Anchors and Reporters.

Ah! That good old gransnet tradition of a late night wind-up has been revived. We haven't had one for yonks.

Do you remember when all BBC folk spoke in RP? It was horrible. Much nicer to hear regional accents.

This has to be a wind up, regional accents/dialects are great, we don't want bland BBC accents.

Neutral is just another word for received pronunciation, it is not neutral at all, but London-centric.

You could put it the opposite way round - "Why should the BBC programmes (or ones from any other channels) employ only news anchors and reporters with a bias toward "south-east speak" when their viewers and listeners don't all live in the south-east?"

Yes, that did occur to me too jings, after I'd hit the 'post' button!

That's a wind-up.

I agree Indi! Well, apart from our local Lazy Leicestershire accent!

I think you're living about 50 years in the past. What is wrong with regional accents? They are what enriches a country, defines its wide cultural range. I love hearing the various sounds of local accents from around the UK. (With one or two exceptions, that is )