Stunning games

There have been some very dramatic games in the World Cup so far.

Italy vs USA - 3 sent off, draw.
Australia vs Croatia - 3 sent off, draw.
Holland vs Portugal - 4 sent off, 16 yellow cards, win for Portugal.

The previous records for red cards in the finals was 22 at France '98. After Holland-Portugal, we have now had 23.

Great quote

Following the Portugal-Holland game last night Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari defended Figo after his headbutt and play acting which got a Dutch player sent off.

He said: "Jesus said we should turn the other cheek, unfortunately, Figo is not Jesus Christ."

Gus Hiddink and Graham Poll

The most entertaining match of the World Cup occurred last night - Croatia v Australia. Essentially, the winner went through, with Australia going through if they drew.

From Gus Hiddink's record:
European Cup winners with PSV Eindhoven
Success in Spain
Holland to Semi Final in France 98
S. Korea to Semi Final in Japan/Korea 2002
Australia to 2nd round (at least) in Germany 2006

He now moves to coach Russia to the next European Championships. Is he the most successful international coach of recent times?

However, Graham Poll didn't do quite so well last night:

• Missed cast iron penalty for rugby tackle on Australian player in the box.
  
• Gave penalty for handball by Croatian in the box
  
• Missed penalty for handball by Croatian in the box
  
• Gave 2 yellow cards to Josep Simunic without sending him off, then eventually gave him a third yellow (and thus red) after the final whistle had blown. Simunic turned and started to head for the tunnel before carrying on when he wasn't shown the red card.
  
• Allowed the final Australian goal when 2 players were each half a yard off-side.
  
• Allowed himself to be man-handled and rattled by Simonic when sending Simic off for a second yellow card.
  
• Didn't punish the Croatians when they twice pushed and shoved him.
  
• He completely lost control of the Australia - Croatia game in the final seconds, disallowing an Australian goal which should have stood (from the advantage rule) or else a penalty should have been given. Heblew the final whistle just as this winning goal was going in and Tim Cahill was running away in celebration.
  
• He lost the plot with a throw-in when 2 balls were on the pitch and eventually reversed the decision to give the throw to Australia (it should have been their throw to start with).
  
• His excuse (on the late night MOTD) for giving three yellows to Simunic was that on eof them was given to Simic. If it was the first Simunic card, then Simic got 3 yellows. It could not have been the second one as Simic had already been sent off!
  
• In the Togo - Korea game, Poll gave a Togo player a red card before the yellow... (v Korea).

He was however, correct in sending off both Dario Simic (Croatia) and Brett Emerton (Australia) for 2 clearly bookable offences. He at least got one of the three clear penalties for Australia. He was also correct in not allowing the Australian goal claimed when 2 Croatians and 2 Australians dived on top of the Croatian goalkeeper but the ball didn't quite cross the line.

It all evens itself out though, and Australia got one goal allowed which should have been disallowed, and one disallowed which should have been allowed. Simunic didn't affect the play during the minutes he should not have been on the pitch. The right team went through to the 2nd round, even if Australia should probably have won the game.

Traffic wardens and parking tickets

It appears as if the formal backlash against ridiculous parking tickets and parking policies has started.

The BBC reports the following:

• MPs want to overhaul the parking rules, especially as councils are using parking fines as a source of income, and 20% of tickets are rescinded after being issued incorrectly.
  
• Traffic wardens in Bury are targetting and ticketting mourners at funerals, and have even issued the hearse with a ticket: Link.
  
• Traffic wardens are being issued with bugs to record abuse to be used in court: Link, a move which would not be necessary with sensible parking regulation enforcement.
  
• a pub landlord in Torbay has banned traffic wardens from all his pubs as they are "killing business": Link.
  
• residents in Corwen are up in armas about parkiing charges in their street: Link.
  

The 20% of tickets rescinded on appeal doesn't include those which people have paid without challenging them. It also seems ridiculous that ticketing has essentially been privatised, with incentives given to wardens who issue more tickets, and targets for the number of tickets issued by each warden.

