MAYBE IT`S JUST ME ?

I guess this post might not be too popular but here goes anyway.   Maybe it`s the time of the year and all the grim reality that comes with it.  Darkness has descended in more ways than one - the Covid thingy, the Brexit trade business; the absurdity of Donald Trump - but also it`s the season of annoying things.  We`ve had annoying Halloween, we`ve had annoying Bonfire night, Christmas is coming and the goose would rather it didn`t:   but it`s also the season of charity fund raising.  

Now as a veteran of National Service and as the son of a father who spent five years in a relentless Nazi Stalag during WW2 which culminated in the long death march, all of which deeply affected the rest of his life that ended so abruptly, you can understand why I support charities such as the Royal British Legion and the Salvation Army.   But I find myself at odds with a number of charities that seem to prey on the sensitivities of folk who perhaps should know better - or who feel pressurised into thinking they should contribute otherwise what would people think of them.

Here goes with the controversial bit, today of all days.  You see, I put the BBC`s Children in Need appeal in that category alongside things like Red Nose Day and those countless appeals on television that play the sympathy card when they ask you to send £3 a month to adopt a polar bear or some other creature that would have you for lunch given half a chance.  

It may simply be the case that I don`t like the BBC, which is true, but I do find it annoying when so called celebrities put themselves in embarrassing situations, perform cringeworthy antics and demand that you give to the worthy cause - and I agree it may be worthy it`s just the way they go about it that will encourage me to turn over this evening and watch the rugby union on ITV instead.

I think my `disenchantment` towards all this must have begun back in the day of Feed the World, that summer night at Wembley when the less than appealing  Bob Geldof screamed and shouted into the tv camera and demanded that people should `give us the money.`  Not a happy experience which seemed to set the pattern of `celebrity demands` rather than considered encouragement.

As for me, lest you might think otherwise, I do give to charity;  I do so willingly and to those charities that I think deserve my support.  It`s my decision, made freely rather than the result of feeling threatened or belittled into making a donation.

Maybe it`s just me?  Well, at least I`m honest about it.