Thursday, April 15, 2004

Yay LBC Radio London!

Well unless anybody knows the methadone equivalent for blogging, I think I'm turning out to be one of those people who have to be paid to shut up.

Yahoo James O'Brien of LBC Radio! I don't know why I haven't listened to LBC for ages. It's like hearing someone speak English, after having spent a prison sentence on Mars. Where have all the people on the BBC, on the Telly, and in the newspapers (those Guardians of civilization) been living for the last few years? In their closets? Or in their handbags? It doesn't seem that they have been in London, or even in England.

It's great to hear someone talking intelligently about what's really happening on the doorstep, here in London and in Britain, NOW, not 15 years ago. I can't help noticing that at 32, (I think he said he was), he has a clear view that is refreshingly aware of real life situations in this country today.

Maybe you don't realise it, but there are far too many 40 to 55 year olds who still carry around the late Seventies and the Eighties with them. They still think there's a coal-mining strike on. They still have voodoo dolls in the likeness of Margaret Thatcher under their pillows. They still have enormous chips on their shoulder about some bullying experience that they had when they were in school, or on the council estate they grew up on - as if that were equivalent to a World War II battlefield experience. They still carry the Sixties sexual revolution on their shoulders, although it never helped them find a decent loving relationship to hang on to. Worse of all, because of employment ageism, they're terrified of losing their jobs. So they hang on to their jobs when its way past time for them to get a new life.

No wonder there is a tradition in this country of letting the young take over. It's because the middle-aged refuse to or are unable to move on.

Jenny Eclair (44) followed James O'Brien, and the generation gap was awful. She's still moaning about how she breaks into a sweat whenever the subject of marriage is mentioned. (How old is that hang-up?) Well it's too late for that now anyway, Jenny, so get on with the rest of your life, or let someone else do the talking.

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