Doctor Who's Elisabeth Sladen dies aged 63

Elisabeth Sladen

I've just seen this news pop up on the BBC tonight. Elisabeth Sladen, who was the star in the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, has died aged 63. She originally appeared as Doctor Who assistant Sarah Jane Smith in the BBC television sci-fi series between 1973 and 1976, opposite Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. That part I remember. I haven't watch the Sarah Jane Adventures, but my children do. They will be shocked to hear the news.

Elisabeth Sladen, as Sarah Jane, had quite a following I understand. Her return to the role was well received by fans. She died of cancer. As one person comments on the BBC website "I worked with Elisabeth about 10 months ago on Sarah Jane. She must have been ill at the time, but worked like a pure professional." Cancer is well named. It strikes like a crab and moves seemingly indirectly. Sufferers may appear well but then have a rather quick decline on many occasions. I've witnessed that with relatives and am seeing such in a friend currently. That's why it is often a shock to hear of such deaths if one is not aware of the causes. Elisabeth Sladen leaves a portfolio of work which will no doubt provide entertainment for many years to come.

No Rogue Traders Here

Whilst looking around for a reputable trader I came across this site. No Rogue Traders Here it's called. The organisation is based on a simple premise. Linking customers with good honest traders. Of course, the customers have to be honest too. There are such people who constitute rogue customers!

The description is - " "NO ROGUE TRADERS HERE" is one man's vision, set up in order to combat the increasing problems caused by rogue traders in the UK. When he realised that there was no way for a consumer to get peace of mind when choosing local professionals and tradesmen he set up "NO ROGUE TRADERS HERE" to solve the problem. The vision has materialised into this website, and this site has been constructed in order to set a standard by which local businesses and professionals can measure themselves in order to get quality leads from customers who want a quality service."

I think this is a highly commendable idea. Having seen a rogue trader last night on BBC Watchdog one has to wonder if some of them are more properly described as gormless with a cunning streak. Jamie was certainly in that category.

Athena tennis model girl revealed?

Fifteen Love

The BBC are saying that they have "revealed" the girl in the famous Athena poster. She's called Mrs Fiona Walker. On reading about this, I had a feeling (not for the first time about news items) that I thought this wasn't new news. It was kind of old. What I had foggily remembered was that the photographer had died and it was already known. Then I noticed a link and found that the BBC had reported Martin Elliott, the creater of the poster, dying at the age of 63. It was a picture of his girlfriend Fiona Butler.

The thing about news today is that some news is absolutely new news, but other news is not so new. Or it is revised and rebranded as new news. I suppose this is new news in that we now see a face to the name. But it got me thinking that, if I thought I already knew about it or thought it was old news, is all news really what we think it is?

BBC institutionally Left-wing or just plain biased?

Daniel Hannan, in his Telegraph blog, suggests that the BBC is not impartial but that it should be. He asks the question "How is this impartiality to be secured?" and answers by sayng," By the best possible method: the new chairman will be subject to a confirmation hearing by MPs. Instead of being, as in the past, a government placeman, the successful candidate will have to satisfy MPs of all factions – for no party has an absolute majority on the Select Committee – that he will be disinterested."

The BBC is rather peculiar, has irrational tendencies at times and moves through life with some very odd views in tow. I think they are completely and utterly incomprehensible regarding the Ordinariate. It would never suit their purpose to have on Thought for the Day anyone from it. I've never heard anyone from Forward in Faith given airtime, other than to be pilloried for antiquated views, but they've got half a dozen female clerics on hand as if everyone accepts this as the norm. The country may well do. Many have no clue or interest in matters of faith. But why should some be excluded? Has the BBC made a pact with female clerics?

The same is true about those they cannot abide. The BNP is one such organisation. Instead of simply saying that Nick Griffin was able to appear on Question Time in a similar way to Respect or the Green Party due to advancement in electoral support, a whole rigmarole of committee talk is put in place with the eventual programme being a bad joke.

