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is it a problem? Should everything be in London, or should they shut their metropolitan beaks and remember that the country is more than London?
Just coming from Salford doesn't really mean anything. It still sounds the same to me. I live in Hertfordshire and am not sure that it would have made a difference to me even if it had been moved to Hitchin. If it didn't save money, I can't really see any point in it, and it appears to something of a gesture. Was the BBC model broken? Is it wrong to base the national broadcasting organisation in the nation's Capital? I don't think so. PP
I think the savings will be over years rather than immediate, rather in the way that companies move factories etc. But I do agree with people who are saying that everything is far too london-centric in the British Broadcast media and lack of interest in anything that happens outside the M25.
More importantly than moving things to Salford, when are they going to sort out the ridiculous projection they use on the weather maps? You know - the conical Britain with exaggerated perspective, where you feel you need a telescope to see anything north of Cardiff. 
This crossed my mind the other night when, thanks to insomnia, I found myself at 2am watching News Day on BBC News 24 presented by somebody in Singapore and somebody in London. And I thought, hmm, wouldn't sound as impressive if the UK half was somebody in Salford. I imagine people all over the world think UK = London*, and wouldn't have a clue where Salford is or, crucially, what it is supposed to represent. Until our government and financial institutions have moved somewhere else, London will continue to generate a significant proportion of national news. So it seems counter-intuitive of the BBC to move away from that. It's probably not an issue in terms of finding out that there's a news story, thanks to the internet and mobiles, but it can only be harder in terms of quickly setting up face to face or on the street interviews. Has the BBC moved the whole news operation or just Breakfast? Because Breakfast gives the impression of being more magaziney and less immediate/speculative. I don't think it really matters where programmes like that are based. But anything we're also showing internationally probably needs to come from London just so it's identifiable as from the UK. Mol *I KNOW. You don't need to tell ME. I've even *been* to Scotland and Wales. *And* the north of England. *And* the south-west. But London is the capital city.
Oh and I agree, I still haven't got used to that stupid weather map, the fact that they can zoom around it doesn't make up for the fact that it's really hard to just glance at, find your own bit of the country, and see what the weather's going to be doing there. And in the evening they spend so long telling us what the weather was doing during the day (I know, I was in it) or what it's doing right now (I know, I just looked out the window) that the opportunity to catch sight of what it might be doing tomorrow is really limited anyway. Mol
L.S. Lowry? Ewan MacColl?  Salford is a cultural Mecca. London's just some place where there's a bank and a queen.
Lovely thread. All my mates in a real life London inner city community are queuing up to join this site.
My people I know are thoroughly fed up with the uninformed prejudice aimed at this great monolith called 'London' by outsiders. In *real life* it's a mosaic...a collection of villages. There's a bit tourists visit for a few days, and think they know 'London'. But I've read sht aimed at this media/tourist construction of 'London' here before and it gets irritating; its so far from reality I know as to be ridiculous..but hey what has real life to do with h2g2?
London is what... 5 ~ 8 million people. It sucks resources from the rest of the country, hogs the Olympics and the "benefits" and now wants to export the poor people who can't afford their rent elsewhere because elsewhere has no problems because as far as londoners are concerned it doesn't exist. And I KNOW that most londoners don't think like it. My dad was the youngest of 16, an East End family for a couple of generations. I've lived there, a lot of my family live there etc etc But there is a life north of Watford and it's a good idea to show some of it. Or not?
It's the tone of your OP Sho. You've attacked London and the south east before. We used to have far more Americans on h2g2..they got fed up with similar stuff. Most have left now.  I just know people in real life wouldn't want to join a site where sneering is aimed at a whole place which is your *home* You have a kind of care and identity tied up with home.The US was also an easy target in a similar way. A place is its people though not its media representation or stereotype. Of course there's a life north of Watford. And most people don't call themselves Londoners anyway..they use the name of their local area and identify with that. London is that bit in the middle that's more like a museum for tourists and visitors to frequent...oh and politicians and the Royals. But I've made my point.
Effers, I was being slightly  . I know that London is a large and varied place, and I'm aware that not everyone there wears Beefeater costumes. I can see why you get fed up - people make a lot of assumptions about me based on where I'm from, too. But I do also see why most English people get fed up with lots of people thinking England = London. Both England and London are much more rich and varied than that.
You know what: I can't care. I give up. Bye.
Maybe we could open discussion up to include other capital cities? The was was an item on the radio the other day to do with France and Paris; it's much the same there in terms of attitudes.
I didn't see anyone attacking London, what I saw was an attack on London-centric attitudes with particular reference to the BBC moving some of its stuff Up North.
Still think its quite ironic they've managed to move all the sports teams up to the new home, just in time for them to all be in the wrong place for the Olympics...   Can't see what differnce the move might possibly make to creating less London/south-East centric news coverage, afterall the BBC has always had reporters and news teams across the countys, Not their fault though, if London happens to be the capital both politically and economically of the country, and thereby is more important for situations of national importance, rather of local interest... I seem to recall all the MPs, and national judges and criminal law types, hang out near or in London somewhere, or is government goign to move up North too?  
It's frustrating knowing they build the White City 'village' only a few years ago. I don't care where it's from, I don't pay enough attention. No matter where they broadcast from they could be accused of being biased to that area.I never noticed it being London centric, but of course I live just down the road. I do remember getting fed up with broadcasts coming from all over the country where I don't live, is that what it's like for everyone outside London?
Oh and as for the Olympics, I would have been much happier had that fecked off to Salford. London has already had it once. Why do we have to suffer again!? And I use 'we' to mean 'people who don't live in London but live a bit close'
I wish the BBC had stayed where it was. MediaCityUK (yeah, that's what the new media hub on the Quays is called) has created a grand total of 12 (twelve) new jobs for local people. That's the plus side. Here's the negative: Bad press for the city, painting it as some sort of hick backwater that guests would refuse to visit Further bad press for the city because BBC execs have hired personal bodyguards to protect them from the Salfordian crime gangs (who shoot/stab and otherwise murder far less than their London counterparts) The complete depopulation of affordable housing in Langworthy, which has all been replaced by Yuppie flats for London commuters Complete disruption of tram services in Salford An unacceptable number of visits to the city by Robbie Savage Send it back. Send it all back to Television Centre.
Mr603 - where does your "12 local jobs" figure come from? I know a number of people who have left the BBC rather than be forceably relocated up north. And do people really commute? Manchester and Glasgow have pulled off an amazing coup to attract this BBC business, and don't forget all the spin-off support industries it will create. Mina - I'm one of your 'people who don't live in London but live a bit close', and I'm sick of wall-to-wall London news and nothing to do with the home counties where I live. Why do I care about the London Mayoral race? I can't vote. There are millions of commuters who have a vested interest in London's transport policy, but are completely disenfranchised.
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