There is a lot of talk about how TV has dumbed down in recent years. I suppose the rise o reality TV is the perfect exemplification of this trend. This week the Sky News presenter Kay Burley broke off a serious interview on prison reform to go live to California to cover the earthshattering news that the socialite Paris Hilton had been released from Jail. News 24 cut off a report in mid -flow on the agreement on greenhouse emissions from their reporter at the G8 to go live to LA and then after 10 minutes of this drivel went to a live interview with Yvette Cooper on shortage of social housing with the immortal words "sorry for the delay Minister, but we had to go to LA for breaking news on Paris Hilton's release" BBC News sent out a text message to subscribers (which they only do three times a month apparently) to tell them of this glorious news. The BBC Six O’Clock News led their noon bulletin on the same day with the Big Brother race row, which for reasons best known to the BBC journalists took precedence over interest rates, a climate change agreement at the G8 Summit and John Reid’s imminent statement on the introduction of new terror laws. It’s a strange world we live in.
Those of us who are of a certain age will relate to a brilliant article by Alice Thomson in the Daily Telegraph this week. It was headlined BE A BAD PARENT AND LET YOUR CHILDREN OUT. Alice catalogues all the things she was allowed to do as a child, which she would be castigated for allowing her own children to do today.
It struck a chord with me as I remembered my own rather idyllic childhood, growing up in a small rural community on a farm in Essex. I suspect my parents would have been arrested virtually every day for allowing us to do the things which seemed perfectly natural at the time. I was driving a combine harvester at the age of nine. My father would think nothing of allowing a dozen of the village children climb aboard his tractor and trailer stacked with hay bales and driving along the road with them clinging on for dear life. My sisters and I would disappear for hours at a time exploring the local woods. I worked on the farm from a very young age. I operated dangerous equipment. I mucked out the pigs. I set fields of stubble on fire. My friends spent hours on the farm without their parents worrying a jot about where they were or what they were doing. I walked home very day from primary school on my own or with my younger sisters. None of these things would be possible today. It makes you think. We live in a society in which parents see lurid tales of child abduction and molestation in the newspapers and on the news and as a result become over-protective. It is entirely understandable, yet the reality is that crimes against children only SEEM more prevalent than in previous decades because they are reported more often and get more coverage in the tabloids. We need to get a sense of proportion and give our kids the freedom to explore which those of us in our forties had. It made us the people we are today.
The news yesterday that the final section of the A11 will be dualled is welcome indeed and long overdue. I was involved in a very minor way with the campaign to dual the whole of the A11 in the mid 1980s, led by the Eastern Evening News (as it was then called) and Norfolk MPs. It may have taken thirty years but we got there in the end!
The number of cannabis users admitted to hospital for treatment has soared by 85 per cent over the last decade. Surely it is time for the drug to be reclassified to Class B? One of the worst things this government has done was the change its classification to Class C. I am proud of the fact that I have never smoked cannabis or taken any drug of any kind. Even at university I not only didn’t take a puff of a joint and wouldn’t have even known how to come by it. The cannabis available in those days was relatively harmless (so I am told!) but the cannabis smoked by people today is a different strength entirely. Cannabis is a gateway drug which leads to stronger stuff. Its use should be discouraged in the strongest possible terms.
My new book is published this week, 500 OF THE MOST WITTY, ACERBIC AND ERUDITE THINGS EVER SAID ABOUT POLITICS. It might not have the most snappy title but it does contain some real gems. My favourite is from wartime Tory MP Dame Irene Ward who stood up in the House of Commons to complain that uniforms for male sailors were plentiful, while for the wrens they were difficult to get hold of. She asked the minister: “Is my Right Hon. Friend saying that Wrens’ skirts must be held up until all sailors have been satisfied?” I think any comment from me is superfluous and in any case would result in me being fired from this column.
