Cuts cuts cuts, anger as BBC plans to axe Scottish jobs at BBC Scotland HQ, one third of BBC Radio Scotland's production staff are to lose their jobs!

Dear All

A few years ago, the BBC opened Pacific Quay in Glasgow, as the BBC's headquarters in Scotland to much fanfare.

It was super duper.

Now, comes the bad news for staff at the news organisation; one third of BBC Radio Scotland's production staff are to lose their jobs.

Hopefully this will not mean the newscaster reading a story and people walking in and taking the microphone, chairs and table out the door as the person announces their own job losses.

The BBC has its priorities wrong.

Out of 27 people eight radio production journalists are getting canned, and given their occupation they might have to relocate elsewhere to find work.

This is unfortunate but it is always those at the bottom who seem to suffer most when the axe is getting wielded.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said she continues to have "deep concerns" over the impact of the changes.

She said:

"We have previously sought assurances that the quality of the BBC's output in Scotland, particularly in relation to news and current affairs, will not suffer as a consequence of these cuts.

"At a time of such momentous importance for our nation, I continue to have deep concerns about the potential impact of these job losses and programming cutbacks.

"I understand the BBC is being forced to make difficult decisions because of the damaging licence fee settlement imposed by the UK Government.

"This reinforces why it is so essential that Scotland has greater accountability and responsibility for broadcasting."

If broadcasting was a devolved issue, instead of a reserved matter, these job losses would still be taking place, let us not have any delusions about that.

As Ms. Hsylop has highlighted the “damaging licence fee settlement imposed by the UK Government”, does she therefore support an increase in the licence fee and if so, by how much?

Scottish television output could be characterised by a simple statement.

Truly fu*king awful!

Being Scottish, I cringe when I see some of the dross produced, my pet hate is the Scottish football phone in where pundits and the public discuss the weighty matters of football from the armchair perspective.

I want to slit my wrists when these bastards are on, how anyone can think this has any value is beyond me.

I am not a football supporter as you may have guessed.

A BBC insider said last night:

"People are angry and disappointed. They are worried about their jobs and they are worried about the programmes themselves – these are the staff that produce GMS and Newsdrive and John Beattie's show – and they are the programmes that are important and which they are proud of. Obviously this is an important time in Scotland, there is a huge political debate and the timing of these cuts couldn't be worse. People concerned about public service broadcasting will find this a worry."

A spokesman for the BBC said that Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, had outlined staff cuts last year and yesterday's announcement was part of that cuts plan.

He added:

"These are part of the plan that will save 100 to 120 staff positions over the next four or five years, and we hope to do that, as much as is possible, through voluntary redundancy”.

Maybe the corporation could take some of the money that it invests in ‘stars’ and like Warner Brothers invest in talent development.

Does anyone find people like Graham Norton and his show remotely funny or witty; it is a pile of low cost utter shit.

What happened to quality in broadcasting, the Weekend World, the World in Action, and other serious informative debate programming that open people’s eyes to ideas?

Tough luck on the rear echelon, it seems they are walking.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University