General Chat

Do you think it is happening?
Do you think it is deliberate?

It's a good question SRS...when I'm properly awake I'll try and think of a sensible answer ;)

Yes I do! Not only that big firms/government departments are being allowed to get away with out and out lying, cheating, and thieving.

MP's cheat on their expenses - our money - and get away with it.

Bankers in domestic banks gamble our money away

The Tax department gets things wrong - tough luck

Internet providers/banks/many other online 'facilities' make it impossile to contact them

Benefit departments waste more on bad admin than 'cheats' - yet the department isn't going to be overhauled - an outside firm - Experian is going to be allowed to poke around bank accounts etc

Experian - 'the' credit report company - used by many banks to assess your credit worthiness (surely that's what bank mangers are meant to do) very often get things wrong.
They're (by law) meant to provide one free credit report to you a year. Fine if you have a credit /debit card (apparently needed to confirm who you are).
If you have neither of these - nor a cheque book, you can send a postal order - which, as far as I'm aware doesn't 'prove' who you are - and you're paying.
For a laugh - look them up on Wikipedia

So, I believe it's deliberate in that those schmucks 'in power' in whatever form think the rest of us are idiots! What's worse is they 'gang' together making it impossible for anything to be done.

Oh, and if one more person (usually privately educated MP's) pronounce the work 'decade' as 'decayed' I won't have a radio left!
I even heard one pronounce 'Hyperbole' (pronounced hi-per-bolly - emphasis on the 'per') as 'hyper-bowl'. if you can't pronounce it properly - don't use it!

~ skulks off soapbox~

I'll come back to this...but there is a particularly vacuous tv 'presenter' on at the moment, who is the epitome of 'dumbing down'.

TV I think has seen a dumbing down over the last two decades ( pronounced Maggie's way!). Too may repeats, too much cheap 'reality' tv, too many 'of the same' formula programmes ..be that cooking, cars or cops.

The single play has died a death, which brought to the fore new writers and made one think. The range of childrens programmes has narrowed, and the dreaded "these ones" has infiltrated even Blue Peter!

Another case of those in power treating the rest of us as idiotic turds:

Comment by the 'leader' of Hampshire County Council Ken Thornber In January 2008 about council taxes rising by 4%:

"In Hampshire, one of the councils where bills will go up by nearly 5%, the authority's Conservative leader Cllr Ken Thornber blames Whitehall for creating the situation.
"We are being asked to do more and more every year by central government with less and less. The system is not sustainable."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2010 it transpires Thornber has been paying secret 'bonuses' to top executives in Hampshjire County Council, totalling £87,000 between 2008-10 :

Council leader Cllr Ken Thornber, who does not receive a salary but is paid a special responsibility allowance of £28,967 plus a basic allowance of £12,003.
Senior executives earn - total packages ie salary plus 'perks' - but not 'bonuses':
£246,648.
£193,541
£187,409.
All three earn more than David Cameron.
There are another 6 who earn more than £100,000

That would explain why the Council Tax had to rise.
I've worked for HCC for 8 years. In that time my pay has fallen - mainly due to a 'reorganisation' of grades - and, of course, I now do more advanced work than I used to!

Yes, yes, yes.

A lot of the media seems to talk to the lowest common denominator. That's fine for the papers, because I can buy proper ones. But even the BBC documentaries and news programmes seem to be addressing 5 year olds at times.

Gwynne

Totally agree with Guinevere. What I also hate is the documentary 'recap' - after every advert break, we are deemed to have forgotten what's going on and need to be 'reminded'!

I was listening to radio 4 yeterday - they (MP's et al) were talking about shortening the summer holidays because - something like - :
'Poor' children forget what they've learned because no-one reads to them!!!

So, no parents of 'Poor' children read to them? Bit of a sweeping statement.
Later on during the interview the interviewer did once use the word 'deprived' - but it quickly reverted back to 'Poor'.
It's almost like talking about 'The Great unwashed'! - Those 'other' people who (in times gone past) were useful for being our servants, but now have little purpose in life!

Likewise these public school educated morons still believe EVERY child who receives free school dinners must be less intellectual than the others!
True, there is some correlation between poverty, and educational standards - like there's some correlation between sending your child away to public school and mental health! It may affect a small minority - but government policies shouldn't be based on it

Don't know about 'Dumbing down' - but those 'in charge' are incredibly ignorant!!!

"I'm not sure I see a need to apologise," Mr Harnett told the programme when asked if he would say sorry to taxpayers facing unexpected bills. "I've read the papers, listened to the media and heard stories of HMRC blunder and IT failure – neither of those are true. Every country that I know of that has deduction of tax from wages and salaries has to do a reconciliation at the end of each year and we're doing one."

So dumb tax payers .. its down to you to bail us out once again..

The tax office is the most useless 'department' in the entire world lol...they have incomprehensible forms that have to be explained by an incomprehensible booklet that is thicker than the forms themselves, and only useful if you are running a restaurant with a man called Raymondo and splitting the profits 50/50 or you are a married hairdresser called Delores with a mortgage and a cat and a house in Barbados...

;)

So thats the Country and Councils Sorted out. Next? **M**.pmsl.

ROFALMAO Rose ..
Got it in one!
xxx

I agree that television appears to be dumbed down - if I see another celebrity TV programme (with the odd exception for my favourites of course) I shall scream.

I think there are intelligent programmes out there but they sometimes are lost as they don't tend to show them at peak times on the main channels.

I wonder why they don't tend to show them on the main channels at peak times?

Could it be that people are obsessed with Simon Cowell, who's going to be the next judge on whatever-it's-called, and whether someone who we've all forgotten about can dance on ice?

Keep the faith with Radio 4!

Sue x

Yes .
I agree to all the comments above. Some very good points made.

The lying/cheating/theiving of CO and MP's, who are not brought to account over their misdoings just beggars belief. So it's ok for them, then. Or at least that's the signal received by the rest of us.

As for the media? I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper. I feel that most (not all) contain very little real news, being more interested in gossipy celeb stuff. Instead I get the main news from BBC World (TV) which concentrates on world events and not just what's going on in the UK. Or I take a look at the news on the internet.

I watch less TV than ever. It appears to me it's either repeat after repeat, or a load of wannabe's/hasbeens in some reality show, or it's those same-old-same-old-format programmes about selling your junk/updating your house/moving your house which have been done to death.
Cheap TV.

Oh, and the BBC, once famed for its perfect pronunciation and use of the English language has gone to the dogs in my opinion. I've a few more strange pronunciations to add to 'decayed' and 'hyperbowl'.......Himalayas has now become Him AAAR lears, and contrOversey is now regularly pronounced cOntra versey.

But I've kep the best til last - not so long ago, I heard a TV presenter talking about " the epitomb".....I kid you not!!!

There! I feel a whole lot better now I've got that off my chest.

K

Karen - yes, the whole thing is 'grot-es-queue' :-)

And another thing.

What is it with grown men saying "Lickle" instead of little. Don't they realise that they sound like toddlers?

Why don't they make an effort to talk properly?

Gwynne