Normal Service

Will be resumed as soon as the European Championships are over!

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Propaganda

Seattle Times

We believe what we read!

We live in a modern world with a ‘free press,’ and a host of communication systems.  We have several television stations offering news, sometimes 24 hours a day, many news radio stations, and newspapers in hand or online.  We can surf the net for independent thought regarding every happening of the day, foreign newspapers and media, bloggers, books, photographs, videos and live streams of events far and near.  All these allow us to reach independent opinions on the world’s events, but we still fall for ‘propaganda!’

We accept without deep thought anything put in front of us.  The majority in the UK watch the BBC for news, or scan a tabloid paper.  While the BBC and other TV and radio news agencies may have quality journalists among them this does not remove the inherent bias, and the news placed in front of us must be the choice of each editor, and editors follow the party line as much as the next man.  The Leveson whitewash inquiry has shown, as if we did not know, how one man's opinion is found throughout his newpapers.  An important world story, say regarding the present Syrian situation, might be considered an important world event but may pushed further down the agenda because a member of the royal family has fallen down stairs or a famous actor has died!  Millions, mostly women, would rather hear of ‘Kate’ wearing a new dress than a thousand Arabs having their throat cut.  News from a ‘far away country of which we know nothing’ is less important than Lady Gaga being banned from Malaya!  This is something the tabloids have always known.  The fake front page of any downmarket tabloid reads, “LADY GAGA STRIPS OFF,” and “FOOTBALLER CHARGED, ” while lower down in small letters, “World War III breaks out, see page 5.”  A remarkable example of this occurred in the small town of Bishops Stortford some years ago.  At a time when Glenn Hoddle was famously known to be manager of the England football team he was mentioned in the local paper as “Glen Hoddle, who used to own a sports shop in the High Street…..”  Local news is always more important than anything else.

The point is that while much presented is factual the choice of what we are shown is indeed limited to that which suits the media.  This gives us an overall impression of how they wish us to see the world, and this is not always to our advantage.  The ‘spirit of the age’ is both reflected and encouraged by the media.  Propaganda comes from news, drama, comedy on TV and radio as well as from news programme.  While they claim this media reflects society it also drives that society.  The 'Eastenders' show has gone worldwide teaching the generations watching that shouting abuse, immorality, hurting people and never smiling is normal.  While it may be the case in some areas it has never been the world in which I dwell.  And the 'East End' today is mostly full of Bangladesh types, and this is never shown, I wonder why?  The opinions of the media form propaganda and we let them without question offer it to us. 


During the Great War the papers were the only news media and the sole means of informing the nation of the progress of the war.  The press barons worked ceaselessly, to their own advantage, to support the nation by offering the propaganda that began with the war cabinet.  Writers tirelessly informed the nation to enlist and serve, and question those who don’t.  Many writers spent a great deal of their time writing in the American press in a desperate struggle to gain support, the French and Germans doing likewise.  It was one of these men, H.G.Wells, who came up with the phrase ‘The war to end wars.’  A notable but nonsensical phrase which has stuck in our minds to our detriment ever since. Much quoted it represents nothing about how the war was viewed at the time, but propaganda at its best keeps the phrase alive.  Lies and half truths stay with us, probably because we wish them to stay as we wish them to be true; even though we are well aware they are absurd.  Famously Lord Beaverbrook produced the ‘John Bull’ magazine.  This was well named as it was full of ‘Bull,’ while intended to inspire the men in their cause and stir the nation to work for victory it was detested by the men as it bore no relation to the war they knew.  On a trip to the ‘front,’ the press baron himself was photographed looking over a trench.  The noble Lord claimed to have “Been at the front line,” and “Looked over the top.”  Beaverbrook was in fact far back in what represented the third line of a quiet area, and even then was afraid to put his head over the top when encouraged to do so by the photographer, although this was regarded as quite safe at the time.  He passed an officer and corporal as he took up his position and alas did not hear the corporal ask “Shall I bayonet him now sir?”  Nor did he hear the reply, “No, that’s my job.”  Propaganda does not work among those who see reality.

During world war two the BBC resisted Churchill’s attempts to turn it into a propaganda machine.  Lord Reith had served in the trenches and was keen to ensure a fair and balanced news service.  While it served the war effort in many ways it refused, and still refuses, to be a government mouthpiece.  This brings many attacks from the government of the day, especially when the faults are paraded and policy questioned.  The BBC ended the war with much respect worldwide for the honesty it offered.  Many Germans soldiers have reported listening to the BBC reports in an effort to understand how things stood.  The had learned early not to believe their own radio.   The dictator must always control the TV and radio, and in the world today struggles to dominate the internet.  


However the ‘spirit of the age’ permeates the BBC.  The programmes are full of today’s opinions and these are often following fashion rather than a cross section of public opinion.  Several themes are seen to be offered at all times.  A ‘liberal’ view of the world is taken for granted; this is not surprising as media people tend to be liberal, as is the entertainment industry.   Programmes therefore push forward their liberal agenda. For instance, ’Great Lives,’ once an interesting programme on ‘great lives,’ now appears to be concerned only with homosexuals and lesbians, either as a ‘great’ or someone choosing to offer such an individual as ‘great.’  Maybe ‘Gay Lives’ would be a better name for this show, a preferable name to the well known gayboy presenter, and one time Tory Member of Parliament, Matthew Parris.

A more blatant attempt at propaganda has failed, yet still continues in Scotland.  The Glasgow football media during the last year have gone out of their way to indicate a man called Craig Whyte is responsible for all the problems at Rangers football club.  They have deliberately ignored Sir David Murray, the man responsible for the mess, while doing this.  To their shame all Scotland knows the situation yet the press persist in lying barefaced about it.  This as we know is because there are more Rangers folk buying the nonsense than anyone else.  Propaganda or sheer greed, you decide!  The media today is desperate to survive, newspapers are dying everywhere as the internet and TV/Radio speed the news direct into our homes.  What matters now is what sells and meaningless celebrities such as Gaga and Beckham sell more papers than a North Korean bomb falling on Seoul.  In my humble view dropping a North Korean bomb on Beckham or Gaga would cause me to rush out of the house to buy every paper that wrote about it, if only!   There is some suggestion at the moment that doctors may strike over the attacks on their pensions, I recall the ancillary workers striking in 1979 and the media propaganda of the day.  The press became full of wild headlines about people dying and patient suffering because of this strike.  A while later the junior doctors also struck, the media was then filled with many reassurances regarding the safety of patients!  Maybe patients were safer under the porters and cleaners?

