Okay, so you're on the second floor, elevator is around behind me, and breakfast will be over there from 6-10 in the morning." So the “culture” secretary, Nadine Dorries, is freezing the BBC licence fee for two years, which will mean significant cuts before the service is eliminated. We could crowdfund a licence fee top-up for the next two years, in time for a new, properly cultured government to save our national broadcaster. Who’s in? It does take A LOT of energy to fake it, though. It really burns me out.. but, it's all I know and, of course, the money. MFB: Well we should have just stayed at the other hotel! We really should have been told about the extra prices attached to this place. I can read you like a book, and not a very good book. Especially no Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNabb, which actually improves with every read.

As Jim Waterson points out ( Report, 16 January), “The BBC has already made substantial cost savings … the public should prepare for the BBC to provide less high-end drama and sports coverage … This could in turn erode support for the BBC if the public no longer feel they are receiving value for money from the licence fee.” There we have it: goodbye to the BBC. What should the BBC do next? Take the threat seriously – how? Play for the highest stakes possible. Namely, it should call the government’s bluff by mothballing its ridiculous “editorial balance” principle and start exposing, via a variety of genres, how the Tories have worked tirelessly to destroy the UK’s democratic institutions, one by one, in pursuit of the alignment of the country’s fortunes to the wilder shores of US republicanism. If the licence fee goes, the BBC will be reduced to a rump broadcaster on the lines of public broadcasting in the US. Every month, all radio and TV stations will spend several days asking for donations to keep going. Radio 3 and Radio 4 will disappear as functioning entities. Radio 2 might just about survive. Local radio will disappear, with the possible exception in extremely large cities. Practice empathy: Nuance and empathy are antidotes to irrational thoughts. It’s important to understand that no one is all good or all bad. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, while not always easy, can go a long way toward increasing empathy and reducing hate. Just as you have your reasons for your beliefs and behaviors, so do others.The BBC is not a streaming service. All the big platforms do one thing only, and often do it well. But they have no obligations to provide factual news, research, or programmes that examine in detail social issues, eg File on 4. You join us live at the Berlin Olympics on "Grandstand" in 1936 on this pleasant summer morning in Nazi Germany. Everyone's here. Hitler's in his box, Jesse Owens just waved to him. He doesn't like that. The older I get the more I notice how "common sense is not that common". It's impacts day to day life. How many people have no problem with stopping in the middle of the street to take a picture or to say hi to someone, or to cross a street without looking, or push a door that clearly says pull. How many people have no sense of spacial awareness whatsoever. I spend an embarrassing amount of my day just being bewildered at the complete stupidity of the general public. I travel a lot and it doesn't change depending on the city or country I am in, most people are completely oblivious about how to act in public. So many people cannot take social cues like when someone isn't listening to their story, or not to talk to someone if they have headphones in. Or people who just completely cannot comprehend that they made in fact be wrong, because everyone else around them must be wrong. I have so many examples and so little space. If you hate people too you'll have your own examples.

Social anxiety: Social anxiety can make it difficult for you to interact with people and lead to emotions like nervousness, fear, embarrassment, and distress. In some cases, people with social anxiety may even react to situations that make them uncomfortable with anger and hatred.

I realised I had nothing to worry about. The man was a perfect gentleman. But if you told me 25 years ago that I would be talking about rigid inflatable hulls with Dale Winton I would probably have spat at you. I would've taken it off sooner but I was having a fascinating conversation with the proud father of Norfolk's most sun-tanned child. Just passed his details on to the Social Services. Throughout the questions I will be remaining impartial at all times. I will remain Pontius Partridge. I explain about incidentals and assure her the room HAS been paid for. She starts digging for a card.

Two fat ladies, 88! Not that you'd find these ladies at a bingo hall, of course... they're altogether a higher class of fat lady. Later we'll be taking dedications for anyone wrongly turned down for planning permission. Also, I'll be asking: Which is the worst monger? Fish, iron, rumour or war? Given the Conservative party’s apparent inability to understand for what and for whom the BBC exists, isn’t it time to consider making parliament a subscription service?

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News will be reduced to a skeleton operation reliant on press agencies. Educational broadcasting and children’s television programmes will disappear. All the science provision will dissolve. Documentaries will vanish. There will be no room to encourage new writing or music. Social information activities will cease. As I read Polly Toynbee’s article on the government’s intention to end the BBC’s licence fee ( The BBC must defend itself with all its might against this mortal threat, 16 January), I felt a sense of despair rarely experienced in my 70-plus years on this earth. Once again, this government is continuing along the path taken by so many corrupt and failing states by taking away yet another fundamental pillar that helps create a strong democratic society – access to a fair, independent and balanced news media prepared to inform, educate and challenge.

MFB: I just can't believe this. I have NEVER stayed at a hotel where they wouldn't tell you the room number but told you to just LOOK instead.Let me tell you something about the Titanic, people forget, people forget that on the Titanic's maiden voyage there were over 1000 miles of uneventful, very pleasurable cruising before it hit the iceberg! The Tories loathe the BBC and they have always wanted to get rid of it. Abolishing the licence fee will achieve that. commenting on random clips of football/soccer matches in a build up to the upcoming 1994 FIFA World Cup): Shit! Did you see that!? He must have a foot like a traction engine. Striker! And that, was a gooooooal! The proof is in the pudding and in this case the pudding, is a football... Yes, I do meet people who I actually enjoy talking to and I have a few regulars who I just adore(even if they tip for shit, I just like that they enjoy my company). I also love taking the "difficult" customers that nobody likes to serve. I like being able to win them over(which I almost always succeed at..how? I have no idea). I think I like the challenge of having to figure out what they need to hear and how they think a waitress should act towards them. It's weird... I'm weird. But not too informal; it's not Nigel Pinsent's "In Depth", but neither is it Wally Banter's Junk-Box