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Slightly Foxed (Triumph Herald Pursuivant)

Listed below are comments made by Slightly Foxed (Triumph Herald Pursuivant) between Tuesday, 17th June 2008 and Tuesday, 4th August 2009.

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Blogs and boards: getting the balance right 10:40am on 04 Aug 2009 My vote would be for fewer blogs and more message boards. Message boards foster the true spirit of a BBC community in a way that blogs never can, because in a blog the transaction is mainly between the blogger and those commenting, whereas the message board allows the BBCs fans to interact between themselves as well as dialoguing on the BBC and its aims, providing an enhanced experience.

I appreciate there is an issue of cost, but look at the broader picture of the relatively small cost of the whole online presence of the BBC compared to the massive sums that are spent on retaining the services of "celebrities" by the BBC to "entertain us".
On the Ropes - Andy Kershaw 5:06pm on 28 Apr 2009 Mr Damazer

Please answer
On the Ropes - Andy Kershaw 10:12am on 28 Apr 2009 It's very sad, the way the BBC is treating Andy Kershaw. Whatever the rights and wrongs of his current situation, he has brought you a lot of listeners in the past and he deserves a bit of help and support at a difficult time to get his career back on track and give him something else to focus on. Surely some way could have been found to allow him to have his say without compromising any legal position?

I can only compare and contrast the way he has been discarded with the BBC's perpetual indulgence of the likes of Jonathan Ross, Chris Moyles et al, whose broadcasting talents are minimal compared to Kershaw's.
About Stephanie Flanders 4:45pm on 19 Feb 2009 Re: "I'm a Gnu"

Oh go on. You KNOW you really want to!
BBC and the Gaza appeal 1:18pm on 25 Jan 2009 I would like to know exactly what the mechanism was whereby the Israeli government managed to nobble the BBC.

This is pure speculation, on my part, but it is the only explanation that seems to make sense. And, as Sherlock Holmes says, when you have dismissed the impossible, then whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth. Or something.

Clearly the pressure can't have come from the government, for once, because the government have been telling the BBC to broadcast the appeal which we are not allowed to name.

The only other thing I can think of that would explain the situation would be if the IFD - or Mossad - made it clear to the BBC in some way that if the appeal went ahead, their journalists would no longer enjoy non-combatant status in battle situations in and around Gaza, the West Bank, etc.

Given how generally trigger-happy and careless of the lives of innocent civilians and aid workers the IDF have proved to be in the past, and given that the usual patters is IDF shoots someone they shouldn't have, automatically claims that it was an error and /or Hamas were using them as a shield, then the whole thing gets swept under the carpet, it would seem quite a realistic and credible threat - certainly if I were the BBC, I would take such a threat seriously.

So, can anyone think of any other circumstances that might make the BBC behave in such an out of character way? And was such a threat made, or received?

If this post never appears, or disappears for being "off topic" I think that gives us our answer.
Open and shut case? 6:10pm on 29 Oct 2008 Well, if you think it's just the usual critics of the BBC and the Daily Mail Blue Rinse brigade getting the bag on over this, here's what I posted on another BBC message board earlier today:

"The fact is that this is about whether the BBC is bigger than the sum of its parts. Actually, if you are talking about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, the word you need is probably an /anagram/ of "parts" but you get my drift.

Both these people, who have risen from obscurity with no discernible talent that I can see, especially Brand, who is completely vacuous, have got to the stage where they think they are bomb-proof and can do what they like, and I am now looking to the BBC to prove that it is bigger than they are, and get shot of them. I want a signal that the BBC is /not/ obsessed with "yoof" and dumbing down to the extent of all else. With the likes of Chris Moyles and some of the more "edgy" (a word which never fails to send me scurrying for the off switch) "talent" on Radio 4 as well, I think we've already gone /too/ /far/ down that road and a re-balance needs to take place.

The essence of all humour is in timing and context, god knows I have made some pretty puerile comments in my time, but the point is that these two have been a) arrogant and displayed contempt and lack of judgement and b) petulant and less than forthcoming when actually caught out and brought to book.

