BBC TV News - Friday 7th December

Fiona Bruce was hostess on the news at 10 last night, Guantanamo Bay our first story. We heard how the kindly Americans are to release four out of the five "British residents" who are currently imprisoned there without legal conviction. We saw an American military lady advising that she considered the individuals still to be a threat to global order, however the USA do not wish to be the jailers of the world. We heard a wee bit about the captives and their terrorist links which seemed somewhat sketchy in one case at least. Surely anyone who is serious about being a jihad terrorist is not going to go to training camp, if indeed there are such things. The video report is here for those interested; or the written.

The horse racing fixing trial has been abandoned as, jockey like, "it didn't stand up". Quite a long feature, presented by Indian gentleman, Mihir Bose, sports editor of the BBC, we heard of the lack of evidence and waste of money.

Police have been allowed another 36 hours to question Mr Darwin, the crafty canoeist. We saw images of him at court and heard of global media interest. "Most extraordinary", "the mystery deepens" etc., etc. A few years ago when I was at college, one of the lecturers was alone in a large workshop. A tractor somehow hit him on the side, causing some bruising, but worst of all, amnesia. He didn't even recognise his workmates as they helped him into the ambulance - "who are you", or his wife, nor could he remember the ailing public house he also owned, and its massive debts. The police also took an interest, students being interviewed if I recall correctly.

Price fixing next, major supermarkets and dairies have been artificially inflating the prices of the artificial cheese, butter and watermilk which they sell in place of traditional products, yet somehow call the same. Sometimes I have this terrible feeling that there is one basic substance which all supermarket cheese is formed from, different colouring and taste chemicals being applied, in whatever instance. For example, Red Leicester might be code 18/7, 18 being the taste chemical, 7 being the colour. This might sound like pie in the sky to readers, but when I worked in whisky it was in fact the case. Many many different blended whiskies were essentially the same.

President Mugabe at the Europe/Africa conference. We saw human rights hecklers as we were reminded of Gordon Brown's moral stance on this, hence his non attendance. Jose Manuel Barrosa hit the nail on the head though, when he advised, in so many words, that all countries are guilty of human rights abuse. You can see the clip here.

Coming up - Hatton's fixit man - cue image boxer Ricky Hatton with cut eye.

First though, quite a long feature on the tension in Kosovo. We were reminded of the Balkan Wars and saw the NATO new world peacekeeping force, in this instance the soldiers were French, how long till we reintroduce national service ? It seems from this report that matters are quite serious.

America - we saw images of Robert Hawkins "aiming at shoppers" in the recent Nebrasken mall incident.

Long feature next on the boxing, Hatton vs Mayweather. Hyped up to the maximum, over here anyway.

Politicians, corruption and sleaze, a part cartoon style feature, reflecting perhaps the Friday night ambiance of the viewing public. Basically it was saying our system of funding has to change because of the corruption. Change into what though.

To close, composer Karlheinz Stockhausen has passed away. We saw an old black and white clip of him and heard of his admirers, from the Beatles to Bjork. The clip is here for those interested, I must confess my ignorance of his music or indeed his existence. It's another end of an era though, time passing by, everything evolving.

cheers









Future Guantanamo ?