BBC's fixation with South Africa

Well that's annoying!

I haven't looked at my blog for a couple of weeks and although I posted the Redcar result on it, I have just noticed that I've forgot to include it in Freedom. It was an encouraging result so I shall do a small report in the January issue, even though it's long after the event. If anyone can pass on my apologies to our candidate, Bernard Collinson, I would be very grateful if they could do so.

All road lead to Blackpool this weekend for the party's Annual Conference and it promises to be the biggest and best ever. Last year the hotel was bursting at the seams but I understand that efforts have been made to increase the size of the Conference Hall by removing the partition wall at the back.

Radio 4 News at eight o'clock this morning carried a report of a singer, who I have never heard of, who had died. Apparently she was South African and her claim to fame was that she was an anti-apartheid campaigner. When I think of all the great British singers who have died yet never got a mention on the BBC's News it does make me cross. That report dove-tailed nicely with an advert for Women's Hour today given a plug just before the bulletin, which announced that the special guest on today's programme was someone who sang at the Nelson Mandela Birthday celebration.

The BBC are wringing their hands in anguish because they didn't have enough black staff reporting on the Obama victory.
The BBC sent a team of 175 to cover the US elections but acknowledged it should have had more black faces on show.
The head of BBC News said the coverage showed that more had to be done to attract people from ethnic minorities to the corporation.
"Our figures are improving, they are still not as good as they should be at senior levels and they are not as good as they should be on air," he said. "But it's not about figures it's about portrayal, it's about how we come across."

The BBC have no shortage of Black faces when showing classroom footage that go with reports on Education. It's very much a case of spot the white face then.

Massive turn out for the BNP at yesterday's Remembrance Day ceremonies and with reports coming in from across the country, it should make a very good feature for the next issue of Freedom.

I'm hoping to sort out the problems with the Freedom website this week. It has been stuck in a time warp since the advent of the new website because the way I used to update it became redundant with all the new technology. Hopefully it can become a pdf-orientated site with the full newspaper being able to be read on line one month after it comes out.