Balls - Come-Bye!

Lord, how the heart sinks at the news that Chief Sod Ed Balls is hard at work on a 'Ten-Year Plan' for children. And we haven't had to wait ten years for him to finger the culprit responsible for the woes of the nation's children - advertising. Well it stands to reason, doesn't it? It's watching all those ads that 'robs them of their childhood' and turns them into primary school binge drinkers. So yes, it's yet more displacement activity (and hammering of easy targets) - anything rather than face the obvious fact that what 'robs children of their childhood' is family breakdown, or indeed family non-existence. Nothing to do with the price of booze or what's on TV, or whether wicked middle-class parents allow them to spend too much time with their computers, thereby undermining the heroic and spectacularly successful efforts of the state's schools and (ever expanding) nurseries.
Still, never mind eh? Here's a rare piece of cheering news from the world of television. ( Incidentally, the BBC version will be making one of its rare appearances over Christmas, but with ghastly Ben Fogle in place of the great Robin Page. Not the same.)