Downing Street have issued a non-response to a petition calling on them to prevent GP surgeries from using expensive, revenue-generating 084 and 087 phone numbers.
The government has said that the patient shouldn't be expected to pay more than a local call but companies have traditionally lied/manipulated their way around this using the vague definition of what constitutes a local call charge (something I've discussed previously).
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Caution: Massive vent ahead!
Sorry, this is not going to be an in-depth political analysis like some of Michael's posts (though in-depth it will be - be warned), but I had to laugh at this. Peter Robinson has announced that the Northern Ireland administration "are introducing a single number for accessing government services in Northern Ireland" to "make it easier for the public to contact government and obtain a better service".
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the idea of making government services accessible. It's just that sticking an automated operator ("Press 1 for DoE" etc.) won't do much. You see, the main thing preventing easy access to government services is not having to look up a phone number in the phone book or online, it's the fact that the places are never bloody open!...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/14/inaccessible_governmentCaution: Massive vent ahead!
Sorry, this is not going to be an in-depth political analysis like some of Michael's posts (though in-depth it will be - be warned), but I had to laugh at this. Peter Robinson has announced that the Northern Ireland administration "are introducing a single number for accessing government services in Northern Ireland" to "make it easier for the public to contact government and obtain a better service".
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the idea of making government services accessible. It's just that sticking an automated operator ("Press 1 for DoE" etc.) won't do much. You see, the main thing preventing easy access to government services is not having to look up a phone number...
It's been in the pipeline for what seems like years, but 03 numbers have finally launched. "So what?" I can already hear you say.
It might not seem that important, but 0844/0845 "local rate", 0870 "national rate" and more expensive 0871 numbers have been getting my goat for some time now. You've all seen them, practically all big companies use them. So why are they so bad? Because 0845/0870 numbers haven't been "local rate" or "national rate" for years now.
Just another consumer rip-off
Officially charges for 0845 and 0870 numbers are pegged to BT's standard rate, but BT's "standard" tariff was abolished in 2004. Since then, the de facto standard BT rate for local/national calls was 6p for up to an hour in the evenings and at weekends and 3p/min during weekdays. 0870 numbers on the...
Is it time crusty students got over the Che Guevara obsession?
Well it's the time of year again when fresh-faced first-year students arrive for their first taste of freedom and a diet of fast food. One feature present each and every year amongst the great unwashed masses that constitute the student population (besides hordes upon hordes of culchies) is an enormous number of armchair socialists clad in T-shirts featuring that iconic image of Che Guevara and this year seems to be no exception.
Really now, this has got to stop; mainly because most of those clad in the T-shirts are idiots who probably know less about Che Guevara than I do.
=> Read...
On my post on Getting Women Into Politics on Thursday I made reference to "some doll from the women's coalition." It seems my sense of humour may have been out of sync with some of my readers on this one so for the sake of clarity I began hunting the web for a definion of 'irony' and lo and behold Wikipedia led me to this explanation. It's a belter.
The relevant part runs from 30 seconds in until the end of the...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/04/01/soldiers_leaving_crossmaglen_holding_heaIt was funny to watch republicans reach near orgasm over the withdrawal of the army from Crossmaglen following a job well done. Yesterday the last soldiers left the village Possibly the most amusing thing was the placard carried by some of the terrorist supporting rabble. "Intimidation, torture, murder" in capital letters adorned the middle. Ironically, that's exactly why the army came in - to put an end to the IRA's campaign of, you guessed it, intimidation, torture and murder.
Now seems an appropriate time to thank all the soldiers who served here over the decades of the troubles, doing a difficult and often thankless job in even more difficult circumstances. I'm not...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/03/23/irish_america_it_must_seem_so_romanticGetting it so unbelievably wrong for decades... and still going strong
According to a report in the Belfast Telegraph the Oirish-Americans of Boston who provided the guns and ammunition used in the slaughter of innocent Ulsterfolk seem to remain an ignorant bigoted old bunch; probably even more so than the people who actually live in Northern Ireland. I don't know if they buy the propaganda through laziness or sheer stupidity, but lets look at a few quotes from people the Tele says "never viewed unionists as the enemy."
Joe Dillon, who promoted "the cause" for decades in the US, seems to hark back through rose-tinted glasses for the days of slaughter and mayhem, of civilians...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/03/04/why_ireland_is_divided
Yesterday an American visitor going under the pseudonym Eireann posted a comment on another thread asking a few questions about Ireland. Specifically, he/she was having trouble with the concept of why Ireland was divided and why we couldn't all just unite and live happily ever after. It was difficult to know where to start, and definitely beyond the remit of a follow-up comment on a more-or-less unrelated thread, nevertheless I set about formulating some sort of response.
It's not easy to try and explain the logic behind Northern Ireland (never mind the centuries preceding its existence) and unionism to outsiders, most of whom are familiar with the lovey-dovey dreams of republicans to...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/02/16/northern_ireland_gas_rip_off I’ve already discussed the rip-off charges imposed on Northern Irish customers trying to order PC components over the internet, but today seems an opportune momoent to highlight an even more reprehensible Northern Ireland consumer extortion – Phoenix Gas.