We accept at face value what is written all too often.  Fear, disinterest, self concern, all leave us with a lack of appreciation of what is happening to the world around.  In 1914 Europe followed the imperialist, nationalistic spirit that arose during the late nineteenth century and that collapsed with the Great War.   We still follow what we are told by the world around us without thinking deeply about what they say.  Who informs us about the world?  What is their personal agenda, or that of their employer?  What are they NOT telling us about?  What is deliberately hidden by the reporter or the authorities.  How free and independent can an individual journalist actually be?  The political developments in Europe are beyond us, so we ignore them, the moral changes about us are ‘none of our business,’ and 'each to his own,' so we carry on regardless,  we are surely sleepwalking into the future accepting so much of what we are told, as if those who speak to us are trustworthy!  How many of us can perceive the world as she really is?  Do we care?        


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Just a Minute

'Just a Minute' is my favourite Radio 4 programme.  Hosted by the ageless (well almost 90 actually) Nicholas Parsons the simple format requires each of the four panelists to speak for one minute on a given subject without hesitation, repetition or deviation.  Simple yet very difficult when put to it.  At any infringement of the rules others will jump in and collect a point, if correct, and often huge hilarity does come about.  

Today however saw yet another attempt to transfer this long running show to television.  During the forty five years since it first began, in 1967 before I was born you understand, there have been occasional short lived TV adaptations, none of which have worked.  It took just a minute to realise that once more it will fail!  The whole power of the game lies in the spoken word, and television looks for image, not words.  The gimmick on this occasion, to enliven the programme for stupid people, was to keep the camera constantly moving slowly as the panelist spoke.  Worse still was that other needlessly annoying habit of closing slowly into the speakers face until we are right up their nose!   Not something we do in the normal conversations we have I believe.  

I couldn't look!  Instead I played a solitaire game, not easy on this laptop, there again nothing is easy on this brute, and listened while they made their hesitant way to completion of the programme.  Indeed there were good moments, although heightening the laughter needlessly as TV does was not one of them, but this is a standard for radio programmes, and will not succeed on TV until TV people consider the viewer rather than their trendy ideas.  The image, and the trendy fashion of the day, concerns TV people far too much.  The last thing they care about is the viewer.  Return the programme to the radio please, and another blessing is we don't have to look at Sue Perkins either!

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Saturday Night Out

So I decided after the dubious replies this morning that I needed a night on the tiles.  I intended to seek the bright lights of the town centre (paid for by credit card) and eat at the 'Thai Curry House and Takeaway Massage' where I have, er 'friends.'  Then head for the 'Independent Bar' where the landlord assures me there are no drugs allowed on his premises. When I pointed out to him when I met him in the street yesterday that a chap flung a brick at the head of another in his bar he replied, "Yes he did, but drugs were not involved. Just needless violence."  I couldn't argue with that.  However it may be better I reckoned that I went to the 'Nags Head,' or whatever it is called now.  There again I hesitate, what with the doormen, sorry 'entrance control officers' and the 'incident,' I must reconsider.  'The Bull' has stood in the market place for well over a hundred years, serving the public and being well recommended by one and all. Once it was filled with farmers and their ilk as the market pens were opposite the entrance. Cattle, sheep, and servants would be bought and sold in between 'refreshment in the 'Bull.'  I think it is a legal 'must' that every market town or village in England has a pub in the centre called 'The Bull!'  Today there are few farmers there watching the football on one of the may screens, few young males watch it in the early evening as young females wearing pelmets arrive and distract them. Hmmm that might affect my heart too much so I am not sure about that one. There is of course the ancient 'Boars Head,' and the other place next door, a third watering hole down the road full of rich trendy folks (they think) stoned out of their head, all of which can give one like me an evening of fun and jollity (laughing at them).  Pubs restaurants, happy young people, loud music, wine, dancing......hold on, wait a minute, it's raining!  Well forget it, I canny go out.  I have a hole in both my shoes and I am not squelching about in my condition.  Now, what's on TV instead....?     




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Trash!

Trash! I'm sick of trash! Everywhere I look the world is full of it! I sit through thirty minutes of the pretence that is Prime Ministers Question TIme, watching the stooges play out their game with no thought for the public. What matters to them is point scoring and discussing with their aids how to improve the image, while doing little about the subjects involved. It's all a game for the cameras and worthless for the nation. Power is to be grabbed, as it always has been, but at the present time it is being fought over by people empty of a belief system other than 'ME!' I turn over to the other side and find an antiques programme, one of many that fill the screen daily. While 'Bargain Hunt' may well be one of the few worth watching it sits amongst the dumbed down morning telly that fills the screen. Turning to ITV I find worse! 'Loose Women!'  Good grief! This programme has for several years now featured ageing women all dressed up and with nowhere to go, and no wonder! Talk is all about themselves, men, themselves and, well, men!  The limited world knowledge is at variance with the number of years these crones have spent in it. Trash indeed yet it appears five days a week! Then we have the cooks. Every channel requires its cookery show, all with a 'celebrity' who nobody knows. Add the desperate need for 'competition' into every programme and we have the 9 year old level satisfied.Just why there is such a need to find out who will be first I do not know, but it is everywhere these days. Trash!  There is around forty channels available to some in this country and almost 95% of what is on offer is trash!  I can understand having such programmes as part of a daily offering but  they are the predominate type.

I turn to the 'Independent' newspaper for news. I find 'Fergie' the 'Duchess of York' living on her title on yet another American TV programme telling us how hard her life is. Apart from the fact she is a chancer on the make, apart from the fact that Oprah is worse, apart from the vast amount of cash she gets for appearing I have to ask why this occurrence is in the press? A so called 'serious' newspaper needs such stories? Surely this belongs in the 'Express' or the 'Mail?'  News is not selling, possibly because of radio and TV's 24 hour a day coverage, however it leaves much space for deep thought which is not found in TV and rarely in radio these days. Thought ought to be found in such papers yet the 'celebrity' is what is selling instead. Trash! The 'entertainment' business is full of trash. Whatever film, whatever special effects are used, in the end it is a man in a white hat beating a man in a black hat, with sex added. TV is full of soaps and dramas that are just soaps. The media is empty and bereft for the most part  and I am heartily sick of it all!

