Those who worry that Channel 4 has become risk-averse might be fretting needlessly. The broadcaster has shortlisted Glasgow as a location for its new headquarters. Currently, C4 has only 30 staff based outside London and hopes shifting its HQ to the regions, along with two other ‘hubs’, will help it better reflect that narrow slice of the country beyond SW1.
In shortlisting Glasgow, Channel 4 has decided either that there will be no second independence referendum any time soon – which is bold – or that any such re-run would not be commercially disruptive – bolder still. Independence is the elephant in the room of Glasgow’s bid, a project spearheaded by SNP-run Glasgow City Council, endorsed by Nicola Sturgeon, and fronted by Stuart Cosgrove, a former Channel 4 executive.
Cosgrove is a curious choice for a bid keen to downplay the independence issue. When newspapers questioned the SNP-backed ‘Scottish Six’ – a project to halt the BBC’s foreign coverage at the Tweed and replace it with a ‘Scottish’ perspective on international news – Cosgrove decried a ‘myopia that appears to resent Scotland taking actions for itself’ and warned that ‘many unionists especially at the heart of the Conservative Party, would happily lacerate the BBC’.
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