PeeDee,

I see where you are coming from, but these guys are not the only people who are behaving in the way you describe. Rightly or wrongly, I’d suggest that this sums up the behaviour of many of their countrymen each week.

And I don’t think that the players concerned should “get away” with it – the rugby authorities should take appropriate action against them, in the way that you or I would be disciplined by our employers if we behaved inappropriately while on a trip away.

What they shouldn’t have to face though is a trial by a censoriuos and somewhat hypocritical media that seeks, as John says, to make a mountain out of a molehill as they attempt to arrest their declining circulations by trying to destroy the reputations of the players concerned.

I don’t know anything about rugby, but I do know a bit about the media, and I think that you are right, John, this is a classic case of the media seeking to ruin a reputation.

If anyone else did this, it would be put down to a spot of high jinks, a young guy relaxing and letting off a bit of steam after a highly pressured few weeks at work.

But because he is an England rugby player, he is deemed fair game by the media who if challenged over it would no doubt claim that this is in the ‘public interest’ as he represents his country and (if my understanding that England underacheived at the tournament is correct) it fits into their narrative that has emerged of a team that prefers a good social life to taking their responsibilities as sportsmen seriously.

I don’t know much about football either, but I understand one of the criticisms of the England set up at last year’s World Cup was that the players spent too much time cacooned with each other at their training camps – no doubt a strategy devised by their PR advisers to avoid the sorts of headlines that their rugby playing colleagues seem to have attracted over the last few weeks.

It is a pity that the media can’t be a little more responsible in their reporting. I’m not saying that they should cover serious wrong doings up, but with things like this they should consider if they really are doing more harm than good.

Especially, writing as someone who has spent a lot of time socialising with journalists from some of the most censorious publications, I can assure you they are no angels when they choose to let their hair down either.

IE

Nice photos – thanks for posting.

They are bringing back memories of my trip to KL last year – I’m just pleased that Malaysian didn’t have their new livery then, as I much prefer the old one!

Neil

I grew up in a mining area, and we had a mines rescue station in our town that used an air raid siren to alert the rescue teams if they were needed.

Luckily I don’t think I ever heard it used in anger, but it would be tested every Monday morning at 10am, right up to the mid 1980s when the final mines closed.

It was great watching the bemused and panicked faces on visitors to the town every Monday!!!

I’m in total agreement with Cloud 9 and others on this.

First of all, lets recognise that for us aviation fans this is an absolutely brilliant film. I really enjoyed watching it.

But as a potential passenger, will it encourage me to fly with them?

No. It reminds me of what a great heritage BA has, and the important role it has played in the development of the airline business. But as a fare paying passenger, that is only a peripheral interest – I want to know what they are doing now and in the future, not what they did in the past.

As someone who had used to be a very loyal BA passenger, but who had too many bad experiernces with the company, I particularly want to know how they can offer me a better journey than their many competitors to win me back, and this advert does nothing to address that need.

I went to Switzerland earlier this week with Easyjet. If my fare had been twice what I paid, it would have still been considerably less than it would have cost me to fly BA, but what really struck me was the attitude of the crews on both flights. They were really going out of their way to help the passengers throughout the flight, in a friendly, fun way that I don’t think I have ever seen on British Airways.

Hopefully, BA are also addressing how they can improve the experience they give their passengers as well as producing a glossy advert, and they will overcome some of the issues that other posters to this thread have identified.

If not, I have a feeling that the future is bright – the future is orange.

Jim – you have made my day (if not week) – it is many years since anyone called me “young man”!!!!

I somehow doubt that Tescos are legally in the wrong here (subject to the caveat that the local branch may be acting outside the guidelines that they are subject to, either knowingly or unknowingly). They employ a lot of pretty good lawyers to ensure what they do is done properly, and if they didn’t pick this up, their corporate reputation people would.

After all, if Tescos were illegally taking money from charities in this way, they would be opening themselves up to a huge amount of flak and negative publicity for what is, for a huge company like Tesco, a fairly petty amount of cash.

I also find the idea that some sort of cover up is going on hard to believe – with thousands of people having worked for Tesco and their somewhat poor reputation in some circles, and many thousands of people being involved in charities and collections, it is hard to imagine that someone wouldn’t have blown the whistle by now.

At least if this is in tomorrow’s paper (and I couldn’t find anything on their website yet) Tescos are going to have no choice but to comment on the allegations against them. After all, if the allegations in this thread are true, this is a much bigger story than the Lincolnshire Free Press.

I think they are headed for FedEx, but I, also, stand to be corrected!

Jim,

If your comment about the £23 collection money concerns my post, there is a post on the first page of this thread that refers to that figure – having reread that post (by Spitfireman) I don’t think that he was actually refering to this specific case, so I apologise for that.

However, I don’t think it changes the point I was trying to make.

Isn’t it better for Tescos to charge charities a proportion of the amount they collect to use Tescos facilities rather than charge a fixed fee? This ensures that the charity won’t make a loss on the day.

And if this a ‘charge’ by Tescos, then this would presumably get around the legal issue – the collectors are not collecting for two charities, however the charge they incur from Tescos is related to the amount raised, and Tescos then choose to give that money to a charity of their choosing?