Shelley C....?

Many years ago before trans people became the thing in the normal world in the comedy world there was Shelley (then Cooper) .  I wonder if trans people today are aware of her.  This wandered into my time line the other day and filled in a lot of backstory I was unaware of... I didn't know she'd been all the way to the ECHR etc... Anyway, it's a good story so I put it here... 

More Hard Sell tactics from the sinister sounding Hacking Trust...

You know when Dr Who lands somewhere and asks what's the year?

Why did’t she curtsy ?? It was one of the greatest privileges I had as FM of NI to curtsy to members of the royal household including HM the Queen. https://t.co/DHMyKrr1M0

— Arlene Foster DBE PC #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) June 29, 2022

Then Churchill Said To Me ... we won't broadcast this rubbish till you're pushing up the daisies, Frankie...

Dear Information Rights

Thank you for your response.

I believe your argument that the data is protected by Part VI Section I of the Act is not a valid excuse not to process my request.

The information I requested (with the possible exception of the production costs) is not information  relating to the creation of a program.

It is information relating to a decision NOT to broadcast an already extant program.

This is therefore an administrative/policy matter
and I do not believe releasing this information has any commercial disadvantage to the BBC.

I am asking about BBC censorship/broadcast policy 40 years ago.

If you were a normal government department such data would be released by now to the public archives 
and so I see no reason why, if such data exists, it cannot be made public now.

After all, most of the protagonists are dead.

I would therefore request you review this matter
before I escalate it to the ICO.

Thank you 

Yours Sincerely 

Anthony Miller

 

 

Karen writes...

Hi – we are looking for two people to take on temp roles in central Wimbledon starting this Monday 4th July and to carry on until Friday 16th September ( ideally no holidays booked)

Skills required

Great telephone manner and customer service

Professional telephone skills – not afraid to ask questions ( this is not a cold calling or sales role !) 

Excel skills to use in updating a database

After the call you will be sending out relevant information

Attentive and hardworking

Full training will be given

Working 9-5pm

Hourly pay rate £12.50

Kind regards,

Karen

Dear Karen, of course I'm free! I've done absolutely nothing since we last spoke 5 years ago.

Thanks!

Anthony

Don't keep Karen on the dog and bone

Have been enjoying reading my dad's Daily Mail again.  Apparently they are campaigning to change the law by statutory instrument to force companies to answer the phone to them or be fined by Ofcom.  Because they are "paying for this". Actually you're paying for goods and services.  Much customer services activity such as changing your mind after payment is an extra and not something that necessarily has to be done by phone.  I can pick up the phone but it won't necessarily resolve your problem.  They provide a cut out and post form for all the baby boomers who've mastered scissors but not the Internet.  Surely they should just ring their MPs?

Funny how statutory instruments that avoid parliamentary debate have been normalised...

It's a lesson I learned a quarter of a century ago that the only effective way to deal with an institution that does you over is by letter....... 

Some statistics on Brexit...

It's almost 6 years since the Brexit vote. Here is how UK and the Euro 19 area GDP per capita have evolved (2016Q3=1, PPP adjusted, fixed prices, OECD data). Using Euro 19 as the counterfactual, each UK inhabitant has paid around £4,520 (2015 prices) for the vote so far. pic.twitter.com/NP5o4uXM8b

— Morten O. Ravn (@MortenORavn) June 18, 2022

Opening Recycling Bins....

You can open a locked Croydon Council Recycling bin designed to force you to push every single item individually through a tiny slot with a standard triangular meter box key.

So there you are.  Don't say you don't learn nothing round here...

Winzip - Your ass used to beautiful...

 

...so remarks Ordell Robbie to Louis Gara in the 1997 film Jackie Brown before shooting his guts out because he has become an incompetent bum...

...I feel much the same way about Winzip in 2022.  Winzip used to be a beautiful program with one function - zipping and unzipping files.  Today it is a maze of confusing menus, ribbons and drop boxes to make this one simple thing impossibly confusing...  It has gained next to nothing in functionality but it has lost absolutely all of its simplicity.

Adam Smith's invisible dead man's handle...

Workers : I'm not paid enough to live on.

Tories : Its a free market.  You're free not to work or to leave for another job.  That's the market correcting itself via Adam Smith's invisible hand where self interest invisibly corrects inequalities in the economy raising living standards for everybody.

Workers : Okay, I'm withdrawing my labour to create more demand by going on strike.

Tories: You're destroying the economy and dragging us back to the 1970s!  We're going to to make striking illegal... etc

SQL

 

Afternoon

I hope you are well?

I am currently recruiting for a permanent Application Support Analyst role for a client in Chessington. You can work from home and travel to the office 1-2 times a week.

We are looking for a candidate who has experience in supporting applications/software, SQL skills would be highly advantageous (Running queries etc)

They will pay up to £40,000 for the right candidate.

