CEP: BBC makes an official public admission that it denies England has any politics of its own because it does not have its own Parliament
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Thursday, 06, Nov 2008 12:00
Mrs Veronica Newman, secretary of the CEP and its organiser in the West Country, has obtained from the BBC the first public acknowledgement that it does not recognise England as having any political existence and political life its own for the reason that England does not have its own parliament.
On August 8th Mr Mrs Newman wrote to the BBC to point out that on its News Channel website there are separate headings for POLITICS fo Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales but none for England. ‘There should also be a separate politics heading for England,’ she wrote ‘as there are for Scotland, Wales and NI. There are major elements of politics that apply only to England now that education, health etc have been devolved
to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Let's have some fairness here and stop including politics that refer to England put only under the UK politics link.
The reply she received from Pat Henry UK Editor,
BBC News Interactive was as follows:
Dear Mrs Newman,
Thank you for your e-mail of 8 October. Our politics index covers Westminster politics, which includes all England-wide politics within its UK Parliament brief. We have separate Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland politics indexes because they have their own elected parliaments or assemblies. In England the next level of government down from Westminster is unitary authorities. The politics of these authorities is covered in their relevant area sites,apart from where there are national implications. If England had its own assembly or parliament we would have a separate section covering it.(CEP emphais)’ It does mean, as you point out, that sometimes we have UK Parliament stories in the Politics index which cover England only (or England and Wales), andwe seek to make clear when that is so.
Thank you again for contacting us.
Yours,
Pat Heery
‘This is an open admission that the BBC is acting politically in deference to Labour government policy’, stated Mrs Newman. ‘The fact is that the Government does not want to give to England the political and constitutional recognition it has given to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mr Brown for that reason is setting up parliamentary regional committees for England to prevent any recognition of England as a nation. The BBC has here acknowledged that its reporting of England supports that political policy. This constitutes inaccurate reporting because the UK is not England. It further demeans Scotland, Wales and NI in that by implication it makes an identification of England with the UK. And it constitutes discrimination against England in that it denies England has any distinct political, social and cultural existence of its own.'
Contact: Mrs Veronica Newman Tel: 01225 271139