Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

HR is a useful tool that solves a bunch of problems. The challenge for junior folks is that they often misunderstand the set of problems HR is intended to solve, which can cause new problems for themselves and others.

Totally agree. And it's something where I know people that I qualified with who have learned that the hard way. It's almost something HR should be warning new people in their first job about

[Tamas]

HR is a useful tool that solves a bunch of problems. The challenge for junior folks is that they often misunderstand the set of problems HR is intended to solve, which can cause new problems for themselves and others.

Totally agree. And it's something where I know people that I qualified with who have learned that the hard way. It's almost something HR should be warning new people in their first job about

That would be a difficult conversation to insert into the average rosy faux-idealistic, beauty peagant level corporate culture BS that is dissimated at most places. Plus it's beneficial for the employer for the young employee to have these misconceptions.

[Sheilbh]

I know I bang on about this But I really strongly support publicly funded or owned broadcasting like the BBC or Channel 4 - but I think it does mean they need to do a bit of public service broadcasting. They shouldn't just be basically a commercial broadcaster, with extra royalist propaganda during national events

Newsnight to be cut to 30 minutes as part of BBC plan to save £500m
More than half of jobs at flagship BBC Two political programme to be lost as corporation diverts money to digital platforms
Alexandra Topping
Wed 29 Nov 2023 15.00 GMT

Newsnight is to become a 30-minute "interview, debate and discussion show" as part of the BBC's wider plans to make £500m of savings, the corporation has said.

Deborah Turness, the BBC's chief executive of news and current affairs, confirmed a shake-up of the organisation on Wednesday.

An extended hour-long edition of BBC News at One will be relocated to Salford, making it the only daily BBC national news bulletin to be broadcast outside London. BBC Breakfast, also broadcast from Salford, will be extended by 15 minutes, she said.

The corporation expects the changes to save £7.5m as part of its plan to cut spending by £500m.

More than half of Newsnight's 60 jobs will be lost. The corporation said the programme would become a 30-minute discussion programme showcasing "the best of the BBC's talent and news-making interviews to make sense of the day's news".

As part of the BBC's plan to cut 1,000 hours of content, the Our World documentary strand on the News channel – which bills itself as "BBC journalism at its best, with programmes that expose and evaluate global topics" – will be axed, and BBC Two will make nine fewer hours of single documentaries each year.

Panorama will continue as the flagship current affairs brand on BBC One, with no change in the number of hours, while a new BBC News Investigations unit will be created and BBC Verify will get a boost.

Turness said: "Like many businesses, we are in a tough financial climate and as our audiences shift rapidly from TV to online news consumption, we need to make choices about where we allocate our resources. While TV and radio remain crucial to BBC News, we must invest in our digital platforms to ensure they are also the home of our very best journalism, and today's package of measures will accelerate this transformation."

In a blogpost, Turness addressed the decision to cut Newsnight to 30 minutes, praising its impact since its debut on 30 January 1980. "We'll all have our own memories of Newsnight – from Jeremy Paxman famously repeating the same question to Michael Howard to the Prince Andrew interview," she wrote.

But she added that the BBC had streamlined editorial teams to avoid duplication. "It simply no longer makes sense to keep a bespoke reporting team dedicated to a single news programme with a small and declining audience, however good that programme is," she wrote.

"There will be people – both inside and outside the BBC – who'll worry this change means less investigative journalism across BBC News. That Newsnight's particular type of gritty, independent, dogged reporting will disappear, leaving the BBC poorer for it." But she said that would not be the case, pointing to investigations including the exposure of workers' claims of a toxic culture at McDonald's and the undercover filming exposing abuse at a mental health hospital as "proof we have the skills, talent and commitment across the organisation and we are delivering".

The BBC said it would restructure the BBC News story teams in the UK and reduce the amount of TV packaging in an effort to become "digital first and to "focus on digital storytelling and live coverage".

Roles in the news department would be lost but there would be new specialist roles for journalists, with open-source intelligence and policy analysis expertise within an expanded BBC Verify.

