Letter of complaint to the BBC - 24/11/10

Last weekend we in England had to sit through yet another diet of Celtic Rugby Union whilst our own team of England's matches have been sold off to Sky. This is the second weekend it has happened and to be honest I as an Englishman am totally insulted and fed up with this blanket coverage of other countries matches. WE'RE NOT INTERESTED!!!

I don't care about Wales playing (whole of the game shown live last Friday night) I don't care about Scotland (whole of the game shown live last Saturday) - I care about England (no live games shown anywhere on the BBC). And if the BBC cannot afford to outbid Sky then I just wish you wouldn't serve up another country's team as some sort of dullard substitute. CAN YOU IMAGINE SCOTTISH VIEWERS PUTTING UP WITH WATCHING ENGLAND v SAMOA ON TERRESTRIAL BBC WHILE THEIR OWN MATCH IS SHOWN ON SKY?

I find it unbelievably insulting that the English viewer just doesn't seem to count..... But as there is no 'BBC ENGLAND' to fight OUR cause, I don't suppose I am that surprised at the arrogance of it all.

We are 85% of the UK poputation and should therefore be afforded a little more respect. Instead of paying the Scots and Welsh rugby authorities to cover their games - why not save the extra money up (as their matches are being shown to a much larger audience in England they will be paid a much bigger fee than if the respective games were shown purely in their own sparsely populated countries) and try to outbid Sky for England games...

ps - PERRRRLEEEZE do not use the excuse that there are lots of Scots and Welsh people living in England - there are lots of English people living in Scotland and Wales so what does that prove? And anyway - if you were catering for minorities, wouldn't you be covering French, Italian, Argentinian and Rumanian rugby matches as there are many of their ex-pats here also...

My Sunday Times letter...

This is my letter, published in the Sunday Times, (6/11/10). The sentences in italics were the bits they edited out...

Sir / Madam,
Regarding last week's article on 'Educational Apartheid of English students by Scottish Universities' please remember all the other little exclusions that we in England have to routinely endure on a day-to-day basis (apparently in order to keep this gloriously unequal 'Union of Equals' together).

For example there's 'Health Apartheid' - prescription charges of £7.20 in England, free in Wales and soon to be free in Scotland, and expensive cancer drugs off-limits to those in England while freely available to everyone else in the union. Then there's our 'Democratic Apartheid'. England, founder of the modern two-tier parliamentary system is the only country in Europe without a national parliament and First Minister - that in itself is a shameful indictment of those self-serving turkeys in Westminster. We need a body who WILL fight for us in England - and we need it right now. An English Parliament is the only solution!

The Welsh National Opera – (60% funded by the English Arts Council, naturally)....

Sunday mornings means wading through the half a forest worth of supplementary woodpulp that comes with the hernia-inducing Sunday Times newspaper. Most of it is pretentious dross, but now and again you can come across a story that buggers belief – this one is yet another for inclusion into the ever-increasing volume entitled ‘The Union Dividend’....

It's taken from yesterday's Culture magazine’s ‘Biteback’ column written by Richard Brooks...

I wonder if the fat lady is about to stop singing for Welsh National Opera. The 'Lady' is the Arts Council, which gives the WNO a whacking £6.7 million a year. Yes, the Arts Council of England, not its Welsh equivalent, which itself hands over £4.5 million a year to the Cardiff based company. Now, I accept that the Welsh company will perform 25 nights in England over the next year, but all operas, staged in places such as Birmingham and Bristol, opened in Wales, so the production start-up costs, the most expensive element, originate there.

WNO's money comes from the Arts Council, West Midlands. This seems unfair on others such as the innovative Birmingham Opera Company which gets only £350,000 a year, or the Warwick Arts Centre, which receives £525,000. Let's hope the Arts Council of England sorts out this daft anomaly and stops being so generous to the Welsh, particularly at a time of severe cuts....

BTW, in case you were wondering, this is supposed to be the English Arts Council’s Raison d'être as posted on their website...
Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from the Government and the National Lottery...

And as things are now so tough, Arts Council England have posted this page on their site telling us how they will implement 29.6% of budget funding cuts over the next four years.
Liz Forgan, Chair of the Arts Council, said: 'These are severe cuts, made worse by the fact that around 80% of them have to come in the first two years of the settlement. We are determined to lead the arts through this tough period, using all our knowledge, expertise, and brokering skills, and drawing on the resourcefulness and imagination around us'.....

To aid their quest to find money wherever they can (presumably they've already looked down the sides of the reception sofas) I have helpfully emailed them – letting them know where they can save a whole shed full of cash over the next four years from their West Midlands coffers....

To: Liz Forgan, Chair, Arts Council England.
From: Alfred the OK, English Arts lover..

Dear Liz Forgan,
I’ve got a great idea which can save you at least £26.8 million from your English Arts Council budget over the next four years. PLEASE STOP FINANCING THE WELSH NATIONAL OPERA.... Simples!
It isn’t smart, it’s not clever - and it isn’t even English.

Regards, A the OK.