A nice article. I absolutely love that Bryan Robson was on standby every single week. Also that Beaumont and Botham and their families used to go on holiday together.
I used to love AQOS when I was small. It was telly - a quiz show, even - I could watch with my parents on almost equal terms. I played rugby, so always supported Bill Beaumont, but obviously Willie Carson was ace too, and so was Emlyn Hughes.
For my tastes, it went downhill a bit after David Coleman left. I have nothing against Sue Barker, Ally McCoist, Matt Dawson or Phil Tufnell, but it always felt a bit like it was trying hard to find the laughs, rather than letting them come naturally. It didn't have to be hilarious, just pleasant and agreeable.
Yes, my sentiments exactly. Although perhaps the laugh chasing just seems more obvious when you’re not a child anymore?
There’s got to be space for serious quizzes where knowledge is the prize and they don’t feel the need to be funny. What have we got at the moment?
Only Connect Mastermind University Challenge
I like OC but Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s opening & closing monologues are so unfunny it hurts. I can barely believe they make it past the editors
I was going to Heathrow airport yesterday. They shuttled the passengers between two opposite trains three times. Then the 15 minute service took 30 minutes. I arrived at Heathrow nearly an hour later than expected.
A well-dressed man next to me spoke to his companion. "This country," he said. "I know," she said. "This country," he said. "Yes, I know," she said.
"This is another example of how it's in the bin. Nothing works," he said. "£40 to not get to the airport on time."
A couple of weeks ago, I had a sales manager in town from abroad. They were trying to get to midlands for a meeting with a potential supplier. Despite arriving at Kings Cross an hour early, all the trains that morning were cancelled. They ended up taking that and a few other calls that day from a hotel room in London. "What's the point?" They asked me. "You can't actually get anywhere in this country." They make a quarterly trip. They'll try again in Q1 2024. The tickets were >£300 for a day trip of <300 miles return. The company is fighting for a refund. They don't know when it will come. Until it does, they've ended up extended the train company a £300 loan for a sales call that will be delayed at least three months.
Finally, another colleague was recently in London and missed a meeting because of road traffic. They ended up paying £30 in cab fare to miss the meeting. "What's the point?" They asked after taking the call from a hotel lobby.
When I read productivity numbers, I think of all these delays. Doesn't seem to matter what it is. At the minimum, we pay premium prices to move around the country in hours, weeks, and months instead of minutes, hours, and days.</I>
These days I work on the basis that something I am relying on - train being on time, GP appointment, bins being emptied etc - will not be available when I need it. That way, if it happens seamlessly I get a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, pleasant surprises are few and far between but expecting the worse does stop you from tearing your hair out.
Getting a bit of a Labour's plan for government vibe.
If Wes doesn't continue with the Tories cutting out NHS waste bullshit, that will be a pleasant surprise.
Thought he was slightly below par this morning on Today to be honest. The idea that you fix the NHS's capacity problems by some of the non dom additional tax (which may or may not ever exist) was frankly ridiculous. It is less than 1% at a time when the NHS is subject to particular inflationary pressures. He really did not address the continuing problems with the junior doctors strike and their demands. He would not commit himself to what effect this additional capacity was likely to have on the waiting list.
It came across as well meaning but woolly. Or possibly realistic in acknowledging that not a lot was going to change. Take your pick.
Though what was Streeting's alternative. Labour will inherit a high tax low performance country with a 7 million NHS waiting list and an NHS that has increased staffing and costs astronomically will fairly little return.
All he can do in the medium run is manage expectations and hope it can be run better for about the same cash. He is more or less saying that, or even less. I think he is right.
For departmental spending the above can be more or less repeated each time.
What is truly to be feared is another costly black swan or two. At this moment we are in a post-covid dull normal and are still borrowing £100bn+ a year AND paying £94 bn in interest. What happens if something like the financial crisis, Covid or big scale war or something unforeseen breaks out in the next year or two?
A nice article. I absolutely love that Bryan Robson was on standby every single week. Also that Beaumont and Botham and their families used to go on holiday together.
I used to love AQOS when I was small. It was telly - a quiz show, even - I could watch with my parents on almost equal terms. I played rugby, so always supported Bill Beaumont, but obviously Willie Carson was ace too, and so was Emlyn Hughes.
For my tastes, it went downhill a bit after David Coleman left. I have nothing against Sue Barker, Ally McCoist, Matt Dawson or Phil Tufnell, but it always felt a bit like it was trying hard to find the laughs, rather than letting them come naturally. It didn't have to be hilarious, just pleasant and agreeable.
Yes, my sentiments exactly. Although perhaps the laugh chasing just seems more obvious when you’re not a child anymore?
There’s got to be space for serious quizzes where knowledge is the prize and they don’t feel the need to be funny. What have we got at the moment?
Only Connect Mastermind University Challenge
I like OC but Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s opening & closing monologues are so unfunny it hurts. I can barely believe they make it past the editors
Any non Beeb serous quizzes?
