There is life in the rainy regions

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), July 2, 2008

Byline: Barry Gibson

IT is in little, unguarded phrases that we reveal ourselves.

This thought came to me on Monday evening as I listened to Radio 4 while making a curry.

Just before 6pm, weather forecaster Louise Lear told listeners what to expect for the day ahead.

Unfortunately, it was bad news, with sunshine giving way to showers.

As she said: "We have got a change afoot, and it's already starting to occur across Scotland and Northern Ireland."

Perhaps, as a chippy Ulsterman, my ears are too attuned to the slightest of slights. But I heard in that phrase, the casual, unspoken bias against those who live in far off places of which the BBC in London knows little.

Surely, if it's already raining in Scotland and Northern Ireland then for some of "us" the change is not "afoot" - it's already happening. So who is the "we" for whom rain is coming rather than occurring?

Could it be possible that "we" are the people, like Ms Lear, who live in London?

You might think I'm being overly picky, but I detected in her phrasing the assumption that people who listen to Radio 4 don't live in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

And fair play to the BBC, it has at least recognised that it has a problem. Last month a BBC Trust report found the corporation was "falling short of its own high standards" in reporting the regions and nations inhabited by its licence fee payers.

In particular the report found that the BBC often covered health and education stories without mentioning that the policy changes would affect England alone.

This most glaring of errors seems to have been corrected. The BBC has learnt the word devolution - for example when it carefully noted last week that the upcoming council workers' strike will affect "England, Wales and Northern Ireland". Scottish bins will be collected as normal.

But the BBC still refers to "the Government" as the one led by Gordon Brown, without realising that there is another government on this island - also led by a Scot, but this time Alex Salmond in Edinburgh.

The Beeb, with a massive per centage of its staff based in London, struggles to reflect this diverse and complicated country.

Watch BBC news bulletins and you wouldn't guess that Britain has a manufacturing industry - mainly based in the Midlands and the North - though you will here plenty about London-based cultural events and Westminster tittle-tattle.

Indeed the North of England - an area which contains many of the UK's large cities - barely gets a look in on the BBC news, unless we are unfortunate enough to host a particularly grisly murder.

The Beeb has a long way to go before its "national" news lives up to its name.

But it is at least trying.

All media outlets are in some way biased towards the place where the journalists are based.

It's not just a problem for the BBC in London. I have a friend from Sheffield who refers bitterly to Look North as Look Leeds.

Mostly it's not outright bias or indifference, it's just the practicality that reporting what's happening on your doorstep is quicker, easier and cheaper than venturing further afield.

But for the BBC the problem is all the greater because it is a public broadcaster. People either choose to buy a newspaper or don't, but anyone with a TV must pay for the Beeb.

With this huge source of cash comes a huge responsibility for the corporation - to report what's going on in everyone's backyard.

And, that throwaway phrase by one of its presenters, shows there is still a long way to go.

But keep on trying, guys. Change is afoot.

The North of England - an area which contains many of the UK's large cities - barely gets a look in on the BBC news, unless we are unfortunate enough to host a particularly grisly murder

CAPTION(S):

SET FAIR: Even weather forecasting seems to have a north-south divide when it comes to reporting what is going on in these fair isles of ours