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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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My doctor says I can watch Battle Bots or Line of Duty, but not both.
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N R Scott
In: Middlesbrough
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Milo Yiannopoulos writes for the Catholic Herald. If he's contactable, he might be minded to commend Mick's new book.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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N R Scott
In: Middlesbrough
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I watched this too. I think his appraisal is quite good, especially with regard to the age groups of the people involved. It's definitely much, much more over-25s than under-25s.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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On telly tonight was a parade of the stoopidest people in Britain. They are embarked on a four-year (average) virtually full-time unpaid job to acquire 'The Knowledge' -- the qualification to become a black-cab driver in London. Since the advent of Uber + satnav, the black cab's days are over. They won't exist in ... erm ... my estimate would be about four years.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Wiley, whilst huntin in the forest spotted a lumberjack with one of these new fangled electric chainsaws. Will never catch on. What a wuss. Real men use axes.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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My mate's proudest boast (aside from being my mate) is that his dad did The Knowledge in two years. He's Jewish and Indian, so what would you expect? Correct! He doesn't even have a dad.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I wrote my earlier post before watching the whole programme, and my comment 'a four-year virtually full-time unpaid job' to acquire The Knowledge was dredged from memory. It turns out that it takes, on average, 'four thousand hours', which is, if you work it out, a forty hour week, fifty weeks a year, for four years. The 'unpaid job' consists mostly of driving round London on a moped in all weathers interspersed with between four and thirty (depending on progress) nerve-shredding exams.
As someone pointed out, the data set required for memorisation is equivalent to that of a lawyer (though my own thought was it was more like medical training being so much more 'hands-on'). But there's a difference between cabbies and lawyers/doctors -- London black cab drivers earn, on average, £37,000 per year i.e. not far off the national average wage. Nor do they have any exalted social standing. 'My son, the cabbie,' is not frequently heard in Golders Green. There is an AE aspect to all this since, if the motive is neither economic nor social, it must be 'other'. It would appear that 'passing The Knowledge' is itself a strong part of the appeal.
This is all mirrored by that other 'several years interspersed with nerve-shredding exams' experience -- the university degree. In my day, it wasn't unpaid -- we got very comfortable grants automatically -- nor did we have to pay (course fees) for the privilege. And there was some privilege at the end of it because graduates were a small percentage of the cohort. Now all is changed. The Uber-and-satnav era has arrived in the shape of fifty per cent of your peers also getting a tertiary education so, kiddiewinks, you won't even get the national average wage.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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So this mate, having read the post, has just rung me up all irate to say his imaginary dad actually did The Knowledge in ten months while full-time driving a bus. 'Course he did, me old mucker, 'course he did.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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There will always be a market for the Knowledge.
London is already teaming with Asian rickshaws every one of which has a driver with "the knowledge" eg where exactly to go in Soho.....to get a......
The driver even gets a backhander for the additional business.
The vehicle might change. The Knowledge won't.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I am more than usually baffled by Inside the Freemasons, the latest fly on the wall series. It seems to be more or less an official portrayal and surely, at this point in their development, the Masons are more in need of attracting new members than persuading the rest of us that they are just a bunch of dullish do-gooders.
I don't mean just ordinary dull, I mean documentary-maker-dreams-for crashingly jaw-droppingly dull. For instance, what most of us would regard as a chore -- learning word perfect a nine-hundred word PR-speak address to new recruits -- was regarded by 'our youngest and most promising Chief Thingummybob' as the acme of his life thus far. And his girlfriend seemed to agree. The really Grand Wizzardy bloke in charge of the whole of Bedfordshire spends fifteen hours a week on masonry though clearly much longer on his collection of dinky toys. Which the entire film crew had to climb up into his loft to gaze upon.
All were agreed they wouldn't be masons were it not for the constantly repeated (literally, repeated in every detail) ceremonies. They compared it to amateur dramatics but I wonder how many people would sign up to a lifetime of Oklahoma! every year but without the singing, dancing, snappy dialogue etc. Oh and you will always either have a walk-on part or be required to learn 900-word PR puffs to be delivered to an audience who have heard it all word-for-word a dozen times before.
But ... there must be something to it. Boring people are not stupid people; boring people do not seek out boring people; they do not like doing boring things any more than the rest of us. So I would really like to find out what the attraction is. Not just attraction, mild obsession.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Yes, I noticed this. Plus I was electrified by their discovery, from THOBR, that the Scots of the second century AD were speaking English. Except it turned out they weren't and everyone had been issued with a Babel fish since the last episode. Obviously I wanted to know more, especially whether me and Hatty would get a credit at the end, but it was such crap I just couldn't go on. Was I wrong?
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