facepalm

  • Bristol Post Balls – let it rain

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    Certain parts of the country suffered from very heavy rain earlier this week. Where I was camping in the Black Mountains for the past week, we had some 3 inches of rain over the weekend.

    image of a row of umbrellas
    Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    The Bristol area was also affected by the torrential downpour. Sit back and marvel at the mathematical genius of an anonymous Bristol Post reporter in this report posted in the online version on Sunday and bearing the headline “Met Office issues severe weather warning as Bristol poised for 12 hours of heavy rain“.

    The forecast is for heavy rain from 10pm tonight, stretching through until 10pm on Monday, before heavy rain showers persist until 7pm.

    Excluding the heavy showers, I make that at least 24 hours. How about you? 🙂

  • Bristol Post Balls 4 – a classic homophone

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    Today’s cock-up by the Bristol Post, from a story entitled ‘Man on lilo rescued after drifting out to sea off Weston-super-Mare’, has gained Bristol’s newspaper of record a seat in homophone corner.

    For the benefit of passing Post journalists a homophone is “a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of “rise”), or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too.”

    Now let’s see (or sea. Ed.) what landed the Post this particular accolade.

    screenshot of homophone from Bristol Post
    What did he drift out to see, Bristol Post?

  • Bristol Post Balls 2

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities

    Below is a screenshot of the story in today’s Bristol Post reporting on Professor Peter Higgs – one of the team that postulated the existence of the particle named after him back in the 1960s – being granted the freedom of the city of Bristol.

    screenshot of Bristol Post article
    Headline quality control in action. Click on image for full size version.

    Professor Higgs is a former pupil of Bristol’s Cotham Grammar School.

    For a local media report of the event that has a proper headline, I recommend Bristol 24/7’s offering.

    Bristol & Avon Family History Society has some interest background information on the history of the Freedom of Bristol and Burgesses, as Freemen (and they were men in medieval times. Ed.) were originally known.

  • Court ‘interpreters’ being sent to Fire Service College

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    Reposted from RPSI Linguist Lounge, with added links.

    Anonymous writes:

    You might be aware that Capita acquired the Fire Service College, the award-winning leader in fire and emergency response training, for £10 million. The Fire Service College, located in Moreton in Marsh – Gloucestershire, gets clients from all over the world, including: the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

    Some of their delegates can’t speak in English, so therefore Capita has tried improving their Fire Service College by bringing their very own, cheap, ‘Interpreters’ to assist the delegates.

    So now, as you can see, the court ‘Interpreters’ which work for Capita are now being sent to the Fire Service College, to interpret for the delegates who are being trained for emergency response; I just hope they can interpret accurately.

    Anyway, Capita called me up and offered me a 3 month interpretation project at the Fire Service College before it was actually official that Capita had acquired the College. I gave it a go, but I didn’t really like it because it was actually quite hard compared to Court Interpreting but it actually looked like Capita hired their best interpreters which have been on the NRPSI.

    However, Capita had told me that I had to arrive the night prior to the day I interpret for the delegates. So, it becomes clear that Capita don’t trust its interpreters and know that they are unreliable.

    Now let’s get to the interesting part, the rates. The normal day is 8:30 to 17:30 with a 1 hour lunch at about 12:00, so for the day (8 hours of full interpreting) you just get paid a flat fee of £140. That’s the amount of 7 hours interpreting in a court. But what was different was that they paid me door-to-door travel time and of course millage [sic].

    Therefore, Capita pay you less, for harder work.

    But on the other hand, Capita do give you free accommodation (which is on-site but not nice at all), they also give you free food; including breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, there is a bar, gym, swimming pool and some small shops.

    It does look quite appealing, doesn’t it? But it does mean leaving your family for 5 days in the week and giving you only 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) to go back home and spend it with your loved ones.

    If any of you, Interpreters, have been to the Fire Service College, please leave a comment.

    Many thanks.

  • How the MoJ treats consultation submissions

    Steve WoodsPolitics, Social Media, Tech

    Courtesy of the Criminal Bar Association’s Twitter account, evidence has emerged of the Ministry of Justice’s attitude to submissions to its recently closed consultation on its proposed changes to legal aid, which masquerade under the misleading title of ‘Transforming Legal Aid’ (posts passim).

    legal_aid

    The Criminal Bar Association isn’t the only organisation that has received such information: the Bar Council has too.

    image of Bar Council tweet of 28th June 2013

    Some cynics have already said that they knew the MoJ wouldn’t bother reading submissions. However, what the top screenshot shows is the deplorable lack of IT skills on show from the mandarins of Petty France: they are too thick to realise that their email system sends the originator a message if that email is deleted without actually being read!

    Update: Doughty Street Chambers has since tweeted that the MoJ are apparently saying the deletions are an “erroneous technical glitch” and nothing has been deleted, as well as that people have been emailing legalaidreformmoj@justice.gsi.gov.uk to ask for a copy of their response so the MoJ can prove they still have those consultation responses.

    Well, that second tweet from Doughty Street just shows how much confidence and trust in the MoJ has eroded.

  • That’ll lean you!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    This blog has written before about politicians’ scrapes with technology and their apparent inability to cope with it (posts passim).

    Below is a screenshot of a tweet (since deleted) by Andrew Selous, the Tory MP for South West Bedfordshire commenting on Chancellor of the Exchequer Gideon Osborne’s comprehensive spending review in the House of Commons earlier today.

    Tweet by Andrew Selous MP
    Tweet by Andrew Selous MP

    Andrew should also know that the first rule about criticising others’ use of language is to make sure one’s own is impeccable (but they probably omitted to teach him that at Eton. Ed.).

