Roisin Murphy was silenced. Was it for not singing to the BBC’s tune?
NOW, here’s a coincidence.
The Irish singer has just had five hours of her songs cancelled by the BBC at very short notice.
Just after she made a few eminently sensible comments about puberty blocking drugs. Comments which I suspect the majority of the British people would strongly endorse.
Of course, when she made her views known, the trans lobby went bananas.
The activists, some of who are loopier than fruitbats on methamphetamine, demanded she be banned from everywhere, immediately. And so loudly do they shriek that concert promoters and record companies tend to listen.
Everyone is terrified of getting on the wrong side of these hysterical woke nutjobs.
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Including, it would seem, the BBC.
Roisin was due to have the corporation’s 6 Music channel devote five hours to her songs and her influences as part of their Artist Collection.
And now, suddenly, it’s been pulled. She’s been replaced by someone called Little Simz.
The BBC has denied that it is censoring a musician for political grounds. It put out a statement saying: “The Artist Collections from our archive are regularly on rotation and frequently change to reflect station-wide initiatives as they get confirmed.
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“Little Simz was scheduled to reflect 6 Music’s Way With Words programming, which celebrates poetry, rap and spoken word, and airs the following week, tying in with National Poetry Day.
“There was no other reason for the change. Roisin Murphy has been played on 6 Music recently and her Artist Collection remains in rotation.”
Oh yeah? Really? I think that is what we in the business call a porkie pie. A downright lie.
For a start, National Poetry Day is NOT next week – it’s in October. So it doesn’t “tie in” at all, does it?
And they were very late coming up with their ludicrous explanation.
But then, we’ve been here before, haven’t we?
Back in 2020 the BBC decided that nobody would be allowed to sing Rule Britannia or Land Of Hope And Glory at the Last Night Of The Proms.
Hideously woke
The BBC has always hated such a show of patriotism.
At the time, they denied it was anything to do with them being hideously woke tosspots.
At first they tried — unforgivably — to blame the rather charming and talented conductor, Finland’s Dalia Stasevska.
They implied she wasn’t happy with the jingoism of all that singing.
The poor woman was forced to deny outright that she’d said any such thing.
Then the BBC blamed Covid.
It said there couldn’t be singing because everyone might drop dead from the virus.
This was, of course, balls.
And as soon as a new Director-General, Tim Davie, came in, the proms were back on, singing and everything.
So it had been a tissue of lies.
And that’s what I suspect has happened on this occasion.
If it has, then this is the case of the BBC discriminating against an artist simply because, as an institution, it does not agree with her views.
Even though her views are perfectly moderate — she simply objects to children being given dangerous, life-changing drugs.
So let’s see if that scheduled five hours of Roisin Murphy will be put back on very soon indeed.
And if it isn’t, she should sue them for political discrimination.
It's Scots wahey for poor Harry
IT was mildly pleasing to see the Jocks put in their place at Hampden Park. They really, really care about it, don’t they?
For England it’s just another game – our real rivalries are with the likes of Germany and Argentina.
I did enjoy the Scottish supporters laughing every time Harry Maguire got the ball, mind.
And truth be told – they’ve got a point, haven’t they.
HAS there ever, in the long history of pop music, been a single more truly irritating than Tension, by Kylie Minogue?
Yes, I’m including all that stuff by the Vengaboys, Vanilla Ice and Ed Sheeran.
I’m even including Cotton Eye Joe.
For gawd’s sake someone touch the bloody woman and get it over with.
What a load of sheet
THERE was vital and fascinating information from a rival newspaper last week.
It was on the important issue of how to wipe your bum. This is presumably the first in a series of features schooling their dim readers in how to master essential everyday tasks.
Coming soon: How To Breathe, How To Drink A Glass Of Water and How To Chew Gum And Walk At The Same Time.
The article drew together advice from scientists as well as toilet paper manufacturers on the correct direction to wipe. And the requisite number of sheets of paper needed.
It also reported a strange statistic, suggesting that 65 per cent of people carried out this action sitting down.
What were the rest doing? Handstands?
Hope someone cleans the ceilings.
EVERY time an American XL Bully dog mauls someone to death, the apologists come out.
“It’s not the dog – it’s the owners,” they say. This is rubbish and it has always been rubbish.
The American XL Bully is a pitbull terrier which has been bred to be violent. You can teach it to walk, to heel, and to sit up and beg for as long as you like.
But it is still in its nature and physique to fight.
Suella Braverman is right to call for it to be banned.
Pariah scary
HOW lovely to see those two great world leaders, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, posing together for photos. The Nuclear Chuckle Brothers.
The Sun called it the Axis of Evil. But the Axis of Totally Mental would do just as well.
The worrying thing is that these two leaders are NOT pariahs.
More people live in countries which either support the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or couldn’t give a monkey’s either way – China, Russia, India, Iran and most of Africa.
The West is envied and hated in equal measure.
Shops left in lurch
THE real reason there’s an epidemic of shoplifting isn’t down to the police.
OK, it would be nice if they turned up and showed a little bit of interest in their work.
But the problem is a mindset – a left-wing mindset.
This is the naive and stupid assumption that shoplifting isn’t really a “proper” crime.
And that the people who do it are blameless.
Because they are desperately poor. And have been done over by the wicked capitalist system.
And everyone has a right to eat, don’t they? And the right to a nice pair of trainers and a widescreen TV.
It is a truly inane and very damaging mindset.
And until we get rid of it, our cities will increasingly resemble the crime-ridden slums of the major American cities, where the same mindset holds sway.
A NEW survey suggests that old terms of address are dying out.
People don’t say “Dear Rod” at the start of an email or text any more. They don’t say “Yours sincerely” at the end, either. It’s very sad.
And dispiriting to receive texts which just say “OMG u totl tsser – wtf?” Especially if it’s from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Labour pains
THE local Labour candidate was at our village show last weekend.
I talked to him for a bit. Seemed a decent bloke, very sensible.
The party had a stall where you could place coloured stars on a poster of the Labour policies you liked.
Nowhere on the poster was “we’re going to give lots more power to Mick Lynch and the unions. Because we feel they haven’t caused enough disruption yet.”
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But that seems to be Angela Rayner’s plan.
Will the REAL Labour Party please step forward?