BBC bias against the English

Published on Saturday 19 July 2008 19:36

THE BBC's response to Professor Anthony King's criticism that its journalists pass off English stories as 'British' was to point out, correctly, that the Government, led by Gordon Brown, does exactly the same thing ('Tartan enforcers target BBC bias', July 13).

Brown and other members of his Government use the term 'this country' to describe policies that only apply to England. One would not know, for example, that an item about the NHS applies only to England. It is not just that the BBC does not give enough attention to the devolved nations but also that both the BBC and the Government try to avoid reminding the English that they are, well, English. They are worried that the English might realise they too are a nation and a nation without its own government.

Viewers and listeners in England will be only too pleased if as a result of Professor King's report both the Government and the BBC start to come clean about what applies to England and what doesn't. Some people in England have been complaining about the BBC's institutional anti-Englishness and its British bias for years. It takes the Scottish mafia to get something done.

Ian Campbell, West Horsley, Surrey