Westminster Council made over £100 million in 2004/5 from 817,000 tickets. See Ticketbusters.

There are more and more media stories about petty councils and wardens issuing tickets where someone has parked an inch outside a bay, or where signage is incorrect, or where wardens have been "lying in wait".


In related news, MPs have shown how out of touch they are with reality by bein "astonished" that, while 53 per cent of households had access to a garage, only 24 per cent used them. See link. People are apparently either lazy or have too large cars. Nothing to do with having a choice or wanting to use their garage, on their land, for what they want. We're getting closer and closer to a nanny state.

Local councils (link) have shown them to be as petty minded as ever - surely these people are meant to be there for the public good...

He's not that tall

Crouch is only at no. 6 in the "tallest people at the World Cup" league (all in cm):

KALAC Zeljko (AUS) 202
KOLLER Jan (CZE) 202
ZIGIC Nikola (SCG) 202
LAWRENCE Dennis (TRI) 201
ISAKSSON Andreas (SWE) 199
CROUCH Peter (ENG) 198
CECH Petr (CZE) 197
COLTORTI Fabio (SUI) 197
STEKELENBURG Maarten (NED) 197
VAN DER SAR Edwin (NED) 197

The shortest are as follows:
LARA Christian (ECU) 162
AL SHLHOUB Mohammad (KSA) 163
KONE Bakary (CIV) 163
ZINHA (MEX) 163
LENNON Aaron (ENG) 165
AL KAHTANI Yasser (KSA) 166
BOKA Arthur (CIV) 166
KAABI Hossein (IRN) 167
SENAYA Yao Junior (TOG) 167
BENITEZ Cristian (ECU) 168

Youngest:
WALCOTT Theo (ENG) 15-Mar-1989
MONTIEL Jose (PAR) 18-Mar-1988
TOURE Assimiou (TOG) 31-Dec-1987
MESSI Lionel (ARG) 23-Jun-1987
FABREGAS Cesc (ESP) 3-May-1987
AL BISHI Mohamed (KSA) 2-May-1987
LENNON Aaron (ENG) 15-Apr-1987
DJOUROU Johan (SUI) 17-Jan-1987
BABEL Ryan (NED) 18-Dec-1986
CHIGRYNSKYI Dmytro (UKR) 6-Nov-1986

Oldest:
BOUMNIJEL Ali (TUN) 12-Apr-1966
LATAPY Russell (TRI) 1-Aug-1968
SUAREZ Claudio (MEX) 16-Dec-1968
HISLOP Shaka (TRI) 21-Feb-1969
DAEI Ali (IRN) 20-Mar-1969
KAHN Oliver (GER) 14-Jun-1969
LEHMANN Jens (GER) 9-Nov-1969
KELLER Kasey (USA) 28-Nov-1969
CANIZARES Santiago (ESP) 17-Dec-1969
JOAO RICARDO (ANG) 6-Jan-1970

Most capped:
AL DEAYEA Mohammed (KSA) 181

Most represented clubs:

Arsenal 15
Chelsea 15
AC Milan 13
Barcelona 12
Juventus 12
Manchester Utd. 12
Bayern Munich 11
Al Hilal 10
Dynamo Kyiv 10
Liverpool 10


(all taken from the Fifa World Cup web site)

Sven's selection criteria

(adapted from the Telegraph):

1. Write "Wayne Rooney" on a piece of paper.
2. Reach for a blindfold and a pin.
3. Remember that Owen Hargreaves knows something dodgy about Sven and thus must be included in the team, so drop a midfielder and include Hargreaves anyway.

Light at The World Cup

If matches in the World Cup preliminary competition (qualifying rounds) are played under floodlights, they have to give at least 1200 lux across the whole pitch. If matches at the finals are played under floodlights, they have to be at 1500 lux.

Are the finals players more blind???

Maximum attendance int he preliminary competition: Iran vs Japan, 110,000 in Tehran.

