BBC TV News Review - Tuesday 2nd October

Huw Edwards was host for yesterday evening's news at 10 on the BBC, the first feature was politics, but with a heavy war bias; revolving around our current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who has visited Iraq and announced that a thousand of the five thousand five hundred troops still stationed there should be home for Christmas.

It seems that the Conservative Party are raging about the timing of the announcement, given the current speculation over an early election, and to this end, we were treated to images of a speech by MP Liam Fox, denouncing Gordon, before BBC political editor, Nick Robinson, asked us to consider if the latter's "halo has been dented". John Major, the ex Tory PM, was later interviewed, he talked of nods, winks and cynicism, before pleading with Gordon to "stop the speculation" and name the election date. David Cameron claimed that the announcement over military reduction should have been announced in Parliament

Gordon advised that the claims against him of "cynical engineering" were "proposterous" and images were shown of his visit to Iraq yesterday, talking to troops and observing military operations from the safety of a helicopter. He advised that our remaining soldiers over there would now be employed on an "overwatch basis"; monitoring and supporting the Iraq army rather than the roaming combat role in which they are currently engaged. Nick told however that more troops "are staying than would otherwise be the case", but no explanation was provided as to the "otherwise" part. Furthermore, he advised that the strategy announced today was not much different from that agreed by Tony Blair, a gradual reduction and withdrawal; however he does seem to believe that an election is imminent.

Princess Di followed, the first day of the official inquest into her death was yesterday, five men and six women will consider the tons of evidence over the next six months or so, before giving their opinion as to the circumstances surrounding her death. We heard of possibilities and conspiracies - was she pregnant, was she converting to the Muslim religion, these are apparently factors which will need to be considered. We saw al-Fayed(a) being interviewed, he believes the Royal Family, and in particular, Prince Phillip, are behind this and have acted in some sort of nefarious manner. This may run on and on, I made my own opinions clear yesterday. Another double edged sword.

The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes was next, we heard how he was mistaken for a terror suspect and shot on the tube by armed police. The Metropolitan police themselves are on trial at the Old Bailey and we heard that it was a case of mistaken identity. A photofit of the suspect and victim was shown (as below), half of each face merged into one, to show how simple the error was.

Goncalo Amaral, the senior Portuguese detective investigating the Madeleine McCann case has been removed from the case after "criticising British police" who are also apparently involved in proceedings. It appears that he has accused them of working soley for the McCanns, and doing what they want. We saw the a video clip of the missing girl before BBC reporter Richard Bilton again told us of "precious few facts", this was followed by a interview with the family's press officer, pink shirted Clarence Mitchell, who told how the McCann's always co-operate with the Portuguese authorities. Yet, I was under the impression they had refused to answer various questions put to them ?

Coming up - football, Manchester United in European action.

First though, we went back to Burma for an update by reporter Andrew Harding. Any avid readers may recall Mr Harding's visit to an Karate Kid type abode, a couple of weeks ago, when a wise old man talked of his fears. It seems that the old man was taken away during the night by police and that this has also happened to other activists. Images were also shown of the abandoned baby who has been captured by the authorities.

Scotland was next, a chap called Hunter Watson is legally challenging the right of retirement care homes to administer drugs to patients in a covert manner, namely by mixing them in their meals. This process was referred to as "disguising drugs" by the BBC and illustrated with an image of a cooked dinner. We heard of sedation and dementia before an old lady was shown, eating tea and biscuits. It seems that some care staff are not fully trained and simply "reach for the medicine bottle" in order to quell any unruly behaviour.

200 post offices are to close in England, we saw images of more old people, telling how they rely on the service to pay bills and suchlike; however it seems that it is not economically viable and , as such, the old peoples views and standard of living dont really matter.

It was football to close as promised; we heard of how clubs "fly the flag".

Go to school, get a job, work 55 years, get a shite pension if you are lucky, move into a retirement home, because your family dont have time/cant be arsed/are not capable of looking after you. It's not all bad though, you will be covertly sedated so you wont even know and you might even get to watch some sport.

Your future - your New World.

cheers

Menezes, 50 - 50 chance ?