What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Clive James
Adrian and Christine were joined in the studio by Clive James.
In the news today: At the World Masters Games, Ruth Frith, 100, has won a gold medal with her winning shot put throw of 4.07m! So...
Anita Rani investigated whether it might be best to take babies from 'broken' families into care. Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, who called for more children as babies to be taken into foster care, joined the debate in the studio.
A new survey suggests that the British have the lowest quality of life despite enjoying the highest level of household income in Europe. Christopher Biggins took to the streets of Britain to ask if money doesn't hold the key to our happiness, then what does?
This week sees Marty Jopson examine each of the five senses. Tonight, it kicked off with touch and pain, and Marty travelled to Leeds Metropolitan University to discover why some people have a higher pain threshold than others.
And Miranda Krestovnikoff witnessed the release of one hundred sand lizards in Dorset.
Also: Watch Tuffers' latest Strictly Performance.
And Zippy and George get grilled.
What did you think of The One Show? Leave us a comment.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~38~RS~)
Comments
is there any chance you can have THE SOLDIERS on you program to sing their new single and to talk about the work they are doing please
yours sincearly
darryl orr
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Evil Social Workers on Google gives 22,500,000 hits.
"evil social workers" gives 5,840.
Your guest claimed 140,000,000 for it.
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The Banardo's spokesman said 30 years ago there were 4,500 of adoptions and now there are only a 120? He then asked 'what has changed in that time' and nobody picked him up on that?
What does he mean, and did he get the figure wrong? Did he really mean 120,000? He was trying to make a point and it seemed utterly lost as Adrian seemed to want to get to the next item too quickly.
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Regarding adoption the difference now is that in the past, mothers willingly gave up their children for adoption because they wanted a better life for them. Now some mothers profess to love their children but then don't care for them .
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Clive has another side opposed to the popular one which, so far, you understandably reflect upon. I enjoyed many of his programmes in the past but unquestionably, respect him as a poet first and foremost. By the way, happy birthday to both of us, 7/10!
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Thanks for that . . . would have been nice if the chap had been given the time to expand a little!
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Re Adoption - there is a quite obvious reason for the decline of adoption in this country - politically correct regulations for potential adoptive parents. There are reams of reports of couples who have been denied adopting children for spurious reasons. I'll bet a look at the adoption of foreign children into the UK has gone through the roof to compensate.
Re Happiness - there is nothing wrong with money for most people. As is so often misquoted the Bible says that 'the love of money is the root of all evil.' There are six times as many savers as debtors so there is a hardcore of the nation living way way beyond their means but most of the country are sensible. There is the usual inverted snobbery toward anyone who works hard, pays taxes (that pay for state schools) and spends their money sending a child to one of the nations best public schools. You'll get hung, drawn and quartered by the BBC for that despite the large number of BBC on screen talent who went to public school.
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Clive James is a genius! Does he, however, remember his fabulous acting in Paris in the epic 'Barry MacKenzie Holds His Own' made in the 1970's. I laughed so much that I choked on my popcorn at a midnight showing in the late 70's.
Good on yer mate!
Joth Gambold
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Learn more about Save the Family at: www.savethefamily.uk.com
Save the Family is a unique charity in keeping homeless families together, equipping them with an example of stable family life to resettle in the community, able to cope and not become homelsss again. Please visit our website to see our work in action, a tour of our family centre, and how you can help us - we are desperate to expand to give more homes to homeless families and save families.
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I hope you didn't mind me sending you this e-mail. I wanted to comment, but thte window wouldn't open on my pc, PC playing up as usuel. I always watch your show which is great, and just wanted to post the following comment.
I was listening about people in care and social workers when you mentioned mother and baby units. I just wanted to say that I respect the work that social workers do, but was let down very badley by a mother and baby unit in Coventry. I had mild boarder line learning difficulties, but this wasn't catered for at this perticular mother and baby unit and I witnessed some things going on behind closed doors which should be made public; including a pregnant woman who wasn't allowed a chair to sit on whilst waiting for the midwife. I just wanted to bring to your attention this mother and baby unit, and I feel they need further investigation.
