BBC's weak attempts at regional accents

At 1200-1215pm local time BBC Radio 4 has a series looking back 100 years to ordinary people in WW1.

Call me a grumpy old man, but I get appalled by the BBC's weak attempts at local regional accents. It really grates on me. It is not just the BBC. Why can't they get rural accents right? You can always tell a BBC Radio 4 drama a mile off! I guess they assume most listeners won't notice or care.

I watched the film "Warhorse" . It was appalling: a Dartmoor, Devon village was actually filmed in Wiltshire I think. It looked nothing like Devon. The Devon accents were very very bad. No excuses: they spend millions making these films and need to get the basics right.

No, get the accents right please!

Front Garden in Spring

This is a photo of our front garden yesterday. The windmill is in view on the right. Spring has nearly sprung: all the trees are now starting to look green or are in bud. Mind you, we still had a frost on Sunday morning.

Spring sunshine

Today started with a frost and ice on the car roof, but it has been sunny all day. The garden is still not in its "spring glory" yet, but it soon will be. There are buds or leaves appearing everywhere at last.

I like the lighter evenings too. It does not get dark here now until after 8pm. In June it is light until after 10pm.

Soon be time to hear swifts screaming in the evening sky. Great.

EU referendum

There is a poor quality debate on this matter. We vote on whether or not to remain in the EU in less than 10 weeks but the quality of the arguments is very poor.

The UK has looked towards the EU as a common market and never with a view to a political union. Many in Europe see it as a way to keep peace in Europe. At the moment I am still inclined to vote "IN" but the politicians here are certainly not winning hearts and minds on either side.

The debate needs to be more positive! All I hear are fear and uncertainty.

Late spring?

A few months ago everything seemed to be early. We have seen daffodils in flower right through from late November. Some places have loads of daffodils in flower and even some snowdrops still. Yet, if anything, spring is late here. It is now way in to April but I have yet to see a swallow in this area.  My laurel hedge is hardly growing. The grass has only been cut a few times. Odd. Yes there  are buds coming out, but spring is definitely not early here.

That EU referendum again

It is now 10 weeks until people in the UK hold a referendum to decide whether or not to stay in the EU. At the moment I am voting "IN" but I have been appalled by the campaigns so far. What comes across are fear and uncertainty. No-one seems to have anything positive to say! I hope this changes.

FTSE 100 and the world economy

At the moment the UK share index, the FTSE 100, is down about 0.48% today, no doubt spooked by Chinese growth slowing. The world economy is not that healthy and we could well be heading for another downturn. If the end result is a fairer world this would not be a bad thing.