A while ago the forces of darkness decided that progress might be made towards their nefarious objectives (doubtless including, on this occasion, the criminalisation of illness, and the medicalisation of crime) by taking everyone’s medical records and uploading them into a huge computer called ‘The Spine’ (presumably it has peripherals called ‘The Ribs’).
There was a [...]
Archive for the ‘British’ Category
Not impressed
Posted in British, tagged NHS computers on 9 August, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Smoking research centre
Posted in British, tagged pubs, smoking on 22 May, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dick Puddlecote (via the Adur Brewery, and added to ‘Anti-Righteous Indignation’) has more on the ’smoking research centre’ loophole which may yet save a traditional British pub (or two).
Once again I repeat that what Ingsoc has against pubs is not smoking or drinking per se, though these are always used as stalking-horses; what can’t be [...]
Two anniversaries on a blog, early afternoon (attribution dubious)
Posted in British, tagged Shakespeare, St. George on 23 April, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Nostalgic reminiscences from Anna Raccoon:
Time was when every man, woman, and child could have told you … that today was Shakespeare’s birthday, and St George’s Day, patron saint of England.
Just to vary the somewhat overly flaggy theme, this is the insignia of the St. George Society:
Provided by the patriotically irrepressible Herstmonceux Castle, to whom I [...]
Drink Me
Posted in British, tagged Adur Brewery, Nanny-baiting on 23 April, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I am most chuffed by a remark in the comments from adwelly, at the really-ought-to-be-famous Adur Brewery (got the RSS to work now), who said:
…we are about to do a beer label along the lines you suggested just after Christmas.
This all arose from some element of the diabolical Nanny State interfering, or at least attempting [...]
…and he replied “It’ll work, you fools, and I am IKB.”
Posted in British, tagged engineering on 9 April, 2009 | 13 Comments »
[Bob Godfrey: Great]
Today is the birthday of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
[Image respectfully freeloaded from Wikipedia, but I gather from a recent technical biography (Beckett: Brunel's Britain, 2006; ISBN 9780715323601) that the negative of this famous photograph was recently bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum for no less than £7,500. Whether this changes anything I [...]
Bill of ‘rights’
Posted in British, tagged constitution on 24 March, 2009 | 1 Comment »
National treasure Nightjack on a Bill of, er, ‘Rights’:
Once again this Government is charging into the very biggest society changing stuff with nice sounding words and heads as empty as empty can be. This time it’s a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. I will bet my next coffee that if they have enough time to [...]
Stating the obvious
Posted in British, tagged baby-farming on 13 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
leg-iron states the obvious, but does it so well that it’s worth reading again, even if by now we all know the words.
If there’s no reward for irresponsibility, those children won’t be abused because they won’t be born until their parents are ready for them, and actually want them.
That one of the most serious British [...]
Whitehall mandarins
Posted in British, tagged civil service on 5 March, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The Ambush Predator on official statistics:
I guess that’s the inconvenient thing about these independent bodies…They have a habit of letting the cat out of the bag…
This may have some connection with a curious little story which I heard on the Radio 4 news at 0800 today, but of which I can now find no [...]
‘Good and sufficient gates’
Posted in British, tagged AHBs, railways on 9 February, 2009 | 2 Comments »
It says in the Independent that
Network Rail called today for a crackdown on motorists who jump lights and dodge barriers as it released new figures showing law-breaking at level crossings in Britain is at a five-year high.
The automatic half-barrier level crossing was introduced to the UK from France. Its sole purpose was to reduce cost [...]
British Method versus German Method
Posted in British, tagged snow on 3 February, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The dosage, read out by the Telegraph:
More than six million people have been forced to stay at home and thousands of airline passengers are stranded after almost 1ft of snow fell in some parts… the disruption is expected to cost the economy £1.2 billion.
When I was in Germany (it was the bit with all the [...]
