Lord's, the unusual home of chips and gravy

Matt, a friend of mine, tweeted me at 9.45am yesterday:

"Don't suppose you can get to lords for this afternoon? Just got a couple of extra tickets?????"

Hell yes. I requested a slightly earlier departure than usual from the office and set about trying to get hold of my wife.

Permission granted, favours owed. By way of car, cab, train and tube, I made it to the Grace gate at Lord's just in time for lunch. How terribly civilised, my dear old thing.

Our seats in the Allen stand gave us the view you can see in the photo above. Matt is a member at Lord's and had brought a works party along, two of whom had to drop out at the last moment, hence the spare tickets.

I have been to Lord's two or three times before, but only in the cheap seats on the fifth day of a test match. This was slightly different.

The members and friends areas (of which the Allen stand is one) positively vibrate with respectful bonhomie, and the people-watching provides as much fun as the cricket.

Lord's takes a relaxed view of spectators importing reasonable quantities of food and drink into the ground, so many bring a day's supply of nibbles (grapes and olives are very popular) and booze.

We were impressed by the gentleman sitting in the front row of our stand with a wine box perched in front of him on a piece of brickwork.

"I think he's been here before." said one of Matt's colleagues.

The atmosphere was almost tangibly courteous. Everyone was being as polite as possible to everyone around them. The stewards seemed to know the members by name.  The bar staff were chatty, service was swift and the beer was cheaper than a pint in my local in Walton on Thames. And the dress code, thank goodness, was relaxed - there were plenty of suits, but just as many jeans and fleeces.

The overall impression (and I don't want this to sound remotely perjorative) was that of a genteel private members club, which just happened to have an international sporting event ticking along on the lawn.

Why not? It was the first day of a five day game, the pace of play was steady ("old-fashioned" according to TMS) and for many of the people around me, this was not a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity. If you're a member at Lord's you can pop in to watch any game you want, any day, for free.

We watched Stuart Broad take six wickets, Matt explained to me the genius behind Chanderpaul's batting action and I spent five hours in the company of a dear friend I rarely get to see.

The first day of the first test of the summer at Lord's isn't just about what happens in the middle. It's an opportunity to greet old friends, make new ones and quietly celebrate the passing of the years, getting older and having fun.

Oh, and it's the first place in London I've found that does chips and gravy. So there.

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On the Mic - Surrey Life - March 2012

As promised, here is my first column for Surrey Life magazine, slightly re-written, because I can't leave things alone:

"3.45am. I present the Breakfast Show, six days a week, on BBC Surrey – and in order to be sufficiently present in both mind and body, I have to get up at 3.45am. It’s all anyone ever wants to know.

For the record, it’s okay. I’m used to it. I’m used to the rush of adrenaline that courses round the body from 6am to 9am, followed by the inevitable post-show catatonic trough.

I’m used to stumbling around Walton-on-Thames at three in the afternoon looking like a bag of spanners in the closest approximation to pyjamas I can get away with, assailing unsuspecting shop assistants with a series of half-formed yawns until I realise I’ve forgotten what I was there for in the first place.

But when I was offered the job of Breakfast Show presenter at BBC Surrey, I didn’t hesitate. Who wouldn’t want to present the biggest show on a newly-created BBC radio station in God’s Own County? People who don’t want to get up at 3.45am, I guess. Which is fine. We have a motto at work – sleeping is cheating.

The job itself is a doddle. A wise sage once told me the knack of being a radio presenter is saying something engaging, informative, intelligent and pithy, using vibrant, accessible language that will instantly strike a chord with thousands of people from wildly differing demographic groups and age ranges, every time you open your mouth. As I said, a doddle.

I have had the privilege of sitting in the presenter’s chair at BBC Surrey for going on three years, and the people I end up chatting with never fail to impress, astonish or move. I have also got to know more of the county than I ever thought possible. It’s sometimes very easy just to flit about in your own little bubble, but this job has taken me to all parts, from the urbanised commuter zones of the north, to the wilds of the east and south. For the last five years, I have been happily settled in Walton-on-Thames, with a patient wife and three delightful young children. 

I love this county dearly, so when Surrey Life’s fearsome editor suggested I hop on board, I was both thrilled and honoured. I hope you will find something in this column each month that makes you smile, reach for a stiff drink or possibly weep with pity.

And I do hope I might eventually tempt you towards tuning your radio to BBC Surrey of a morning. We’d love to count you as a friend."

You can read it on the Surrey Life website, too, of course.


