A pointless piece of research

Experts – an interesting description for people with time on their hands – have concluded that solo artists are twice as likely to die young as a humble band member. A new take on the old safety in numbers theme.

The findings are illustrated by the deaths of Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson and accompanied by speculation about unhappy childhoods, addictive behaviour and peer pressures.

The thing that strikes me about all those deaths was that other than basic messages about drink and drugs, we can’t learn anything from them. They proved nothing. The fact that those who died were gifted artists whose work enriched people’s lives just highlighted the utterly pointless waste in which their lives ended.

I am all for expanding human knowledge, but there are times when I think the researchers would be better employed brewing tea for people with a real job to do.

WHILE their bosses depart shamed, censored but well recompensed, the people on the front line get on with job.

The awful mess at the BBC is proof that a fat salary and fancy job title do not guarantee wisdom. Like the hacking scandal it has shredded the media’s reputation.

One of the most significant aspect of these affairs is that they concern the national media. Our local press, radio and TV have, if anything, emerged with reputations not just intact but enhanced.

They are run by people who care about the communities they report on. They daily strike the balance between championing their region and holding the decision-makers to account. This they do for a fraction of the reward, resources and acclaim their national colleagues take for granted.

Their output is also simply so much better than the mass-produced fodder served up by the nationals. The reports The Northern Echo carried this week on homeless people and sleeping rough – factual, hard-hitting and moving – are an example.

They also turn up hidden gems. I caught one the other week on my local BBC station, an interview with Mel Nurse, saviour of Swansea City football club and Boro captain between 1962 and 1965.

Nurse came to Middlesbrough after the management at Swansea told him – note the word and tense – they had sold him. He recalled the trepidation of arriving in a new town, the delights of a bungalow on Acklam Road and the ultimate proof he had arrived at a top-class club: hotel meals on away days instead of packed lunches.

Delights like this are denied those who get their news and views from the nationals. If only they knew what they were missing.

IT can only be a matter of time before preparing for Christmas is declared a competitive sport.

I can just about manage the fact that the advertising begins before the leaves fall from the trees. It’s the unspoken message that annoys me most: if you don’t spend a mint on things you don’t need, entertain a house full of people and have a table groaning with food you are somehow a failed human being.

Christmas should be celebrated at your own pace and in your own way.

So on that seasonal note, wherever and however you spend it, have a happy and peaceful Christmas. Do it your way.