It's as though only certain opinion is permitted, anything else is strictly monitored and given short shrift. We may not agree with some views. That's OK, but a fair hearing is what the BBC should offer, without appearing to be some kind of Stasi-light filtering service. When it came to Griffin's appearance on Question Time all we got was Dimbleby acting like some kind of second rate schoolmaster bating an errant boy.

Peter Sissons has a piece in the Daily Mail claiming standards have fallen at the BBC and accusing producers of being too mired in political correctness to do anything about it. I wish they could see how they are seen by others. Maybe they don't have any mirrors in the corporation?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199104/Peter-Sissons-BBC-standards-falling--bosses-scared-it.html#ixzz1BmnPRd65

Naughtie slips up on Today show

All I heard this morning was some terrible coughing. Sounded like James Naughtie had a biscuit stuck in his throat. On radio coughing sounds far more dramatic. However, I never heard Jeremy Hunt's name muddled up with an expletive. Countless others did apparently. As Dudley Moore might have said to Peter Cook "It was a very rude word, I can't repeat it, but if we go down the Vallance Library we can find out what it means".

I'm not sure what the BBC thinks about rude words. My guess is that they are quite happy for this particular word to slip out every so often so that they can repeat it and then tell everyone that it is a very rude word. Andrew Marr repeated it on his programme that followed Today. I didn't hear that, but no doubt there was conversation about it being a very rude word.

This topic is currently top story on the BBC website. I can't believe anyone there is complaining. "Good work, Jim! Great ratings for us. Pity you've got all those grumpy emails coming in".

I thought I did hear another slightly rude word. I thought Nick Robinson said that it was Vince Cable's "bloody policy" when talking of tuition fees. I thought I did, but maybe not. The thought that a rude word on the Today Programme can outweigh all else in the attention of public opinion must say something about us as a nation. It's all a matter of priorities, I suppose.

Jason Manford quits The One Show

Comedian Jason Manford has quit as co-presenter of The One Show, four months after taking on the role. The BBC has "accepted" his resignation. He got into a bit of hot water about "flirting" with people online. People who had got in touch with the programme. This was not during the show, but on Twitter. He agreed that some things had gone "too far". So he's quit.

I don't really watch this show, although it is popular with my children. What he did off air is his business and probably the BBC's. However, I hardly think it affects the viewers. Accept to say that the Sun got in on the act. So, I suppose, with press coverage, he was a bit tarnished from a presenter's position.

The problem I have with all this is that there are double standards. I've grown up with BBC Television. When I was little Christopher Trace got dumped from Blue Peter because he was divorced. Janet Ellis got pregnant without being married and there was a hullabaloo. Yet others stayed who had strayed. Over the years some get the boot, some get the booty. None of it seems fair or rational. It is just transitory justice according to the whims and fancies of the day. Jonathan Ross came back with his tale between his hands, seemingly none the worse for a transgression that offended many. Is it money talking more than morals? Or is it a case that if the money doesn't talk, your morals get the going over?

The one thing that shines out of this is that Jason Manford's wife has seen it all as a silly event. She was disappointed, but she and her husband are together. The hand that rocks the cradle, eh?

Woman found dead on fire in Bradford

A woman has been found on a fire behind a house in Bradford, according to this BBC report. Sounds terrible. But as usual the BBC gives us scant indication but ever so nudge-nudgingly suggests that it may be an honour killing of sorts. At least, that's what my vibes tell me. Maybe it's me jumping to conclusions. But the link with Pakistan suggests otherwise it seems.

I hope that the police solve this as soon as possible. One of the outrages in this country is the way some young women from the sub-continent are treated by family cabals of tribal elders all hell-bent on continuing shameful control freakery as if they are still huddled together in a faraway village. If anything needs publicising loud and clear it is the abomination of this practice of treating young women as some sort of sacrificial cleansing vehicle for the supposed shame of the male perpetrators of this cruelty and wickedness.

If there has been a crime committed here, then those guilty of such deeds should be held up for public awareness, so no other self-appointed "community" elder gets such ideas and that it is known what everyone thinks of their vile vanity.

Paul McCartney for Downing Street?