Getting old is no fun when you see what is good drowned out by trash!

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Football Over the Ether

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While twenty two men slug it out in the rain in Kilmarnock a great many people are sitting listening, or watching, in the comfort of their own homes. How wonderful! This game is available via the wireless on Medium Wave, although it may be the 'open all mikes' all in programme only. It can however be heard via the internet thanks to Sportsound's shambolic website,which is how I am listening on tenterhooks, actually I am on a second hand office chair, but as the butcher said when I asked for half a rabbit, "Let's not split hares!" The web has become a marvellous way with which to follow the football. Games worldwide, and sometimes pictures also, can be obtained this way, both legally and not. International fans of the Heart of Midlothian not only have 'Hearts World' struggling to provide an unbiased commentary on the game but they also get live pictures on occasion. 

To me this is amazing!  When I took up residence in the mouse filled condemned slum in London's Finchley Road I discovered that it was well nigh impossible to discover what was happening four hundred miles up the road. Saturday saw football results on the radio (did I have one then? I certainly had no telly) and the Sunday press had all the results. Reports of the games did not exist, with a cup final or old firm game as an exception and nothing was mentioned on the radio or among the population of the city in which I dwelt. Papers were available from the local newsagent. Papers from France, Germany, Italy and several other European nations. The Arabic press were represented, all the major papers from that region, and other from the US and elsewhere could be obtained a day or two after publication. None from Scotland could be obtained, although the Scotsman, then a newspaper, was then available in some areas. Later, once I had moved to a more salubrious basement in Kilburn (or was it when I had finally reached the goal of a back door in Notting Hill?), I discovered the Scottish Press could be obtained from Kings Cross station and the Sundays on a Saturday night before they made their way north. The joy of wandering about Kings Cross on a Saturday night is not one I wish to share with such gentle readers as yourselves! 

Football discussion was often limited amongst the people I worked with. They were either not interested or supported only English sides or, believe it or not, cared for cricket! The sight of working men getting excited about cricket is one I am even yet not sure about. It was of course possible at times to discuss football with those who understood the game, and from as far apart as Montrose and Real Madrid! However this was not relevant to the Heart of Midlothian. However my life had more important things to worry it as I built my 'relationship with Jesus, although he may disagree here, and this included the eight years I did without TV and used books and the radio to develop my incredible intellect. ( Well people always say "Incredible!" when mentioning my intellect!). Today the use of satellite TV and the 'Dirty Diggers' money football coverage has developed greatly. At the same time more newsagents found a market for the sale of Scots papers, a sale which is dying now we all read these grubby papers on the web! Ah well!

I now feel closer to Edinburgh and some members of my family and to my football club than I have ever done in the past thirty five years! The personal computer has been a great benefit in these and many other ways, how did I ever live without it? Unemployment of this period of time with no PC would have seen me dead! Who said "Shame?"  News of the team is available as easily for me as for those in Edinburgh. Pictures are available, and contact with the fans, especially the decent ones, is a great help to understanding what is going on. Incidentally this also enables me to remember Edinburgh words that have sunk deep into the back of my big head, but that's another story. The question now is why are we losing? Do we care when we hear Hibs are losing another cup tie to a very low lying side? Yes! That enables us to keep smiling in the rain soaked circumstances.

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Television Plays

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In the days of two channel television there used to be a thing called 'Armchair Theater' from, I think, ATV TV. This competed with plays shown on the BBC and the other day the type of plays shown came to mind for some reason now forgotten. In between those featuring Judie Dench overemoting,(at least it saved writing scripts) there appeared plays which took us well aware from the run of the mill stuff that now dominates the small screen. Today, as you know, anything that appears on screen is merely a soap opera! Often it is an American version which includes guns, explosions and women throwing themselves at the anti-hero star. (British version differ in that they contain guns, explosions and a woman throwing herself at the anti-hero star.)
However in the sixties this was not the case. One of the first, which appeared around the time we first had our Ferranti Telly, featured a spacecraft hanging over London threatening earth! I can remember the scene in the Cabinet Room as the Prime Minister and his cohorts discussed the situation. As they spoke my folks debated whether this was 'live' or not! I can remember my dad saying "That's not Harold MacMillan!" as if to convince my mum that it was indeed a play. Now you understand why I have no brains! A later play featured two men sitting on a park bench discussing life. As the talk continued it became obvious one of them came from Mars. Such events are not shown today, nor is the one concerning the department store. This featured a young men wandering around a store after closing time and discovering the mannequins that modelled the clothes in the store window. As he looked at them, and those inside the shop, they began to speak to him. By the end of the play he had of course become one of them and was found standing in the window, statuesque like. One other featured Bernard Cribbens, at least my memory tells me so, and this concerned a man who's skin slowly began to turn into steel. This began around his midriff and slowly made its way upwards. His anxious wife and not so anxious doctor stood by the bed, ignoring him, and discussing the situation. In the end he dies. Maybe this had a satiric value that my young mind could not gather, possibly it was just written by a nutter?    


Now tastes change and time passes but it appears to me that television today only wants soaps and simple to understand 'drama.' That is why the quality is so poor. A comment made on the 'Steptoe & Son,' programme claimed that comedy today was poor because it required a laugh every thirty seconds, there being no time to create characters or situations. We live in simpler times, the TV audience cannot cope with much beyond soaps and reality shows. The drama I mentioned from the past may be a bit esoteric, whatever that means, but at least it was something different. I suppose in the fifties and sixties TV had room for experiment, today this is not allowed. There again red tape intervenes. Memory tells me that the radio programme 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue,' was created by Graeme Garden and one other discussed the idea in the BBC canteen, went upstairs to the Radio controller and were given the go-ahead there and then. Now it takes several layers of suits before a programme is offered to the nation. Somewhere along the way creativity and spontaneity have been lost.


There again, maybe it's just me thinking today's telly is garbage of course and past times appear better.


