Strange lot up North they use the Bus to get to work

[RebelSouls]

Are manchester buses different from london buses ?

///Critics have already attacked the ‘gold-plated’ relocation packages for staff moving from London. Workers are being offered up to £1,900 a month, for up to two years, for expenses including travel, rent and bills.

Those moving permanently can get a £3,000 allowance for carpets and curtains, as well as their stamp duty paid on a new home.///


http://www.dailymail....getting-work-BUS.html

[R1Geezer]

I blame the BBC

[andy-hughes]

It's a farcical reminder of the fact that London media people really do think that civilisation stops north of the M25.

You would hope that any individual who is considered important and irreplaceable enough to attract relocation expenses of the type outlined, would have the basic common sense to consult a bus company, a map, or a sat-nav in order to find their way to Salford Keys. It's a bus ride away from the centre of Manchester, it's not the back side of Mars!

It also underlines the facile planning behind the move - the idea that the BBC has to 'regionalise' in order to 'get in touch with people outside London.

How can this improve programming?

When 'Richard and Judy' started broadcasting from Liverpool, what did they do? The moved to London, because they could not pursuade studio guests to schlep up the morotway to be interviewed. heaven knows, even 'Pebble Mill At One' struggled to get people up to Birmingham for interviews, so history suggests that 'regionalisation' simply for the sake of it - which this is - will in no way improve the quality of television and radio that we currently enjoy as licence fee payers.

The BBC management and media circle is insular, short-sighted, pompous, arrogant, and deluded - and here, if it were needed, is more proof.

[New Judge]

Indeed Andy.

What other organisation with a workforce similar to the BBC’s would give its employees instructions on what bus to get to work. In my working life I have moved office a number of times, and very often have to travel across the country to visit colleagues, customers and suppliers. I am usually given the address where I have to get to and that is it.

[Count-A-Strong]

You would hope that a journalist would know how to spell Salford Quays.

[Everhelpful]

Typical of the arrogant BBC,Andy.!!

[Bobbisox]

we would melt their hearts with our warmth ever, wouldn't we?..haha

[factor-fiction]

Whilst I agree that it seems over the top it is not uncommon for organisations to pay relocation costs for a period of up to two years.
You can take comfort though, rebelsouls, that you are not contributing to these temporary costs

[Everhelpful]

Bobbi,They wouldn't know where this area was!!

[jno]

aren't you arguing both ways, Andy? First you say London media people think civilisation stops at the M25. Then you say, er, it does, because nobody will go north to be interviewed - so the programmes have to be produced in London after all.

It used to be even worse than that: when they moved to Shepherd's Bush they found that nobody would go even that far, having been accustomed to travel no further than Oxford Circus. The taxi bills for getting interviewees back to the safety of the West End soared overnight. Perhaps the real problem is the reluctance of the British people to move beyond the village where they were born; but I don't think that's the BBC's fault.

[Eve]

Hmmmm they might want to give tram lessons rather than bus ones seeing as that's the main way to Salford Quays though the new tram link hasn't been very successful at all up to Media City by all accounts.

[Xylene]

The BBC is a world class organisation, it didn't get there by penny pinching. A lot of its functions are moving to Manchester and Glasgow, good news for both of these cities. London will still have the lions share of output.

[andy-hughes]

jno - my point was not that journalists from the BBC are London-centric - which they are - but that guests, i.e. film stars, musicians, writers, etc., would not trouble themselves to slog up the country in pursuit of publicity, hence the need for R & J to move south - indeed, they made no secret of this being the reason for their transfer.

The BBC are London-obsessed - which is a problem, but it is not solved by simply shifting all its London staff to Manchster, as though that will somehow 'regionalise' them. Far better would be to use the perfectgly acceptbale facilities at Oxford Road in Manchester, and staff it with local people.

Count - a fair point, I was so busy getting riled, I ommitted to spell 'Quays' correctly - you haven't been a sub-editor on any of the music magazines I've written for have you???

[Count-A-Strong]

No but my mum used to be a proofreader for the local rag.

[OrdsallSi]

Count if you pull Andy up for Quays why not pull the Mail for Salford

from London to Salforsd

[Eve]

I spotted that two! Am guessing you're a local lad then Si :)

[OrdsallSi]

Do you have to be local to spell Salford correctly :)

To answer the main question i think they are the same length and height.

[scotman]

Slightly off topic but I recall that the main problem of Richard & Judy in Liverpool was not totally a reluctance to travel per se.
It was said that a lot of the guests were foreign and if they spent time travelling to and from Liverpool the actual travelling time was 'dead'. If they stayed in London they could have a limo take them from TV studio to radio station to newspaper etc all day and they got maximum number of interviews(publicity) for the visit.

[jno]

I think that's right, Scotman: it's efficient to have all media outlets in one place, just as in an eastern bazaar you'll find all the gold shops in one place and all the fruit shops in another. I agree with andy that it would be nice to staff a BBC Manchester office with locals - but that still wouldn't solve the problem of getting interviewees to go there.

[rojash]

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, potential nuclear meltdowns, Uk just embarked upon yet another war, and RebelSouls is still obsessed with his DM-inspired anti-beeb campaign.

It's nice that you have a hobby RS, but you need to get a life as well.

[rojash]

Anti-beeb, geddit?