In its rolling news feature, the BBC reports at 1552 "As the Lib Dem leader arrived at a community centre in Penny Lane, one onlooker said disappointingly, "I thought the VIP was going to be Paul McCartney" ". The BBC's Fiona Trott in Liverpool for the election puts this in as vital news.

I wonder what this says about it all. Are the electorate interested in this election, long awaited as it has been? Although I'm fairly involved in political thought it still amazes me that many people don't know who their political leaders are. Nick Clegg is relatively unknown we are told, but surely at a political event during the election the person was never going to be Paul McCartney. Or am I just too much out of the loop?

The Bill on the BBC?

ITV has dumped The Bill saying that audiences have fallen out of favour with the police series from Talkback Thames. Apparently viewing figures have declined, but this is hardly surprising since the programme was never on at a regular time. It tended to move around the schedules. According to Eric Richard, who played Sgt Bob Cryer, ITV used The Bill as knocking copy against the BBC's output. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Police dramas are popular, but they have to have a regular beat, otherwise viewers are lost.

When Granada was touted as possibly losing the northwest franchise of ITV, it was mooted that the BBC might pick up Coronation Street. Such a thought must have focused the minds of the ITV moguls and Granada stayed in place. However, the BBC has for many years had an arrangement with Granada (now simply ITV Studios) to make What The Papers Say, University Challenge and other programmes that ITV dropped unceremoniously.

So could the BBC cosy up to Talkback Thames and get a revitalised The Bill on BBC1? The company aready makes shows for the BBC so why not this one? Unless ITV has a golden armlock agreement, I can't see a problem. Maybe it has passed it's prime but Lorraine Heggessey, the boss of Talkback Thames, was taken aback by the decision to cancel the show.

If those people upset by the axing get up a head of steam, the BBC might be tempted!

Safe in our beds with Pauline?

Shadow security minister Baroness Pauline Neville Jones was on the Today Programme this morning. She was with the chairman of the Royal United Services Institute, Sir Paul Lever. I got the impression that Pauline was a tad muddled up. She got all muddled over the idea that Islamic terrorists are "home grown". It seem to her like an awkward question. Her claim to be in Afghanistan is apparently based on terrorist training camps. But Gordon Brown is claiming it is about democracy as much as training up the Afghan police. Nobody in political circles has clarity.

Personally I'd feel a lot safer with Sir Paul Lever in charge, but then he's not where Pauline is. Pity!

Lies, deception and press claptrap!

I'm not in favour of dealing with political opponents in the way that the liberal elite and chattering classes have with regard to the BNP. All they do is conveniently cover up their own political crap and try to rubbish the far right with juvenile epithets and illogical soundbites.

The BBC is now being exposed as having entered into some kind of conspiracy to debunk Nick Griffin. All they have done is succeed in looking mightily dodgy as far as "a duty to impartiality" is concerned. In fact, the Deputy Director General of the BBC, Mark Byford, might as well have said the reason they wanted him on was to have a kind of "man in the stocks" reality show.

The audience was partially selected. Dimbleby is said to have encouraged booing. With what result. The BNP goes up in the polls because the programme was seen as a martyr's slaying. What a stupid lot they are.

Now for some real fibbing and deception. In the Daily Mail, a paper known for its epistolic abuse of asylum seekers and people of an economic migrancy tendency, Edward Heathcote-Amory says this of the BNP -

RHETORIC: 'Our immigration policy is supported by 84 per cent of the British people at present.'

REALITY: The BNP's immigration policy is voluntary repatriation of 'immigrants' (ie non-whites) regardless of whether they were born here. There is no evidence that any but a tiny minority of British people support such a plan. Mr Griffin himself recently suggested that if there was a problem working out where to send immigrants back to, he would 'drop them out of a plane somewhere over Africa'.

The inference is that the BNP is the only party to have a policy of voluntary repatriation. Edward is being partial with the truth. Ever since the Immigration Act of 1971 came into force, the government has a policy of voluntary repatriation.