****************

I have a column in Surrey Life magazine

And look! I made the front page of the March edition. Nic and I once looked at Clandon Park as a potential wedding venue. We couldn't afford it.

To be honest, I can't afford many of the things advertised, or "featured" in Surrey Life, but I'm blimmin' delighted about becoming a regular columnist.

There was some debate about the column title. I came up with Radio Daze, but refused to countenance it, because it seemed too cheesy and obvious. I've just done a quick Google - it seems no one has a magazine column called Radio Daze. Maybe everyone thinks it's too cheesy or obvious. Hey - it's yours if you want it.

I liked White Noise, but my (fearsome) editor Caroline Harrap didn't. So it came down to a toss up between Sounding Off and On the Mic.

We went for On the Mic. You can find out more about Surrey Life here. A few of the older columns get posted up for free via that link. If that happens with mine, I'll also re-post it here.

Your comments on my glossy magazine prose style, and how it compares to the stuff on this blog, more than welcome.

******************

Nick Wallis Inside Out West

A few weeks ago I got a call from Inside Out West asking if I'd work on a report with them. They'd seen some of the stuff I'd done with Inside Out South and thought I might be suitable.

Unfortunately one of the days filming involved a Monday morning police raid on a scrap metal yard in Wiltshire. As I present a breakfast show on the radio in Surrey, the Inside Out producer thought this might present a problem.

I took the problem to my boss at BBC Surrey, who very kindly agreed to spring me for one day. Thank you boss. One BBC and all that.

The above film is the result of two and a half days filming and a half a day in a voice booth/edit suite. It went out in the West region on BBC1 on 30 Jan 2012 and again in the South region on BBC1 on 6 Feb 2012.

It's always a little daunting working with a completely new team, but I was made to feel very welcome by everyone at BBC Bristol. I hope we can work together again.

If, for any reason, you can't see the embedded youtube video at the top of this post, you can see the report here.


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Lee Castleton - bankrupt and bitter

In the light of the recent article in Private Eye, I got an email from Lee Castleton, whose situation was highlighted back in 2009, by Computer Weekly.


Lee has given me permission to publish his email which has been edited slightly for clarity.

"Hi Nick,

"My name is Lee Castleton. I am a former subpostmaster. I am writing to give you my sorrowful experience of dealings with Post Office Ltd. I believe I am the only person to have defended a civil case (and lost) for losses in my branch - Marine Drive Bridlington. Case number HQ05X02706 in the High Court London. I was taken there in Dec 2006 by Post Office Ltd.

"In Jan 2004 My Post Office branch started to accrue losses. The first of which was £1103.68. This I paid. But I telephoned helpline and explained that I lost £1103.68. They told me to pay it and it would no doubt turn up the following week as a mistake on my part. The following week we again misbalanced. I was £4300 short. Again I made the phone call to helpline but I was given no help. 

"I explained I had paid in a large amount the week prior and I could not afford to pay. I was told they would look in to it. Over the following 10 weeks we misbalanced every week. Sometimes we had too much money but more often we had too little. I was frantic. I received no help and even though I never hid any misbalances, no answers we given. 

"After repeatedly voicing my concerns and begged for help (over 91 phone calls in the 12 week period) I asked for an audit. I knew this would stop the never helping attitude and force some action. I am naive. On the 23rd March 2004 I was audited. I was found to be exactly where I had told Post Office I was with respect to the misbalances (-£25000). 

"I did not expect what happened next. I was suspended. I was told the deficit was against my contract and that I needed to pay the money there and then. I explained that I had told Post Office repeatedly and that I felt the Horizon system was at fault. 

"I was taken through a procedure where my suspension became a termination yet still despite my pointing out faults in paperwork there was no investigation. Post Office now were not paying me and they then started proceedings to recover the supposed missing money. I was able to get representation through a legal insurance. 

"Post Office delayed and delayed with letters back and forth. All the time eating up the insurance money. 

"Finally we went to court in Dec 06. The Post office offered little evidence other than my signed accounts. I lost. From Jan 07 to this day my family and I have suffered far beyond anything I could explain. 

"I had to declare myself bankrupt because the Judge order costs against me to the value of £321000. The Judge told the Post Office that it was unlikely I would be able to pay prior to the case being heard but Post Office wanted to continue. So Post office Ltd paid £321000 to try to recover £25000. Even though they knew I could not pay.

"What is still painful is even more so when new revelations are revealed by others on a daily basis. I always asked for help and explained and reported any losses. It is not reasonable to think that an average working man can just pay ever more money into a system that clearly is flawed. 

