Hello from BH,
Today, there's a strike by thousands of public sector workers over pensions. Next week, a report's due to be published looking at how to pay for care for the elderly. Do we need to re-work the British understanding of old age? A traditional view of youth, middle age and old age seems to neglect the many years that could be called middle-old age or older old age.
(That's one of the results of our meeting, which we held today in the canteen that overlooks the Blue Peter Garden. The programme is moving from Television Centre, and the garden in its current state will be no more.)
We're also interested in:
+ Fathers and daughters: Did you spot the news that of the women who've made it to Wimbledon's quarter finals, half are coached by their dad?
This is a higher ratio than the men's game, and we think there is a good interview to be had here. (If our interviewer, that's me,
doesn't drop the ball of course.)
+ Afghanistan. Last week, we went to Washington to hear how US policy makers want to move on from the ten-year Afghan war. It can come as no surprise to know that so too do the Afghans. They in fact have been fending off the blows of war of some kind or other for at least thirty years. Hugh Sykes is there for us to reflect on who remains an optimist, and he'll bring us his report on Sunday.
+ Who's more boring, a banker or a media type? A private members' club in New York has banned bankers, in favour of people from "the creative industries." This led Stephanie our new colleague to suggest an item comparing the ability of each group to bore the trousers off you. Certainly you should avoid being trapped with certain media types on a bus, I can vouch for this, and voracious banking talk can probably test your patience too, but which tip the scales?? I'm not sure this is going to make it to the programme, but I'm including it here for you should you feel like sending a reply.
+ Choirs. We appealed on the programme for choirs to perform a work that can be used in a feature by Kevin Connolly in an upcoming programme. Since we were over-rewarded with kind responses, I'm going to suggest a choral August to the editor, where we hear quite gratuitous Sunday morning warbling. What do you think?? How can I slip this past the news monitors?
That's it from this end,
Here's to you,
Paddy with Amanda editing and Simon and Stephanie producing.
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