Who said what?

Carole Thatcher has been dismissed by the BBC, unlike Jonathan Ross, who can insult a grandfather on air about his granddaughter or even make lewd suggestions, such as that to David Cameron. Chris Moyles on Radio 1 seems also to get away with insults, such as suggesting that Polish women make good prostitutes.

What did Thatcher actually say? Did she, as friends claim, merely say that a tennis player with bushy hair reminded her of the golliwog on Robertson's jars of her youth? It is possible that the player was Andy Murray!

She certainly didn't say it publicly, but in a private conversation, so it was not intended as an insult to the player concerned. Unfortunately the Thought Police were busy, and she was reported to the BBC.

We do not know which of her fellow conversationalists reported her. The strong suspicion is that it was Jo Brand, who had shown hostility towards her in the actual programme, and who regularly shocks by the things she says. It could have been Adrian Chiles.

Whoever it was, what did they report to the BBC? Was it accurate and in context? The trouble about snitches is that they do their work secretly and no-one except the BBC "judge" knows what was reported.

There is a strong suspicion that she was fired because of her surname, and as a way of showing spite to Mrs. Thatcher, whether on the part of the snitch or the BBC.

Whatever was said, and whatever was reported, the fact remains that the BBC shows double standards - wrist slapping or no action when it is clear that a broadcast insult has been made, and sacking when someone says something in a private conversation, and it is reported by the Thought Police, who may have strong motives to report at all and may put a slant on the report that was not present in the original statement.

From being dismayed by the BBC over many years, I am fast becoming an enemy who longs for alternative radio broadcasters to whom to turn for unbiased reporting and interviewing, and who would share even a small part of the tax which is laid upon us every year and called a licence fee.