting methods changed second wave? I want to know their total deaths last year compared to us and the previous five-year averages.

  36. Mactheknife
    February 22, 2021

    John, its not just matter political that the BBC is biased in favour of. Just think about climate change where they have publicly said they will not give those questioning it a voice. Just look up BBC 28 gate on the web.
    I think Mr Whittingdale had an opportunity to address the BBC as a whole a few years ago within his review but opted for the status quo.
    Trying to complain to the BBC is pointless and the twist and turns trying to explain their actions in response to a complaint are that of a contortionist. I was heartened by the comments of Mr Davie on his arrival as the DG, but so far apart from a new social media policy its business as usual – anti-UK, anti-government, anti-Brexit, pro-EU, Pro-lockdown and it goes on.
    You are an MP and I’m sure there are many like-minded MP’s and its high time you did something about it.

  37. a-tracy
    February 22, 2021

    I think it is important that rather than just blanket criticism you actually prove your point of view as you’ve started to do in this post. It is odd, after looking this morning to see for myself, that the BBC News reports front page on the US & Canada ‘Texas urged to pay residents’ cold weather bills. US & Canada ‘Airlines ground Boeing 777s after engine failure’. Nothing on Europe.

    In World – front page articles on US & Canada, Asia, US & Canada, Australia, Latin America, Middle East, Asia, Asia, India, China, Africa, at 1023 nothing about the EU – never noticed before.

    You have to go to Reuters to discover ‘Germany urges EU to prepare sanctions on Russia over Navalny’. ‘French city of Nice asks tourists to stay away amid COVID surge’. I had a quick look over the free newspapers and the Mail and the Express report that ‘French and German citizens reject AstraZeneca vaccine after Macron scaremongering’ ‘Only 150,000 out of 1.5million doses of the jab had been used in Germany on Friday, with many deliberately skipping appointments after learning they would receive the Oxford jab.’ 1130am not a peep on the BBC. ‘German supermarket Aldi tops the UK Which guide The German discount chain scored 73 per cent under customer satisfaction after 3,037 members of the public rated their shopping experience.’ Not even a piece on ‘Five people are feared to have died and hundreds more including children made ill after eating chicken imported from Poland that was contaminated with salmonella. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a warning over the consumption of two products from SFC chicken and Vestey Foods’ Chick Inn nuggets.’ And the UK are stopped from sending meat products to Northern Ireland so this is quite topical!

  38. Your comment is awaiting moderation
    February 22, 2021

    BBC Licence Fee evasion accounts for about one third of convictions of females. Looks like a clear case of gender discrimination.

  39. Christine
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC along with the majority of the mainstream media is totally biased and stokes up hate and division with their endless propaganda. Even TV programs like Countryfile have become unwatchable with their Woke and biased agenda. This Government has failed to protect the people living in England. Your party has given far too much power to the devolved assemblies and city mayors. The more power you give them the more they use it for their own hateful agenda. You are funding the destruction of our culture, history and way of life.

    As I’ve said before we the people own and fund the BBC and should have similar rights to shareholders with a say on how the company is run. Especially the levels of pay they give themselves.

  40. bigneil(newercomp)
    February 22, 2021

    The BBC could not be more biased if it tried. On it’s radio phone-ins anyone who shows disagreement to what the Beebs says – is cut short, plain and simple. Anyone agreeing – carry on sir/madam. Brexiteers were called SHEEP nearly 5 years ago. Now anyone deciding against the virus – even putting in totally valid arguments – is put on air just short of “having to go to the weather/road report/etc” – yet once they have cut them off – the show can take several other callers who do NOT get cut off – purely because their view is “ok”. The weather/road reports suddenly vanish. The Biased BS Broadcasting Company is way past its time.

  41. Malcolm White
    February 22, 2021

    The only reason that I have supported the BBC licence fee is because there are no puerile adverts for stuff I have no intention of buying and some of the entertainment and nature content is worth watching. Though some of the so-called ‘comedy’ programmes leave a lot to be desired.

    However, even these are now being infiltrated by pc culture and climate change activism to the point where the BBC’s world view is constantly projected as fact with no counterpoint or opportunity for debate.

    A factual presentation of world news and affairs, without a commentary on what I should be thinking, is all I want or need in a news channel.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      February 22, 2021

      There are adverts all the time on the BBC. Celebrity chat shows promoting films and books, chefs, musicians and so often ‘the chosen’ rather than those coming up by their own merits – and the nepotism is utterly rife.

