Aras Musings - A Series (3) - Gallagher? Are You Serious?

I had planned to update this blog a bit more regularly, but so much is going on that I'd be writing around the clock if I was to keep up with everything that's happening. Thank goodness the election campaign has livened up a bit, even if it's getting increasingly nasty by the day.

As I write, we are awaiting the latest opinion poll from Red C, but it comes on the back of this mornings Irish Times / IPSOS / MRBI figures, which were pretty interesting to say the least, and, if I'm to be honest, more than a wee bit worrying! I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that this campaign is being won and lost - not in the general media, but the "Red Tops", who are willing to crucify each other for the latest little smidgin of dirt they can find on any given candidate, on any given day.

So far, they appear to have successfully bludgeoned David Norris into submission, a bit like baby seals are clubbed to death in parts of Canada. When they couldn't for whatever reason, get copies of the letters he wrote to put on a front page, they started on other stuff. If I were to believe everything I read on the tabloids in the past few days, Senator Norris is going blind, struggles to control his drinking, and is some kind of welfare fraudster. The poison, most of it spewed by Ger Colleran and his colleagues in The Star, appears to have had its effect, and Norris has collapsed in the opinion polls. Now, don't get me wrong - his action in writing the now infamous letters was not the wisest - but Jaysus, nobody died. The youngster who had (fully consentual, it should be repeatedly stated) sex with yer man, Ezra, is now an adult, and entitled to his anonymity. Why should he risk losing that, just because somebody wants to see a bloody letter? Of course, when the letters were not forthcoming, another way had to be found (in the eyes of the tabloids) to "take Norris out". If you ask me, it's shameful.

Mind you, it's not just Norris who has been pursued. So Mary Davis sat on boards, or as Vincent Brown put it the other night "she's been on more boards than Michael Flatley", over the past number of years. Er, so what? Beggin' yer pardon, like, but where's the crime here? OK, it might suggest that she was "well-in" with the Government of the day, but would I turn down an appointment to a board, if someone offered it to me? I would in my ass. Now, the PR contract controversy, admittedly, does suggest a bit too much 'insider info'.. but again, there's no evidence of any wrongdoing, so far as I can see.

Of course, as sure as the tabloids can take you down, so they can also build somebody else up to the last. Sean Gallagher has rocketed to second place in the latest poll, behind Michael D. Higgins. Never mind the fact that he represents a kind of "continuity Fianna Fail", but ask yourself - who is he, exactly?? He's a REALITY TV STAR, that's what he is. He appears on a ridiculous, shallow little TV show, and has made a few inane, populist comments about election posters and Litreacha Um Thoghcháin. Dreadful stuff. BUT... the tabloids love him, because he is "The Man from Dragons Den.." Jesus Wept. Is that how shallow we've become? Maybe Rosanna Davison or Georgia flippin' Salpa should be candidates, if they were old enough?

Now, before my friends from the Tabloids gather around to have me frogmarched out and shot, they're not entirely to blame for how the opinion polls are changing. When I listened to Gay Mitchell getting stuck into Martin McGuinness on Eamonn Dunphys programme last weekend, I said to the Queen Bee.. "He'll pay for that.." and he has. I don't care what you say, but there has surely to be some correlation between Mitchells attack, which - unlike Vincent Brownes the other night - was cack handed, rude and belligerent, and his continuing slide. Gay Mitchell is not popular, and Fine Gael must now realise that they picked the wrong man for this race. Not just because he lives in Cork, but surely Pat Cox, even as a "parachute" candidate, would now be doing a lot better, simply because he wouldn't get into ugly little spats like that.

So, at the end of my latest rant, how am I calling it? Well, it's Michael D's to lose. Gallagher has made big inroads over the past week, but I can't see it lasting. Unless he gets ahead of the Labour man on first preferences, I can't see him winning.I think you can forget Martin McGuinness at this stage, and you can't really see Norris recovering - BUT.. he's going to transfer very heavily to Michael D., the man who let him into the race..

Phew! That's that lot off me chest!

Áras Musings - A Series (2)

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This was meant to be a weekly post - but Janey Mac, 'tis all happening so fast in the last few days that if I don't update it, I'll miss something.

