"The liberal echo chamber in which these people exist, which has been revealed by countless reports as well as in the baleful comments from departing staffers such as John Humphrys, Michael Buerk, John Sergeant, Robin Aitken and so on, is at last being challenged! "
Says Rod Liddle humorously (in the sarcastic rather than comical sense) because he was talking about the need for more diversity in the BBC and in particular the appointment of June Sarpong to the bespoke role “Director of Creative Diversity”.
Well, I know what diversity means, and I know what creative means, but I’m not at all sure what they mean stuck together. (Perhaps ‘creative’ in that they’ve created a whole extraneous, tailor-made directorship solely for a person of colour) (Starting to sound a bit racist to me) but the upside is at least that disqualifies Rachel Johnson.
The joke is that there’s already a disproportionate number of front-of-house BAMEs at the Beeb, considering current societal demographics. But, as Douglas Murray says, a certain amount of correction, or over-correction, has to be implemented to counteract the sins of the past, in this case the actual racism of previous decades, and we have to suck it up for now in the knowledge that it will eventually settle, adjust, recalibrate, and find its natural level.
But what if it’s too late? I think the tipping point is due next Tuesday. They’ve stolen my adulthood! How dare they! Hand me the superglue Alice, I need to glue myself to something.
****
Oh, God! The BBC was in Penzance yesterday being patronising and misrepresenting the place in the way that only the BBC can. Having continually trailed Penzance as a coastal town with a ‘lower than average wage’…. if that is indeed the case, one might expect Simon McCoy and his team to make some effort to find out why. Then tell us. I admit I didn’t watch it all afternoon, but if they did, I missed it.
I know plenty of professional people in the area who charge average or above rates for their services. Do national companies like M & S pay less than the going rate down here? I don’t know, but if they do, I’d actually like to know why. I do know one thing though. The seasonal influx of fruit, flower and veg pickers attracted by wages that look like a bonanza back home in Bulgaria or Portugal has changed the industry beyond recognition. I don’t think the Portuguese bother any more, but an array of Soviet-sounding languages resound in Lidl’s as they shout’n’ shop around harvest time.
There used to be a local army of skilled, daffy pickers (A specialised job, picking, uniformly bunching at speed with any exposed areas of your inside arm being burned by sap) but these days locals find welfare the best option. It’s not worth ‘signing off’ and ‘signing onagain’; far too much trouble and strife. Anyway, farmers and growers would go bust if they had to pay the living wage. I suppose that’s what comes of ease of movement plus inequality of economies. Once those conditions ‘correct’ who knows what will happen?
I digress. You could find a hard-up family on any council estate anywhere in the UK, and I don’t think the hard-up family the BBC chose to feature was representative of anything particularly ‘Penzancey’. There is probably an average number of normals down in Benzano (as someone once graffitied the signpost.)
Here is something nice for a change, and vaguely related to the above. I listened to radio four this morning - firstly I liked hearing Caroline Wyatt (instead of Kate Adie) introducing a benign (non-toxic) FOOC, and next, even better, I enjoyed Tales from the Stave. Violinist Clemency Burton-Hill
“explores one of the library's most valuable manuscripts, the Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 by Max Bruch. With her is the internationally acclaimed Violinist Joshua Bell and the music scholar Michael Beckerman of New York University, along with the Morgan's head of Music Manuscripts Fran Barulich.”
And something Penzancey. Several years ago, visiting the back-of-beyond for one of the International Musicians Seminar courses (based at Prussia Cove) world-class violinist Joshua Bell dragged himself out of his sick-bed, and with a temperature and a sore throat, performed an early evening recital in a threadbare church in a grotty part of a downtrodden town (Camborne) so as not to disappoint people. The venue happened to be just around the corner from where I worked at the time so I just strolled along to listen to one of the most renowned violinists in the world. I’m not even sure if I paid an entrance fee. Maybe I got in free as a Friend of IMS.
Pity Simon McCoy didn’t spend a bit longer in the place.) Am I never happy?) I suppose he was glad to get out of the wind, but I can’t see much point in these flying visits. What’s the point?
