Waiting and winding time

For the first (and almost certainly the last) time I am moved to post a comment on Have Your Say this morning. To my surprise the BBC website asks me to remove my obscene and offensive language before submitting the comment for approval. I can only think it is because I have mentioned the stage name of Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter.

I really meant to write a blog about the onset of winter time and how it depresses me more than it did when I was younger. We knew it was winter before the clocks went back. For the last few weeks we have had to wind up the radio because the sun has dipped so low the little solar panel no longer provides enough power on its own. But this morning I wasn’t sure who was doing the winding up. There’s catastrophe beyond imagining in the Congo, there’s the threat of peak oil, there’s the looming ecological credit crunch, there’s Alastair Darling borrowing billions for small businesses and BBC Today leads with the ridiculous story about Brand and Ross. Que?

Now I usually think emailing the BBC is for the green ink brigade (what is the email equivalent of green ink? writing in capital letters I suppose, phew, AT LEAST I DIDN’T DO THAT). Though come to think of it I am the proud possessor of the Alex Thomson C4 news ‘sane email of the day award’ for my comment on the media coverage of the bird flu scare when that poor dead swan pitched up at Cellardyke.

For some reason I am irritated by this nonsense though there isn’t even a dead swan to show for it! I have much better things to do with my time but instead I spend ten minutes logging on to BBC; skimming some of the comments; watching YouTube clips of the actual radio show; checking the interview with Andrew Sachs.

Now this clip is worth watching in full.

As Ziggy said last night one of the main reasons people have got so steamed up is because everyone likes Manuel. But Mr Sachs seems a nice guy too. He also sounds tired of the whole business: he’s touched by the ‘very nice letters of apology’, thanks Brand and Ross for the flowers and now, “I have a life to live.”

So I post my comment and am a bit taken aback when I am asked to remove obscene and offensive language. I duly delete Georgina Baillie’s stage name but my comment is not published. Just for the record, here is the uncensored version:

While the Congo faces catastrophe BBC Today leads with this non-story. The only one to come out of it with dignity is Andrew Sachs who is not asking for heads to roll. He graciously accepts Brand’s and Ross’s apologies (and their flowers!). End of story. Ross should not go – let him apologise on his show and invite Sachs to sit on the sofa. An even better guest might be his sweet grand-daughter Georgina Baillie (aka Voluptua of Satanic Sluts).

Now I should get on with something worth doing! I was going to write about the energy saving genius of a wind up radio and how we might put such imaginative technology to all kinds of other good uses.