There must be no cuts to the news where you are

AFTER a summer of leaks and speculation, the BBC is finalising its plans for substantial cuts to its output. For those of us in Scotland this is particularly important because we like our TV. A lot. On average we spend four and a half hours a day in front of the telly – considerably more than our neighbours south of the Border.

The BBC is making the cuts because a tight licence-fee settlement means it needs to make cost savings of 16 per cent. It’s been reported this week that the finishing touches are being put to the document – euphemistically called Delivering Quality First – which will spell out exactly where the axe will fall.

At the same time as the BBC has been wrestling with its finances, the Westminster Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has been driving forward his plans to roll out local TV across the UK. In Scotland, nine areas have been identified, including the major cities but also places such as Elgin, Falkirk, Greenock and Ayr, which will be considered for the first wave of licences.

Today Mr Hunt will be in Glasgow to explain the proposals, which he says have the potential to transform local democracy and change our broadcasting landscape. In reality very few people other than Mr Hunt appear to think his scheme will meet these high aspirations, if it goes ahead at all. This means the BBC and its main commercial rival, STV, will continue to provide the bulk of Scottish broadcasting. This presents a problem for the simple reason that there isn’t enough of it.

When the media regulator, Ofcom, published its annual communications report on Scotland last month, most of the headlines were generated by the relatively poor take-up for broadband here. But elsewhere in the report was the alarming finding that spending on television programmes for a specifically Scottish audience had fallen by nearly a quarter in the past five years.

One of the few bright spots was that the number of hours produced for viewers north of the Border had increased over the past 12 months, most of which, Ofcom said, was due to STV opting out of some ITV network programming. That, of course, proved a controversial decision as some viewers clearly felt their lives lacked sufficient period drama and attacked STV’s decision not to show Downton Abbey when it was first transmitted.

But the big issue ahead is not the lack of Julian Fellowes, but that we have the small matter of a referendum that will decide the future of this country in a few years’ time. At present the day-to-day broadcasting coverage of Scottish affairs on the main evening and night-time bulletins is simply inadequate.

Even without any further constitutional change, public policy in Scotland and England is diverging as never before. This week the first free schools have opened in England, a controversial English NHS bill has been debated and new planning laws for England have been announced. These are all interesting issues but, because of the structure of network television news, viewers in Scotland are usually told far more about the education system, health service and planning regulations in England than those here. That simply can’t be right. When network news does cover Scottish politics it often focuses on the impact on viewers in England, as was clearly the case during the coverage of university tuition fees.

During the late 1990s, when I worked at BBC Scotland, the senior management were pressing hard for what became known as a Scottish Six – a television bulletin that would provide coverage of Scottish, UK and international news in much the same way as the Good Morning Scotland programme does on radio. Later it emerged the then director-general of the BBC, John Birt, had decided for political reasons to oppose the plan because of the perceived danger it represented to the Union.

I can only hope that the bosses at BBC Scotland’s shiny Pacific Quay building have been pressing the case again for a Scottish Six (indeed a Scottish Ten) during the Delivering Quality First process. If viewers here miss the main early evening Reporting Scotland bulletin, there are few opportunities to see Scottish stories. During a time of real political excitement and profound importance that is ludicrous. Over on STV there is a similar structure. True, STV has announced a welcome new current affairs programme, Scotland Tonight, but this will follow the main news bulletins and inevitably attract a smaller audience. STV also has to compete for advertising and does not have the guaranteed income of the licence fee. That licence fee generates around £3.5 billion for the BBC each year. In discussing its future provision in the light of cutbacks, the corporation should be engaged in a major re-allocation to fund the Scottish newsroom properly.

Aside from finance, the main argument trotted out against greater news provision from Scotland is that it would be a bit, well, rubbish. That, sadly, is an attitude that is all too pervasive among some people and politicians in this country.

In fact, whether you like their style or not, when it comes to holding politicians to account there cannot be many interviewers more rigorous than Gordon Brewer on the BBC or Bernard Ponsonby on STV. Unlike many SNP supporters I do not believe for a second that BBC Scotland is biased against the SNP or independence and I think the news teams do a fine job with limited resources. There is no reason to suggest they couldn’t do a better job with more.

Within the next few weeks we will find out the BBC’s view of its future in this new financial climate. If it comes down to a choice between broadcasting programmes such as Pop’s Greatest Dance Crazes, Young Dumb and Living off Mum and Don’t Tell the Bride, or providing a news and current-affairs service that treats every part of the UK equally and at a time when the very future of Scotland and Britain is being debated, surely it isn’t going to forget its core purpose?