    Hat tip: Phil Gibson.

  • One week in May

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media

    image of gilded statue of Justice on top of Old BaileyTo give an illustration of the chaos being caused by Capita Translation & Interpreting’s mismanagement of the courts and tribunals contract (posts passim), below is a record of the cases disrupted in the final week of May by failures to provide interpreters at all or provide them on time.

    How much longer can Helen Young MP continue to assert that all is well with the courts and tribunals interpreting contract?

    31/05
    Guildford Crown Court

    Details:Case listed for sentence. Prosecution & defence counsel, defendant and both complainants were all in attendance by 9.45am. However, the Arabic speaking interpreter was nowhere to be seen.

    Capita sent a telephone message via a note to the judge at 10.40 am. It explained that the assigned interpreter “had informed Capita last night that he would not be able to attend as he was double booked”. Capita left a telephone message that it would be able to provide an interpreter for 2.30 pm, some 5 hours after the due time. The defendant was left to wait in custody.

    Reported by Kuljeet Singh Dobe, Barrister, Old Bailey Chambers

    31/05
    Gloucester Crown Court

    Details: 3 Romanian nationals for adjourned Plea & Case Management Hearing (PCMH). No interpreter. His Honour Judge Tabor QC was scathing in his comments about Capita.

    Reported by Tim Burrows, Iacopi Palmer Solicitors LLP, Gloucester

    29/05
    Birmingham Crown Court

    Court 1 – sitting at 12:00 pm
    THE HONOURABLE MRS JUSTICE COX DBE
    Trial (Part Heard)

    T20127199 KREZOLEK Mariusz 20CV0147212
    LUCZAK Magdelena
    20CV0147212

    Details: Case delayed as Polish interpreter not provided by Capita for a child murder trial.

    29/05
    Guildford Crown Court

    Details: Capita have failed to arrange Vietnamese interpreter for Plea & Case Management Hearing PCMH at Guildford today. Case has to be adjourned. Waste of court time/public money. Judge very angry with Capita and says he will demand a written explanation and financial penalty.

    Reported by Guy Bowden (@BarristerGuy)

    29/05
    Leeds Magistrates Court

    Details: Trial at Leeds Magistrates Court aborted due to lack of Polish interpreter. Booked last month. Defendant had come from Poland for trial; witnesses from Slough.

    Reported by Sarah Greenan, Barrister (@Sarah_Zenith)

    29/05
    Derby Crown Court

    Details: Case of R v Thang Vu – Vietnamese interpreter booked through Capita. Barrister reports: “None attended but we all waited all day for one to appear. ALS/Capita contacted several times by the court but no interpreter. Defendants in custody. Case put off to next day. Court booked their own interpreter and we got on the next day.”

    28/05
    Norwich Crown Court

    Details: Case: R v Morkūnas T20127248

    The above case was listed at 9.30 am for Custody Time Limit hearing. A Lithuanian interpreter – booked through Capita – should have been there for a conference at 9.00 am, but did not arrive until 10.30 am. The learned Judge did not appear to believe the explanation of the interpreter being booked for 10.30 am and said enquiries would be made.

    The case was called on twice but the court could not proceed as no interpreter was present. The explanation given by Capita was that she, the interpreter, had been booked for 10.30. No member of the Norwich CC staff would have made a booking for 10.30 am as it is established over many years that CTL hearings are at 9.30 and need to be preceded by a conference. The knock-on effect was that the trial, in which I, Defence Counsel, was committed in an adjoining court, was delayed. Under the old system there were a number of excellent Lithuanian interpreters who lived within 40 minutes of the court, were familiar with its practices, and have never, in my experience, been late.

    Reported by Defence Barrister.

    24/05
    Newport Crown Court

    Details: Andrew(@Andjones1000) reports on Twitter: “Vietnamese Defendant not able to be sentenced as no interpreter arrived at court. Efficiency???”

    23/05
    Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court
    Court Room 10

    Details:

    Case Name: O’Reilly + 11: T20127262; T20127250; T20120479; T20127269; T20127660; T20127381; T20127253;
    T20120636.

    Andrew Stephen O Reilly; Byron James Milne; Ceri Wilmot; Edwin Gorlee; Jason Lee Seale; Michael John Connolly; Sam Omidi; Steven John Petrie; Theodorus Van-Gelder; Wayne Braund

    Two-day sentencing hearing listed to start on 23 May at 10.30 am. Ten defendants (one of which needed a Dutch interpreter) and eleven barristers left waiting in court packed with public and press as Capita fail to provide Dutch interpreter. “This is what happens when you sell off services to the cheapest bidder”, says barrister.

    The interpreter booked by Capita was ‘on holiday’ and there had been a diary error. The Judge requested Capita come to court at 2pm to explain what had happened; they didn’t and he described the situation as ‘outrageous’. Capita appeared before the Judge the next day.

    Prosecution counsel: Mr Gary Woodall
    Defence counsel for defendant Van Gelder – Ms Gatto
    Defence counsel for defendant Gorlee – Ms Thompson

    All three barristers from 9, St Johns Street Chambers.

    20/05
    Wolverhampton Crown Court

    Details: Solicitor-Advocate Malcolm Fowler (Dennings Solicitors) reports: “Problems on stilts with, in particular, Wolverhampton Crown Court one, with one case from Friday put off for Capita to show cause within 14 days as to why they should not show cause over no Vietnamese interpreter.

    Today, no Polish interpreters for a two handed case put off until tomorrow and the Judge calling on Capita for wasted costs or at least to show cause.

    Before the Resident Judge at the same court there was no Vietnamese interpreters for five defendants which has caused a trial due to start today to have to be adjourned.”

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