Well it is in our house. We’ve got Sky TV and what a load of rubbish it is too. There are 998 channels or there abouts and not one of them is worth watching for more than 30 seconds. And that’s what I do. Watch 30 second extracts for 30 minutes and then turn off. And I’ve realised lately that I’ve got this TV addiction and it is irritating and very underwhelming.

I’m actually quite taken aback at the shoddy quality of the so called programmes and how pernicious and sexist so much of the content is. We’ve got young people in our house and I think its only fair that they are not exposed to this in the comfort of the living room.

I’ve managed to work out how to block some stuff - but there’s a layer of ‘text messaging’ and ‘chat line’ channels that I don’t seem to be able to zap from what we receive. Maybe I’m being thick, but it doesn’t seem very easy to get rid of.

It’s not that I’m in favour of censorship, or even anti-pornography as such, but this stuff is horrible and I don’t think its appropriate that it’s broadcast in the way it is.

I’m thinking about writing to Tessa Jowell to see what her views might be - although I suspect she might be concerned that there isn’t enough gambling on the television. (But wearing my e-gov hat, I think its only fair that I do write to her to get her view, if she has one - after this blog entry I’m off around the web to see if she has an email address; ‘Open Government’ and all that).

On the one had we have a government concerned about ‘behaviour’ and ’standards’ and ‘decency’; and on the other hand the multi-billionaire Mr Rupert Murdoch, owner of Sky TV ‘purveyor of filth’(as Private Eye would describe him), neo-con who really believes that anything can go, as long as its paid for.

Not very joined up is it, from a government that has preached joined up thinking like a religious mantra.

Perhaps the debasement of public life isn’t the fault of people who have been shoved into sink estates, poor schools and see bleak prospects ahead. Maybe, just maybe, the rich and powerful might have some thing to do with the problems in society, rather than these problems being created and maintained by the poor and ‘excluded’.

web footnote: If you google ‘Rupert Murdoch Gordon Brown’ you get some interesting stuff. But watch out for the Red Star Research site ‘cos who ever put it together seems to hate web users. Once I got on there, I couldn’t use the back button and worse of all, it deleted my previous blog entry on this important subject. Unforgivable.