The confirmation last Sunday that Martin McGuinness is now formally a candidate, has changed everything. Simply put, it has frightened seven colours of you know what out of The Establishment. Only weeks after The Establishment, led by the Irish Independent, succeeded in hatchet-jobbing David Norris into leaving the field, along comes someone who scares them even more.

As I said in my last post, Martin McGuinness will mount a very strong campaign, and gain a huge vote. He has a very strong chance of winning. That's not an endorsement, by any means - I will never state in this blog where my vote is going - it's merely a statement of fact. He will win a huge vote for three reasons, as I see it.

(1) There is a swing to Sinn Fein across the board. I know people who voted for them in the General Election, who never voted before.

(2) There ARE people who will happily forget McGuinnesses murky past, and vote for him because of his role in the Peace Process, which only an idiot would deny has been immense.

(3) At present, he is the only Anti-Establishment candidate currently on the ticket.

The combination of those three factors is more than enough to give him a very solid chance of being the next occupant of Áras An Úachtarán, and the prospects of that have caused an outbreak of 'greasy jocks syndrome' to break out across the board.

The only way to halt, or at least hinder McGunness's romp into the highest office in the land, is to split the Anti-Establishment vote, and the only way to acheive that, is to ensure that David Norris's name is on the ticket. Yes, there's every possibility that the two men could transfer votes to each other, but having the two of them in there will split the first preferences, which are all-important in a Presidential poll.

This morning, listening to Junior Minister Brian Hayes on Newstalk, I was reminded of what one of my wisest and most brilliant mentors in politics, said to me many years ago, when I was a total journalistic 'greenhorn'.. Finbarr Kiely said ... "PJ, Politics is not about what is said, so much as it is about what is NOT said.."

Brian Hayes was asked "will Fine Gael now facilitate David Norris's nomination at local Council level, by abstaining from votes next week.?"..

In reply to Ivan Yates... the wiliest of political questioners, he said "we have our own candidate, Gay Mitchell,.although what Councillors do is a matter for themselves.."

My translation of that, is that Hayes is saying "We have our own candidate, Gay Mitchell, but now that he's nominated, and now that we need Norris in there to take votes from McGuinness, then if they abstain, they're not breaking any party rules, because Mitchells candidacy is already decided.."

I think FG know in their hearts that Gay Mitchell is highly unlilely to win the election, but splitting the Anti Establishment vote will keep him in the shake-up and ensure that he at least performs better on the day.

Admitting Norris will acheive that, by cutting into Martin McGuinness's vote.

Todays Prediction.. Norris will be readmitted to the race by the Council route.. because FG , and maybe Labour as well, are crapping themselves over Martin McGuinness.

Todays Observation.. is it just me, or is Mary Davis playing a very stealthy game, by steering well clear of all this nonsense? Dark Horse, still, maybe?

More Áras Musings soon...

