Blog

OK, I've been quiet lately but it's that time of year for self-employed people - 31 January and therefore tax deadline day is only days away.

Yicch.

For people who aren't self-employed, the system works thus: you declare your income and expenditure for the financial year ended pretty much ages ago and send your figures in. You also put in your personal finances for the same period. Your accountant calls you in a panic - or rather doesn't because he's up to his eyes. You then find out he or she needs more detail and they assume you know exactly what by osmosis.

I'll be blogging again by the end of the week. Just don't be surprised if the blog looks somehow tear-stained...

The Shilpa Shetty/Big Brother stuff is coming to a head nicely - 21,000 complaints at last count because of racism in the house. There are arguments and counter-arguments; I'd have to agree on the surface that 'dog', which she has been called, is not actually a racist term of abuse, it's usually sexist, but in the context of all the rest it's probably been applied to her because she's Indian and therefore a "Paki" (although how that's supposed to work geographically I have no idea - presumably the bigots will find someone from Pakistan and call them an Indi in the interests of balance).

Personally I'm delighted by what's happening. Let me rephrase. I deplore what's happening to Ms. Shetty as an individual - nobody should have to go through that. On the other hand, in my experience most racists and bigots shout their abuse at people who are different then go home and forget about them. It rarely occurs to them that these people are individuals with families, feelings and rights. On Celebrity Big Brother the bigots can watch the abuse and no doubt find it jolly amusing - but then they have to watch the reaction. Probably for the first time they're sitting there seeing what happens after someone is abused simply for their skin colour and culture, when they're by themselves and quiet. I doubt that they would have realised the insult doesn't just go away once the aggressor has left the scene.

If one person, be they a builder or a ballet dancer, thinks twice about shouting abuse next time, or reconsiders their BNP membership as a result of watching Shilpa, this might have been worth it.

Initially my reaction was one of anger; he's been on the radio (something I'm keen to build on as long-term readers will know, so let's acknowledge the professional jealousy angle immediately) and talked about something of which he has little first-hand knowledge. And contrary to his blog's claim that Microsoft didn't send out any review copies of Windows Vista for review until January, I and loads of other tech journalists have been playing with the beta release for months (you get it by phoning the press office and asking).

Then I had another think. Isn't every journalist prone to review books or equipment turning up late? Can we honestly all claim that we've never done anything in a hurry with a slightly shaky brief? So how is this case different and why did I react angrily?

Two possible reasons spring to mind. One is simple professional jealousy. I'm not proud of my feelings here but I'd love to go on the World Service and if I've seen Vista and used it then a large part of me says that should have been my gig rather than that of someone who hasn't even seen the damned thing. The second, which is more serious to my mind, is in blogging the transgression afterwards. If someone found the broadcast interesting they might, for example, do a web search on the journalists involved. They might find the blog and then see the programme completely undermined by one of the contributors.

As a competitive journalist I'm annoyed at it for reasons of petty jealousy, I admit it. If I were the producer and found my programme being apparently dismissed in this way, I think I'd be furious.

Albeit only as a brand within the BBC, talking about tech stories under the auspices of Maggie Philbin. On a personal level of course I find this highly frustrating. Readers will be aware that over Christmas I did a little tech spot on BBC London and if all of the tech spots are now going to come under one banner then it's thank you and goodnight to me.

I'm looking forward to it, though, not because of the quality of the stories or the (deserved) resurgence in Maggie Philbin's career, but because they might start dropping clangers again. Does everyone else remember how we were all going to be wearing high-tech clothing made of old vinyl records by the 1980s (predicted in the 1960s)? Or how CDs were foolproof and completely indestructible?

Of course there'll be the sensible stuff as well, but personally I wish Maggie Philbin every success and courage in coming out with as much cock-eyed tripe as the new formats will take. That was always half the fun of the original.

...is also the least sociable thing I've done for ages by far but hey. that's life. On Boxing Day - that's Boxing Day, mark you - I was up at 6.00am to drive to the BBC for an 8.40 interview. I've been trying to get a slot on the breakfast show for, oh, ages now and finally they called me in.

A cynic - OK, my father-in-law - might suggest that they'd take anyone mug enough to get up at that time on Boxing Day but I can only say that the combination of producer Sarah Ryan and presenters JoAnne Good and Baylen Leonard are an unusually welcoming combination, particularly since they'd been broadcasting since 6.00 and no doubt preparing the show for an hour or so before then.

Sometimes you get these things you really want to do again. Fingers crossed.