BBC1's 'Children in Need'

I really am going to sound like a party pooper and a miserable sod in what I am about to write but what I am about to write needs taking in so please reader consider what I say.

Every time the BBC flagship charity comes around supposedly helping kids who are in some sort of need or other I think not again. I assume from what I have read organisations working with vulnerable kids can apply for grants and so hopefully will get those grants to aid the important work they do amongst children and with homelessness rife in the UK now especially amongst families.

I also want to state for the record that I am not against charities as it seems their work especially amongst the poor like 'Shelter' who deal with the homeless are needed more than ever. This has largely come about because private landlords are now refusing to accept housing benefit tenants as this government money no longer is enough to pay the high rents private landlords now charge tenants and not affording the rents families are thrown on the streets. The council is not always in a position to help them because housing at the moment is in short supply as more and more people turn up to be re - housed at the council. They are offered short term solutions like bed and breakfasts or hostels or they have stay with friends and relatives until they are housed.

Getting back to 'Children in Need' a little while ago in the media this BBC charity was criticised for sitting on £90 million when it should have gone and helped worthy causes. Dont forget that 'Children in Need' as an organisation employs not only volunteers but paid workers and managers and it would be interesting to know where they find the funds to pay these people. Plus overheads, computers, photo - copiers, phones, faxes and all manner of office equipment plus other kinds of expenses.

I dont know if the celebs appearing on 'Children in Need' are paid for their appearances or they appear for free, however, if they are paid and this is a charity when they expect people to give up some money for this cause when they are struggling to pay a mortgage, pay the bills etc is to say the least distasteful.

Again dont get me wrong if people want to give no matter how much their earnings that is their choice. When these people come on and they are loaded and ask people or even guilt people into making a contribution who will never see the huge sums of money these celebs have got to me is morally wrong.

Terry Wogan God bless him used to front the show with other presenters and he was loved by many but forgive me but I must have been missing something. I always found his style a bit patronising and smarmy and now fellow Irishman Graham Norton is fronting the show famous for his chat show on a Friday night where celebs come to plug something as is the way with most chat shows now instead of just coming on to talk about their life. Norton also voices the 'Eurovision Song Contest' now something Wogan also used to do.

I think the BBC should release statements on how much money celebs give to 'Children in Need' and how the money has been spent and where so that the public donating know where the money has gone. That its not being siphoned off for no good or just sitting in some bank account gathering dust.

You get the feeling although I admit its probably just the old cynic in me that many celebs appear on charity shows to prance about and say "Look me you great unwashed I have come among you from on high to get you to part with your hard earned cash for this cause while it is not known how much I donate and whether I get paid for this charity gig or not". A bit like that scene from the '300' when King Xerxes a God King to the Persians offers riches to the Spartan King and he refuses or the disabled Spartan soldier rejected by his own turns up at Xerxes camp and bows and Xerxes says to him "Unlike your own I am a kind king and I benefit from your help against the Spartan enemy in return you will get drink, women, gold, whatever name it".

The real charity people to me are the ordinary doing stunts to raise money for cancer or dementia who never get mentioned hardly or maybe get a brief mention in the local paper but this world today is all about materialism. What car you drive, what house you live in, your income, your clothes are they designer, the latest flat screen TV, or X - Box game. So it seems with these so called celebs in their finery while fronting charity shows asking us hard up people to part with our cash on zero hours wages or on benefits while these celebs have so much money they could probably cure the problem of children in need forever or least make it a lot better.

1) BBC staff paid more than any other charity at 'Children in Need'.

2) Enforced Licence pay on the British public keeps this going.

3) BBC described as a bloated corrupt organisation.

4) Article on 'Snouts in the Trough' advised people to steer well clear of 'Children in Need'.

5) Replies to this article from the public highlighted the complaints the public have about this programme.

6) One replier to this article described how they were about to donate money over the phone to 'Children in Need' when the programme flashed up a childrens centre in need of money but all it showed were three or four middle aged Rastafarians smoking, drinking and playing pool in a so called children's centre. The caller immediately hung up and the money remained in their bank.

7) Others have said as I did in my article that the sight of these "Overpaid and egotistical celebs" nauseates them and so do not watch it.