Israel at the World Cup

Following the Ghanaian victory against the Czech Republic the other night, one of the Ghanaian players (John Pantsil) was waving an Israeli flag in celebration. He was doing this to thank the Israeli fans who can followed him from Hapoel Tel-Aviv, where he plays his club football. It is a very sad state of afairs that the Ghanaian football association had to put out a statement apologising for this - they apologised for any offence that may have been caused and that Ghana was not taking sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Spokesman Randy Abbey said the Ghanaian FA was not taking sides in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. "He's unaware of international politics. We apologise to anybody who was offended," said Abbey. "We promise that it will never happen again. "He did not act out of malice for the Arab people or in support of Israel. He was naive... we don't need to punish him."

Populations

Which is the largest - the total population of all 32 nations playing in the World Cup, or China?

Actually, its the World Cup nations by about 80 million, but its a close run thing: 1.3 billion in China, 1.38 billion the total of nations represented in the World Cup.

Jim Rosenthal

What is the point?

Chocolate Lovely

Made in the 1970s, they were one of the first "plastic puddings". I used to have them as a treat when I was very young, but I haven't seen them for 20 years.

Simon Jones

He is now out of action until at least the New Year. That is the second major injury of his career, both of which have involved lay-offs of 12-18 months. In the contest of an average international career that lasts 5-8 years, that is an enormous chunk.

Premiership football and UEFA and FIFA

The English Premiership is (again) being told by UEFA to reduce the number of clubs to 18 from 2007/8. This is to allow more free dates for UEFA and FIFA competitions. Rightly so, the Premiership is annoyed by this - surely they and they alone should be in charge of their own league structure.

Reducing the number of clubs merely reduces the opportunities for fringe clubs, as the top few spaces are always going to be occupied by the biggest clubs. Realistically, there is very little chance of Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea being outside the top half of the table, and Newcastle, Tottenham and their ilk only have one poor season in 4 or 5 where they flirt with relegation. This means that the middle of the table, and the lower middle of the table are occupied by the clubs which are either fighting to stay up (West Ham), building success from small roots (Charlton, Bolton), or are fading from past glories (Birmingham, Leeds?, Villa). The actual teams will change from season to season. All this means that the number of spaces available for successful clubs from the Championship or lower is reduced, and the likelihood of going back down again immediately is increased.

Is it good for football to further concentrate the power in a small band of clubs? Almost certainly not.
Is it good for football to allow FIFA and UEFA to dictate to national associations? Almost certainly not.
Is it good for football to reduce the opportunities for small clubs? Almost certainly not.
Is it good for football to increase the number of European games (that get lower attendances and actual interest from fans than for domestic games: witness Middlesbrough's crowds in the UEFA Cup last year)? Almost certainly not.
Is it good for football to bring in meaningless and non-competitive competitions simply to play them in Tokyo as FIFA gets lots of money there (World Club Championship, etc.)? Almost certainly not.
Is it good for European football to be built in the image of the EU where the "big ideas" from the centre are put out as dictats to the clubs/countries which have to follow them or risk sanctions? Almost certainly not.

Catteries

I'm going to take the cats to the cattery this morning as we're off on holiday. Do people take their nuns to a nunnery when they go on holiday? Why don't you take the dog to a doggery, and are facts taken to a factory?

So where do bugs and bats go - buggery and battery?

The slats on your bed should become Tony Slattery.

Sorry, I'm tired.

Icelandic Industry

How come an Icelandic firm (Baugur) are managing to buy up most of the European retail market. I hadn't previously noticed that Iceland were one of the main economic powers of the Western world. Maybe its because they are outside the EU but benefit from the EU's existence. All the gain but absolutely none of the eurocracry. It strikes me that is a way forward...

300 Posts

I've reached the 300th post on my Blog. I'm not sure how uch of an achievement that is - I can't believe I've ever said anything useful, interesting or otherwise adding the sum total of knowledge held by the world...

Still, it gives me a chance to let off steam.

Spelling

Why can't people spell "lose" as the first person singular (present tense) of the verb "to lose". Why do people in general not know the difference between "loose" and "lose"...

To "loose the cannons" has a very different meaning than to "lose the cannons"!

Sorry for the linguistic joke there...

