News?
So England’s best (or more accurately, only) left back got caught sending dirty pictures to a Page 3 dullard and how his marriage to a professional mime artist is over.
Sorry, someone’s going to have to explain to me why:
- I should give a shit
- Anyone should give a shit
- BBC News consider it important enough to rank the story higher on it’s website than a story about someone trying to blow up a courthouse in Northern Ireland
The truth about the bullying ‘scandal’ / Homeopathy challenged
As I was getting ready for work this morning GMTV was on in the background. On it was a report about the alleged culture of bullying in Number 10 Downing Street. The initial storm centred around a book that contained allegations that Gordon Brown had a bad temper and possibly bullied staff.
GMTV then wheeled out Christine Pratt, head of the National Bullying Helpline who went on to say that her ‘charity’ had received calls from a number of staff inside Number 10. I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. A director of a charity which deals with sensitive issues coming out in the press and breaching confidentiality in such a way.
It gets better though. I saw the following link on Twitter:
http://torytroll.blogspot.com/2010/02/who-are-national-bullying-helpline.html
So this bullying charity is actually run by a woman who also runs a company advising other companies on how to defend bullying claims. And it also seems that the charity are recommending that complainants appoint the business-side of the operation to investigate the claims! There is even a case of someone calling the helpline and then inadvertently giving the business’ details to their employer and the business then helping the employer to defend the claim and turn it back around onto the complainant! Very ethically dubious at best.
And it gets better. Just a quick glance at the charity website shows the charity has several links to the Conservative Party. Now they couldn’t possibly have anything to gain from all of this could they?…
Christine Pratt has now apparently gone on record to clarify that none of the complaints she received were about Gordon Brown, but why not say that from the start? The damage has already been done.
Now I’m not belittling bullying, I have no doubt that it is a very serious concern in the workplace and should be treated as such. But this whole sorry scenario seems to be nothing more than a smear campaign and does little to help eradicate bullying in the workplace.
One good thing has come from all this though… I can’t see many people going to the National Bullying Helpline in future if they have no qualms about sharing details of your complaints with the media!
In better news, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has said that NHS money should not be used to provide homeopathic ‘treatment’. Apparently, £4m a year is spent on providing water and sugar to patients. I can’t help but think that there are a great number of better things to spend that money on.
China!
I’ve found myself with a spare evening so I thought I’d finally get around to updating you all about my travels, even though I’m sure most of you have already seen the photos on Facebook.
First up was Beijing. I stayed there for 3 nights and if I could only use one word to describe it that word would have to be ‘massive’. Honestly, the scale of the place is absolutely mind-boggling. Everything is huge. The buildings, the sprawl.. everything! After visiting a little restaurant down a back alley on the first night we went the train station the day after to get some tickets and then had a wander around a tiny part of the city and ended up in the national art gallery, where there was a Turner exhibition on with loads of paintings on loan from the Tate!
The next day was the Great Wall of China. We ended up going to Badaling, which is the most reconstructed and touristy bit of the wall, but it still didn’t dissapoint. Again, the scale of the thing is amazing. You can see it snaking on along ridges for as far as the eye can see. Also, if you ever go yourself be prepared to be asked countless times to pose for photos with Chinese folk. They love taking photos of Westerners! AAnd that goes for everywhere, not just at the Great Wall. I lost count of how many times I posed for photos.
Next up after that was the Forbidden City, which is the old Imperial Palace. I know I keep saying this, but again, it’s massive! Close to 10,000 rooms, loads of huge open courtyards. Very ornate as well.
Then after a 15 hour train journey we reached Xi’an, the ancient capital, surrounded by big walls. There we saw some gorgeous temples and pagodas and spent a nice relaxing afternoon in the gardens of a Buddhist temple (before trekking round in the boiling heat trying to find somewhere to eat, ending up in a place where the waiter could barely understand what we wanted. Very frustrating!). It’s from Xi’an that we went to visit the Terracotta Army, which was an awesome sight. Line upon line of life sized terracotta figures, all stood to attention. Words can’t do it justice really, especially not in a brief summary like this! Xi’an also brought what was possibly the silliest moment of the trip, but still brilliant. Due to a mix up and a bit of bad planning we each ended up lugging our entire possessions (getting on for 20kg) half way up a mountain and back down again in the pissing rain. Well worth it for the spectacular views though. I also met a Chinese guy half way up who started talking about United!
