It is to the BBC's credit, I suppose, that they keep employing Andy Kershaw, even though he seems to slag off the Corporation at any possible opportunity. His latest outburst came during a discussion about Radio 4's decision to cancel Home Truths, the former John Peel fronted show that has been hosted by a series of guest presenters since the late DJ's death last year. Radio 4's Today programme was speaking to Kershaw, a friend of Peel's, about the end of the show, during which he said there were a lot of Radio 4 shows that should be axed.
Expanding on that theme for the Media Guardian, Kershaw says his problem is with all the consumer based shows on Radio 4 - and especially one about vegetables: "There are more and more consumer programmes on Radio 4. It is fascinated with them. Shop Talk, Veg Talk, You and Yours for an hour every day; they are all on because they are cheap. The only problem is that while they don't cost anything, they end up with people begging for phone calls about vegetables."
He reckons the station should get rid of those programmes and replace them with more debate: "John Humphrys asked me what I'd put in place of Home Truths and it's a simple answer: debate. There's an enormous appetite for it, for public speaking and public meetings, one that is largely unsatisfied. When Christopher Hitchens was debating Tariq Ali in a London college last year, people were queueing around the block to get in. I would almost go so far as to say that debating is the new rock'n'roll, but that might get me in Private Eye."
Kershaw, of course, last caused a bit of controversy when, shortly after Peel's death, he accused Radio 1 of having sidelined the legendary DJ in the years before his death.