Dear BBC,
Right from the start of the Grenfell Tower Enquiry, I have been following the BBC podcasts on the enquiry and about the disaster. I have downloaded and kept each of the podcasts – it is an enormous amount of information, and being able to come back to it on my own timetable was something I have valued enormously. I was particularly impressed by the commitment (well, I thought it was a commitment) to report every day of the enquiry (and, incidentally, that Eddie Mair would continue doing the podcasts, even after he left to work in the private sector).
Therefore, I was really disappointed to hear Kate Lamble say in the first of the Phase 2 podcasts that the podcasts will now be weekly. This is a great shame, in my view:
Firstly, I used to refer to the the podcast whenever there was something on the news about the enquiry, and making the podcasts less topical will make this harder to do…already I am wanting to see in more detail Michael Mansfield’s comments about the corporations involved trying to shield themselves from blame and accountability, more about what the lead counsel said on day 1 about who was and who wasn’t admitting any liability.
Secondly, trying to put everything from 4 or 5 days of the enquiry into one podcast programme will reduce the depth of coverage, and make it even harder to assimilate the wealth of information which is expressed in the enquiry. This enquiry is a real bell weather, in my view, of the state of UK Society: Grenfell seems to me to be the inevitable result of Thatcherism/Neoliberalism and the loss of proper oversight over corporations, particularly in regard to the safety of urban residential properties. As such, it is of great importance to me to fully assimilate what goes on in the enquiry.
Thirdly, the BBC made a commitment right at the beginning to report on every day of the enquiry, not a weekly compendium.
Fourthly, Eddie Mair was an excellently weighty and compassionate presenter (his time on LBC may not have enhanced this, I suppose) – presumably the BBC wasn’t prepared to pay him enough to continue (although Eddie’s public profile would suggest that he would have wanted to carry out his commitment to the end of the enquiry) – and his absence devalues the podcast.
Fifthly, this change happens (coincidentally?) to coincide with Grenfell being lower on the news agenda and Boris Johnson not managing to provide a suitable member to complete the enquiry team, at precisely the time when blame, accountability and prosecutions will (hopefully) be handed out. Has the BBC (yet again, in my view) bowed to the (privately-owned) printed media agenda – which is, presumably, to hope that the Grenfell enquiry sinks into obscurity, and fails to hold capitalism to account – rather than the BBC working to its own, public interest agenda?
As you can see, I am profoundly sceptical about this change to the Grenfell Podcast, and would request that “normal service” (daily podcasts fronted by Eddie Mair) is resumed!
Oll an gwella,
😎 Andrew Corser