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The text shown after 1), 2), 3) and 4) is copied exactly from the BBC's daily JV Show web page and I acknowledge their copyright of this text.
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Friday 9 March 2012

Today's show 09/03/12


I owe you an apology Jeremy. For years I have been saying that your programme does not change anything, but yesterday I think it did, and I thank valued blog reader Stonyground for bringing this to my attention. You DID try to make a difference yesterday when you highlighted the case of the terminally-ill father looking for his son, and your tweet yesterday (Regarding Jason Protano on today's show @BBCRadio2, he has made contact with his dying father and has asked for privacy now for them all) confirms that you were successful. Well done!

I apologise sincerely for my oversight and congratulate you on a successful outcome to this particular story. I hope that it gives you great satisfaction, and rightly so. Please do not let this be a one-off occurrence.

As a result of this story, my blog had a lot of hits yesterday and a number of comments were left. A number of these were of the "Get a life" and "Haven't you got anything better to do?" type, but I publish these anyway and attempt to answer the commenter as best I can. I did delete one comment yesterday but only because it contained offensive language. I hope that these comments do not reflect the type of listener that your show attracts, but I find it interesting that not one person has ever taken me to task for my ramblings and said "No, you are wrong, the Jeremy Vine Show is great because...". I would love that to happen and would happily make the necessary arrangements for any subsequent discussion and reasoned argument to take place, provided it does not just descend in to a personalised exchange of insults.

And on today's menu...
 
1) HOSTAGES - Two engineers taken hostage in Nigeria die as a rescue attempt led by the British military fails. We look at the special forces operation and the risks contractors face when they work in certain parts of the world : This is a real shame, and my sympathy goes to the families and friends of the two engineers. I also have some sympathy for those who had to take the "should we/shouldn't we" decision over the rescue operation. It cannot have been easy, and the consequences of their decision must be weighing heavily today. I am reminded of Operation Eagle Claw back in 1980 when President Carter authorised an attempt to rescue 50-odd Amercan hostages from the US Embassy in Tehran, and which resulted in the deaths of several US servicemen. Again, not an easy decision to take, and even harder when it goes horribly wrong, although the hostages were released eventually. A good friend of mine is a marine security officer whose job it is to protect ships from attack by Somalian pirates. He doesn't talk about it much but he has told me that he fully understands the risks involved and realises that he could be kidnapped - or worse - during an attack. I admire what he does and the way he handles the threats, but I think I'll stay in North Wales. Next...

2) STEALING - A woman steals more than two thousand pounds from the charity shop where she was a volunteer. Find out more in this article from the Warrington Guardian : Convicted by her own stupidity. Good. Next...

3) SACKING - A special on how a sacking should be carried out? Was yours a textbook operation or did it make a bad situation even worse? : I've never been sacked. Next...
 
4) TERRY - And we catch up with Terry Walton on the programme allotment : You asked on Ken's show, "Does he really need a barrel full of soil to grow potatoes?". Yes Jeremy, he does. My wife is the gardener in this household and she does exactly this.
 
Have a great weekend!

11 comments:

Emma said...

I think we're sharing the honours being obliterated for any excuse the BBC Eds can dream up over at the 'The Editors' Facebook thread. That's just human pettiness at play. What worries me more is what is happening, I suspect by {whispers] robot, here and over at BBBC, with blogging posts not registering and vanishing.

Stonyground said...

We grow spuds in polypropylene bags, this keeps them free of pests. We also grow some in the ground and use a purple variety that is very resistent to slugs.

Peter, could you please clarify? I am genuinely interested but have no clue what you are on about.

Anonymous said...

Stonyground - Sorry, I was mainly addressing LTL as author.

I am presuming he is JVineBlogMan whose 20. & 22. are removed here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/03/bbc_news_facebook_app.html

Also I believe he chips in on BiasedBBC with the ongoing story about his essentially effective banning by the BBC from commenting or offering feedback.

