ON the Radio 4 Today programme last Tuesday (February 18), Chris Mason, a BBC politics journalist, together with a Today presenter, were discussing the lack of newsreaders with English regional accents on BBC UK-wide radio and TV platforms – a sentiment I sympathise with. But as part of their discussion, they both repeatedly asserted there were people with Scottish (and Welsh) accents as “newsreaders” across the BBC.
I thought little of this at the time, but on reflection, I cannot think of even one Scottish newsreader. Nor are there many Scots involved as presenters/contributors on UK-wide TV or radio programmes, or indeed, very much Scottish content – the network news, News 24, 100 Days etc, all might as well be badged as BBC England.
In these difficult times for the BBC, it should look to its charter and its mission: “To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all the United Kingdom’s nations and regions”. Scotland should receive the same per capita spend as England/Wales. Scotland should have appropriate staffing levels based in Scotland. Scotland should have the same autonomy to commission and fund programmes with its own licence fee moneys, as elsewhere in the Beeb.
The BBC Scotland TV channel should be dropped, its staff integrated into BBC Scotland, and a “Scottish Six” finally established a decade and a half late.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.
Westminster’s bill
WHY all the fuss about who pays to police COP26 (Letters, February 19, 20 & 21)? It has always been my understanding that the devolution settlement stipulated that whichever government commissioned something paid the costs. It therefore surely follows, since Westminster agreed to host this summit and the PM has clearly stated that he wants our First Minister to have nothing to do with it, Westminster is responsible for all costs, not just policing.
P Davidson, Falkirk.
Kind thoughts
I HAVE heard of Hello! magazine and am happy to confess that Heat referred to by Helen McArdle is likely to remain virgin territory ("Flack’s death shows we need to bring back kindness", The Herald, February 21); but “kindness” reminds me of the words of the American writer Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018), who wrote: “ It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible because when we are finally naked and in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, wind up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.”
And a sub-note to her comment: She is so right. Kindness should be the basic currency of existence. And we don’t need to be wealthy to spend it, each and every day.
R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.
Happy thoughts
I ENJOYED your Those were the days feature on Glasgow's trams ("Glasgow and its trams, 1951 and 1962", The Herald, February 20).
As a five to eight-year-old I spent the last war in the village of Newton Mearns. My mother decided to give me a treat – a day out in Paisley. We caught a bus to Eastwood Toll and a tram which ran by Rouken Glen to Durnley, Barrhead, Patterhill and Paisley on "private tracks". These rails had far more elasticity away from the cobbles and when we were on the top deck it felt like being on a small ship in a stormy ocean. No theme park ride equalled the lurching we underwent.
Thank you, Russell Leadbetter, for evoking a happy memory.
Rev A D Williams, Dundee DD1.
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