No doubt some people think I should take the whole subject of CRB checks for those working with school children more seriously.
Sadly, the logical corollary to the new UK regulations will be to have the kids themselves checked, as is apparent from this piece from the BBC.
Potentially good news for all those Brits in Spain who are living in houses that were built without proper licences. The Reader (Almería-based English-language paper) tells us: Mayor of Zurgena and 24 more charged in urban corruption case.
An interesting language point from the story is the word prevaricación which although clearly connected to the English “prevarication” is not a direct translation.
Continue reading “crooked houses”
It’s always good to know that people have their priorities right. Sadly, I don’t think they often do.
Today, for example, there has to be something else happening in the news, but the only thing people seem to be interested in is the death of Michael Jackson.
Well, no. There is one thing that rates higher than the Jackson stories on the BBC website shared stories list:
So, what matters to you today?
I see from the Google UK page that today is the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens.
Today it costs £13 to get in. I nearly threw a wobbly at the price on my last visit (just over a year ago, when I took the photo) – the poor lad on the gate didn’t understand my objection, but then, he was too young to remember.
Continue reading “two hundred and fifty years”
Last week I received a writers’ newsletter with yet another warning of a new phishing scam. This scam asks for your bank details so tax owed to you can be paid in directly. One of the recipients responded saying that she didn’t see how people could still be fooled; hadn’t we had enough warnings?
Of course people will continue to be fooled by such things because they want to believe that they are going to get a windfall.
But why people fall for a story like this one about swine ‘flu and zombism, is a bit more complex. It’s a brilliantly done hoax, but there are any number of clues that let a careful reader identify it as just that: a hoax.
Continue reading “panics and pandemics”
don't confuse the narrator 