BBCWatch If You’re Bill From Bermondsey - No Chance. Mohammed From Manchester? Don’t Like Blair? You’re On Air! The BBC 5 Live radio show really fell into a trap of its own making last week and it was wonderful. The presenter of the 9am to midday weekday radio phone-in show on Radio 5, Britain’s favoured talking shop for the unemployed and unemployable, introduced Raj from Tunbridge Wells. He had been vetted by the call screeners and had told them he was a Muslim from Tunbridge Wells and wanted to express his anger about Bush/Blair/Iraq. But the caller was in fact Sean, an Englishman from Bromley. Sean had been trying for weeks to get on to the show to express his support for our policy and troops in Iraq, and moan about the BBC’s anti-British and leftist bias. They weren’t interested. Sean was exasperated by his treatment by 5 live. It was clear to him that the show was more interested in showcasing radical Muslim opinion and was disinterested in anything remotely mainstream British. Sean decided to masquerade as an Islamist – Raj from Tunbridge Wells. And he got straight on! You could almost hear the noise of a stout party deflating in the studio when he said who he really was. Sean expressed his opinion forcefully and with charm, even though the presenter clearly didn’t want to hear it. So now you know. This will probably also work if you tell the call screeners that you want to pay more taxes, or close down grammar schools, or that the firemen are underpaid and have a case. Anything anti-British, or some half-baked old socialist arguments will also work a treat. Neil Winton, April 12, 2003 Top