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Hospitals on TV

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Now, as you know, I am not one to complain, however this is the time of the year known as the 'silly season,' when the media, determined to fill every minute of their overlong news programmes, visit places normally left aside from the daily rush. Cats up trees are often found in such programmes, however at this time of the year such revelations are not considered to carry sufficient depth for the glorious people in TV Land. So one of the most useful time fillers is the NHS! Every local news programme the TV can provide appears to have a camera wandering about a hospital, doctors surgery or pharmacist, daily! Now local news is of course filled with rape, murder, fire and reports of UFOs over the post office, but at this time of the year, when government, local and national, has slowed down for the main part, (not counting when big changes are sneaked out when no-one is looking) when the schools are out, and the brats shoplifting, with the routine broken, crime slipping away as so many criminals are stealing from one another while getting drunk in Spanish seaside resorts (all equiped with the 'Daily Mirror,' 'fish & Chips,' and hordes of teenage thugs chasing scantily clad stupid girls (and where were they when I called?) ) so the TV people rush to the hospitals!
Tonight they spend overlong discussing the cutbacks and staff losses, (Not the 'front line staff' lies a well paid suit, she might well add 'Not me either,' but won't). Tomorrow the waiting list in the outpatients, yesterday, a new discovery blaming our 'genes' for the laziness that afflicts us, on Monday it will be the bugs that can kill (big headline, no story) and so on. Each story has a union man fearing staff loss, a suit lying in his teeth, a fervent doctor reassuring all and sundry that the disease that is ravishing the district is nothing to be concerned over, and an earnest reporter that does not care a bit about his story. He is just annoyed that he has been turned down again by SKY or ITV and misses the big money.
Why not just cut these local news broadcasts to five minutes? The murder, disappearance, factory closure, can be dealt with easily then, the sport, a muttering from a football manager about 'Giving 110%,' or a cricket captain explaining how his side lost 500 runs to a woman's team, can be as informative in one minute as it is in the several usually wasted on local TV. Must we visit hospitals? It is not news, rarely important, only brainless types who indulge themselves on daytime TV watch it and it goes in one ear ad out the other straight away. Do we need local news that much? Radio covers it better, rarely is there a major story, and while it has some interest explaining why the streets were closed off and police helicopters were hovering overhead, in the end it really doesn't matter, does it?


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Saturday Cogitation

Watching England v Wales rugby match I noticed two princes were there supporting England.  I wondered what would happen if one of them became 'Prince of Wales?' Would he still support England? His dad has hardly ever been in the 'principality.' (and why is it called 'Principality,'and not 'nation?' How condescending of their English overlords.) since his 'anointing!' Another point was the use of the 'British' national anthem by the England side. Why is this? Does England not have it's own anthem, or do we conclude they still believe, wrongly I assure you, that England and Britain are one and the same? I know their rugby folks attempted to use both 'Jerusalem,' a city four thousand miles away, and 'Swing low sweet chariot,' what we used to call a 'Negro spiritual,' as an anthem, (although the Speech Nazi's no longer allow us to use this term.) And, when we are on, why does one prince have red hair? His dad is not ginger is he? I do hope no ginger footballer is involved here, what would the 'Daily Mail' say?  

As you will know by now I am not the type to get grumpy every time some little irritation appears near my ken, however I must admit that when watching television the constant desire of each TV director and cameraman to shove the camera close into a persons face annoys me. Not only do we no longer see the individual properly, they move, and as they move so does the camera and instead of a picture we get the sensation of giddiness so beloved of females in Victorian melodramas! AND THIS ANNOYS ME, SO STOP IT NOW!!!! If I have a sudden desire to notice the hair sticking out of someone's nose I WILL VISIT A PSYCHIATRIST! If however I want to notice the individual I will want the camera pulled back so we can all see what they are like, not just the bits shoved in our face! 

Yet this has happened ever since TV became popular in the fifties. In 1957, I read recently, a complaint was made in the Radio Times asking why we had the face of an individual filling the screen? This was a complaint that TV people chose to ignore determined to believe that this aided our understanding of the lying politician or football star involved. In fact nowadays there is a move to just watch the eyes! An excellent documentary on Channel 5 some years ago concerning the RAF and WW2 was spoiled by the needless close up of the eyes, and often just one eye of an ex-fighter pilot! What the blazes was that supposed to tell us? Be a pilot and get red ageing eyes? Sir Alex Ferguson is one who is often subject to this. Most opportunities to give us the benefit of his ever purpling nose is never missed, and if possible, the camera will slowly close in on his eyes, and then, wait for it, we will be presented with a close up of the iris and pupil filling our screen! Marvellous, except WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING THE BLOODY GAME!!!!!!! I despair at times with the stupidity of TV folk. They live in a bubble far removed from those of us in the real world. I suspect that we will have to get used to glaring faces frightening our children for many years to come.

Escape to the country

Escape to the Country is a programme  designed to aid country type people, 'townies,' to find a rural idyll that they can call their own. I like this programme. It enlivens our covetous nature as we watch a couple, always a couple, and sometimes some pretty strange couples appear on this show, we watch a couple wander about several houses wondering if this is 'the one,' and mentally tear down walls and build families. (Maybe they should keep the last bit to themselves of course?) We covet both the money these people have to spend, usually in the regions of £300.000 to a million or so, and then dream about the house we wish to possess, all the while shivering in our clammy cave sitting over the last candle to keep warm. But do these people know what they are doing I wonder?

The presenters give lavish information regarding the are in which the couple desire to find a dwelling, the green country, the deep blue sea, the history and the communications, all with a smile and a cheery disposition. And yet I have never heard mention of the ducking stool or the witch burning, the wife swapping is ignored and there is never a mention of what they did when they caught that poacher! Do these incomers not understand why Agatha Christie set so many of her crime stories in villages? Do they think 'Miss Marple' was an invention of the author? These were not novels, they were news reporting! Yet not one word of this is mentioned by the cheery presenters of this country. 'Community' is mentioned many times, especially when speaking of the local pub, the presence of the Post Office, and of course the small shop. Yet the pub is not called 'The Jolly Hangman' for nothing! The Post Office was closed after the little old lady running it was done for murdering her 'toyboy,' and the small shop is run by a sour spinster and her brother who has not been right since he was mortared at Monte Cassino! If you hear strange noises in the night it is just him 'passing through' the garden. It's best not to look out......

