I went to Glastonbury too and I couldn't find the Countryside Alliance tent

Too much heat and not enough light has already been generated by the story that the BBC sent more than 400 of its employees to the Glastonbury Festival so I won't add to this other than to say that I'm not entirely surprised and I hope that they had as good a time as I did.

But if they get away with all going next year - and to a certain extent I hope that they do as the BBC's coverage of the festival is pretty good - I won't mind again on the one condition that the Corporation sends as many people to the next Game Fair, which attracts a bigger gate and is therefore surely of interest to as many if not more people.

I quite like to see Gabby Logan attempting to shoot some simulated game and I'm sure she'd be delighted to as well, given that BBC Radio 5 Live is primarily a sporting rather than music station. The critics would therefore have nothing to complain about.

So rather than just a two-minute slot on CountryFile I want wall to wall coverage, including 6Music's peerless Adam & Joe. It's on at Belvior Castle, Leicestershire on the last weekend of July.

I'm ruining Sainsbury's image

That was the problem with the odious little twerp who featured in last night's episode of the Channel 4 series I'm Running Sainsbury's, where people from the shop floor are given enough rope to hang themselves in front of slick Sainsbury's boss Justin King.

I'm sure that when the programming idea was presented to commissioners it sounded like a win-win situation for Channel 4 and Sainsbury's - nice bit of cheap programming to play out in peak while Sainsbury's benefitted from appearing enlightened and getting free publicity. The benefit for viewers was less clear.

But last night, the jumped up Joseph Showler, who works behind the till at the Derby branch, put an end to all that.He had described his own talent as 'unending' and that he could pretty much achieve anything if he put his mind to it. Anything, it seems, other than except stack shelves or keep trolleys out of people's way.

Watching the arrogant tubby fool flounder and panic, when put in charge of the Paddington branch, made for some pretty entertaining television and provided comfort to those who enjoy watching people who are full of themselves but lack discernible talent get the outcome them deserve.

More evidence on the power of TV - it prevents wife-beating

No, seriously.

According to a press release from the University of Chicago, received today, a study of 180 villages in India showed a marked decline in what its participants peculiarly describe as 'acceptable beating situations' (for exampe if a woman neglects a child or is unfaithful) once they receive cable television.

They also see a change in son preference - a measurement of the number of women who want their next child to be a boy.

The reason, the authors claim, is that TV exposes villagers to soap operas that feature more educated people as well as women in positions of authority.

So there we have it - as well as being cheaper than ever, with more diverse content and with more advertising opportunities, TV can also be a proven societal good. And that makes it better than online any day.

Let's just hope that BBC Worldwide doesn't see fit to sell that depressing crud EastEnders to Indian cable networks any time soon.

The worst Daily Mail poll ever

Even by the Daily Mail's hateful standards, today's online poll is a corker.

Based on a flimsy 'shock' story that will never actually happen but is guaranteed to get morons across middle-England foaming at the mouth with indignation, the poll asks the question: 'Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue?' To which every 'right-minded person', of which the Mail loves to claim to represent, should vote 'Yes'.

It's a real discovery the Daily Mail online poll - I've also been able to vote for Tony Blair as EU President and express my view that immigrants shouldn't have to respect British values.

Anyway, express your approval here -  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/polls/poll.html?pollId=1011506

Have a good weekend... that's if the gypsies don't get you.

Local papers have opportunity to provide last word on MPs' expenses

Like many other people, I suspect, I started going through the expense claims for my MP (south west Herts) online at the parliament website hoping to work myself into a lather of shock and indignation at some of the ludicrous items that I wanted to find there. But frankly it was too long and boring a process and I thought I'd better get on with my work.

Trawling through the 400-odd page report, however, should represent a perfect opportunity for local newspapers to prove their worth and show that they are still very much a valuable resource at a time when their future has never looked so uncertain.

If the otherwise fine Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette doesn't do this then it will show that part of the reason for their loss of relevance and subsequent fall from grace - apart from to fans of church fetes and planning applications - is down to them losing touch with what really matters at a local level.