      1. hefner
        February 23, 2021

        NLA, Let me guess, you are also very angry about how various Covid-19 contracts have recently been distributed all around to friends of friends in the CUP.

  42. Julian
    February 22, 2021

    Many of the regional BBC services make no sense geographically e.g. the ‘South’ goes from the Isle of Wight to Banbury. Banbury is most cetainly Midlands. ‘South East’ does not include London etc..

  43. john McDonald
    February 22, 2021

    Dear Sir, You don’t seem to appreciate that the Scots are an ethnic minority, not very strong and not able to speak for themselves. The BBC (LLBC the Liberal Left Broadcasting Company) feels it must speak for them and allow them more time, and kick the English or ignore their views. The BBC under reports any shortcomings of the SNP , in Health Care, Crime prevention, drug addiction, and a few other things
    But highlights any issues with the Westminster Government standing in for the “English Parliament”
    Whether people like it or not, England is just much bigger than Scotland, a bit warmer and has more people and opportunities. That’s England’s crime in the eyes of the BBC and therefore should not have a voice as it is not a minority group of people. The BBC goes out of it’s way to divide the UK .

  44. Ignoramus
    February 22, 2021

    To get TV news about the rest of the world, including anything important in the UK, strongly recommend Al Jazeera. I no longer watch BBC news other than to catch the headlines but mainly for the weather forecasts.

    1. Fred.H
      February 22, 2021

      Weather forecasts are total opinion, not fact – take with a pinch of salt.

  45. hefner
    February 22, 2021

    If the AZ vaccine (or any other) doesn’t work, can you please explain how this is the responsibility of the BBC and Ms Sturgeon. Could it have anything to do with the scientists who develop it, the DHSC and MHRA that gave the (temporary) authorisation to use it, or the Government so keen on the UK being the first country with a vaccine being rolled out to the population?

  46. London Nick
    February 22, 2021

    If you are a patriotic unionist, as I am, then surely the problem is not that the BBC does not have more England-centric programming, but that it has too much Scottish-centric stuff. The UK is ONE country, and should be treated as such. There should be NO separate programming for different regions – because that is how we should view and call England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: REGIONS, not countries.

    But the truth is that sadly, neither Boris, nor most Conservatives, really care about Scotland leaving the Union. Look at the fuss that Boris made when the BBC proposed dropping the patriotic elements of the Last Night of the Proms (Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, etc). But not a squeak out of him about the fact that the BBC dropped these elements from their coverage of the proms in Scotland years ago! Why aren’t the Scots exposed to anything that’s patriotically pro-BRITISH? Why aren’t you – and Boris, and DCMS – complaining to the BBC about that???

    1. Will in Hampshire
      February 22, 2021

      Hey Nick, you should apply for a job in the European Commission – everyone says they love supra-nationalists like you!

  47. Diane
    February 22, 2021

    I’d be grateful if our national broadcaster might try to keep up with other outlets reporting what for many in England is concerning, e.g. today, namely, the numbers of illegal arrivals into Dover overnight, more than 50 reportedly and quite an extensive report elsewhere. Brought into Dover, handed over midway across channel by French authorities. Unless I’m mistaken at time of writing nothing on the BBC site yet.

  48. kb
    February 22, 2021

    Agree with this Sir John. The other week whilst I was working at home, Nicola Sturgeon was given more BBC airtime than all other politicians put together. It certainly seemed that way anyhow.
    There is also no real criticism of Scottish Nationalism, despite it being open to the same accusations levelled at Brexiters: hatred of the English, being divisive, delusional economic promises, petty nationalism etc.
    The coverage given to US politics is many times that given to European politics, although now they have got their way with Trump’s removal, the storm of critical coverage has noticeably abated.
    However, your government has run scared of tackling the BBC in any way. It certainly needs tackling, but your government simply continues to pander to the BBC belief system.

  49. Mark Thomas
    February 22, 2021

    Sir John,
    My only regular encounter with BBC television is via the Parliament channel which I use as a default channel. So it is the channel I see when I turn my television on. All too often this results in the sight and sound of Nicola Sturgeon droning on in the Scottish parliament, which seems to be deliberately disproportionate. Even the dire proceedings of the EU Parliament are more engaging. As Scottish politics and pro-EU Gaelic language programmes are of no relevance to me, one could be excused for thinking that the BBC are pushing an agenda.

  50. Original Richard
    February 22, 2021

    Our Universities have been accepting Chinese money for some time.

