Patients too ill for hospital?

Hospital managers have made the decision that hospitals are an unsuitable place for those suffering from certain viral infections this winter.

Cases of the winter vomiting bug on the island appear to be on the increase, which has lead to hospital managers making the decision to delay all non-urgent routine surgery.

Many appointments will carry on as normal, and those affected by the changes will be contacted by the hospital.

Families and friends of patients have been urged not visit their loved ones during this time, if they have been suffering from illness in the previous 48 hours.

Police on the Hunt for 'Flasher'.

Hampshire Police are looking for a suspected flasher in the Southampton area after a number of reported incidents.

The suspected ‘flasher’ is described as being White, in his early to late teens or early twenties, and of slim build with brown hair.

Four incidents have been confirmed in the Sholing area, but there are a number of other incidents which may be connected.

The first incident happened at around 3:20pm on August 28 in Sholing Valley. A 23-year old woman reported a man exposing himself and carrying out an indecent act.

The next known case happened at around 5.55pm on September 9. A 44-year-old woman saw a man exposing himself on three separate occasions in the Spring Road area.

Another incident was reported when a man was seen exposing himself to a 48-year old woman on October 31 in the Sholing Valley.

The final incident occurred on November 11 at around 3:25, when a 14-year-old boy walking through Millers Pond saw a man committing an indecent act.

People with any information which may be of any use to the case, are urged to contact PC Rachel Gallimore at the Public Protection Unit or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The Daily Star and Granny Sex; my reading for the last few weeks.

During the ‘news agenda’ module I’ve had the pleasure of reading the Daily Star aka ‘25p’ on a daily basis. Actually I’m lying already; I’ve bought it now and again because the paper barely differs from one day to the next. At times I’ve even questioned whether it’s worth the 25p that I have to fork out for it. The 0.25 pounds would have bought me 25 penny tubes on my way to school just a few months back!
However I felt inclined to buy it today as the main front page headline wasn’t about Jordan, who had dominated the front page for well over a week because of her return to the ‘I’m a Celebrity’ scene’. However there is no need to panic Britain, as normal service will be resumed tomorrow as she left the jungle today.

Arguably the most bearable part of the paper is that of the sports section, but after reading it in detail today I realised that even that was way lacking in terms of content. For example in the match report of the Stoke vs. Portsmouth game, a game which finished 1-0 I found no details of how the goal was scored. Apparently the goal was a product of a ‘late show’ by Ricardo Fuller. What does that even mean?

Reading the paper backwards I stumbled across the sex adverts section. The biggest advert in there was titled ‘Give it to Granny’ and I immediately wanted to turn the page and forget I ever found it. However I’ve learnt that as a Journalist it is vital to investigate things, so through gritted teeth I had a further look.
I found that out of 35 adverts, 9 of them were of the ‘Granny’ genre of sex chat. Take from that what you want, as I’d rather not comment on this particular topic any further. However I will say that I am confident that this isn’t the reason why readership of the Daily Star have increased by 20% in the last 12 months while all other newspapers are going bust. But I’m sure it’d be amusing to be proved wrong on this one!!

My old friend Rousseau and Romanticism

When I hear the word romanticism I immediately think of one man. And no it’s not Rousseau.
This all stems from A Level English Literature, when we had the privelege of studying ‘Lyrical Ballads’ by Wordsworth and Coleridge. My friend (who will remain unamed) claimed that just like the poets whose work we were studying, he was himself a traditional‘romantic’. This made me laugh at first, but I can see where he’s coming from in a way. He is forever talking about love, enjoys living a nice chilled out life of studying the arts, holidaying in Cornwall and smoking cannabis in the summer time. He also drives an original VW Beatle!
Hilariously the Rousseau lecture enabled me to draw upon even more comparisons to my pal. Rousseau gave each of his five children up for adoption, but strangely went on to write a book on how to educate children.
This strange hypocrisy is also shared by my friend, who frequently spoke about the importance of love, and the significance of losing ones virginity… before losing his own in a seedy brothel in Amsterdam. (Possibly a tragic case of choosing aesthetic over utilitarian standards...therefore romantic in a sense maybe?!!).

