Wales is sidelined in TV news broadcasts

ONCE today’s 1pm BBC1 News had begun an item about Team GB participating in the Japan Olympics, two years away yet, I turned in exasperation to S4C and events in Llanelwedd, the big show.

Should we not rename the BBC1 news broadcasts “the Imperial News” to reflect the fact that [a] “parliament” = something only in Westminster and devolution might well never have happened, and [b] whenever the news deals with a whole raft of affairs from hospitals in England to schools and farming in England, none of it has anything to do with us in Wales [or Scotland]?

Is it any wonder that some Welsh citizens do not realise how much of their lives are now controlled from Cardiff Bay?

Another interesting BBC1-ism: the cycling champ Geraint Thomas is always “British” – apart from when Huw Edwards is in charge and Geraint is rightly designated “Welsh”.

Then there is the pre-1pm politics programme on BBC2.

I note Today is to undergo a re-vamp for September, and we were regaled with endless hype about what it would cover – ALL (surprise, surprise) Westminsteroriented. How can politics exist outside Westminster..? Politicians in Edinburgh and Cardiff... pull the other one.

I can hear some BBC suit pointing out that Wales does have coverage of its own little parliament – under the heading of “And now the news where you are...” and people get ready for items about a road accident, a protest about traffic outside a school... all good local news... at least, that’s how it’s viewed in English regions – and we are lumped with them.

Though fair play, BBC Wales has transformed Wednesday evenings... but in the “news where you are” slot, nevertheless.

Oh yes, today the 1pm Imperial News did include a few seconds on the Scottish parliament: that the Supreme Court (imperial again!) is to decide if it had the right to legislate on Brexit...

A shot across Scottish bows, warning them... Know thy place, peasant..?

And this subtle brainwashing will continue – until such major news programmes are put together in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

Not that items of English politics will never feature in them – but that editorial control as to inclusion would rest in our own capital. Either we are a nation or... John D Rogers Nantymoel