And finally, BBC Radio Bristol presenter John Darvall has announced he is to marry Bristol North West Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie. And now the weather forecast with Ian Fergusson.
Well, it wasn’t actually like that but reading Darvall’s twitter feed, you might have thought you were reading an announcement of an imminent royal wedding.
If nothing else, it might explain the right of centre tone and, on occasion content, of Darvall’s bland, generic phone in on a so called local radio station. I have been concerned for some time at the rightward drift of BBC news reporting and this adds grist to the mill. I will not claim to be a regular listener to Darvall’s three hour borefest but I have certainly heard his phone ins and on more than one occasion cringed as he launched a verbal assault on callers who dared refer to the ‘Bedroom Tax’. “It’s a spare room subsidy,” he replied, explaining that he did not want his listeners alarmed. Well, John: the official name of your beloved ‘Spare Room Subsidy’ may not be the ‘Bedroom Tax’ but that is precisely what it is, a pernicious tax on some of the poorest and most disabled people in the land, forcing some people to move from their homes, always assuming there is somewhere else for them to go to. Or they are required to pay extra money – in effect a ‘Bedroom Tax’ – if they cannot find anywhere or want to stay in their own homes. Whatever you do, don’t frighten your listeners with the truth. What would your fiancée say?
When last night I drew to his attention his comments re the bedroom tax, he decided to take the piss and retweet me, before going onto the attack and replying with the Iain Duncan Smith line that ‘The Spare Room subsidy’ is not a ‘Bedroom Tax’. Ooh, we are touchy, aren’t we John? What you did last night, with your aggressive tweet, was confirm what I have long suspected: you’re not neutral or impartial and never were.
Darvall’s biggest ‘crime’ is that his show is crap. He’s just another here today, gone tomorrow, jobbing generic presenter, those favoured by local radio these days, when the genre used to feature local people with local accents and, heaven forbid, local subjects for local listeners.
With the General Election round the corner, Darvall’s engagement to a prominent Tory MP has seen him dumped to the afternoon show, to play bland, inoffensive, unthreatening music and to interview D list celebrities, rather than be trusted on the mid morning show which more than occasionally features politics. So let’s get this right: the BBC has deemed it inappropriate for Darvall to present the morning show before the election, but not after it? Leslie is likely to retain her seat in the House of Commons so then, what? Won’t it be slightly awkward when the great man interviews a politician of any party, or even his wife to be?
Another alternative would be to let him have a job on the graveyard shift late at night, when no one except taxi drivers and lonely pensioners are listening.
Hopefully, it’s the start of a new era for Radio Bristol, which has plunged to unheard of depths in terms of quality and audience reach since Tim Pemberton became its managing editor. The word is that Pemberton is off in a few weeks and we can only but hope and pray that his replacement will return Radio Bristol to what it was and should be again which is a lively, dynamic station with its roots in the community, with new presenters who have new ideas and personalities.
Personally, although I don’t know them, and have no wish to know them. I wish Darvall and Leslie well. I hope they have a good long life together, although if I am being honest I hope neither are doing their current jobs after May.
And now, thought for the day. Today it’s local Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie talking about her husband to be. “I like the fact we don’t agree. If I ever get too Tory he’ll bash me.” Ouch.
