Monday Moan 53



 

Playground spat ……

Ever watched children arguing in the playground by calling each other silly names designed to be insulting and to make their watching friends giggle?  If you want to return to your younger days and experience this kind of thing again then the best way to do it is to watch the UK House of Commons in action.

 

Last week we had the weekly slanging match that is Prime Minister’s Questions, during which the leader of this nation decided against taking the moral high ground by venturing down the road of insults, likening his opponent to Bert, a character from The Muppets.

 

It was pathetic, but it left me with an uneasy feeling that Ed Balls, that most unimpressive and unlovable of politicians, would be unable to resist lowering the tone still further. Sure enough, hectoring Ed decided that the mature way to put over his argument was to compare the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to Bungle and Zippy – apparently characters from the children’s tv series Rainbow.

 

I’d like to think that the nation felt insulted by this childish behaviour, but I’m afraid that the number who felt like that was probably matched by those who thought this was the height of great political debate – and an even greater number were simply unaware or didn’t care.

 

 

Got a question?  Want to hear a debate?  Don’t bother watching this then

Having fallen asleep during the BBC News last Thursday, I woke to find that Question Time was on my screen again.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

 

Here we had the combined intellectual forces of David Willetts, University and Science Minister, Liz Kendall, Shadow Health Secretary, Simon Highes, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems, Jill Kirby, ex-leader of the Centre for Policy Studies, and Mark Steel, comedian.

 

Unfortunately, the assembled panellists decided to adopt the same approach as just about every other set of panellists I have seen in recent years – no listening to what others had to say, no debate, just regurgitation of entrenched views, talking (often shouting) over the other panellists, and all delivered in a self-righteous way.  The ‘comedian’ (or equivalent) is often the worst, particularly if they bring with them (as in this case) very obvious political views. 

 

And then we have the audience.  Now, we all know that the audience comprises people with political allegiances – that’s how the tickets are distributed, and the BBC says it aims to get an audience representing all political views. Unfortunately, the result if often that the members of the audience who are called upon to speak do so with even more venom and bile than those on the panel.

 

Unedifying and dispiriting.  Wish I’d stayed asleep.

 

 

Revenge is sweet ……………

So, Kevin Rudd, ex-Australian Prime Minister, elbowed aside by Julia Gillard in 2010, got his revenge last week and was re-elected as leader of the Labour Party and, therefore, became Prime Minister again.  Julia Gillard said she would quit politics.

 

Australian men have a reputation for sporting prowess and a generally macho approach to life.

 

And then there is Kevin. 

 

 

 

Glastonbury – kick off the slippers

OK, I’m getting on and I have to accept that I no longer recognise most of the names of the acts who appeared at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.  That’s just the way life goes, and I feel no shame in it at all.

 

But I am confused.  Sir Bruce Forsyth at Glastonbury?  Made the Rolling Stones seem like young kids – joking, of course.  Average age of 69, apparently.  Best act ever at Glastonbury, apparently.  That must make all the headliners from the previous festivals feel great.

 

Best of all was the brief piece on the BBC News interviewing people who had queued the longest to see the Rolling Stones and were happily waiting at the front for most of the day.  They ranged from youngsters whose grandparents probably remember buying Rolling Stones records in the 1960s, to the grandparents themselves – as shown in the picture. 

 

Couldn’t help wondering how they were going to cope with having to stay in their front row position for all of those hours though.  It’s a long way to the toilets, for example.

Monday Moan 14

Special Paralympic Edition

 

 

Paralympics – is it News?

Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics has drawn even more complaints than did the BBC’s of the main Olympics.  Of course, it’s easy to pick on small things and perhaps blow them out of proportion, but as I have said previously, it’s attention to detail that matters!

So, we start with their ponderous coverage of the Opening Ceremony.  Like the BBC, Channel 4 decided that this should be fronted by a newsman rather than a sports journalist.  I can understand that.  But was Jon Snow really the best choice available?  Presumably because he didn’t know much about sport he decided that he would introduce each of the participating nations by referring to whether or not they were in the process of a civil war or had suffered similar problems in recent years.  Interesting in almost any other context, but not for the Paralympics, surely?