Áras Musings - A Series

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It's five weeks next Thursday to the Presidential election, and I've decided to put up a blog each week from now on as we get closer to it, so that I can look back afterwards and see if I was right or wrong. The entry of Martin McGuinness over the weekend makes it all a bit more interesting. McGuinness will conduct a good campaign and poll very well. I state this simply as a fact, and not as a commentary on his calibre or background.. although I suspect that he will prove a very tough combatant for the Sean O'Rourkes of this world. I look forward to meeting him on the campaign trail. For all that is said about him, he's a personable guy, who relates well to people. He will do exceptionally well, attracting a personal vote, not just a SF vote, from people who remember the Troubles and have studied developments in the North over the past number of years in particular.. Can he win? He most certainly can, but I don't think he will. Michael D. will impress greatly at the debating stage. For all his detractors may claim, he is a man of powerful intellect and sharp wit, and this come to the fore at that point. It will win him votes, particularly with the wing of Lab supporters who were originally favouring Fergus Finlays candidature. Don't let anyone kid you that there wasn't strong disagreement in Lab over their choice. Michael D's failing, however, is that he comes across as being 'up himself'.. and that never bodes well. Gay Mitchell is not impressive as a public performer. People will find it difficult to warm to him. He also has a waspish side to him, which will not do him any favours in the confrontational debating arena. Both his opponents and media interviewers will use this as his achilles heel. He gets crotchety and combative when put under pressure .. and could open him to making gaffes .. so that will be targeted mercilessly. I'm not saying that's right or wrong.. I'm just saying it'll happen. Mary Davis needs to be watched very, very closely.. She will have a very tightly organised network of dedicated canvassers, when the hundreds of people who volunteered with Special Olympics in 2003 come out to support her door to door... and they will. I've already spoken to one man about my own age who is organising a team of 12 in a small village! She's also got big money behind her. Davis has been an international organiser at the highest level for a major World movement. That experience will prove priceless. She is also (relatively) untainted by politics. I've met her a couple of times, and find her an impressive, clever, likeable woman. Sean Gallagher won't win. He's a TV celebrity, and yes, a successful businessman, but he is little more. He is also of the FF gene pool, which like it or not, is currently a 'toxic' brand. I sincerely doubt Norris will get the numbers to return, unless Fianna Fáil and Mícheál Martin in particular are forced into the embarrassment of allowing an open vote to avoid meltdown of the PP. Even then, i would have my doubts There's also a very wild, totally left-field prediction out there that they will turn back to Brian Crowley, apologising to him for the Gay Byrne fiasco, and pleading with him to reconsider. It's unlikely, but I'm putting it here to place it on the record that I've heard it. THIS WEEKS PREDICTION.. The contest is between McGuinness & Higgins, with Davis likely to be kingmaker .. HOWEVER .. she will pick up transfers right, left and centre .. AND will have a strong female vote as the only woman in the field (Dana won't be back in a fit!).. and I wouldn't rule her out as a Dark Horse. More Next Monday ..

If we Don't do our Sums.. our Maths Are Bound to Suffer

As the results of the Leaving Cert are released today, once again, we're hearing about "poor performance in Maths.." This has been going on now, for a number of years, and there is much wringing of hands and many meetings of task forces and working groups, to try and find out why. However, in the view of this humble scribe, the answer is painfully simple. Performance in Maths has tanked, because (a) it's not taught properly, and (b) our kids are trying to learn Maths, with no understanding of how to think in figures.

Although I was never a 'A' student (I usually got a good 'B') I loved Maths at school. However, my performance, if I trace it back, generally depended on the teacher I had in a particular year. For my 'Inter Cert', we had Byrnesy. He was a cranky, irascible, pernickity, nitpicking type of teacher, and at that stage of our young lives, we hated him - but he got the best out of us. Personally, for my first crack at the Leaving, I then had a teacher (whom I won't name here), who had a Masters, extra diplomas and what have you - but just could NOT impart the stuff, to a guy like me, who COULD do it .. but needed to be shown, and shown clearly what to do.

I got a 'D' in Honours at my first Leaving. When I repeated, I was put into Byrnesys first ever Honours Leaving class. Out of 32 of us, he got 9 'A's, 15 'B's and only two in the class didn't get the honour. That's what you call a teacher. Maths is about understanding what you are doing, but more importantly WHY you are doing it. It's not a foreign language with intricate grammar, or a 'discussion' subject, like History, where two different accounts of an event, give two different theories. Maths is an absolute. There is one answer to one question. Two and two are four. Five times six are thirty. Always. It never changes. Never will. Byrnesy drilled that into us, over and over and over again. He applied it to everything - Trigonometry, Calculus, Algebra, Geometry - and it worked. I did also have a grind class on a Saturday morning, where I learned exactly the same thing, but without the great teaching I got from Liam Byrne, I would never have gotten the result I did.

However, it's not just about the teaching at Senior level. My daughter is 13. Like her mother, she doesn't like Maths, and I accept that. However, she's a very clever kid, with a great brain, and should (I think) be well able to pick up on the absolutes of Maths. However, since she was about ten, Jemma has a calculator.

Hello?

A calculator?

When I was about eleven, we had a teacher, who came into the class three mornings a week, and told us to open a blank page. He would rattle off

"15 .. plus 7... multiplied by 3 .. divided by 6 .. multiplied by 4. Write down your answer as a percentage of 880... THIRTY SECONDS, STARTING NOW.."

