BBC TV News Review - Friday 28th September

Fiona Bruce was back for the Friday night BBC News, however the lead story remained the same, the ongoing social disorder in Burma. The format and content was much the same as the last ten days or so, with images of protestors and military force. It seems now though that "protesters are being hunted down" and additionally, that the internet and mobile phone lines of communication, which were keeping the media and outside world supplied with information, have been disabled in some manner, thus there was very little fresh news or images.

We went to a reporter based in Thailand for an update anyway, and were forewarned by Fiona that the images we were about to see showed a man being shot. Sure enough, we saw the unfortunate Japanese photographer slump to the pavement, caught by a "stray" bullet. It seems that Japan is sending a government minister over to investigate this; our own Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has advised that he believes the death toll is far higher than admitted by the Burmese authorities, although he provided no evidence for this rationale. To close, we heard the "uprising is not over yet" and heard talk of possible United Nations involvement.

Next up was Soham child killer, Ian Huntley, who has attempted suicide again whilst in the care of Her Majesty's pleasure. Reporter Danny Savage told how "questions would be asked", about how he was able to obtain the prescription medication he utilised in his quest for death; given that he is on 24 hour suicide watch. Images of Holly and Jesscia, the murdered girls, were shown as were some television reports of the original case. Readers will recall his initial behaviour, helping the police etc, in a similar manner to that of Robert Murat, the original Madeleine McCann scapegoat. Coincidentally, he worked as a school janitor, the same role as that of Miles Cooper, the letter bomber from yesterdays news, who, incidentallly, received an long prison sentence.

It seems that the cases of blue tongue disease have now accumulated to an extent it can officially be called an outbreak, and as such, we were treated to more images of sick animals, just to remind us what they look like with half a mouth and nose. We heard that that the virus is spread by midges, and that "eradicating them is difficult". It seems that infected insects somehow blew from Africa to Northern Europe and from there jumped over, the English Channel. Our reporter told of two possible solutions, the first a vaccine, except one has not yet been developed, the second was our weather and hopes that a cold spell may kill the midge.

Afghansitan followed and Helmand province in particular. It seems that the ground our military forces have taken in the region may well have to be surrendered. Images of some of the soldiers who lost their lives in the capture of the land were shown, as was an simulated 3D graphic of a river valley and some mountains. We heard that as our forces slowly worked their way up the valley, the insurgents simply hid their weapons and vanished into the clouds. This is apparantly "the nature of insurgency and guerilla warfare". Furthermore, the local Afghan army, who have been trained by "our forces", and who "we" are relying on to defend the acquired territory, are "poorly equipped and mostly corrupt". To close, we saw a bearded native who wished the Taliban would return as it seems things were better then. Frying pan and fire ?

Coming up, new Highway code and new rules over lighting up.

First though, a storm is brewing over a faked photograph and our Culture Secretary, James Purnell. It seems Mr Purnell arrived late for a group photograph so the picture was taken without him, then, when he arrived, another one was taken, soley of him. They two pictures were then merged, an apparently simple technique, and gave the effect that he was in fact intially present. The main thrust of this story seems to be that James is "not just any old MP" and in fact lectured the media quite recently on their behaviour. Could this be a warm up to the Madeleine McCann last photograph and the claims of doctoring. Maybe, because the last images we saw of James were of him playing tennis, a favorite pastime of Gerry.

Conservative party next, their turn for their annual conference, to be held next week in Blackpool. We heard of "a string of new policies" and "crunch time for Cameron" before talk moved to the issue of an early election. Just on a sidenote, I heard that David Cameron cancelled the his partys traditional order of branded confectionary rock this year, as he felt it was out of place. Where are the thinkers in his party - they should have ordered branded Northern rock.

Lady Thatcher has advised that she feels Gordon Brown should hold a referendum on the E.U. Treaty, again scant information was supplied on this potentially nefarious situation, the proverbial double edged sword approaches.

Our prisons are again bursting at the seams despite the early release of some prisoners in June.

A long feature next about our Family Court system and children being removed from their parents by social workers. It appears that sometimes miscarriages of justice occur and as such, some wish greater clarity into the workings of the system, which at present, seem to be a similar operation to that of the freemasons, shrouded in secrecy and suchlike. Images of toddlers were in abundance.

As promised, the feature on the revised highway code. Despite the headline grabber earlier, smoking in ones vehicle is not to be banned, rather the hazards of indulging in such are clearly identified along with putting on make up and eating at the wheel.

To close was rugby, England won.

cheers










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