I know, I know; I'm like a stuck record- but even that's an old fashioned expression now. Perhaps one should now say... like a frozen memory stick. See, I told you; old, senile and losing it (though some would say; lost it!), but I have just seen on the news that ITV have been fined by the Australian RSPCA for showing the killing of a rat on ‘I'm a celebrity, get me out of here...!’. It took 90 seconds to die. ‘So?’ I hear some of you saying... ‘It’s only a rat’. BUT it’s the principle. We now have more TV channels than ever before and how many times do we all flick through them and moan that there's nothing to watch; it’s either old, boring or rubbish. TV is going the same way as the whole world; we have habitat destruction, possible climate change, economic melt down and now rubbish television. Where oh where has the INTEGRITY gone (was there ever any?). Whoops, I feel a tangent coming on...

I agree that TV needs to provide various genres; comedy, drama, wildlife and so on, but surely to God we are more intelligent than lowering ourselves to staring at sensationalist garbage? It would appear not. How sad is that? And so, how sad are we not to stand up and complain? We are just so b....y complacent; it’s terrible. Reality TV is fine, it can be comedic, informative, passionate and so much more, but why make cheaper and cheaper rubbish  that costs nothing to make and just ridicules mankind? Though, thinking about it, ridicule is what we deserve if we stoop so low as to accept it without complaint.

I can only say that if my company offered a bad or inadequate service- which we wouldn't and I would never let it happen, then I would expect to be castigated for it and rightly so. But nowadays, how many of us complain if we get bad service? How many of us stand up for what is right? Sadly not enough. Ok, now I hear you saying ...he's just a grumpy old man, and so I may be, but I'm proud to be counted and proud to stand up and ask for a service that should be given as a matter of course.

We just let it all slip by and the more we accept, then the more these companies and individuals will get away with it. We have all recently paid for others' disastrous mistakes in the financial world- good old tax payers!!- will we ever see it paid back to us? I suspect it will be a cold day in hell before we do. How about we all say we have decided not to pay any more tax until we see the government pay us back? Would the prisons be big enough to hold us all?

I have said, so many times, that ‘people power’ is a majorly significant force and that we DO have the power to affect and effect change. WE DO, but only if we ALL ACT.

I feel very sorry for the government that come to power after this election, because the only way to even begin to get us back on track will be the most painful practice many of us have ever experienced; it will take a strong, brave and committed leader and sadly he will win few favours, even if he succeeds. But I still (after all we have been through) believe in mankind and that we can see sense before it is too late. It will take brutal honesty, passion and integrity, but IF the honesty is genuine and the passion really shows, then we can be led out of this quagmire that we are drowning in.

Passion, compassion and integrity are words that we just do not hear often enough, they have been replaced by complacency, lethargy and indifference. For God’s sake people; shake yourselves out of this insanity! Stand up and be counted.

....Off I went again, when I was supposed to be talking about a poor little rat. Well, it’s not the rat, it’s the principle. What sort of message is this giving our children- God help them. It’s ok to kill? It’s ok not to care? It’s ok to watch sensationalist drivel?

How can we be surprised that we are where we are today? The messages we are giving are so wrong, so uneducated and so unintelligent. We wonder why there is more child crime, more anger, more greed, when, at the end of the day, it’s all about self self self. We need our leaders to lead, we need them to force 'integrity' to the media and we need them to be responsible and take that responsibility seriously, not just pay lip service to it.

Great TV: Killer sharks, dog attacks, savaged by a lions... and so on... what a message.

We are capable of change, we can change, we must change and I suspect we are happy to be shown the way, IF we truly believe in, and trust, those who lead us.