If you got it right, he would let you off Maths homework for the following weekend.

We were learning SUMS.

All those years later, whether I was doing Geometry, Trigonometry problems, Calculus, or simply looking for the volume of water I could fit in a swimming pool with a slanted floor, I realised that I was still doing SUMS, and the ability to calculate figures in my head or on a scrap of paper, that I'd learned as a child, was worth diamonds.

My daughter and her peers don't do 'Sums' .. they have a calculator to do it for them. It's not the same. 'Sums' teach you to think with figures. Looking up tables for a 'Log', a 'Sin', a 'CoS' or a 'Tan', and working out it's multiples, etc, did the same. Jemma doesn't know what a Log Book is.. and I fear that, down the line, it will restrict her ability to wrestle with the more complicated 'Sums' of Leaving Cert Maths.

If we are to improve performance in Maths, we've got to go back to doing our Sums..

Lose the calculators... and get out the jotters...

Simple.

It won't solve everything, but it'll certainly help...

(and by the way, the answer to the 'sum' above, is 5)...

A Time For Patience - but not TOO much time..

I've been writing, broadcasting and learning about the story of Irelands Magdalene Laundries for the past decade. I've had some wonderful, patient teachers, two of whom are leading members of the Justice for Magdalenes group. A terrible wrong was done to thousands of women at those places, and that wrong must be put right. The latest development, detailed in the stories here (click the links), is the most positive thing I've seen.

http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/laundry-survivors-welcome-state-inquiry-157927.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0615/1224298938075.html

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/national-news/magdalene-abuse-probe-announced-2674887.html

Much of the response from groups like JFM has centred on the need for an apology, and I totally respect that. Certainly, the women, and their children (now adults) who were taken from them, almost invariably against their will, and placed for (often totally illegal) adoption, deserve no less. However, it has not come today. It may come some day soon, but it's absence today should not take from the positivity of what has happened. The committee now being set up by the Government is at least, a start. I've seen a lot of (understandable) cynicism expressed on Facebook & Twitter about "kicking the can", or "a toning down operation", and I get exactly where those views are coming from, but here's my tuppence worth..

This issue is a legal minefield. The Magdalene Laundries were not, as some people mightn't know covered by any specific legislation of their own. They were treated, in my understanding of the history, as a kind of 'ad-hoc' addendum to the Industrial Schools, and Gardai, for example, including my own father, who served in Cork as a young guard, had only the IS legislation to work from, if ever called upon to bring someone back when they had fled a laundry. For his own part, my Dad never had to do it - but his friends did - and they would be acting under orders from a senior officer, based on the terms of the Industrial Schools legislation. My Dad tells the story of one such officer, mind you, who, when he would get the call from the Nuns about an 'escape', would deliberately and calmly, make another pot of tea, and say quietly "I'll just give the poor girl a chance to make the boat..." An hour later, he would despatch a guard to 'search', knowing (or at least hoping) that it was too late.

But, I'm gone off the point (I do that a lot .. bear with me)

I may be alone in this, but I fully understand that an apology, if (or preferably when) it comes, must be carefully thought out. It must take account of all the law, as it did, or did not apply. It has to take into account the 'ad-hoc' thing I referred to previously. Issuing an apology, in any form, is tantamount to a State admission of liability. That being the case, the State has a duty,

(and I stress the word, because its a duty that I, as a citizen, expect it to fulfill), to carefully analyse what it IS liable for, what it is NOT liable for, and how to phrase an apology in such a way that it acknowledges what it needs to acknowledge, but does not involve the State taking the blame for something in which it does not actually have a legal or constitutional responsibility. I accept that to some people, this may look and sound like a 'fudge', but I think that some time at least should be given to the Government, and this new committee in particular, to do its work. If it sits in public, I plan to attend and report on its proceedings, and even if it doesn't, I will have a damn good inside track on what's going on, I can tell you!

There are many more chapters to be written, about this tragic and terrible part of Irish history, however, for decades, nothing was happening. Now, in the next few months, something will.