In fact I have seen arguments amongst this friend and another, which resemble a modern day battle between John Locke and Rousseau!
Locke, a man who strongly believed in the ‘state of nature’, and the importance of property reminds me very much of a chap who used to throw very frequent house parties. These parties would often come to an abrupt end because of damage or disrespect to ‘his property’. This would often lead to guests like my Beatle driving mate saying things like ‘The Earth belongs to no-one man’ before passionately kissing the sister of the host. This is exactly how I’d expect a man like Rousseau to react to such Locke-like hostility!
All of the above is of course strictly comment, and therefore technically bullshit. However Rousseau did direct the following quote at Locke when he said that 'Taking men as they are and laws as they might be' was an important factor in life.

Journalism Now

Rupert Murdoch and The Sun

 

Rupert Murdoch is an Australian born American, who owns a number of the world’s top media outlets. Murdoch, who is the 132^nd richest person in the world bought ‘The Sun’ newspaper in 1969.  He transformed The Sun into a red top tabloid, which was, and still is primarily aimed at the working class.

 The common formula in the early days was ‘Sensation, Sex and Sport’, under the editorship of Larry Lamb. This shocked the nation at first, particularly with the inclusion of topless models in the paper; but sales of the tabloid soared.

 On taking over the paper, Murdoch was quoted as saying that he would publish a 'straightforward, honest paper’.

However, The Sun has always carried an obvious media bias in terms of politics. In 2007 Murdoch was quoted as saying he considered himself to be a traditional proprietor, which means that he has control over which political party The Sun backs, as well as other major issues.

Initially, the tabloid supported the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and the Conservative party. In the late nineties Murdoch and The Sun infamously changed their allegiance to the Labour party ahead of the 1997 general election. However, in 2009 Murdoch, once again changed back to the Conservative party, who are currently favourites for the next general election. Many people believe that Murdoch plainly supports the party which looks most likely to win, as this gives him the chance to influence government policies. 

 There have been six editors during Murdoch’s reign as owner of the paper. The longest serving and arguably most controversial was Kelvin MacKenzie, who was appointed in 1981 and held the post until 1994.  During this time The Sun became established as the nation’s best selling newspaper. However this was also arguably the most controversial era of The Sun under Murdoch’s ownership. MacKenzie was held responsible for some of the most shocking and damaging Sun stories. One of the most controversial  stories was run by MacKenzie at the beginning of the Falklands war, when the General Belgrano was torpedoed by British troops. ‘Gotcha’ was the headline in the first edition which caused great controversy, as it was understood that the attack on the ship was unlawful, which made the headline all the more insensitive. However in ‘Stick It Up Your Punter’ a book which labels itself the 'Uncut story of the Sun newspaper' stated that when questioned about the headline, Murdoch remarked; ‘I rather like it’.

The most damaging times during Murdoch’s reign was the coverage of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster in 1989. MacKenzie ran a story headlined ‘The Truth’, and gave a highly controversial account of what happened, with little of what was written based on fact. The story caused uproar, and was considered completely inaccurate by both the government inquiry as well as the Press Council. Murdoch later ordered Mackenzie to apologise live on national radio. He was encouraged to leave his post five years later by Murdoch and there have been four other editors since his departure.

 Rupert Murdoch has successfully used The Sun to help him dominate the world of media, as it has given him the platform to have an impact on the world of British politics. 

 

 References

-wikipedia.com

-BBC News archive at bbcnews.co.uk

- ‘Stick It Up Your Punter’ by Peter Chippingdale and Chris Horrie

- thesun.co.uk

The Sun is barking mad.

The experts can say what they want about The Sun. One might even liken it to takeaway food. Despite this though I often open up the pages, and it makes me smile, just like I smile when open up a Pizza box or a kebab container. This story though made me smile like I do when i have an Indian takeaway!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2686792/Roy-Keanes-barking-dogs-keep-neighbours-awake.html

However I'm not convinced by the accuracy of the piece, largely because I don't think anyone in Aldeburgh reads this particular red-top, and thus wouldn't make the complaint to the Sun. Infact the residents are probably too busy looking down on people to have time to look down at newspapers at all.

A typical conversation with a Sun reader.

After todays 'Precison English' lesson with Mr Mole, I have decided it would be appropriate to keep this blog post to the point.


My Mother phoned me this evening, and asked if my Journalism Tutor was on the One Show this evening.

I replied: yes it was the gentleman criticising the Sun
Mum: So he was the one criticising the Page 3?
Me: yeah..thats him
Mum: Is he gay then?

I may be in trouble now, because I have no record of this conversation due to my lack of shortand!