NEWS, WHAT NEWS ?

Flicking through the 'Teletext' news pages recently, I saw that we have the same old mixture of trivia, political shenanigans and, supposedly expert, analysis.

Retail sales in the UK apparently 'rebounded' in March, much to the surprise of analysts, who had also been suprised by the fall in sales in February. I find the most interesting, and worrying, part of this story as the fact that these supposed experts have been 'surprised' 2 months running; these are the people whose predictions can have dramatic effetcs on financial markets and, therefore, the fortunes of all of us, and yet they seem to have no idea about what's currently happening in our economy.

Another story was of a sick granny who'd been dropped in the sea off Norway during an attempt to transfer her from a cruise ship to a lifeboat. While sympathising with the granny, why on earth this story is considered worthy for our national news, I can't imagine.

Then we had the story of two news photographers being killed in Libya. This one has produced all manner of media nonsense about the brilliance of the two and we'll no doubt be treated to an enormous amount of 'overkill' in due course as the rest of the media rings its hands over the story. Frankly, if the two men in question were stupid enough to put themselves in the firing line in a war-torn country, what happened was hardly unexpected and deserves little more than a footnote on page 5.

A more significant story and one that caused my hackles to rise.was the aone about the 80,000 people in the UK currently receiving incapacity benefit due to obesity and drug and alcohol addictions; more than 20,000 of these have not worked for more than a decade. If these figures are correct, this is, in truth, a national scandal. People are being allowed to idle away their time on state support, and I have no doubt that these same individuals will also be enjoying a huge range of other benefits, for year after year simply because they can't be bothered to sort themselves out. Of course, the ubiquitous 'campaigners' claim that it's all actually the fault of the government for failing to provide enough treatment facilities but this is just poppycock. We have become far too soft in this country and it's well past time that these spungers on society were given a hearty kick up the backside, and had their benefit lifestyles curtailed.

More serious news was that the number of serious child abuse cases referred to either the police or social services  by the NSPCC has reached an all-time high, according to the NSPCC themselves. However, what this bald headline really meant is less easy to determine; the NSPCC attribute the steep rise of 37% in referrals in 2010/11 to better public awareness of child abuse, but I also wonder to what extent our level of tolerance has reduced. Years ago, it was relatively normal, and acceptable, for parents and other to routinely beat children; depriving them of food or shutting them in a cellar for bad behaviour would hardly have been noticed. Today, the slightest infringement on what is seen as a child's 'human rights' is seen as being abuse and various agencies are all too keen to 'step in' to rescue the 'victim'. Beware bald numbers and statistics.

Similarly to the story of the silly photographers, we also had the death of a bomb disposal officer in Afghanistan. Bomb disposal is an inherently dangerous activity and those who volunteer for it must be of a very particular type; the main occupational hazard is serious injury or death. While having every admiration for the work that these individuals do, and symapthy for their families when it goes wrong, I fail to see why every death is treated as front page news and why we have to be regaled with statements from colleagues and family members. This latest death is, perhaps, more noteworthy than most as it concerns a female officer, surely one of the very few women to ever take to this line of work, but she was, after all, a soldier in a dangerous place doing a dangerous job  for which she had volunteered. Yet again, the media will no doubt ring every ounce of coverage out of a story that really doesn't warrant it.

Then we had the coverage of the Royal Wedding, not actually a news story at all as it hasn't happened yet, but that's never stopped the rampant media from making a mountain out of a mole hill. My great hope here is that we only have another few days to go before the event HAS happened and we can all go back to normal life. What annoys me most is the constant television and radio coverage that suggests the entire world is utterly gripped by the forthcoming nuptials; haven't they yet realised the truth of the old saying that 'familiarity breeds contempt' ? We have been inundated with Royal Wedding nonsense for months, in addition to the usual ridiculous coverage of the doings of the younger royals on an almost daily basis for year after year; do we really want still more ?

This is very different to the situation of 30 or 60 years ago when royal occasions were genuinely big news because the people were largely divorced from the activities of the Royal Family and knew little about them. Today they are, mostly, public figures with a celebrity status; their activities, however mundane and boring, are followed assiduously, and reported daily, by the obnoxious press. Frankly, I've heard enough of the modern crop to last me several more lifetimes than I have left. Next Friday will be an opportunity for me to have a bit of free time in a quiet Pub; I, for certain, will not be glued to the TV watching the interminable repeats of the 'most significant moments' of yet another hugely forgettable celebrity day. Good Luck to William and Kate, but leave me out of it.