Local TV News

Local television news must have the largest amount of self-importance of any sector of life. Incredibly parochial. They really believe that they are the most important thing that exists. As an example, on last night's local BBC South News, the lead story (and one that took up most of the broadcast) was the fact that ITV Central local new in Abingdon was closing down.

Shock, horror, they are moving production to Southampton, and will now have to cover an area from Banbury to Winchester...

Was there really nothing else happening in the south that day? If not, then that was probably the reason that Central were closing down!

"Up to 40 people may lose their jobs". Not "40", but "up to 40". Not "will lose their jobs", but "may lose their jobs".

The BBC reporter at the gates of ITV in Abingdon was outraged and (ever so slightly) gloating... The spokesman for Central news looked very gloomy when interviewed for the BBC.

They even went through a large amount of comment and history about how ITV had started up their Angindon newsdesk and how it had been successful. But now, of course, only the BBC will be giving proper local news. I can't wait til the next cat gets rescued from a tree, whether it likes it or not.

Personally, I couldn't care less about local news, about 1 in 200 articles has any interest to me.

Cricketing achievement

Not really a rant, more a self-congratulatory diary entry. To set the scene:

I was playing for Didcot 2nds (they were desperate) away to Henley 3rds on Saturday. Standard 46 over match, I came in batting at No. 10 with the score on 108-8. We needed 120 for the next batting point, as we'd already figured that we had nowhere near enough runs with a weak bowling attack to come.

Anyway, after a couple of slashes and 3 scoring shots, I was on 4 after 5 balls faced. I was facing the last ball of the innings from the (rather slow) bowler who had already taken 7 wickets, with the score on 119-8. The ball was then smashed straight past the bowler for an enormous six. At least 20 yards beyond the boundary. Possibly more Babe Ruth than Michael Atherton, but who cares.

That was only the third six of my entire career, but by far the largest. I realise there are an awful lot of cricketers far better than me out there. While I'm so fat and unfit that I have lost the art of bowling (once upon a time I was a decent quick bowler), I get my pleasures where I can, and that one shot made it all worth while.

We lost badly, as they got the required 126 to win in about 25 overs, only losing one wicket on the way, but still. I took one of the positives out of it, though.

There - me gloating possibly, but when you're as crap at sport as I seem to be (can't even beat a hung-over Dan at squash, have never yet scored a try in an entire rugby-playing lifetime at centre or wing), you enjoy the small personal milestones.

Back to the mundane.

Languages

I have not formally learnt French since GCSE, although we did always go to France on holiday so I got a fair amount of practice.

I have not formally learnt German for a while - a couple of years prior to GCSEs and some courses in Scientific German at univeristy.

I learnt Italian while writing up my PhD, managed a B in the GCSE which I was quite pleased with.

I can still remember and speak a fair amount of all of those languages despite it being a long, long time since I learnt or practiced them. On the times that we have been on hoiday to France or Italy, I've been surprised by how much I can remember and how much reading and listening that I can understand. I had to ring Germany the other day and again, phrases and words came seemingly out of nowhere.

However, I've been learning Modern Greek at evening classes for the last 3 years, and I'm finding it far more difficult. Admittedly, these days I have not got the time to do as much revision and homework as I would like (i.e., none), but I'm struggling to remember some fo the basics. I guess that practice is difficult, with a dearth of native Greek speakers to talk to in southern Oxfordshire, but having said that, I work with one person from Athens and I never pluck up the courage to talk to him properly. My brain doesn't work quickly enough to be able to communicate, I get tongue tied and end up finishing sentences in English. I have no confidence in my own abilities.

While I'd dearly love to move to Athens or one of the islands (Sam knows the houses she wants to buy on Rhodes - south of Lardos on the east coast) to immerse myself in the culture and language, I can't find anything that would support me properly while out there. I'm not sure there's a vast market for H&S professionals in Greece. There probably should be!

