Apart from Freeview channel 9. And 14. And 19. And most of the others.
As a white male, I’ve often thought, “why isn’t there more stuff for me?” You just have to walk around town – well, admittedly you have to walk quite a long way from the bit where I live, where all the curry restaurant owners have the good grace not to go outdoors in the daylight hours – to see signs proclaiming “Diwali” and “Eid” with no consideration whatsoever for the western English speaker who might not know what they are and therefore be offended by them. Similarly, as soon as you go out and buy a digital radio, scroll through the 40-odd inoffensive housewife music and sports commentary stations, and find the BBC Asian Network there, you’re assaulted by “bang-rah” music and people discussing issues that I could only care about if I wasn’t white. For now, at least.
There has NEVER been a good reason for ever having an Asian Network paid for by the TV licence payer.
An ‘Anglo Saxon’ radio station would never be tolerated, neither would a ‘White British’ channel be tolerated by the powers that be. And for goodness sake, even England doesn’t merit a radio channel of its own although Wales, Scotland and NI do! So why on earth the Asian community should be so specially treated is a mystery.
Or is it?
- Alan, Bewdley, Worcs
And you know, as a White British (not in Wales, Scotland or NI) myself I find his logic hard to escape. I can’t have a channel tailored to my interests – I mean, what kind of channel would show endless repeats of Top Gear and QI – so no-one should get a channel tailored to their interests. The BBC should identify the Average Licence Payer – Middle-Aged, About 5′ 7″, No Non-White Genes At All, Lives In Bewdley, Worcs – and make only television and radio for that person. But you can’t say that without a bunch of PC drones accusing you of being some kind of selfish white imperialist bastard.