Many thanks and take care.
Aura Todd
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Could someone remind Clive that this show is not about listening to him talking for half an hour. This is the One Show, what he wants is the No Show.
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Can anyone tell me where Christina's top is from?
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Your Dr. Barnados spokesman's ideas about 'broken homes' and adoptions is fundamentally flawed.
Who decides that a home is 'broken' and how 'broken' it is?
What is the criteria?
Even if you could find acceptable criteria how flexible are they?
What happens when the situation is a small difference either way?
What do you do about mistakes, e.g. the parents who have been accused and/or convicted of causing cot deaths in the past only to be exonerated after the 'expert evidence' was shown to be flawed?
They cannot get their children back as they have been adopted.
These are just some of the problems to be faced by such a proposal.
Stuart Wells.
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Re: Clive James; Populist tv is fine in it's intentions but c'mon! the guy is a serious literary figure who has given us quality in the written media and I'm sure would rather be remembered as a man of letters (forgive the quaintness) who brings to the world more than chewing gum tele.
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I know a lot about the charity that featured this evening - Save the Family. This is a remarkable organisation that works holistically with the whole family to break the cycle of kids being taken into care. As a social worker, it is heartbreaking that there is a dreadful 'either / or' choice made by the state as to who can cope or not. What if the parents were abused in the Care system when they were kids? What example have they had? Simple, none.
Save the Family works with the whole family - the successes are remarkable. Go and visit! Their centre is near Chester and you will see the answer to taking kids into care - break the cycle of exclusion and work with the whole family by giving an example of how to be a good family!
I am fundraising for their pioneering work - please support them at their website: www.savethefamily.uk.com.
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An item about children who torture and kill. The social workers give the lame excuse that they come from a broken home.
What a lot of rot!.
I work in a boys school with boys who come from single parent families or their parents argue and fight all the time and even two of the boys who have been abused, (beaten and verbally abused).
After talking with them, (they need someone to confide in that they can trust), they agree that they would take an active part in helping other children in a similar position and would NOT do any harm to other children.
I'm fed up with 'child psychologists' who defend kids who are violent by saying that it's because the are from a broken home.
Children NEED people that they can trust. I'm a simple ICT technician and the boys who confide in me do so because i help to protect them from bullies at school. They come and talk to me to escape the bullies and because they trust me.
I certainly wouldn't trust the social workers, especially with the bad press they get.
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Southern-Baggy, I think it was from the second drawer down on the left, just next to her pop socks!
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I worked for Barnardos some time ago-they seem very much a "bandwagon" company-if the general trend is for residential homes they will run them, community care-no problem lets set up community projects like the Dr Bs kitchens-rescue children from inadequate homes-no problem we will vet lots of adoptive parents-NB this is the company that "rescued" lots of children in the 1960s and sent them to Australia-missed much of tonights show BBC 2 repeating Coal House series about Welsh families in wartime-excellent!!
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SHOULD CHILDREN BE TAKEN INTO CARE AS A MATTER OF POLICY
I extend an enormous 'thank you' to Clive Anderson for being the voice of reason and a champion of vulnerable children; as history and recent events bear testimony – the authorities and the state are not best placed to look after the interests of vulnerable children.
I’m 47 (today) and was a child of the sixties. My mother divorced my father when I was young and I was effectively brought up in a non-working single parent family, in abject poverty in deprived inner-city Liverpool. But despite all those years of poverty and doing without, I idolised my mother as she loved me unconditional and did her very best for me throughout her lifetime.
The only unhappy memories of my childhood arise from when, at the age of five, I was put into the care of catholic nuns at Olive Mount Convent in Liverpool (in the shadow of then Lancashire Police’s Mather Avenue HQ) whilst my mother underwent treatment and subsequent convalescence for cancer. Whilst in the care of the nuns at the children’s home, I was repeatedly and systematically physically, mentally and sexually abused by the nuns who were the very people who were meant to look after me and who are the very people who are venerated as the epitome of care and kindness.
