THE RATINGS WAR

One of the more perverse trends of television in the last couple of years has been the growth of the inappropriate holiday programme. Spain, Holland, Canada - these kinds of places aren’t enough for our intrepid holiday reporter. No, he has to try to sell us on the merits of going to Afghanistan, Chechnya or Iraq, maybe one of those tiny Congo republics that's been in a constant state of civil war since before I was born. And he's there, in the midst of a war zone, telling us what sort of sights the tourist might see.

What? Plummeting bombs? Grenades? Dead bodies? Come on, guys - these people are at war. Let's give them some dignity.

Seems to me that the tourist board of a war torn country has no sense of priorities. Sort out your country, first, guys, really. It's only fair to all the other holiday destinations who get along peacefully.

The ancient temples of Afghanistan may be fascinating to look at - right now probably isn't the right time to be looking at them. War isn't a spectator sport, television people. It's not like some local custom that tourists can just fawn over.