[DTV]

the BBC's "regional radio" plan only increases the disparity while putting it down the same path as the major commercial radio groups. If the BBC was going to embark on a plan to have fewer regions but with Scotland/Wales/NI style autonomy, that could potentially be welcomed, but clearly that's never happening.

But what possible need is there for the BBC English regions to have the same level of autonomy or resources as the three nations. Britain is not a symmetric federal state, the BBC's asymmetry reflects that. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's news divisions require extra resources to cover the differing political systems and policies of those countries. Indeed, in terms of disparity, having to do both national and local news means the latter actually gets squeezed out of Scottish, Welsh and N Irish output.

English Local Radio is covering less (and less specialist) news to typically smaller populations. That is hard to justify at a time of deep financial cuts. Also, in terms of retaining localness, fewer stations would reduce non-editorial staffing costs, allowing you to keep more journalists covering smaller areas for the same price.

Though, as Keith says, this is possibly not the right thread for this discussion.