CBB Again....

Sorry about this, really I am, but...

Last night have to fess up that we did watch, because I wanted to see for myself what this alleged racist bullying was all about. And boy were we in for a show.

Actually, I'm not convinced that the bullying is racist particularly (apparently Jermaine called Jade white trailer trash and got away with that ), but it is deeply unpleasant. My feeling is that it is mainly motivated by jealousy, and it is actually a class thing. Shilpa is beautiful, well educated, and let's face it speaks English a hundred times better then Jade and co (a point which she wasn't slow to make last night). Jade is only famous for being on a reality tv show, otherwise she would still be in the gutter. Danielle is famous for shagging a footballer and winning/losing Miss Great Britain (and I do believe the shagging was first) and Jo was famous for being in a teen band and has clearly lost her way.

Last night we had the excruciating spectacle of Jade repeatedly asking Shilpa when she lost her virginity. Apart from the obvious do we care? answer to this, it was so bleedin' ignorant of her. Just because Jade is an old slapper, doesn't mean everyone is, and she appears incapable of opening her mind up enough to cope with the idea that other cultures don't embrace their sexuality in the way we do. The more I see of Shilpa the more I think modern day India is clearly superior to modern day England. Your average poor man on the street in Delhi is striving striving to do better, get his kids educated, find a way out of the poverty trap. While here? We seem to revel in ignorance and dumbing down. The only way anyone wants to improve themselves is without any effort, ie, going on a crap show like BB, getting their five minutes in the sun and making money out of nothing. And a whole generation is growing up thinking this is what they should aspire to. I'd say way to go Channel 4, but to fair to them, they're only tapping into the zeit geist.

But onto the big business of last night: namely the row between Shilpa and Jade over an oxo cube.

Granted Shilpa did make rather a big deal out of something not that important (but then if I'd spent over a week being got at by three snide little bitches, I guess I'd find it hard to descend to their petty level), but bloody hell.

Jade was absolutely foul. She let rip, screamed abuse, misunderstood Shilpa, who realised she had made a linguistic mistake and instead of saying oxo was the one thing she'd ordered, corrected herself and said it was the only thing she'd ordered. She apologised for her mistake as this misunderstanding had set the row off, and Jade continued to scream abuse and call her a liar. What was worse was that Jo and Danielle giggled throughout this shocking display as if Jade's behaviour was somehow hilarious. Danielle also added at one point I wish she'd go home.

Now what I found also shocking, was that apart from Jermaine (is he the mole? He seems to be winding Shilpa up something chronic) who intervened to separate the women, no one did anything. Cleo, who wrings her hands alot and clearly wants to mother the younger ones SHOULD in my view have had a go at them all, but instead we saw her comforting Jade later. And when she had a chat with Shilpa she told her Jade wasn't racist (yeah, right) and she didn't know what the problem was. Now granted, we may not have been shown parts where Cleo was wading into try and sort things out, but the Jade is not racist tag smacked of a set up.

This seemed clearer then ever when we witnessed Danielle in the diary room. At first she affected nonchalance and said nothing much had happened that day and it had been boring. Crikey, her life must be one long cat fight if she found that little exchange dull.

Clearly Big Brother filled her in on events, because you could see the penny drop suddenly when she was asked why she thought Shilpa should go home. Oh my god I didn't mean to be racist, was what she wanted to say - but where would she have got that idea from, hm? By the end of the interview she was solemnly saying she realised she had followed the crowd and now she felt really bad. If anyone believes that display of contriteness they're easily fooled. She's desperately trying to claw her way out of a hole. Watch her drop Jade like a ton of bricks...

There were funny moments though - Shilpa telling Jade that she was only famous for a tv show (and didn't that touch a nerve!) and Jermaine in the diary room ruminating that Jade was trying to be in control of - what exactly? - in a few week's they're all out of there - certainly lightened the tone.

But overall, I think it was one of the most unpleasant things I've ever witnessed. I thought Channel Four had scraped the bottom of the barrel with last year's freak show, but apparently not. In order to boost ratings we'll stir up a racist controversy. It is deeply deeply irresponsible and could do a great deal of harm for race relations in this country. I said yesterday I thought Jade and her cronies would be crucified when they came out, and rather uncharitably that they deserved to be. I meant by the tabloid press, who are surely going to have a field day. But really it could be much worse. Channel Four apparently have received death threats. There are some crazy people out there, and surely Jade and her chums are going to be targets of hate mail and possibly worse now. I wonder how those Channel Four execs will feel if one of them gets badly hurt?

Sadly, I think this whole sorry mess will actually boost the ratings further and make BB a cert to stay on our screens for some time to come.

But this time, I really won't be watching.