Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Untethered - Day 13
Ooh, what a look! Didn't some idiot once say Vincent only had one expression? Like to see them on the receiving end of this one!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Quality!
That's what we have at Universal Channel UK. I wrote to them about the old "bitch gone in the teeth" quote, and have just received their answer.
No use of "bitch" regardless of context and meaning. Who decides it might be unsuitable and cause offence?
As for "It looks like you was watching..." well, if they can't employ people with knowledge of basic English grammar to answer viewer queries, they must not value us very much.
Dear Valerie
Thanks for getting in touch and apologies for the delayed response.
I’ve checked the schedule, and from the time you sent the email, it looks like you was watching Criminal Intent Season 2. Ep 3.
As it’s on at 7pm we have broadcast the daytime playable version. The use of the word ‘bitch’, regardless of the context, could be considered unsuitable and likely to cause offense within this daypart. However, we do take viewer feedback very seriously so please rest assured that I have passed your comments on to our compliance team.
Best regards
Lindsay
Viewer Enquiries
No use of "bitch" regardless of context and meaning. Who decides it might be unsuitable and cause offence?
As for "It looks like you was watching..." well, if they can't employ people with knowledge of basic English grammar to answer viewer queries, they must not value us very much.
Dear Valerie
Thanks for getting in touch and apologies for the delayed response.
I’ve checked the schedule, and from the time you sent the email, it looks like you was watching Criminal Intent Season 2. Ep 3.
As it’s on at 7pm we have broadcast the daytime playable version. The use of the word ‘bitch’, regardless of the context, could be considered unsuitable and likely to cause offense within this daypart. However, we do take viewer feedback very seriously so please rest assured that I have passed your comments on to our compliance team.
Best regards
Lindsay
Viewer Enquiries
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Double Birthday
When I got Jaspa and Amber, I estimated that Jaspa was probably a week or so older than Amber, so I gave them birthdays a week apart. This made Amber's birthday the same as mine.
Unlike Jaspa, Amber has not fared well in her 18 years. As a naughtie tortie, she has been pretty grumpy, and has devoured every morsel of food she could find. She was overweight until old age, when thyroid and kidney problems led to considerable weight loss and poor condition. She rarely grooms any part of herself (even busier sleeping than the average cat) and she won't let me do it for her, so her coat is matted and lumpy, unlike this photo of a few years ago Nevertheless, she loves life (and food, still) and her face is as cute and pretty as it ever was.
Unlike Jaspa, Amber has not fared well in her 18 years. As a naughtie tortie, she has been pretty grumpy, and has devoured every morsel of food she could find. She was overweight until old age, when thyroid and kidney problems led to considerable weight loss and poor condition. She rarely grooms any part of herself (even busier sleeping than the average cat) and she won't let me do it for her, so her coat is matted and lumpy, unlike this photo of a few years ago Nevertheless, she loves life (and food, still) and her face is as cute and pretty as it ever was.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Best Prime Minister we never had, worst one we did
After "13 years of Tory misrule" in 1964 Britain finally elected a Labour government under Harold Wilson. People didn't like or trust him, but he was a brilliant man and an exceptional politician.
One of his greatest assets was Barbara Castle, a red-headed firebrand who said what she meant and meant what she said.
You can imagine how men took it when this petite non-driver, as Minster for Transport, introduced the breathalyser test. Obviously it was their right to drink, drive and kill the innocent. Then as Secretary of State for Health and Social Security, she introduced the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) which, in a ministerial broadcast on TV - I can still see and hear her - she introduced thus: "We're going to do away with poverty in old age".
I was barely a teen, but I was impressed (see how I remember her words to this day) and she seemed to me to be someone who would make an excellent PM.
But women were not considered for party leadership till more than a decade later, when we were unfortunate enough to acquire Margaret Thatcher in that role, then as PM.
We're still suffering from what she did to our society. Well, actually, she said there was no such thing as society. Greed was good, every man for himself. Sounds a lot like the philoshophy of today's bankers, doesn't it?
She sold off every asset and resource we owned to her pals in the private sector, just as the current bunch intend with their NHS bill. She sold off the railways, Cameron wants to sell off the roads. She decided to break the unions and the miners, and she did, so now workers have relatively few rights and almost no one to help them protect those they still have. She sold our gas, water and electricity companies (I think she would have sold off the air if she could have found a way) and she even sold our North Sea gas and oil reserves. We might be as rich as the Arab states otherwise.
One person can really make a difference. Thatcher did so for the bad; Castle might have changed things for the good. She's long gone. We'll never know.
One of his greatest assets was Barbara Castle, a red-headed firebrand who said what she meant and meant what she said.
You can imagine how men took it when this petite non-driver, as Minster for Transport, introduced the breathalyser test. Obviously it was their right to drink, drive and kill the innocent. Then as Secretary of State for Health and Social Security, she introduced the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) which, in a ministerial broadcast on TV - I can still see and hear her - she introduced thus: "We're going to do away with poverty in old age".
I was barely a teen, but I was impressed (see how I remember her words to this day) and she seemed to me to be someone who would make an excellent PM.
But women were not considered for party leadership till more than a decade later, when we were unfortunate enough to acquire Margaret Thatcher in that role, then as PM.
We're still suffering from what she did to our society. Well, actually, she said there was no such thing as society. Greed was good, every man for himself. Sounds a lot like the philoshophy of today's bankers, doesn't it?
She sold off every asset and resource we owned to her pals in the private sector, just as the current bunch intend with their NHS bill. She sold off the railways, Cameron wants to sell off the roads. She decided to break the unions and the miners, and she did, so now workers have relatively few rights and almost no one to help them protect those they still have. She sold our gas, water and electricity companies (I think she would have sold off the air if she could have found a way) and she even sold our North Sea gas and oil reserves. We might be as rich as the Arab states otherwise.
One person can really make a difference. Thatcher did so for the bad; Castle might have changed things for the good. She's long gone. We'll never know.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Reverse Robin Hood
You have to hand it to our wonderful Government - they insist we are "all in this together" (ie. the recession) in spite of evidence to the contrary - and only evidence to the contary.
Last week our 12-year-old Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced a tremendously fair budget, in which the highest tax rate was reduced, giving a bonus to high earners (like himself and his fellow cabinet members), but froze the additional allowance to pensioners with a view to phasing it out.
Last week our 12-year-old Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced a tremendously fair budget, in which the highest tax rate was reduced, giving a bonus to high earners (like himself and his fellow cabinet members), but froze the additional allowance to pensioners with a view to phasing it out.
It's true that he is increasing personal tax allowances next year, but the intermediate tax rate, which kicks in at a surprisingly small income, will be paid on an even smaller income.
Public servants such as social workers, teachers, nurses, doctors, etc, are going to have to retire later. We must pay more for a smaller pension for when we do manage to get old and decrepit enough to retire, and when we get there, we have to pay more tax on it.
Meanwhile, the rich can pay a quarter of a million pounds to influence policy and have a private dinner with our Prime Minister (which the tax payer will pay for).
Before they were elected, this bunch said they would be the "greenest government ever", and they proved this in the budget by giving huge sums to the oil and gas industries, while freezing funding for renewables.
They didn't have any policy on destroying or privatising the National Health Service either, but they've gone ahead with doing so despite huge protests from the public and from health professionals. After all, what do we know?
How do you know a politician is lying? He's speaking.
