A TIME AND A PLACE..

First the good news.   The BBC coverage of the Olympics is superb.   They have clearly learnt from the disaster of their Jubilee efforts, pulled out all the stops and done a terrific job with London 2012.   For me to give any sort of praise to the BBC is praise indeed.

So it was a pity that last night`s edition of Newsnight concentrated on things like the exclusion of certain sports, the minority from ethnic groups from participating, the lack of funding and facilities in state schools and even the imbalance in the awarding of contracts to local minority companies.   All very negative and particularly so on a day when Team GB secured the country`s largest ever medal haul in over a century.

The `guests` to discuss these matters included the inevitable Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and New Labour spokesperson for the downtrodden and the oppressed, with   the programme being `presented` by Kirsty Wark.   Now, Ms. Wark, like many of her compatriots, has an unfortunate rasping, guttural, whining accent that cries out for sub-titles.   Moreover, she has an interview `technique` that is not content to ask relevant questions and then listen to the answers she is given.  Oh no, she seems incapable of allowing anyone to finish a sentence;  they are frequently cut off in mid flow, especially when something is said with which might offend her political inclinations.   This is not interviewing, it`s more like hectoring.

But back to the subject matter.   Now, when all the sound and fury, the agonies and the ecstasies, the hopes and despair of these memorable Games are over, there might come a time when the issues raised in last night`s Newsnight should be discussed, perhaps lessons learned so we can all move forward at the end of the day, so to speak.   But whilst London 2012 is still in full swing and the nation is gripped by the positivity of it all, now is not the time and the BBC`s Newsnight is not the place for such negativity, especially in the hands of the dismissive Ms. Wark, who is rapidly becoming the Alex Ferguson of the BBC.