Mike Southby

It would seem that manufacturers are not happy any more simply selling you a product; instead they engineer in ways to try and retain your business and force you into buying their own brand consumables and/or replacement parts.  In fairness, this makes for good business practice but for the cost conscious consumer, it’s not exactly good news.  It wasn’t so long ago that I wrote a blog post regarding Lenovo and batteries.  The Lenovo software will constantly remind you that you do not have a genuine battery if you replace yours with an aftermarket model and at the most inappropriate moment, redirect you to one of their sales sites in the hope that you will buy another genuine one.  In fact, they’ll even give you a warning that your laptop may spontaneously combust if you continue to use an aftermarket one; the fact they are made by the same manufacturer in the same factory has nothing to do with it of course, they simply want your money at their inflated prices.  It’s not just the once though, the pop ups and reminders happen time and time again.

We have an aging Canon MP140 Pixma inkjet printer.  In fairness it didn’t cost a lot and it doesn’t get much use but its ideal as a second printer for printing off draft copies of documents; of course it also acts as a scanner and photocopier which are useful features.  It was originally bought for printing photographs and actually for the cost, the results are quite impressive.  The problem comes when it’s time to replace the consumables, its astonishing the difference in price between a full set of genuine Canon ink cartridges and a set of cheap (refilled) aftermarket equivalents from the likes of ASDA or Tesco.  Of course this is all part of the master plan over at Canon (and in fairness, all the other printer manufacturers too; yes, I am referring to you Dell/Lexmark), you’re sold a relatively complex piece of kit that actually performs really well at a rock bottom price; the catch? Well the consumables are going to cost you more than the printer itself.

The printer will of course run perfectly well with non-genuine cartridges, however the printing software (both on your machine installed as part of the driver package and on the hardware controls on the printer itself) will refuse to acknowledge the presence of the new cartridges and will constantly remind you as with the Lenovo software above, that you are not using genuine Canon consumables.  In this case, every time you print you are told that your ink has run out which clearly is not the case.  It’s more frustrating than anything else, of course had I installed genuine Canon cartridges the ink level monitor would have automatically reset but now, no matter how many times I reinstall the cartridges or reset the printer; it simply keeps telling me I am out of ink even though they are new cartridges.  The same would be true if I had taken a set of empty genuine Canon cartridges to the likes of Cartridge World to be refilled; the printer is clever enough to recognise the exact cartridges and will remember that it has run out of ink.

Well I am sorry Canon; I will not be buying your cartridges because I know a way around this problem.  It’s actually quite simple all you need to do is perform a factory reset as would take place if you sent your printer back for service to fool the printer, then the levels reset and it is happy to use much cheaper, after-market consumables.

Just do the following:

• Disconnect the power supply to the printer by removing the power lead from the back
• Press and hold the Power Button whilst plugging the power lead back in, then whilst continuing to hold the button down press the Reset Button (the one with the red triangle inside the circle) twice
• Release the Power Button and after around 10 seconds the display will show ‘0’
• Press the + Button to change the value from ‘0’ to ‘1’
• Press the Colour Button; you’ll notice that both the A4 Plain Paper and A4 Photo Paper LEDs will now be on
• Make sure that there is some paper in the paper feeder
• Press the Power Button twice; the printer will now print some random information which you can discard
• Now open the printer cover (not the scanner cover) and remove the cartridges.  With the printer still open, remove the power lead from the back of the printer once again
• Close the printer cover
• Replace the power lead and press the Power Button to turn the printer back on
• Now replace the cartridges and the ink level monitor will be reset

It’s about time that manufacturers acknowledged that owing to their inflated prices buying genuine consumables are simply too prohibitive for a lot of people.  If they were to lower the cost (and let us be frank, does it really cost them that much to produce?) then I would not have an issue with them engineering in ways to try and manipulate you into buying their own consumables.  But if they insist on keeping their prices so high, stop the nagging; we aren’t fooled and we aren’t going to buy from you anyhow.  Remember a happy customer is a customer for life and above all else, the customer is always right!