VC-M referred to @TissuePrice being a contestant not long ago. Her innuendos about M Portillo should embarass her.
A nice article. I absolutely love that Bryan Robson was on standby every single week. Also that Beaumont and Botham and their families used to go on holiday together.
I used to love AQOS when I was small. It was telly - a quiz show, even - I could watch with my parents on almost equal terms. I played rugby, so always supported Bill Beaumont, but obviously Willie Carson was ace too, and so was Emlyn Hughes.
For my tastes, it went downhill a bit after David Coleman left. I have nothing against Sue Barker, Ally McCoist, Matt Dawson or Phil Tufnell, but it always felt a bit like it was trying hard to find the laughs, rather than letting them come naturally. It didn't have to be hilarious, just pleasant and agreeable.
Yes, my sentiments exactly. Although perhaps the laugh chasing just seems more obvious when you’re not a child anymore?
There’s got to be space for serious quizzes where knowledge is the prize and they don’t feel the need to be funny. What have we got at the moment?
Only Connect Mastermind University Challenge
I like OC but Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s opening & closing monologues are so unfunny it hurts. I can barely believe they make it past the editors
Any non Beeb serous quizzes?
VC-M referred to @TissuePrice being a contestant not long ago. Her innuendos about M Portillo should embarass her.
The point about Only Connect is there is no studio audience, so no feedback on whether the monologue jokes land or not. And they do like running gags, especially Portillo innuendos.
If British trains were cheap and shit nobody would mind.
If British trains were expensive and reliable nobody would mind.
We have the worst of both worlds, the Tories have failed us all with their nonsensical policies.
GB Railways is such a disaster it's dead before it even arrived. The private companies have had their day, time for a proper Swiss-style StateCo.
Too much baggage in the UK from British Rail. If you are too young to remember it, google YouTube comedy sketches about BR.
I don't believe that privatisation is the problem. And actually the rail service is not that bad - certain companies and routes skew the overall perception.
At the end of the day, the left believes that the state is best to run everything while the right thinks it should all be private. The reality will be in the middle. Private companies that need to compete for custom works well, in the main. One of the issues with rail is that you rarely get a choice of provider for a trip. How you resolve that is the million dollar question.
You clearly don't use the railways and a StateCo is not advocating British Rail. You are dishonest to say so.
I use the railways, and my perception is that it is no worse than I remember it being under BR.
There is lots to fix. But to say it's all down to who owns it is madness. It's both refusing to acknowledge what BR was actually like and looking for simple solutions to complex problems.
The refrain "no worse than it was under BR" is oft repeated on here. Regardless of whether it's true, shouldn't it be the case that, regardless of ownership, trains should be a lot better than they were under BR? Since the railways were privatised thirty years ago, there have been huge advances in technology that should have led to a more reliable, and probably faster, service. But they haven't.
So while I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, it's telling that we tolerate (or not) a service that hasn't improved in 30 years.
I would say, talking from personal experience, that the service on the railways, with the possible exception of their fare charging systems which are a shambles, is massively better than it was under BR. Which is not to say that it is not still crap, of course.
As an oldie, my memory differs. BR had many problems, but lateness and, particularly, cancellations were not that common. Nowadays, on many lines, they are everyday occurrences. And it's cancellations and lateness that piss people off more than any other defect.
Likewise. I'd a train cancelled last month, after 100 or so passengers had boarded.
If you want to hear a silly story:
I was waiting at Birmingham to catch the train for Hednesford.
There were three 2-car EMUs waiting at the platform. These would form two trains - one for Rugeley via Hednesford, and one for Northampton.
So - the staff decreed that the four carriages to the right would be going to Rugeley. And the two carriages on the left to Nottingham.
I decided to wait before boarding, in the hope they would realise the carriages nearest to Northampton had been allocated to Rugeley before trying to send the train off.
Fortunately, they did, and declared the four carriages to the left would be going to Rugeley.
Then somebody pointed out that actually, the allocation was four carriages to Northampton. So all the passengers in the middle two coaches for Rugeley had to move to the left.
And finally, when this had delayed us by 15 minutes, we moved off, and the first thing we got was an announcement: 'Due to the late departure of this service, this train will terminate at Hednesford.'
A nice article. I absolutely love that Bryan Robson was on standby every single week. Also that Beaumont and Botham and their families used to go on holiday together.
I used to love AQOS when I was small. It was telly - a quiz show, even - I could watch with my parents on almost equal terms. I played rugby, so always supported Bill Beaumont, but obviously Willie Carson was ace too, and so was Emlyn Hughes.
For my tastes, it went downhill a bit after David Coleman left. I have nothing against Sue Barker, Ally McCoist, Matt Dawson or Phil Tufnell, but it always felt a bit like it was trying hard to find the laughs, rather than letting them come naturally. It didn't have to be hilarious, just pleasant and agreeable.