Other new roles include a UK editor based in Salford, a royal editor, and roles covering artificial intelligence, financial and political investigations, employment and housing – which the BBC said "have been designed to focus on areas which are of particular interest to today's audiences".

I'm also really not convinced that anyone benefits from replacing a deep reporting show with "interview, debate and discussion".

I think Verify has been a bit of a disaster so far but expanding it to include open source is important - but they have to explain the how to get trust.

I'd add as I always do on the pubic service bit that £7 million in the context of their savings, or the BBC's £1.2 billion annual budget is fuck all. The thing that always really annoys me is that a lot of the public service stuff - education, science, news, arts, culture, religions - is dirt cheap to make (as long as they don't do the middle aged man tours the world looking at things model). It doesn't save much so I can't help but feel that it's basically a decision from people who worry about the BBC's reach and popularity which is part of, but not the whole of its purpose

[Josquius]

That's pretty shit. Channel 4 news and newsnight are the only decent news programmes really. The regular news just does a quick skim on a level you easily get reading online. Channel 4 news and news night actually do a deep dive and cover areas you might not have seen much of elsewhere.
The interview and discussion bits of news night are generally it's worst part  unless they have someone insane on or someone who understands a foreign issue who is left to basically give a presentation.

I really should cancel my license again shoudlnt I

[Sheilbh]

No! And not just because it's a crime.

Not a massive fan of Channel 4 News. I might agree but I prefer it a little less biased.

Newsnight was excellent though, especially on the policy expertise and investigations. Lots of current and former reporters pretty unhappy about it.

[Sheilbh]

Sad to hear about Alastair Darling. Very good chancellor in very tough circumstances, both with the financial crisis but also politically with Brown (and Balls). Did about as well as anyone could, I think.

[Josquius]

No! And not just because it's a crime.

Not a massive fan of Channel 4 News. I might agree but I prefer it a little less biased.

Newsnight was excellent though, especially on the policy expertise and investigations. Lots of current and former reporters pretty unhappy about it.

There's no unbiased news out there. All else being equal I'd rather have channel 4s left leaning bias over the BBCs right leaning bias.... But all else isn't equal.
The general quality and level of detail is much better on channel 4 news.
Kind of like how the telegraph used to be a decent newspaper despite being super pro tory.

[Sheilbh]

I don't think the BBC is right wing

I think they are pretty establishment though and far too Westminster focused (which won't be helped by shifting Newsnight into another news talk show ). So they too often accept/re-use the framing from government, civil service, BofE etc. And with a Conservative government that will lean right, but I think they had the same issue with New Labour and will have it again with Starmer. Not right and left so much as status quo at whatever moment it is.

Edit: Having said that with Paul Mason, Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel etc out of the BBC you see how much of a blessing the impartiality rules are

[HVC]

I was gonna say BBC always seemed lefty to me. But I questioned myself because Canadian left and euro left are a bit divergent (though no where near as bad as the us)

[Valmy]

Given enough time, and taking into account that native birthrate is likely below replacement level: enjoy your great replacement. It may take a while, but you'll get there if you maintain course.

Better than a great disappearance. However, birthrates all over the world are decreasing and bringing in a bunch of people who will have no place to live is unlikely to speed along this replacement plan.

[Gups]

The BBC defiantely leans left overall (or at least liberal).

[crazy canuck]

The BBC defiantely leans left overall (or at least liberal).

What does liberal mean in the UK context?

[Valmy]

The BBC defiantely leans left overall (or at least liberal).

So Liberal Democrat leaning?

[Josquius]

The BBCs output in general leans left. It helps that right wing and comedian are two words that don't really go together.
BBC News and related programmes lean right.

[Josquius]

Seems starmer is really determined to snatch defeat from the Jaws of victory

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/02/keir-starmer-praises-margaret-thatcher-for-bringing-meaningful-change-to-uk



I am in an extremely safe seat. So you know. Think I might vote for someone else.