Incidentally how absurd was all that mawkishness and cloying sentimentality when the House of Commons paid tribute to the incompetent Mick Martin yesterday following his forced removal from office? What was worse was the subsequent sympathy this subsequently elicited from the public and how he'd been such a great 'public servant' on the BBC's live coverage on the website (incidentally my comment wasn't included).

Rubbish - no matter how many times he recited Robbie Burns or referred to his tough Glasgow there's no getting away from the fact that his snout was as deep in the trough as any of them.

Just what the world needs - yet another half-baked blog on Digital Britain

The report has certainly got media commentators everywhere worked into a frenzy given that following its consultation the 240-page report largely contains recommendations for further consultations. Nonetheless the fact that the BBC may finally have to share some of the licence fee is of significance.

The switch-off of analogue radio is something that is painfully overdue and the Digital Britain report has said that this should occur by the end of 2015, which is still a painfully long way off. Greater coordination among stakeholders, Ofcom and radio manufacturers is required for this to come any time sooner and thereby help the sickly radio industry.

Of equal importance is ensuring that there is compelling content on DAB-only stations in order that people see the benefits - much like Sky News has done for DTT services -on the principle that 'build it and they will come'. While Adam & Joe on BBC 6Music is enough to convince me that DAB is the future and offers an alternative to the other tawdry analogue-only breakfast shows, this may not be enough for everyone.

Which is a better public school educational resource? Big Brother or the Daily Telegraph?

The headmaster of Repton School, a minor public school in Derbyshire built for the sons of businessmen from the Midlands, thinks that Big Brother 'distorts reality for children', according to today's Daily Telegraph.

What's more, he opines that reality television as a genre leaves the impression 'that the world beyond a small area or community has no impact on people's lives. That particularly insight alone is clearly worth forking out 24k a year to send your child to his school.

But Robert Holroyd has a remedy to this malaise that I'm A Celebrity and Big Brother has on the minds of the young - they should take a 'reality check' and read..... the Daily Telegraph.

Brilliant. Much as I'm aware of the limitations of reality TV shows as en aducational tool, I think force-feeding public schoolboys the Daily Telegraph is potentially more damaging.

Alan Sugar gets a peerage and Esther Rantzen is to blame

Quite what business prowess Alan Sugar will bring to the government I'm not sure. After all when he finally off-loaded Amstrad it was for a tenth of what it was valued in its heyday in the 80s.

His time in charge of Spurs can hardly be described as a great success (I've been told) while subsequent Amstrad innovations, such as the @-mailer, fell rather flat.

I'm stating the blindingly obvious but he's been brought into Government because he's got some celebrity (while for him, his new top-level contacts may prove useful for his 'exciting' Amscreen division as recently hired by the NHS, much as he uses some of his vacant properties in The Apprentice).

Career politicians have shown that they cannot be trusted but have we really got to the stage where there is greater faith in people off the telly? This, Esther Rantzen parading around Luton mulling over whether to stand, and David Cameron using Carol Vorderman as a maths csarina, suggests that some people think so.

Never mind the disregard for politicians, doesn't this show the politicians disregard for us? See You Next Tuesday - I'm off on hols.

I work with someone who had never heard of, let alone seen, Ferris Bueller until yesterday

Astonishing isn't it?

Fortunately my mood was lifted when Sky Sports kindly invited me to a British Lions dinner where the difference between rugby players and their football playing counterparts could not have been more pronounced.

Scott Quinnell and Will Greenwood were fine hosts and drank away with the rest of us and the only roasting going on was in the restaurant kitchen.

Some might think it's a shame that Sky has a monopoly on virtually all rugby (other than the Six Nations) as it excludes people who aren't willing or able to buy pay-TV and to an extent I have some sympathy.

