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And today's grump is....


Bullbasket

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11 hours ago, Black Knight said:

People are complaining that there is too much coverage by the BBC of Prince Philip's death 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56703437

Not wishing to start an argument, but I have to agree with them. Let me say right from the off, that I find this event sad and it must be devastating for the Royal Family. But the BBC have, as usual, gone way OTT. Broadcasting exactly the same program on BBC1, BBC2, News24, BBC Alba, is over doing it. They could have covered it sufficiently on BBC1 only. Why the need for every BBC channel to cover it? There will be many people to whom this event has no meaning (no, I'm not one of them), but BBC  TV was virtually, unavailable to them. It's just typical of the BBC to go over the top with this. I just hope that they get the coverage right next Saturday.

 

John.

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Going to be very grumpy all day...... 

 

Having a lovely sleep and then at 02:50hrs was awakened by a loud thumping sound from the street - what the hell is that my mind was saying... Looked out the windows to find 3 young people (couldn't tell the ages exactly, dark street and about 100 ft away or so) casually walking out of one road, crossing my street and heading into one of the other side streets which leads to a open park area with a lake, with some sort of speaker system turned up to full volume cranking out bloody Abba music!

 

Yelled at the top of my voice (which is extremely loud having been trained as a Drill Instructor in the RAF 😁) to "turn that ..... music off" - at the sound of my voice they broke into brisk run, and the music seemed to suddenly stop when they got round the corner as we could no longer hear it!. Turns out we were not the only ones to have been disturbed by these nocturnal music aficionados, several others in my local community had also heard them at various times and in various places round the local area, but not after 3am!

 

(Update ; Turns out that they were 3 local mums who had been partying (!!!) and were slightly drunk and decided that it was a very good idea to play the music at full volume whilst walking home. Considering that the stats are saying that 1 in 3 are asymptomatic of covid-19 - ie have it without showing any symptoms, one of those 3 may have it, and be now spreading round their families and friends! Not very clever, or considerate. In my view, extremely stupid of them)

Edited by treker_ed
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2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Not wishing to start an argument, but I have to agree with them. Let me say right from the off, that I find this event sad and it must be devastating for the Royal Family. But the BBC have, as usual, gone way OTT. Broadcasting exactly the same program on BBC1, BBC2, News24, BBC Alba, is over doing it. They could have covered it sufficiently on BBC1 only. Why the need for every BBC channel to cover it? There will be many people to whom this event has no meaning (no, I'm not one of them), but BBC  TV was virtually, unavailable to them. It's just typical of the BBC to go over the top with this. I just hope that they get the coverage right next Saturday.

 

John.

 

Not just the main BBC channels either, Dave programming replaced with a flashcard saying "go and watch BBC 1".

Obviously it is right and proper that BBC1 devote its programming to a moment of national importance.

But in this day and age of streaming, youtube and on-demand services,  trying to control the nations viewing is an out of date concept,

one which arguably is a mistake to try.

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14 minutes ago, IanHx said:

Obviously it is right and proper that BBC1 devote its programming to a moment of national importance.

Exactly. I couldn't agree more. But to screen it on all of their outlets simultaneously, is ludicrous. I watched quite a bit on BBC1, and had a look at ITV, Chnl.4 and Chanl.5. Naturally, they were screening their versions, but at least you could get a different slant on events. In fact, when I tuned onto ITV, they were interviewing some Lord. I believe his name was Lord Bellingham (or something close to that). He said something which I thought was so right. He said that this isn't a tragedy. He said it's not a tragedy when someone who is 99 dies, it's very sad, but not a tragedy. And IMO, he's right. My Mum died when she was 92, peacefully in her sleep. It wasn't a tragedy, it was sad. My Dad, however, died when he was 61. He'd just retired and had his retirement and his grandchildren to look forward to. That was a tragedy. It's a pity that the BBC can't get this kind of event into perspective.

 

John.

