To be brutally honest, does any-one care? I could live without that River City garbage, the Gaelic nonsence and all the other pointless mush. BBC Reporting Glasgow, oh sorry Scotland, needs the chop. Roll on more budget cuts!!!!!!!!!!

Another Scot with an inferiority complex. Frankly, if the guff that BBC Scotland produces is filched out of Scotland, I'm all for it! "Yet another example of the filching of wealth out of Scotland by London". Lol! I bet you vote SNP! 'It's oor oil' etc. I'm sick of this Caledonian whinging. The Union has benefited Scotland and will continue to do so (Barnett???).

Gaelic is as dead as a dodo.

Yep, Greg, give us some more of your Anglo wisdom!

As to the main thrust of the article, just why do we bother with the EBC? If we witheld the licence fee in Scotland, that may make them sit up and notice.

But Scots wouldn't do that, of course. Too feart!

Remember the poll tax?

Im sure gaelic speak dont think the programming is rubbish.
Irish broadcasting does well for it self, we could do that. No we cant, we rather insult each other and argue, make me want to slit my wrist or leave the country, which funnly enough alot of people are doing.

It sounds to me like the SNP has it spot on and its Greg who's the one with the inferiority complex. Ever thought that the reason so many BBC Scotland programmes aren't up to scratch, particularly in news and current affairs, is because the funding simply isn't there to do the job properly? But then I suppose that slating the Scots while trying to deny them the means of improving things for themseves has been a default unionist position for years now.

Its just another variation on the 'too wee, too poor, too stupid' line. Laughable when it comes from the Westminster village, but simply pitiful when it comes from someone who lives here.

This story is totally nonsense. Nicola Sturgeon has clearly never watched RTE. Honestly it is like some sort of pastiche of a very bad 1970s broadcaster.

It is blatantly obvious that thousands of Scots watch Eastenders every week and what pays for that but their license fee.

I thought the SNP had grown up somewhat of late but clearly with an election looming they are reverting to their something-for-nothing position.

Greg@1 and Peter @8

are you the same person ?

Peter - 'something for nothing' is the unionist school of thought.

Greg - What can i say ! you have a serious problem, keep your insults to yourself please. If you don't say anything then people may think you are stupid but if you say something then people will know you are stupid....

I can safely say we are not the same people. But, great minds think alike!

And fools seldom differ...

Do thousands of Scots really watch Eastenders and River City every week?

I find that truly depressing but if it's true then perhaps we're getting the BBC we deserve.

1st of all I don't watch much telly, these days. I'm a poor student & I canny afford it both mentally and economically.

Secondly it is a real shame there isn't more Scottish programmes on the BBC and another stations. It would make watching TV more worthwhile. We really do need more Scottish programmes to boost our wee countries morale.

I agree with posting number 13, we are definitely not getting the BBC we deserved, but are we getting what we deserved in any aspects of media coverage. This is a question we should be asking as Scots. And If this is really the case, then something should be done about it. As we are living in 21st-century and we should be promoting equality not inequality in the UK.

Mary

How many Scots speak Gaelic today? Its mainly confined to the Western Isles, isn't it?

You are slightly correct in your analysis of BBC 6 o'Clock news. It must be difficult to cover events in a post-devolution era. Of course, it is the BBC, we want to hear what goes on in the rest of Britain. If you don't like it, just watch Reporting Glasgow, oops..Reporting Scotland. Sky News and C4 are good too. You've got to remember that the BBC has demographics/regions to consider - there are only 5 million Scots in the UK.

Thank you for filling my ignorant void on Gaelic.

I don't really get this. All money raised by the license fee in Scotland should be spent on Scottish programming when the majority of programmes Scots watch are made outside Scotland. This seems unfair and illogical.

I cannot decide whether the comments by Alistair (#9) and Fiona (#11) are meant to be ironic or just plain rude. Alistair tells Greg off for his insults and then is very rude about Greg in the same paragraph. Meanwhile he churlishly misquotes my previous post back at me in a meaningless manner.

As for Fiona well that really was a pathetic post.

To be serious for one minute and address several other posters can I say that whilst Nicola Sturgeon's intervention is mendacious and intellectually incoherent there is a problem with the BBC's news service.

I think the majority of us agree that Nicola Sturgoen's argument can be dismissed because the licence fee that Scottish viewers pay gives us everything from Eastenders, the excellent Radio Four to the unrivalled coverage of the current Middle East crisis (how many correspondents do RTE have in the Middle East, Nicola?).