That site has registered problems with its commenting facility, and I cannot now even see comments let alone add any of my own any more.

That seems an unfortunate technical glitch.

My greater concern is the BBC basically acting in pure censorship using, at best, total free rein to interpret their own, loose rules to ban any who merely have other views to them.

ps: Just tried once to post this under my Blogger account and it crashed out.

Radio2LunchtimeLoather said...

I can confirm that I am JVineBlogMan in both instances.

I've not noticed any problem with leaving comments at BBBC, but with the current arrangements it can take a while to find them again to see if any feedback has been left.

I share your concerns re. censorship.

Stonyground said...

Thanks for the explanation, it all makes sense now.

Will said...

Ive had problems posting on here as well but its the browser refreshing the page and content disappearing and nothing suspicious.Its blogs like this to make more notice than complaints to BBC.

Theres plenty of 13 yr olds posting on T'Internet as well like Anon and you can tell from the posting style as shown on here(Just sling insults and cant post up fluid agruments)

Just tried sending this text and the site didnt refresh properly and lost the text but what I do is copy it before I send and then reload the page and paste it in so I dnt loose anything.

Anonymous said...

3 Browsers and approx 10 times to get last message posted.It seems more problematic since blogspot updated their software.Wouldnt post in either Opera Mini or Mobile but posted in Dolphin Mini on the 4th attempt so def software related.

Radio2LunchtimeLoather said...

Will... You're "I've had problems posting..." comment appeared here three times, once as "Will" and twice as "Anonymous" (which I've deleted).

I've not had any problems posting here, and my wife does from time to time too without the issues that you are experiencing. I use WinXP, she uses WinVista and we both use Chrome. One thing she has said is that it is easier if you do not login in to Blogspot.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I'll do my best!

Anonymous said...

It would be good if BBBC can resolve its issues.

I have my own fun & games with the BBC 'system' (witness that link I gave above. I keep posting and they keep modding out, citing House Rules that do not apply, so they are just being daft) and the experiences of others can help a lot in finding one is not alone and also actual chinks in their armour to exploit.

I have very much valued those adventures posted by LTL and another - Jeff Waters - there. As I have shared my own.

Sadly, for now, all is invisible to me. Plus no more posting of course.

I will try and clear any cookies that may be defaulting to the Blogger system, as it does seem to want to do that, but it seems odd that one cannot even see the comments.

Maybe I need to pop out to a WiFi cafe to get another ISP addy!

Anyway, for now, copying first, fingers crossed, I hit.. 'publish'...

Will said...

I view and write on this Blog 99% of the time from an Android smartphone.Opera Mobile hasnt worked for a while on this blog so used Opera Mini and then when that didnt work used Dolhin Mini.I never log in but the problems seem to be since Blogspot updated the software as now shows up different(Comments are now shown on the same page as the blog instead of a diffferent one like they use to be) which is around 2 weeks now.

When I have posted on a PC never had a problem but havent posted on PC in last 2 weeks(Win 7 32bit,Chrome).

Since the software update it goes through about 4 refreshes before publishing(Text,Name,Security words and then publish) and for each one it reloads the page and loses text.On the old one,it just use to refresh once.

Hazarding a guess,I'd say its probaly something to do with Java as thats what is stopping Opera Mobile from working I think.

I dont think anyone at the BBC has the expertise or ability to delete posts off this blog as like most companies there IT will mainly be outsourced as Im sure the BBC web site design is.

Anonymous said...

Blimey... never suggesting the BBC deletes posts off other blogs! Just a pity the tech on them (tx for IT explanations as to why, possibly) seems to have gone backwards at this time. Blogger seems to have really messed stuff up. However, I can easily testify that the BBC mods have, on some threads (I suspect overseen by very sensitive editors with a singular view of holding power to account) totally abused their position and obligation to free speech even under their already bonkers 'House Rules'.

At least I can read and comment on this one. Others are pretty much behind a wall.