I hope you find this useful.

As those of you who follow me on Twitter (@mikesouthby) will no doubt have noticed, I have been having some issues over the past month with my BT Broadband service. I’ve had BT Broadband for some time now and usually, it just works. Perhaps it’s not the cheapest solution, but having the convenience of simply having my usage charged directly to my BT account is convenient; and I’ve simply stuck with it. Of course another reason if the inclusion of the Home Hub for free which saves having to go out and purchase a router independently, the Home Hub itself isn’t a bad piece of kit and once you delve into the settings, can do most things; specification wise it even has 802.11n which is an added bonus for home networking.

The service until recently has been OK, being that I live close to my local Exchange (perhaps no more than 600m) I achieve a reasonable download speed of around 6.5Mbps off peak, although this does of course drop owing to contention during the busy periods. Recently however, the problems began.

I noticed around a month ago that randomly, my connection would disconnect and reconnect automatically, sometimes just the once and sometimes 3 or 4 times in a row. There is not particular pattern to when the problem occurs; sometimes it’s in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes in the middle of the night. At first I simply put it down to ‘one of those things’, I mean once it had reconnected the service was again stable and would resync at the same speed so no harm done. But after a few days the novelty soon wore off, especially as I am often working over a remote connection.

It was then that I started to make a few comments on Twitter and not long after, was contacted (via Twitter) by BT Care (@BTCare). Now before I go any further, let me just say that I think it’s great that a company like BT are moving with the times and communicating with their customers through modern channels such as Twitter, but as I have learnt over the last few weeks, they let themselves down miserably by not keeping me (or others like me) informed as to what is going on, or even more frustrating, give standard responses that in no way make any sense in relation to the thread of conversation that preceded; it’s almost as if they do not read all of the messages that you send, or that they do not have the ability to group them together into conversational threads and thus, making it easier for them to help.

Back to the problem.

After a few tweets to and fro, I was told that an engineer would need to visit my house to investigate the issue – I already had a good idea what the issue may be but understand that an engineer visit was required – and was given a PM slot on Tues 3rd August. Tuesday comes, Tuesday goes. No engineer arrives and the disconnect/reconnect cycles continue. So I contact BT Care again through Twitter:

• Me: (03/08 18:12) @BTCare Thanks for organising appt. just a shame no-one turned up. Wasted afternoon off work. Still, it’s only money hey? #frustrated
• Me: (03/08 20:06) @BTCare So no visit from engineer today as promised and connection still dropping. Please advise
• Me: (03/03 22:25) @BTCare More drops tonight guys, can this PLEASE be sorted
• BTCare: (04/03 12:27) @mikesouthby That’s not good. I have checked the fault today and another engineer visit is required. Can you tweet me when would be convenient

Another engineer visit is required? No mention of the one who never arrived funnily enough. Still, I need the issue resolved so again, say that I will make myself available at any time convenient for the next engineer to visit.

• Me: (04/03 12:48) @BTCare Another? What happened to the one who DIDN’T turn up yesterday? Again, I am flexible for rebooking.
• BTCare: (04/03 15:15) @mikesouthby I am really sorry the engineer didn’t show yesterday. When would be best for you for the visit. Let me know and I will get on it

Well, it’s good that I finally get an acknowledgement about the engineer not arriving, but surely if they had read my previous tweet they would have read that I am flexible for an appointment instead of having to ask again when I am available. Do they read all my tweets I wonder.

