BBC's unsatisfactory standard response to complaints about Question Time from Glasgow

The BBC sent this standard response to everyone who complained about Question Time from Glasgow. I have responded by pointing out that it does not address the issues raised. 

Dear Ms McAlpine

Thanks for your feedback regarding ‘Question Time’ broadcast on 28 October 2010. 

We appreciate some viewers felt chairman David Dimbleby showed anti-Scottish bias by reminding Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon about the programme’s wider UK audience.

‘Question Time’ approaches every edition with a broad and wide-ranging remit, covering the major events in the political landscape during the week. We travel across the UK, and local examples are often cited by audience members to highlight a wider point. However this does not mean that the programme seeks to discuss only regionally-specific matters. 

On this occasion the panel were expressing their sentiments on the announcement of the most recent GDP figures for the UK. During this discussion Deputy First Minister Sturgeon said “there’s another point on growth, it’s important for a Scottish audience”. 

David simply interjected to remind Deputy First Minister Sturgeon that not only was she speaking to the studio audience in Glasgow but also to viewers across the UK.

One of his key roles as chairman is to keep panellists to the specific question under discussion and not to potentially divert to other party political points. He was not stopping her from raising a regional/national point - as has been heard in recent weeks with the al-Megrahi case or the Corus steelworks matter - but simply reminding her of the core programme need for this point to resonate with and be relevant to a UK-wide BBC One audience.

Thanks for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

BBC Audience Services

 

Comments

[Tam]

Yeah, I got that crappy response too, so I emailed the Audience Council to complain that my points were not addressed and that I seem to have received a generic reply.

I'd encourage others to do likewise. At least let them know that we won't buy their deception anymore.

[cynicalHighlander]

Its going to take more than than letters to address this endemic problem with the state broadcaster as Scotland is/has been taken for a ride long enough. The floodgates have opened and its time to go with the flow while the force is at its strongest before it disipates.

[Dougie Blackie]

The BBC's blanket response is all too typically familiar in not even beginning to address either the specific issues or the widespread disdain over its output.

If the BBC cannot appreciate even the basic requirements of a Scottish audience, even on clear demographic terms, will not respond constructively to any Scottish feedback, or take any measures to reassess its relentlessly anglocentric attitude and output, choosing instead to repeatedly justify its skewed position by hiding behind predictable blanket responses, then it is long overdue to end the compulsory licence fee and appoint a so-called 'national' broadcaster who can adequately represent and serve all constituent countries of the UK.

[Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers]

The response by the BBC is just about the most vacuous set of words ever committed to paper.

It's an admittance that Scotland has a nation does not exist outwith or within the curtilage of Britain as anything other than a minority region.

How can such disparity be regarded as a union?

[Ewan Munro]

One of Dimbleby's interjections was to say, "we are not here to talk about Scotland." If their programme is aimed at a U.K. audience, what the heck was that about? Nicola did well to make the point each time she spoke to make sure she made it clear that her perspective was a Scottish one, being stated in a Scottish city to a Scottish audience, albeit as part of a U.K. audience.

The response you got is a bog standard BBC brush off. No surprises there I'm thinking.

"One of his key roles as chairman is to keep panellists to the specific question under discussion and not to potentially divert to other party political points." This part is slightly off too. During replies to a question on the validity (or otherwise) of information gleaned by means of torture, Mr. Dimblely managed to raise the question of the compassionate release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi from Greenock prison. If that wasn't a blatant diversion from the asked question to another matter which had potential for massive attempts at party point scoring then I'm not sure just what it was.

The BBC are treating you, and me and everyone else who complained about this as though our heids zip up at the back.
http://westlothiananswer.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/has-somebody-moved-glasgow-then/

[Mark MacLachlan]

Snap!

http://the-universality-of-cheese.blogspot.com/2010/11/boobs-tubes-and-pubes.html

[Christian Allard]

Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had every right to make a point concerning the UK citizens living in Scotland when she said “there’s another point on growth, it’s important for a Scottish audience”.
What would the BBC want Scottish Ministers to do, to mislead UK citizens not living in Scotland about the growth in the rest of the United Kingdom or to mislead the people they are elected to represent by pretending that Scotland has the same economic cycle than the rest of the UK?

[Takhisis1]

and what does talking about how the housing cap is going to affect London have anything to with being of interest to the whole of the UK