Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Television Nirvana
Bruce Springstein fanously sang "We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn/There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on", but even he could not have envisaged the sheer inanity of the annual party political budget broadcasts here in the UK.
Now the Telegraph tells us that we are to be spared the future torture of searching for the remote control so as to switch over before our brains freeze up.
They say that the BBC Trust are proposing to end the system of UK-wide broadcasts by the Chancellor and opposition parties on the annual financial statement to MPs, which it believes to be “outdated”.
Instead, parties will be given three broadcasts each every year, in the spring, autumn and winter, in addition to separate election broadcasts in the run-up to voting days:
“The broadcasts originated when there was neither TV nor radio available from the chamber of the House of Commons and the Budget broadcast was the only way in which the Chancellor could be seen and heard communicating directly to the public the content of the budget,” it said.
“Now the audience has the opportunity to watch and listen to the Chancellor live in the House of Commons, or to catch up on iPlayer, or to see and hear the key points across many different outlets.”
And so say all of us!
Now the Telegraph tells us that we are to be spared the future torture of searching for the remote control so as to switch over before our brains freeze up.
They say that the BBC Trust are proposing to end the system of UK-wide broadcasts by the Chancellor and opposition parties on the annual financial statement to MPs, which it believes to be “outdated”.
Instead, parties will be given three broadcasts each every year, in the spring, autumn and winter, in addition to separate election broadcasts in the run-up to voting days:
“The broadcasts originated when there was neither TV nor radio available from the chamber of the House of Commons and the Budget broadcast was the only way in which the Chancellor could be seen and heard communicating directly to the public the content of the budget,” it said.
“Now the audience has the opportunity to watch and listen to the Chancellor live in the House of Commons, or to catch up on iPlayer, or to see and hear the key points across many different outlets.”
And so say all of us!
