Overhawk:
I'm a huge BC supporter and aficionado, but let's stay focussed and not jump down the daily mail trail of outrage for the sake of it.
The Daily Mail is such a useful whipping boy these days it seems that it now has to take the flak generated by its rivals! The link was to a Daily Express story. As to outrage, I'm way past that these days where the BBC is concerned. Its editorial stance is so predictable as to generate in me mere weary resignation, hence the pleasant surprise of the Trooping. You get to anticipate the fading out of the Massed Bands as Huw or Clare warm to more bon mots re heat, rain, the Royal Colonels, the non Royal Colonels, or horses's hands. I suggest that the reason that they didn't do that this time to the usual extent was as a direct result of the Thames outcry, but the Beeb is already returning to default attitudes it would appear.
A lack of gravitas would hence be seen as a plus rather than a minus, allowing of "inclusiveness" and "empowerment" for all viewers. I was amused at a comment on another thread that what the Beeb lacked for the Thames coverage was a Dimbleby. Unless they meant Dimbleby senior, who did indeed have gravitas, then I would have to respectfully disagree. Indeed respect, or rather the lack of it, is at the crux of the matter. There were many thousand participants in the Thames Royal event, many many thousands of spectators, and an enormous amount of organisation and effort into arranging it. The lack of any such effort by the BBC showed a lack of respect to all those people and all their effort.
So it is with the Bomber Command Memorial. I disagree that it is mere news, for anything can be so dismissed. It is almost 70 years late mainly because of the very attitudes that I ascribe to the BBC. That is the newsworthy side of it; that the survivors have had to wait for their memorial to the point where there are now so very few left, because of the moral outrage of the chattering classes that stood in its way for so long! This unveiling should be covered live on the terrestrial channels by a BBC keen to make amends for such opposition and to pay tribute to the 50% of BC aircrew that made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation, for freedom from tyranny, and for peace. But they won't of course, will they?