Chamber and committees

This committee got figures in 2021 that said it was 90 per cent at that time. Leaving that aside, Mr Kerr raised the point that the tail-off of people willing to pay the licence fee was more pronounced in Scotland than it was elsewhere in the UK. I should say I told this committee two weeks ago that I had just got my licence, having moved into a new property, and then this week I got a letter saying I am being investigated for not having a licence. A strange thing, but there you go.

I will venture some reasons for that difference in the drop-off and I will be interested in your view on them. Some are small things that may seem trivial. First is the almost constant overruns of UK programmes that eat into programmes that people want to tune into in Scotland. Those are usually news programmes, but I can think of an England women’s rugby match that stopped coverage of the early parts of the Scotland-Greece football match. It is irritating when you are waiting for two or three minutes for some little conversation between a couple of presenters on a news programme down south.

The second one relates to news coverage. You do an incredible amount of news coverage in Scotland on devolved issues. You have special investigations and you marry up your radio and TV coverage to cover devolved issues exhaustively. It certainly exhausts me sometimes. You do that all the time. However, when it comes to reserved issues—and it is the position of the BBC that there are two Governments in Scotland—the coverage is completely absent. I have raised this on air, going right back to Gordon Brewer and latterly with Martin Geissler. They both had the same reason, which was that they could not get UK ministers to appear. Important issues such as high speed 2 being cut from Scotland or the overrun on aircraft carriers are not covered by the BBC in Scotland at all and that seems very partial.

The third point is on sports. I mentioned earlier that we talked to Ofcom. I have campaigned since 2007 to have Scotland football matches deemed to be part of the crown jewels, or listed events, and that has not happened. I know that that is not in the gift of the BBC, but when you did eventually get a Scottish match, the production of the programme was appalling. It was late. You missed the early part of the proceedings. There was no commentary at all. You allowed the overrun from the previous game. That was because the programme was on pitch, as was the case for the FA Cup final on Saturday, rather than being studio based.

To me—and certainly going by my mail bag—those are the reasons why people are losing faith in the BBC in Scotland. I would be interested in your views on those points.

In the context of all the life-saving and dangerous work that the agencies do, have you had time to assess any impact that there might be of the UK Government’s decision to slash international aid in future? Will that affect you, or is that still unknown?

I think that Frances Guy mentioned that the Arab League has proposals for reconstruction that are practical and realisable, unlike the proposal to create a Gaza strip like the Las Vegas strip and so on. If that is the case, will the people behind that organisation—I do not know enough about it—not also potentially have resources to provide aid to meet the immediate needs in the meantime? Will that help to replace the moneys that are being withdrawn through USAID and so on, or is that already factored in? Are they in a position to provide immediate aid, or are they already doing that?

My next question goes back to Mr Bibby’s question about readiness if the obstacles that are currently in the way of activity are lifted. I imagine that, to people outside, the incredible concentration on ensuring that every single vendor is vetted to the nth degree seems a wee bit absurd, compared to the gravity of the crisis, with 2 million people on the brink of starvation. I think that that would be very puzzling to many people.

We are talking about 2 million people, which is almost half the population of Scotland, so six or seven truck loads will not do a great deal in the meantime. I think that Mr Bibby was asking whether, if the restrictions are lifted, the trucks and warehouses outwith the area are fully ready to go. Is everything ready to go if eventually we get rid of the structural obstructions that are preventing aid from getting through? Is everything ready to go at the push of a button, or are you seeing depleted supply lines because of diminishing resources?

Thank you.

Going back to the question of diversity, I think that it is fantastic that you have managed to find a leading role for a Hibs fan in the cast as well. [Laughter.]

The discussion is centred very much on the BBC for obvious reasons, but the witnesses have made a point about the symbiotic relationship between what the BBC does and what “River City” does, and what Netflix, Amazon, Paramount or whoever else do. Is there not a case for looking at those organisations too? I know that it may be a bit of a fool’s errand, but can they not contribute in some way to what we want to see? I am thinking of something along the lines of the informal cultural college that “River City” has produced for different careers within the industry. Could they contribute as well, or would they just not consider that?

I am not sure that we should accept the context that Trump wants to set for us as a reason for not pursuing that, and it would be interesting if the committee were to get people from Netflix or Paramount in front of it to find out. You said that people benefit greatly from this, so let us try to monetise that bit.

It is very useful to have had the offer from Lynda Rooke to try to work together on this. It is difficult enough for us to influence BBC Scotland without trying to influence the rest of the BBC in the UK, to be honest, but I think that we should do that.

For full transparency, I am not from Dumbarton. I took the high road down to “Garnock Way” when I was younger. I am from Edinburgh.

Your point, then, is that an on-going, long-term commitment provides better opportunities for diversity, equality and inclusion.

On jobs and the opportunities that they create, Frank Gallagher was making a point about the authentic Scottish voice. None of those other options would necessarily replicate what “River City” does in that regard. The BBC is turning down the voice of Scotland through this, and there is no guarantee that what “River City” provides would be replaced or replicated.

It is a kind of cultural vandalism, because we will end up with a situation in which, I would imagine, we will be surprised to hear a Scottish voice on a soap or drama from elsewhere in the UK, rather than a situation in which somebody knows that they can tune into something where they will hear something that they can relate to, because it is in their own voice. Would that be your view, Frank Gallagher?