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Todays grump involves a chewed TV power cable, a chewed Blu ray player power cable, a chewed 30m ethernet cable, a chewed network hub power cable, a chewed power extension cable  and a miraculously unharmed escaped pet hamster.....

Edited by IanHx
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52 minutes ago, IanHx said:

Todays grump involves a chewed TV power cable, a chewed Blu ray player power cable, a chewed 30m ethernet cable, a chewed network hub power cable, a chewed power extension cable  and a miraculously unharmed escaped pet hamster.....

I had something similar many moons ago, involving an 95% completed Airfix Seafire and a 6 month old retriever pup. (bless 'im).

 

John.

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The only things that any of our dogs have chewed as puppies were a chair leg and a plastic bottle of red shoe dye! We never did get the red off the carpet, we ended up moving it around so that the marks were under a settee. The current pack like chewing sticks in the garden then choking on them.

 

John

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5 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

It's a pity that the BBC can't get this kind of event into perspective.

 

John.

Everything is hyperbole on there. They have forgotten how to present in a balanced manner.

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1 hour ago, Ratch said:

balanced

I think that depends on where on the spread between L and R you stand. 
Our public broadcaster has had it's share of being called leftist (weird, as all senior directors were appointed or 'suggested' by non-leftist governments).

My take on it: if they're catching flak from both sides of the aisle, they're probably pretty neutral :D 

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5 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

I had something similar many moons ago, involving an 95% completed Airfix Seafire and a 6 month old retriever pup. (bless 'im).

 

John.

 

What was his name?  Adolf, Eric or Hans-Joachim?

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9 hours ago, JohnT said:

 

What was his name?  Adolf, Eric or Hans-Joachim?

No, much later than that. It was the FR.47, so was more likely to be Wan Hung Lo.

 

John.

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19 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

The only things that any of our dogs have chewed as puppies were a chair leg and a plastic bottle of red shoe dye! We never did get the red off the carpet, we ended up moving it around so that the marks were under a settee. The current pack like chewing sticks in the garden then choking on them.

 

John

 

You have to be careful when your dog chews sticks.  Mine did, got a small piece of the stick in his throat, a very nasty infection and an £800.00 vet bill.  Thank god for pet insurance!  I never let ;him chew sticks again.

On 4/11/2021 at 10:10 AM, Bullbasket said:

Not wishing to start an argument, but I have to agree with them. Let me say right from the off, that I find this event sad and it must be devastating for the Royal Family. But the BBC have, as usual, gone way OTT. Broadcasting exactly the same program on BBC1, BBC2, News24, BBC Alba, is over doing it. They could have covered it sufficiently on BBC1 only. Why the need for every BBC channel to cover it? There will be many people to whom this event has no meaning (no, I'm not one of them), but BBC  TV was virtually, unavailable to them. It's just typical of the BBC to go over the top with this. I just hope that they get the coverage right next Saturday.

 

John.

 

If you think that's over the top, just wait until HM the Queen goes.

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Driving to work today and the A303 from Amesbury to Stonehenge was backed up, at 0730!. I’ve not seen it blocked for over a year now🤬

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Electric scooters. Pulling into my street a little while ago and some stupid idiot kid about 10yrs old comes flying round the corner on my side of road and cuts across my front. Was only doing about 8mph so stopped easily but still enough speed to damage the car if i'd have hit him! His eyes were like saucers when he saw me and I would go as far to say his bottom dropped out. The things are a total menace in the hands of young kids (and adults) not to mention illegal. Had i hit him, his parents would no doubt have blamed me as their little angel could do no wrong and i would have been left with a hefty repair bill..... 🤬

 

Regards,

 

Steve

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Re Prince Philip. Part of the problem is that the BBC were caught on the hop. Although the Duke was clearly not well and tbh his death could have been at anytime, there was no real warning and the BBC used the protocols that were written and kept for this occasion (the monarch and a couple of others have a box in the studio with info about what to do in the event of a death). The obituaries are updated, but the protocol is less so. Believe me you have got off lightly compared to what was in the protocol. My sister in law was involved in the hurried discussions about how long to carry it on for. Even she thought it was OTT. The other problem is trying to gauge the response. The BBC can never win in these situations. If they had not responded as the public service broadcaster can you imagine what a field day the Fail would have had? 

