Fun, fun, fun

At the end of 2018, I wrote this: 

All year, at this blog, I've kept on saying how Radio 4 is getting harder-and-harder to listen to for people outside the BBC's way of thinking, because its schedules are losing any variety they used to have and becoming increasingly much-of-a-muchness: a sludge of well-meaning, serious, worthy, politically-correct, socially-liberal, soggy-left, preachy programmes, many of which could have come straight out of the Guardian's features pages, leavened by identikit left-wing comedy shows and programmes about Brexit presented hosted by Remainers.

Whether you listen to it or just look at the schedules, you can easily see the truth of this. But if you can't be bothered to do either there's always the BBC Radio 4 Twitter feed which gives a birds-eye view of just how right I am (if I say so myself).

Here's a snapshot - a list of the most latest tweets, going back in time chronologically from the most recent:

• Why would you stab someone? Inside the mind of a former gang member.
• Virtually all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV, so why are girls from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds less likely to receive the vaccine in school than their white counterparts? 
• My transgender child: "Tavistock and Portman haven't gone too in-depth with Autumn about future processes and changes. They have talked about the use of hormone blockers, but that's years into Autumn's future if she is still living as a girl."
• "I am essentially renting a property with the responsibility of owning a property."
• This week, it was announced that a UK patient's HIV had become "undetectable" following a stem cell transplant – in only the second case of its kind.
• The biochemist is responsible for some of the most important advances in the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing technology. 
• Cambridge University is to offer "second chance" places after A-level results for the first time this summer, in a deliberate bid to increase the number of disadvantaged students.
• One person wrote that they wanted an oil painting of the photograph because it exemplified "what being a black woman is".

Race issues, transgender stories, disadvantaged people's problems, illnesses, and (for light relief) a science story! 

Continue scrolling down and there's a long stream of tweets with a feminist bent, stories about left-wing activists angry with the police, why 'anti-vaxers' are conspiracy theorists, an uplifting story about a burns survivor, more illness, Clare Balding, Mr Men, lots more feminist stuff, a suicide bomber's daughter, etc...until we come to In Our Time. 

Is Polly Toynbee moonlighting as the controller of the Radio 4 Twitter feed? What a grim list of links and BBC programmes!