‘BBC’s tokenism shows it isn’t serious about change for TV licence payers’

A few weeks back, I was listening with half an ear to the radio, when I came across something that I had previously thought extinct: a genuinely funny comedy on Radio 4. It’s called Plum House, it’s about the least visited museum in the country, and it’s an absolute riot

Every single member of the cast deserves mention, but there’s not enough room here, suffice it to say Simon Callow, as the museum curator, is hysterical. Forget Four Weddings: this is his real career high.

All of which came to mind as I heard BBC Director-General Tim Davie tell the Today programme that Beeb stars will no longer be referred to as the “talent”.

He was not referring to stars such as Callow, but the likes of Huw Edwards, whose privileged position allowed him to abuse his status, as, to a considerably lesser extent, did Jermaine Jenas and various Strictly stars. No mention of Gary Lineker, mind you, who appears to have come to the profoundly misplaced conclusion that he’s one of the great thinkers of the age.

But if Mr Davie really thinks that changing the name by which high-profile presenters are referred to will change anything in the utter shambles that is the current-day BBC, he is very much mistaken. The rot goes to the very heart of the organisation with bias against Israel, against Brexit, against the Tories, against anything that doesn’t comply with the BBC’s smug, self-satisfied liberal elite world view.

If Davie really wanted to make a difference, he could start by slashing the obscenely high tax-funded salaries with which these mediocrities are awarded.

However, resetting the Beeb mindset is going to take a lot more than that I fear.

The reason Plum House was such a joyous surprise was that there is no hidden agenda designed to din some right-on message into the rest of us, simply the desire to make the audience laugh. Very, very few of the BBC comedies manage that these days.

Catch it while you still have the chance.

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James Blunt has vowed to change his name to Blunty McBluntface if his album’s re-release makes it to No.1 in the charts. Hm. If I did something similar I’d be Blacky McBlackface. Why do I have the strong feeling this wouldn’t go down very well?

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Just how stupid do you have to be to insult a multi-billion-pound company that is on the verge of making a large and much needed investment in the country on the eve of your government’s International Investment Summit?

Step forward transport minister Louise Haigh, who called P&O Ferries a “rogue operator” who she intended to boycott.

She thus put at risk a sizable sum its parent, DP World, was planning on investing in the London Gateway container port.

The deal has been rescued, but this whole episode shows Labour up for what it really is: juvenile activists who do not understand the reality of being in government as opposed to hurling abuse at anyone they don’t agree with from the sidelines.

But looking at her, who on earth thought Louise Haigh was suitable for high office?

And they said Boris made us an international laughing stock.

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It is being said that Sir Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, believes the huge pay rises being awarded to doctors, teachers and the rail unions will go down well with the working class because they would be seen to be benefiting the average person on the street.

What rubbish! With the exception of Angela Rayner, the working class are not actually stupid and it is often forgotten quite how many of them supported Mrs Thatcher when she began her decade of reform.

The whole country was sick to death of being held to ransom by the unions and if Starmer & Co forget that, they will deservedly suffer the same fate as Labour’s Jim Callaghan.

And, the way things are looking, from another woman, at that.

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More pictures have come down from the walls at No.10: these latest include Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh. Why doesn’t Labour just come clean and admit they hate Britain? About the only thing you can say about it is that the towering figures of Elizabeth and Sir Walter will be remembered still when Keir & Co are but a long-forgotten blip in our nation’s proud history.

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Much is being made of “sleep divorce” at the moment; a couple having separate bedrooms while remaining wed.

No thank you. It’s not the phnarr-phnarr bit of how’s your father that’s getting lost here but the myriad minor intimacies that go into building up coupledom.

During a week in Italy recently, we stayed at a hotel in which we slept in a bed the size of a battleship.

It is said that some couples are spending up to £100,000 more on a new house big enough for his and hers bedrooms.

Why not spend the dosh on a place with one huge marital chamber – and a truly ginormous marital bed?

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Sebastian Garrido has made the news, claiming he experienced a “time slip” when, on the way to visit his dying grandfather, he encountered a mysterious figure, who turned out to be said grandfather, but decades younger.

When he arrived at the hospital his grandfather said he had been dreaming about him. Did he briefly slip through time?

My husband and I live in an old house (1680) and once, in the dining room, I quite suddenly had a sense, almost a vision, of numbers of people in 18th century dress. It was not frightening, but rather, reassuring and it has never happened before or since.

More things in heaven and earth.