Peter Rhodes on dead trees, body cameras and life imitating art at Broadcasting House
There was one thing missing from the Dominic Raab bullying furore – body cameras. If police must wear cameras to record meetings with the public, why shouldn't government ministers wear cameras to record encounters with staff? Then we'd see whether the minister is a thug, the civil servant is a snowflake, or – most likely - it's a combination of both.
The brilliant mockumentary W1A is best remembered for its comedy moments, but there was always a darker side. You may recall the broad-smiling brutality in W1A as the BBC sacked the executives Ben and Jerry by turning their two jobs into one job and then into no job. Does life imitate art? Isn't that job elimination exactly how today's BBC management are now inviting top presenters to consider applying for redundancy? So how was Kyiv, Clive? And by the way, here's a letter for you . . .
A pundit on a TV debate said we should use our smartphones to vote in elections “because everyone's got a smartphone.” Wrong. Millions choose not to have them and most refuseniks are of the generation that was proud to live in a free country where the citizens did not have to carry ID cards. The cards were issued in the 1939-45 war but, after a string of post-war protests (the British Housewives’ League set fire to theirs), they were scrapped in 1952 “to set the people free,” as Churchill put it.
If the snooper-state were allowed to design its own ID card, it would probably come up with the smartphone. Seventy years after the cards were scrapped., it is sad to see folk eagerly carrying devices which reveal every movement, every conversation and every purchase they make.
And do you seriously think that if you voted by smartphone, it would not record who you voted for? Or don't you care?
Of 860,000 trees planted alongside the A14 near Cambridge, more than 130,000 have died. The accountants may fret but countryfolk are accustomed to Mother Nature's brutal ways. A bleak old rhyme tells us what to expect from four seeds: "One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot, one to grow."
