Petitions

Telly, love it or loathe it? I have a love/hate relationship with the telly. Mostly it's love, but then I'm very very picky picky about what I watch and think 75% of all programmes pander to the most basic levels of intellect, concentration, and worse, the lowest common denominator, Jeremy Kyle. His is a colosseum mentality,  and it's one of the most appalling programmes on TV, it's like gladiatorial combat but nobody wins...except perhaps Jeremy.




So when I was reading the Catholic Herald, this totally splendiferous petition was mentioned by William Oddie. It's asking the Government to slap health warnings on TV programmes directed at children. And what a good idea. I'm supporting the great idea of health warnings.

In a similar vein, round about now, with all the (bleurchh) Xmas advertising cranking up, we're going to be innundated with even more faux sex on every channel with ads, from M&S selling its knickers to those really dodgy perfume ads. Joop anyone? No, I thought not. Even an advert for shopping at your local Co-Op suggested that doing so left you more time for umm, well, you know, on a Saturday morning. Puh-leese! This kind of thing's so, well, tacky and almost subliminal in that we're all so oblivious to it most of the time. We can tune it out, but kids can't and don't, being little sponges when it comes to picking up information and behaviour from whatever source. Even if a programme seems ok, it might be diced up by some seriously inappropriate advertising. A slight tangent, even the cinema isn't immune. Off I trot to watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and before we get to the opening credits, there's an ad (which seemed to go on forever) by a well known contraceptive manufacturer who seems to be expanding its range, and comprehensively told us about it, illustrated by a series of smiling bed-head couples. Now, ok, the film was a 15 (!) but this is just another example of how low things have got.