No, it isn't entertainment
It's been a long, slow grind of a test
match day.
Joe Root “we've played good cricket
today” and Nasser Hussain “a day for the purists” are right.
Anyone nagging on about slow scoring
rates and claiming a lack of entertainment is wrong. Sport has
elements of entertainment, elements of business, elements of lots of
things, but, ultimately, it is about competition and about winning.
If that means winning through strangulation at the expense of
entertaining cricket, then good stuff guys, do whatever it takes and
send them home empty-handed.
Alan Sugar says business, Elton John
says entertainment. Players know. Winning is everything. Win ugly
beats lose pretty. Every time. Every player and fan knows, there's no
guaranteed outcomes, no money back for a dull draw that's just
enough, it's a season ticket, not a flatscreen television.
Talking of failing to entertain
The student loans timewasters continue
to waste everyone's time. BLISS had a telephone conversation along
these lines:
“Name” she gave her name. “Address”
she gave that, too. “National insurance number” (this is the
point at which I reply “I don't know, but you ought to have it
there, on your government network) she knows hers. “Mother's maiden
name, inside leg measurement and last school attended”. Well
probably not exactly that, but something along those lines.
BLISS duly went through all the
rigmarole, only to be asked: “password?”.
She didn't know that. Rendering all the
preceding interrogation redundant. A total waste of everyone's time.
If you'll bear with me, a short aside.
An old mate, Biscuit Bob1,
applied for a bus driver's job and attended the first of a two-day
process during which they did driving tests, maths tests, interviews,
all manner of things that, given time and effort, an unsuccessful
candidate could work on, and improve to an acceptable standard. On
the second day they got the tape measure out. “Too short” they
said and sent him on his way. The obvious question is...
...if the whole process hinges on the
password, you government dunce, why go through all the other crap
first? In order to deliberately waste people's time? For no reason
other than that's the order it's written on the cue-card on your
computer screen? If that's the case, then you are replaceable with an
automated system, and the taxpayer wishes you a speedy goodbye.
As with all government departments, the
incomprehensible ineptitude crosses the border to vindictiveness. You
dare to question us? Not with wasting half your life on hold and the
other half talking to special needs chimps sat in front of dumb
(literally as well as jargonistically) terminals.
As sad as going through this purgatory
this year, is knowing that the same bureaucratic treacle was
navigated last year. Sadder still is knowing that it will have to be
waded through again next year.
I refuse to talk to HMRC until their
complaint line obtains an operator, and does not loop back to the
original unanswered line you are calling to complain about. Given a
feedback form, and working on the basis that there's little point
drilling down to the detail until the principles are established, the
only sensible response is: “utter, unadulterated, aggressive,
bullying, garbage service, and not a hint of any will, let alone
effort, to improve matters”.
1He
lost his hair early. Male pattern baldness. Garibaldi with the
emphasis on the 'baldy' = biscuit.
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