NORTHERN PLANNER

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Bossy Britain?

August 12, 2008

I’m sitting on a train en-route to London. Last time I mananged to swing first class, and demonstrated that I was anything but by trying to pay for the free tea, and after realising everything was gratis, troughed free sandwiches and made myself ever so slightly jittery after over-dosing on the caffeine in all the free tea and coffee I availed myself off. Anyway…………

It’s standard class today, which is fine. But then I hear the latest snippet of ”helpful information’ from the tannoy. "Please be careful when alighting from the train, as the heavy rain has made it slippery". Do I really need to be told this?

I’ll be merrily navigating the Tube in a bit, with the constant reminders to mind the gap, and the at some point, they’ve decided to inform you what station you’ll be approaching and what station you’ve just left, despite the perfectly brilliant Tupe map and line map that adorns each train.

Whenever we drive, they’ve taken it upon themselves to tell us to slow down, despite the fact we all know the speed limit, to take a break when we’re tired, to think don’t phone.

How did this happen? When did we become a nation that needed it’s little hand held wherever it went? How did we agree to be pelted with useless intruction? To be bossed and cajoled wherever we went?

Of course, having reached the venerable age of 34, you may be justified in accusing me of descending into grumpy old man territory, but this really does feel like a cultural phenomon the right brand could get its teeth into.

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10 responses to “Bossy Britain?”

lauren

August 12, 2008

you should try living in australia love – we’re officially a nanny state!

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John Dodds

August 12, 2008

I agree in general but the rain announcement is no doubt aimed at northerners awed by the glory of the capital who may consequently not be paying full attention to the smooth Italian marble pavements.

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Rob @ Cynic

August 12, 2008

Trains? First Class?
Call yourself a Northerner.
Pah … you should be walking there, not catching that fancy-pants transport.

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jabster

August 12, 2008

“Please be careful when alighting from the train, as the heavy rain has made it slippery”. Do I really need to be told this?”
No YOU don’t, but it may be handy for a blind person. They’re also the ones whom the…
“perfectly brilliant *Tupe map and line map that adorns each train”
… is perfectly useless to. Which may be why the Underground “decided to inform you what station you’ll be approaching and what station you’ve just left”
Little insight for you there.
Right. I’m off to have a hissy fit.
*Come to think of it, I have never seen a Tupe (sic) map. And I’m not even blind. Which is a bit of a worry.

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jabster

August 12, 2008

“Please be careful when alighting from the train, as the heavy rain has made it slippery”. Do I really need to be told this?”
No YOU don’t, but it may be handy for a blind person. They’re also the ones whom the…
“perfectly brilliant *Tupe map and line map that adorns each train”
… is perfectly useless to. Which may be why the Underground “decided to inform you what station you’ll be approaching and what station you’ve just left”
Little insight for you there.
Right. I’m off to have a hissy fit.
*Come to think of it, I have never seen a Tupe (sic) map. And I’m not even blind. Which is a bit of a worry.

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nubbin

August 12, 2008

Jabster. They’ve lost a lot of good writers recently. I think that may explain why these posts make little sense.
And going by the tone of the last post (which I see has now been deleted) who can blame them for leaving. The only tension between creatives and planning is when the latter blows smoke up the arse of the former.
Save your bullshit for your clients.

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northern

August 12, 2008

Hello Jabster. I’m presuming you’re new to this blog or you wouldn’t bother correcting spelling mistakes, it’s endemic as Mr Campbell will confirm, gleefully.
Thanks for your comment though, you must feel strongly, you posted it twice, or maybe it isn’t just me who’s a little error prone online.
Thankyou for the insight in any case, but I do feel the thrust of the post sort of stands, we are all far more micro managed than ever before.
And thankyou for the commenton the posts about creatives and being different. I do wish you had taken it in the spirit it was meant – those observations were meant to be a cliche, my point was about celebrating that we’re all different, and everyone contributes to the end result. But since it looks like it’s been taken the wrong way, best just to delete it.
Do stop by again, constructive feedback is always welcome.
And Mr Harwood Matthews, you’re meant to be on holiday…

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northern

August 12, 2008

Hello nubbin. Thanks for joining in. You’ll see an explanation for the deletion in another post.
However, I’ll thankyou for not swearing on this blog, or getting personal about my agency. This is my blog, not theirs.
And by the way, tension between departments is good, there’s little point everyone agreeing, or doing the same thing. Things evolve quicker out of debate and conflict. Which was kind of the point of the post that was deleted, put very badly so it seems.

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Jabster

August 12, 2008

Howdy Northern.
How exciting.
Sorry if I took the ‘Creatives really wind me up’ post the wrong the way. Misread the signs.
And of course clichés are generally true. Creatives can be temperamental – it’s the marker pen fumes. And the drink.
An agency is indeedy only the sum of its parts, and yes we should celebrate ALL departments. Thing is, creatives are very good at celebrating themselves. It’s what creatives do – film, TV, theatre, art, lit, there’s awards all over the place. I guess it’s because creative endeavours don’t have too much of a command on society’s preferred method of recognition, £dosh£. That and because creative types are generally a bit wet, neurotic, and child-like so need a reassuring cuddle now and again (though I’d rather have the cash meself)
Anyway, hope you took my retort in the spirit it was meant – nice inter-dept banter. As you say, tension between depts is a good thing. So is debate. Not sure about censorship though. But yes, seems we are all micro/ macro/ meccano managed more than ever.
And I’m glad we can all be above the bored on spelling and typos and things to. Because as a dyslexic scriber, it takes me flepping ages to spell check and pour over me stuff. Nice to find a place I can relax and just hit thr post button whatever…even if I do end up hitting it twice.
Plan nicely now.
J

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Andrea

August 21, 2008

I wonder the same sometimes, last thing I saw was some road works sign that said ‘when red light shows, stop here’ – reaaaaaaaaaaaaally? The trains aren’t that bad when it comes to platforms being slippery or other things. And fun part is, the people who need to hear it obviously don’t. Oh well.

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