Also, I see a difference (maybe it's just me) between doing a prank call which has actually had some thought put into it, aimed at a publicly available target, the sort of thing Dead Ringers used to do when they rang up the AA and said the Tardis had broken down and stuff like that, and ringing someone's home phone and leaving a series of stupid messages of varying degrees of obscenity on it. I mean, where's the /wit/ in that. It's the aural equivalent of mooning.

I've often defended the Beeb publicly against people who question the value of the licence fee and I think you have to look at the BBC's output as a whole with all its diversity and variety, but that doesn't mean I don't have my own views about where that money is best deployed.

As I have said many times before, put all the stuff that's normally on BBC4 and BBC3 onto BBC 1 and 2 and to make room for it bump all the dross off BBC1 onto minority digital channels for people who actually like snooker, synchronised swimming, horse jumping and reality TV.

Sack overpaid artists who think they have carte blanche to do what they like and put the savings into improving these message boards and or bidding for some more popular sporting events such as Test Cricket and England football internationals... Bring on some new talent, there's loads of it out there.

If the BBC "lose" Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand personally I don't see it as any great loss, and in the real world they will probably pop up on Channel 4 which is their natural home anyway alongside sex change freak big brother embarrassing diseases swap.

The sad thing about this imbroglio is that these two loons have now handed the likes of Sky and other people who would very much like to see the BBC and its uniquely funded place in public broadcasting fall into their lap, a stick with which to beat the BBC.

I don't necessarily blame the producers, because it must be very difficult to face up to a towering ego of the likes of Ross or Brand and say "sorry, this is just not good enough" but the suits at the Beeb should have squished this much more quickly than they did, sack cloth and ashes and if R & B wouldn't agree to that, then back to Beijing for the high jump with Sue Barker, I'm afraid."

So there. And yes if "salary envy" means that I think they are massively overpaid for what they do, I do think that. A spell in the real world wouldn't hurt them.
A letter to the chancellor 11:08am on 17 Jun 2008 Dear Gordon – sorry – Alastair! (force of habit)

As requested, I am writing to you to let you know the reasons why the economy has all gone a bit Pete Tong lately. Although of course, you are the chief of a major Government department full of pointyheads and forecasters who probably know more about it than we do, frankly, and if you get stuck, then I am sure Gordon won’t need much urging to pop back from next door and micro manage you through it.

Well, it all started with a load of guys in the US selling mortgages. Nothing wrong with that, except that their customer base consisted of old guys sitting in cabin porches playing banjos, whose only collateral was a houn’ dawg (whatever one of those is) and a pickup truck.

So, it all got a bit scary for a while, especially when they tried to sell those debts on to the Northern Rock, as you know. We all fully supported you in your steely determination to ensure that the government didn’t bale out lame ducks (well, until people started jumping off windowledges in key marginals, anyway)

Then there’s the oil. Somehow, despite our brave lads going over there and helping George Bush to invade one of the most oil rich nations in the world, we’re paying £1.30 odd a litre for diesel while Americans are driving round at 55 cents a gallon and consuming the stuff like there’s no tomorrow. Which there isn’t. And that’s before Sheikh Mahboob and Sheikh Rattel-el-Roll got in on the act.

So nowadays, Northern Rock are selling mortgages just to people who want to fill up their car, let alone buy a house. Mind you, it’s an ill wind that has no silver lining, at least you are raking it in on tax and duty, AND you get to dress up the shortage as a green measure.

Fortunately, your government had the vision and foresight to press ahead and invest to give people a truly integrated world-class green transport system with lots of alternative ways to get to work that don’t use up expensive dwindling fossil fuels. Er, you did do that, didn’t you? Oh. I see. Well, yes, the Olympics are important, and swimming certainly will be vital in the future, especially if global warming carries on the way it is. And yes, I admit that the tax take from the present arrangement is certainly coming in useful what with wars to fight and ID cards to print…

Finally, I gather I have also got to tell you in this letter how long I think it’s all going to go on like this. As you know, I couldn’t really give a stuff because as I have said before, unemployment in the North of England is a perfectlay acceptable remedy as long as we can still have honey for tea in Surbiton. Which is just as well, because I haven’t got a scooby how long all this is going to last. How long does it take to weave a handbasket anyway? Should we put interest rates up, or down? Anyone got a coin? Oh… er

Yours ever,

Mervyn

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