When the house buyers have finished grumbling about the insufficient 19 acres of land, the problem with the upstairs toilet, and wondering if the house, priced at a mere £850,000 is for them, nobody mentions the curtains twitching across the road. Do they not know that while the farmer, desperate for income, is happy to sell them an extra 'bit of land' for an arm and a leg, the curtain twitcher has already worked out a plan to stop this happening? No voice will be raised amongst the unsmiling, unless they are being paid, villagers about the reason the woman of the house is so eager to 'do a deal.' No voice will mention what, or who, is lying at the bottom of the village pond either,will they? Ducks are often found in such ponds, but surely the programme presenter must have thought an alligator a bit strange for the Cotswold's? I would love a country house with an acre or two. A little wood at the side, a wide panoramic view, preferably of the sea, and the money, and justification, to possess such an abode. However I would be careful about where I buy, amongst whom I would dwell, and remember the story of Lot. He 'saw the land was good,' and it turned out to be Sodom!

Enjoy your house hunting.

   


 

           

ADVERTS!

I'm sick of TV adverts! I turn on Sky Sports News to be greeted with "When we come back...." so I switch to the Sky News and find those bloody Meerkats selling insurance! Now I note that these creatures have been a success, I suspect the kids are thrilled and daddy has to buy insurance because of this, just like that fat mutt adverting the Churchill rip off insurance. I turn to any other channel and find all have adverts on at the same time! No peace for the wicked, no freedom from the constant repetition on all channels of the same bloody adverts!!!! Insurance, dominates, and finance is not far behind! Several over cheery women sell 'Vanish,' promising to remove all stains from your laundry, don't buy it, this is a fraud! It never worked on my Royal Mail shirts! A vast number of cars whizz across the screen promising male watchers an image they cannot resist. You will note the actual performance of the car is rarely mentioned in such ads, all is image.

Not only are they always on, they last for four minutes (it feels like more) on all channels. Any programme going for eight minutes now halts for "A short break." No it isn't, it's a long break with the same bloody adverts we saw last time and the time before and the time before that! One more image of a clown wearing an oversized light bulb on his head desperate for a cheap loan and I will swap the light for an axe! (I have one spare!) One children's charity showed an ad featuring a small boy, three times in every break. This advert worked. The little boy is now buried in my back garden! The ad is not shown now.

So let's leave TV and the one hour programme that comprises four, yer four, four minute ad breaks, an intro that takes two minutes plus, and four "When we come backs..." which take two minutes each. Add to this the "Welcome back, coming up, ..." which takes another minute and a half, and we are left with twenty eight minutes of programme each hour! Only Murdoch could think this worth while! Many of his readers/viewers probably don't notice how little they actually watch, and much repeated from earlier in the day! Let's move to the radio. Hold on, three minutes of adverts, mostly for local companies, before the news comes on. Blasted Meerkats are there again also and that 'Direct Line' one! Enough, turn to something else, a talk show, even they are stopping off for a 'break!' Right, BBC it is. Guess what, they are shoving a trailer for an upcoming programme down our throat. They advertise themselves, even on the 'World Service' and 'Radio 3!'

Right that's it! If you want me I will be at the zoo. I'm going hunting for Meerkats!

Loose Women

Just what is the point of this programme 'Loose Women?' Is it to show us the considered debates about life today from a group of 'liberated ladies?' Or could it be it wants the viewer to believe that women should never have been given the vote in the first place as clearly there is no intellectual ability of any depth to be found here among these ageing slappers? Just what is the point of this? Just because you are of a 'certain age' does not mean you have to appear as 'mutton dressed as lamb,' and there is a lot of 'mutton' on show here! Nor does it mean you have to bring the conversation around to yourself constantly, which appears to be the only subject on offer - themselves! Four women sitting in a row talking about their bodies, sex, themselves, lipstick, sex, themselves, drink, sex, and themselves! A thousand million are at starvation level, millions go to bed hungry, a credit crunch is closing work places worldwide, possible nuclear war bides its time in the middle east, and these bints talk only about their weight problems and sagging skin, both subjects which need no introduction to the viewer it must be said! Just what is the point?

Now put four men in a row and what will they talk about? Their weight, their sex lives, their skin condition? I doubt it although rude remarks may pass and be replied to. No men would discuss thongs outside of themselves, football, war, motorbikes, indeed anything that matters, yet they are never given a programme in which to do this. I wonder why? Women's absurd fascination with trivia, as heard while waiting in Tesco for another self indulgent bint filling her bag while discussing nothing at all with the checkout girl, and she could get onto this programme quite easily I can tell you, their fascination with talking about nothing never ends! Why? If you have nothing to say don't say it! This will enable you to move your trolley out of folks way in considerably less time than it does now! Then you can go home and watch video tapes of 'Loose Women,' it doesn't matter how old the tape is, the subject will be the same, as will the unbelievable outfits!

Silence Again

Too tired to cogitate, nothing to rant over, and no inspiration hanging around. I have many thoughts circulating around my head but none suitable for publication - no, none of those missus! For some reason I am so tired all the time, is it age or lack of stimulation? Could it be too much 'Flanders Stew?' Or am I just a slob? Answers on a ten pound note please (used). I have filled some time tonight watching BBC 4, the Freeview channel that I can just receive thanks to the wonders of an indoor Aerial. However, whenever a car drives past the picture wobbles, a bit like my stomach does. This is a shame as tonight there have been several programmes worth watching.

Several programmes have concerned themselves with steam railways, and what could be nicer? Certainly some are old stuff from the nineties, BBC 4 does this, but even so they are far better than the usual line up of soaps and dramas that are no more than soaps. These trailers for such cretinous events appear between the shows here and make me swear at the telly! Routinely such 'dramas' involve a woman, adultery, bad men, a threat or two and an explosion. All the same crap day after day! Meanwhile in the real world I watch a steam railway wandering beautifully through the Devon countryside. Steam rises and flows behind and slightly to the right as she coasts along the coast, a wonderful sight! The sea of the Cornish Riviera greets her, and the hills resound to the whistle as she passes. Indeed there is nothing more romantic than a steam locomotive passing by.

Ah me, I am in love!