The BNP’s policy is to:
- Deport all the two million plus who are here illegally;
- Deport all those who commit crimes and whose original nationality was not British;
- Review all recent grants of residence or citizenship to ensure they are still appropriate;
- Offer generous grants to those of foreign descent resident here who wish to leave permanently;
- Stop all new immigration except for exceptional cases;
- Reject all asylum seekers who passed safe countries on their way to Britain.

The New Labour government is trying to deport people, they are trying to reduce immigration and they have a voluntary repatriation scheme in place (not rescinded!).

If we are to have a debate let's cut out the lies and deceit. I do not favour or support the BNP because they do not give me the feeling that they will treat all Britons with equal fairness. Neither do I think their draconian policies will help. But we have to find a way to argue on the facts.

It seems those in positions of authority have abondoned arguing on facts in favour of demonising and deceiving. Question Time has come up to give the BBC a kick up the backside. Those who manipulate the truth will be found out. By all means attack Griffin on his ideas to 'drop people out of planes' but do not add untruths into the bargain!

The hype was better than the show

So Nick Griffin has done his Question Time. I can't say I was impressed, by him or the BBC. In fact, the hype was more exciting than the actual programme. The only person to come out of it well was Bonnie Greer. She did her best to chivvy Griffin along and I think she succeeded. At one time I thought they had the making of a double act.

David Dimbleby seemed to have come with a type of Twenty Questions format, all ready to grill Griffin. The audience, which appeared anything but a cross-section of British society (more the BBC's insurance policy against being labelled a patsy for the BNP), were there to lob pot shots at "Nick". Chris Huhne did OK and Baroness Warsi was able to stick a few damp squibs on Jack Straw. I thought Straw was his usual evasive self when the questioning got tough on immigration.

But truth to tell, I don't think this will harm the BNP or do it many favours. My wife, who is anything but a BNP sympathiser thought Griffin enhanced his situation. That surprised me. I thought he looked like a controlled but shifty character, his bottom lip quivering as one insult too many struck home.

On tonight's showing Jack Straw won't cut the mustard nationally with the BNP. He might stir it up a bit in Blackburn, but he's got too many dodgy skeletons in his political cupboard. I'm surprised Griffin didn't use any (apart from his father's war effort). So the end result for me is that the BBC came off best with regard to the ratings and Bonnie Greer came off best with regard to the best way to treat your foes - with a grand mixture of humour, dignity and slight chiding!

BNP debate 'illegal', warns Peter Hain

Peter Hain is scrabbling around in the gutter trying to curry favour with every anti-democratic faction going. He's got apoplexy because the BBC has invited Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP and now an MEP, onto Question Time.

Hain's trumpeting the "fact" that the BNP is illegal. No more illegal than half the stuff he's been involved in. The man is a veritable plonker!!

The BBC has a duty to be impartial. It is absolutely right that the BNP is involved if a level of British people see fit to go out and vote in their dodgy candidates. Democracy throws up the rough with the smooth. All that the salivating Hain is doing is helping the BNP cause. So he's threatening to take the BBC to court!

The BNP is not illegal as far as the courts are concerned, or as far as the government is, or the Electoral Commission. Let this pompous prat waste his time in court on a frivolous legal challenge. My advice to all democrats is to debate with the BNP and take on the arguments.

Simon Cowell strictly against a ratings war

Simon Cowell has come out to say that he does not think that the BBC is doing a good thing by placing Strictly Come Dancing up against his X Factor show. This is not about sour grapes, it is just that Simon thinks that licence fee payers could enjoy both shows. He's a fan of Strictly so he's not grinding an axe here. Sounds all very plausible.

However, I sense he's got a bit of an ITV feather protruding from his impresario's hat. He is asking ITV to shift X Factor. Now there was a time when ITV, in the form of Granada, LWT or Thames Television, would relish the thought of humbling the BBC in a ratings war. Not anymore. Now we live in a recession, where TV advertisers are keen to see guaranteed audiences. With so much other than terrestrial television for people to watch, ITV is getting currant buns instead of a slice of the cake. It stands to reason advertisers want to keep ITV programmes in front of as many of the dwindling number of viewers as they can.

The BBC is not phased, though. They blame Merlin for the timing of Strictly. Simon Cowell and ITV may need their own wizard to conjure up a few tricks if they are to combat BBC spin!

