OK, well...I wasn't going to come back under my name, but....I can't keep quiet any longer! Apologies to Joe and Max.

I'm ranting! Take cover!!

Right, I'm down here in the West Country. Perhaps you need to live down here to understand where Steve is coming from. The Devon/Cornish accent is very rarely heard amongst the young these days, they could all come from Sarf London. That to me is so sad. Just one particular accent has apparently been deemed 'acceptable' by the media and that's 'Estury English', although you're still a bit cool if you come from New Cassssell, at least on Children's TV you are!

The whole point of what Steve's talking about is ROOTS!

Hello?????

It's this feeling that we can no longer BE who we ARE, that everyone has become so commercialised, so ready to take on whatever they're told is the next big thing. EVERYTHING is disappearing, today it's the West Country accent, tomorrow it'll be the Birmingham one, then the Norfolk...actuallly, that's another place where I don't hear young people speaking in their 'natural' accents anymore, again..Estury English.

There's NOTHING wrong with Estury, nothing! It just doesn't belong in Devon, Cornwall or Norfolk, it belongs in a very small part of London, where it's the *natural* accent, as opposed to other parts of London where the accent is again slightly different. When we went to Yorkshire last year I was stunned to hear youngsters talking in a local accent, couldn't believe it! My ears were all agog and lapped it up, then I spent ages trying to copy it, listening to the vowels and curling my tongue up to get the right sound (OK Am Very Sad Person!) ;0) But it's lovely, it's fascinating and it's what makes us, US!!!!

Ey, Champion!

And as for 'over-paid soccer stars and prancing teens' that's not 'off-target AT ALL, it's bang right up to date and hitting the bullseye over and over. Just this morning I woke up to hear of some new Soccer Star (Star??) being transferred for £25 million..yes MILLION!

Yet...to quote Oxfam "every 3 seconds a child dies" ??????

So, that's OK then isn't it! I mean, heck, let's trample over the bodies of children so we can all get to see the highest paid soccer stars in the land, because, that's what life's about isn't it! Isn't it??????   

Oh HELL...I hope NOT!!!

And last night my town was *filled* with prancing teens, swigging back the lager, shouting, screeching and er...well, we won't go into *that* bit, but hey, use your imagination. The 'Prancing Teens' is surely a reference to the POP Idol/Fame Academy/Britney/Spice Girls culture that has surrounded our young people for a decade now. It's sucked the very *life* out of music, it's vacuous, morally bankrupt and driven by some Decidedly Deeply Dodgy people if you ask me, who personally, as a mother, I'm all up for investigating in minute detail!!

That music 'cultchur' has come right out, into fashion and toys as well. Small children being 'groomed' to like Britney, the Bratz Dolls for tiny tots, which make me shudder, but don't get me started on those, all dressed as Wannabee Pop Stars...or er..prancing teens...Get 'em early, brainwash 'em at every opportunity and voila! The next generation to keep those fat dodgy cats grinning with slimey satisfaction from ear to ear....Sheesh! Give my FIVE minutes with those Cutthroats Crooks and Conmen and I'd wipe the slimey smiles from their faces instantly!!!

Steve's not gone off-track at all!! He's right there in the very thick of it all.

£25 million for a footballer??? And these guys are being held up as heroes to our children???? WHY??? I mean, I'm fair exhausted with trying to figure it all out...so if someone can tell me WHY David Beckham or Wayne Rooney are 'heroes' I would LOVE to know!

And Kim Howells? Well wasn't that a reference to live music being played in pubs. I mean heck, let's just scrap the music, get in the HUGE MEGA TV'S, maybe a casino or two...and let's take the Nation to a whole new HIGH!! Stick ENG..ER..LAND flags up during the World Cup and imprison people if they DARE to fly an English Flag at any other time!!!

Have we all lost our marbles?????

And what does the population do? Are we taking to the streets in rage? Are we writing to the papers in disbelief? Are we ringing up the BBC or ITV and complaining in our thousands? Are we boycotting shops selling weird things?

Nope, we're apparently not able to get enough of it all, well some can't anyway. Cries of "BRING IT ON!" can be heard throughout the land!

Worrying isn't it? Unless you're an apathetic, short-sighted, vaccuous, empty-headed, lager-swilling, one-hit wonder, prancing, over-paid footballing twit!!...In which case, the world's never been so great!

Jumping Catfish! It's enough to bring on a Rebellion!

So don't....DON'T tell me that Roots could be deemed to be a BNP anthem....because it's NOTHING of the sort! I mean are you seriously trying to put my Blood Pressure up even HIGHER in the hope that I'll self-combust???

'Roots' a song that should wake us all up, please GOD, before we disappear down a Black Hole so Deep and so Dark that we may never get out again!!


And now, I'm off to listen to Liege & Lief to calm myself down...although it probably won't, because then I'll get all jiggly about beautiful folk music that's never played because 'the media' have written it out of the picture....apparently because they KNOW we'd all rather be watching Big Brother and Posh'n'Becks than daring to hear songs of beauty, history, or intrigue.

Aaarrrgggghhh!


Lizzie!!