An Insult To Ipswich and Suffolk
The Tour of Britain cycle race starts this morning in Ipswich. The BBC radio traffic reports placed Ipswich in Norfolk.
They did correct it later. Or in fact, they didn’t repeat it again.
But yet again Suffolk is treated badly by the media. As it is by government, where more funding always goes to North Anglia.
Where’s the Tour de France
On a day, when we’re going to win France’s most prestigious sporting trophy, where is the action?
Radio 5 has some golf and you can only get fleeting bits between the adverts on ITV4.
The Black Prince, Henry V, Hawke, Cochrane, Nelson, Wellington and John Churchill will all be spinning in their graves. I suspect too,that even the French won’t be very pleased, as I think they’d prefer to see France shown at its best to Les Anglais and also as they’ve rather taken to our Bradley. Perhaps we can all take a leaf out of his book and learn to speak better French.
How Do You Get Away From The Golf?
My two favourite channels, BBC 1 and Radio 5 Live are both broadcasting continuous golf. Now I will watch it in moderation, but I’m not keen to have it rammed into both my eyes and ears.
Admittedly, I have the cricket on Sky and soon the cycling will start, but the sooner the Open golf goes to Sky, the better.
As someone famously said, golf is a good way to ruin a walk.
The Olympic Torch Relay is not even on the red button!
Has Libby Purves Got A Point Here?
In her article on immigration in The Times today, she virtually says, that we got a lot of immigrants from former Soviet republics, as they all spoke good English, because of listening to the BBC World Service for years. So just as Ang Sang Suu Kyi listened to Dave Lee Travis to stay connected, they listened to get educated and also realised, where they wanted to go.
So if we want to stop immigration, we should close the BBC World Service, except to countries like Canada and Australia?
But then the BBC World Service is one of the things that makes Britain what it is.
The Last Match on ITV
Tonight’s match is last one, that I’ll have to watch on ITV. Yippee!
But I’ll be listening to the match commentary on my laptop.
It’s certainly the best way to watch football with adverts.
I wonder what percentage do it this way or listen to a radio for the commentary?
Aung San Suu Kyi and the DJ
Years ago, I can remember Dave Lee Travis on Radio 1 on Sunday mornings, whilst I was writing Artemis. I suspect as a young mother in Oxford, Ms Suu Kyi was listening to the same program.
Aung San Suu Kyi then went back to Burma to care for her dying mother and for twenty four years she couldn’t return to the UK, as she feared any return to her family would mean the Generals wouldn’t let go back to Burma. She couldn’t even return for the death of her husband, Michael Aris.
But during those years of isolation in Burma, she did at least have the BBC World Service, which kept her in touch and she listened to the shows of Dave Lee Travis, who briefly met her yesterday.
In some ways I can understand her isolation, although I’ve never suffered like she has. When I had my stroke in Hong Kong, there was only CNN, that I could understand on the television. But at least, I could get BBC Radio 5 at most times through the Internet. Never has a broadcasting channel been so important to my sanity.
Today, Aung San Suu Kyi is praised in the first leader of The Times. The last sentence is something we should all remember.
She not only represents a better future for Burma, but testifies to the resilience of the human spirit in extreme adversity.
I very much agree with that. She has also been an extreme example to me, as to how to cope with the worst that life can throw at you. But then I’m not alone and thousands of miles from my friends and family.
In
I’ve Found A Nice Cure For Adverts
I’ve got the ITV pictures on my television, but I’ve got the sound off and I’m listening to the commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live.
It doesn’t improve the football, but it does improve the broadcasting experience.
A lot of the adverts I’ve just watched now look totally ridiculous.
There’s one for Official Player Escorts, that could be insinuating things, we’d rather not know.
Prison or Tagging
The debate this morning on BBC Radio 5 is about punishment for crimes.
Most seem to be in favour of more prisons, but would we accept the extra taxes and where would we build them and where would we find the prison officers.
Having been over a prison recently, the biggest problem would appear to be lack of education and lack of jobs when they come out. In fact most of those I met, were extremely courteous to me and all the officers and others that worked and visitors. So the basics are there, it just needs to motivate them in the right way.
I am constantly reminded of the book, Menace to Society by Bill Fletcher. Fletcher had been in minor trouble for many years and had had all sorts of punishment. None had worked. In the 1960s, he ended up in Bow Street Magistrates Court in front of a Stipendiary Magistrate, who said he was going to give him the worst punishment he ever had. He let him go into the care of The Apex Trust, an organisation that rehabilitated offenders and still do. They taught him to read and write and he ended up as the doorman of the Shaw Theatre in London. I don’t think he was ever in trouble again.
I would agree that many offenders are beyond reform. On the other hand, a lot are good people underneath it all and with the application of a bit of training and a job, they can be set on the straight and narrow.
It’s Backs to the Wall Lads!
England at Euro-2012 are starting to look like the last time we fought a war in the Ukraine. And I mean after the Charge of the Light Brigade. At least though the medical services are very much better.
I was listening to Sportsweek on Radio 5 Live and John Barnes, who probably knows more about suffering racism than most, was advising the players to concentrate on the football if the chants got bad in the Ukraine, like they might do. He advised against what Mario Balotelli had said he would do and walk off. He said “Let the referee and UEFA decide.” It might be difficult, but there are some strong characters in the England team. Remember too, in the first match against France, both teams will have quite a few black players and all of the players probably know each other well and will all stick together, if it turns ugly.
Adverts On Television
They were discussing this on BBC Breakfast this morning, so I gave them my four-pennyworth.
I must be the only person, who’s not seen any of Downton Abbey.
The reason, is I don’t watch adverts. So when football is on ITV and BBC Radio 5 Live, I listen to the radio.
When I moved to London, I had to cancel my old Sky subscription. They asked, if there was anything would make me resubscribe in my new house. I said, jokingly, a subscription without ads at an extra cost. They said I wasn’t the first to say that.
Shoot the meerkats!
Until I get the no-advert Sky option, I’ll continue to watch and listen to the BBC.
The Anonymous Widower 