Last year Phoneix Gas increased their prices by 52% in just four months, blaming the rising cost of wholesale gas (which doesn’t explain why this made gas in Northern Ireland two-thirds more expensive than in England, but that’s another issue… maybe). Anyway, in recent months the wholesale price of gas has fallen by between 50% and 60%. On the mainland, last week British Gas announced price-cuts of a...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/02/11/is_ulster_the_most_backward_place_on_earth An admittedly rather simplistic (and/or misleading, depending on your viewpoint) University of Ulster study that denounced Northern Ireland as the “bigotry capital of the world” (reported at Slugger on Friday) and reminded me of some of the other rather neanderthal crap that comes out of people in Northern Ireland: from the minister who thinks Harry Potter is a dangerous “cult” to the supposed statesman who thinks the abduction and murder of a mother is “not a crime”. Let’s not also forget that Northern Ireland has a potential First Minister in Ian Paisely who thinks that “Line dancing is as sinful as any other type of...
Could a healthy dose of violence be good for Belfast?
It’s obvious really. Too much time and energy in this country is wasted on politics, on sectarianism and on mindless thuggery and petty crime. The solution?
I think Belfast needs a healthy dose of competitive violence; not the kind where you go out and throw hard, heavy objects at your neighbours and/or the police. Belfast should have a Street Fighter tournament for all us 20-something old fogeys who whiled away many an hour beating the crap out of each other on our old Super Nintendos and Sega Mega Drives. In fact, I spent most of my year in Upper 6th form challenging all-comers at Street Fighter II Turbo in the common room.
If you’re too old or too young to remember, Street Fighter was one of the most important...
When even the shared symbol of the Red Hand upsets at least one bigot, is it any wonder we get divided over terminology?
There seems to be some disagreement over what exactly constitutes Ulster and when it is and isn’t appropriate to use the term. Indeed when I first mentioned this site (actually the gift shop) to a friend, she immediately declared that I’d “only get uber-loyalists” (or words to that effect), to which I initial reaction was “Why?”
Unionists tend to use the term Ulster to refer to Northern Ireland, either as a convenient short-form, or to highlight a certain continuity of identity that goes back to pre-partition (at the same time, perhaps, implying that Ulster lost Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal in 1921). The reason from my own point...
It’s been a busy day for the DUP. They started the morning by lambasting Sinn Fein for boycotting a debate on law and order (a touch ironic given the desire Sinn Fein can’t wait to get their mits on devolved Policing & Justice powers) and finished it with Peter Robinson revealing that the party has begun consulting its grassroots over sharing executive power with Sinn Fein.
It’s all just so damn tedious and unbelievably predictable. Everything in Northern Irish politics just seems to take forever and I’m just getting really fed up now. We know the DUP will share power with Sinn Fein sooner or later, it’s just a question of when – and frankly, it’ll only be when the DUP are satisfied that they’re calling the shots by making the...
Over the years, I've bought numerous items from online mail order computer/electronics stores, and almost every time have been surprised by the high surcharge on deliveries to Northern Ireland (which can also render price comparison sites all but useless). Obviously as an outlying area extra costs may be incurred posting here but some of the charges are ridiculous. For example, I recently noticed one site, Novatech.com, where I spotted an item I'd been searching for for £4.50 and thought fantastic! Of course when it came time to checkout I was advised that I would pay nearly £16.50 to have that one little box delivered to Belfast. That's ok if you're spending a few hundred pounds, but when your delivery surcharge is more than the cost of the item(s), it's absurd.
There are...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2006/09/01/bending_over_backwards_to_encourage_obesityIt seems a fitting title in light of the recent hunger striker memorials; tonight I watched a documentary presented by overweight comedian Ricky Grover on BBC Three (part of their Body Image Season) entitled F*** off, I'm fat. Subtle, eh? The documentary team followed Mr Grover as he and some incredibly obese people complained about how hard it was being fat. The thing that tickled me most though, was the mention that in American (where, unsurprisingly, most of these studies are carried out) it's been estimated that on average a "seriously obese" person breaks 3 toilets a year.
Is this the future facade of public conveniences?
With the enterprising culture of the US,...
I've been saying from I began blogging just over a year ago that I'd like to see the Conservatives perform better in Northern Ireland elections, so you'd naturally expect that I'd be happy at the prospect of UUP members defecting to the Tories. Well you see it's not that simple. I like the Conservatives largely because I find the tribal politics here repetitive and unimaginative and frankly damaging to the country as a whole, but also because I generally feel more at home with their political views than any of the other real parties. That was true, at least, until Cameron took over the leadership.
It's not that I have anything against his highlighting green issues, heavens no! In fact the environment probably should be a higher priority for most of us than it is (particulary so, for...