[swaddon1903]

She's the new 'David the Photographer'.

[Travis Bickle]

That segment with Kate just now was absolutely awful. It had the feel of pointing and sniggering at the 'unfortunate' one, and was mind numbingly boring. I think it is a serious misjudgment by the team having her on again.

I know we are trying to be positive about the show in it's final weeks, but criticism is deserved on this one in my opinion.

[Nicola_Red]

Yeah, I agree with you on that.

[DarroM]

Yeah, I agree! I switched onto the show when she was on and had to change it over because she just has a voice and manner that irritates me! Don't know why the team like her but then again, they had that Nick guy on CPC for a decade and he was dull as dishwater!

[Dexy]

I don't see the issue. She's clearly a huge fan of the show, and is loving the attention she's getting from the team. I didn't hear her yesterday but it's highly unlikely that she's "not right in the head" as someone so delicately put it. The people on the phones would recognise it a mile off before putting her through, and the team wouldn't be toying with her so much. She's not stupid, she's probably playing it up to get noticed. And it's working. I found her to be quite funny the first time round.

And if it turns out that she does have some form of learning difficulty, then some of you should be ashamed for being so flippant about it.

[The Deadly]

The show should be ashamed of putting her on air if she has mental issues. If she wants to go on air and take part in features, do Olympic reports etc then she will be judged.

Get off your high horse and get over yourself.

[chrysostom]

Yeah Dexy, how dare you assert that she's not mentally ill and may just be enjoying the attention - and how dare you broach the subject of a caller with a mental illness with sensitivity.

Let's hope she doesn't log on here to see what's being said about her (like others such as Rob from Stoke have done), because it would be devastating to think that you're coming across on the radio as a bit dippy and stupid - but finding out that people are accusing you of having an illness.

She's not the best show contributor, and I didn't really like her but unfounded accusations like that can be hurtful. I guess what I'm saying is that it's fine to hold that opinion, but perhaps it's one that shouldn't be addressed on a public forum. Be as scathing as you want about her personality, but to align that with mental illness isn't helpful.

[LordMonkcheese]

I found her to be quite funny the first time round.

That's the point - I think many did too but once is enough. Unfortunately, like many things on the CMS, if it gets a laugh it's usually repeated ad infintum until all the humour has been drained out of it (e.g. Chris saying Ushuaïa in that stupid voice everytime, his 'OMGI' voice, Aled's short term memory loss gag, interviewing Matt le Blanc and banging on about doing 'nothing', etc)

And if it turns out that she does have some form of learning difficulty, then some of you should be ashamed for being so flippant about it.

Not at all. She sounds simple/special and she's being featured on the show because of her wacky and zany personality. If the reason she's wacky and zany is because she has learning difficulties, then shame on the CMS for allowing her to go on air to entertain people with her condition. If she doesn't have learning difficulties then she's got no excuse for being so irritating!!

[Nicola_Red]

I think a more important debate is whether anyone on the CMS suspects her to be anything more than 'wacky and zany', and whether they would put her on air for this type of scrutiny if they did. I'd hope not.

[chrysostom]

With Aled's experience with the Surgery, I doubt he would!

[The Deadly]

I think she's just a bit eccentric and zany. Either way I don't think she should become a regular fixture on the show as its a bit much already.

[Yudster]

Ok - I am not commenting on this contributor because I haven't heard her, but reading through the very least people should do in this sensitive area is get the terminology right. A "learning difficulty" or "learning disability" is NOT a "mental illness". Depression, bi-polar disorder, paranoia, schizophrenia - these all come under the heading of mental illness. "Learning disability" is also separate from "learning difficulty" but the grey areas make that too complicated to go into here.

I am not suggesting that Kate is affected by any of these issues, as I said, I haven't heard her and I can't imagine how anyone could tell from listening to a person briefly on the radio anyway - but as someone said, its a sensitive area so terminology matters!

[Nicola_Red]

But most people with no direct experience of that sort of thing don't know the terminology. They're mostly doing the best they can to stay 'politically correct'.

[LordMonkcheese]

So can we call her a 'mong' then?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mong

[Nicola_Red]

No. You may not.

[Emmy]

I'd like to think that she's just a bit eccentric, and there's nothing wrong with that. I must be one of the only people on here who is really enjoying her appearances, although judging from what Aled said about the text response after Kate was on yesterday's show she's a lot more popular with the non-forum listeners.

I haven't heard today's show yet and don't want to make a new thread just to ask a question, so may I ask whether they played a clip of or mentioned Chris' little cameo appearance on Woman's Hour yesterday?

[Yudster]

Yes, a significant chunk of the opening link was devoted to Chris's normal sarcastic pissed off rant about the latest person/organisation/programme who has taken a comment of his out of context and used it to label him a xxxxist (fill in as applicable), this time aimed at Woman's Hour.

[Emmy]

Thanks. I've just managed to hear it myself too, but having heard the whole of Woman's Hour yesterday he made it sound worse than it was and Aled appeared to have misunderstood the subject matter of the show. But yes, Chris was taken out of context as per usual, although he should be well used to that by now.

[R94N]

Has anyone thought about calling in for this? It'd be interesting to hear their reaction if you tried to shoehorn in a site mention.

[And on line 2]

Let's hope she doesn't log on here to see what's being said about her

If she is such a fan of the show then she's probably already here.

Whatever she is like really, listening to her and how she is spoken to on the show, makes me feel uneasy. She does sound a bit naive and I don't like how they take advantage of that.

Like someone above said, this is like another Dave the photographer.

I miss parts of the show when I have to answer the phone to pesky customers. Has she been on again since her sports report?

[Yudster]

If she is such a fan of the show then she's probably already here.

There are just over 9400 members registered on this site - the vast majority of those will have registered, gone away and never come back, and only a very small handful ever post. Out of a pool of 8 million or so listeners its a bit of a stretch to assume that everyone who likes the show is already a member or even a lurker here.