"I have documents that prove the system does not work. One of which is the one Shoosmiths refer to - the Horizon records transactions whilst the person whom the Horizon says is operating the system is not even logged on to the system. This is one of the faults from my office.

"Post Office's case against me was argued on the basis that an account stated is an account owned. They argued that I signed of the accounts as a true reflection of the the accounts. Firstly over the 12 week period I made 91 phone calls asking why the system was showing shortages or gains. 

"Secondly I have now found out that Horizon has 3rd party access. Which Post Office deny. How can I own an account that a third party can change?

"Lee Castleton"

Since emailing this letter, Lee has asked Humberside Police to investigate his situation. He is alleging the Post Office:


"withheld the fact that the system has had and continues to have balance problems where transactions are lost. They withheld information during disclosure and still deny that the system has serious flaws with balancing. 


"They have financially gained from the non-disclosure and continue to deny they have a problem with the system. They have sought to criminalise people where possible whilst withholding this information. 


"They have profited from withholding this information. Because they are able to prosecute people without any form of checks with the CPS they have been able to continue to withhold this information to their own benefit in such cases."


Lee tells me the investigating officer at Humberside Police:


"has confirmed to me that he will be investigating the Post Office. He explained that he felt there is clearly a problem that needs to be looked into. 


"Whilst he also felt that it will be particularly difficult to do so he feels that it is certainly something that needs to be investigated."


I ought to point out, just in case any of the Post Office's lawyers are reading this, that the Post Office believes its Horizon interface to be "robust", and no one has ever offered any testable proof that the Horizon system has any faults whatsoever.

Namechecked in the House

I know exactly why Jeremy Hunt MP did this, and so do his sniggering colleagues.

 Jeremy Hunt loves BBC Surrey by nickwallis 


But that doesn't mean it isn't strange and wonderful to have your name mentioned by a Secretary of State in the House of Commons.


He said: "There are numerous examples which we've heard this afternoon, across the country, of where BBC Local Radio has filled a gap that would not have been filled by anything else, and I think in line with what other Hon. Members have said I do need to mention the excellent work done by BBC Surrey, which I visited recently, including the excellent Nick Wallis breakfast show." - Jeremy Hunt MP, Thu 1 Dec, 2011.


The mention, whilst extremely welcome, was gratuitous. Members of Parliament know that if they namecheck a specific local newspaper in the House of Commons there is a 99.9% chance they will appear in the paper they have mentioned (probably with a photo), and the coverage of their mention will almost certainly be favourable. 


I haven't heard the full debate on BBC Local Radio that led to Jeremy Hunt mentioning my name, but as he infers in the above clip, his parliamentary colleagues were almost certainly queuing up to mention their local radio station because they knew by doing so, they would make the bulletins on the radio stations they mentioned. Hence the knowing laughs in the background when Jeremy Hunt mentioned BBC Surrey.


It's not a conscious or pre-meditated "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours", nor does the extended coverage of the mention come from any pathetic sense of gratefulness on behalf of the publication or media outlet which gets its brief moment in the spotlight. It's just the way these things work. 


If someone who has a high profile endorses your work it is likely that people who already like you will be interested in it. Report it. Make a trail using it. Put it on the cover of your book or your billboard, RT it on twitter. Write an article about it. Anyone in this situation who gets all bashful is a fool.


The important thing to note is why my name was mentioned by a Secretary of State in the House of Commons. Although it may have been done for cynical reasons, it didn't happen spontaneously.


The debate in the chamber was about the future of BBC Local Radio, and it was called by the veteran Labour MP Austin Mitchell. He has concerns about the scale of cuts an internal BBC review (called Delivering Quality First or DQF) is going to impose on BBC Local Radio. Where did his concerns come from? Not out of thin air.


Since I started doing my show, I have been in regular contact with an extraordinarily committed listener who goes by the name of Darcy Sarto. He is passionate, articulate and very funny, and he cares an awful lot about BBC Local Radio. In his spare time he is involved with a group called the BBC Local Radio Forum, which has lobbied incessantly to get all the people who say they care about BBC Local Radio to do something about it. He is very well aware of the potential implications of DQF for local radio, and he sees it as his business, as a licence-fee payer and listener, to be an advocate for BBC Local Radio.


Whilst chatting (off air) with Darcy about DQF, I suggested the biggest problem that BBC Local Radio had was not enough movers and shakers listen to it. For many and varied reasons, a lot of influential people listen to BBC Radio 4 and/or 5live.


