In the headlines tonight...

[David]

It's changed now, but the headline on a story on the BBC News site earlier was "New Blue Peter Presenter Named After Viewer Vote."  Turns out the new presenter had been announced, but it sounded like this was a new twist on the old viewer votes for naming the Blue Peter pets.  I would have quite liked a new presenter to be contractually obliged to change their name to Smudge or Fluffkins.

[megustaleer]

It's changed now, but the headline on a story on the BBC News site earlier was "New Blue Peter Presenter Named After Viewer Vote."  Turns out the new presenter had been announced, but it sounded like this was a new twist on the old viewer votes for naming the Blue Peter pets.  I would have quite liked a new presenter to be contractually obliged to change their name to Smudge or Fluffkins.

[Minxminnie]

Payday loans may well be the only thing that some low paid people can get and honestly think that they can repay.

I was wary of coming across as lofty or judgemental in my post - I know that these companies are ripping off very vulnerable people. That's why I think they should be more closely regulated. They dangle easy money in front of people and make them feel as if it's ok, that everyone else is doing it, and they're not obliged to check that people can afford to repay.

 

There are cases of people with learning difficulties or mental health problems taking out these loans. It's all so irresponsible.

[iff]

It's changed now, but the headline on a story on the BBC News site earlier was "New Blue Peter Presenter Named After Viewer Vote."  Turns out the new presenter had been announced, but it sounded like this was a new twist on the old viewer votes for naming the Blue Peter pets.  I would have quite liked a new presenter to be contractually obliged to change their name to Smudge or Fluffkins.

 

the reason the presenter had to agree to being named by the viewers was that they had taken out some payday loans that just accumulated when they couldn't pay them back.

 

poor fluffkins

Edited July 26, 2013 by iff

[megustaleer]

the reason the presenter had to agree to being named by the viewers was that they had taken out some payday loans that just accumulated when they couldn't pay them back.

 

poor fluffkins

[Cassie]

I was reasonably impressed with Welby on This Morning on Radio 4, never thought a cleric could do that to me! I don't think he mentioned god once! However he did make sense, as well as being highly embarrassed about his church's connection with Wonga. I grew up with Credit Unions, my parents always kept some savings there as their money was helping the local community. I have always been surprised that they weren't more common in the UK.

[David]

the reason the presenter had to agree to being named by the viewers was that they had taken out some payday loans that just accumulated when they couldn't pay them back.

 

poor fluffkins

 

[lunababymoonchild]

I was wary of coming across as lofty or judgemental in my post - I know that these companies are ripping off very vulnerable people. That's why I think they should be more closely regulated. They dangle easy money in front of people and make them feel as if it's ok, that everyone else is doing it, and they're not obliged to check that people can afford to repay.

 

There are cases of people with learning difficulties or mental health problems taking out these loans. It's all so irresponsible.

 

I certainly did not mean to accuse you and am no fan of payday loan companies, which are legal loan sharks as far as I'm concerned.  I just think that it's not a simple problem and that perhaps if we fixed the low pay, cuts in benefits (and no, I don't think that people should get to live on £26,000 a year at taxpayer's expense), and reduced (somehow) the cost of living, that the payday loans won't be necessary and they'll go out of business by themselves.  It is easier to regulate though and I believe that Glasgow City Council are already taking steps to do so.

[Hazel]

So away for a week and the news is:

 

Royal Baby George - lovely news, don't like the name (wish they had gone for a more modern name - not Tyler or Jaxsan ... obviously).

 

Spanish Rail Crash - horrifying.

 

Wonga Church - shock! horror! Church involved in scandal! Not really news but I hate payday loan companies and agree with the Church's (good) intentions.

 

Stuart Hall - well deserved doubling of sentence. Only wish it could have been more.

[Minxminnie]

I certainly did not mean to accuse you and am no fan of payday loan companies, which are legal loan sharks as far as I'm concerned.

No, luna, I didn't mean to suggest that: I just thought I sounded a bit haughty in my original comment!

I know it's easy to judge when you're not in the situation.

[David]

Someone didn't think things through in the LG marketing department - Promotion Goes Wrong.

 

"People arrived with BB guns and knives on sticks for a race to grab smartphone vouchers hanging from helium balloons."

 

Yeah, that was always going to end well...

[iff]

It's changed now, but the headline on a story on the BBC News site earlier was "New Blue Peter Presenter Named After Viewer Vote."  Turns out the new presenter had been announced, but it sounded like this was a new twist on the old viewer votes for naming the Blue Peter pets.  I would have quite liked a new presenter to be contractually obliged to change their name to Smudge or Fluffkins.

 

this becomes partly reality for a soccer team

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/humble-farnborough-fc-now-power-ed-by-a-list-of-football-s-all-time-greats-1.1493196

 

 

 

Seeking publicity

Some accused Paddy Power yesterday of seeking publicity – which, bizarrely, some have provided by writing about the story – when they announced that “every player in the first team squad of Farnborough FC has changed their name by deed poll to that of a legendary footballer in their respective position”.

