"Rude broadcasters accused of only promoting grey-haired men"

From The Daily Mail

Fewer than one in five TV presenters is a man under the age of 50, new research reveals. Broadcasters are accused of behaving as if viewers 'need to be protected' from younger men, while promoting younger women and grey-haired men.

It comes after popular presenters including Moira Stuart and Anna Ford were replaced with young women instead of young men to the fury of many female viewers.

The BBC, ITN, Channel 5 and Sky all come under fire for figures which showed around half of presenters under-50 were women and 82 per cent of older hosts were men. The study was carried out for Labour's Harriet Harman, who claimed young men are being 'airbrushed' of the nation's TV screens.

She wrote to the six main UK broadcasters asking them how many younger men they employ on screen and behind the camera. Men account for more than half the UK's under-50 population, but just 18 per cent of TV presenters who are under 50 are male.

Ms Harman said for men 'grey hair denotes wisdom, experience, authority', and added: 'Broadcasters behave as though the viewing public have to be protected from the sight of a younger man and that's just rude. There is nothing wrong with being a younger man.'

"Stop ignoring me, says older woman"

From The Daily Mail:

One of those former Labour Ministers, either Tessa Jowell or Harriet Harman, has hit out at discrimination against herself, warning it was leading to a generation of ‘passive participants’ in public life. Ms Jowman, who is either shadow Olympics or culture secretary, said that she was a female of a certain age who ‘doesn’t want to be written out of the public domain’.

Speaking to an empty room at the Edinburgh Television Festival at the weekend she said it was ‘offensive and wrong’ that she was made invisible ‘because she is past her reproductive age’. Ms Harwell said the treatment of Ann Widdecombe, the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant, who was dumped off the show in 2010 after ten weeks, was ‘symbolic’, adding ‘something needs to be done about it’.

The Labour MP said the ‘discrimination’ against herself did not apply to older men, such as her husband - either David Mills or Jack Dromey - who kept working and were treated as ‘venerable, experienced, sage and coriander’.

The BBC has been the focus of controversy about the treatment of older women in broadcasting in recent years, with former TV chef Fanny Craddock winning a posthumous ageism case against the corporation last year and the earlier row over ditching Ms Widdecombe from Strictly.

They said it, not me...

After their savage kicking by the Home-Owner-Ist majority a few months ago, The Intergenerational Foundation have waded back into the fray with A Manifesto for Younger and Future Generations.

One of them is pencilled in to appear on the BBC Breakfast TV show tomorrow morning at 7.20. I wonder what The Daily Mailexpressgraph will/would think of this sort of stuff...

5. Re-balance Housing Wealth

• The massive rise in house prices over recent decades is a key reason behind rising intergenerational unfairness. Many young people cannot afford to buy even a small flat while IF research has shown that over-consumption of housing by the over 60s has risen rapidly.
• The longevity revolution leads to more prolonged demand for housing amongst older owners and tenants. Official policy should therefore help those who want to downsize through provision of more suitable housing and fiscal incentives.
• Tax incentives on buy-to-let properties should be reduced. It is absurd, for example, that landlords do not pay National Insurance on their unearned income, and can fully offset any loan interest off against tax.
• Council tax should be reformed to reflect each property’s true value and to make occupying a large house when you no longer need it more expensive.

6. Fairer Taxation Across The Generations

• The government should overhaul the tax system with regard to intergenerational fairness.
• The current tax system is systematically disadvantaging younger workers where older workers pay less tax (higher personal allowances and no National Insurance) and the light taxation of income from savings and property disproportionately helps the older generation.
• The government should consider reducing or scrapping universal benefits (which are not means tested) such as winter fuel allowance, free prescriptions and free bus passes.
• Pensioners on low incomes already have access to various tax credits and these universal benefits cost the taxpayer well over £6 billion each year.
• At the very least the government should make these benefits voluntary, so that wealthier pensioners may decide not to claim them.

7. Transparency of Government Debt Recording

• The build-up of public debt and liabilities is unfair on younger and future generations.
• All government borrowing should be on balance sheet.
• The government should calculate what the current obligation is for the state pension, and include it in official liabilities so that the burden being passed from one generation to another is more transparent.

As JuliaM might say...

... I hope they both lose.

Out of the swimming pool, into the fire ...

Thanks to everybody who voted here.

To summarise, sixty-eight per cent of us learned to swim doing doggy-paddle or breaststroke (which is what I'd have expected from the readers of a middle-aged 'blog such as this) and only eleven per cent learned front crawl first. I know for a fact that my Dad taught me and my sisters to swim using breast stroke (oh come off it, no sniggering at the back) on holiday in 1973, and swimming lessons at school seemed to revolve around this (with or without floats). Front crawl was just for the show-offs and athletic kids. But we dutifully take our two young kids to swimming lessons on Sunday morning and they focus on front crawl, which seems a bit counter-intuitive to me, seeing as it pre-supposes confidence, strength and actually knowing what you're doing. Ah well.

This week's Fun Online Poll: "What weighs more heavily on the next generation - £1 trillion-plius of public sector debt or £1 trillion-plus of mortgage debt?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Harman: Strictly Come Dancing guilty of 'racism'

From The Metro:

Equality Minister Harriet Harman today hit out at the axing of performer Alesha Dixon from Strictly Come Dancing, saying she was a victim of "race discrimination". Ms Harman urged the BBC to bring the 30-year-old, whose father was Jamaican, back to the hit celebrity talent show.

Dixon will be replaced on the judging panel by white British choreographer Arlene Phillips, who judged the competition in 2007 and 2008, when the show returns in the autumn.

During Commons questions on upcoming business, Ms Harman, who is also Commons Leader, told MPs: "I think it's absolutely shocking that Alesha Dixon is not going to be a judge on Strictly Come Dancing. And as equality minister, I am suspicious that there is race discrimination there. So I'd like to take the opportunity of asking the BBC - it is not too late, we want Alesha Dixon in the next edition of Strictly Come Dancing."

I shit ye not.