If there were a "Listen to BBC Local Radio Day", which simply asked everyone to try their local BBC station for a few moments, whether it be MPs, local councillors, charity bigwigs, NHS chief executives, police chiefs, business owners, shop workers, commuters, schoolteachers, mums, kids, celebrities, whoever - then it would raise the profile of BBC Local Radio, prove to people who'd never listened what a vital job BBC Local Radio does and it might even get us a few more regular listeners. It would also be something that the BBC hierarchy could get behind - why wouldn't they support a listener-generated campaign to ask everyone to tune in to BBC Local Radio?


Darcy agreed and suggested the date - Thu 1 Dec - the birthdate of the founder of BBC Local Radio, Frank Gillard. Poetically resonant and conveniently within the timescale of the current BBC Trust consultation into DQF. Perfect.


I am ashamed to say I did very little thereafter. Darcy and his friends did all the running - they got to enough MPs to get the debate called, and they ensured that the biggest news story coming out of DQF was the effect it may have on local radio. It won some significant public statements from people within the BBC, not least Mark Thompson, the Director General, and Caroline Thomson, the Chief Operating Officer who told the Voice of the Listener and Viewer group that the BBC had been "surprised" by the response to the Local Radio proposals.


Before we go any further, I need to state, for the record, that I have no opinion on DQF, nor on the way the BBC chooses to go about setting its budgets. I know that if there is a reprieve for BBC Local Radio, some other department will lose out. It's not my place to pontificate even if I did have an opinion.


If, however, you have a view on BBC Local Radio, and you want that view to count, please contact the BBC Trust. They are reviewing the proposals in DQF, and as a licence-fee payer, what you have to say will make a difference.


Here's the link. You have until 21 Dec 2011 to make your contribution. Please spread the word.


In the event, not many MPs attended today's debate, but the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, given his brief, was more or less obliged to do so. I have no idea of his real feelings on BBC Local Radio. Although he says I'm "excellent", I have no idea how many hours (minutes? seconds?) of my show he has listened to.


But he knew he would hear lots of other MPs talk passionately about their radio station, and so he made sure, at the very least, that he knew my name. 


And please be in no doubt that however cynical I may seem, it was rather thrilling to hear it said in such a rarified setting.

It was 20 years ago today

This rather small and badly-cropped picture is of John Terrett. His was the first voice, and he was the first breakfast show presenter, on BBC Radio Surrey, when it launched on 14 Nov 1991.

I spoke to John on air this morning. I was in the same studio he was sitting in exactly 20 years previously. He was in Washington DC, where he now works as a US correspondent for Al Jazeera.

My former colleague at Five News, Brian Ging, tracked John down. Brian moved to "Al Jazz" as we call it in "the" "trade", and worked with him before he moved to the US. A few quick emails later and John and I were having a natter on the phone, sorting out this morning's interview on the BBC Surrey Breakfast Show.

John is a perfect gentleman and could not have been more helpful. Bearing in mind the 5 hour time difference, he very kindly agreed to stay up until 1.20am his time to talk to us live on the radio.

Speaking to John on air brought all the stories out of the woodwork. I asked people what they were doing in 1991 and as well as personal histories, I was bowled over by the number of people listening to the radio station this morning who started listening to BBC Radio Surrey in 1991.

As well as the birthday wishes and reminiscences from listeners, my news editor Angus Moorat came on air to tell me that when BBC Radio Surrey launched, he was running a student radio station at the University of Surrey.

It's name? Radio Surrey. When Angus got wind of the BBC's plans he went up to Broadcasting House in London (by appointment) with a fellow student to tell the BBC they couldn't call their new station Radio Surrey, as it would clash with their student station.

They met with a nice man at the BBC who sat behind a large desk in a wood panelled room. He listened to their concerns and then told them there was no chance of the BBC changing its mind, so thanks very much for coming and goodbye.

The student Radio Surrey is now called GU2 radio - and it is doing rather well - taking home two silvers from last week's Student Radio Awards.

Peter Stewart, my newsreader, and author of an excellent book on radio, told me in 1991 he was busy applying to be a journalist at BBC Radio Surrey. He still has the rejection letter.

BBC Radio Surrey lasted two years before becoming part of BBC Sussex and Surrey. Then they both became BBC Southern Counties, for a long time. 

In 2009, BBC Surrey was born. I heard about the launch of this new station, and was delighted there was finally a BBC station representing my home county (I never knew where or what Southern Counties was supposed to be). 

I went along to meet the Managing Editor responsible for this name change. One conversation led to another... and here I am.