Readers' Letters: BBC director defends changes to radio schedule
I’m sorry to read that your correspondent Bob Watson took exception to my recent evidence at the Scottish Parliament, but to describe Hayley Valentine (Director, BBC Scotland) and me as “corporate types” with the implication we’re not in tune with radio listening is wide of the mark. Hayley is a broadcast journalist who also ran key parts of BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Radio newsroom, and I was an on-air presenter and latterly managing editor at several Scottish radio stations for well over a decade.
That radio experience tells us that time cannot stand still, and that radio schedules do need to evolve to meet audience expectations, however much some people are disappointed by the changes. When audience figures fall to low levels, it is incumbent on those who manage radio stations to respond to that. I recognise that some of the criticism recently has come from those who are concerned about the BBC’s support for new and emerging artists in Scotland, but in the last week alone, we’ve had the call for entries to our “BBC Introducing Scottish Artist of the Year competition” being announced, swiftly followed by the broadcast – on TV and radio – of the Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, which has been running for 26 years as part of Celtic Connections.
The recent late-night schedule changes were considered in the context of the station’s already extensive music output. They sit alongside a broad range of programming including BBC Introducing in Scotland, Another Country, Take the Floor, Vic Galloway, Piping Sounds, The Quay Sessions, Travelling Folk, Your Requests and Classical Now. BBC Introducing alone is a weekly 2-hour radio programme on a Friday which showcases the best unsigned, undiscovered and under-the-radar music Scotland has to offer, and both Roddy Hart’s new weekend Mixtape programmes also champion breakthrough artists and bold discoveries. We further maintain significant commitments to emerging artists through initiatives including the aforementioned Young Traditional Musician of the Year, Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, Young Scottish Classical Musician of the Year and BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year.
BBC Radio Scotland’s commitment to music in Scotland is second to none. It doesn’t belong to any one presenter – and we’re proud of the many on-air colleagues and producers across our line-up every week who dedicate significant support, quite rightly, to musicians and artists in our nation.
Luke McCullough, Corporate Affairs Director, BBC Scotland
Risk aversion
In response to Dr Calum MacKellar and Allan Struthers, letters, yesterday, I appreciate their concerns but we need to remember that we cannot ever eliminate all risk, even by legislation, the skill is to reduce it to an acceptable level and to retain a benefit to those it is aimed at then modify systems as required from experience and particularly from lessons learned.
Indeed, I sometimes get concerned about the fact we are living longer and longer hence imposing once unthought of burdens on our children and society with what seems totally inadequate planning especially in the area of healthcare.
This is reflected all to clearly in David Duguid’s piece especially the quote from it which shows the common-sense approach the law and society showed in coming up to date with decriminalising of attempted suicide in 1961.
In summary to all I thought of the old adage “The person who never made a mistake, never made anything” – but then I thought of the SNP/Green alliance.
Neil Robertson, Edinburgh
Lock fixation
Jane Lax accuses me of misleading readers when I stated hospital bedroom doors are not locked. She quotes from an unspecified NHS website which she claims allows door locking. But that’s for corridor or entrance doors in e.g. mental health units (security) or oncology wards (infection control).
Nowhere in the relative guidance on doors (SHTM 58) or ironmongery (SHTM 59) or ward design (SHPN 04) does it state a requirement for door locks to bedrooms. Nor have I ever installed any such locks in four decades of designing hospitals. Indeed in the secure room of a CAMHS facility where we did install a lock to restrain a violent child I was instructed to remove it as even there it was not permitted.
As I pointed out you will need emergency access to the patient so you would need an external release mechanism which must be easily operated. In other words you require to sacrifice security against a male entering in favour of patient safety.
If Ms Lax is fixated about keeping biological men out of female wards can she advise us whether this includes fathers, husbands, brothers or sons, any of whom could be a potential rapist?
Robert Menzies, Falkirk
Respecting beliefs
I read with interest “ LGBTQ+ charities slam Fife Flyers after club ditches special Pride night jerseys”, February 1.
It described a backlash to the club’s decision to wear Pride jerseys during the warm up only and not the main match, on a special Pride night match. This decision was taken “to respect the diversity of personal beliefs amongst the players”.
The most telling condemnation came from Fife Pride who stated “Let us be clear: Pride is not a warm up. Pride is not optional. And Pride is not something that should be compromised to accommodate ‘personal beliefs’.”
In response to that fascistic statement I would say, firstly, of course celebrating Pride is optional, we do not yet live in a dictatorship.
Secondly, it is also hypocritical. The Trans community ask society to accept their personal beliefs, that they are a different gender to their sex.
It would appear that some ‘personal beliefs’ are more equal than others.
As to the Fife Flyers, the Pride jerseys were worn, no one refused to wear them and the proceeds of the match, donations and money from the sale of those jerseys were to be given to a local LGBTQ+ charity, The Hive.
How critics can say that the club are not supporting Pride is absolute nonsense. If The Hive wish to throw their toys out of the pram and refuse the money as they have said they will, then the Fife Flyers should give it to another charity who are more appreciative of their support.
By the way, I am not anti Pride, it has a long history of providing support, visibility and social justice particularly in the past. I am anti the current trend towards dogma and over reach of demands.
Rona McCall, Gairloch
Spain bucks trend
Prime Minister Sanchez of Spain is bucking the trend, as far as Immigration is concerned. While other European nations, including our own, are competing to be the most stringent on the subject, Spain has registered 500,000, to their social and financial benefit.
Spain, with one of the lowest birth-rates in Europe, needs immigrants. The continent itself has an aging population, which, in a generation, could well turn into a crisis. Immigrants tend to be from an educated and entrepreneurial segment, who are seeking a new life for themselves and their families.
Migrating is one of the features of the human species right through the ages. We Scots and the Irish are prime examples of this. There are more of each worldwide than in their homeland.
Shamefully, potential immigrants are demonised, not least by Nigel Farage, echoing Donald Trump, and Reform UK. They're simply human beings, far too many of whom are fleeing horrendous wars and persecution, whose desire is to contribute to society. Where they are accepted, they contribute, as they do in Spain. Immigrants, believe it or not, should be welcomed.
Ian Petrie, Edinburgh
Authority ‘overkill’
In a relatively small Country such as the UK surely the formation of yet another tier of Government has been a big mistake! Previously the whole Country was governed on a national basis from the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, incorporating the Commons and the Lords. with MPs representing constituencies in all parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. On a more local basis we have County Councils and City Councils.
Surely the introduction of a Scottish Parliament, a Welsh Assembly or Senedd, and Stormont in Northern Ireland, amounted to administrative ‘overkill’. After all, there already was an extensive Local Authority system in place in all parts of the UK. And liaison with Westminster was carried out in Scotland, for example, by the Scottish Office.
I am fairly sure that I express the views of a great many folks in Scotland when I suggest that the Scottish Parliament is a ‘white elephant’. It has proved to be a high-cost exercise which has created a great deal of disharmony amongst Scots voters. It has to be said that its line of First Ministers has protested much, but achieved very little.
As Election day on 7th May gets closer, let us hope for an end to SNP rule - or perhaps at some future date closure of the Holyrood Parliament.
Robert I G Scott, Ceres, Fife
Embassy row
It is somewhat amusing to see Scottish nationalists being offended by any criticism of John Swinney for using British Embassy accommodation in Washington. Mandelson aside, surely it was demeaning for a man whose entire life has been devoted to breaking up Britain to stay at the “British” Embassy? Why are his benighted followers not offended by that, by his consorting with the enemy?
One might ask, though, why he should be allowed to stay at our Embassy when he is hostile to the UK and spends so much of his time slagging it off?
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
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