Sunday 26 January 2020

Trouble at t'mill


According to The Mail on Sunday, BBC bosses have told "professional Northerner" Nick Robinson to move to Manchester as part of their a bid to make the BBC less London-centric. Mishal, Justin and Martha are to stay in London. Nick, however, is said to be against moving to Manchester but "a BBC source" tells the MoS that "the BBC are determined that this will happen". The change may be announced next week and, the paper speculates, if Nick refuses to obey his BBC bosses he might get the boot from Today and be replaced by Victoria Derbyshire (who will shortly be at a loose end).

The top-rated comment below the MoS piece strikes a chord with me:
StevieMac, Birmingham: How the BBC sees Britain. There is London and there is the rest of the UK, which they call the north. The north to them is basically Manchester.

4 comments:

  1. It is Salford, a city in its own right, that the BBC mean when they refer to Manchester. The BBC have been able to fashion Salford into a London of the North by giving it a new identity, eventually to be serviced by HS2, and where the BBC staff often commute from their leafy London suburbs. It has (or will have) superior links to the BBC London hub.

    Interestingly, it will be the label of 'the North' that is the obstacle rather than the reality of life as a commuter. To be labelled as a Northerner is a barrier to acceptance as a true Westminster Bubble-Dweller'.

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    Replies
    1. I've never thought of Robinson as a Northerner let alone a professional northerner. To me he's very much a Dweller. But to the BBC, maybe not.

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  2. Nick Robinson could move to Times Radio!

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  3. The football presenter today said to the Shrewsbury town manager: "a great day for you, the team, and also the whole of Shrewsbury"

    I thought: someone has told him to say that.

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