However, post devolution it is clear that the BBC is struggling in its news coverage to reflect Britiain back to Britain.

Scotland contributes 9% of the fee money so we should get 9% of the fee money back it is as simple as that. We as a people with a distinct culture do have a right to a deacent and adequately funded broadcaster which represents the interests of the people in Scotland and not the UK. To say we should have an inferior and poorly funded broadcaster because we are only 5 million as opposed to 50 million is stupid. Why should we all pay £100+ a year and have to endure a largely English news media broadcaster which drones on about cricket and English and Welsh crime figures. All of this once again shows how disadantaged Scotland is in the UK, in it we cant even have certain things that other nations large or small take for granted. Oh and before you speak Greg, shut up, ive heard all the tosh and drivel your sort have been ramming down our throats for years and to be honest ive heard it all before. Unless you are going to say something constructive rather than be an Anglo saxon with an inferiority complex dont bother. Oh and on a final note, this Barnett formula thing you English drone on about is a unionist myth, the tories said it was a lie in 1996 so why are people still going on about it in 2006?, do you have so little to say to convince us of the merits of staying in the UK that you rely on such crap?

Barnett is designed to squeeze expenditure in Scotland, it is not a benefit and never has been.

Broadcasting should be controlled here. It's as simple as that. We don't get a good deal from the BBC at all, nor from STV or any other organisation.

Even Jack McConnell and the rest of his Labour chums recommended as part of the constitutional (devolution) convention that broadcasting powers should be given to Scotland. Naturally now he's in power he prefers to get a pat on the head from his master Tony than remember anything so inconvenient.

The comments on Gaelic are a disgrace. It's our language and at one point most Scots spoke it, that was before it was outlawed along with the bagpipes and tartan and most of our population was sent off their lands to provide grazing room for sheep!

We should preserve gaelic and encourage people to learn and speak it. It's part of our natural heritage just like the Scots language.

Saor Alba!

http://www.scottishindependence.com

By the way this story refers to a similar topic:

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=474&id=101266...

Also this one

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=474&id=106860...

I do believe that the BBC is struggling to meet the needs of a devolved Scotland regarding news. But, the UK's regional remit is being filled - Still Game, Beechgrove Garden, Frontline Scotland et al.

To reply to Jae's rather angry post. Linking the flawed cause of Scottish independence to a item appearing in the Scotsman is rather petty

I may not offer something 'constructive' to say because I do not fit into your rather narrow Caledonian whinging mindset.

Your petty insults saying that I somehow have an inferiority complex is incorrect. Scotland has produced some of the world's greatest thinkers. Unlike you, I happen to believe that Scotland has only progessed within the Union, and Scotland will fail to do so with a left of centre govt with indpendence. We are equal partners (minus the Barnett formula)

What i said was in proportion, you were rather insulting (for starters you insulted 65.000 gaelic speakers and likened their language and thus a large part of their way of life to an extinct bird!) , hence i was. You can call me petty, but to be blunt i do not care.

I also find your views towards possible independence moronic. Independence is a necessity and is something we are entitled to if we choose it, without it we would not have this bickering in the first place.

Im half English Half Scottish so if your trying to imply that im a bleating Anglophobe dont bother.

Some Scots prior to the 1950's did ok out of the union while the majority as Joe already said didn't. Since then few have. But in my eyes its not an issue of benefits, its more to do with desire. Scotland is like a 50 year old that still lives with its mother, while everyone else over the years have moved out got jobs and become succesful (everyone else being nations like Ireland, Norway, Finland etc).

Linking independence to this issue isnt all that petty anyway. The only realistic answer to the lack of BBC funding and thus a lack of cultural expression through the media and other issues like the west lothian question is through Independence

With regards to Scoland failing with a centre left government, i dont see Norway and Canada in ruins due to having very left wing governments. Scotland is also failing with a centre left party in the Union anyway, so we'd at least be failing on our own feet. Also upon independence there would be space for a competent centre right party to fill the void the tories would have left. The main reason Scotland is anti right right now is because the only realistic centre party in the country is too orientated towards middle England.

Sorry, the last sentence has meant to read "The main reason Scotland is anti right right now is because the only realistic centre right * party in the country is too orientated towards middle England."