Are you looking for work? If so, can you please reply to this email today?

Thank you

L

Dear L,

Wait while I chuck in my permanent job and contituity of employment for someone who is offering me the chance to pop round, solve their inability to understand a simple one line declarative language that hasn't really changed since the 70s and get fired as soon as I've explained their simple mistakes to them.  They're not offering £40,000.  They're offering a high day rate then sudden redundancy.  If indeed it's a real job at all and not a fishing expedition for technical advice.  And if indeed you represent them at all and haven't just data mined their website and then stuck a load of CVs through a piece of software to identify any with the word SQL in them.  A process you probably undertook using SQL.  Do you fancy it? 

Cheers

Anthony

Unless you are the Chapman brothers please do not burn books

Next time someone like Robin Ince says there's "no cancel culture" I would like to present Exhibit A below as a counter-argument....  An important thread on the thorny subject of whether or not burning Doctor Who books is inflammatory?  

Personally I think burning books is demonstrably inflammatory by definition... and, indeed, perhaps the  progenitor of this thread secretly thinks so too... since they have strangely gone into hiding... 

For the record burning a book is wrong because it is the destruction of a work of art.  Very few people can get away with destroying art without terminal opprobrium.  Possible exceptions include the Chapman brothers.  

Unless you are the Chapman brothers please do not burn books.  There are many more less offensive and tasteful forms of protest - such as burning somebody in effigy.

Burn the master tapes and we'll all pretend none of this ever happened...

There was a time when Royalty was the pinnacle of the aristocracy with Viscounts, Lords and the Baronets beneath them.  However since Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, 10th Duke of Chalfont was found guilty by the House of Lords it was decided to draw to a close the presentation of young debutants and instead hold lots of Garden Parties and since that time the Royal Family have increasingly been trying to find more “normal people” to hang out with.  Ordinary folk like James Bond, Paddington, Basil Brush and now the cast of Eastenders.  Yes, out of morbid curiosity I actually watched the Eastenders Royal special so you don’t have to. 

This isn’t the first time the Royals have wandered into soap opera.  On the 8th December 2000 Charles appeared (pre-recorded) in a “live” episode of Coronation Street to commemorate the programme’s 40^th anniversary.  Long gone is the time when John Nathan-Turner couldn’t persuade Prince Edward to appear in a 25^th anniversary episode of Doctor Who… so in the interests of balance I suppose it was only natural that Charles should appear in an episode of Eastenders to commemorate his mother’s Platinum Jubilee*. 

Anyway, there was no plot to this particular episode that I can make out only some kind of local talent event and a visit by their Royal Highneses to the pub and the market.  Statistically about 24% of the population are republicans but this being naked fictional propaganda it was possible for Charles and Camilla to go walkabout amongst seemingly normal people without arousing a single negative reaction or even a cold shoulder.  So everyone was jolly happy!

One character decided unprompted to thank Prince Charles for helping him out via the Prince’s Trust, another offered Camilla a drop of rum and a third thought they were just impersonators – with hilarious consequences – but fortunately he had a “heart of gold” so it was all okay.  Someone told the Prince that they had worked on the same market stall all their life and everybody was charmed by this tale of social immobility.

There was a sub plot about some money but you probably have to watch other episodes to understand that.  Press reactions seem to have been mixed with comments on twitter ranging from 

“This is so weird is it all just improv??? #EastEnders" 

to 

"WAIT WHAT? I want to watch the soap EastEnders so why am I seeing acting trying to be real life or is this genuine? I'm confused. Get back to the real drama #EastEnders" 

to 

“Burn the master tapes and we'll all pretend none of this ever happened.. ” 

(see here and here).  

Even the usually loyal Daily Telegraph described it as a “toe curling watch” 

(see here).  

But it could have been worse.  We could have suffered another Royal It’s A Knockout … and it at least made the Doctor Who Dimensions In Time Crossover more plausible.  At least it didn’t break the cardinal rule of Eastenders that no one should ever rise above their station by the end of any episode... 

* It will we all suppose be her last Jubilee but it is just possible that, with advances in medical science, she could just make it to 122 like Jeanne Calment, and they’ll have to think up another substance for that Jubilee.  Gold is the next element in the periodic table but since she’s already done that one I guess it will be Bismuth since Mercury is a toxic liquid metal, Thallium is the one used for rat poison and after that they’re all unstable or radioactive or both like Polonium so I guess Bismuth (used in cosmetics) it will have to be…

Where was Harold MacMillan?

YOUR COMPLAINT: 

Where was Harold MacMillan? 

Watching your fawning coverage of all the Prime Ministers the Queen has "advised" I noticed there was no footage at all of Harold MacMillan - one of the longest PM's of the 20th century (6 years) . Bit odd? Were you avoiding her appointment of Sir Alec?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/22/newsid_2784000/2784465.stm

Why was there no mention of the recent prorogation crisis when Boris Johnson clearly mislead or even lied to the Queen and here decision was overturned by the Supreme Court?

