Eight presenters of news and current affairs programmes on the BBC in Scotland have signed a letter to national newspapers demanding their own version of the national programme.

They say much of what is transmitted on the news programme from London is irrelevant to Scottish people who have their own health, education and legal system. They believe a Glasgow based edition would better reflect the priorities of its audience.

The BBC governors have said they would prefer to see a revamped, hour-long news show for the whole of the UK, rather than a special programme for Scotland.

One of the signatories, Ian McWhirter, pointed out that future coverage of a devolved Scottish parliament on a UK-wide programme might bore viewers in England.

He said the BBC had been lobbied by cabinet ministers who feared a Scottish Six O'Clock News would encourage nationalism.

Instead, he said, the BBC had given the Scottish National Party a propaganda opportunity.

On Thursday, the BBC's head of news in Scotland joined the chorus in favour of a Scottish programme. And the BBC's advisers, the Broadcasting Council, said proposals for a revamped UK-wide Six O'Clock News were totally inadequate.

Last week a BBC adviser, Professor Lindsay Patterson, resigned over the corporation's reluctance to allow Scotland to have its own Six O'Clock News. He said that with Scottish devolution imminent indigenous news was "essential to improving the democratic debate".