WHY DOES MANCHESTER DESERVE THE BBC?

WE Mancunians do like to pick and choose what comes up from London. When we were offered the chance to have our very own congestion charge in 2008 we listened to a lot of liberal, chauffeur­ driven sorts tell us how modern and economically advantageous it would be then voted against it four to one. Regret­tably we never had the chance to vote on the BBC’s decision to move a chunk of its operations to Manchester in a newly ­devel­oped MediaCity, or as we like to call it, “some office blocks”.
At first it sounded rather good for Manchester. The BBC exec­ utives would live in fancy apartments near their offices in a sort of tribal enclave. We would happily charge them tourist rates for everything, serve them chip butties on ciabatta and manufac­ ture edgy graffiti art for them to frame on their white walls. Their intense fear and distaste for the north of England would keep them out of our hair while we got on with the football and music. Their security would be assured. (Everyone, including Barney the Blue Peter dog, requires a pass to enter the new offices.) They would only see Manchester from within a glass bub­ ble of condescension but since that is how the BBC sees Britain and the world it would be business as usual.

Now we learn that MediaCity is no such gift for our entre­preneurial talents. Although 2,000 or so staff have moved north as part of the £1.5billion project to spread out from London the BBC is failing to relocate its staff and stars.

Less than half of the team that produces BBC Breakfast (now broad­ cast from Manchester) could be persuaded to come to live in what is now, with condolences to Birmingham, England’s second city. Instead the BBC is shuttling its people back and forth from London so they needn’t fear that the sun will set on them north of Watford.

The corporation has spent £2mil­lion on the mad commute in the last two years, with 24,000 train journeys and 500 flights. The colossal sum does not even include journeys claimed through BBC staff expense accounts. A second­class morning train between London and Manches­ter will nicely use up one household’s licence fee for the year but won’t cover the taxi across town to Man­chester’s conjoined twin city Salford, where the shiny MediaCity lies. We don’t know how many BBC folk slum it in second class but a spokes­ man says: “First-class tickets are only purchased where it represents a cheaper option.”