Channel4hqbid

It’s unsurprising that Glasgow’s “quality” bid to become the new headquarters for Channel 4 is “audacious” and I’m sure most in Scotland will be rooting for Glasgow. It’s welcome that the bid is backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Secretary David Mundell.

However, can a Uk-wide broadcaster seriously consider investing heavily in Scotland, which would, if Ms Sturgeon achieves her ambition, become a foreign country?

The SNP establishment’s threat to break up the UK is very real while a nationalist Holyrood majority remains. Yet Ms Sturgeon blithely dismisses this as an irrelevancy.

Would a French national broadcaster consider Brussels a suitable HQ location? Would an Ireland-wide broadcaster set up in Cardiff? Nonsensical? Yet this is, in effect, what is proposed if the SNP were to succeed in partitioning the UK.

If Ms Sturgeon seriously supports Channel 4 investing in Scotland then the SNP should cease agitating for another independence referendum. That would be the best boost Glasgow’s bid could receive.

MARTIN REDFERN

Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh