Peter Reynolds throws his toys out of the pram (again!)

By Kevin John Braid

Peter Reynolds has made a formal complaint to the BBC Sunday Morning Show, BBC complaints department and the trust of the BBC.

What have they done? Perhaps he is upset they are not showing reruns of Jim’ll Fix It or does Reynolds have for once a legitimate complaint? Nah, of course not, he’s having a hissy fit because he wasn’t allowed to participate on one of their current affairs shows discussing cannabis.

It all started this week when a six-year UK study looking into cannabis concluded it should be decriminalised, comparing cannabis use to “moderately risky” gambling or junk food.

This of course put cannabis in the British news, with the BBC’s Sunday Morning Show airing a special cannabis debate discussing cannabis and whether it should be decriminalised.

The debate included in the studio, three well known journalists, Germain Greer, James O’brien and Peter Hitchens, also with contributions on Skype video from former government drugs advisor, Prof. David Nutt, Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, Gary Parker, head of the Park View Project rehab centre in Liverpool, and Clark French, a medicinal cannabis user with Multiple Sclerosis and NORML UK national spokesperson.

The piece started with a short film about cannabis, with views from both sides of the argument, then in the studio a debate with the studio guests, Greer, O’brien and Hitchens, plus the contributions from Nutt, Parker and French using Skype.

Obviously, Hitchens came out with the same old prohibitionist drivel, however, this was easily counteracted by some of the other guests, in particular James O’brien and Clark French.

The feedback on Facebook and Twitter feeds was very positive, apart from one post on the Facebook page of CLEAR complaining “Sorry Mr Reynolds we’re not going to have time to come to you”.

As soon as I read that, I thought, I bet Peter is writing his complaint to the BBC right this second, well, as usual he didn’t disappoint, shortly afterwards Reynolds published on the thread his complaint to the BBC Sunday Morning Show. Here’s the screenshot, I bet they will literally be shitting themselves when they read it.

That’s pretty boilerplate Peter “outrage”. Fuck he’s predictable, does he have form letters for every gripe?

Allowed Hitchens to go on the BBC talking about cannabis unchallenged! How could the BBC allow such blatant prohibitionist propaganda to be aired without letting the mighty Peter Reynolds speak on behalf of cannabis consumers in the UK? Except, in case you didn’t see the show, it wasn’t like that. Hitchens made a fool of himself while Germain Greer and James O’brien put their points over very well. James O’brien was particularly good, he certainly pulled up Hitchens and put him in his place a few times.

Then there were the Skype contributors. How dare the BBC ask Prof. David Nutt DM FRCP FRCPsych FMedSci, a former Chief Drugs Advisor to the last government and Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, to talk about cannabis, instead of Peter Reynolds. We are sure while the distinguished professor was talking about evidence based policy, cannabis consumers throughout Britain were screaming at the television, “WTF! Get Peter Reynolds on!”

Or indeed, while NORML UK spokesperson, Clark French (one of the many medicinal users Reynolds reported to Dorset police), was talking about his own personal experiences as a medicinal user of cannabis with Multiple Sclerosis, the UK’s entire cannabis community was collectively thinking “if only they let Peter Reynolds on, instead of this smartly dressed eloquent young man”.

Peter Reynolds Watch are delighted the BBC didn’t let Reynolds on the show. Reynolds has been getting too much media coverage recently, he sounds pissed on most of them (hardly surprising since he’s an alcoholic), even if he does put over a good point, his slurring and stuttering is going to be interpreted by people who don’t know he’s an alcoholic to be a symptom of cannabis use, so he’s actually harming the movement by opening his mouth even when the content of what comes out occasionally makes sense.

During the show, the BBC ran a viewers poll asking should cannabis be decriminalised. The result, 69% in favour, with only 31% agreeing with Peter Hitchens voting against. Germain Greer concluded “the people have spoken”, but that doesn’t matter for Reynolds, for him it’s all about ego. Such is his conceit and delusion, it could not possibly enter der Führer’s head somebody else could do a better job than him talking about cannabis law reform.

Clark French summed it up on Facebook when he shared CLEAR’s status complaining Reynolds was not given airtime on the BBC, commenting:

“GUTTED – I guess the BBC don’t have time for Homophobic Racists who call the police on the medical cannabis patients that they claim to represent. (ie Des Humphrey, Myself, Sanj Chowdhary, Greg Cure de Hoedt and Stuart Wyatt).”

The BBC can stomach Jimmy Savile, but the taste Peter Reynolds leaves in their mouth is more than they’ll tolerate. Makes you think!