• Me: (04/03 15:25) @BTCare As mentioned in my tweet this morning, I am flexible so to suit
• BTCare: (04/03 15:45) @mikesouthby I have booked an engineer visit for tomorrow between 8am and 1pm. Drop me a tweet to let me know if this doesn’t suit
• Me: (04/03 18:23) @BTCare OK thanks, let’s hope they remember to come this time lol
• BTCare: (05/08 09:36) @mikesouthby I’m sure they will :) Keep me posted

So later on the 5th, a BT Openreach engineer arrives as promised. He asks me what the issue is and I explain it to him, I also say that I think it is most likely a dodgy leg on the line card (having worked on many ADSL installations, I have encountered this a few times); he agrees. However, to be sure he runs all of the various tests that he can on my installation and heads off to the Exchange satisfied that there are no issues here and that the line card is the most likely problem. We’d already discussed changing my routing and moving my connection onto another line card, he said that he would have to contact my provider (BT ironically, you’d have thought it would have been simple, left hand talking to right hand and all) from the Exchange and ask permission to move me. He says he’ll call me with the outcome. Back to Twitter:

• Me: (05/08 10:55) @BTCare Engineer has been, suspected line card issue, as thought. At Exchange now seeking permission to change routing from powers that be

A while later he calls and says that my provider would not allow him to move the connection but was already aware of my problem and had been monitoring the disconnections for a while (like no really, thanks, although I would have preferred you to have done something about it instead of just being ‘aware’ of it waiting to see if I would notice and complain), he went on to say that they would change the latency on my line and see if that made a difference, and would continue to monitor the line for a few days. Back to Twitter once more:

• Me: (05/08 12:08) @BTCare Update. Provider says no to change of routing, instead is reducing speed to compensate for drops. Not best outcome! Will monitor…

Sure enough, later that day during another disconnect and reconnect I notice that my latency changed from Fastpath to Interleaved.

The engineer says that there is nothing else he can do although we both ‘agree’ that changing to another line card would have been a better option; line cards do occasionally cause issues and moving connections onto another so it can be rebuilt is the right way to solve the problem. Let me try and explain it by using an analogy. Imagine driving down the road in your car and out of the blue the engine starts making noises; remembering that until that moment in time the car has been reliable, and hasn’t made any noises that it shouldn’t have done. You’re now faced with two options, you either get your car fixed (obviously the best choice as it shouldn’t be making noises) or alternatively, you overcome the problem by turning the stereo up so you can’t hear it anymore. Of course this essentially is what BT have done, changing the latency will have the effect of making the line less sensitive to error and – they were hoping – stop the disconnections.

Let me try and explain Latency for those who may not fully understand it. There are 2 types of error correction on ADSL; normal forward error correction or FEC, which is based on a set algorithm and Interleaving, which is set on longer lines (by distance) if the line has noise above a prerequisite level. Interleaving complements FEC. During showtime, Fastpath is up to level 2, anything required above level 2 to keep FEC working properly and interleaving will be applied automatically at varying levels up to level 32. High levels of interleaving plus the FEC can cause latency (decrease in speed), even though in theory this will only be in milliseconds.

On a long and/or noisy connection turning off Interleaving (or changing latency type to Fastpath) can cause disconnections. Frequent disconnections can result in the reduction of your IP Profile and throughput/download speeds.

In my case, I live what is deemed to be close to my Exchange (around 600m) and my house is less than 2 years old on one of the many new housing developments in North Swindon. The engineer who visited ironically said he remembered working on installing some of the copper in and around the estate, certainly he said I should have no distance or copper quality issues where I live. What does this prove? Well, coupled with the fact that until now I have had a fast, stable connection with latency set to Fastpath, it means that I should not need my latency changed to Interleave; the distance to the exchange is not long enough, the installation in my house is new enough and neither distance nor age should have a detrimental issue on my connection causing noise or error. The problem didn’t develop, it appeared overnight. In essence, it means that the ‘solution’ given to the engineer by the provider is like turning the stereo up in the example above. The proper solution would be to identify and remedy the problem; the most likely cause would be a developing fault on the line card.