But there's no doubt that Sky does an amazing job with its coverage of all games whether they be the current Lions tour or mid-ranking Guinness Premiership Games where I'm sure that the audience that it attracts is barely enough to attract much advertising revenue. Its innovation on HD also shows how Sky has been a profound force for good in driving TV innovation.

For these reason I think Sky Sports is as vital a part of UK broadcasting as is the necessity to have watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off by the time you've reached 25, Alex.

Broadcasters should insist on more viewer-friendly polling hours

It felt a little bit like I was in a gentle Sunday night ITV drama as I walked in the morning sun to the polling station. The local vicar, a man I've never seen or spoken to before, bid me a cheery 'good morning' then I popped into the half-timbered 17th Century Old Court House to cast my vote.

Upon leaving, two kindly old people - one wearing a blue rosette and the other a yellow one - politely asked me for the number on my card and then I left to stroll off back through the churchyard to get to the station. It felt like it was the 1930s (except the train was late due to problems with the overhead cables at Bletchley), which is probably why I ended up buying a copy of that old-fashioned rag The Daily Telegraph.

I absolutely love voting and I love election coverage - while PMQs might have lacked the drama that followed the resignation of Geoffrey Howe in 1990 and led to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher - at least we've got that to look forward to tonight and tomorrow.

It's one of those rare occasions when all of the TV companies go into overdrive with increasingly absurd graphics and projections and as drama goes - no matter what party you support - it's unmissable (and presumably extremely expensive to produce with little or no return from advertising).

It's just bloody annoying that they can't count the votes quicker so I don't have to stay up most of the night and the broadcasters can play it out in a half-decent daypart instead of tat like Dickinson's Real Deal or Coach Trip.

Forget live sport, politics coverage shows that TV is still the most powerful medium

It's very boring to hear how powerful and influential digital media is. It isn't - not when it really matters.

Today's news of the rapid disintegration of the government shows that only television has the power to provide compelling live AV content that brings the nation together.

While some credit is due to the Daily Telegraph for its expose, albeit it has been milked to death now and has been copied by every other newspaper, only television has been able to report the wider ramifications to a wide audience. It is social glue.

Because of this today's PMQs should be amazing.

Asking people to pay to watch Pie in the Sky sounds like just that

I quite like ITV's digital channels but I'm not sure that I'd be prepared to pay to watch them.

But this possible scenario has been reported by some of today's news wires as ITV tries to find a money-spinner to help it through the ad recession.

When ITV launched ITV2 back in 1998 it appeared to do so rather reluctantly and half-heartedly but the network has subsequently finally found a coherent way of using it, ITV3 and 4 in a complementary way as well as giving them their own neatly segmented audience.

OK, so there isn't much original content on there but the repeats are pretty good and show the extent and diversity of ITV's back-catalogue and, more importantly, they keep viewers in the ITV family of channels. As shown by the 02-funded Big Tackle on ITV4, they also attract some quality ad-funded programming.

But would people seriously be willing to pay for repeats of old classics such as Minder or Morse, and Peter & Jordan on ITV2, when there is so much other free-to-air programming of this ilk? I don't think you'd need to tear Henry Crabbe away from his steak & mushroom pie or get Hetty Wainthropp to investigate.

I dreamed a dream as well...

OK, I'm going to admit to being one of the 20m-odd people who watched the final of Britian's Got Talent and I'm surprised to say that I quite enjoyed it, mostly because the Boyler didn't win and some dancing chavs did.

Residents of her home town in Scotland, overcome by nationalism, blamed a backlash against her caused by the London media. Really? Was it not just because that she is rather an unappealing character? And isn't that the same excuse that was used when the Speaker Gorbals Mick Martin was forced to ungraciously step down?

Still at least there was an element of a democracy, which is more than can be said for her similarly emotionally-flawed compatriot, our incumbent Prime Minister, who is in power by virtue of 30,000 or so people in Cowdenbeath. It would be nice if he put himself forward for a similar vote sooner rather than later.

This is the last time I'll talk about Susan Boyle or Britain's Got Talent. Promise.