Scotsman Archive

SCOTLAND 'TREATED AS BACKWARD COLONY' BY BBC10 April 1946

A PLEA that Scotland should control her own broadcasting was made in the House of Commons last night when Scots MPs criticised the country's place in the BBC programmes. Colonel Alan Gomme-Duncan (C, Perth and Kinross), said there was widespread dissatisfaction with the BBC programmes provided. The present regional system could not provide the greater scope for enterprise in broadcasting in Scotland. What he would like to see, and what would be generally acceptable to Scottish opinion, was a small, active, and thoroughly qualified board of governors sitting in Edinburgh, not outwith the BBC but within it. That would give the Scottish people largely what they wanted. Scottish activity was suffering because of the feeling that the affairs of Scotland were governed 400 miles away in London, that the powers given to Scotland were too small, and that they were not given power to regulate, frame and direct their own activities.

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