Why say UK when they mean England?

[catchafallingstar]

Blaming the news for this.....UK in arctic conditions...bla bla bla....

So what they really mean is that the horrific weather that has been plaguing Scotland and Northern Ireland since mid November has finally reached London.
So now it is newsworthy, it warrants more than a tag line at the end of the main news. In fact there are even special one off news programmes about it.

This has been going on for a while. Most airports in Scotland have been closed but didn't get interview after interview with passengers moaning about it.

32 inches of snow fell in one night in the town where I live but 'down south' gets a dusting of 2 or 3 inches and people are attempting to ski to work!

With all the talk of how unprepared the UK is, I don't think this Kind of news mentality does not help. Yes we now the weather is awful but is has been for over a month now...get on with it! I'm sure there are some decent news worthy stories out there!

Rant over.

Disclaimer: I now fully expect numerous posts telling me how much snow you have in your area, how disabling it is, what relatives are stuck at the airport, how it's awful etc....... But this has been happening for over a month!!
The 'UK' may be expecting arctic conditions but places like Northern Ireland,Scotland and Wales have just had to cope with it without it being glorified by the BBC news at every opportunity...

Well I've not been watching the news because for the last month its been nothing but talk about snow.
Now if they've been talking about it for a month but London only just has it what were they talking about before?

What I really want to know is if its snows does nothing else happen, ever, anywhere?

I can believe how London centric the journalists are. I met one who challenged me 'So what famous politicians have come out of Wales then?'
And after going through name after name, she was so condescending and when I pointed out that Wales had the first Childrens Minister and the first to scrap prescription charges and etc etc etc. anyway. She point blank refused to believe me and called me a liar.
Sigh.
It is all about London I'm afraid.

Actually, there are bits of Scotalnd you would expect to get snow (Cairngorms, Grampian, the Borders, etc); but not all of Scotland! Some places get titchy amounts/if any - e.g Argyl sees very little snow as it gets the gulf stream.
It just isn't "normal" to have anything like the amount we have now, for as long; places where snow would be "normal" have got far more than typical.

The ski resorts in Scotland have had seasons where they've not opened all year (Glencoe went bust a couple years ago, but was "rescued" and run by volunteers) and - obviously - they are all in areas where snow is expected, are at altitude, and have snow making gear.

I love the "it's normal to have shed loads of snow in Scotland"! No, it isn't!!! I can assure you, the last 2 years have been particularly bad, and we are certainly not better at dealing with it up here.

It's a standing joke in our house - "is it snowing in the SE? Oh well, that'll be the whole of the UK at a standstill then" . I'm from Kent originally, and the English-centeredness (esp. the SE) of the BBC is astounding when you live elsewhere and see it from 'the other side'

yabu
I am in the south of england, but have been well aware of the bad weather in Scotland and other parts of the UK.
I am actually rather concerned about the problems facing people who won't be getting their oil supplies until the new year(how will they manage if they run out)

No whining here - and if you're sick of it stop reading the posts.

It's only really started to be reported here in Australia now that Heathrow has been affected, because that's where the majority of Aussies trying to get home are trying to fly out of. Aussies aren't bothered about UK weather - unless it affects some of their own directly.

I guess (and am prepared to be flamed for it) that it's slightly more newsworthy when the southern part of England cops it with the snow because it's a bit more unusual? There is probably a perception (dunno how misguided) that it snows most winters in Scotland, so it's not very exciting or newsworthy - but when other parts of the UK that don't normally experience heavy snow are deluged, that's more "interesting".

Sorry - thought I'd read enough of this thread not to be repeating - obviously missed a bit!

nightmare- they are bringing oil supplies in by ship.
Big delivery to Inverness and Aberdeen yesterday then using ingenuity and miracles to get it to homes.

Strawberry did you read the thread? We are annoyed at the MEDIA not moaning about the snow.

Thumb that the thing it's equally unusual in Scotland plus it's far more serve but still going unreported.
Snowing most winters is not true for most of scotland and then when it does snow it's a few inches not a few feet.

Rubbish strawberry I've lived in London and Scotland and you have to be seriously ignorant to think that the national new covers the rest of the UK equally and fairly.

In general, I find the lack of Scottish news in the national media depressing. So YANBU.

However in this case, London airports being shut is big news and affects lots of people so I think it does deserve the coverage. At least saying "UK" is better than "Britain" - hello, there is a lot of snow in Northern Ireland too and that's not in Britain (pedant hat on there).

Watch the Channel 4 news at 7 - they covered the problems in Scotland in depth a few weeks ago, and had Alex Salmond on for a grilling. It's a longer program and often covers stories missed by the BBC.

If you've only read one of the posts how can you be sick of the "constant whining"? And 6 other threads is hardly constant either now, is it?

London is the retail, media, economic and transport hub of the UK - if it seizes up it's quite right it should be national news. What level of coverage did you expect? A small digital channel in Hounslow to mention it in passing?

Look at it the other way. It is really boring to live somewhere that's always on the news. I'm from the arse end of nowhere Herefordshire and it's an event when that is ever mentioned on the news. Seriously - we have street parties and ever'thing.

YANBU.

I'm in rural Wales. It started snowing at the end of November, we had a slight reprieve on the 2nd week in December and now it is back to snow. Temperatures have been as low as -12 in the middle of the day. The first lot of snow hadn't fully melted in some places when the next lot started.

Now I appretiate that we are fairly sparsely populated, especially in comparison to London, but it is really annoying when the weather conditions only seem to make the headlines when it hits the SE of England.

Although TBH it is the sme to a certain extent within Wales, the news headlines are only about the weather if it snows in Cardiff, they don't really care if Builth Wells is under 2ft of snow.

mamas12 - I used to live by Nye Bevan house in Holloway. So we're not all London-centric (not that I'm a journo but I am a meeja bitch)

You didn't say the last month in your original post actually, which is what I referred to. You're hearing more now about the reporting of the snow because it's relevant to what's going on in the media now. As I said, if you don't like the posts with complaints, don't read them.

If you really don't believe that the BBC news is England centred, try watching it closely for the next couple of weeks, and count the number of times you hear stories that are supposedly 'national' and then turn out to refer to England only. As I said, I'm from Kent and it wasn't until I moved up here that it became apparent to me - the SE does exist in a bubble. Regional news items shouldn't have to exist simply to fill a gap in the reporting of the UK wide BBC, which they are doing at the moment.

Scotland needs its own national news programme on the BBC. I'm sick of watching 'national' news about England. It's not just the snow, the coverage of the changes to English tuition fees was the same. grrr

Was it English tuition fees? I thought it was universities nationally who were putting up their fees?

Oh wait, England is 'nationally'

If the BBC news is England-centred it's because the UK is England-centred. 50m people in the UK live in England versus an overall population of 60m (based on 2001 census figs). London is where the major (not all) transport and business hubs and the government is. It would be ridiculous to weight news by geography.

Perhaps the BBC should think about giving the rest of the UK a discount on its fees then, given that we're a minority group that doesn't get equity in terms of news service?