The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102665 Message #2082829
Posted By: The Borchester Echo
21-Jun-07 - 03:07 AM
Thread Name: BBC Trust Open Meeting
Subject: RE: BBC Trust Open Meeting
A propos of not very much other than to bring his up to the top, BBC R4 have just broadcast The Jute Mill Song by somebody out of the Bay City Rollers who will be doing a set of union songs at Glastonbury.
Jim Naughtie (unlike Ms Glover) didn't knock it at all but remarked what a good song it was. It is a good song, written by mill worker Mary Brooksbank and first recorded by Ewan MacColl, it is as graphic an account of the unfairness of social division you could ever hear:
O, dear me, the world is ill-divided Them that works the hardest are the least provided
It could (and should) be argued that the inclusion of such items by a public service broadcaster (as opposed to ghettoisation left in the hands of an outsourced production company without a clue) and presented as an adjunct to how 'normal' people live their lives, is what they are there for.
Getting along to the BBC Trust open meeting on 3 July and saying so just might encourage the process.