So later that evening, the Twitter thread continues:

• Me: (05/08 19:08) @BTCare More drops. Latency has been changed from Fastpath to Interleaved this evening. Fixing, not overcoming would be preferred
• BTCare: (05/08 19:49) @mikesouthby Hi I checked with our suppliers and they have confirmed everything is now fixed. Tweet me to let me know if this is the case
• Me: (05/08 19:51) @BTCare Not so. Was told they would monitor and leave open. Also, line dropped 45mins ago! What time did they say it was resolved?

Next day and no response, this is where I found the lack of communication start to become frustrating. If a company is to use social media such as Twitter, then it has to do it correctly, not to do so will have a negative effect on what they are trying to achieve; it would have been quicker and less stressful to revert back to the old method at this stage and use the phone (well it is good to talk, right?)

• Me: (06/08 10:03) @BTCare More drops already this morning, and sluggish connectivity. Becoming more frustrating by the day #btbroadband #fail
• BTCare: (06/08 10:24) @mikesouthby Hmm strange, the fault has been closed & all looks good from this end. Are you still experiencing drop outs? Let me know

Evidently, they did not read my tweet less than 20 minutes previously where I clearly stated I was continuing to have issues.

• Me: (06/08 10:36) @BTCare Please READ my tweets before furnishing me with generic responses. If you had, you’d have read ‘more drops already this morning’…

I must have upset them at this stage as they chose to ignore me for the rest of the day. The random disconnections persist and using BTs own speed check test, I get random results, often dropping down as low as 0.69Mbps which on a line with a downstream sync of 8,128kbps is pretty poor. I get my next contact on Saturday morning, again via Twitter:

• BTCare: (07/08 09:54) @mikesouthby I have let the engineers know the problem still exits, updates to come, also if you haven’t used an i-plate,see tiny.cc/1zftp
• Me: (07/08 11:07) @BTCare No, not used an i-plate. Lots of drops today already
• BTCare: (07/08 13:58) @mikesouthby Hey, i tested it and seen the dropouts, i want to get an engineer out to look at it, when would be suitable?

I found this quite funny. So they test my line from their end and can clearly see all of the disconnections, would this not have been a good idea a few nights before when they were happy to close the case; surely it would have made sense to have run a quick check then to make sure for themselves that they were being given good information. Another engineer? I wonder if this one will arrive. Trying to remain positive, I again give them total flexibility in the dates so that I am not causing a delay by not being available.

• Me: (07/08 18:15) @BTCare Anytime I am flexible, just let me know
• Me: (07/08 19:09) @BTCare Can I pre-request a switch to another line card at the Exchange, I suspect this to be the issue. Perhaps it needs rebuilding…
• BTCare: (08/08 16:25) @mikesouthby Hi I have booked an engineer visit for tomorrow between 1 pm and 6 pm. Drop me a tweet if this doesn’t suit
• BTCare: (09/08 11:57) @mikesouthby The engineer will decide during the visit how best to resolve the issue. I’ll tweet you this evening to see how it went :)

I thought it would be good to mention the line card issue directly to BT Care, whether they made a note of this in the case notes I’m not sure, but surely by now they would want to do whatever they could to resolve the issue and get me off their case! Monday comes, Monday goes. No engineer.

At this point I start to get quite angry. I know for a fact if I had not been available when an engineer arrived at a pre-booked time I would have been given the standard £50 invoice for wasting their time, well guess what BT, my time is valuable too and I have already taken 3 half days off by now to wait in for engineers, of which 2 have not arrived. I’d charge business clients £45 an hour so I’m sure you can imagine what’s next:

• Me: (09/08 18:03) @BTCare So yet again the engineer has not turned up. Not happy. Who do I send the invoice to for MY time? #btbroadband #btcare#bt #fail

I get no response.

