Today's show 28/10/11

Dear blog readers, good morning!

A request: Do any of you have full access to the RAJAR listening figures for Radio 2 that were released the other day? There was a lot of crowing on the BBC about how many listeners Chris Evans has gained, so the figures must be broken down on a show-by-show (or hour-by-hour) basis. My attempts at accessing the RAJAR web site tell me that a paid registration is needed to access the full breakdown.

Hopefully, today is the last day of Feltz with JV apparently returning on Monday. Well, that's what his web page says anyway. I'll admit that I have felt a certain amount of disconnection this week due to not writing directly to the programme host, but we all have our crosses to bear.

With the BBC in the news again today (see below), it is no surprise to see that the BBC's behaviour is not up for discussion today and instead the ever-suffering Radio 2 listeners will be subjected to these issues that affect them, apparently...

1) SUPERMARKETS - Is there anything wrong with supermarket apprenticeships? Firms are being criticised for rebranding existing jobs to please the government. Find out more from the Telegraph : "Firms are being criticised...". By who? The Telegraph article doesn't say. And I think I'm a bit old for an apprenticeship now, so this is of no interest to me. Next...

2) RICKETS - There has been an increase in the number of children suffering from rickets because parents who use too much sunscreen on them are causing vitamin D deficiencies. Find out more from Metro : Just out of curiousity I contacted The Metro's distribution department a few weeks ago to see where I could obtain a copy of this bastion of the Dead Tree Press. Their reply was: We currently distribute the Metro newspaper via rail stations and on buses across most of the UK, however at present we don’t cover North Wales. They then went on to list the nearest places that I could obtain a copy with a choice of Merseyside/Warrington or various places in South Wales. I am now feeling deprived and marginalise but, and to the best of my knowledge, I do not suffer from a Vitamin D deficiency, and we have no children. Next...

3) ST PAUL'S PROTESTS - Would the anti-capitalist protest camp outside St Paul's Cathedral have been the ideal birthplace for Jesus? : I use a tagging system on my blog and one of the tags is "Ridiculous question". On this occasion I feel that that tag does not do the question justice. However, I love the sentence on the linked BBC news page that says: Dr Fraser says he could not support any move by the church to use "violence". The church? Involved in violence? That wouldn't happen, would it? Except for the many, many times that it already has happened, of course. And I have never, ever asked myself "What would Jesus do?". Next...

4) STONE THEFT - We've heard of metal theft but it's now stone that's being seized by thieves. Find out more from the Telegraph : Why do I get the feeling that Feltz will not have any grasp on this story at all....? Watch out for a sudden rise in stone thefts this weekend. Thanks Vanessa!

These are the BBC stories that I referred to earlier:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14120960

At a glance: BBC's annual report 2011

This section was of particular interest to me:
The BBC received more complaints - 240,000 - than the previous year, an increase of 20,000, although the corporation says it is normal to see fluctuation from one year to another.
Some 257 complaints were escalated, 17 of which were upheld or partially upheld.

Good to know that those guys and gals at the BBC Complaints Department have the job so well under their control that they only had to escalate 0.1% of the complaints received. I wonder how long it took to deal with the 17 that were upheld? No more than a day, surely?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100113804/coming-to-the-bbc-an-everyday-story-of-bias-and-falling-standards/

Coming to the BBC, an everyday story of bias and falling standards

There are very few institutions – maybe only the monarchy, the Armed Forces and Parliament – that express what it means to be British more than the BBC. The state broadcaster enjoys a very privileged place indeed at the heart of our national conversation. But this, in turn, means that there is an implicit deal between it and the British people.
On the one hand, the BBC is funded by public money and given a semi-monopoly of broadcast news coverage. On the other, the BBC is by charter expected to reflect the British values of fair-mindedness, decency and tolerance.
Sadly, it is only very rarely that the BBC keeps its side of the bargain, and this negligence is starting to become a scandal. Rather than representing the nation as a whole, it has become a vital resource – and sometimes attack weapon – for a narrow, arrogant Left-Liberal elite.

I could not have put it better myself!

The Jeremy Vine Show - telling us what they want to tell us, not what we want to hear