Daily the nuns kept me in isolation, tore apart my few comforter toys, beat me and screamed at me and sexually abused me by repeatedly ramming a broom handle up my rectum, making it bleed and painful and by scrubbing my penis with scouring pads, tearing the skin and making it bleed and telling me that as I was the child of a single mother I was the ‘fruit of eternal sin and damnation’ (even though she had been married to my father) – I was just five years old. They never let me see the letters and postcards my mother sent to me and would not permit her to speak to me via telephone. The only kindness I was shown whilst in the care of these evil women was from a local priest who occasionally visited.
When my mother recovered, she complained to the Catholic diocese in Liverpool about the abuse I was subjected to. They were totally dismissive and told her she should be grateful that they looked after me. She had me taken out of the Catholic school I was in straight away and transferred me to a protestant school in St.Helens where we both rebuilt our life.
My life however has been haunted by those terrible events at Olive Mount. I am still rectally incontinent and suffer urinary incontinence and impotence. I have also suffered depression since that time and have great problems in establishing friendships. I am lucky to have a very understanding and supportive partner and we have a lovely 12 year old daughter, for whom I would do my utmost to protect from such evil and uncaring people.
Barnardos is a reputable organisation and I am sure they are sincere in their beliefs but there really do need to be some safety issues taken care of before children are entrusted to the ‘authorities’ The Catholic Church in particular has a terrible track record of abuse if those in its care. All too often we have recently seen how council care homes have failed children in their care and how the children’s units of council social services have failed to intervene in child safety issues. Who then are the government or local authorities to set the ‘gold standard’ in parenting?
Yours sincerely,
JMR
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
If you want:
1. an alternative to these poor kids in Care - which doesn't work
2. an alternative to families failing in the community
3. a future for families in this country who need support and an example when they have never had it.
Then the answer is the charity 'Save the Family'
My wife and I, and our children all support Save the Family and are so proud that their main base is near Chester, our home. By supporting them we give homeless families a home where the children are safe, stable and the remarkable thing is that they employ some of the mums and dads to work with the families - people who have been there and been homeless and in crisis.
STF's main centre, Plas Bellin Hall is a remarkable 'village' for homeless families and they want to build another one - we are helping them and you should to - visit their website at www.savethefamily.uk.com and give a donation today.
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# 20
How does 215 millions equate to 215,000 per child, based on 100,000 children?
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Re: Childcatchers nonsense; I've tried, struggled even, to keep it light. But for non-existent gods sake, anecdotal self-indulgent oracles must surely seek a more appropriate forum. If genuine, you have my empathy but not my patience.
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#14 corvidude
Given that Clive James has been on the One Show a couple of times before, I am assuming he knows it's bubble gum TV. He is there for his own financial benefit i.e. plugging his book.
A serious literary figure? Having read his first few books, I beg to disagree. Good raconteur, though.
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21-that sounds like a very good scheme-however local councils are quite happy to spend thousands of pounds boarding children out with Barnardos and other less reputable placements but I would think it very likely that you are reliant on voluntary contributions-also what happens to families when they complete your programme-they must have to return to the situation they were in previously-however good luck I think you have the best way forward
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Don't think Adrian is putting a lot of effort into his work at the moment. I understood they have a run through of the programme before going live. It appeared to me tonight that he forgot most of his lines, spent his usual time looking down at his notes and stumbled through most of the programme. Thankfully, Christine manages to make it look easy and picks him up when he falters.
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on the issue of social workers, they are not perfect, remember the cleveland fiasco, where they came up with this theory that children had been abused by their parents? this in the end was thrown out when it was proved to be totally wrong.
victoria colubie, nothing done, till it was too late, even though the evidence was already there.
if being in the care of family, matters so much, then why did children, whos parents were killed in an accident, were taken away from caring, able grandparents, and given to a couple who were of the same gender?
if the grandparents health was an issue, could one say the same for the adopting couple?
or is this all to do with the politically correct mafia?
