Very long serious post

Britain is being invaded by illegal immigrants and we have to do everything in our power to stop this invasion. If we don't there's no saying where it will lead. We must show that anyone who tries to enter this country by illegal means will not succeed. As for the RNLI, a charity set up to rescue those in trouble at sea, it must stop assisting foreigners getting into our country, taking our jobs, claiming our benefits, making us eat halal food. Once they get in it's a short step to extremism.

Or.

Families fleeing from war and hardship and persecution are so desperate to find safety that they risk their lives, the lives of their children, and give their savings to unscrupulous people smugglers who will jam them into barely sea-worthy boats in all weathers. The numbers of refugees settling in Britain is tiny compared to the rest of Europe but to the Conservative government they are seen as the biggest problem facing us today. Not the cost of living crisis, not global warming, not war in Ukraine. 

Now Gary Lineker, an ex-footballer now presenter on the BBC, has been forced to step back from presenting (temporarily at the moment) because he made a comment comparing the treatment of refugees to the rise of Nazism in Germany. I should add that even the UNHCR has condemned the plans by the British government.

Other pundits and presenters have come out in support of Gary Lineker and have said they won't appear on the BBC's flagship footie programme, Match of the Day. It could be an interesting show this evening . . .

Apparently there is a section in the Charity Commission’s draft social media guidance for charities, which suggests trustees need oversight of staff personal accounts and how that might limit the right to free speech. It's a difficult balance I suppose in some cases - but I would suggest not in the case of compassion over cruelty. 

I have written to the BBC to complain - well, emailed. That's a first for me. Maybe I was paying some attention to the Complaining Expert. But usually I feel so helpless.

And I've just checked the BBC's website: football related programmes are dropping from the schedule like me with balls in goal as more presenters refuse, and the Premier League teams playing today have said they will not be interviewed before or after the games. 

Won't it be fascinating if it's an ex-footballer who helps bring in a change to government policy rather than His Majesty's opposition party? It was public support for a current footballer, Marcus Rashford, who got them to change their free school meals policy.

I love the BBC and for a long time tried to hang on to my belief that they were unbiased but sadly events of late have changed my view.

There's another incident making the news at the moment. A BBC presenter downplaying domestic violence. 

Boris Johnson, lying disgraced ex-PM still gets to make an honours list i.e. he can nominate people for awards like peerages and knighthoods. In his list Johnson nominated his father for a knighthood. Most, probably all, of the ordinary people receiving OBEs or MBEs have done exceptional work for their communities. Politicians like Johnson use the list to thank their mates and ensure they have friends in high places. (The House of Lords gets to vote on all government laws and can send them back to be revised if they don't like them. I used to think this was a good safety net.)

Anyway, the issue of giving a knighthood to Johnson's father was raised on BBC's Question Time - another flagship programme. After one of the panellists had said that Stanley Johnson's history of domestic violence was on record - he had broken his wife's nose - the presenter, Fiona Bruce, interrupted to say that according to his friends it did happen but was a one-off. (According to the wife, violence happened frequently and her son - Boris - witnessed it.)

According to the BBC  Fiona Bruce "has an obligation to put forward a right of reply from an accused person or their representatives when a serious allegation is made about them and that she was not expressing “personal opinion”."

Fiona Bruce is an ambassador for and long-time supporter of Refuge, a charity working with victims of domestic abuse. Refuge has issued a statement saying they stand by Ms Bruce and she is deeply sorry for the distress caused.

I was going to write more but it's all so silly I'm lost for words. So ridiculous that we were ever in in the position of having an adulterous buffoon as Prime Minister, followed by shambles and lies and cruelty and more lies, and money for friends. 

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and our NHS, which was once a shining example in the world, is deliberately being allowed to collapse.

All too sickening. And all I can do is email the BBC. Depressing. Did someone mention extremism?

Postscript

David Attenborough, wonderful man and National Treasure has narrated a new series of wild life films, Wild Isles. The first five are being shown by the BBC; the sixth is not. It focuses on the destruction of the natural world.

The BBC has denied that the sixth episode wasn't being aired on television because they feared a backlash form Tory MPs. According to them, it was always intended that the sixth episode would only be available on iplayer.