Doctor Who

This weekend's Dr Who (The Impossible Planet) was quite superb. For very scary themes and satanists at Saturday teatime - the BBC were definately taking a risk! The last couple of episodes have been genuinely scary. I haven't quite resorted to being behind the sofa, but any kids watching (and I suspect there were a lot) would have had a good dose of what the programme was like in its heyday.

More of the same please, Russell T. Davies.

Ice in drinks

While looking at a pub website (see last rant), I noticed an advert for Magner's Ice Cold Irish Cider. In said advert, the instructions were given on how to make the cider ice cold. Now I know that I am occasionally naive, but I would have thought that "keeping the cider in the fridge" woudl be a very good method of cooling down the drink. Oh no, the instructiosn were as follows:

1. half fill a glass with ice;
   
2. pour on the entire bottle of cider;
   
3. drink;

Now I may be missing something here, but several points come to mind:

1. you are paying for ice at the same rate as cider
   
2. you are in effect watering down your cider;
   
3. if you didn't have the ice, then the bottle of cider would be nowhere near a full pint;

A rip off in many different ways!

Why do pubs insist on putting ice in drinks, especially when they have come from the fridge or chiller cabinet. The only reason can be that they want the drinks to look larger than they would without the ice.

Pubs also insist on adding ice to post-mix drinks. If these are warm then there is a problem with the post-mix system, but there's an even bigger rip-off. At least with a bottle you buy the whole thing and you only get conned in that you think you are getting more than you are. With post-mix, if you have more ice, you get less drink completely.

If I wanted to pay for water, I'd ask for it. I asked for a cider/coke/fruit juice/beer (delete as applicable).

J D Wetherspoon

JD Wetherspoons have already banned smoking in their pubs. They have tried very hard to ban swearing. They have also banned juke boxes and music from their pubs.

They are now banning football shirts - even to the extent of telling the mother of a two-year-old to take the toddler's shirt off or be thrown out of the pub.

I'm fairly sure talking and any taste in their food will be the next to go.

The excuses:
"for a family-friendly atmosphere". Well, if you want children in pubs then they no longer become pubs (but that's a rant for Rob). Any atmosphere in there has already long gone.

"for social responsibility". Again, fine sentimanet, but which is the most dangerous - smoking, talking, football shirts, loud music, or drinking. Personally, I believe the last of those - it kills far more of non-imbibers and ruins far more "other" lives than smoking. So which of those is not banned? Drinking, of course.

"we want to sell more coffee". This isn't bl00dy Paris.

"having a postive impact on society". By removing choice and homogenising and sanitising everything. Bl00dy health fascists. And I don't drink OR smoke.

"to protect the staff". I'm a H&S professional and there are better ways of protecting staff...

"because football shirts cause trouble". No, taking a toddler's shirt off causes trouble. The wearers of football shirts when fueled by alcohol cause trouble. And JD Wetherspoon sell... Oh that's right, alcohol.

Boycott them. Idiots. Not everyone wants to be exactly the same, conform to what is "good for us" and be criminalised if we don't fit into the stereotype.

National Insurance

Now this one beggars belief - someone can get a NI number without being checked as to whether they are allowed in the country. Staff at job centres have a target of issuing 8 per day, so they can't hang around on each case. These service levels agreed for public staff are simply wrong. Some problems and issues that people will have simply take more time to deal with properly. It is the same principle as for a doctor's surgery: everyone has something different the matter, some people will be seen in 2-3 minutes, while some may need 30 mins or more. You have to allow flexibility to ensure that the job is done correctly.

It might be thought that someone should have smelt a rat as we have several million more NI numbers in existence than the number of people who have ever legitamately lived in the UK...

John Prescott's salary

I can't believe that I have defended John Prescott twice in 2 days, but here goes. He earns £134,000 a year - at which the newspaper editors and TV reporters are becoming apoplectic. It has recently been revealed that the BBC are paying their top newsreaders £250,000 salaries. Newspaper editors will earn a simialr amount, if not more. Mediocre footballers and even top rugby players will also earn a similar amount. Does Prescott's job (even with the reduction in Department) rank higher in importance to the country than those others? Almost certainly, yes. Is his job 3.5x as important to the country as mine? Almost certainly, yes. I know the public vs private sector arguments on salaries, and the fact that politicians will often have secondary sources of income from unions, corporate directorships, etc., but the fact is that the basic salary for the job of Deputy PM seems very reasonable to me.

