I really should stop watching the BBC Breakfast programme; it does my blood pressure no good whatsoever. The first of two annoying, infantile stories caught my attention enough to make me want to throw my coffee at the television screen this morning was this one:
The number of rats in the UK has soared, posing a serious risk to public health, according to a study.
Pest controllers reported a 39% increase in call-outs to deal with brown rats from 1999 to 2005.
And the 2006 National Rodent Survey found that during those summers call-outs jumped by 69%, when rats are usually less active in urban areas.
John Davison of the National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA) said: “It’s a grave problem.”
I’m sorry, but “rats breed a lot” and “rats like rummaging in our waste bins” is breaking news? Ah, but, then there’s the “something must be done about it” bollocks. We had a pest expert waffling about diseases… Yes, yes, so rats have fleas and the fleas can carry disease; that’s how the bubonic plague spread. We know this. It’s history. If rats are increasing, then, well, there’s a simple enough solution. It’s as old as, well, since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Cats. The silly sod made no mention of the obvious, simple and logical method of rat control once during his brief interview (but, then, cats wouldn’t make him any money). Mrs Longrider and I have cats. By a curious coincidence, we don’t have any rats…
There is, however, a voice of reason:
And the actress Jane Horrocks condemned the report’s conclusion that composting had contributed to the rise in rat numbers as “scaremongering”.
…“I’ve not seen a rat but I do smell a rat.”
Indeed.
The other piece of silliness involved a “probe” into anorexia support websites. According to Aunty,
An investigation by a BBC Wales programme has revealed sinister online groups are threatening the lives of youngsters with eating disorders.
BBC Wales Week In Week Out programme reveal that anorexia sufferers are being sent messages and images urging them to continue starving.
Youngsters are encouraged to celebrate anorexia as a lifestyle, not a disease.
Sigh…
Having had some firsthand experience of this disorder, I do not take it lightly, but this is another piece of scaremongering designed to frighten people into a certain mindset. The Beeb continues:
The sites are being blamed for undermining the recovery attempts of extremely vulnerable sufferers.
Anorexia sufferers don’t need any encouragement to undermine their recovery; they can manage that perfectly well on their own. However, the Breakfast programme banged on throughout the piece with the usual “something must be done” claptrap. Yahoo, it said, monitors its sites for unacceptable content and takes the appropriate action. Quite right, too. They own the site and they exercise their discretion about what should be posted. So, what is the problem?
The problem, as usual, is that Yahoo taking responsibility for the content of their sites just isn’t enough for the nannies at the BBC. Oh, no, they want “something to be done”. This is the usual euphemism for the government to come charging in with a banning order. Forget, for a moment the content here – this story crops up with some regularity in one form or another, but it is always the same thing with a different dressing; censorship of the Internet. Today it’s anorexia support sites, a few weeks ago it was political blogging, tomorrow it will be something else, but the underlying message will always be the same; our on-line thoughts must be censored for our own good. And who decides what is in our best interests? Well, one thing you can be sure of; as far as Aunty is concerned, it isn’t us.
What in God’s name does it have to do with Jane Horrocks?
I’ve no idea. Perhaps she was the only person they could find to comment…