[waawo]

Some accused Paddy Power yesterday of seeking publicity – which, bizarrely, some have provided by writing about the story – when they announced that “every player in the first team squad of Farnborough FC has changed their name by deed poll to that of a legendary footballer in their respective position”.

 

Some people think changes to the law that make changing your name easier might have gone a little too far ;-)

[lunababymoonchild]

Not what you could call a headline but it's something that I find interesting.

 

Especially "The Scottish Maritime Museum and Historic Scotland supported the vessel's export to Australia, dismissing plans by Scarf to move the ship to Wearside as "not technically feasible or properly costed"". But she CAN go to Australia. Brilliant. :-)

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-23975347

Edited September 7, 2013 by lunababymoonchild

[David]

I love an owl with a healthy sense of mischief...

[momac]

I love an owl with a healthy sense of mischief...

 

Good one David, people never cease to amaze!  

[MarkC]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/speedway/24412504

 

Britain has its first Speedway GP world champion in 13 years.  Well done to Tai Woffinden.  I was watching the final round on Eurosport on Saturday evening cheering him on from my sofa

[iff]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/06/coconut-detained-maldives-vote-rigging

 

from last month, there was a story about the maldives police arresting a coconut in relation to vote rigging

 

i'm just thinking that 2 officers in the maldives police department had this conversation

 

officer 1: i'm bored.

officer 2: we could play a prank.

officer 1: oh, who'll be our target

officer 2: lets see if we make up a ridiculous unbelievable story and issue a press release to see if anyone in the foreign press will report on the story.

officer 1`: we'll say we arrested a coconut.

officer 2: i honestly don't think they'll fall for that but hey lets see.

[iff]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/uk-politics-video/10367227/Owen-Paterson-accuses-badgers-of-moving-goalposts.html

 

this just makes me laugh

 

Appearing on the BBC's Spotlight programme in the West Country, Mr Paterson was asked whether he was "moving the goalposts" over the badger cull.

 

The minister replied: "That's not right, the badgers have moved the goalposts."

really,, it is the badgers fault?

[Minxminnie]

Is anyone as fascinated as I am by the missing Malaysian aircraft?

 

I decided to do a creative writing exercise with my first year: they had to be one of the passengers who turned up safe and well, and tell the story of what happened. They came up with lovely imaginative ideas, of having found Atlantis or defeated hijackers.

 

But that got us checking the news and watching the story unfold, and now I am slightly obsessed. Does anyone have any theories?

[lunababymoonchild]

No, but I am surprised nobody's mentioned the Bermuda Triangle. 

 

I don't understand what threatening hunger strike is going to achieve, though. 

 

It's like an episode of Lost.

[megustaleer]

This explanation seems plausible,  - but there must be a flaw or the airline would have considered it

[Binker]

I'm interested and my daughter--not currently a brave flier--is riveted.  My current, mutually-exclusive theories in order of likelihood (to me):

 

1.   It accidentally crashed into the ocean somewhere that has not yet been searched.  There's a lot of unsearched ocean.

 

2.   It landed in western China, but I'm not sure why and don't feel very sanguine about the fate of the passengers.

 

3.  Someone actually knows, but doesn't want to admit it because they would have to reveal the existence of spy satellites that they don't want to talk about.  I have heard this theory (U.S. spy satellites; don't want to tell China).  

 

4.   It invaded someone's airspace (China) and was shot down and now they don't want to admit it.

 

5.   It landed near that Andaman Island where all visitors are immediately killed, although I think 239 people would be a lot for them to manage in one fell swoop.  Okay, that's probably making light of a very serious situation, so I'm sorry about that.  But I won't delete it.

 

Meg:  that theory is sweeping the internet here, but it apparently doesn't explain everything.

[grasshopper]

I'm very interested and so sorry for the relatives of the passengers having no idea of what happened and grasping at any straw.  Here are my most probable choices of why it is lost -

 

1. I suspect  it is at the bottom of the ocean by now, but wonder if, when  it turned it was because of a hi-jack move, but passengers resisted and all went out of control.

 

2. They have crashed on one of the 572 of the Andaman islands and it is either uninhabited or sparsely so.

 

3.  Someone knows more than they are telling, but like Binker suggests in 3 above they will never admit to knowing.  This is possibly why the relatives are threatening hunger strike, but that is not going to help at all.

[cherrypie]

Like Luna the Bermuda Triangle (which as RG suggested would have to have mysteriously shifted to South East Asia) theory had crossed my mind however unlikely. RG has expressed surprise that the usual bunch of "wack-jobs" have not been to the fore with a theory of "alien abduction"!

 

Just how do you lose a Boeing 777, it is not like you have just misplaced your car keys?

 

Despite all theories being proposed I suspect that the plane itself is somewhere under the ocean and the sooner that the wreckage is found the better for the sake of all those waiting to learn of the fate of their loved ones. The not knowing must be unbearable and in the same situation I am sure that I would want to know one way or another even if bad news.