So the day had finally arrived. Sunday 3rd June 2012, the day of the Queen's Thames Pageant to celebrate 60 years of Her Majesty sitting on the throne. At 1.30 I parked my backside expectantly in my comfy chair in preparation for what we had been told was a once in a lifetime event. This celebration of Queen Elisabeth's 60 year reign with it's 1,000 strong armada made up of all kinds of craft - canoes at the front, narrow boats at the rear,with all manor of boats in-between, skiffs, barges, motor launches and sailing vessels - boats of different shapes and sizes from around the world just waiting to pay their own tribute to Her Majesty's 60 year reign.
I turned on the BBC expecting to see spectacular coverage of this royal occasion in the way that only the BBC can. It's long tradition of covering such events, from the coronation, Royal Weddings, Funerals, to the annual Trooping The Colour, surely with a tradition like that they couldn't let us down this time, could they?
For this type of event you would expect them to bring out the big guns, Angela Rippon, Gloria Hunniford, at the very least a Dimbleby. Sadly none of these were present, all we got was the presenters of The One Show, a magazine show with little regard for journalistic excellence, and Hew Edwards, who is well known for crass comments on such occasions.
We expected the coverage to be about The Queen and how the nation paid tribute to her with this spectacular river pageant, instead all we got was inane celebrity based drivel from people who thought their own 'fame' was more important than the event. Unlike in coverage of previous events there was no talk of the achievements of Her Majesty, not even any attempt to put her reign in historical context, instead all we got was moronic comments about the lack of toilet breaks and how everyone must ve standing around cross legged.
Well what did you expect? In this celebrity obsessed world we live in, did you really think that the BBC could possibly think that the Queen was more important than the presenters?
The only winners from this will be the over paid bureaucrats who will earn top dollar from the inquiry that will surely come. We will here the cries from politicians who will be clamouring for an inquiry into this outrage, not out of any desire to see any improvement in the standards of the BBC, but only out of self interest as they position themselves to get the highest paid job on yet another pointless committee. This self interest will surely force the government to spend huge sums that the nation can hardly afford on coming to a conclusion that anyone with half a brain could have seen within five minutes of watching this drivel.
Standards in the media have been falling for so long now that I would be surprised if there was a journalist still working who can remember what quality really is. If such a person still has a job they will surely keep their mouth shut lest they get pensioned off or suffer an even worse fate, such as being transferred to ITV.
Perhaps for the net one in 10 years, standards may have improved but I doubt it. If things carry on the way they are going the coverage of that will be presented by a second rate Lady GaGa clone with all with all the dignity and decorum of Joey Barton being sent off for a professional foul.
Come on BBC get your act together. If the coverage of this event is representative to the Queen's sixty years on the throne then she has presided ona country that prided itself on the polite society to one were the idiocrasy rules.