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@Mr T and as the saying goes... Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

 

Sadly like some other organisations in the news media recently, they couldn't have got it right no matter what they would have done - minimal coverage, or as they did wall to wall coverage. As it was, a major figure in the British Royal Family passed away unexpectedly (ish) and they (the British news Media) had to cover a major story as would be expected. I listen to Classic FM on a regular basis, and they actually stopped the piece of music they were playing to make the announcement of what had happened, and after that they completely changed their whole programming to reflect  the situation. Out went the jovial, celebratory music, in came the more sombre, reflective style for the next 2 or 3 days. So not just the TV schedules were affected. And to be honest, I didn't mind. That suited my mindset completely.

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3 hours ago, fatfingers said:

Electric scooters. Pulling into my street a little while ago and some stupid idiot kid about 10yrs old comes flying round the corner on my side of road and cuts across my front. Was only doing about 8mph so stopped easily but still enough speed to damage the car if i'd have hit him! His eyes were like saucers when he saw me and I would go as far to say his bottom dropped out. The things are a total menace in the hands of young kids (and adults) not to mention illegal. Had i hit him, his parents would no doubt have blamed me as their little angel could do no wrong and i would have been left with a hefty repair bill..... 🤬

 

Regards,

 

Steve

They don't get better as they get older though.

 

Driving home Monday coasting at around the speed limit a little scroat in a elderly Fiesta is slowly catching up by speeding on the straights, but loosing almost as much ground on the corners. Get to the long straight by Ladybower reservoir he's about 150 yds behind & decides to floor it, we're aproaching the climb to a lind summit before he's alongside me & i see a cyclist ahead heading in the same direction as us and about to disappear over the brow so ease off. Scroat's now ahead but wrong side of solid white lines & as he gets to the brow slams his brakes on - he can't get past the cyclist for oncoming traffic. He must have panicked as every light at the rear of the car came on - how hazzards slow you down I've yet to find out. Oncoming traffic clears & Fiesta flicks to middle of the road to clear the cyclist, just. His brakes are still on as I too move across to give cyclist room. As the Fiesta pulls back into the left lane I see road ahead is totally clear and pass the him, after that he hung well back.

 

At the end of the day what did he achieve - probably only skid marks in his underpants.

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15 hours ago, Mr T said:

The BBC can never win in these situations. If they had not responded as the public service broadcaster can you imagine what a field day the Fail would have had? 

 

15 hours ago, treker_ed said:

Sadly like some other organisations in the news media recently, they couldn't have got it right no matter what they would have done - minimal coverage, or as they did wall to wall coverage.

Sorry, but I disagree. They could have got it right, or something near to being right. Where they went wrong was to blanket cover the event. Showing it for the whole of the evening on BBC1 would probably have been acceptable. But to show it on BBC2 and News 24 at the same time was IMO, a mistake. It wasn't as if by flipping over from BBC1 to either of the other channels, you could get a different perspective because it was exactly the same broadcast. And why close down BBC4 as well?
If the BBC was caught on the hop by this event, then given the Dukes age, and the fact that he was admitted to hospital, I think that they should have been a bit more prepared. I've not been able to see the TV schedules for the funeral on Saturday, but I do hope that they don't do the same thing again. After all, it was the Duke himself who said that he wanted no fuss.

 

John.

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I see your point and I largely agree, they could have carried coverage on one channel and shuffled everything else around. I get the feeling that the Duke was probably found dead or moribund on Friday am, if he had actively dying on Thursday then the BBC would have been given the wink. My source at the BBC, who is a producer for health news said that the first they knew was when it was announced that the Duke had died

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