The BBC has a science programme called Discovery. It causes me some concern. Quite often it profiles leading world scientists. What concerns me is the majority of them come from privileged backgrounds. I don't think scientific ability is dependent on, or even linked to, parental income. This suggests to me that genuinely talented working class kids are not being given a chance. And the exclusion of talent must mean our science is far more mediocre than it should be. England seems to worst for this, Scotland and North America, though no meritocracies, appear to be slightly better, say children of school teachers, and the sole Aussie was, if I recall correctly, was the son of a working class single mother. Now I don't know how hard it is to get a job as a scientist. But one English princess decided she wanted to be a journalist when she graduated from Oxbridge. Hey Presto, Princess gets a good job as a journalist handed to her. Then she decides she wants to be a scientist instead. Hey Presto, she gets a good job as a scientific researcher. I'm not saying she is not a good scientist. What I am saying is that equally, or more, talented folk from humbler backgrounds were pushed aside to make way for her and never got a chance. We all end up losers when Privilege closes ranks to make sure their kids get all the good jobs. Can the UK really afford to stifle talent so that Nigel, Charlotte and Tim can have first pick?

The problem with new recipes is that many require a pinch of this or a dash of that. But the shops seldom sell ingredients in pinches or dashes. And suppose the the recipe is not a success. You end up with a bag or jar of something you may never use again. What's the answer? Some kind of cookery club where everyone agrees to try the same new recipe on the same weekend and divvy the pinches, dashes and snatches out from a communally purchased jar or bag? Even then there would have to be a lot of club members to avoid bring left with 4/5ths of a bag or jar of whatever.

Last weekend the BBC World Service news carried a highly critical item about the Taliban hosting a news conference in India which barred female journalists. Grounds indeed for censure. My problem was that half an hour earlier my radio had a BBC programme that used to boast that it was uncontaminated by any male contribution. Employment equity laws made such a boast unwise and it's been dropped. But somehow I doubt if any males are on the programme production team at this time but the lawyers are happy. The content remains 100% female. So, how can it be wrong for the Taliban to bar females when the BBC half an hour earlier banned males? Is it not a bit hypocritical of the BBC to run an item critical of sexism while engaging in it itself?

Last weekend the BBC World Service news carried a highly critical item about the Taliban hosting a news conference in India which barred female journalists. Grounds indeed for censure. My problem was that half an hour earlier my radio had a BBC programme that used to boast that it was uncontaminated by any male contribution. Employment equity laws made such a boast unwise and it's been dropped. But somehow I doubt if any males are on the programme production team at this time but the lawyers are happy. The content remains 100% female. So, how can it be wrong for the Taliban to bar females when the BBC half an hour earlier banned males? Is it not a bit hypocritical of the BBC to run an item critical of sexism while engaging in it itself?

Does anyone else remember TV Detector Vans? Sinister vehicles with a revolving antenna on the roof that supposedly prowled the streets and could tell what television channel you were watching. And if you didn't have a licence for that television set - kapow. An older person now, I suspect the vans were a con. I doubt they could detect a switched-on television with any degree of accuracy and certainly not which channel it was tuned to. By the time I left home nearly 100% of households had a television. So, all the TV enforcement folks did was check which houses to not have a licence and target them. When I first lived in Inverness I got a letter demanding to know why I didn't have a licence and threatening several unpleasant happenings if I didn't get one. I didn't have a licence because I didn't have a television. Some folk might say that the best thing to do then was just ignore the letter. I knew better. I knew of too many doors kicked down by the TV licence people, who regarded evasion as up there in the scale of criminal activity alongside raping your little sister, cutting her throat was a jagged tin can and feeding her body to the pigs. I went to the Post Office in Queensgate to explain my lack of a licence.