And here’s a small geography lesson for you Londoners out there:

Plymouth is in Devon, not Dorset.

Unlike the guy who works down our chipshop, who swears he’s Elvis

God know’s why I said that.

Look my little ray of sunshine, it’s for kids, it teaches kids nice things. Even tolerating different opinions. Which isn’t something the tabloids do, is it?
Not tolerating bigots doesn’t necessarily make someone a bigot.
That’s like calling Billy Bragg a Nazi ‘cos he hates fascists.

And as for “Here in London we become increasingly segregated into racial, religious and social groups. The wider we open the door, the more divided we become.” I think that’s opened a door where we know what lies on the other side, don’t we.

Don’t play the London card – because in a city of 18 million, I can’t imagine you’ve got the sole viewpoint. I’m sure I can find someone else who will happily say they have some pretty nice neighbours who have come from oversees, pray with their arses in the air and have a funny accents. And before you ask, just ‘cos I’m from South Essex, worked in London through the 80s, and the 2000s, and spent my formative years visiting relatives in Stepney, don’t think I don’t know how you big city boys like to exaggerate.

I’m happy for you to have your different opinions chavscum. I just think you should just keep them in the black cab you drive.

(I had that Richard Littlejohn in the back of mine recently. I told him, in my best Derek and Clive voice “get out the cab”. You can imagine what he replied.)

I know what you mean. I went to my back garden last night, and couldn’t find Makka Pakka anywhere.

The lying socialist bastards.

I am afraid the Cbeebies modern socialist’s utopia just ain’t reality. Here in London we become increasingly segregated into racial, religious and social groups. The wider we open the door, the more divided we become.

I was using a comparison – in that Plymouth is not very mixed. In the same way, perhaps the Isles of Scilly aren’t much mixed. Or Canvey Island for that matter. I like the ginger one from Girl’s Aloud as it happens. I think she’s got more gumption than the others, particularly as she’s now said balls to the normal conventions and is happy with her skin colour.

So stop milking an insult out of a mere metaphor (or similie, I alwasys confuse the two) – otherwise you’re aptly proving the thread’s entire point (in that plonkers wil complain, because they’ll always find a way to complain because at heart, they are negative, bitter and twisted tits)

What the mix does is make people less fearful of difference. And thus less inclined to believe the raging bullshit which gets printed in publications like we’ve mentioned enough times.

So that’s one of the reasons I like Cbeebies – it’s kills bigots.

“Its strange, so-called liberals rarely send their children to multi-cultural schools. What are they scared of?” – hmm… in my case, bigoted fuckwits, but seeing as they come in any colour, whatever school they go to, I guess my kids will meet them.

The downside of this is that the counter-argument of elitism is deployed to regular and good effect to effectively counterbalance any monopolising tendency.

When the BBC tries to be overly-populist (such as during much daytime output – especially on BBC1, BBC2, Radio1, Radio2 and the website) it is rightly criticised as failing or over-extending.

Just as Newsnight can justify its continued existence in the schedule while garnering an audience of ‘only’ 1m viewers by responding that these are the right 1m, the BBC and the license fee can continue to be justified by maintaining a balance between the breadth and depth of service. The BBC nevertheless cannot depend soley on the license fee, just as it cannot depend on the fee continuing at the same level in perpetuity – it must diversify its income streams in order to offset the risks to its existence placed by sudden changes in political culture and prevent it from becoming a political football dependent on partisan patronage.

I did, however, travel to Eastbourne on the BBC expenses to interview the brother of a dead RMP. The second class train journey was a lot of fun and the scenery was lovely, thanks. I think it was a cheap day return ticket as well, and I brought my own sandwiches and flask.

So, you just missed out on that particulary Mail-justification thread, you great big tit.

And living in Plymouth, which is whiter than that ginger girl in Girls Aloud, I hope my kids learn that everyone’s the same, even if they don’t get to meet them all. So Cbeebies helps in that respect, although we do get back to the land of my fathers’ occasionally to get a healthier mix.