He should rightly be criticised for the things he does wrongly, e.g., his badly thought out new housing plans (don't build them on a flood plain, don't ruin the quality of people's lives and housing already there, keep some green space between the urban sprawl), but not for earning a quite reasonable salary.

Electricity Usage

from the University of Bradford website)
 
How much energy do our appliances cost to run each year? 

• Electric Cooker £60
  
• Fridge Freezer £55
  
• Dishwasher £45
  
• Fridge £30
  
• Washing Machine  £25
  
• Television £15

What does one unit of electricity give me? 

• 10 minutes' tumble drying
  
• 1 hour's ironing
  
• 3 x 15 minutes showers
  
• 2 hours vacuum cleaning
  
• 24 hours operation of fridge
  
• 10 hours listening to a stereo system
  
• 6 hours of television
  
• 2 hours cooking using a conventional oven   
  
• 30 minutes warmth from an electric fan heater

The Americans in Iraq - ethics

All 130,000 active US soldiers are to undergo 30 days ethics training following atrocities at the Abu Graves jail and recently at a checkpoint. The training will involve teaching the troops the "core warrior values" (Pentagon quote). Now I have, fairly obviously, never been in battle or other such situations, but it strikes me that the troops must know that certain things are morally and ethically wrong, even in the heat of battle. It doesn't matter what the provocation is, there can be no excuse for essentially criminal acts. Wars have to be fought under rules and guidelines - even if the "other side" doesn't adhere to those same principles. I strongly suspect that when the red mist descends, people will do things that they deeply regret, and in some cases will have to and must answer for later. However, to suggest that the troops are not aware of the rights and wrongs of battle, when they are in a country essentially to get that people back into self-government and you need to be seen as a positive force, is ridiculous.

Firstly, this "training" should be part of basic training. Armies are trained to kill and fight and win battles, but at the same time the major deployment these days is either as a peace-keeping force, be that in the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, etc., as a humanitarian aid force (Pakistan, Indonesia), or as an aid to the legitimate government (Iraq). There are necessarily different rules of engagement in each case.

Some rules:

• If you are going to shoot or abuse people, don't take photos and send them to your friends.
  
• If you shoot and kill unarmed women, children and babies, don't tell the world that it was the building collapsing, especially when there are lots of eye-witnesses and the bodies are riddled with bullets.
  
• What is possibly excusable in the heat of battle is not when you have taken prisoners and can be calm about the situation (especially when more senior officers are around to take control)

My point is that these values should be obvious, even to troops - 30 days' training is ludicrous and suggests either something rotten to the core in the US military, or alternatively that they are doing something for the sake of being seen to do it.

Incidentally, are the Pentagon training themselves in the principle that it is not ethical to detain people without trial for years and years away from the mainland jurisdiction, or are they being "selective with their ethics"?

Incarceration

Which is the better spelling: "jail" or "gaol"? And why the difference?

BBC Pronunciation

Apparently, the pronunciation of "Iranian" has changed for the BBC. Newsreaders are now using a long "ar" sound for the second syllable (first letter "a"), instead of the old way of using a short "ah" sound. In other words, Ir-ar-nee-ans instead of Ir-ay-nee-ans. The Americans are probably still using Eye-ray-nee-ans, but I haven't watched CNN for a while.

Notts County

They are advertising in the Daily Mail for a new manager...

Prescott

Now I'm sure there will be a lot of agreement with me that John Prescott has outlived his useful life as a member of this government, at least looking at the Telegraph letters pages. For one thing, I will stick up for him: the Labour party completely support him when he punches a journalist, but criticise him beyond reason just because he plays croquet. Is this just a class thing? Surely he is allowed, on a Bank Holiday, to entertain himself and some friends at "home", even if El Presidente is out of the country and he is in control? On that, I have no criticism.

