October 2006
Monthly Archive
Nomme de guerre
Posted on Oct 30 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
With military operations, you can almost guarantee two things: that the British name for any given campaign will be entirely bland, and that the corresponding American name (assuming we’re always marching off into combat hand in hand, which of course we are) will be appallingly macho, nationalistic or otherwise, well, American - much like something […]
Barclays 3: How to be really patronising (that’s when you talk down to someone)
Posted on Oct 26 2006 | Tagged as: Barclays are useless
A while back a lady in the bank talked me into opening a savings account. I’ve never put any money in it, so this week Barclays sent me a letter to remind me of its existence - possibly the most patronising and childish letter I’ve ever seen.
Read. Weep.
(You’ll probably have to zoom in a bit […]
Tipping the scales
Posted on Oct 25 2006 | Tagged as: Work
In school we’re often reminded to keep stories (and features, reviews etc) fair and balanced. But I have to agree with this little snippet of Gary’s, from his post on reporting on NHS reports: “…it wouldn’t be news if I succeeded in balancing it.”
Falling off the edge
Posted on Oct 23 2006 | Tagged as: Words, The Stupid, TV, Comedy, Censorship
Channel 4 clearly considers itself pretty edgy. It’s the home of Russel Brand, a man sacked from MTV after wearing an Osama bin Laden costume to work; it had the balls to broadcast the Brass Eye 2001 special, which the BBC admitted they’d never do; they broadcast Derren Brown playing Russian Roulette live.
So why, in […]
Barclays 2: KY
Posted on Oct 21 2006 | Tagged as: Barclays are useless
One of the numbers I was given by my local branch of Barclays for their Career Development Loans office in Liverpool was 0845 6090 080.
I’ve just called it to try to speak to someone only to be greeted with a recorded message that begins: “Thank you for calling the KY Warming helpline.”
Toto, I don’t think […]
The incredible Iain Dale
Posted on Oct 19 2006 | Tagged as: Politics, Blogistan, Work
Iain Dale managed to lose credibility before his guest lecture had even started when we walked into the hall and were greeted by a 20-ft projection of this post, in which he states: “I’m on my way to Cardiff to deliver a lecture on new media to media studies post graduate students…”He doesn’t know the […]
Amanda Powell
Posted on Oct 15 2006 | Tagged as: Media
The guest lecture from the editor of BBC Wales News Online, while interesting, wasn’t exactly earth-shatteringly illuminating. In brief, “Online: like print but with snappier copy”. I’d say “and more pictures” but that clearly doesn’t apply in a comparison to most (consumer) magazines.What was interesting was the issue of copyright of images sent in by […]
Oddly, I wasn’t here 200 years ago
Posted on Oct 13 2006 | Tagged as: The Stupid, Media, Race
The current issue of Catalyst, the Commission for Racial Equality’s magazine, has an interesting article by Nick Wyke on the plans to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in the UK next year.
Discussing the cities that have apologised for their past involvment in the slave trade, he quotes the London Baptist Association’s minister […]
Fool me once…
Posted on Oct 13 2006 | Tagged as: Politics, Technology, The Stupid, Incompetance
The Identity and Passport Service has rather a handy contact form for members of the public to ask questions about the planned ID card scheme (and I do mean scheme).
I used it to submit a query[1] on September 29.
They responded today - to the wrong email address. (The usual .co.uk as opposed to .com thing.)
This […]
Tax does have to be taxing
Posted on Oct 05 2006 | Tagged as: Incompetance
I wrote earlier of the difficulty I was having with my loan application. One of the things I could use for ID was a Tax Code notification letter from the Inland Revenue. I requested one two weeks ago yesterday. It hasn’t yet arrived. The reason? They haven’t sent it. Apparently it’s too complicated to change […]