The Week, In Briefs

A new thread, in which I take a bit of time to cast an eye over some of the week’s newsworthy events and take the mick. Sort of like Have I Got News For You, with the downside of being less funny and the upside of having a much smaller dose of Ian Hislop.

First up, it’s done this old Tory-baiter (I’m a master at it, you know) no end of good to see the biggest school strikes since the 1980s highlight The Boy Cameron’s fibs over the affordability of public sector pensions. Figures show that they are due to be more, not less affordable by 2060. Union in-fighting aside (and if there’s one things unions love, it’s an internecine scrap) the strike went off without a hitch, and it was a joy to see so many kids tottering about, unable to believe their luck at an unexpected break in the sunshine.

The ConDems have been well and truly rumbled on this one. From Francis Maude stuttering through a Today interview to the Hutton Report backing away from the claim that pensions are unaffordable, it’s pretty clear to anyone with half a brain, heart or conscience that punishing nurses, teachers and firemen for a financial crisis that was nothing to do with them is nothing more than ideological bullying. Yes, public sector workers get a better pension than the public sector. Even so, it isn’t that great, and anyone bitching about it hasn’t thought about all the unpaid work they do (on average, a teacher will do a 50 hour week and get paid for thirty), or the simple fact that they have to put up with the general public in the first place. And why do they get the pension in the first place? They’re unionised. Think about that next time you get a pay freeze. Collective bargaining works.

Next. In news that must have shocked anyone that still believes in Santa or the Tooth Fairy, a journalist has been revealed to have massaged his interviews to include quotes that weren’t said at the time. Johann Hari, writer for the Independent, has reluctantly apologised, and the Indy is standing by him. The right-wing press and sleazeballs like Guido Fawkes are, naturally, having a day in a field over the whole affair. In print, he comes across as a bit self-righteous and holier-than-thou, but his heart’s in the right place, and on Twitter a lot of the bristles are smoothed off to reveal a much more likeable writer. He’s not backing down, which is admirable in a way, but is going to make his next interview veeery interesting.

Johann has said that he isn’t doing anything that other journalists do as part of their everyday working practice. Interestingly, no-one’s stepped up to corroborate that yet. Which leads me to suspect that he’s really only guilty of the one true journalistic crime – getting found out.

Tech news. Apple released their new version of Final Cut Pro, to howls of dismay from lazy editors everywhere who realised their contextual menus had moved, making their wittle brains all hurty. Zero sympathy from this quarter, and anyone who’s flouncing off to Avid or Premiere has clearly ignored The Three Rules Of Upgrades:

1. RTFM.

2. There are plugins that will do anything that the new release won’t or can’t do. As a thirty-second Googysearch for Automatic Duck would reveal.

3. An alpha release of ANY program has problems. Wait a couple of months for 10.2. No-one’s forcing you to buy the program on the day of release, FFS.

And that’s my News In Briefs for this week.

I’m also using this post to officially abandon the Postaday initiative. It’s been fun, but frankly it’s been taking up time that could be more usefully employed. Post frequency will be down to 3-4 a week, with hopefully an uptick in quality. Meanwhile, keep an eye on my Twitter-stream for daily updates, whoops, wibbles and nonsense.