media

  • Spalding Magistrates Court – an interpreting black hole?

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    image of Spalding Magistrates Court
    Spalding Magistrates Court
    The Ministry of Justice’s interpreting contract with Capita Translation & Interpreting is lurching along largely unseen by the general public, delaying and denying justice to many in contravention of Clause 40 of Magna Carta (posts passim) – one of the few clauses of that important legal document from 1215 still in effect today.

    Yesterday Lincolnshire’s Spalding Guardian (not to be confused with a similarly titled, typographically challenged offering originally from Manchester. Ed.) carried not one, but two reports of interpreters who missed assignments at Spalding Magistrates Court, which only sits day per week nowadays.

    Firstly, there’s the report of a 53 year-old man accused of stealing bolt croppers.

    The case of a man accused of stealing bolt croppers could not be heard by Spalding magistrates because there was no interpreter present.

    Secondly, the Spalding Guardian covered an adjourned drink-driving case involving a man called Piotr Nowak.

    His case is due to be heard on Thursday. There was no interpreter present at last week’s hearing.

    In spite of the constant stream of evidence to the contrary, the Ministry of Justice continue to assert that Capita T&I’s performance under the contract continues to improve.

    By that logic 2 + 2 = 5 (at least it does in Petty France, SW1. Ed.).

    Spalding may have an above average need for interpreters due to the high numbers of East European migrant workers employed in agriculture and food processing – something that must annoy the hell out of UKIP supporters.

  • Bristol Post Balls – bedding expenses

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    I knew having children was expensive, but never realised cots – those small-sized beds for babies – could cost so much until I read this article in today’s Bristol Post about an expensive night out which sadly ended up in that local Palais de Justice also known as Bristol Crown Court.

    Bristol Crown Court
    Bristol Crown Court

    Apparently, the night out resulted in a huge bill for bedding, according to the relevant sentence in the article.

    The court was told Collins had to stump up £8,500 towards legal cots.

  • Bristol Post Balls – beefing about faggots

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    Today the Bristol Post has been occupied with faggots. It all started when Facebook, that bastion of free speech, banned the use of the word faggot as offensive. Apparently they’ve never heard of this traditional item of English cuisine over the pond, where faggot is a term of abuse for homosexuals.

    As a result, Mr Brain’s – a producer of culinary products resembling faggots that started life in the Bristol area – has started a campaign to fight against Facebook’s ban, which is duly being reported by the Post.

    In addition, the Post also informed its readers what faggots are. Any similarity between the Post’s article and the introduction to Wikipedia’s faggots article is presumably purely coincidental.

    However, the Post hasn’t finished with faggots yet; it also tells its by now slavering readers how to make faggots. After having stated that faggots are made from pork, the Post drops a real clanger on this report, illustrating it with a photograph of a butcher (so far, so good. Ed.) posing with a joint of beef (D’oh! Ed.), as evidenced by the screenshot below.

    Bristol Post screenshot

  • Racist van: a load of tripe

    Steve WoodsMedia, Oddities, Politics

    Earlier this year I blogged about the Home Office’s so-called racist van (posts passim). Yesterday along with most of the national media the BBC reported that the Home Office had admitted that just 11 illegal immigrants had left the UK as a result of its ill-advised campaign.

    Although the Home Office’s efforts were ill-advised and less than successful, its use of mobile billboards has inspired their use by others like the Tripe Marketing Board, as the picture below – allegedly from Lancashire – shows.

    Tripe van

  • Bristol Post Balls – the pick of the best

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media

    There are annual events that pepper the year providing easy copy for the media. One of these is Bonfire/Guy Fawkes Night on 5th November.

    As 5th November is less than a week away, most media outlets are publicising local fireworks events. Here’s today’s offering of that ilk from the Bristol Post.

