The article today on Bella Caledonia called Honey I Shrunk The Country showing some geographical revisionism going on at the BBC had me looking through the hard drive for something I saved years ago.
It appears that they have simply always had abysmal maps at the Beeb or that this isn’t the first time they’ve tried this…
michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com 
Does John Barrowman really take fashion tips from Michael Fish?
True true. Didn’t think of that!
Thanks for posting this Michael. Shown to my parents who were suitably outraged. A picture paints a thousand words, and this certainly makes clear the BBC/ establishment view of Scotland.
It also, simply and effectively, skewers the lie that the current weather map distortions are just a result of modern technology and graphic ‘advances’. An argument my parents parroted while dismissing my complaints about the obvious map distortions on the BBC as the over sensitivity of a ‘cybernat’.
After being presented with this image from their own heyday, (which went completely unnoticed by them at the time), suddenly the penny dropped and dropped hard!
After introducing them to the McCrone Report a year and a half or so ago, they were already primed for a yes, but still saw the BBC as some sort of ‘honest broker’ when it came to information. This is such an obvious piece of current and historic base propaganda that they are now (correctly) re assessing that assumption.
Once that doubt is acknowledged, then BBC (and consequently all other MSM) output is certainly seen in a very different light. One way traffic.
Sorry for the long post, it’s just that this has been such an effective catalyst (like the McCrone report before it) on my parents attitude to the BBC that I would recommend its widespread use among that generation.
Thanks again Michael. I had seen a similar map with an accurate red outline superimposed over the same distorted BBC map. This was very effective, as it emphasised how accurate England and Wales were being mapped while showing how reduced Scotland was being represented (underlining how utterly intentional this misrepresentation was and still is).
I think it was on The Universality of Cheese blog about a year or so ago but I can’t seem to find it now for a link. Sorry.
braco
THANKS for the long comment and I’m glad it had an effect on your parents.
Maps and street names are very important indeed. Ever noticed every city in Scotland has a “Union Street” for example?
For maps here’s a wee thing that might show the importance as well.
The Secret Map Of Britain…
Michael, good programme. Do you think the post Indy rUK maps will just omit Scotland altogether? Nice, simple solution that would negate Westminster from having to consider any wider implications of rumpness. Sail on regardless.
And this explains what, in the context of Bella Caledonia’s article?!
No-one’s naive enough to believe this is in any way related to the BBC’s weather map. So let’s dispense with irrelevancy. Or perhaps you see knowledge of the size of Scotland as a state secret? In which case Bella’s opinion is justified!
Got there in the end then j Campbell. ; ~)
I think in 1979 the shortening applied to the top half of Britain had a fair bit to do with Northern Ireland.