MARION BARTOLI IS NO LOOKER !

Shock, Horror !! A BBC presenter has been a little injudicious in his use of language regarding the Wimbledon Ladies' champion, Marion Bartoli; he had the nerve to say, on air, what most of the male population, and probably a good proportion of the female population, were thinking while watching in their living rooms, pubs or clubs.

Sadly for John Inverdale, the truth or otherwise of his words is not considered relevant; all that matters is that he's offended the 'Equality Mafia', the 'Anti-Sexism Brigade' and the other assorted fascists who rule our lives. Now, the BBC feels obliged to issue public apologies and the 'Culture Secretary', Maria Miller, herself a female politician who has risen from the depths of obscurity to her current lofty position without showing any signs of ability, though certainly not because she's a 'looker', has expressed concern about Inverdale's words and asked the Beeb to let her know what it's doing about things. One has to suspect that poor Inverdale will soon find himself relegated to presenting 'Cruft's, the 'Chelsea Flower Show' or some other event at which the beauty or otherwise of the participants is unlikely to be a matter of interest.

What Inverdale said was, actually, irrelevant and stupid, but it was not sexist and does not deserve to be treated as a major public scandal. Marion Bartoli is a most determined tennis player and was a deserved winner of the Wimbledon title, but she certainly is no beauty. What she is, is an ordinary girl what done good; she will never be seen trotting along a catwalk, à la Maria Sharapova or Anna Kournikova. Personally, I find her far less intimidating than these two superstar models and she's probably a much nicer person when all is boiled down.

As for the BBC, this organisation never ceases to amaze me with its hypocrisy. It has gone out of its way to fête 'beautiful people', to employ only good looking women to front its major programmes and to remove those whose years make them less attractive to the viewing audience. Ask Moira Stewart, Michael Aspel, Anna Ford, Miriam O'Reilly, Arlene Phillips, Hugh Porter and all the rest who've been dumped because they no longer fitted the required stereotype; how long will it be before the ageing Sue Barker finds herself replaced as presenter of 'A Question of Sport', probably by some thirtyish dollybird with the brains of a turnip and personality of a damp rag ?

At the same time, it continued to employ Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall and, no doubt, others, for many decades while they freely molested and abused children of both sexes in the full knowledge of their colleagues. For the BBC now to feign horror at Inverdale's harmless comments really is a joke. For the 'Culture Secretary' to try to milk the situation for political ends is pathetic.