BBC tries to re-educate crusty old campaigner.....

You've just gotta laugh, haven't you?

My second most dialled phone number (after my Mum's) got another finger tapping this afternoon. Yes, for those that do not know, 0870 0100222 can only mean BBC complaining time ..... again.

This time it was all to do with the report on Eco-Towns on the One O'Clock News, BBC 1. As per usual with such matters, when some tricky and rather unpalatable news needs to be delivered to the mushroom-composted dumb-struck English masses, the Beeb reporter injects a liberal amount of geographical fog into his piece to camera.

"The list of 10 new Eco-Towns will be announced by the Government within the next few days...... They will be spread right across the country - and local opposition is sure to grow"......

And so it went on, the YouKay this, the this country that - not a single metion about the real truth. All the Eco-Towns will be built in England. Planning, as with a hell of a lot of other stuff is a devolved issue.

So there I was, gobbing off to the guy on the other end of the phone at BBC Complaints Central (which is in Scotland, obviously). "Why can't the BBC actually be factual about the issue? The Eco-Towns will only be built across England and NOT the UK - so why do the BBC insist on telling me and 50 million others that they will be spread right across the UK?"

"Well, I'm sure they will be built in Scotland, also, but the problem is there isn't that much land around to build on"...

"Yes there is, there's bloody loads - and anyway, it's not about that, it's whether your Government, the Scottish Parliament votes to have them or not"...

"Ahhh, but isn't that what has happened here? Hasn't the English Parliament at Westminster decided to have these built - haven't they passed a Planning Bill to streamline the whole process?"........

Like I said, you have to laugh - otherwise you might just cry.