Piers Morgan's Boris Moment

Hat tip to Stephen for pointing out this story highlighting the success of local (to us) woman, Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. And in case you were wondering, no, she wasn't the stripper I've been complaining about.

Stephen was at my house when the show was on and I think it's fair to say that this woman is a miracle worker. Shutting one of us up is an achievement, stunning two of the biggest gobs in the Scottish Lib Dems if not the Scottish blogosphere into awed silence is probably unprecedented. She didn't look like she was going to have one of the most amazing voices ever seen on one of these shows as she sung "I dream a dream" from Les Miserables.

So from the talented, we go to the ignorant. The same story tells how Piers Morgan took exception to the footage of Susan's home town of Blackburn, describing it as a dump and apparently ordered filming to take place in Bathgate instead. The cheek of the man! West Lothian is one of the best areas to live in the UK as far as I am concerned. It's accessible for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Stirling, has great facilities and lovely surrounding countryside. I think it might be a good idea for him to get his backside up here and have a look round the place for himself before he starts decrying it. It may not be a chocolate box pretty corner of the posh south eastern countryside like the village he comes from but Blackburn and the surrounding area is a good place to live.

Not only that, the area is fairly rich with hidden talent with Kerry McGregor from Pumpherston making it to the X Factor final 12 in 2005, Leon Jackson just down the road in Whitburn winning the X Factor in 2007 and now Susan, who probably tops both of them. Just as an aside, in an addition to the point Stephen made about when the X Factor filmed for Leon, during the final the crowd was gathered in Edinburgh, with Liberal Democrat Lord Provost of Edinburgh talking live to host Dermot O'Leary. Much as I love George, they should definitely have filmed that in West Lothian.

Simon Cowell should send Piers up here, the same way Boris Johnson was made to go to apologise to Liverpool, to make amends for the slur he has cast on us.

And now that my rant is over, sit back and listen to the marvels Susan has to offer have a look here. 2.1 million hits and counting.

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Gordon Brown gets it right for once

I don't know what made me laugh more - the idea of Simon Cowell having his body frozen, thinking he would be doing the nation a service, when he dies in case he can be brought back to life in the future, or Gordon Brown's reported reaction.

I'm assuming that this is a leak aiming to make it seem like our PM actually has a sense of humour. He supposedly said that "I am not sure me coming back from the dead would be quite as popular as Simon." ‘In fact, there may be a public campaign to stop me being frozen"

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Louis Walsh seeks £1.3 million for next X Factor

The papers have been full of X Factor Judge speculation for weeks. First Dannii's out and Posh is in, then Lily and Charlotte are supposedly scrapping for a place at the judging table - the facts, ie Charlotte's blatant denial in OK magazine not even getting a look in - then suddenly Dannii's back. And they haven't even begun discussing contracts yet... It's a game of virtual musical chairs that will keep the X Factor in the headlines all the way until the show begins again in June.

Now Louis Walsh has reportedly asked for a whopping pay rise, from £800,000 to £1.3 million. Not many people will be getting a 40%+ increase this year. A Labour blogger has slagged him for even asking in such a time of economic downturn. If this were public money he was going for, I'd be right up there with him, but if this is true, whether he gets it or not will depend pretty much on Simon Cowell's largesse.

I think that TV personalities on prime time shows get paid way too much and worry that this is at the expense of production values and regional programming. You don't get to make a programme these days unless it's going to be a ratings winner, so the range of what's available to watch becomes ever narrower. And even if your show is good, like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, or Pushing Daisies (yes I know they're American but stay with me), you are likely to get cancelled if you don't dominate the viewing in your slot.

An interesting little footnote to this story - again, if the figures were to be believed, Louis was on about £800,000, Dannii was on somewhere around £600,000 - £800,000 and Cheryl was on £500,000 for this last series. We'll ignore Simon, who earns squillions cos he owns the show. Whatever happened to the concept of equal pay for work of equal value?

The Judges' pay is a matter for them and Cowell to resolve in the end of the day - and at least, when it comes to the obscenely overpaid, they can still look down on footballers and former bank bosses. And in fact, some current senior managers in banks if Gordon Brown doesn't grow a backbone and stop them from being paid huge bonuses with our money.

I guess this is as good a time as ever to have a wee look back at why we love the X Factor so much. It gives us such classic moments as this....



or this



I just wonder if this newly formed group will find their way to the Glasgow auditions this year. The girl's ok, but the bloke is well dodgy....



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