Dimbleby upset at 'Question Time' move up north

[Teddy Bear]

Personally, I couldn't care less if the BBC left liberal platform masquerading as an open forum that is 'Question Time' kept going north and moved to the Artic. The fact that David Dimbleby is miffed about the programme moving to Scotland provides me with some satisfaction. Now he'll have to make the journey 3 times a week, though of course he doesn;t use this fact as the reason he is so upset by the move.

David Dimbleby 'furious' over BBC's plans to move the making of Question Time away from Westminster to Scotland
By Paul Revoir
Last updated at 8:38 AM on 16th October 2008
Comments (-) Add to My Stories David Dimbleby is furious over 'politically correct' plans by the BBC to move the making of Question Time away from London to Scotland.

The presenter is said to be furious at the announcement by the corporation that they will all be forced to leave Westminster.
Dimbleby, 69, fears the show will lose touch with Parliament if it is moved hundreds of miles away from it.
'Fuming': David Dimbleby fears Question Time will lose touch with Parliament if its editorial team is moved to Scotland

Despite the fact that all of the MPs in the UK descend on Parliament in London, PC bosses at the BBC think the show would be better based in Scotland.
Other 'bonkers' plans include basing the production of major London-based events The Chelsea Flower Show and The Hampton Court Flower Show in... Birmingham.
Critics have branded the moves 'ridiculous' and many think they will damage a number of shows and cost the corporation more in the long run.

The BBC has been stung by criticism in recent months that it is still too London-based and has now decided to massively shift production outside the M25.

Corporation chiefs plan to make sure that 50 per cent of all money spent on network programmes is from outside London by 2016.

Last year the BBC spent £300million outside London and already plans to move vast swathes of its output to a purpose built centre in Salford.

As a result of the new plans, which come after pressure from the BBC's governing body, a number of other well known shows are also on the move.

The Weakest Link, Newsnight Review and the Saturday lottery are all heading for Scotland, while Crimewatch and probably Casualty are moving to Wales.

But plans to move Question Time away from the home of Parliament, and instead to the nation which already has its own devolved Parliament, are controversial.

A friend of Mr Dimbleby said last night: 'David has never been keen on the idea of the show being based anywhere other than London for obvious editorial reasons. They need MPs every week and editorially the show is about the UK.'
If the editorial team is moved, as it seems, then Dimbleby, who works on the show for at least three days a week, will be faced with regular journeys north.

While he will not quit the show over the plans he is believed to be deeply unhappy.

Another show insider fears that once it is based in Scotland it will come under pressure to have Scottish politicians, even if they are not relevant.

They said: 'It is bonkers. The seat of Government in the UK is not in Glasgow - it is Westminster. There is no forum where you can meet and see politicians from around the UK in Glasgow. The show already reflects-out-of London diversity as it goes all around Britain.'

Others fear Scottish nationalists will use the move as a 'political football' which they will then have 'fun with'.

While the show visits different towns and cities across the UK each week, the show's team is based in London and producers are also based in Oxford.

Politicians have also hit out at the moves claiming it is another example of the BBC's political correctness.

Conservative MP, Philip Davies, who sits on the culture, media and sport select committee, said: 'It strikes me that a programme like Question Time or The Chelsea Flower show is best made in London. I would have thought that was self evident.

'There is all the to-ing and fro-ing there is going to be as a result of this. I mean one of the reasons you relocate to the regions would be is that its cheaper.

'It would be absolute madness if the BBC was the only organisation ever to have found a way of relocating north and making it more expensive.
'Basically fulfilling some politically correct quota to make themselves look good, which could either be more expensive or makes less effective programmes, seems to be ridiculous.'
The BBC says the plans will boost local employment in these areas and better reflect people's lives on-screen 'wherever they live'.

BBC Vision director Jana Bennett said: 'Our intention is nothing less than changing the very DNA of the BBC to bring the production of programmes closer to the audience we serve. That means permanently increasing the production and commissioning of programmes outside London.'
The moves are being introduced over the next few years after a recent report by the BBC Trust was critical of the current system.

[Teddy Bear]

BBC faces revolt over plans to move programmes including Question Time
The BBC is facing a revolt from staff after announcing plans to move production of many of its most popular programmes - including Question Time, Casualty and Crimewatch - away from their traditional bases in England.

By Andrew Pierce, Neil Midgley and Nicole Martin

The plans were announced by the BBC's director of television, Jana Bennett, and will see a huge increase in the number of programmes made in the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

David Dimbleby, the presenter of Question Time, is understood to have expressed "dismay" to BBC executives over their decision to move production of Question Time to Scotland.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that he may quit the programme in protest at the BBC's decision, which will see the flagship current affairs show made at the BBC's new Glasgow headquarters, Pacific Quay.

The move is scheduled for 2010, the year in which Alex Salmond, the Scottish Nationalist Party leader, is expected to hold a referendum on independence. The three main political parties have joined Mr Dimbleby in expressing astonishment at the decision.

A senior BBC source said: "In my view it is about as politically inept as it gets to move the most popular British political programme to Scotland which is riven with nationalist fervour."

If the Scots vote for independence the programme would have to be brought back or produced in a country which has cut off all links with Westminster.

Mr Dimbleby, who has presented the programme since 1994, was not available for comment last night.

Ms Bennett's plans have also caused an outcry in Bristol, which is set to lose returning hospital drama Casualty to a new production base in Cardiff.

The show, which has been based in Bristol since its inception in 1986, is estimated to contribute £10million to the city's economy.

In her speech to the Royal Television Society, Ms Bennett trumpeted the BBC's commitment to "build Wales as a centre of excellence for drama". However one Bristol TV insider suspected that "the real reason is that they can get away with paying a lot of the crew pitiful wages in Wales".

Gerry Morrissey, the general secretary of the broadcasting union Bectu, supported the moves away from London.

However, he expressed dismay that the BBC staff affected would receive a less generous relocation package than those involved in the BBC's previously announced move of some services to Salford.

The controversy threatens to engulf the arts strand Imagine, game show Weakest Link and long-running police show Crimewatch, all of which will move to either Scotland or Wales.

It came on the same day as the row over the future funding of the BBC deepened, with the corporation's chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, trading blows with his opposite number at the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, Lord David Currie.

In an Ofcom report last month, the watchdog suggested that one way of funding loss-making programmes on ITV and Channel 4 - such as regional news and Dispatches - would be to "top slice" the licence fee and give some of the money to other broadcasters.

Sir Michael fiercely defended the corporation's monopoly over the licence fee, and said that Ofcom proposals for potentially transferring the revenue of the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, were "extraordinary".

"If I was naive I might be surprised that top-slicing remains an option: it holds next-to-no support from within the industry and Ofcom's own research shows that 63 per cent of the public would rather have their money back when given the choice over how the current digital switchover funding might be used if it was continued beyond 2012," said Sir Michael.

However, in what appeared to be a thinly veiled dig at the BBC's vocal defence of its current funding arrangements, Lord Currie called on the Government to consider "dispassionately" Ofcom's proposal to carve up the licence fee.

National Union of Journalist official Paul McLaughlin added: "We welcome more guarantees for the nations but it remains to be seen how much of the benefit is real and how much will go on travelling on rail and planes."