Harry's Blog

I read on El Reg today that the BBC has actually received complaints about the Cbeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell.

Why?

Because Cerrie was born without the lower half of her right arm and some precious parents believed this upset their kids.

Which is stupid because kids are strange fickle things. My son is currently terrified, and I really do mean terrified, of the pop-up tractor in a book I bought him yesterday. I haven't written a complaint to the publisher.

I think the parents complaining about Cerrie Burnell really should be ashamed of themselves. They have an ideal opportunity of discussing the subject of disability with their children and instead sought to complain about the girl's appearance.

No doubt they are the kind of Daily Mail reading types that would object to the Cbeebies presenter Sid on the grounds of him being black.

Children are great with dealing with things that are different. Almost everything for a two year old is something new and one just has to make sure you talk to children with some respect and help them understand.

The problem parents have with Cerrie is nothing to do with their children, the problem is with those parents themselves.

Thankfully this people are in a minority and there's plenty of support for Cerrie, there's even a Facebook group to support her that has over 22,000 members.

And Cerrie is well aware her disability is bound to provoke interest from parents and children.

"It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk disability with their children," Cerrie told Sky News. "It just goes to show how important it is to have positive disabled role models on CBeebies and television in general."

Good for her.

Cerrie's new co-presenter has an extremely punchable face though hasn't he?