For the BBC to switch to US-owned Meteogroup for its weather forecasts is a cruel denial of public service principles that once meant so much, both to the BBC and to the Met Office. Today, Ofcom has been put between government and the BBC, while the Met Office is a trading arm within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (The Met Office: Behind the scenes at the world’s best weather service, 10 February).
Any concept of mutual advantage to both organisations was first eroded in the early 1970s, around the time I introduced magnetic rubber and the “new” weather symbols to BBC screens. Somehow, the BBC let itself be strongarmed by the Treasury into paying for public weather information while it still funded all the related TV technology. This was in the era of Bert Foord, Jack Scott, Bill Giles and fellow professionals who, 99% of the time, gave the Met Office much needed credibility.
Now with the forecasters as BBC staff, their credibility relies solely on personality; and when the forecast do go wrong, the Met Office can shrug off all responsibility.
Hugh Sheppard
Odiham, Hampshire
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