I would like to add that the above post was really intended to go in the main thread about the British Library Archive of English Accents and Dialects.

Phonetics is very scientific and objective in its description of sounds.  All sounds are mapped to an international system of symbols, and are also expressed in terms of the physical process of their production (fricative, etc).  What I don't understand is how (by what process) a scientist, such as the curator of the named archive, will choose a certain accent or dialect to serve as "pure" or unnoteworthy, and then go on and express all other dialects and accents as variations or deviations from the original.

After further reading the named website, I have come to the conclusion that the chosen "base" accent must be RP.  But I am still unsure about just how scientific this choice is, or whether RP is simply the native accent of the curator of the archive.

PS:  Thanks to Nona for fixing the problem with my previous post!