IT NEVER RAINS.....

.....but it pours. I see the BBC are once again being criticised for the 415 staff they sent to Glastonbury to cover the 2009 Festival. This comes on top of the 437 they sent to Beijing for the Olympics, the host they sent over to cover Obama`s election, the scandal about the expenses and salaries paid to top executives and the general dumbing down of the programme output.

But for once, I have a little sympathy with those `top executives` caught up in the Glastonbury furore. Among those present this year were the chairman of the BBC Trust, the Deputy Director General (one Mark Byford who donates a sum equivilent to the `cost` of his free ticket to charity,) and the BBC Creative Director, Alan Yentob, of whom it has often been said. Now, being of a certain age and disposition, I`m pretty sure they would all have been happier to be anywhere else than caught up in the mayhem which Glastonbury seems to be.

I`ve never been, so I`m in no position to comment, really, but I do detect that being at Glastonbury has become something of an almost compulsory rite of passage - a badge of honour even - and I can`t escape the feeling that so-called `celebrities` go there to be seen to be there, to attempt to obtain some weird kind of credibility in the eyes of the easily impressed. All a bit sad really, but then I too am of a certain age and disposition that means that, even with a free ticket, I too would rather be anywhere else than having to put up with an endless cacophany of noise blasted out across the mudfields of Somerset.

And in the meantime, the BBC`s penchant for squandering licence-payers` cash goes on. I`ve lost count of the number of BBC staff, presenters and commentators who are inhabiting Wimbledon right now but I have noticed just how many seem to be American. At the same time, despite an already fully-staffed American bureau, we now have Emily Maitlis and loads of others flown out to cover the Michael Jackson extravaganza. I just wonder whether we would not have been better off leaving the winsome Emily at Wimbledon and leaving John McEnroe and his buddies at home to cover the Jackson thing. Makes sense to me.