However, on the wider issue of why he has still got his job, the following persuasive arguments have been put forward:

• He is the only link that the government have got back to the Labour party - very few of the government ministers appear to actually be socialists (Bevan, Callaghan, McDonald, Wilson et al must be turning in their graves).
  
• He deflects from the mess that others in the government are making by being essentially a figure of fun.
  
• He acts as a buffer of some sort between Blair and Brown.
  
• He knows something about Brown and Blair that he is holding over them (he hinted at this yesterday apparently) - some sort of blackmail?
  
• He is in cahoots with Blair to ensure that the government and country are in complete turmoil for Brown to take over - to ensure he cannot make a success of it.
  
• Blair is too weak to sack him.
  
• Blair can't be bothered to sack him as he's going soon anyway.
  
• Blair wants to make sure that when Brown takes over, he's still got Prescott in place.
  
• He has got powerful friends among the backers of the party.
  
• He's good at what he does.
  

OK< I made the last one up.

The Spira (Cadbury's)

Disappointing response from Cadbury's about the Spira. It is no more.

Thanks for your e-mail . This product has been discontinued.

Consumer preferences do change from time to time and as a major manufacturer it is important that Cadbury maintain a wide range of products that meet consumer demands. There are no plans to re-introduce this product in the immediate future, but there is a chance that you may see it again at some time.

Thanks again for your E-mail.

Charlie

Cadbury Consumer Relations Department

Rubber Roads

Definite pros and cons, but the country needs to do something with all the waste tyres...!

ACAS and the World Cup

This is one that happens every 2 years - arguments about whether firms should allow staff to have time off to watch the football. There are also issues with people being out drinking the nigth before, watching games in the pub, and calling in sick the next day.

Likewise, the BBC has recognised that not everyone will be supporting England, and ther may just be some people in the country that don't want England to win the World Cup. They haven't mentioned the people who probably don't care who wins the World Cup but might like time off or leniency to watch the Olympics, Chelsea Flower Show, model aircraft show, poodle hairwashing show, or just Deal or No Deal.

"ACAS are now getting involved to try and get employers to talk to their employees to work something out." Whatever happened to common sense management and people getting their priorities straight?

"Acas chief John Taylor said there were "very tricky issues to tackle"." Not really...

"CBI deputy director general John Cridland said many firms were worried about staff skipping work to watch England's World Cup football matches. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber replied by saying that as England's fixtures were evening kick-offs, there were unlikely to be many football "sickies" taken." What a surprise - the TUC and CBI disagreeing. Couldn't see that one coming!

"This is so serious a debate that we have had to issue a website page with frequently asked questions," said Mr Taylor. "They cover everything from 'Does my employer have to provide me with access to the games if I am working?' to 'My employee has a history of taking sickies whenever there is an important game'." Is this not a far better thing for Clarkson to get worked up about - wasting time arguing about non-important things, than the normal H&S rants?

News Reporting - Teeside chemical plant

This is probably the same rant as I've made several times before at the standard of news gathering from the BBC (and most others). The following statements are taken from a report was made following this morning's explosion at a chemical plant in Cleveland.

"One resident near the scene of an explosion at a chemical plant claimed they were living on a "time bomb". John Jackson, from High Clarence, near Billingham, lives just a few miles from the site and said he heard the explosion as he went to bed. He also lives close to a series of oil refineries at Seal Sands.

He said: "We're living on a time bomb here and we are stuck right in the middle of it."
Mrs Jackson said: "We're not going to move. We've got the grandkids round here. You're only going to get killed once. If it is going to happen, it is going to happen. At least we'll all go together."

Why on earth does the opinion of one uniniformed person who just happens to me a neighbour of the site make it to be a headline. Have a brief statement at the end of a factual report saying "local residents are worried and some have voiced concerns for a long time", but don't have an entire article on this person's views, which is given the same priority as the actual report itself.

The BBC needs to learn to present fact and opinion as separate and clearly defined items. At the moment, opinion is presented as fact - the above report suggests very strongly that there have long been problems at the site and it is badly run, without any evidence to back this up.