Campaign for an English Parliament

Readers of the CEP blog may remember the dismal excuse provided by the doubtless overworked Ciaran McConnell of the BBC Complaints Department in response to a complaint from the CEP about the BBC1 ‘Breakfast’ show’s ‘instinctive’ substitution of the word ‘English’ by the word ‘British’ in a discussion on funding for English animators.

Well, the desultory Mr McConnell has struck again – he really doesn’t like it when we draw his attention to the BBC’s seemingly systemic inability to refer to English topics accurately as English, not British.

I sent a complaint via the BBC’s online form in which I included a link to my ‘Open letter to the BBC on reporting policy debates at the next general election’ posted on English Parliament Online. I asked the BBC to respond to the content of the open letter.

Yesterday, I received the following dismissive reply:

“Dear Mr Rickard

Thanks for your e-mail.

Unfortunately we’re unable to comment on articles from external sources. The role of this department is to respond to comment, query or criticism concerning the BBC and our output, therefore I’m unable to provide the information you require on this occasion. However, thanks again for your interest in contacting the BBC.

Regards

Ciaran McConnell
BBC Complaints”

This was an insulting refusal to engage with the issues raised, and I was not prepared to let the thing fall at the first hurdle, i.e. Mr McConnell. So, using the allotted web form, I’ve now sent the following reply:

“Dear Mr McConnell,

Thank you for your reply. I wonder, however, whether you took the trouble to read the article for which I sent you a link in my original complaint. This article, which in fact is written in the form of an open letter to the BBC, does precisely contain “comment, query [and] criticism concerning the BBC and [its] output”, to borrow your own words. If I had taken the text of the article in question as the body of my letter of complaint, I feel you would have regarded it as falling clearly within your rubric.

With that in view, I am including the text of the article within this email (see further below). The issues raised are matters of serious concern to the public and involve grave questions about whether the BBC is failing in its duty to report on news and current affairs accurately and impartially. I feel that these issues need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, given the importance of insuring that reporting at the next general election should accurately convey to the public an understanding of the issues affecting them that the politicians they elect are – or are not – empowered to influence.

I would therefore be grateful if you could look into this matter further.”

I’ll keep you posted, as they say; but let’s not hold our breath.