    We now learn that Chinese firms, some run by high ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party, are buying private schools in the UK, who through the Covid-19 pandemic are struggling financially, and using these schools to teach a sanitised version of Chinese history and politics.

    It is not a surprise therefore that our educational establishments are promoting communist propaganda, denigrating our country and its history and intent on curtailing free speech.

    The BBC is composed of their graduates.

    1. David Brown
      February 22, 2021

      Get rid of private schools – simple

      1. Fred.H
        February 23, 2021

        and for all religions?

    2. Old Salt
      February 23, 2021

      From what I read there are some alarming quantities of investment monies from China coming into distressed companies and other organisations in this country and others in anticipation of a return. We would appear to be sleepwalking towards communism.

  51. Jiminyjim
    February 22, 2021

    Sir John, the elephant in the room is the ‘West Lothian Question’. Your party included a commitment to deal with this in a manifesto several years ago. What on earth are you waiting for? Please justify to us why Scottish MPs can vote to alter laws that affect only England, when English MPs cannot vote to alter laws that affect only Scotland. It is nonsense and has been a sword in the side of democratic justice for many years.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 22, 2021

      Never a truer word spoken Jim.

  52. The Prangwizard
    February 22, 2021

    I agree although I am concerned more about the question of how England is treated than the EU and European countries.

    The neglect of England is grievous and the BBC must change, but nothing much will happen on the strength of mere debate and the airing of views like this no matter how valid.

    After all the BBC is behaving entirely in line with the UK government and of course the Tory party neither of which desire or dare recognise England. They are however happy to appease the Scots and Welsh demands at the same time as they betray Northern Ireland.

    If they follow ‘Boris’ they are hostile towards national identity. He sneers at Scottish nationalism because he wants the Union to survive. It follows that he will have the same hatred of English nationalism, and probably would be even more extreme to anyone promoting it. I fear they would be oppressed.

    Thus we cannot get change at the BBC unless we get change within the Tory party and the Tory government.

  53. ian@Barkham
    February 22, 2021

    What some refer to as a BBC licence fee is simply a tax. It is levied and collected by simply having purchased a TV regardless of whether the BBC is watched or not. All taxes levied against UK citizens should at all times be subject to democratic scrutiny and accountability. Our Parliament imposes taxes on us all, our MP’s get to be regularly elected and maintain their privalaged through the will of the people. Our MP’s in accepting taxpayer wages and funding have to be transparent on their other interests.

    It follows that the BBC as servants of the taxpayer they are employed by taxpayer, that also follows that it should be the taxpayer that elects the Board at the BBC. It then follows that any content paid for by the UK taxpayer that expresses a view that is shown by the BBC should also be transparent in the wages, fees, and interest of those involved in its production and delivery.

    The BBC can’t call for accountability, or remark on how others go about their business unless as servants of the taxpayer the reciprocate.

  54. Original Richard
    February 22, 2021

    The reason the BBC is pro Scottish independence and always talking about “communities” in England is because they want to see the balkanisation of the UK.

    1. Old Salt
      February 22, 2021

      Original Richard-
      Could it be they are acting on behalf of their EU friends?

  55. hefner
    February 22, 2021

    In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, an interesting article published today 22/02/2021 ‘The cognitive and perceptual correlates of ideological attitudes: a data-driven approach’ by L. Zmigrod et al.

    Just a sentence out of the conclusion: ‘A wholistic, domain-general approach to the relationship between ideology and cognition can therefore offer a valuable foundation for research on the psychological roots of intergroup attitudes, xenophobia and ideological extremism, illustrating the myriad ways in which subtle variations in mental processes can predispose individuals to ideological worldviews’.

    Stated otherwise (and somewhat rephrased by me, I guess) it is not necessary to be dumb to be far-right-inclined but it helps.

    1. Peter2
      February 23, 2021

      The obvious logic that your quotation also equally applies to the far left is something (I guess) you have not considered.

      1. MiC
        February 23, 2021

        Perhaps, but the far Left isn’t being helped by the lion’s share of the media though, is it?

        Nor are any such groups an immediate threat, storming democratically-elected assemblies and so on?

        1. Peter2
          February 24, 2021

          The lion’s share of media ?
          BBC news, Channel 4 news, Channel 5 news, Guardian, Mirror, Observer, FT, Economist, New Stateman, Sky news, BBC radio 4 news, are just a few major players in the media which are not right wing.
          PS
          I note you missed out the campaign of violence in USA which has been going on for many months by Antifa and BLM street mobs.
          Storming City Halls, Court buildings and Police Stations commiting arson, looting and many violent attacks on people they disagree with.

