WHILE I was gallivanting off on a book tour and spending three glorious days in an old haunted mill my other half was experiencing hell.
Since when did it become Bonfire WEEK?
Since when do people think it acceptable to be setting them off with the clock approaching midnight?
Our dog – absolutely terrified, shredded the downstairs door trying to just get away from the noise and messed herself from fear.
We’ve had our work cut out for a full eight days. Nearby, a garden party of adults – no kids – setting them off for four hours. Are they really that entertaining?
Isn’t a bonfire so much nicer to stand around than crap fireworks because, let’s face it, unless you’re at one of the big events, they’re not that great are they? And four hours of big bangs, that’s a lot of wasted dosh.
Yes I have signed the petition going around to ban them except at organised events.
I’m all for ‘live and let live’ but not when things cause so much distress. And they really do.
I’m actually glad the Beeb have been hauled over the coals for manipulating their Panorama news coverage and heads have rolled for it.
For what they did they have tried to excuse as ‘an error of judgement’. Nice try.
It was far more than that and they know it. The BBC is a service for us and the state, for truth – however ugly or pretty but they’ve been allowed to forget that, become arrogant and ‘Teflon’ and manipulation of this scale is a long way down a slippery slope.
Remember when the BBC used to be a bastion of truth, the station we turned to when we wanted to hear the news proper, unadulterated? Oh those were the days.
Over the past years they have shown themselves to be nothing short of corrupt and now we see the depths to what they have sunk.
These days they see fit to employ newscasters with their own pronounced political biases. We are not interested!
It is their job to DELIVER the news, not to pontificate and preach. If they want to do that, they should bugger off and become politicians. They have grown into a factory so used to fudging, they could have given Thorntons a run for its money.
Covering up the revolting Savile’s practises, allowing Huw Edwards to sit there reading bulletins as if butter wouldn’t melt.
That is why we are very lucky with the paper you are reading now because you have an editor who has no political bias in his job.
If he delivers a Labour/Conservative/Reform-bashing story, it’s because they have cocked up and he’s reporting it because it is relevant and newsworthy not because he’s on the opposing side.
It is a disgrace what the BBC have become. And they’ll still be too self-important to recognise it in themselves.
Tonight is the Proud of Barnsley awards and I say this every year but it does become harder and harder to pick winners.
You can’t give everyone a trophy but we wish we could and I do hope that people who do not win tonight are compensated by how much their stories touched all the judges and the people who nominated them. There are some belters.
No idea who has won, except for one – my award, because I’ve sponsored one for someone whose story made my heart glow with the warmest of feelgood factors.
Good luck tonight, Proud of Barnsley nominees, I hope you all have a terrific time. It’s a cliché, but every one of them is a winner and we really should be proud to have them in our town.