Peter, Paul and no more Mary

Mary Travers, the female vocalist of the hit folk trio Peter Paul and Mary, has died. For anyone in the Sixties theirs was familiar music. It still is today, but probably sung by others. They gave a sense of respectable rebellion to all teenagers forming their opinion on life. I didn't know anyone who disliked their music. It came at a time when pirate radio, folk protest songs and a general anti-establishment air was uppermost in young minds. Even for conservatives a touch of radicalism penetrated the soul. The BBC were at their best in the Sixties for live studio music and that's what BBC2 did and did well with Peter Paul and Mary.

The trio got a mention in that great film Meet The Parents when Greg and Jack make a trip to the Oyster Bay Drug and Sundry. Discussion centred around puffing the magic dragon. Now I kind of fell into the Jack Burns theory, but I know boys at school thought like Greg!

Peter Paul and Mary sounded good then and I still think they sound good now. Goodbye Mary.



And here's a BBC clip -

Toffee-nosed Peter Hain in BNP disdain!

Peter Hain is the arch hypocrite. A man of self-serving self-righteousness, who demands that the electorate obeys his whims and fancies rather than thinking for themselves. As the BBC contemplates having a BNP presence on Question Time, Hain is in apoplectic fit mode. He is beginning to rant.

“I was horrified when I heard about this, because it makes them (the BNP) appear as if they are another political party sitting on a panel along with democratically-elected parties.” So Nick Griffin was not democratically elected? Was he shoe-horned in by a bevvy of sly operators all keen to see British democracy destroyed? Of course not. It's Hain's fantasyland, that's what!

If Peter Hain is too chicken to debate with the BNP, let somebody else do it. New Labour is the biggest recruiting agent for the nationalist agenda, so by just ducking out, Hain scores an own goal before the match has even started. Anyway, is Hain a loss to the debate? I hardly think so. He's probably more scared of Griffin picking through his expenses and his deputy leadership contest coffers.

Democracy? Not if you let Peter Hain control it. Free speech? Not if you let Peter Hain control it. What a pompous oaf!

BBC in word play scam!

The BBC gives me the impression that they are "leaders" in the way English words and phrases are used. It was the BBC that led the way in imposing a new name for Bombay on us, whilst steadfastly refusing to do the same with European cities. The corporation has a distinct power in the land when it comes to the way we speak. Although it is not down to them alone, there are other contributors, it seems that the BBC is at the heart of it. They took to speaking only in meters. Woe betide anyone who dares to say feet for a measurement. They will be upbraided, often on screen.

Now the BBC is stubbornly using "gender" instead of "sex". Sometimes it sounds too stupid for words. The thought of athletes having "gender tests" renders the language a fortune to hostage as far as the politically correct brigade are concerned. This is not about pronunciation, or bad grammar as such. Rather it is the insiduous elevation by a thought police of a control system. At one time such behaviour would be countered. Now it seems we don't have the stomach to resist.

Are UKIP voters barmey?

You couldn't make it up. Traditionally in the UK, polling station staff fold ballot papers before giving them to voters. UKIP's high command, ever vigilant for the problems their supporters face at election time, have demanded unfolded ballot papers. This is because some voters cannot conceive of the idea of unfolding them before putting a cross on their paper.

One man from York told the BBC he had been "absolutely shocked" that he could not find the party he wanted to vote for on the ballot paper and had to ask officials where it was. "They explained you have to unfold it again, right at the very bottom there was another very neat fold that you could not see, folded backwards," he said, implying that UKIP was under the last fold (but he could possibly check that!).

My question is "Should such a person be let into a polling station in the first place?"

You have to wonder! UKIP is saying, "We are getting literally hundreds of calls saying we can't find you on the ballot paper so we voted for somebody else." It's all a load of nonsense. Pull the other one. UKIP is just in it for a publicity stunt. Or a pre-emptive strike in case it all goes pearshaped!

More fool the BBC and the Electoral Commission for falling for their prattish behaviour.

David Jason in "racist" joke problem!

