Offensive

The BBC has been forced to apologise for an offensive remark by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson in which he described a Ferrari car as ‘a bit wrong – that smiling front end – it looked like a simpleton – should have been called the 430 Speciale Needs’.

The BBC removed the comment from the programme’s repeat and apologised for any offence caused. But, of course, the damage was done and Ofcom were spot on to say ‘discriminatory language of this nature has the potential to be very offensive to some viewers as it could be seen to single out certain sections of society in a derogatory way because of their disability.’

I am not a fan of Clarkson or his sneering Top Gear programme which, in my view, promotes fast and dangerous driving. But the main fault here would not seem to have been Clarkson’s even though he ought not to have made the remark.

Doesn’t anyone at the BBC check that programme content is good enough to be aired before it is broadcast without offending anyone?

And, if not, why not?
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A Memorable Day

Back in 1967 we were living in the West End of London with views of Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. As a newly-married couple, it was an exiting place to live as there always seemed to be something interesting going on. For example, even then we were once able to see a procession pass our building which we later learned was a rehearsal for the Queen Mother’s funeral!

Behind our flat was a run-down mews which at some point in the past was a barracks building and we were fascinated when a film crew took over the place and started sprucing it up a bit. That was where part of the barracks scene in the movie ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was filmed. Behind the mews was Carlton House Terrace and that was where they built a huge wooden mock-up of a statue on wheels of the Duke of Wellington that also featured in the movie.

Anyhoo, all this was brought to mind just a couple of evenings ago when we watched the DVD of the movie which depicted the background to the infamous cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava in Crimean War in 1854. As it happens, the charge took place this day that year.

The movie starred Trevor Howard as Lord Cardigan, Harry Andrews as Lord Lucan (Cardigan’s hated brother-in-law), John Gielgud as Lord Raglan and David Hemmings as Captain Nolan.

Though there were a couple of historical inaccuracies in the film, it portrayed fairly accurately the harsh treatment but superb discipline of British soldiers and the incompetence of the army’s leaders who were mainly aristocrats who had purchased their commissions and who were more often concerned with appearances than with the work of leading their men.

At this point in the Battle of Balaclava, Russian troops were removing British naval guns they had captured from redoubts on the reverse side of the Causeway Heights, the hill forming the right side of a valley. At the end of the valley was a mass of Russian guns. Both could be clearly seen by Lord Raglan, the army commander, who had a high vantage point, but neither could be seen by the cavalry waiting below.

Lord Raglan sent an order via Captain Nolan to Lord Lucan who was in overall commend of the Light and Heavy Brigades that ‘Lord Raglan wishes the Cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Troop Horse Artillery may accompany. French Cavalry is on your left. Immediate.’ There was a discussion between Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan, who was in command of the Light Brigade, as to what the target of their attack was and Nolan is said to have indicated by a sweep of his arm, not the Causeway redoubts, but the mass of Russian guns at the end of the valley about a mile away.

The rest is history. Captain Nolan rode in front of Lord Cardigan at one point in what is thought to have been an attempt to correct the mistake, but was killed doing so. The charge resulted in 118 men being killed, 127 wounded and around 60 being taken prisoner. Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, was moved to write a sentimental poem about the Brigade’s sacrifice. Lords Lucan and Cardigan spent years blaming each other for the disaster (Lord Raglan having died the war after the charge) and they and other military leaders were excoriated in the press for their general incompetence and for the poor treatment of soldiers during the Crimean campaign.

The work and subsequent reports of Florence Nightingale also highlighted the muddle between military departments and the lack of proper medical care for solders. Press reports also helped to force the government to do away with the purchase of army commissions and to introduce promotion by merit of properly trained officers.

The movie, which came out in 1968, didn’t win any awards but it remains for me a spectacular and fairly accurate depiction of a point in time in Victorian history. It shows the difference between the leaders and the led and their distinctly different lifestyles.
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More Excuses?

A study by the University of Southampton and Network Rail, forecasts that wet winters and hot summers will become more common over the next fifty years as a result of global warming and that the UK rail network is at risk from this.

One hopes that railway managers and the government will take note of the report and act accordingly. On the other hand, will these sort of events just give some railway operators more excuses to explain why our trains are late?

We’ve had the leaves (and cows) on the track excuse, overhead power lines down due to high winds as well as the wrong type of snow complaint, but global warming?

Groan!
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Obscene!

The newspapers this morning seem uniformly critical that, while the rest of us will feel the pinch of economic stress over the next five years, Wayne Rooney will make £50 millions under the deal his agent has struck for him with Manchester United.

I’m not into football and so am unable to comment on whether the man is worth this amount of cash. But it does seem to me that the high fees paid to some footballers turns the game into a money-machine which other clubs are unable to afford.

Perhaps Rooney was right to get the best fee possible and to become the highest-paid English footballer of all time.

On the other hand, over £200,000 a week for just kicking a ball around is not only absurd, it’s obscene!
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An Early Victorian Church Service

It is a a matter of some regret that for health reasons I am not as mobile as I used be to. Had I been more mobile, I would have been tempted to have popped down last night to the Ewenny Priory Church near Bridgend to hear one of the oldest working and regularly played church organs in Wales.

Built by the celebrated organ maker William Sweetland in 1850, the organ was originally built for the Theological College at Wells and was relocated to the Lady Chapel of Wells Cathedral in 1895 and moved in 1999 to the newly restored Norman nave of Ewenny Priory Church. One reason the organ is rare is because of the lowness of its notes, allowing a more accurate interpretation of 18th-century church music.

Last night a special choral evensong was held to commemorate the centenary of Sweetland's death in 1910. The service used the 1662 Book of Common Player and included music written before 1850, sung by the St Hilary Choir with students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Organ voluntaries were played before, during and after the service by Father Martin Colton, formerly the organist at Sheffield Cathedral.

I’m hoping that the church have recorded last night’s service for it would be a delight to hear it. I’ve emailed the church and am keeping my fingers crossed.
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An Echo?

The Standards and Privileges Committee has published a document from a Tory MP who told them: ‘My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to [her constituency].’ She also said that, ‘I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another.’

This disclosure came as part of a sleaze investigation that cleared the MP of abusing the Commons expenses system but found that she had ‘misled’ voters.

The Commissioner said that the MPs blog, ‘gave information to its readers, including [her] constituents and party supporters, which provided a misleading impression of her arrangements as a Member of Parliament for the constituency’.

MPs, 70% fiction, 30% fact, poetic licence?

Is this an echo I hear?
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Good Luck!

The winner of last week’s £113 millions Euro Lottery has now come forward, has had the claim verified and been paid out.

The person, who so far has remained anonymous, has instantly become one of the richest folk in Britain and good luck to him or her is what I say!

It is curious though that over 1,000 other people came forward to claim the prize. Have these not attempted a fraud on Camelot?
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