Be Excellent To Each Other

I think possibly the problem we have is exactly because London is too close to everywhere else. Because it's only about a 2-3 hour drive to most of the major cities from London, it's for some reason the de facto place for businesses to set up (even though, apart from retail, there's very little reason for businesses to be there).

When I was young and frustrated, I was looking for jobs in the media still, but back in Canada. There were tons of jobs, and all across the country too - not just Toronto and Montreal but lots of smaller cities all over the place. A similar search in the UK will have 95% of the results in London. The same is tragically true of other industries.

Surely then, it should be Birmingham that gets the most attention? Especially seeing as it's faster and cheaper to travel by air now than it is by train. I don't know about travelling to the continent, but it's probably still faster and easier to get a plane to, say, Paris, than it is to dick around on the trains, right?

The problem is, and I'm not going to be too popular saying this, is that there is a lot of stupid cunts in the South East in positions of authority/power who believe that once you get out of London and the Home Counties, the rest of the country is a cross between Mad Max and Deliverance except not as welcoming to strangers.

Private Eye infamously published a comment about moving science to Daresbury near Warrington where one of the wives asked "whether they would be able to get fresh strawberries".

You only have to look at the resistance within the BBC to the move to MediaCity in Salford to see that the attitude sucks.

I go out for curries in Bradford, but the fact that there's only one bar hinders staying there for the rest of the night. Plus the Museum and the IMAX screen are in the same building.

I'd be interested to hear how much stabbing you've seen in Leeds. I heard all the stabbing was down south.

Leeds isn't amazing, and I far prefer Manchester, but if/when I move I'm not staying in England. North-south is a bit of a nitpick compared to going somewhere actually nice, like Valencia or Tarragona. The idea of Sheffield annexing Leeds is amusing.

The resistance within the BBC to Salford, that's a whole different ballgame. Imagine you have a family and commute in to TVC or BH everyday. Your wife has a good job locally and your kids are in school. Now your employer tells you that you have to go to Manchester to work. Wouldn't you be a bit pissed off? Wouldn't your wife/kids/relatives be pissed off? It's got nothing to do where they are moving to (Manchester for the main is far better than London) but it sucks to be told you have to uproot or lose your job.

I know it happens in other industries, but it still sucks.

Except it's worse than that. The BBC tell the PC brigade the reason they are moving because they love Manchester and all those crazy northerners. The real incentive to move is that it's a bloody good way to downsize without paying a penny in redundancy. The London facilities needed upgrading anyway, so why not just build new facilities in Manchester (also downsized) and accidently lose a load of staff on the way up the M6? BBC management give themselves a pat on the back and a payrise, while as usual the staff suffer.

And lets not even get into the whole Pebble Mill debate where they knock down an excellent (if aging) facility in Brum one year and then suddenly decide they need a whole new set of studios in Manchester the next. Salford should never have happened, the BBC had a world class studio outside of London and it was Pebble Mill in Birmingham. They mothballed it, let it go to rack and ruin before pulling it down. Fucking disgraceful.

Not for the faint hearted, Pebble Mill as it was pulled down. Fucking shame. http://lh4.ggpht.com/_MI91mRp7VQg/RjrqWswHPvI/AAAAAAAAAAs/rtFBy_HsdUU/pebble_mill1.JPG

Yes it sucks, but it is life. It also isn't a wilderness up here.

And I totally agree with you about Pebble Mill.

In their defence, there's no real need to manufacture pebbles nowadays.

You don't manufacture pebbles at Pebble Mill! You mill them! It's all about the grit.

German grit is far finer and cheaper to boot, though. They have almost unrivalled skills in crushing things underfoot, after all.

I don't think it is a wilderness, but I can see why people don't want to uproot themselves. In their position I doubt I would. Hell listen to me, I ran off a few months after my bit of the Beeb was sold off to Siemens! Manchester would have no chance.

And yep, I think everyone barring the BBC management agrees about Pebble Mill. BBC policy forced studios to compete on price and as a result independent facilities and studios at TVC won more business. So parts of Pebble Mill got mothballed and the BBC decided there was more value in the land the building is on. The replacement (the Mailbox) is a soulless goldfish bowl in a shopping centre.

But then again the whole regional TV system is fucked anyway. One time of day every ITV region had at least one proper studio. Some, like TVS, Central and Thames had more than one studio complex. These days you are lucky if you've got a small news studio in a tin shed on an industrial estate.