This is a time for patience.. but with the obvious proviso that said patience has a short shelf life!!

Britains Got Talent - or has it?

This is a piece I picked up on Twitter, that is being deleted by the vested interests as fast as they can - but it's now going viral, and deserves to be read.. so I've reopened this Blog, which I was planning to do anyway, as a way of sharing it. Please read it. Thanks.

Britains Got Talent -The Ronan Parke Factor

For reasons which will become obvious, I can't reveal my full identity. But let me just say that, I am an executive with Sony Music UK with many years experience in music mangement. My work involves close liasion with Simon Cowell's SYCO company (specifically SYCO Music and SYCO TV) and, as a result, I have seen what goes on from the inside and this has left me increasingly uncomfortable about the integrity of Britain's Got Talent and particularly the workings of SYCO.

It's long been known that there is a quite a degree of "fixing" in BGT. ( Daily Mail http://bit.ly/fxkWne ) But press reports on "fixing" are only the tip pf the iceberg when it comes to SYCO's manipulation of, not only the show and the contestants, but also the viewing public and hopefully, in this email, I can shine some light on the smoke and mirrors trickery of SYCO.

Take BGT 2011 for example. Scouts working for SYCO first saw Ronan Parke (the 12 year old singer) some two years ago when he was just 10 and was singing at a birthday party for former Norwich City goal-keeper, Bryan Gunn. Following that, Ronan was privately auditioned by SYCO scouts on two more occasions and, as is usual practice on BGT, he was "invited" to audition for the show as a "preferred" contestant. At the same time, Ronan and his parents were "required" to enter into a contract with SYCO. Like all SYCO contracts, it is heavily weighted in favour of the label and are notoriously bad, even in the cut-throat world of the music industry. Simon effectively signed Ronan for life and he's got little or no chance of ever getting out of it...unless Simon decides to terminate. Recording contracts are legally extremely complex and usually require input and advice from very expensive, specialist contract lawyers. SYCO knows that such legal advice goes well beyond the means of most contestants. As one senior SYCO executive said to me recently. "These people are mugs. They'll sign away their own mother just to get on tv. It's a fucking turkey-shoot and then we own their arses!"

As is common for "invited" contestants that SYCO likes and have already signed, Ronan and his parents were provided with a car to drive them to the audition in London. These "invited" contestants don't have to queue up with everyone else, they don't go through the preliminary auditions with producers, but perform straight to Simon and the judging panel at a pre- arranged time-slot. And so it was for Ronan back in 2009 when he was just 10.

It was at this initial audition that I first met Ronan and he looked very different back then. He was a skinny, 10 year old lad who, even at that time, was a bit effeminate. His voice needed a bit of working on, but that wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, nerves got the better of Ronan and he was unable to perform. Simon however, had already seen the audition tapes from the scouts and took Ronan into an unused dressing room and got him to sing in there with his mum for support. Clearly Ronan was not going to be part of BGT in 2009 and nothing from this was ever televised.

Ordinarily, you would think that would be the end of things, but with Ronan already signed to SYCO, far from it. This was just the start of a two year grooming and manipulation process to prepare Ronan for stardom.

It's no big secret that Simon has been looking for an artist who could crack the very lucrative pre-teen market for some time, particularly in the US. If you like, he wanted his own rival to Bieber and, taking a leaf out of how professional football academies develop youngersters to feed their main team, Simon wanted his own singing academy and Ronan was just one of a number of identified youngsters, with whom SYCO intensively works with.

A development package, which included professional singing, dancing and stage-craft tuition was arranged for Ronan and the SYCO machine kicked into gear with the view of Ronan entering BGT 2010. Lots of work had been done with Ronan and his voice was much improved, unfortunately nerves were still a major issue for him and it was decided by SYCO not to enter him into the 2010 series.

At a following senior exec meeting at SYCO it was suggested that Ronan be dropped, but with Simon confident that he could be the kid he had been looking for, it was agreed that Ronan would receive "intensive support and input" to ready him for the 2011 series. Although Ronan's voice was now stunning, there were other major problems to be dealt with in order to sell him to the public. With respect to Ronan, he was nothing more than a cooky-looking, skinny runt of a kid and this was identified as a major handicap to sales.

