In which the BBC annoys me again

Woke up this morning, switched in the radio; it was just coming up to six o'clock. The first news item was that Terry Pratchett 'wants a tribunal set up to help those with incurable diseases end their lives with help from doctors.' (Quote from BBC web site.) Why was this considered to be the most important story in the world at that moment? Because it's the subject of a Panorama programme on BBC 1 this evening of course, schoopid. I wish Sir Terry no ill, quite the reverse but a) I don't want to wake too early and then hear talk of assisted suicide and b) it isn't news. So I switched off again. I may soon give up Radio 4 altogether, I'm so sick of its mission to depress.

Normal service, i.e. January books, will be resumed later.

January Books

Bury Her Deep, Catriona McPherson
Penelope’s Prefects, Judith Carr
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
The Case of the Missing Servant, Tarquin Hall *L
Death of a Village, M C Beaton *L
Death of a Dustman, M C Beaton *L
Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby
Mrs Malory and Any Man’s Death, Hazel Holt
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Going Dutch, Katie Fforde
Death at Wentwater Court, a Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, Carola Dunn
The Winter Garden Mystery, Carola Dunn
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Yessss! eBay gives in

At last, eBay has given in over the 'free postage and packing requirement' which has been causing such grief to people trying to sell books. In come 'maximum limits'. For most books, it will be £2.75. How odd that this should be what Amazon Marketplace charges! There are still anomalies though: nothing to stop people charging the maximum for posting a lightweight paperback; some books will cost more than the allowed max. to post; you can charge more for 'antiquarian' books (watch people switch categories); only £7.00 is allowed for a collection or lot which might cost ten or twelve pounds to post. Still, for once they have actually taken notice of the howls of complaint carefully reasoned arguments which have been presented to them over that ludicrous new policy. Or has the change of heart been brought about by a fall in the number of listings? Surely not! As for being overcharged, caveat emptor.