• Me: (10/08 10:08) @BTCare Still awaiting a response re: yesterdays engineer who didn’t turn up, again. You also said you would contact be last night & didn’t
• BTCare: (10/08 11:24) @mikesouthby Hi our suppliers are currently working on this at the moment. I will tweet you later today once I know more
• Me: (10/08 11:51) @BTCare More drops, expect progress 2day or complaint being filed with #ofcom. This has been going on far 2 long with 2 many false promises
• BTCare: (10/08 15:56) @mikesouthby Hi another engineer appointment is required.Slots are Monday-Friday either AM8:00-13:00 or PM13:00-18:00 let me know what suits
• Me: (10/08 16:37) @BTCare Anytime. I expect them to arrive this time. You still haven’t let me know where to send the invoice for my time for the 2 non shows
• Me: (10/08 16:41) @BTCare Can you also DM me an email address for your complaints dept., and the names of the people who have been dealing with this, thanks
• Me: (10/08 19:04) @BTCare Can you please confirm the appointment details, thanks
• Me: (10/08 22:04) @BTCare Still waiting on an update for engineer booking please?

Finally I get a response this afternoon.

• BTCare: (11/08 13:47) @mikesouthby I’ve booked engineer appointment for tomorrow 12/08/10 PM (13:00-18:00) Let me know if this doesn’t suit. Thanks
• Me: (11/08 14:05) @BTCare No, that’s fine thank you

So there we are; I wonder if the engineer will turn up tomorrow.

My experiences with BT Care over the last couple of weeks have highlighted to me an inherent issue with the way companies are embracing new technologies, Twitter in particular. It seems to be the ‘cool’ thing for companies to complement their online presence with Twitter, Facebook and other similar forms of communication. It’s great; but only if it’s done right.

The moral of the story is that if you do not have the resources or manpower to effectively use Twitter, then don’t. At first I was singing BT’s praises for approaching me about my problem after tweeting, but this has now been tarnished into a frustration that will be hard to shift. I find it hard to praise their efforts when my tweets often go unnoticed or unread. As for not giving me the details of who I need to complain to when asked, that’s inexcusable for such a large company (well, any company actually).

I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if my problem is going to be fixed as it should have been on the very first engineers visit, but regardless, BT you must do better. Either put more people on the BT Care team to work with Twitter if understaffing is the issue, develop a better system of working or educate your staff to better their Customer Service skills.

Rant over.

I’m sat here watching the on-going battle between British Airways and Unite – the union representing the BA cabin crew – on Sky News.  So as we all know, Unite members were due to start the first of their most recent bouts of strike action later this evening at midnight.  BA have today sought an injunction at the High Court and have been granted this effectively ruling the strike action illegal as Unite did not follow the correct procedures during their most recent ballot (you’d have thought they would have learnt by now); so it got me thinking, just why are the cabin crew so against BA, after all BA pay their wages and in the current financial crisis I’d have thought they would have been glad of the job, especially as it’s the sort of job (I’d imagine) which they choose not only for financial gain, but also for the lifestyle and associated perks.

A quick search and I find this document on the Unite website outlining why they are striking.  So, point for point here are my thoughts:

• “In November 2009, management imposed cuts in staffing levels that crew believe are damaging the airline’s standards as a premier carrier”

Well actually, isn’t that the managements job?  I mean to look at its business model and operating costs and make cuts if necessary.  Certainly, BA would not be the only company to have been forced to make budgetary costs during the recession.   As for the cabin crew believing that the policy and reductions are damaging the airline’s standards as a premier carrier I have two thoughts.  Firstly, that’s not your decision to make; you’re paid to do a job so get on and do it.  Secondly, what standards?  I refuse to fly long haul with BA as I feel the standards over the last 10 years have dropped significantly, not least owing to a large proportion of the cabin crew staff that I have found rude and inattentive compared with some of the newer airlines still in their infancy.

• “Staffing levels have been cut from four to three on the Euro-fleet, while long-haul crews have seen reductions of between one to three”

We’re in a recession, honestly what do people expect?  Surely it’s better to reduce the staffing levels and maintain the operability of the airline?  Or should they keep things as they are and wait for the company to go bust?  I do feel for those affected, honestly I do but when the figures don’t add up changes need to be made, its basic business.   The reduction in crew should not cause any problems in the real world but means simply that those lucky enough to keep their jobs have to work that little bit harder.