Then a 22 hour train journey to Hangzhou. That was a killer! Hangzhou itself is a lovely place though. Really relaxed vibe in parts of it, and there’s a massive, and beautiful, lake right next to the city. We didn’t do as much here as we did in Beijing and Xi’an, which was a welcome break really. We visited Longjing to see the tea village there and ended up having a cup of tea and something to eat in what was basically some old woman’s front yard. And then we went for a wander around what appeared to be a Chinese national park. Not quite like one of our own though. All rebuilt houses and roads through the scenery. Still, it was nice enough! We also ended up in a jazz bar one night, which was expensive compared to the rest of the places we’d been to, but it was a tad more civilised I must say!
And then back to Beijing for one last day, when I finally got to enter Tiananmen Square, which, surprisingly enough, is massive! I could have gone to see Mao’s body as well, but the queue was huge and I’d been told it’s not really worth the wait, so I didn’t bother.
And then home again!
And for any of you who are interested, here are the links to some photos…
Beijing and the art gallery
The Great Wall
Beijing and the Forbidden City
Xi’an
The Terracotta Army
Hua Shan
Tea village and countryside outside Hangzhou
West Lake, Hangzhou
Beijing again
And there you have it!
Following on…
…from my last post, here’s a video of Ben Goldacre on Newsnight doing a fine job of questioning the ‘scientist’ that wrote the ‘paper’ about social networking and it’s affects on health…
And here’s a fantastic article from the aforementioned Mr Goldacre.
Is it me, or is it very disheartening to hear the Director of the Royal Institution (for so long a bastion of reason and scientific endeavour) using the phrase “There is no evidence…” If there’s no evidence do you not think it might be best to stay quiet instead of shouting from the rooftops?
And for Dr Sigman to state that his ‘paper’, entitled “Well connected? The biological implications of social networking”, was “not about social networking” was just the icing on the cake really.
Having said all that, Goldacre and Paxman do a good job of pouring scorn on the whole thing.
Now if only that happened more often. One things for certain, if it did happen more often the Daily Mail and Express would be a lot thinner!
God bless the Daily Mail
They’ve really outdone themselves this time!
It’s almost too good to be true. I had to double check that I’d not been tricked into visiting a spoof site. The only thing that’s missing is a link to falling house prices.
Elbow with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Chantage
It’s disappeared from BBC Interactive and iPlayer now, so if you didn’t see it you’re too late.
But, because I’m kind to you, here are a couple of videos to show you what you missed out on…
If you missed it I urge you strongly to seek it out somewhere. It’s awesome stuff.
Billy Bragg
I went to see Billy Bragg last night. At the Bridgewater Hall of all places! It was a really good night. The setlist was brilliant too. I can’t think of many songs that he didn’t play that I wish he had, apart from maybe Tank Park Salute (though I’d probably have cried like a baby) and Help Save The Youth Of America, but you can’t have everything!
We did get The World Turned Upside Down, A New England, Waiting for the Greap Leap Forwards, Levi Stubbs’ Tears, Accident Waiting To Happen, There Is Power In A Union, NPWA, The Milkman of Human Kindness, Greetings To The New Brunette… (and that’s just mentioning my favourite songs!)
And as a little treat, what with being in Manchester, he got Badly Drawn Boy out to play Walk Away Renee.
And if you’re bothered, here are a couple of vids…
Dead Set
I really, really hope there was an easily offended old woman flicking through the TV channels at about 11pm last night. And I really, really, really hope she stumbled upon E4. Because if she did, she’d have seen a zombie having it’s head rather graphically caved in with a fire extinguisher.
Now I only hope this happened because I’d love to a) read the letter of complaint, and b) see how Ofcom dealt with it!
Anyway, Dead Set was just as good as I thought it would be. Mr Brooker is a rather splendid chap really.
And if you missed the first episode last night, the DVD of the whole series is out on Monday.
Buy it.
(Coming soon, a piece about gaming today and choice. I have the idea, I just don’t have the time, what with the recent influx of great games!)
The loudness wars part 3
Posted by tj in Interesting on October 14, 2008