Why is it reported that the Queen's chat with the Prime Ministers is purely a source of benevolent wisdom? If it is so benign why are we not allowed to ever see minutes of such meetings? They are never recorded and never released and the Palace has an absolute exception from FOI. For all one can say about the activities of, for example, President Trump ... all his official correspondence and actions are recorded for future generations. Why are there no republican interviewees at all on the News? 

Of course one wouldn't expect the FA Cup Final to be narrated by someone who hates football but the BBC's coverage of the Jubilee has been even more sycophantic than in previous years? If the BBC was taking a broad historical view of Mrs Windsor's relationships with her Prime Ministers then it should surely apportion screen and commentary time according to how long those PMs were in office for. Instead 6 years have mysteriously gone missing. Much emphasis was given to Winston Churchill's post-war administration despite the fact that it in fact it was considerably shorter than MacMillan's at 3 years and 162 days....

Reference CAS-7194011-R9R1W7

Dear Mr Miller,

Thank you for contacting us regarding BBC News at Six, broadcast on 31 May.

The programme featured a report discussing the relationship between the Queen and those who have served as Prime Minister during her reign, where each individual role in the partnership was examined, contextualised by examples of different notable and momentous events that happened during certain premierships which impacted this relationship.

The special nature of the relationship between the Queen and those serving as Prime Minister was described, but the report also made mention of instances where it reportedly frayed with allegations of disagreement between Her Majesty and the PM, providing Margaret Thatcher and certain policies of her government as an example.

Unfortunately, whether due to time constraints or other editorial reasoning, we’re unable to include or go into full detail about every potentially relevant aspect of a report. This report aimed to discuss the story in a wider, more general capacity.

We do however appreciate your perspective on this, that you feel Harold Macmillan should have been mentioned, and your general feelings about the BBC’s reporting during the Platinum Jubilee.

All that being said your feedback is highly valued, and please be assured we have noted your concerns.

All complaints are sent to senior management and the relevant programme teams for review, and we’ve included your points in our daily overnight audience feedback report.

These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the company and ensures that your concerns have been seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future content.

Thanks again for taking the time to get in touch.

Kind regards,

Abbie Crawford.

BBC Complaints Team 

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

 

Please note: this email is sent from an unmonitored address so please don’t reply. If necessary please contact us through our webform (please include your case reference number).

Sil's last outing...?

I don't usually wander into the area of Dr Who spin off media because ... Well, ... life is short and I hardly have enough time to watch the Doctor on television these days... but I did the other month give in to curiosity and purchase "Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arador" by Philip Martin... largely because Sil the giant slug (as brilliantly realised by disabled actor Nabil Shaban) was amongst my favourite Doctor Who characters.  Philip Martin had a long and distinguished career as a script writer on many TV series and asked to write for Doctor Who in the 80s because he really loved the show ... and it showed.  

Sil was a satire on 1980s venture capitalists - investing the galactic revenues of the Galatron Mining Corporation of Thoros Beta in an endless series of dodgy deals to make a quick buck and unfortunately creating a lot of human misery along the way...  

Despite his repugnant schemes and complete lack of scruples Sil remains a lovable character due to his own Arthur Daley like incompetence... but also because he's a put upon underling himself - a minion of the pompous Lord Kiv (Christopher Ryan) who is constntly burdened by having to make "mega wealth".  

Profits are more than just money to the Thoros Betan Mentors but a near religious duty - Sil often references "the great god Morgo" in whose honour they are acquiring their often ill-gotten gains... It occurred to me the other day that there's some similarity between the Mentors and the Ferengi in Star Trek with their similarly extreme capitalist culture and hierarchical bullying social structures... but that's another story ...or another franchise... but one has to wonder if the Mentors have "rules of acquisition..."

In the original serials Kiv is a similar slug like being who has his mind transplanted into Peri (or does he?) but perhaps for budgetary reasons in this serial Kiv is transplanted into a human who looks like Christopher Ryan.  

Indeed, its only watching this back that I finally realised that Kiv was indeed Christopher Ryan from the Young Ones and McKendrick Twins from One foot In the Grave and various Sontarans ...

Anyway, the point is ...unlike other of Reeltimes attempts to create Doctor Who without the Doctor ... Sil is a complex enough fleshed out character that the absence of the Doctor from this Reeltime film for copyright reasons doesn't seem to matter.  The budgets and sets are minimal and some of the make-up/latex joins aren't properly concealed at times but no more than Old Who and its still fun... The rest of the cast Sophie Aldred (cast against type), Sakuntala Ramanee, Janet Henfrey (still typecast as a stern type) all give great performances too...

Indeed, it works so well it would be nice to see a sequel but unfortunately Martin died not long after at 82 so horay for his last harrah...!

Still, could we perhaps see Sil in new Doctor Who...