• “Unite members say that service is suffering because of these cuts”

Of course they do, otherwise they could not justify the industrial action.  Regardless, based on my experiences and that of colleagues I would again argue what service?  Perhaps if the cabin crew stopped counting how many colleagues were on the same plane and concentrated on serving the passengers albeit having to work that little bit harder, the service levels would organically improve.   After all the biggest judge of service is the passenger, not the cabin crew.  If the passenger feels that the service received was good they will return, the more passengers that return the more money the company will make and the staffing levels will no doubt return to where they ‘should be’.  Surely by striking the service is suffering more?

• “This dispute can only be avoided if BA is prepared to make a serious attempt to find a negotiated settlement”

Actually it could all be avoided if the Unite members simply stop causing a problem and get on with what they are paid to do – their job.

• “The airline should start by putting the offer made during negotiations back on the table so that Unite can give members the right to accept or reject BA’s proposal.  Unite is prepared to halt the strike while members are consulted and will stand by the crew’s decision.  The ball is clearly in BA’s court”

Since when do people accept a job and then demand their own working conditions.  No, sorry but you knew the deal when you joined, if you have to serve 3 passengers instead of 2 I’m sorry but that’s life.  BA as a company has the right to change policy without asking your permission; I do not see how the cuts have a noticeable impact on your day to day roles apart from meaning you have to work a little harder.  Just go ask a factory worker about hard work.  Besides, re-read the statement.  Whilst I am not sure of the exact circumstances it reads that Unite want BA to remake an offer that they have already made?  If this is the case then why discount it when it was made, it’s not BA’s fault that you said no without even offering your members a chance to vote.

• “BA has been applying bullying tactics.  British Airways’ management, under its boss Willie Walsh, has bullied and intimidated staff for months now.  Over the last two months 38 workers who are union members have been suspended and now risk losing their jobs”

And no doubt if this were to be true they would have legal recourse through the courts.  If there were clear undisputable evidence then why is Willie Walsh not facing charges?  Unsubstantiated hearsay should not be a reason to cause strike action.

The document then goes on the list ‘The Facts’:

• “BA crew are not overpaid.  70% earn less than £20,000 per year”

I don’t understand what this has to do with anything.  Before signing a contract of employment salary is clearly outlined and accepted.  Besides, as I mentioned before cabin crew largely are attracted to the role by the travel perks and benefits, which Unite conveniently play down.  Let’s not forget the 1.52million people in the UK currently claiming Job Seekers Allowance; I’m sure they’d love to become cabin crew for the existing pay and conditions.

• “BA cabin crew are not mindless militants, they are highly trained professional who are proud of the BA brand.  They do not believe that you can run a premier airline with too few crew”

I actually agree with this in part, I think it’s Unite who are the mindless militants in this case, not the cabin crew.  As for being proud of the brand I simply have one question.  If the cabin crew are so proud then why seek to damage the brand further?  Why not instead work with the resources they have available to ensure its success.  The way things are going I see no winners and that, ultimately, means more job losses.

• “Despite a year of talks BA has refused to listen to its cabin crew and has imposed cuts in crew numbers that seriously undermines the high service BA customers’ expect”

Of course this is subjective.  I’m sure that there would have been opinion groups established to report to management the views of the cabin crew, it’s naïve to think that every employee would be able to have their thoughts listened to, but I fail to believe that they have not listened to any genuine concerns.  The cuts that have been imposed have been done so to ensure the on-going survival of the airline.  I’m sure that if the recession had not hit then this would not have happened but let’s be fair, you cannot blame BA for the recession.

It strikes me that this has got out of hand, I wonder if with the benefit of hindsight whether a lot of the cabin crew affected would have pushed this so hard.  Ultimately the prospect of strike action is causing long lasted damage to BA; a lot of customers are simply not willing to take the risk and are booking with rival airlines.  I for one don’t blame them.