Yes, my sentiments exactly. Although perhaps the laugh chasing just seems more obvious when you’re not a child anymore?
There’s got to be space for serious quizzes where knowledge is the prize and they don’t feel the need to be funny. What have we got at the moment?
Only Connect Mastermind University Challenge
I like OC but Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s opening & closing monologues are so unfunny it hurts. I can barely believe they make it past the editors
Any non Beeb serous quizzes?
Actually, I love VCM's humour, particularly her opening and closing monologues. My biggest issue with OC is occasionally there are teams so irritating you can't stand having them on your screen. Though most are entirely agreeable. I quite like a comedy quiz, and I quite like a serious serious quiz, and I quite like a serious but light-hearted quiz (like AQOS was in my youth). There's room for all of them. God knows there's enough airtime to fill nowadays.
Anyone who has used South Western Failway recently would never be advocating privatisation.
I've generally found them to be fine. Not perfect by any means, but then again I remember British Rail.
The South West region wasn't too bad until 2017 then, inevitably, South West Trains were underbid for the franchise and the new company have trashed the services somewhat (presumably because they had impossible figures to hit). Even with SWT there was no long-term investment because... why would they if they're likely to be undercut on the next franchise bid?
Now whenever we go to London we drive 25 miles to Westbury rather than 5 miles to Gillingham, and get the GWR into Paddington. Cheaper, quicker, and generally more reliable.
I was going to Heathrow airport yesterday. They shuttled the passengers between two opposite trains three times. Then the 15 minute service took 30 minutes. I arrived at Heathrow nearly an hour later than expected.
A well-dressed man next to me spoke to his companion. "This country," he said. "I know," she said. "This country," he said. "Yes, I know," she said.
"This is another example of how it's in the bin. Nothing works," he said. "£40 to not get to the airport on time."
A couple of weeks ago, I had a sales manager in town from abroad. They were trying to get to midlands for a meeting with a potential supplier. Despite arriving at Kings Cross an hour early, all the trains that morning were cancelled. They ended up taking that and a few other calls that day from a hotel room in London. "What's the point?" They asked me. "You can't actually get anywhere in this country." They make a quarterly trip. They'll try again in Q1 2024. The tickets were >£300 for a day trip of <300 miles return. The company is fighting for a refund. They don't know when it will come. Until it does, they've ended up extended the train company a £300 loan for a sales call that will be delayed at least three months.
Finally, another colleague was recently in London and missed a meeting because of road traffic. They ended up paying £30 in cab fare to miss the meeting. "What's the point?" They asked after taking the call from a hotel lobby.
When I read productivity numbers, I think of all these delays. Doesn't seem to matter what it is. At the minimum, we pay premium prices to move around the country in hours, weeks, and months instead of minutes, hours, and days.</I>
These days I work on the basis that something I am relying on - train being on time, GP appointment, bins being emptied etc - will not be available when I need it. That way, if it happens seamlessly I get a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, pleasant surprises are few and far between but expecting the worse does stop you from tearing your hair out.
Getting a bit of a Labour's plan for government vibe.
If Wes doesn't continue with the Tories cutting out NHS waste bullshit, that will be a pleasant surprise.
Thought he was slightly below par this morning on Today to be honest. The idea that you fix the NHS's capacity problems by some of the non dom additional tax (which may or may not ever exist) was frankly ridiculous. It is less than 1% at a time when the NHS is subject to particular inflationary pressures. He really did not address the continuing problems with the junior doctors strike and their demands. He would not commit himself to what effect this additional capacity was likely to have on the waiting list.
It came across as well meaning but woolly. Or possibly realistic in acknowledging that not a lot was going to change. Take your pick.
If you go into politics (particularly Labour politics) with some idealism, the continual triangulating must get soul shrivelling. Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing etc.
Comments
There’s got to be space for serious quizzes where knowledge is the prize and they don’t feel the need to be funny. What have we got at the moment?
Only Connect
Mastermind
University Challenge
I like OC but Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s opening & closing monologues are so unfunny it hurts. I can barely believe they make it past the editors
Any non Beeb serous quizzes?
All he can do in the medium run is manage expectations and hope it can be run better for about the same cash. He is more or less saying that, or even less. I think he is right.
For departmental spending the above can be more or less repeated each time.
What is truly to be feared is another costly black swan or two. At this moment we are in a post-covid dull normal and are still borrowing £100bn+ a year AND paying £94 bn in interest. What happens if something like the financial crisis, Covid or big scale war or something unforeseen breaks out in the next year or two?
I quite like a comedy quiz, and I quite like a serious serious quiz, and I quite like a serious but light-hearted quiz (like AQOS was in my youth). There's room for all of them. God knows there's enough airtime to fill nowadays.
New Thread Part 2
Now whenever we go to London we drive 25 miles to Westbury rather than 5 miles to Gillingham, and get the GWR into Paddington. Cheaper, quicker, and generally more reliable.