It was agreed at a high-level, secret SYCO meeting, that if they were to do anything with Ronan, he needed totally restyling from the toes up. And so with time running out to develop Ronan into the star Simon wanted, SYCO went into overdrive. Ronan was even given speech and elocution training to rid him of his rural Norfolk accent, again in preparation for the potential US market. As for his effeminate and girlishness, this posed a bigger problem and resulted in many highly confidential meetings. At one of these meetings, the unthinkable was raised as a way forward....

Until now Ronan had been encouraged to "boy-up" and it was planned to present Ronan as an everyday skater-boy. But with his girliness still showing through, the image just wasn't believable. So a decision was taken to encourage and allow Ronan to "release" and enhance his campness . Disgustingly, SYCO planned to sexualise him. They were well aware of course, that if they sexualised a young girl to look sexually older than she is, all hell would let loose. But with Ronan, as one executive put it, "no one has ever seen a 'gay' kid before, it'll be a novelty." As for the pre-teen market, it was accepted they wouldn't care if Ronan appeared gay or not...most probably don't know what gay is anyway. And so, with a total gay- sexualisation of Ronan secretly planned, SYCO got to work. I should stress, Ronan's parents were not aware of any of this and were never consulted about Ronan's development or management. When I first met Ronan he was a bit effeminate in his ways, but nothing like the camp, girlie-giggling kid you see now on BGT and this is a direct result of SYCO's styling. Even his clothing worn at the audition and live semi-final were chosen for him by SYCO to match his new image.

SYCO took over everything to do with Ronan. His hairstyle, his clothes, his poise, giving tv interviews, you name it, Ronan was styled within an inch of his life and all on the promise of stardom, just as long as he worked hard and listened to his mentors. As for Ronan's parents they were constantly reassured that Simon was personally looking after Ronan and "it's all good".

And so to BGT 2011. With Ronan ready to be unveiled, SYCO bosses, under instructions from Simon did something not done in previous series of BGT; the winner of BGT 2011 was decided long before the first auditions took place and that winner HAD to be Ronan Parke. With Ronan now 12, he looked and sounded just as SYCO had planned, but time was running out. Soon Ronan would be going into puberty and his voice would eventually break, so BGT 2011 had to be the vehicle to launch Ronan's career; another year and as a singer he would probably be beyond any meaningful career and the opportunity will have been missed. With all this investment in Ronan, the production managers at SYCO TV are ready to deliver Ronan as ordered. Again, I need to stress, Ronan and his parents know nothing of this and have no idea Ronan will win BGT this weekend.

So far in the history of BGT and X-Factor, for that matter, no one has ever won who has not been an "invited or preferred" contestant, and it does sadden me that, all those thousands of people, lining up outside, often in the rain and cold, are basically wasting their time. The producers of BGT are not looking for the talented people, they aready have those. The reality is that the producers are hunting out oddities, freaks and, I'm ashamed to say, mentally ill people, to act as amusing fillers in the audition shows. They are nothing more than unpaid extras and they don't even qualify for traveling expenses! It's quite disgusting and shameful really, how the production team on BGT operate. People come from all over the country, often at great personal expense, because they think BGT is a talent competition and they stand a chance of realising their dreams. I can tell you from the inside that BGT is no more a "competition", than I am an astronaut. Nothing is left to chance on BGT, everything is micro-managed, choreographed, manipulated and planned down to the last detail including, the telephone voting.

The ability to manipulate viewers opinion is vital if you are to control telephone voting and indeed get the required result. SYCO see this as essential to the success of the show and are very open about fact; planning and delivering live shows of quality is impossible if it was purely left to the public vote. As Simon said in a meeting once. "The public NEED to be told who to vote for." Everything on BGT is geared towards telling you who you should for, particularly on the production side. It's an art really, which Simon has honed to perfection and SYCO are now world leaders at.

