Tuesday 11th September

The yanks just don’t get it, do they? Do you not feel it strange that the country which epitomises sporting excellence, and was second only to China in the Olympics, was way down the list n the Paralympics.  And maybe that is partly because of their wretchedly poor TV coverage.   NBC, which had the American franchise showed absolutely no live coverage of the games at all, and only four, yes that’s right four, hour long highlight programmes of the Paralympics. (No doubt heavily interspersed with Ads)

At times I was frustrated  by Channel Four’s coverage; the perpetual advert breaks, the monotony of just two main presenters, and like most others though I love Clare Balding, her effusiveness after each and every race was a bit much to take.  I am sure the BBC would have done it better, but at least it was live and on the whole time.  I have always thought there should be one channel, on BBC undoubtedly, that should simply cover live events on a continual basis.  A sort of rolling 24 hour breaking news.

But four hours out of eleven days of incredible competition and athletic achievement is just pathetic and the Americans ought to be ashamed of themselves.  The bosses at NBC probably thought that no-one would want to watch a bunch of cripples running around, when Hollywood is so full of perfect bodies. What even we in Britain have just realised is that even those maimed bodies are perfect too.  Everyone is normal, and extraordinary at the same time.  And as the rest of the world moves on to a different and more inclusive and caring agenda, led yet again by Europe, America is still stuck head in the sand ignoring the brave new world.