Tuesday 21 August 2007

Should Scots withhold the licence fee?

The call for broadcasting to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament has recently been superseded by the Independence White Paper, but in Wales, their parallel debate on broadcasting just seems to be getting warmed up. Adam Price MP, backed by new Bethan Jenkins AM, has threatened to withhold some of his licence fee as he believes Wales is not adequately covered by the "national" BBC news.

He has a very valid point - when was the last time you heard about anything that the Welsh Assembly did? You have to hang around on the BBC Parliament Channel for even a glimpse of proceedings in the Assembly, squeezed in somewhere between some obscure Westminster Committee and coverage of old men in the Lords having a snooze. Why should this be?

Surely the development of Digital TV should lend itself to increasing the diversity of news available? When I attended the Board of Governors meeting in Glasgow last year, the talking heids of the BBC said it was both possible and desirable, but since then nothing seems to have changed.

It really seems that the only way we'll get decent coverage is to push forward with the independence cause.

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