The micro-management of Ronan's audition performance was incredible. I was really quite shocked at his new image. From a starting point of wanting Ronan to look cute for the pre-teen market, SYCO had totally gayed him up in the process. Ronan's not a 16 year old expressing his sexualty for the first time, he's a 12 year old boy. It was horrible and I was very uncomfortable as to where this was going to end. Ronan, still suffering from nerves, performed his song and received a standing ovation from all three judges...why? Because it was in the script to give Ronan a standing ovation. As for Louis comment. "Ronan Parke. Remember that name. This kid's gonna be a star!!" - that was actually fed to him from the production gallery and I know the guy who wrote the line. And when it comes to Ronan's tears...well, check it out on YouTube or something. You see Ronan crying and wiping away tears. Only you don't see any actual tears, not even on close-up and on an HD tv. Yep you guessed it, even that was choreographed, right down to the lip-biting!

It was also interesting to see that even before the final credits rolled on Ronan's audition show, SYCO TV had uploaded the offical video of Ronan onto YouTube. Today, that particular video has been viewed over 2.5 million times and growing. SYCO don't do that for other contestants, so why Ronan? The gaying-up Ronan plan slightly backfired on SYCO when lots of negative comments were being posted on YouTube and Twitter about Ronan's image and the supposed sexuality that represents. Things got so bad on YouTube that the posting of comments had to be suspended. But SYCO learned from this and dressed Ronan more appropriately for his semi-final show; preferring a much more Bieber inspired look to the 'gay- kid' image presented in the audition.

In another unusal move for BGT contestants, SYCO created Ronan's Official Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account. Both these services are managed from within SYCO and they post messages and pictures, not Ronan. This is because they don't want Ronan posting anything controversial and is standard practice for currrent artists signed to SYCO.

And so this weekend will see Ronan crowned as winner of BGT 2011. Oh and let's not forget the £100k prize money. It's unlikely Ronan will see much or any of that. He's been signed to SYCO for two years now and under the terms of his contract, while SYCO stump-up for costs in advance, this is paid back from future earnings. So he will need to pay for all those lessons, coaches, cars, clothes, styling and management... I wouldn't be surprised even after winning BGT, if he is not still in debt to SYCO.

As a recording artist Ronan has a relatively short shelf-life. Simon knows he is going to have to hit the ground running to maximise Ronan's earning potential, particularly if they go ahead with a planned break into the States and the pace is going to be frantic for Ronan. If you think the music industry is bad in the UK, you haven't seen anything until you experience it Stateside. With an "anything goes" attitude all morals have long since gone out of the window. There will be no allowance for Ronan's age and he will be expected to perform on late- night shows and dinners etc. And if he get exhausted, there's always some sleaze-bag on hand ready to put a line of coke under his nose. I've seen it a million times.

I know for a fact, that the songs have already been chosen for Ronan's debut single and album, and that the backing and drum tracks have already been laid down.

Of course, once Ronan's voice breaks, it's game-over and he will be commercially redundant for a few years. By the time he gets through that, the world will have moved on and his fan-base will have grown-up a bit. Will he make a comeback? In my experience I'd say probably not.

I've met Ronan a few times over the past couple of years. He's a really nice kid with a generous, warm personality and the most wonderfully cute, girlie-giggle. There's nothing to not like about Ronan. He's a really sensitive soul and this comes across as him being a bit effeminate. But in a world of thuggish chavs, Ronan's a real breath of fresh air really and a real delight to chat to. Do I think Ronan's gay? No, is the short answer to that. SYCO have got a lot to answer for in their initial styling and image for Ronan. Like many 12 year old boys, Ronan may have issues in coming to terms with his sexuality in a couple of years. But right now, he's just a great kid...a bit different, I admit...but a great kid just the same.

I hope Ronan is not damaged by this experience, unforunately, history warns otherwise...but whatever, the genie is already out of the bottle and come this weekend, Ronan's life will change forever. Whether it's a good or bad experience being a 12 year old star in today's music industry, only time will tell. But as an industry insider I have serious reservations about what is about to happen to Ronan Parke and I doubt he or his family are ready for what's coming.

Thanks to my friends on Twitter and Facebook for getting this document out. Without you my voice would be silent.

** If you want to help expose the lie which is Britain's Got Talent, please feel free to republish this article or post a link to it http://justpaste.it/c8g

Anon
Sony Music UK