All the world's a stage ............

What a first week back at the Assembly it has been !
I wish I could report groundbreaking happenings politically but the news seems to have been dominated by more antics from Lib Dem MP Lemsip Optrex (as my mother insists on calling him) and his 'Cheeky Girl', and allegations of racism on Celebrity Big Brother.

'Lemsip' has dominated the pages of HELLOPIK magazine (as I believe it is now known in Montgomeryshire) with his and 'Cheeky Girl' Gaby's true love story. You will understand that I am just quoting from hearsay on this, as apparently absolutely no-one in the Assembly claims to have read this story although it has been the talk of the Tea Room :

Their love is more than 'just lust'. What these two have experienced is in fact a 'meeting of minds'................and, there's more... - ' their love is growing every night just like a mushroom!'

'Golly gee', as David Guest might say :'I hope it's nothing fungal...'

This burgeoning love story has provided much in the way of hilarity and amusement in the Tea Room as different AM's try to work out whatever will happen next.

Then there was that curious remark made by Lemsip in the House :

Something along the lines of :

"I should be so lucky....."and "the other Cheeky Girl is still single....".

Does this mean he now has designs on Kylie Minogue ?

Will he dump Cheeky Girl No.1 for Cheeky Girl No.2 ?

Could Mme Irimia Senior stand as the next Lib Dem MP for Montgomeryshire ?

Who will get custody rights of Rocky the Irish wolfhound ?

The possibilities and speculation are endless.



The other matter which has received indepth coverage has been 'Big Brother'.

I do not watch this programme as it annoys me instensely. In the first instance the idea of watching every waking moment of a bunch of people thrown together in a house is hideously boring.

It is interesting that I should feel this way about this particular show because I absolutely adored watching 'This Life' in the '90's and wait for it, (I have to admit it), 'The Waltons' in the '70's, both of which were about a bunch of people living in a house. I think the trouble with 'Big Brother' is that I have just never found it entertaining.

Over the course of the last week, because it has hit the headlines, I have seen exerpts of the show and what has occurred looks pretty grim to me. There does seem to have been a certain amount of ganging up on the beautiful Indian Bollywood actress by Jade Goody and pals. Racism is sometimes difficult to pin down as the Director of Liberty who was on this week's Question Time panel observed. It doesn't necessarily always wear a white hood but is often more a 'state of mind'.

Edwina Currie's remarks on QT were also revealing when she said that her experience of reality TV (she was a participant in 'Hell's Kitchen'), was that it was very much a 'staged affair' and that producers and directors deliberately 'set up' situations.

If this is correct, then to engineer events towards encouraging or goading racism is both heinous and pernicious. I hope that when the time comes to follow up the serious complaints made about racism on 'Big Brother' that OFCOM take a good long close look at the way this programme is edited.