MP fails to grasp broadcasting issues
THE pronouncements by Jonathan Edwards MP on the new Scottish television channel (Western Mail, July 14) show that he fails to understand the issues concerning broadcasting both in Scotland and in Wales.
Some Scots of all political persuasions do not like their country’s television service and have serious reservations over the new channel. Nationalists in particular wonder if this channel is being established as a means of trying to strengthen the union.
The politics of broadcasting in Scotland are the exact opposite of what they are here. Whereas in Wales it is almost an article of faith of Welsh Labour (and of some Conservatives) that BBC Wales is nothing but a big nationalist conspiracy, Scottish nationalists complain, rightly or wrongly, that BBC Scotland pursues a unionist line.
The SNP did not want this new channel; it asked for little more than the replacement of the Six O’Clock News and Reporting Scotland by a Scottish “Six”, a proposal for which there is a fair amount of popular support in the country. The new Scottish “Nine” will not be shown at the same time as other major news programmes; it will, however, be up against evening dramas and films and could struggle.
The nationalist journalist Lesley Riddoch has wondered if the new channel has been set up to fail. Scotland’s ITV company, STV, has just closed down its second channel which featured an evening news programme.
Wales does not need more news and current affairs programmes. We have plenty already.
There is certainly a “democratic deficit” in Wales. However, it is not caused by not enough Welsh news programmes or too many Englandonly items on the Six O’Clock News.
What causes the problem is the fact that large numbers of viewers do not watch this country’s Englishlanguage television service, an issue to which nationalists and many of their opponents turn a blind eye. The reason why people do not watch is the poor quality of some BBC Wales programmes, particularly in the field of entertainment, and the disruption that these programmes cause to UK programme schedules.
Reality does disprove the claims of nationalist influence at BBC Wales, so would Jonathan Edwards care to explain to the people of this country why his party fails to address the fact that it cannot reach the many hundreds of thousands of viewers who choose not to watch Welsh television? Gwyn Meredith Brynmawr, Gwent