Media coverage of England as if it’s UK

[adagio]

I know it’s been done before, but it still annoys the hell out of me that England/Boris gets media coverage in a way that implies its UK fact when in actual fact Wales, Scotland and NI have their own entirely different set of rules (all based on the same science, allegedly).

Boris announcements run live on all the main channels, all the main press refer to ‘back to school today’ etc.

I live in Wales, my (also Welsh) MIL text me asking how it was having the kids back in school. They are but back in school. My DM (England) messaged me asking me when I can visit (I can’t plan it in according to our rules - announcement due Friday).

Either do one set of rules for all 4 nations or stop running English stories and announcements as the main event and facts in the devolved nations.

Rant over

Totally agree.

This must be so frustrating for you!

It is so confusing.

I agree, and this did not start with the pandemic. The English and indeed London and the Home Counties bias of the media goes back long time. Except for sport given the fawning over the cheats in red shirts from a place just outside Manchester.

I agree with you the "roadmaps" are not the.same and having a PM briefing broadcast to the UK as If it is drives me nuts. I'm Scottish and it's the same for us . We never watch the main news now the BBC is the worst for it.

Hugely annoying.

It gets additionally confusing when people overlook the 4 nations have their own NHS (to be fair, England and Wales count together for a lot of this and NI is Health and Social Care (HSC) rather than NHS although it is part of the overall NHS).

NI doesn’t even have a date in the future yet for kids going back to school! It’s chaos, and the fact that the national press don’t pick up on it (or in fairness the Irish press) means they get away with it!

I agree.

I think devolution has made it worse - before, everything would be UK-wide, and they wouldn’t dare talk about England when they meant UK.

I am Welsh, living in England, and as confused as hell about when I might be able to visit my Mum.

@adagio watch Welsh based media then, no-one forces you to watch Boris et al.

I don't think it would necessarily be suitable for all four nations to have the same rules/roadmap etc, so I'm sure it's a good thing for them to each set their own rules.

But at the same time, even when there are times when it would be perfectly fine to have the same rules, some of the other governments I think would actually choose to have them be slightly different, just to emphasise that they are separate and devolved - despite that occasionally making things more confusing for people. They don't always have to have different rules/timescales, but they always will.

[quote Rosehip10]@adagio watch Welsh based media then, no-one forces you to watch Boris et al.[/quote]
But Boris is typically on the UK channels rather than the English ones. We don't get the English channels here in Scotland either and he still gets piped through on the BBC UK channel...

@rosehip10 are you suggesting the 6 and the 10 are England only bulletins then?

Great - that'll further the independence causes, which suits me.

I agree 100%.