On Carol Thatcher

Carol Thatcher's been on tv twice recently - once a few months back revisiting the Falkland islands to reflect upon the 20th anniversary of mummy's war, and other night, back in the Falklands, reporting on the plight of the black-browed albatross as part of BBC 1's 'Saving Planet Earth' series. First time around, she met with a group of Argentinian women whose sons were killed during the Falklands war, and in the face of their loss and ongoing grief, failed to muster one iota of compassion, merely informing them peremptorily that in a war situation, people get killed. In this latest programme, when faced with two dead albatrosses on the back of a fishing boat, she was visibly moved, and referred to the use of unmarked long line fishing reels as the cause of 'this slaughter'. Perhaps it's unfair to take her out of context in this way, but the discrepancy between her two responses made my jaw drop. Caring about animals has always been easier than caring about people I guess, which is probably why the BBC haven't scheduled a prime time campaigning series called 'Saving Homeless Teens' or 'Saving the Economically Disenfranchised', which would doubtless have Radio Times readers choking on their suppers. Programmes about endangered species and their perilous nests and eggs have a twee, travelogue-style feeling, a world (and a species) away from reality. Concern for animals and the environment is all well and good, but it's pretty troubling when we're encouraged to care more about birds that live on the other side of the world than about the kids we walk past every day on the street.