Under the weather

BBC Radio 4 news casting is the very impersonation of a happy family, safe and secure.

John Humphreys, in the morning, being the stern – but not unkind – father who will take good care of all the bullshit being dished out early in the morning by politicians so full of themselves it’s a miracle that they don’t spill out of the radio onto your own breakfast table; James Naughtie, in the role of the benign uncle: and my dead hot favourite, Eddie Mair, at 5 pm, being your brother; the latter having seduced me on both the merits of this calmness – in the face of complete bollocks of some of his interviewees - and his voice. I am in love with the guy. And no, I have no idea what he looks like, neither does it matter; after all, you don’t bed your brother.

However, considering that I live in the country where weather is the number one conversation opener, it’s beginning to annoy me that my BBC homepage gets our local weather prediction consistently wrong. So today we were basking in sunshine whilst the forecast - throughout the day - was “heavy” rain. Not that it matters, unless you are planning a day of skateboarding or a barbecue; all I need to do is take my own reading by setting a foot in front of either door.

Yet it does raise the question: Who on earth would ever wish to become a weather forecaster? We all screw up in life occasionally, some more, some less. But to seek out a profession which will put you in the wrong most of the time?

U

Edit: Dear Eddie, so sorry I spelt your surname wrong first time round