[maybe this will not be published]
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27-publish and be damned!-more worrying is if anyone of sound mind will go anywhere near the job-it does seem that CRB checks are going to be changed to include not just convictions or cautions but things you have been accused of!-if this is implemented every manager will err on the side of caution and include everything on the CRB-basically stopping most males working in social work.
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#24: LOVE the name Astroplums!! I dont doubt he is aware it's Bubble gum tele, but he is only reacting to the questions posed, don't ye think? And if he was there to plug a book, he failed miserably, cos I missed it! As for any respectability, I think work in the TLS, London Review, Spectator, New Yorker Australian Book Review and four anthologies must surely carry some weight?
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What about forced adoptions and social workers being phoned maliciously? loving families get torn apart. If social services are given the go ahead to go in and take a child on a bit of malicious gossip and without proof, more innocent families will be put under immense pressure which could then cause that family unit to break apart anyway.
What about government adoption targets. It is my personal opinion that the family unit should be supported, maybe some families would benefit from home start, (which by the way is a brilliant service) or parenting classes?
If you see a Mother struggling then maybe even often to help? maybe the Mother has a child with disabilites and a new baby and it would help her immensly if someone offered to help with the dishes or just call around for a chat or a cuppa, so that she doesn't feel so isolated or maybe contact one of these support groups on her behalf?
No one condones child abuse but it seems social services do not find the children who really need that help as is so often and heart-breakingly seen these days.
Unless the baby/child is in immediate danger (in which case the baby/child should be removed straight away) in my opinion it is better to work with and support the family unit.
Removing the baby/child into care often does more harm than good, working within the family should be the first resort.
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RE: 27 & 28
I do wonder the validity of CRB checks. I have been a healthcare professional for many years and have regular enhanced CRB disclosure as I work with children and occasionally vulnerable adults.
I am however, aware of an individual who worked in the same field who had previous serious criminal convictions. He repeatedly obtained flawless CRB disclosures merely by using his 'current' alias and by failing, when he filled in the CRB documentation, to mention his real 'given' name, which he had been prosecuted under.
Like so many of the so-called safety measures and watchdogs introduced by this government, the CRB's efficacy is undermind by serious loopholes.
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(23) I missed the "Childcatchers" feature, when was it aired?
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Sorry to lower the tone amid all the very serious comment, but I too have been looking everywhere for a top like that. Tell me if you find it, Southernbaggy!
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re #34: I saw one in Oxfam.
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re #35
you naughty boy JH.
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I find it hard to trust this Martin Narey. anyone who know youngsters from the 70,s 80,s knows this man as a governor of a prison who was paid by the state to punish young people for their criminal behaviour, I said punish rather than rehabilitate because invariably that is what it was like back then.
If a fraction of the monies that the care system gets from the public purse got diverted to actually helping these young people at source you would cut crime, the number of young people in young offenders as well as many other benefits that a truly fair society should bring.
Narrow thinking and short sightedness is our main problem Martin Narey has not thought of the half a million parents who his policy would affect
I know that the child is paramount in this and agree with that however the more young people get ripped from the natural mothers the more chance that they will be abused in the very system that was meant to care for them, it is trite to think that this can’t happen these days as easily as it used to when there are so many documented cases of abuse of children in institutional and other care systems.
Narey is about to start the war on poverty by stealing the children of the poor.
He will fill up our prisons with mams & dads desperately trying to get to see their baby’s
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At last someone is speaking out about children remaining with birth mothers.I have two friends who are foster Carers. One of my friends takes babies that are born drug addicted,too often these babies slip through the net,between the birth mothers rights, court proceedings, social service etc.The latest baby has three other siblings aged 3 6 and 7 all in care.
The other foster carer is looking after 2 children a brother and sister aged 2 and 3, the mother is pregnant again.Both Of the mothers
has received help to get them off of drugs. Time to put the Children first. Well done the spokesman from Barnados.Nobody wants these children taken away, if there is a chance that the parent is capable of looking after them, but something has to be done.
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As always an excellent show. Just wish it was on for an hour EVERY day!
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