Pick of the Year

   

I wonder if Lord Blunkett and Libby Purves and Michael Buerk listened to today's Pick of the Year on BBC Radio 4. I think they'd have been appalled.

If anything show's the station's sharp turn towards 'woke' this is surely it. It used to be a showcase for the width and depth of Radio 4's output across the year, intended to make you laugh and cry and think. This year it was almost entirely political, earnest and preachy. They weren't going to let us think for ourselves either.

It was presented by Clive Myrie and Marianna Spring. They played Radio 4 highlights from across the year that dealt with these subjects [in the order they dealt with them]:

[a] The Capitol “attempted coup”, QAnon, Trump and conspiracy theories

[b] misinformation and vaccine hesitancy

[c] misinformation and climate change

[d] how Facebook is failing to tackle misinformation

[e] feet

[f] climate change and wildfires

[g] migrants and refugees

[h] Afghanistan

[i]'Internet shaming' of women

[j] women's fears about their safety following the murder of Sarah Everard

[k] online hate/racism

[l] racism in sport

[m] taking the knee against racism

[n] Mondays.

It really was as fun as it sounds.

If you recall a comment I quoted a month ago today that said ''I can't help myself, and I know it's silly, but whenever I switch on radio 4 I listen to the first 10 words I hear. Invariably they are about race, gender or climate. Try it.'' If that person had have tuned in to Pick of the Year it would have been an instant 'Bingo!'