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Thomson Marks 60 Years of Independent TV in North-East with Call for Devolution of Broadcasting Powers
Gordon MP Richard Thomson has tabled a Motion in the House of Commons to mark 60 years since Independent Television came to the North-east with the first broadcast of Grampian Television.
The SNP MP’s Motion reflects that many of the programmes produced by Grampian during its time on air from 1961 to 2006 are now a valuable archive of the languages and culture of the North and North-east of Scotland. Mr Thomson goes on to call for the devolution of broadcasting powers to the Scottish Parliament.
Commenting, Richard Thomson MP said:
“Many people will have fond memories of the programmes produced by Grampian. At a time when the world was getting smaller and transatlantic culture was everywhere, Grampian reflected back its local communities in its output, whether that was traditional music in the North-east or Gaelic language programmes.
“These programmes now provide an important archive and are part of the culture of the North and North-east.
“Commercial pressures today mean that these subjects are largely left to the BBC Alba and Scotland channels. It’s real progress that we have these two dedicated channels, but Scotland is still without a truly national broadcaster.
“Devolution of broadcasting powers to the Scottish Parliament would help create a broadcasting policy which better reflects the Scotland of today. It would also give Scotland the powers to reject the scrapping by the Westminster Government of the free TV licence for over 75s, so we can restore and retain free vital television services for older people.”
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