There was an appalling programme on BBC the other evening that was the culmination of a childrens’ spelling competition.
I caught the end of it.
Like ‘Junior Mastermind’, it featured a significant proportion of obnoxious nerds, who even Gandhi would have beaten up had he been at school with them. I am not overly concerned about the way people look, but the parents of these children should be told not to let them out of the house looking like that.
Of most concern, was the focus of the programme on the losers, and their reaction to having failed to spell ‘fellatio’ or 'clitoris’.  The contestants have watched enough crap on TV to absorb and regurgitate the absurd emotional reactions of contestants on all of the other rubbish shows on the box.
I suppose that this is inevitable. There are no longer any manufacturing jobs, and once we have filled the quota of accountants, marketeers, programmers, call centre staff and PR consultants, then the rest of the population will have to be employed to fill the schedules on the 9,743 television channels that will exist in the next 10 years. The training is evidently well on schedule.
There may be some comfort drawn from there being at least 20 or so children in the UK who can spell. Perhaps they will become novelists, and give me some other way of passing the time when I switch the TV off for the last time.

or perhaps they could teach me to spel.

Ha! British TV is always inferior to American shows (partially because the best British shows get exported here)! In our last national spelling bee, one of the kids fainted in the final round on national TV.

But, whut's soe imporetant aboot spiling properlee?

Hell, I don't know, but I best figure it out or cancel Room 3's speling homework!