Sunday, January 28, 2007

What does this say about Britain?

I am not a massive fan of TV programme Big Brother.

But like millions of other TV viewers in Britain I am fascinated by what has been going on in the last four weeks inside that house.

Cutting to the chase I think it is very interesting that the final three housemates were all non British.

The three young British women, Jade, Jo and Danielle who were evicted earlier in the programme do not represent British women. I was frankly ashamed and appalled at their bullying of the Indian woman Shilpa who won the competition. Click here for Report.

I apologise on behalf of Britain to anyone from any other country that watched these three women bring down the reputation of all decent British women.

I hope the three of them have learned through their experience.

As a start they could try looking in a dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘dignified’

Or better still they could study Shilpa’s behaviour.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never seen Big Brother so I am obviously well placed to comment knowledgeably! I was tempted so that I could see what all the fuss was about, but resisted as I had no desire to increase the ratings for the show. We can huff and puff all we like, but if we continue to support programmes like this or buy tabloid newspapers, we cannot reasonably complain about the content.

For me it is the same as going into a shop or restaurant. If you don’t like the quality of the product or the service you receive, then go somewhere else next time. If you continue to support them, they have no incentive to change.

My website Random Ramblings of 10th January discussed this issue, and in particular, the campaign of a significant group of Liverpool Football Club supporters to discourage the purchase of the Sun newspaper because of their distaste at the way it had dealt with what is still a very sensitive issue, that is the Hillsborough disaster.

Whilst looking at revisions to my website, I had been actively considering transferring Random Ramblings to a blog to run in parallel with the website in a similar way to the Simplicity website and blog. Blogger had been the preferred route, but after reading of the problems being experienced, I think that I will hold off for the moment.

Having said that, if the current technical difficulties mean that we don’t get to see more pictures of Trevor wearing dresses and other strange attire, well perhaps we should be grateful to the Blogger team!

Trevor Gay said...

David!! – Thank you!! …you’ve probably cracked it!! - That is why Blogger support are not replying! :-)

We watched bits of Big Brother and we were absolutely horrified at the antics of these three young women. They all seem now to regret their actions but one has to ask why would they go - with their eyes wide open - into such a programme only to then complain once there is such a backlash from the viewers?

I have an image in my head of a nice family in India seeing that programme and drawing the understandable conclusion that these three women represent British women and that frankly is an insult to 99% of British women. These three have done more damage than they know. I believe they will have learned a lot.

I like you idea of a Blog - you would do it well. Go for it! – Blogger is normally excellent - I am sure this is a temporary blip.

Anonymous said...

Like you Trevor I only watched bits of the programme, but glad that justice was done (Shilpa winning), and also (from what I saw) touched by Shilpa's forgiving and gracious attitude). While experiencing some schaudenfraude (hope I've spelt that correctly, if not serves me right for being a smart****!)at seeing the reaction to Jo and Jade upon their evictions, I also now think the tabloids have gone way too far with some of their headlines ("The whole country HATES you Jade", and stuff of that ilk.) In the end, although these women were bullies, they are now being bullied by the media, which ultimately helps no-one, and shows another ugly aspect of our society.

Trevor Gay said...

Hi tomjam - I agree things have now got out of control as far as the media are concerned. The media should put this one to bed now.

My greatest hope like yours is that these silly women have learned through the experience. However difficult it sometimes may seem, we are taught that no-one is beyond redemption and as it says in the greatest book; ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ John 8:7

Compared to some things that happen in our society theirs are pretty trivial misdemeanors. I think there will have to be a serious discussion about whether this sort of programme should be broadcast in future.