    As usual a screenshot has been taken, just in case authors Rachel Gardner and Alex Cawthron realise they’ve posted a half-finished article. Additional black marks to Rachel and Alex too for a lower case start to the headline.

    screenshot of Bristol Post article
    What’s the best that Bristol has to offer?

  • UK government does something right

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Politics, Tech

    The UK’s dreadful, destructive coalition government has done something right – for a change.

    As part of the forthcoming Local Audit and Accountability Bill, which will be debated by MPs in the House of Commons on Monday, new rights will be granted to the press and citizens to film and report council meetings, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced.

    In 2012 the government changed secondary legislation to open up councils’ executive meetings to the press and public. However, this did not apply to councils’ committee meetings or full council, nor to parish councils. Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, asked councils to open up their committee meetings, but many councils are still not complying. Many councils, particularly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are still keeping democracy behind closed doors. Some councils had even banned local residents from recording, blogging and tweeting at council meetings. Ministers believe these councils are clinging to outdated analogue ideals in a digital age.

    Mr Pickles said: “An independent local press and robust public scrutiny is essential for a healthy local democracy. We have given councils more power, but local people need to be able to hold their councils to account. I want to do more to help the new cadre of hyper-local journalists and bloggers.

    “I asked for councils to open their doors, but some have slammed theirs shut, calling in the police to arrest bloggers and clinging to old-fashioned standing orders.

    “This new right will be the key to helping bloggers and tweeters as well as journalists to unlocking the mysteries of local government and making it more transparent for all. My department is standing up for press freedom.”

    BCC council chamber
    The council chamber in Bristol’s Counts Louse (aka City Hall © G. Ferguson)

    Here in Bristol, the council is well ahead of Mr. Pickles. Meetings have been webcast for years and members of the public and elected councillors freely tweet proceedings from the Counts Louse.

  • Bristol Post Balls – News in Brief

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media

    Most newspapers have brief items of news (posts passim).

    However, they don’t come much briefer than this one.

    As usual a screenshot is provided, just in case someone down the Temple Way Ministry of Truth decides to edit it after this post is published!

    screenshot of empty Bristol Post article

    Within a few hours, the above post attracted the following apposite comment:

    That’s one of the better written stories I’ve seen on this site.

    Quite! 🙂

  • Stop press! Hold page 27!

    Steve WoodsMedia, Politics

    Today’s Independent puts the christening of George Windsor into perspective: one sentence at the foot of page 27 of its dead tree version.

    scan of foot of page 27 of The Independent

    However, the paper’s customary lack of deference is completely ruined by the paper’s online version which features both a photo gallery and a comment piece. 🙁

    A screenshot has been omitted in the interests of taste. 🙂

  • Calibre 1.7 released

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Media, Open Source, Tech

    Version 1.7 of Calibre, the cross-platform e-book reader and management software, was released on 18th October, Softpedia reports.

    Calibre’s features include:

    • Library management;
    • E-book conversion;
    • Syncing to e-book reader devices;
    • Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form;
    • Comprehensive e-book viewer;
    • Content server for online access to your book collection.
    image of calibre interface
    Calibre running on the KDE desktop under Linux

    A complete list of changes since the last version release can be found in Calibre’s release announcement.

    The new version is available for download for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows.

  • Bristol Post Balls – an embarrassing vowel movement in public

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    Crosby Stills & NashThere’s hardly a day goes by without the Bristol Post screwing up somewhere.

    Today it features a glowing review of veteran US three part vocal harmony and guitar group Crosby, Stills & Nash.

    However, at one point the language is not so much glowing as glaringly wrong when Mr Harnell trips over a near homophone:

    Despite hoovering up the Gross National Product of Columbia in his darkest days, David Crosby’s voice remains a thing of wonder.

    Columbia? The female personification of the United States of America?

    I think the reviewer had got his vowels muddled and actually meant Colombia, a South American country famous for the supply of a variety of white nasal decongestant allegedly enjoyed at one time by Mr Crosby.

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