Dear BBC, I have had enough of it. Every time I switch on my radio around news time, I think I have tuned into a satirical program. I hear the same voices that I have listened to over the years, but what are they telling me? Surely the BBC find their information in the same world I and others do? There are many of us who are angry! with what is happening around the world and do not need to be made angrier, by what is being transmitted as news. News, that comes from a station, what was once known for having some assemblage, of un-bias opinion; namely the BBC.
Why, these days if I want informed, balanced, opinion, do I have to listen to Democracy Now, an American independent news program? Because.When I switch on the news, like many others, I am expecting to be informed by an assessment of the all facts, not just the ones that my government thinks is important, or that they feel I should know. I want my views represented and discussed; not just those of politician's. I want to hear the views of people, speaking for people, and not just the views of government apologists, or business experts. The BBC stands for British Broadcasting Corporation, (introduced, when corporations meant something for the benefit of people). BBC is not there to serve "British Business Corporations"; and as such, should operate for the good, or benefit of the people who pay for its upkeep (the general public), rather than as a conduit of business and government propaganda.
Do journalists feel no shame, in the farce transmitted as news; the scripted lies; the sanitised language of deception; and that's for the so called, real news. The viewer or listener is also treated to, every half hour, a doze of misery which mainly consists of peoples personal tragedy, personality profiles, business deals and sports fixtures. "That is the end of the news" What I and a lot of others need from the news is balanced facts, un-bias information, representation and things that are meaningful and that mater to us. The reason that we do not get it is; like so many journalists, we will complain and moan at each other, of why it is not possible. We will put up with it and meander on, instead of complaining to the highest order. we will let other people complain, and if they do, we won't bother. Then we will complain to the people who complained, because their complaints didn't do any good. Then we will switch on the news and wonder why the world is such a messed up place.

Or maybe, we will pick up some paper and write a letter to the BBC and describe our anger and revulsion, and all the things that we describe and complain about so well to our friends and acquaintance's. We will get them out of our system and aimed squarely at the people who have the power to do something about them. If, they are convinced that there is enough of us to constitute a threat to the status quo. Maybe some journalists within the BBC will be motivated, by this kind of interest and in turn, motivate others. Maybe when we receive replies to our letters of complaint, it will give us the confidence to write others. Maybe if we then phoned the BBC and demanded to ...

It is a common site to see people huddling at the entrances to buildings, smoking cigarettes. Hope Street, in Glasgow, was, and still could be, one of the most highly polluted streets in Britain. Could the person sent out of the office to smoke; sue their boss for forcing them into a potentially health threatening environment?
It is one thing to agree with sending smokers onto the street if they wish to pollute the atmosphere, and another to jump into your car; catalytic converter, or not, and roar off in a cloud of smoke. A child in a buggy can be kept well away from smokers, but on the other hand are in the right position to breath in the fumes from hundreds of cars, buses, lorries on a stroll to the shops; or in fact sitting in the back of their parents car. While the smoker is cast out into the wilderness; the car is welcomed with open arms.In the city centre, or anywhere people congregate, the car will be accommodated; multi-car-parks, drive-ins, special slip roads to the shopping complex; whole towns and street plans altered to make way for more cars. The ozone layer creaks under the strain. The city council sit in the vault counting the revenue from the parking bays: the car parks, the parking tickets and wondering how to squeeze more roads into the city plan. While only enough is done to appease the anti-smoking lobby, and at the same time; keep the tobacco industry happily churning out taxable product. Practically nothing, in comparison, is done about the social and detrimental health effects of the car.
All sources of pollution are bad news and need to be tackled effectively; but the biggest problems need the most attention.

Some comparisons

When we comparing he amount of advertising leveled at smokers and the damage to our collective well being created by smoking, to the amount of advertising leveled against, industrial pollution, cars; the manufacturing of environmentally unsound products and activities; It is zero it does't exist; in fact it is practically the opposite, we are encouraged to buy more cars to drive to more malls to buy more battery operated toys...

Should we wait; until we ban smokers of the face of the earth, before we start worrying about the car, or the ozone layer?

Sure it is progress if we are protected from other peoples smoke. But the concentration on smokers should not divert us from the bigger picture - industrial pollution - in a massive scale.

The concentration on the smoker, can be read in much the same way as the vigorous, focus of attention given in the media, concerning social security fraud; while the small time crook, and poor are hounded for pounds, no attention is paid to big business, who defraud the public purse for billions.

I am not inculcating the merits of smokers, who defraud the social security system; but merely focusing some attention on the bigger, events that are destroying our health and environment; of which smoking is an important, but in the larger picture; a minor player.

____________________________________
Having said all this I do not wish to advance the notion, or give the impression that smoking is OK. Smoking is an habitual drug; that can kill you; slow you down; take over your life; and cost a fortune; and for these reasons should be avoided at all costs

www.givingupsmoking.co.uk