News Round Up
by Patrick O'Connor
FANCY a day out – then why not visit a crematorium.
The Daily Mirror says that Stafford Crematorium is holding an open day in which members of the public will be invited to have a look around to see what services are on offer.
These include 'stone-cutting, grave-digging and eco-friendly funerals' while visitors can view different types of hearse, including a converted Morris Minor.
How much!!! The Daily Star reports on the shock 27 year old Rhys Baker received when he was quoted £1.2 million to insure his 10 year old Vauxhall Corsa car.
Rhys, from Salford, went searching online and was gobsmacked when Zenith asked him to pay £1,165,977.75 – more than 800 times the value of the car.
What's more, the company confirmed the quote on the phone adding that Rhys could make £104,000 monthly instalments if he could not pay up front.
He said: “I was convinced it must be a mistake, so I called them up on their helpline. They didn’t even seem shocked by it. They checked it for me and then said it was right. I’ve got one of the cheapest cars you can buy but the criteria for insurance is crazy.”
A spokesperson for Markerstudy Group, which runs Zenith, said: “The price Mr Barker was quoted reflects that we have declined to provide cover as we would not expect a customer to pay such a high premium.
“This is not a case of pricing customers out of the market but quoting on the risks that are within our rating parameters and declining if they are outside.
“This website has changed the way it quotes since Mr Barker used it, so that if a quote is over £10,000 it ‘declines’ rather than quotes a high premium.”
It would appear that some Brits know little about the First World War, instead relying on what 'Baldrick' said in the TV comedy Blackadder.
The Daily Mail says that a report by the British Future think-tank claims that one in ten think Hitler was the leader of Germany when the war started and nearly one in 12 young adults thinks Britain and Germany were allies, not enemies.
British Future director, Sunder Katwala, said: “Most people do know that there was a war in 1914 and four out of five of us that Germany was an enemy. But almost everything else is minority knowledge.
“Beyond images of mud, trenches and barbed wire...the First World War is getting lost in the Second.”
The BBC tells us that one of the UK's rarest mammals could disappear from the country.
A four-year study by scientists from the University of Bristol estimated there were only 1,000 grey long-eared bats left - all confined to southern England and the researchers are now calling for the bats' foraging habitat to be protected.
Dr Orly Razgour, who led the research, said: “After studying the species for four years, we realised that they are very rare.
According to the Daily Express, Brits are cashing in on their driveways as motorists seeks cheap and convenient parking.
ParkatmyHouse.com puts the figure at around £200million a year with sky-high car park charges and ticket-happy traffic wardens causing the demand.
Is this a sign of the times? Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, reckons that spelling lessons should be scrapped because children can correct mistakes on their mobile phone or computer.
The Daily Mail quotes the professor as saying that good grammar was necessary 'maybe 100 years ago' but 'not right now'.
He said that pupils should be encouraged not to rely on linguistic rules but to try and express themselves in new ways such as using mobile phone text messaging.
Are men too scruffy? That's the question posed by the Daily Star in a story that nearly a third of men (29%) think it’s OK to go to a restaurant in jeans and a T-shirt, while 1.4million (5%) would never think of wearing a suit as they are not considered comfortable.
Research compiled by Pot Noodle claimed that dressing up for a formal outing is dying out as 20% admit they avoid nice restaurants because dressing up is too much hassle.
Aren't our trains wonderful. Hundreds of people on the Penzance to London Paddington service were left stranded for nearly six hours, says the Daily Mail.
It broke down five miles from Pewsey station in Wiltshire with around 500 people on board and passengers claimed they were 'treated like cattle' because there was not enough food, water or seats.
A fractured air pipe caused problems with the brakes of the train, and apparently, due to the remote location, First Great Western struggled to get an engineer to the scene.
Sue Evans, a spokeswoman for First Great Western, said: “A delay of this magnitude is unacceptable and a full investigation will be carried out following today's train failure. The train suffered a fractured air pipe, which automatically applied the brakes as a safety measure.”
A poll organised by PromotionalCodes.org.uk. claims that egg mayonnaise is the nation's favourite sandwich filling.
The Daily Express says that the cheese sandwich took second place with 21 per cent. Ham was third with 17 per cent and chicken fourth on 13 per cent.
Some of these surveys come up with the most amazing conclusions. The Daily Mail reports on research carried out by beverage bottler Cobevco which concludes that we are most likely to open a bottle of wine at 6.53pm on a Wednesday evening.
Apparently this is the time when adults typically reach for the vino to help ease them through the working week. What's more, the wine is likely to be red, as more than a third (37 per cent) prefer that over white wine (36 per cent).
Finally, the Daily Mirror tells us that Britain's longest serving bobby is retiring... after 47 years on the beat.
When PC Mick Mountain, 66, joined the Met in 1966 he had just a whistle and truncheon. He later policed protests against the Vietnam war in 1968, the miners' strikes and Brixton riots in 1982.
Mick has had his nose broken three times, had a gun pointed at him twice and received a bravery award for tackling a man with a hand grenade. He said: “I will always be proud to have been in the Met, as I believe we are the best police service in the world.”
Reference links:
The Express(www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror ((www.mirror.co.uk)
Daily Star (www.daily star.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)