BBC London is very depressing

Out of the past 19 posts in BBC online's London RSS feed, there are five articles about murder, two on terrorism, one random violence, one about accidental death, an arsenic warning and a policeman being dodgy.

There are some "happy" stories - some policemen won the lottery, the Queen had dinner on HMS Victory and loads of people are offering to help in the Kashmir earthquake aftermath.

The rest are pretty neutral. And not exactly newsworthy. Apparently Paula Radcliffe is to defend her London Marathon title (like there was any doubt of that), the Saatchi Gallery has been evicted (okay, mildly interesting) , a politician "keeps it real"and Robbie Williams was nervous before a concert until he saw David Beckham looking scared.

Well, thanks, BBC London. My life is now complete because Robbie Williams is comforted by Beckham. How about something useful to us London dwellers, like... hmm... the London Film Festival maybe? Stories that don't make us want to huddle in our homes, too afraid to talk to the neighbours. Not your thing? Okay, I'll have a shot:

• Take part in Guinness World Record attempt at Longest Game of Twister Ever
• Docklands Canary Wharf to hold Charity Night - fabulous discounts and 100% of ticket sales go to charity - No permalink.
• Geek convention in ExCel - better than an Arms Fair!

There ya go. In ten minutes I've managed to find three stories, not one of which even hints at a murder! Given time and the motivation to actually drag my butt out of the house, I could probably even come up with some heart-warming tale of human interest. Schoolchildren perform for AIDS awareness campaign, perhaps*. And all without the benefit of journalistic training. Good, eh?

* This did actually happen a couple of years ago at Queen Mary College, East London. There was an afternoon-long presentation on AIDS awareness, with free condoms and femidoms and guest speakers. For some strange reason, halfway through the afternoon, 20 kids from a local primary school trooped out onstage and started doing some odd wandering/singing/dancing thing that culminated in them all standing in a row holding up a letter each to read something entirely unintelligible. I think they got it wrong. Heart-warming nonetheless!


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