Last week there was a hullabaloo about a postmaster telling customers who could not speak English either to get an interpreter or to leave the post office. He claimed they took too long in the queue whilst he tried to decipher what they were saying. The fact that he was of Sri Lankan background only helped to fuel the spontaneous fury, mainly from non-integrated Muslims. Deva Kumarasiri had a very valid point. He said, "People should learn the language. It doesn't have to be perfect, mine isn't perfect. To integrate into society you have to learn English. You don't have to change your cultural values, but at least learn the language." Now who, apart from nauseating Taliban supporters and New Labour culturalists, could gainsay that!

The old saying of "When in Rome do as the Romans" is lost on a lot of people. All that goes by the board, especially for the clipboard-hugging, box-ticking PC lot at the BBC.

Now we have a situation where Sir David Jason is brought up short, by the BBC's great arbiters of proper humour, for telling a "racist" joke. This is the offending joke -

"What do you call a Pakistani cloakroom attendant?" Answer - "Me hat, me coat."

Now if you put any other nationality in there it may be acceptable. Try Russian with a different tag line. David Jason hardly knew what hit him. He had been "horrified" when hearing he had "given offence". I'm more horrified at the comedic cleansing going on at the BBC. The corporation is so rectally challenged it hardly knows what to do. An unnamed spokeswoman prissilly says - "The comments made by David Jason were unacceptable and Christian O'Connell (the radio presenter) distanced himself from them live on air. We consider the views of our listeners to be very important and have received no complaints about these comments. We will continue to monitor any complaints and Christian O'Connell will issue an on-air apology in tomorrow's breakfast show."

What a garbled statement! Monitoring non-existent complaints. Get a life, woman!

Solihull Council contributes £1M plus to recession!

It is estimated by the Federation of Small Business that Britain loses £1 billion a day in lost productivity due to the inability to cope with the snow. Last week Solihull Council, or at least the chief executive, shut schools down three days out of five. At a conservative estimate, this weak-willed decision has contributed at least £1 million from Solihull alone. You'd think these well-paid chief executives would be there to think instead of panic. Because panic is all that there is to show for it.

Tuesday was a complete waste of time. Money down the drain as very little snow fell. Thursday was a blanket closure and Friday was a joke day. That was when we all turned up only to be told the staff had snow phobia and were trying to maintain the assinine line put out by the chief executive. Now here's a man who used to teach special needs children. There have to be some special needs that he urgently requires, along with all the other local government chief executives who are taking the shilling but delivering very little.

First, they need forward planning. Find all those teachers living in cottages at the end of farm tracks without cars and check whether they can actually be bothered to attempt getting in. Second, ask the independent schools how they do it. Third, get the playgrounds cleared of snow. Fourth, stop wingeing about health and safety and begin to take responsibility for once.

I'm not against having fun in the snow. If we want to take a day off when it snows, let the country have snow days. However, I don't see that happening any more than I can see these cretinous council officials actually sitting down to unravel their own warped logic. After all, the chief executive and his minions got in so why not the school community?

We have got to a stage where, as the country's finances sink down the toilet, we are led by pusillanimous people with "agendas". Geoff Hoon is the Transport Secretary. He's about as helpful as a snowflake in Hell. As a trite retort to those who claimed he was ineffectual, he suggested people go out and buy snow chains for their cars. Now these might be a great help in Canada, but they would crack up our roads in no time. What then? More cost in rectifying the damage!

On the Andrew Marr show this morning, the weather forecaster was standing in the snow in Devon. "All the roads have been closed!" he said. Whereupon a van went by with no problem. Unaware of this, he prattled on about the "problems" to come. The BBC, the council chiefs and Buff Hoon himself, are all forecasting problems. Don't these people realise that common sense and a sense of proportion are required? I'm waiting to see if the odd snowflake comes our way tonight! I cannot take seriously and I have virtually no respect for this nonsense. We must get them to see sense or ask that the desist from their moronic ways.

We cannot allow billions of pounds to drift out of the economy, especially at this time, because some crazed "rationale" is driving their furrowed brows to hold some health and safety dogma up for sanctification!