Death and taxes.

Above, the actors Edward Highmore and Cindy Shelley on the Hamble during the filming of the BBC drama “Howards’ Way”.
It appears ((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_taxes_(idiom)) that the phrase that from which the title of today’s post is taken was first coined in 1716 by Christopher Bullock in his work, “The Cobbler of Preston” and not by Christopher Bullock (1716) and not the famous phrase of Benjamin Franklin in his letter about the US Constitution to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789.
The Brussels Brainwashing Commissariat has always had a series of challenges. This because unlike other state propaganda agencies, the BBC has existed in what still is a functioning democracy. For those who would argue with this just compare the FACT that your Editor is hale and hearty whereas the redoubtable and very, very brave Alexei Navalny is recovering from an attempted assassination.
The problem has been that the BBC must justify it’s continued existence towards the majority of it’s viewers who have – by law – to pay the TVT (TV Tax) aka the Television Licence Fee. This of course is something which has always and continues to utterly confound this blog’s US readers!
The BBC therefore seeks to justify it’s continued existence by attempting to attract as large a viewing audience as possible. In this it is of course doing exactly what the commercial broadcasters across the rest of what is known as the “Free World” are doing! It is just that the objects differ. In the case of most of the Free World’s commercial broadcasters the logic is simple and straightforward: The greater the number of viewers, the more attractive their service becomes to commercial enterprises seeking to advertise to a large audience and thus are more likely to become one of the broadcasters’ customers and more likely to pay the higher fee – due to the larger numbers of viewers!
Thus in “Howards’ Way” the BBC had in fact a roaring success! This is best described by us quoting from one of the programme’s cast, Mr Stephen Yardley (who played the character Ken Masters), husband of another cast member, Jan Harvey.
Mr Yardley was quoted as saying: “I’m six foot three and bald, so I’m a bit hard to miss, and as one in four people in Britain watch “Howards’ Way”, I do tend to attract a bit of attention when I’m out.”
“Howards’ Way” was broadcast on a Sunday evening – what advertisers and broadcasters call “the prime time slot”. That “Howards’ Way” was broadcast then was and is indicative to the importance the BBC attached to it. “Howards’ Way” was broadcast (in the UK) between Sunday 1st September 1985 and Sunday 25th November 1990.
“Why is the Editor going on with this?” We hear you say Dear Reader.
This:
Whilst “Howards’ Way” was one of the most successful series (in terms of viewing figures) the BBC ever produced the politically correct establishment critics panned the series mercilessly!
The PC critics from the right slammed it for the numerous trite comments from the characters and light attention to detail whilst those from the left slammed it for its glamorous portrayal of those characters they despised most: rich, successful white people!
By 1989, the BBC were aware of this – the series had only one “BAME” actor, Kulvinder Ghir who played the worker Davy Malik – and used the sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack of Maurice Colbourne the one of the drama’s leading characters played Tom Howard to tie up the story lines and to end the series – rather than introduce “more diversity” and alter the storyline. This because they knew full well that it would lead to a reduction in viewing figures and thus they killed the series off.
To those who would dispute this and would argue that the sudden death of Mr Colbourne was a sound reason, they clearly know little about drama! All they have to do is to look at the numerous long running series such as “The Archers”, “Coronation Street” and “EastEnders” to realise that in order to ensure a series viewing figures over an extended period, it is ESSENTIAL from time to time to kill a character off! A death of an actor is often taken to write the character out of the script.
Whilst the PC establishment can cancel a TV series, it cannot cancel the real world from causing huge problems with their well laid plans.
In a recent post (http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/2020/09/28/robbing-peter-to-pay-paul-or-pauline/), we opined upon Royal Dutch Shell’s strategy insofar as the construction of OSEs (offshore subsidy eyesores) aka offshore wind turbines, were concerned. Further evidence is to be found here: https://www.offshore-mag.com/home/article/14178537/majors-supporting-uk-floating-offshore-wind-center
Seven years ago this month I began driving up to Redcar (from Leeds, not Cornwall) to examine potential new properties. Redcar has certain things to commend it. Unfortunately an uninterrupted sea view is NOT one of them due to a number of OSEs that spoiled the view. Consequentially, it was one of the highlights of moving to the far west of Cornwall for me that I could walk along the glorious coastline and look out across the wide expanse of sea that is the western approaches.
Tragically however this glorious view is soon to be despicably despoiled! By large numbers of FOSEs! Floating offshore subsidy eyesores! These monstrosities will be large and very tall wind turbines built upon a steel vessel that will be submerged and tied to the sea bed by numerous steel cables. This to generate electricity when the wind decides to blow at a level which is not too light and not too strong! When the wind is not blowing at the right speed there will of course be back up generators.
Royal Dutch Shell in future is going to be involved in providing generators of both types.
In another recent post (http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/2020/10/04/no-worries/) I suggested that had I the money I would buy more RDS “B” shares at £9 per share. Currently, my plans are these vis-à-vis Shell: Wait. Wait for a year until October 2021. That month I shall finally be in receipt of my old age pension! At that time the price of RDS “B” shares will either have risen, stayed much the same or fallen yet further. IF they have fallen by a lot, I may very well purchase some more so are to reduce the averaged acquisition cost of the shares.
You see, the PC establishment will ignore economic common sense just like they ignored (and derided) the viewing tastes of the General Public insofar as “Howards’ Way and will doggedly persist in building these floating offshore eyesores!
What am I going to do now?
Go for a walk along the beautiful as yet unspoilt coastline to gaze upon the Western Approaches sans eyesores – for the time being!