Another programme shows a lass wandering along old railways closed by Dr Beeching in the 60's. He was the business man brought in by Ernest Marples to curtail the money being spent on British Railways. Marples had made his money in the motor trade and he was going to support that in place of the rail traffic. While it was clear changes were desperately needed, and nothing had been done since the war, and no railway made money before then, Beeching cut far too much, destroyed jobs, businesses, and much tourism. Very much a Thatcherite before the time. No thought was given to the effect on the society being destroyed, money was the only thought! Buses were supposed to replace the rail service even though it was well known the infrastructure did not exist! It is even worse after the mad Baroness herself took a hand! The lack of a rail service devastated many towns and villages. Now the car rules and the UK has I believe more cars proportionately than any other. But I could be wrong here. The old line fromGalashiels into Edinburgh was lost, the 'Waverley' line, there are plans to reinstate this, forty years on, indicating just how foolish the loss of railways has been.

Anyway, I still want to drive one. Listening to the whistle blow, the clank of goods wagons (the had no brakes and just clanked into one another), the puffing of trains in the distance and the availability of seats! Trains pulling ten or more coaches are replaced now by two or four couches on long distances! No wonder trains are overcrowded. But I digress. These programmes are making my TV licence almost worth the money. I cannot say that every day.

See, I told you I had nothing to say.

AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggghhhh!

There is NO football on the telly tonight! Because the majority of Euro 2008 has taken place and we await the last three games there will be nothing to watch now. I expect to be seeing spiders crawling up the wall by 8:30 tonight.

Even worse! Not only is there no football and the TV companies are returning to their usual diet of mindless drivel and unspeakable 'pap' but the BBC have now added Wimbledon to the list! Tennis! Yes Tennis! That middle class lawn game that was surely only invented to make Basketball look interesting? It failed there also didn't it! Why oh why with all the resources available to them do the BBC let the football go to ITV and Sky yet insist on spending our money on two weeks of monotony?

I'll tell you why, women! In spite of the feminist lies that fill the world today the fact is women are not naturally team motivated. While men will join with folk known and unknown and support a football or other team through thick and thin (mostly thin down Gorgie way) women tend to go for the one to one option. This is why activities (I cannot call this 'sport') is such a big draw for the girls. Of course they are lusting uncontrollably after some swarthy, tanned, French, Romanian, Australian or Yank nancy boy as they rush about the court swearing at the umpire and acting like the spoilt brats they are, but they are attracted by the single opponent idea. This is also why so many women spoil acres of really good country by insisting on playing Golf there. Would they be so happy to just walk around the woods like men do, and I have noticed some funny men walking around the woods in my time I can tell you, or do they really have the need to hit a wee ball into a far of hole?

You see it is true that while men gather at a football match, a proper sport, they together support 'our' team. Women at football, rugby or whatever, if not there just to pick up a man as most of the young ones are, support 'their baby.' A far more insular thing. They do have a liking for cricket because while this game is a 'team' game it is in reality just between two men. The bowler, the one who throws the ball, and the batsman, the one who tries to hit it with a big stick. So while eleven run about the pitch most in fact do nothing whatsoever. This makes it a great pastime for those who wish to keep themselves in a state of fitness well into their fifties and beyond.

Of course as Tennis is so female dominated, the women play less games than the men and yet get paid the same amount of cash. How sexist is this? As they play less games they can also add to this the doubles and mixed doubles which men at the top cannot find time or energy for. The top lassies therefore take far more money for far less effort from the tournament than the best men can possibly do. Blatant sexism but for crying out loud do not point out facts to these whining self seeking bitches, in this fascist world facts are not wanted, just 'chip on the shoulder' emotion. Being female dominated also means that the Beeb must hold onto it or the women who run the Corporation will stamp their foot and go blue in their faces. They will also talk for hours about such crime, and who would want to endure that? Not those who should no better at the multi national (yet will not give Scotland it's due respect) BBC.

Two whole weeks of this. Grunting and sweating and middle class anxiety over who will win, and why has Britain (meaning England) not produced a winner since Fred Perry the shirt maker? Who cares really? Roll on the football season.

It's Driving me to Drink!

Every time I switch a radio or TV on I find adverts!
Now I have turned the thing on for the football and they go off for 'a break.' ITV spend more time on 'Breaks' than they do football. In the few minutes the programme has run nothing sensible has been said, and what was was uttered at pace because a 'break' was coming up!

I put 'Talksport' on this morning, a Rupert Murdoch station which gives us all the intellect a fan of Jeremy Kyle requires, and was confronted by adverts. Adverts which assume you are male, white, drink too much, waste money on the horses and are a 'white van driver!' I tuned into the World Service of the BBC because it gives good news coverage, and it was some boring science talk. I returned to 'Talksport' and it was still adverts, so I went to Radio 5. Here they were, once again, droning on about the house price situation. Off to Radio 4 - House prices, on to Radio 3 and it was opera! I went back to 'Talksport' and found they had another break!

Liverpool and Chelsea have just walked out onto the pitch. ITV have gone off for adverts! I think I need 'textspeak' for what I want to say now.......

And I don't have a bottle of 'Black Bottle.' Just Tesco's 17p fizzy water.
Rejoice rejoice.....

The Jeremy Kyle Show

Having a tea break between washing down the doors, that required their five yearly cleaning, I browsed the TV channels and came across the 'Jeremy Kyle Show,' and a similar offering on one of the 'Freeview' channels. Now once again I ask, 'What is the point of this?' Here folk were coming on TV to discuss topics of great importance to the nation such as,'You told me to leave and find a man who could make you pregnant,' and 'It's your fault I slept with your sister!' Now maybe it's just me, and possibly over the years I have come to believe that folks problems, if real and not actors, ought to be dealt with quietly. Here we find all sorts of people, well, actually usually the same sort of person if truth be told, appearing on telly to loudly proclaim their stupidity and woefulness!

OK, I accept that many of them are 'intellectually challenged' and come from backgrounds where consideration for themselves and others is not one of the basic precepts taught, but here they are bringing their problems and family disputes onto our screens. While some may be performing for the camera others appear to be very involved. What do they expect to get out of this? Money for appearing? Certainly that brings many on. Fame? Being able to walk around your local 'Lidl' knowing folk are talking about you as a TV star may appeal to some. Is there a genuine desperate appeal for help here from these poor souls? Maybe I should write a book, 'Common Sense for Daftes!'