      2. hefner
        February 23, 2021

        P2, fair enough comment: however I am not aware of so many far-left extremists embracing anti-immigrants, anti-foreigners, anti-climate change, anti-EU, anti-renewable energy, anti-benefits system, anti-EVs, … whereas I would think this type of opposition to one, most or all of the above seems much more prevalent on the (far)-right side of the political spectrum.

        Is that simply something I get from reading this blog and the Daily Express website every morning?

        1. Peter2
          February 24, 2021

          Your list of policy views you assume all on the right of centre agree with is irrelevant Hefner.
          Your quote seeks to label all those with right of centre views as inferior.
          It is a habit by those on the left who assume for themselves an intellectual and moral superiority.

  56. G Hetherington
    February 22, 2021

    If the BBC is wedded to the small regional model, why not follow its lead and break the Corporation up into small regional broadcasters?

  57. acorn
    February 22, 2021

    As this site has more than its fair share of denialist commenters, an article in the Guardian on “People with extremist views less able to do complex mental tasks, research suggests” will be of interest. Naturally, its contents will be automatically denied here.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      February 22, 2021

      Lifelogic is an Oxbridge STEM graduate, if that’s what you’re saying.

    2. Peter2
      February 22, 2021

      If the Guardian tells you something then you automatically believe it Andy, so presumably you think that makes you superior.
      PS
      Does that quote also include you?

      1. Peter2
        February 22, 2021

        I did mean to write Andy not acorn but they are so similar it is easy to mix them up.

        1. MiC
          February 23, 2021

          You sort of reinforce the researchers’ point, don’t you?

          1. Peter2
            February 24, 2021

            Research shows people on the left are less able to spot sarcasm MiC

    3. NickC
      February 23, 2021

      Denying what, Acorn? Denying that the EU has been bad for the UK? Or denying that the Guardian is an extremist publication?

    4. Lifelogic
      February 24, 2021

      I do not remotely have extremist views. Just rational sensible ones that would work better. It is the climate alarmists, war on CO2 plant food, big government socialists and people who support the failed NHS state monopoly who are the extremists surely?

  58. John Hatfield
    February 22, 2021

    As an Englishman living in Scotland, I am fed up with (sick of) hearing repeatedly the words Scotland and Scottish on the BBC. It is as you say, as if England or Britain do not exist. I suspect other news channels are similar if not as bad.
    Perhaps it is a condition of having a license to transmit in Scotland.

    1. Lifelogic
      February 24, 2021

      Yorkshire alone has a similar population to Scotland and we hardly ever hear anything from it or indeed from most of the North or Midlands of England.

  59. jon livesey
    February 22, 2021

    I am not quite sure I see the problem. The BBC having a “a distinctive Scottish voice” north of the border, but not a correspondingly English voice south of it is pretty much a perfect model of devolution itself. We all assume that with 85% of the population, England can pretty much look after itself, and its the other three nations that get some special attention.

    It’s all a bit patronising, because we are saying “Look, you can be part of the UK, but Scottish, too.” but given realities, that is about the best you can do. The Scots need to be reassured about the survival of their identity in a way that the English simply don’t.

    1. Fred.H
      February 23, 2021

      SNP are driven by a massive chip on the shoulder, not economic sense.
      They already have better than they deserve.

  60. David Brown
    February 22, 2021

    I thought Counties are the equivalent to regions!!.
    If you want neutrality in TV News, then please do the same with news papers. I never buy a news paper and hope there is a time when they are consigned to history

  61. Sharon
    February 22, 2021

    The global warming policy form have an article explaining how Downing Street is working hard to bring the Tory press in line with Boris Johnson‘s strategy for a green industrial revolution to underpin economic recovery and establish the UK champion of clean energy ahead of the UN summit .

    So much for the press being independent of opinion. This is as bad as the BBC…propaganda for the government!

    Why do we never have a break between battles?

  62. Alison
    February 22, 2021

    All well and good, but be careful for what you wish for. I avoid watching or listening to BBC Scotland political output as much as possible, given the level of pro-SNP and pro-EU bias.

  63. steve
    February 22, 2021

    Well JR, what else do you expect of the BBC ?
    Everyone knows it’s anti-English.

Comments are closed.