Friday, March 5, 2010

Time to rattle Auntie's cage

Good:
PLAID CYMRU last night ditched its long-standing support for the BBC following the decision to exclude them from the televised leadership debates in the run-up to the general election.

Instead, the party, alongside its Scottish counterpart the SNP, is likely to back the devolution of broadcasting – a move that could see the end of the BBC itself.
Even better:
Stewart McMillan, a Scottish Nationalist MSP, said party members had told him the decision not to include the First Minister in the three shows was akin to “spitting on Scotland”.

Although Sky and ITV have also refused Mr Salmond a platform, their anger is mainly directed at the BBC because they think it is in breach of its charter to be politically neutral.

In another development, the SNP announced it was reviewing its support for the continuation of the BBC licence fee in light of the snub.
I'm assuming that the legal options have been examined and dismissed by both parties, hence the (at the moment) ineffectual threats to the Beeb. A few SNPers withholding the license fee isn't going to cause any great anxiety in BBC Towers...:
The First Minister will not openly call for a boycott of the licence fee, a criminal offence, but Mr McMillan said SNP members are threatening to take matters into their own hands.

He said the rank-and-file is outraged at the exclusion from the debates of the party that forms what they consider to be Scotland’s government.
...but if they play it crafty they'll capitalise on the widespread dissatisfatcion with the "national" broadcaster and expand the campaign.

Why should I be (theoretically) paying for, off the top of my head, Stephen Nolan's salary?

How much would the vast majority of BBC NI's output be valued in the free market?

I'll quite happily pay a fiver for (even with Checkie idiosyncratic commentating) for NI matches I can't make; Devonport's and Will Crawley's opinions would also be worth at least a couple of quid. Apart from that...

Politically biased, shaky quality at a local level and comparatively expensive, it should no longer be our responsibility to keep the BBC up and running.

OK, apart from that last point, I could be describing this blog but don't worry, I won't be demanding a license fee anytime soon;)
That's it for the week, back on Monday.

Update

Doug the Dug gives the legal background here.

3 comments:

tony said...

...the decision not to include the First Minister in the three shows was akin to “spitting on Scotland”.

There really is growing anger about this. Let's hope the London parties and their Scottish serfs carry on as Scots tend not to like being treated this way.

DougtheDug said...

I'm assuming that the legal options have been examined and dismissed by both parties...

There's plenty time for legal options yet and it won't go legal until all avenues to resolve the partial treatment given to the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib-Dems have been explored.

Judges don't look kindly on those who come to court as a first resort.

If you want an explanation of why the debates will be illegal have a look at the post I put up on the Bellacaledonia blog.

O'Neill said...

DthD

Thanks for the link, I'll put it up as an update. Re the legal action, problem now I'd guess is the time-span involved and if I were a nationalist I'd seriously be thinkibng about the boycott/refusal to pay license fee as the more viable option- you could quite easily tap into a lot of simmering discontent there.

Also what do (both of) you make of the story that the SNP has been having *secret* meetings with the BBC anmd STV- connection with this story?