ralpress.org

Where these days does one see public messages delivered in such a threatening, confrontational tone? North Korea? Saudi Arabia? Planet Earth, post Dalek invasion? Perhaps, but this one is currently displayed by the TV Licensing organization (the enforcement arm of the BBC) on a giant advertising hoarding on the A23 near Streatham Common in South London (click on the image to see a larger version).

Nice isn’t it? Not the kind of intimidation you would normally expect to see in a modern, civilized democracy. And it’s astonishingly insensitive, even provocative, coming as it does during a time of heightened public sensitivity about state surveillance and the database culture. It’s a huge billboard and it literally looms over you as you walk past. It’s actually rather chilling.

It looks like Noel Edmonds was right. Auntie isn’t as benign and “avuncular” as it likes to make out. If the BBC really wishes to remain the cherished institution it so often claims to be, it had better start behaving like a civilized, responsible organization. These Gestapo tactics are ugly, ominous and unconscionable, and we are all heartily sick of them.

Edit: It seems that Tom Clougherty on adamsmith.org shares my feelings about this unpleasant and ominous poster.

The independent galactic equality tribunal has declared that Wales is under-represented on British TV. The tribunal is of course right. Wales is indeed under-represented on British TV, for similar reasons that North Kent, Felixstowe and the Lake District are under-represented on British TV. Of course, North Kent, Felixstowe and the Lake District are not identified with that magic ingredient, ethnicity. They don’t have a flag to fly, an anthem to sing, or a national breast to thump and so their under-representation is, frankly, less important. Much less important.

Next stop: companies forced to provide Cornish-only prayer rooms