Simon Thomas quits Blue Peter

When did the Zoe Salmon "Red Hand of Ulster" incident occur that seems to be causing controversy at the moment?

I think the point is that while a number of Blue Peter presenters have gone on to good TV careers, there are no guarantees. It must be quite a big decision giving up presenting the BBC's flagship children's programme and appearing twice a week in the hope that something else might come along once in a while. That's normally the best ex-Blue Peter presenters manage. The problem is, it's unlikely ever to be the same again. One minute you are a household name, the next you are a bit-part player in a holiday programme or Songs of Praise. So whether they stay long-term because they enjoy what they're doing or they're waiting for their TV persona to develop, I don't know.
But congratulations to Simon for lasting the course. I think it's infinitely better having a consistent team over time. Come back, Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves! (Well, maybe not now!)

That was her example of what she would have painted on the side of a plane for the "design something to be painted on the side of a plane" competition.

Zoe Salmon is YOUNGER than I am, and that makes me feel old and crusty!

There also was an incident where she picked an entry with a union flag covering all of Ireland.
But the Red hand is accepted by both communities so dunno why there is much of a fuss.

Simon's replacement has been announced already! He is Gethin Jones, a kids' presenter on S4C:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/01_january/24/jones.shtml

And here's more about him: http://www.rdfmanagement.com/clients/gethin_jones.html

Is the run of BP shorter than it used to be? That press release say he'll appear at the end of the current series, on 27 April before they go on their summer expedition. Is the 5 days a week thing meaning that they will no finish at the end of April rather than the end of June (as was the case before they started running all year round, then stopped again).

Here comes the next titles change!

For once we're in complete agreement. As I understand it, the problem arose when a David Millar, who is a professor of sociology at Strathclyde University complained (one of er, four (4), complaints in total). Then followed a hasty apology from BP. Followed by them digging a little deeper and thinking that perhaps they shouldn't have been so quick to apologise... so it all got a little messy. It'll go away now as no one really cares, and it's something that shouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

Exactly - the Red Hand of Ulster, as well as being a symbol of Loyalist paramilitaries, is also the symbol of the Tyrone Gaelic football squad, perhaps bitter Fermanagh and Derry fans were among those who complained

Leaving aside paramilitaries and the GAA, the red hand is common to both the Northern Ireland flag (as a Nation of the UK), and the flag of Ulster (as a province of Ireland) so it's really quite difficult to see how it became an issue in the first place. More people have been offended by the apology than by the original item.