BBC TV News Review - Sunday 28th October

A Royal blackmail attempt was lead story last night on the BBC News at 10, reporter Nicholas Witchell told us more from outside Buckingham Palace, assuring us that it was a "low public profile" individual that had been somehow been video taped in a John Leslie style cocaine and sex indulgence. A demand for £50,000 was received on 2nd August, and the recipient contacted Scotland Yard who arranged a meeting in a hotel on 11th September, the pretext being that the monies would be paid. Nicholas took the opportunity to remind us of the monsterous size of the Royal Family, we saw images of the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Charles and sons on the BP balcony; the main Windsors; he then told, almost scathingly, of "many others - neices, nephews, cousins". The unnamed person involved in this debacle belongs to the "latter group" and "this is an embarrasment the Windsors could have done without". Images of Trooping the Colour were shown to close.

A "BBC exclusive" followed, it seems that child labour is being utilised in India to producegarments for the Gap clothing company. Strangely, for an exclusive, we then saw images from German TV, showing young boys sewing clothes in India, one in particular was identified, it seemed that his supervisor, a juvenile himself, called this child "little one". It was all very subliminally Lord of the Flies I thought. Anyway, to close, we saw Gap stores and heard from a company spokesman who spoke of sub contracting.

The Conservative party have called for poitical reforms in the voting system which would mean that only English MP's can vote on English matters. Attention turned to Scotland and we saw the Queen again, recently opening the Scottish parliament building, a couple of years ago. We then moved to the Scottish National Party conference to hear leader Alex Salmond speaking of the wealth of an Independent Scotland and how prosperous we would be. Mention was made of the fact that Gordon Brown is also Scottish, we closed with images of the St George Flag and the St Andrew's Cross.

Man drowns in fishing boat accident in Loch Lomond - arial map shown of rural Scotland.

Virgin Atlantic pilot arrested at Heathrow on suspicion of being drunk just before flight to Miami

Iraq War, a long feature about a programme to be shown later last night on the BBC, concerning the fact tahat there were no real plans for dealing with the aftermath of the invasion and resulting chaos. Images of the initial bombing were shown and we saw the Saddam statue being toppled again. Many images of war and social unrest were shown.

Afghansitan - US soldiers kill 80 Taliban

20 Kurds killed in a known haunt of the PKK

To close, consideration was given as to whether or not we "bubble-wrap" our children nowadays, in terms of being too over protective. Many old black and white images of dirty faced boys playing Just William style were shown, building bonfires and suchlike before we heard comparisons from a girl aged 12 now, and a lady who was 12 in the 70's. They both told their stories, the younger gets an armoured car to school, the older walked; the younger wears a stab proof jacket; the older wore a uniform, the younger can't think for herself, the older is of the last generation to actually have received an education. (cut off c. Kylie/Jason.) No real conclusions seemed to be reached, we were just left with the impression that things have/are moving on. Hopefully the report will appear on their website and I will get a link.

Past, Present and Future