WHAT'S MY NAME?

WHAT'S MY NAME?

>> THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2011

No, I'm not talking about one of pouting and posing Rihanna's hits but rather this curious tale the BBC has put out this morning that some children are going to nursery school without knowing what their name is. I admit this does seem bizarre and I accept Frank Field brought the topic up in the first place but the item they ran does suggest that this actually is the case. So far, so good. The BBC were quick off the mark to get the Headmaster of the school concerned to explain that these kids who do not recognise their own name are "white" children - whatever that is meant to suggest. A pre-emptive strike lest any of us bring up the impact of immigration, I wonder?

Jean Gross, the government's communication champion for children, agreed that anecdotally "we do have a problem" and teachers were increasingly concerned that it was "getting worse". She told Sarah Montague that hidden speech difficulties were sometimes to blame, but other times children were not getting "wide, rich dialogue" from their families, partly because parents "don't know how" to talk to their young ones.

Hang on. HOW have we arrived at the point where some parents do not know how to talk to their children to the degree that the kids cannot even recognise their name? Has the breakdown of the traditional family unit - cheered on by the anything goes BBC - had any impact on this? I suspect that there is a lot more to this story than the BBC seeks to portray and wonder what your views might be?

MARDELL UPDATE

Those wicked Tea Party folks. Thank goodness for Mark Mardell's exposure of their fiscal simple-mindedness here. You see they seem to believe that Government should not spend what it does not have and were THAT not bad enough they seem to hold the outrageous view that political representatives should stick to what they promise. Helpfully, urbane Mark is able to excoriate their wacky lunacy and when they claim that THEY are "the only adults in the room" he is on hand to point out that those viewing the US from abroad (Namely himself and other enlightened BBC liberal sophisticates) see them as children. Talk about throwing the toys out of the pram, eh Mark? Obama is running the USA to the edge to fiscal peril in order to secure electoral benefit during his election year. His calamitous stewardship of the economy is sanitised by the BBC and the idea is being projected that it is ALL the fault of the Tea Partiers.

TAXING MATTERS...

Oh no, it's just too awful to contemplate. Public sector workers are going to discover just how much extra they are going to have to pay into their pensions in order to sustain that gilt-edged advantage that they so richly deserve. The BBC ran this item on the topic, you should listen to it. Teachers on 21k a year may have to pay an extra £9 a month - say it ain't so! Even more heartbreaking, those on £150k a year (Yea, let the vast amount they are paid just go by ever so casually) may have to fund a few hundred extra if they are going to sit back and relish huge pension generosity in their retirement. BMA Chief Hamish Meldrum (Great name) reduced me to tears (of mirth) when he expressed his outrage at this onslaught on our brave hard working pubic sector workers. I was also intrigued to hear it said that many private sector workers enjoy lush pension provision. Know any?

NO ENGLISH IN ENGLAND

Vintage morning on the BBC. Is it REALLY necessary for immigrants coming to England to learn English? Give THIS interview a whirl if you dare. It concerns Rashida Chapti, who has lived here for six years (the basis of her residence is not discussed or considered) and whose husband cannot join her unless he learns our language. She is challenging the law as a breach of her human rights! Listen to the easy ride her risible story gets - apparently her husband, at 58, is just too old to learn a new language. It's an intolerable burden that the wicked Coaliton is imposing!What a scam. My question is why is she here The idea of wannabe immigrants being forced to assimilate into our British culture offends the multiculturalist elite (Am I allowed to even SAY that after Oslol?) in the BBC and the idea is being projected that expecting people coming to live in England to go to the bother of learning English is racist. Simple as that.

CAR CRASH

There are 2,000 electric cars on the road. They have a range of less than 90 miles - half that if you need to put the heater on - and they cost around £28,000, almost four times a petrol equivalent. They have been given a whacking great government subsidy of £5,000 - effectively taking from the poor to give to the rich eco-loons that can afford them. Despite this, people aren't buying them and they don't want them because, compared to conventional cars, they are a sick joke that aren't even 'green'. But the BBC greenies are determined to tell us they are the future. Here, Rory Cellan-Jones, who is married to BBC trustee Diane Coyle - one of those who sanctioned the publication of the BBC'eco bible, by Steve Jones - reports on plans to open a network of charging points that, he claims, will allow us to drive such cars to London to Edinburgh despite their limited range. As usual, it's a total travesty of journalism. First he allows the man who will benefit financially from the new charging points to make ludicrous claims about them without any real challenge. And second, he doesn't ask the key, blindingly obvious question. This is a report about driving between London to Edinburgh, so how long will it take? I used to do it from Hackney to Princes Street in six hours with one fuelling stop, an average of just over 60mph. I will do the math for him. The electric car has a maximum range of 90 miles. That means it will need four or five fuelling stops of two hours each (to achieve maximum charge). So let's see, that's eight or 10 hours plus six hours...I make that 14-16 hours, with at least eight of those spent in motorway service areas. And if it was cold you could add double the number of fuel stops, making 26 hours. As Christopher Booker has pointed out, it used to take a stage coach only 20 hours longer. The alternatives? Well a train takes four hours, and a plane, door to door, just a tad less. In other words, the electic car is light years away from viability and only a masochistic loony would buy one, but Mr Cellan-Jones does not want to say so. He disguises this by being midly adversarial in his tone. But in truth this is yet another BBC green-creed homily.