252 Responses to Start the Week 19 December 2022

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  1. Fedup2 says:
    December 20, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    The likes of The Specials help cement my anti socialist beliefs at quite an early age . Father Ted – I recall – features the dismal ‘ghost town ‘ as the only dance record at the ‘lovely girls ‘disco on Craggy Island ..

       4 likes

    • Fedup2 says:
      December 20, 2022 at 6:13 pm

      I might have a solution to the NHS strikes – give them the q9% pay rise – but by selling off the best bits of the NHS – such as the best / worst hospitals … maybe outsourcing diversity managers too …

         5 likes

  2. Solomon Grundy says:
    December 20, 2022 at 7:01 pm

    Not BBC related, but I’m sure meets with the corporation’s approval.

    Personal pronouns now pollute cryptic crosswords. These clues are from today’s Metro:

    13A They cruelly control new depots (6)
    DESPOT

    10D They have a burning desire (10)
    PYROMANIAC

    5D They perform extensively on a sliding scale (10)
    TROMBONIST

    The solutions are all singular, but the clues employ “they” implying plurality in the answer. I presume that the setter is trying to indicate that a despot, a pyromaniac or a trombonist could be of either gender, so “they” is the appropriate generic third-person singular pronoun. Of course, it wrecks the clue, but that’s not important.

    So “woke” reaches the cryptic crossword.

    (I haven’t attempted a Guardian crossword since Araucaria passed on in 2013. Maybe politically correct clues are the norm in the Guardian, Observer etc.)

    https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they#:~:text=The%20singular%20%E2%80%9Cthey%E2%80%9D%20is%20a%20generic%20third-person%20singular,and%20helps%20writers%20avoid%20making%20assumptions%20about%20gender.

       6 likes

  3. JohnC says:
    December 20, 2022 at 7:23 pm

    Is the NHS pay review body independent?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/63970986

    God give me strength. Aren’t there more important things the ‘Reality Check Team’ should be spending their time on ?.

    But the main gripe I have here are the pictures they choose. I’ve seen 4 or 5 of the nurses who are on strike and every single one has a black woman as the prominent figure.

    Here are the 2 for this article:
    _128014040_fceb3ee5826482036543f88fa7f02f5f3420a8e4.jpg.webp_128020302_5248316e5e6c82812c89bd50d03b74f813ab941a.jpg.webp

    The BBC are anti-white racists. They practise racist discrimination in everything they do. Period.

       11 likes

  4. Eddy Booth says:
    December 20, 2022 at 7:33 pm

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64029430
    “Terry Hall of The Specials dies aged 63”

    Never heard of him, I remember the music and the bands but that’s it

    “The singer died after a brief illness..”

    People just die in their 90s .. not 63.
    BBCs usual ploy of not telling us what people die from..
    There’s no embarrassing thing to die from , and if was something silly, like getting the covid vaccine, the family should say as a warning to others.

    ‘But his life took a dark turn when, at the age of 12, he was kidnapped by a teacher
    “I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days,” he told The Spectator in 2019. “And then punched in the face and left on the roadside.” ‘

    Strange the BBC is careful not to state the sex of the teacher, I’m guessing female? as there’s no link to LGBT in Related Topics…

       12 likes

    • Fedup2 says:
      December 20, 2022 at 9:19 pm

      Eddy – the death of another 80s/90s pop star was also reported – without cause being mentioned …. Trevor Kavanagh – former editor of the Sun had a heart attack at the weekend … recovering … as well as Mr Steyn . ….

      Is a pattern of these incidents being formed ? Did these people have vaccinations ? Is The State going to cover up – remain silent – on the consequences of these jabs ? Will these incidents increase ? – I don’t know – but we deserve to be better informed …

         6 likes

  5. Up2snuff says:
    December 20, 2022 at 8:38 pm

    BBC WEB-SITE Watch #1 – now I know maths is not my strong point but I think the same is true for the BBC

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/63587909
    Median pay will be a higher figure than average pay because it takes the highest figure that a person is paid in the UK and the lowest figure that a person is paid in the UK and splits high and low at the mid-point.

    Average pay is the total figure for remuneration in the UK divided by the number of the workforce, in other words it is a bit of an educated guess.

    On the other hand you can work out the average pay and the median pay for a qualified nurse rather more accurately by ignoring any London weighting. Further down the article the BBC start talking about ‘mean pay’ by which they mean ‘average pay’. I’m tempted to write the comment ‘typical BBC obfuscation’.

       3 likes

  6. tomo says:
    December 20, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    The Duran + Robert Barnes

       0 likes

  7. Fedup2 says:
    December 20, 2022 at 9:04 pm

    Up2
    The 9.5% the nurses will get after the ‘ndependent ‘ pat review board does it’s thing again will – I suppose – come in the Spring – unless something happens which drives public opinion to demand settlement – particularly of the emergency ambulance service – which I think deserves a ‘no strike deal ‘

    The inability – will – of the government to fix the social care situation causing too many people to remain in hospitals – thus bunging up the works – will fall on the blue labour losers …..

    Obviously increased demand from an increased population doesn’t help – but that is a blue labour construct too ….

    If I had the energy I’d go looking at the structure of these Health Trusts – which don’t work – with disfunctional staffing and poor outcomes …. But I’m only a taxpayer who thankfully hasn’t had need of the NHS …. If there was a completely alternative private health service I’d pay the insurance for that . But it’s a monopoly …

    Time for the new thread . I’m glad tomorrow is the shortest day – from then on – bit by bit – things will get better ….

       5 likes

    • Up2snuff says:
      December 20, 2022 at 9:23 pm

      Fed, Bojo fixed the social care problem with the NI increase. The BBC led the opposition to it. Perhaps a solution is to go back to my childhood and make the NHS responsible for elderly care and social care. I remember being taken by my aprents to visit the elderly relatives and family friends in hospital. After all GPs have Practice Nurses who will, in my experience, assist with care in the home. As does a District Nurse, employed by the NHS.

      There is a solution if the NHS bosses will get off their overpaid backsides and fix it.

         3 likes

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