BBC Local Radio

My hon. Friend is right. We are blessed in Cornwall. I might challenge the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) on whether his local radio station is statistically more popular and has greater reach, penetration, listenership and loyalty than Cornwall's. BBC Radio Cornwall is an incredibly popular local radio station, in spite of operating in a very competitive environment with the independent stations, Pirate FM and Atlantic FM—both well listened to local, independent radio stations. On the Isles of Scilly, we have Radio Scilly as well, which provides a remarkable and engaging community service although it broadcasts to a population of only 2,000. The only reason those independent radio stations are able to succeed is that the BBC sets the standard that they have to attempt to reach. I go back to my fundamental point about a functioning democracy. I fear that the BBC at national level is moving towards fly-on-the-wall, get-me-out-of-here types of reporting, rather than the in-depth inquiring documentaries in which it engaged in the past. Similarly, on local radio, I have noticed a trend towards just reading out press releases rather than cross-questioning the information put out by the establishment. BBC local radio has done that effectively, it has the resources to be able to do it and it is fundamentally important that it carries on doing it. BBC Radio Cornwall is the national voice of Cornwall. We have ““An Nowodhow””—the news in Cornish—which is fantastic to be able to hear regularly, even with my rather rough and informal knowledge of the language. Other Members have mentioned dialect stories from other parts of the country. We can only get that with a framework in which such reporting can be based. I fear, though, as Matthew Arnold put it, that this is about the desire of a centralised state to render its dominion homogenous. The BBC may be engaged in that same drift of simply treating the UK as if it reflects the metropolitan elite, and it is not necessarily reflecting idiosyncrasies around the country as a whole. I hope the BBC is listening today.