Instead of the legal back and forth, I wish the courts would simply stop strike action and stop Unite from going round and round in circles, giving BA and the airline industry in general time to recover and rebuild after the recession.  Of course on the flip side, perhaps BA should be seen to be being a little more approachable to its staff.  Ultimately decisions are made for business reasons and I see no reason why this should not be the case but I’m sure they could work a little harder to justify their decisions with their employees and prevent so much animosity.

Now that’s off my chest, I think it’s time to change the channel, EastEnders has started ;)

Firstly I’d like to say that I’m not much for politics; sure I watch the news as often as I can and try to keep up on current affairs but when it comes to individual parties, policies or politicians themselves, in my experience they are all as bad as one another.  There are pros and cons for all of them.  Gordon Brown has faced his fair share of criticism since becoming Prime Minister, some justified, some not so.  I think anyone who becomes Prime Minster is open to criticism, whether we like the person or not I think we would all agree that it is a tough job in more ways than one.

My problem with Gordon Brown has nothing to do with politics; it has nothing to do with his parties policies.  My problem is with the way in which he continues to fumble his way through life, seemingly blasé of his responsibilities and the way he should be acting, all the while receiving an extremely large pay check, paid by us the taxpayers.

I was reading through the papers this morning and came across the latest articles, featuring yet more stories documenting his trail of let downs.

The leading story is of a letter which he sent to a mother whose son recently died in Afghanistan.  The conflict requires no introduction; it seems not a day goes by that we do not hear of another tragic loss, the loss of another son, another father or another husband.  War is nasty business, I don’t blame Gordon Brown for us (the British Armed Forces) being in Afghanistan, the whys and what for’s are I think the responsibility of more than one man; though we may not like to admit to the fact, sometimes war in inevitable and necessary to preserve our way of life.  However, Gordon Brown in his position of Prime Minister has a responsibility to represent the government, the country and in a roundabout kind of way us the public in expressing his gratitude and condolences to the family and friends of the fallen.  It comes with the territory as they say and if he cannot be ‘bothered’ to do it properly then it’s time to step down.  As well as wrongly-spelt names, the letter to the dead soldier’s mother contained four other mistakes.  He wrote ‘greatst’ for greatest, ‘condolencs’ for condolences, ‘you’ instead of your and ‘colleagus’ instead of colleagues.  He also spelt security as ‘securiity’.  To show how personal the letter was and how much effort he had put into writing it, he ended the letter with repetition by writing ‘my sincere condolences’ and ‘yours sincerely’.  In total the letter had more than 20 mistakes in it, not bad for a single sheet of paper.  Now I do understand mistakes happen, I often make mistakes when writing letters but I always check back afterwards, especially if the letter is important.  This soldier gave his life serving his country, and this is the best he can do?  I think it’s a disgrace.  Gordon Brown has since phoned and apologised but personally I think he could have done a lot more, perhaps a personal visit to apologise in person; surely that would have been the least he could have done given the circumstances.

Here’s the letter:

I then read about the way in which he laid his reef of poppies during Sunday’s Remembrance Day service.  I have no doubt that he did not mean any offence but yet again, it is another public show of his lacklustre attitude towards his responsibilities.  Unlike every other government representative, even the Queen; after laying his reef he simply stood upright and did not bow his head as a gesture of respect.  I’m sure it was a genuine mistake just as I’m sure personally in his own mind he was reflecting on the sacrifices of those being remembered but he was not just there as an individual, he was there representing us.  He had a responsibility which yet again, he seems to have neglected very publicly.

I go back to my opening statement; my thoughts have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with government policies on war or any domestic issue.  However I wonder about the suitability of Gordon Brown for the role of Prime Minster, a role which carries so much responsibility not only for our country, but for us as its people.

Gordon, you MUST do better otherwise please, step aside.

Rant over.