A bumper crop of nutters

Radio 4's Any Nut^H^H^HAnswers which follows on the Saturday repeat of Any Questions always makes for an interesting if frustrating listen with it's succession of cliched stereotypes ringing in (mostly right-wing, it's Political Correctness Gone Mad, Left-wing BBC bias, never did me any harm types, although I can't help but have a soft-spot for the old brigadiers but never the Mary Whitehouses!).

This recent edition outdid itself in terms of nutter quantity and quality.

First we had the man who said we should stop building wind farms and just build loads of coal plants. Jonathan Dimbleby put it to him that burning coal would release lots of CO2 into the atmosphere. His answer to this was classic and even included the phrase "you people at the BBC"!

His contention was that "you people at the BBC" always say the ice melting will cause sea-levels to rise but if you melt ice in a glass the water level goes down (I thought it stayed the same?). I found myself shouting at the radio "but most of the ice is on land"!! Luckily a contributor did point this out later in the programme.

JD did try, in vain, to point out that it wasn't "you people at the BBC" saying things but reporting scientists saying things

In the same vein we also had a rabid email ending with "I bet you won't read this out", sigh...

Then there was a Mary Whitehouse type who made the point that we shouldn't say Sarah Palin was exteme in being a creationist as there were many who agreed in the US (fair point) but then went on to say that I think you'll find that most people agreed with her around the world (you could almost hear the mad-staring eyes). She obviously wanted to be challenged on this so she could spout forth but JD wasn't rising to it (I'm sure you could hear him rolling his eyes several times).

She also thought it was wrong that people responded to creationists by mocking them. I'm not sure how else you are supposed to respond to someone who thinks the world is 6,000 years old and children played happily with T-Rexs!

Climate change sceptics like Iain Dale at least have a small amount of scientific dissent to reinforce their belief that climate change is a left-wing plot to make them earn slightly less money (like social justice) but I think you'd have a harder time with the whole friendly dinosaur proposition!

My favorite contribution was from someone I can only describe as a Mike Giggler of indeterminate politics:

MG: I've got a sexist joke about Sarah Palin, can I tell it?
JD: Go ahead...
MG: She says she's a bulldog with lipstick, so what does that make her?
JD: (I'm sure I could hear more rolling of eyes)
MG: Do you get it?
JD: No. (silence)
MG: She says she's a bulldog with lipstick, so what does that make her?
JD: I don't know what you're trying to say

(obviously this is from my hazy memory so not verbatim)

Hmm, this post seem to have become is bit Wilcocksian in length. I'll try to less verbose in future (fat chance!)