Post Stormont
- 9 May 07, 02:49 PM
Will The World Tonight ever report on Northern Ireland again? It's a question I was asked last night, presumably on the grounds that with the return of devolved government and what we used to call power-sharing, the Northern Ireland story will become routine - and dare I say - normal.
The World Tonight is younger than the conflict in Northern Ireland. We began broadcasting in 1970, and over the past 37 years we have covered extensively the violence and the attempts to bring peace, but during that time we have also covered other stories. Recently, we have looked at economic changes that have brought greater cross-border integration on the island of Ireland and reported on the fact that Northern Ireland now has the highest rate of inflation for house prices in the UK.
This will continue, as we will track the success of the new adminstration. However if Stormont succeeds and, hopefully, there is long term stability, the coverage will inevitably change to focus on less momentous events, and the province may end up being less frequently featured as a result.
But everyone pays the licence fee, and we have a commitment to reporting the UK as a whole (although we are sometimes criticised for not reporting enough from outside London and the south-east). So the answer's yes. You will continue to hear about interesting things going on in Northern Ireland.
Alistair Burnett is editor of the World Tonight
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And this actually provides us with a serious dilemma. Gordon Brown may be Tony Blair's heir apparent. But for Harry Potter, it's nowhere near so clear. In , Tracey Beaker was number one to take over, followed by the Alex Rider series. But none of those have had quite the cultural crossover which JK Rowling's creation has enjoyed.