Indeed there is the possibility that, for some, this is the only way they can work out their difficulties. No-one local can offer common sense or show them a better way to live. Such folk have no 'role models' to copy and learn from, that is if they wish to learn of course. The 'lowest common denominator' television offerings encourage them to think such TV appearances are normal, and there are so many such programmes from home and abroad available. While women's magazines offer countless advice to trauma struck lassies there is little face to face help available anywhere in this nation. Much advice, from what I've read, appears dubious to me and appears not to be directed at the numpties who come on to such shows. Just what d you do if your wife turns out to be sleeping with you dad? How do you deal with a situation in which your son has three children and claims he is gay so will you take his wife? Shooting, I am sorry to say, is not an answer. Local Council By-Laws forbid this. If you have such a difficulty and are not the sharpest tool in the box where do you turn for help? The telly! There you will find your kind of people, with problems you have known all your life, and this will be your help in time of trouble. Jesus wept indeed!

It makes me annoyed that these people can be paraded like a freak show so that others can laugh at them day after day. I can get so angry when I see folk used in this way, and the people who run these shows know exactly what they are doing and are paid very well indeed for mocking the hapless victims. If there was a determined effort to help people sort out their lives it may be acceptable. Quite how building up folks emotions and having a crackhead audience taking sides is going to help I know not! This is naturally, in keeping with the attitudes of the day. 'Bread and Circuses' and the people will be happy. But there is an audience out there more than capable of coping with quality programmes. They should not have to struggle to find them nor discover such quality lurking late at night on obscure channels. A revision of broadcasting is sorely needed in the UK. But I doubt it will ever happen. As long as folk are used and abused, but not wise enough to care or do anything about it, such trash TV will continue.

Cowboy Movies

Every time I change the channel there is a 'Cowboy Film' showing! For a while all I was finding was yet another episode of 'Friends,' and who watches that anyway? Women of a certain age I would guess. But Cowboy films? Who watches them these days? They are all the same, follow the same script and have as much relation to the actual American West as I have to a nuclear scientist!

Now when I was a kid I loved 'Wagon Train' on the telly, but I was only five or six when I came across it and since then I have watched several million 'westerns' and discovered just how unrealistic - and boring they are! if they are not firing 'six shooters' which appear to contain five hundred rounds, they are fighting bad men who want to steal their ranch. Always and ever there is a woman, usually one who is extremely well proportioned for a lass chasing cattle around a ranch hundreds of miles in size. Their hair never appears out of place which must be a miracle in such circumstances. Of course there will be a scene in which they cross the river, Indians fall off horses when shot by a 'six shooter' at a hundred yards range, and there is always a fight between the hero and the baddie. No one ever gets fingers in the eyes or kicked in the cobs during such actions, every thing is done fair and square - and a nasty man is always punched hard enough to fall over the bar and break the mirror!

Dross! Unmitigated dross!

John Wayne made a name for himself masquerading as what some call the 'All American hero,' and we call a complete doughnut! You may recall John Fords answer when asked 'How did you make Wayne a star?' He said, 'I give him as few words as possible!' No wonder. Yet his image has made him the 'typical' cowboy, and he was nothing like the real thing. He also played the war hero, spending his time film making in Hollywood when others were fighting Germans and Japanese. Jimmy Stewart flew a bomber over Germany on at least a dozen missions, John Wayne made poor quality films and became a star.

The Buffalo Bill Circus at the turn of the century went a long way to create the myth of the west that was encouraged by the silent movies of the day. Tom Mix and others developed this story line in spite of the facts being available to them, if they cared to look. But I suppose reality in movies would make them either too boring or too awful to show to the public. So we get the 'bread and Circuses' from Hollywood instead. Ignore facts and give the people cut down, bland or distorted truths as it is easier to cope with. But please stop showing this rubbish on telly after the kids programmes have finished!

Weather Girls

The United Kingdom, a you know, has a reputation for discussing the weather more often than is really necessary. A frequent opener of conversation is the state of the weather, usually involving a great degree of surprise that in January the weather is awful! It never fails to amaze me that people are often stunned that snow and gales should cause traffic disruption and be found knocking down trees. Possibly during the few thousand years of habitiation of this earthly paradise the Atlantic waves crashing against the coast and eroding the hard rock found there has not been observed. Maybe the loss of many East Anglian towns caused by the sea removing the land on which they were built has gone unreported in some parts, but certainly not in East Anglia! It is winter therefore it will rain, the temprature will drop, and the wind will blow making everything worse. That is how it usually happens, but when it does, shock! Obviously the further north we go the worse the climate becomes, those living on the West Cost of Scotland the the North West of England being well aware that two days out of three 'might be wet.' A good summer equals one day in three being sodden and the sky being a naval gray as opposed to a deep gloomy immitation dark night. How do we know when the seasons change? With the road from Tomintoul we find one way to recognise winter has arrived, when it becomes blocked by snow that is the start. However this may be slightly defective as this often occurs in August! For those further south the end of the summer holidays and shops being stuffed full of Christmas gear warns of winters approach. Mind you that could brng us back to August again.

Foretelling the weather has long been an occupation of this island race. Farmers, shepherds, fishermen were from the earliest times always watchful of the sky for the signs of changes in the environment around them. World wide folks watched for 'Red sky at night, shepherds delight,' even Jesus mentioned this, and such simple signs would be recognised by anyone living in the country. Animals behaviour often indicated weather patterns changing, and fishermen noting the oceans which so easily took their lives away were always alert for danger indicators. Not so today. Today we have a simpler, and more attractive, indication of how the heavens will affect us, weather girls! Yes indeed, we no longer need to stare at the sky each evening hoping for deep pink clouds, nor do farners have to rise early and wonder of their cows are sleeping standing up or lying down, oh no, today we confront a pretty young thing, usually blonde, lying in her teeth!