I saw Jon Snow on the Breakfast show on Channel 4 the morning after the Opening Ceremony.  He talked about how he had been affected by the build-up to the Games.  He said he was a hardened hack, a cynic, a sceptic, who usually demanded “bring me the bad news”.  But he said that “this period has seen the media behave in a completely un-media way, so the question is will we behave better, will we behave cleaner, will we behave and perhaps reflect the goodness of humanity a little more?”  

Er, no, I don’t think so.

  

Paralympics – got something to sell?

Those of us used to watching our sport on the BBC (OK, not so much of it these days, now that Sky has bought the rights to just about everything) had been grateful that their Olympic coverage was uninterrupted by the commercial breaks that are a fact of life on every other channel.

No such luck with the Paralympics, unfortunately. It’s not that they take their breaks at particularly unfortunate times, although that has happened on occasions, including during the Opening Ceremony, but it’s also that cutting away to adverts destroys the continuity and the atmosphere.

  

Paralympics – things that Channel 4 should not have copied from the BBC

OK, asking Clare Balding to front the main evening programme after her starring role for the BBC was a smart move.  Sitting her alongside Ade Adepitan was more questionable from a number of angles – they do not have the same rapport as Clare had with Mark Foster during the BBC’s coverage, and where they were seen to be facing each other and having a conversation, she and Ade are facing the camera and one of them, at least, is reading a script.

I am not vain enough to imagine that my criticisms of aspects of the BBC’s coverage would have been noticed by anybody, but I was not alone in many of my views.  It’s a shame, therefore, that Channel 4 appears to have been copying the BBC’s approach, presumably because it is so lacking in experience of covering such events and so thought it best to follow the leader.  For example;-

I criticised the BBC in MOAN 10 for its insistence on screening pre-recorded pieces to introduce events and getting the timing wrong so that we missed some of the important build up.  Unfortunately, Channel 4 has been doing exactly the same thing.  Channel 4 has also failed to prefect the art of subtefuge.  Trying to cover up the fact that it has not got to the live action in time following its pre-recorded pieces, it has been editing the stadium introductions to the athletes before races to pretend that they are live.  Unfortunately, Channel 4 has failed to realise that live crowds make noise and get animated, so cutting from pictures and sounds of a frenzied reception for an athlete to the actual live shots right at the start of the race doesn’t fool anybody, since the crowd by that time is quiet and still;

I criticised the BBC for constantly plugging its own shows (MOAN 10) – unfortunately Channel 4 is doing the same thing.  As a result I am taking a principled stand and will be refusing to watch ‘Shameless’ or use Channel 4 OD, since both have been so heavily plugged; and

I criticised the BBC for its post-race interviewing techniques (MOAN 10 and MOAN 11) – whilst, mercifully, Channel 4 has not so far come up with anybody like Phil Jones, the questions being fired at competitors at the end of each race or event are so banal and pointless they almost make me wish for the adverts to cut in!

 

 

Paralympics - Don’t forget us

The BBC has been in a difficult position, given that it is not actually broadcasting the Paralympics.  So we have seen that on most days the BBC News has taken the Paralympics as the main news item – partly because until now our politicians have been on holiday and so we don’t have to be subjected to their often meaningless statements (all about to change now that they are drifting back to work).

But in the spirit of fun that the Paralympics has generated, the BBC provided a highlight on Sunday’s main news programme by relegating Australia from the top 3 of the medal table and installing Afghanistan instead.  Those who hadn’t been following the medal table may have wondered how such a war-torn and desperately poor country had managed to find such excellence in its Paralympians – but the truth was that they hadn’t, of course.  It was nice while it lasted though. There is a part of me that just can’t help wondering if it was a wind-up designed to rub salt into Australian wounds?

  

 



Cheering on GB?

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the athletics on Saturday night.  It was an unforgettable occasion and all that has been said about the enthusiasm and friendliness of the crowds was true as far as I could see. 

Of course, it was disappointing that there were no GB victories to celebrate on Saturday.  No chance to bellow out the national anthem.  But that didn’t stop the mass waving of Union Jacks, even if it did seem somehow strange that the loudest roars and the wildest flag-waving were for victories by two Irishmen and a South African.  I’m sure the same would have happened in reverse had the games been held in Dublin or Cape Town.  Maybe the crowd were confused by the Irish colours being worn by men from Belfast and Derry?