Do you want your kids to watch “all races and all ethnicities” on the telly to make up for them not having those experiences in real life?

No.

Well, rather, ditch the plonkers and all the rest of the me-too crap completely, cut the licence fee substantially, and shrink down to the quality (e.g. CBeebies, R4, R7) which other channels don’t provide.

Cbeebies rocks. I know when I make my kids their morning porridge, they’re distracted by decent educationally minded TV, not adverts for toys and junk I can’t afford.

That said, Night Garden is just plain spooky and has a strange effect on kids. I think it’s some sort of Orwellian conditioning tool.

Sorry, listening to Roger Daltry.

That’s all – having travelled the globe I’m particularly proud of the Beeb. Having worked there, I’m particularly proud of the Beeb. It also annoys the living shit out of me, so it’s not as if I’m blinded by the light.

But what really, really gets my goat is the constant sniping, dressed up as “honest concern for decency” by rival firms who drag our culture and heritage through any kind of swamp as and when it suits them.

For me, Cbeebies exemplifies the very very best of the BBC. A channel for kids. Not a channel to sell rubbish products to kids. It’s educational, traditional, battles against ignorance, inclusive of all races, all ethnicities, able bodied and disabled, and has a lovely cut off time so my kids know that when I say bed, so does Cbeebies.

Just for Cbeebies alone, it deserves a bit of leeway when two jokey plonkers make a right pigs ear of things.

I’m quite partial to Radio 7’s comedy as well. And I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue was good. Dad’s Army was where I draw the line though.

Or we can have Iain Dale on internet TV, 24 – the 12th series, Gladiators and no sight of the next Bill Hicks on telly ever again.

Meanwhile – I’m sure The Sun never saw this and never wanted any kind of revenge… http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=999OFGq7WwI

And bears take a toilet roll into the lavvie with them…

This never happened, why perpetuate myths?

Broadsheet and tabloid sales continue to fall and lose influence because they are more snoozepapers than newspapers.

This non-story only goes to highlight how fleet street is no longer setting the agenda and should no longer be pandered to by politicians – the younger generation has passed judgement by giving an overwhelming shrug while the older generation has shown itself incapable of judgement by failing to root out the problem at the heart of the matter.

What is hilarious is that it reaffirms that content is king, or (and this is more to the point) that the vacuum in the heads of opinion formers (performers, journalists, critics, editors and politicians) is the cause of our discontent.

(Assume you mean the BBC here?!)

*sniggers*

“Um, isn’t this obsession with the Daily Mail a case of blaming the messenger? ”

Ahahahaha, bloody priceless.

The Daily Mail and other crap rags were quite happy to blame the BBC when it’s message was “ooh Tory MP caught wth pants down/snout in trough” claiming it was the left-wing conspiracy.
Then the Labour MPs were quite happy to blame the BBC when it caught them diddling the reasons for war.

It appears that blaming the messenger for the likes of the Mail and the Sun is the only thing you can do – WHEN THE BBC IS THE TARGET.

This is not about the two vulgar “talents”, or Sach, or the TittyGirl, or the licence fee. This is about cold hard business “crush the opposition by any means necessary” dressed up for the likes of Chavscum to believe it’s entirely about the morality of the nation and an intellectual discussion about where our annual subscription to the BBC.

It’s a magic trick for the gormless – look, look at the naughty corporation – look over here – but look AWAY from what we’re doing so you miss our own appalling behaviour (like not paying corporate taxes, criminalising the entire young of the country, having openly racist and made up negative stories about ‘lesser’ races or segments of society). You want to fall for it, fine. Don’t let me stop you. But like the legendary git wizard David Blaine – if I want to throw eggs at the faking tit, then I and others will because we’re not fooled by the smoke and mirrors act being put in front of us.

Abracadabra – and here’s Gladiators again for you to drool in front of.

So what if they don’t get the message right – it makes them an unreliable messenger, but it doesn’t change the story.