Liars? These pretty wee lassies lie?Oh yes they do!
Imagine a postman watching the 'Anglian News' one evening. Along comes the weather girl, attractive, smiling, personable, and informs him that there "May be one or two showers early on, ut nothing to wrooy about." Next morning he sets of to work dressed appropriatly, sorts the mail and heads of to commence delivery. As he cycles out of the office a few spots of rain appear, he grunts and continues reassured that these passing drops will soon fade.Wrong! Four and a half hours later he returns, soaked through to the bone, his bags sodden, the mail turned into paper mache and as he enters the building the manager, coffee cup I hand looks skywards and mutters, "Good, it's clearing up. I'm glad as I'm of home now" The postmans response earns him an official warning. Why do these weather girls use the word 'shower' when they mean 'downpour?' Is it because they are female, or just because they specialise in cruelty?

Weather forecasting today is a highly technical operation. Girls like the one above are not just your Scandinavian bint on the make but highly educated clever wee things. The girls who appear on Anglia share the competent yet relaxed image of the programme, and image that leaves it head and shoulders (which their hairy probably doesn't need) ahead of the BBC. 'Look East.' is a show staffed by wax dummies and the weather girl there, however competent, makes Mrs Beckham look fat. Who can truly put faith in the advice of a stick insect I ask you? Now however, as I look at the sodden picture outside my window I can see the results of yesterdays forecast actually being proved right, it is belting down. Tomorrow they say snow from the north, and then the bitch smiles sweetly! Snow! What is there to smile about? Right then, if that's the case I had better go back to bed and cancel all my appointments.

Television, Why is it so Bad?

Now if a TV station offered you a certain type of programme you would understandable expect to watch such programmes, surely? Yet in recent days the station calling itself UKTV History has singularly failed to offer us history! Why? Instead we are confronted with a series of soap operas masquerading as history and failing to convey anything of the times they represent.

We have recently been subjected to 'Dunkirk,' which claimed to represent the actions from that time and obscured the facts behind a tour-de- force-de-overacting from men who clearly had no conception of what war is like, cameras that moved constantly, obscure camera angles, needless close ups, and left this viewer with no knowledge of the events although a growing desire to fix bayonets and fire a Lee Enfield .303 at the producers of such tripe!

This was followed by 'Rome!' A production with yet more actors found unfit for a run in 'Coronation St' or 'Eastenders!' Toga's abound, as did blood, overacting and sexy women, were there no fat ugly women in history then? And, as a passing thought, why is there never a drunk smashing the jukebox or being sick in the background, or fighting with the barman in such pubs? is the beer watered down perhaps? The reality conveyed by Rome, and by the fall of Pompeii, or indeed any other 'historical drama' is NOT history!

History requires an uncovering of facts. These facts are then interpreted and explained, usually argued over, as all historians are always right! But actors never give facts! Instead the viewer fails to see Henry VIII as he was, he has the image of an actor, using today's feeble acting techniques, and is left not with Henry but a famous actor! This nonsensical approach reached a new level when a stature of William Wallace, the Scots freedom fighter, was revealed and found to have the face of Mel Gibson the four foot six Australian bam who attempted to portray the six foot seven ginger haired hero in the film 'Braveheart.' He failed spectacularly! Actors and representation of folk from the past fail to give us history, they give us soap operas,and usually therefore concentrate on the bits the small minded wish to see, fights, arguments,and of course, lots of sex! The idea of allowing the real person to appear is smothered by the need to sell the programme, and what sells better than a naked breast or two?

Well that sells to me anyway!

As UKTV shows yet more episodes of 'Sharpe,' a lot of cobblers set in the Iberian war against Napoleon, I look to other channels for either entertainment or information. What do we find early in the day? news programmes that are as dumbed down as possible. BBC breakfast News is like it's ITV counterpart, more interested in the goings on in Britney Spears confused life than in thousands dying in Darfur. More attention is spent by Lorraine Kelly on a handbag than on the collapse of the economy. A child's eating habits, caused by a lazy mum more concerned with her so-called 'career,' is worth fifteen minutes debate, the threatened invasion of Iran by the dunce in the White House may get a passing reference in the news bulletin - unless a cricket player breaks a thumb of course! Sky, both News and Sports follows the same pattern, dumbed down news, repeated ad nauseum, short and simple as the audience cannot concentrate for more than a few seconds. Are they following the audience or pandering to them?

Now I understand why such programmes exist, but I do not want history reduced to a mere numb drama, I want proper news with real explanations and comment, I want Television for those who have a life as well as those who don't! yet all we are offered in the main, is Dumb TV.
I am told it is worse in the USA - woopee! That tells us how Reagan got elected then!

Will this situation improve? No! Ratings talks, money talks, adverts are aimed at the majority and the majority want 'pap!' Money comes from adverts so the independent channels, and Murdoch's Sky, will always follow money. The BBC with the 'public service' element has an opportunity to give quality, aimed at the smaller audience, and does this in Radio 3. But seems unwilling all to often to reach out .I suppose it is more important to be a secular liberal and ensure your face fits inside the Beeb, and also ratings make you famous.

Great! I'm depressed now, I think I need some dumbed down telly to cheer me up - there is plenty of choice......

Church Services on TV

What is it about televised church services? Why do they have to go to a large cathedral to portray Christianity? I am watching a service for Easter from Coventry cathedral. The cathedral is a vast open space built after the second world war to replace a building destroyed during the blitz. Those in charge decided to rebuild the church and offer forgiveness to the enemy. Since 1940 this church has worked worldwide to bring reconciliation between enemies. This is a work that needs to be congratulated.

However, the service involves the usual Anglican choir, loud organ, and leader led responses. All this leaves me cold. There is no spontaneity here. No reaction to Jesus the man, and what he has done. Indeed, what he is doing. The hearts may be right, the performance is wrong.

Yet this is what the public see. They do not see lives changed, just nice folks being nice. We need church services on TV which reflect the church as she is today, not an image that suits television producers expectations. We need to see one of the lively young churches which abound through the land. Certainly they have been featured on occasion, and 'Spring Harvest' has hosted 'Songs of Praise' on occasion, but far too often a church seen on television is old fashioned and worse, out of touch, or middle class.

Still, at least the secular liberals are forced to portray the church so many despise. The message that 'Christ died for our sins, and was raised for our justification.' is published and heard. Now of course, I must let him live in me and live it out. That way his message will be seen in a cold lonely world, full of need and desperate for the Love of God to reach them.