A few scattered thoughts
May. 26th, 2009 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brightlywoven* I saw a BNP 'party political announcement' on the BBC today. I need eyebleach.
* I recently took part in some 'market research.' After 20 minutes of questions (during which time my cookies burned) the questioner took some demographic data. Was I married? Renting or Owning? Income? What was my position in the household? This last I asked her to define. It was a choice of 'head of the household', 'housewife/husband' or 'other adult'. Well, I said, as chief wage earner, that would be number one. Apparently not. I could only be 'head of the household' if I was the chief wage earner AND male. I get to be 'other adult'.
Huh? Turns out this definition came from the office of national statistics, although they at least had the grace to update it in 2001. Seriously, England is somewhat backwards at times.
* So much of the commentary around the resignation of the latest Oxford Prof of Poetry pisses me off. Some git on the radio this morning smarming on about how 'it would have been nice to have a woman in the position if only she had won in fair and open election'. Subtext the first - one woman's misdeeds are of course carried by the whole gender, and women are always representing their whole gender. Subtext the second - women don't really win in fair and open competitions, do they?
* I do really loathe it when people bleat on about the expenses scandal in a manner that clearly says 'it's not fair because I never got to clean up like that'. On the other hand, as I drive my hundred mile round trip to work, I do ponder on the fact that I am deemed to live 'too close' to my workplace to be eligible for travel expenses. (Bearing in mind that junior doctors will on average work in a different hospital every year even if they don't change employer, and if they have families/partners with jobs, are unlikely to be able to relocate every time their job moves.) Oh, and on the fact that if I decide NOT to drive home and back in the 10 hours between my shifts, I will be charged £20 to spend the night in a single bed in a room with a concrete floor.
* I recently took part in some 'market research.' After 20 minutes of questions (during which time my cookies burned) the questioner took some demographic data. Was I married? Renting or Owning? Income? What was my position in the household? This last I asked her to define. It was a choice of 'head of the household', 'housewife/husband' or 'other adult'. Well, I said, as chief wage earner, that would be number one. Apparently not. I could only be 'head of the household' if I was the chief wage earner AND male. I get to be 'other adult'.
Huh? Turns out this definition came from the office of national statistics, although they at least had the grace to update it in 2001. Seriously, England is somewhat backwards at times.
* So much of the commentary around the resignation of the latest Oxford Prof of Poetry pisses me off. Some git on the radio this morning smarming on about how 'it would have been nice to have a woman in the position if only she had won in fair and open election'. Subtext the first - one woman's misdeeds are of course carried by the whole gender, and women are always representing their whole gender. Subtext the second - women don't really win in fair and open competitions, do they?
* I do really loathe it when people bleat on about the expenses scandal in a manner that clearly says 'it's not fair because I never got to clean up like that'. On the other hand, as I drive my hundred mile round trip to work, I do ponder on the fact that I am deemed to live 'too close' to my workplace to be eligible for travel expenses. (Bearing in mind that junior doctors will on average work in a different hospital every year even if they don't change employer, and if they have families/partners with jobs, are unlikely to be able to relocate every time their job moves.) Oh, and on the fact that if I decide NOT to drive home and back in the 10 hours between my shifts, I will be charged £20 to spend the night in a single bed in a room with a concrete floor.