MPs' expenses: Local news, international consequences?
Why should a listener in Andhra Pradesh care a fig about the ongoing expenses row in the British Houses of Parliament?
That's essentially the question we put this week to Norman Smith, ´óÏó´«Ã½ political correspondent and presenter of the World Service's Politics UK programme.
Former British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had to apologise to the House of Commons over her expense claims. But do listeners outside of the UK really care?
Norman points out the programme takes great pains to ensure that neither the content nor the guests are too parochial and that discussion of domestic UK issues will inevitably spread to a wider analysis of the state of modern democracy which may be of interest to listenersÌý from any part of the world - and especially those in fledgling democracies.
Referring to the expenses row, he feels that, for the international audience: "What they are probably more interested in is the issue of trust and how the whole expenses saga might impact on the way people view politics and view Parliament... the issue of trust and relationships between the electorate and the elected."
What do you think? Is it a little presumptuous of the World Service to imagine that 26 minutes of conversation from British politicians and political commentators is still of interest to a globalÌý audience in 2009?
For my money I'm always amazed how knowledgeable and interested international audiences are by the minutiae of British public life - be it Scottish devolution or the latest puerile pranks of two domestic radio presenters. So maybe it's wise to presume nothing
Now ask listeners in Andhra Pradesh whether they would like a dedicated language service in their mother tongue, Telugu, on the World Service and if you are Murali Krishna Mandala from Hyderabad, you will probably reply yes.
Murali contacted us to point out Telugu is the third most spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali. And this prompted us to ask what determines whether a language is granted its ownÌý service? Geopolitical significance? A UK Foreign Office edict?
Well yes - a little bit of both of these things and a lot of other factors too, according to the Head of Corporate Communications, Mike Gardner.
You can find out what they are if you listen to the programme this week but justÌý to say, intriguingly it seems the door is always open for new language services. In fact according to Mike, the powers that be will be discussing this very issue early next year.
Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You
Over To You is your chance to have your say about the ´óÏó´«Ã½
World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).
- Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
- Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.
Comment number 1.
At 17th Oct 2009, Lester Ness wrote:British political scandals are funny. Of course, my native USA has loads of corrupt politicians, too, but British and American pols often get together to do worse things than corruption, like the horrid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They never get punished for THEM, so a little humiliation is good for them. Humiliate US pols whenever you get a chance, too.
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Comment number 2.
At 26th Oct 2009, dennisjunior1 wrote:Rajan:
Your point is very much accurate....
~Dennis Junior~
N.B.: I have been following the Expenses scandal religious...And,
I am from the United States...
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