STABO £

Still smarting from being banned by the Beeb, I have decided to pick on someone my own si... er... someone else: Recycle Now Urges Holiday Makers to Get on-Board and Recycle their Brochures

Recycle Now the national recycling campaign for England, is issuing a reminder urging all holidaymakers to recycle their used holiday brochures instead of binning them and sending them to landfill.

Now, while it is a perfectly fine and logical message, if (as is claimed by the same mob) we are a nation of recyclers now, why on earth would I not pop my holiday brochure in my paper kerbside RE:box along with all the rest? Do I really need to be told this?

This just smacks of Statin' The Absolute Bleedin' Obvious and blowing a wadge of wonga in the process that could be better applied elsewhere.

Now, as Aunty asked...

Gotta love those 'we're listening' types at Newsnight, with their ironically titled (my message was rejected 'as I am not allowed to post comments' any more, it seems): Send a message to the TV industry

"Be as rude as you like, but no obscenities please or we won't be able to put your comment up."

No problem. I'll just pop down and catch some on my kids' TV shows:)

Meanwhile, back to answering the question, though some posters have already served up some beauts... which will be consummately ignored....

So here's one. Stop asking for opinions and then not paying a blind bit of notice to them. Stop taking serious, considered critiques and showing them only the contempt a dawn slot on Newswatch - with a sniffy producer/editor who could care less as he/she knows they are immune from consequence - can deliver.

And while everything in life needs a measure, can the BBC at least stop using the acquisition of ratings as the way in which 'executives' are rewarded? That way they might just try and actually serve the people and deliver quality programming as opposed to just trying to climb the corporate ladder as high as they can before bailing to land a nice cushy number elsewhere (or, better yet, promoted up or sideways internally after a cock-up).

Try reporting the news rather than making it (up).

Share with us the truth. We can handle it. It doesn't need to be 'enhanced'. Editing should be to make a story as clear as possible; not steer an agenda.

Finally, please remember that while it is the people who help make the brand, the brand makes the person. So stop being so damn lazy as to claim some individuals are not replaceable and hence lead to the obscene levels of pay that celebrity can create.

The exposure of the BBC is a gateway to riches enough already without using the licence fee to boost the salaries even more. I want my money used responsibly and accountably, with due humility and gratitude to the awesome privilege and career opportunity it represents to be in such a job.

Treat those who are forced to pay to watch as clientele to respect, inform and entertain, not some cash cow to support a nifty, gold-plated, privileged exclusive club lifestyle.

ps:

Find a better, more helpful and less arrogant way to help me post than getting this waaaaay too often, and having to use 'other methods':

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ADDENDUM;

I have now tried two other computers with no success at avoiding this message.

The SOBs really don't make it easy, do they? Or improve their own sorry reputations. For all the good it will do me, I have written to them on one of their 'we're here to respond' forms:

What, exactly, is this [reply] meant to mean? And how, exactly, is it meant to help resolve what may be a technological glitch but simply comes across as gross censorship?

Guardian - Give TV bosses a piece of your mind - do the guys working in the London media scene actually do any work, or just occupy these posts to snipe at each other?

Guardian - BBC scandals stoking crisis of distrust, say Paxman and Marr
Guardian - After the trust has gone - executives reflect on a turbulent year for TV
Guardian - The BBC has squandered trust. But we will win it back - If he says so, Same people. Same system.

Merton rule is/not to be abolished

Please feel free to delete 'is' or 'not' - whichever you find appropriate!

According to this article from yesterday's Guardian Unlimited central government is planning to torpedo the Merton rule; a rule under which local councils sign up to an agreement whereby 10% of all energy requirements on any new development will be met by using renewables.

"housing minister Yvette Cooper, who last year wanted all local authorities to adopt a Merton rule, will soon publish a new draft planning policy statement which outlines the abolition of the rule."

So it appears that our government is reverting to a regressive mode yet again.

But ........ today's Daily Mail reports an entirely different perspective.

"Contrary to fears expressed by some environmentalists, Ms Cooper will not be abolishing the Merton Rule"

"A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government denied the planning guidance would ditch the Merton approach."

Now I know that the media always want to portray their stories as the most up-to-date and correct, but here there are two entirely poles-apart comments on the same subject.

OK, so which one represents the truth and which is a load of porkies? Or is it all intended to add to the plethora of obfuscation? I give up! I really don't know who to believe now!

ADDENDUM from Junkk Male

Recycling Waste World - Lib Dems slam plans to abolish Merton Rule
Guardian - Don't scrap green housing rule, urge campaigners