There’s probably some bright spark at the BBC who believes the corporation is busy shifting its focus to “the regions”.
They would be right if the country was divided into London and everywhere else.
Certainly, a number of programmes once produced in the capital are now to be made elsewhere, leading to predictable complaints.
But from the perspective of Birmingham and the West Midlands, it looks very much as if programming is simply being concentrated in Manchester. Not only are jobs going from London, but other parts of the country will also wave goodbye to their BBC facilities while the North-west reaps many of the benefits.
First of all, congratulations to Manchester on winning this investment.
But the message to BBC bosses is that they cannot claim they are creating a more representative corporation reflecting the nation as a whole if they continue to downgrade operations in Birmingham.
