Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[teamsaint]

I think you will find it is going into the pockets of the employees, too. Thirty years ago, a job on the railways wasn't particularly well paid but it was good steady employment - i.e. you were not likely to get made redundant. I am told freight drivers can easily earn £75,000 a year nowadays.

In what other industry could anyone be paid for ten hours at triple time plus a day in lieu for ringing in to see whether they were required (and being told they weren't)?

here is a discussion including some pretty open comments from actual drivers about what they actually earn, which seem to be in the area of £35 to £50 k .
It would seem that some of the higher salaries carry mandatory overtime requirements, and that freight seems to be at the tough end of the spectrum in terms of working conditions.


any occupation that is unionised gets vilified in the press, and there is usually some pretty serious disinformation going.
£38 k for a tube driver seems reasonable money though.

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16763

[Vile Consort]

Indeed, they are only getting up to that level because (a) most of their work is during unsocial hours, and (b) there is a lot of "rest day working" going begging at overtime rates. But very few people in the rail industry other than office staff receive only their basic pay: they are all working their rest days and Sundays at overtime rates because their roster clerks are begging them to!

A friend of mine, who is a signaller and a union rep, made a comment that "it's no wonder the track is in the state it's in - it's the weight of the drivers' wallets passing over it that does the damage".

Speaking of buses, there's a bus service runs around the villages here in the evenings. I don't believe I have ever seen it carry a passenger. On one occasion I wanted to use it to retrieve my car, which I had left at the other end of a walk. I stuck out my hand but it went sailing past at considerable speed. I suspect the drivers are so inured to running empty that they forget to look out for passengers.

[cloughie]

I don't live in or near a city and there's no public transport around here. Furthermore, whenever I've passed the occasional bus a few miles distant, said bus has been empty except for its driver (unless it's a school bus), which hardly bodes well for the continuation, let alone expansion, of service provision; I have no idea how the companies that provide such bus services manage to keep going - they must either be making a thumping great loss or are getting handouts from somewhere. The nearest one to where I am does provide school bus services, so maybe it subsidises its empty buses from the profits generated from that - who knows?

The prioritisation of efficient public transport services in cities, however, is something that I probably support as much as you do.

Subsidies for buses in rural areas have been severely cut in recent years and in Cornwall there are people whose livelihood depends on being able to travel by bus. Their services are under threat. Whilst I agree that efficient public transport services in cities is essential I guess the level of subsidy and driver's pay is much higher than in rural areas.

[Radio64]

What about when people say 'huge' and really emphasise the 'u' to make it 'huuuuge' ...!?!?!

You really don't need to make huge and huger.

[kernelbogey]

What about when people say 'huge' and really emphasise the 'u' to make it 'huuuuge' ...!?!?!

You really don't need to make huge and huger.

'humungous'

[Ferretfancy]

'humungous'

Humungous with a HAITCH, how I hate HAITCH!

[Sir Velo]

how I hate HAITCH!

But dontcha know that if you say "Aitch" you're being lazy and yer dropping yer haitches, innit?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I lived in Chesterfield, it was the people who thought they were posh who said "haitch". Similarly, they were the ones who said, "between you and I...".

[Roehre]

But dontcha know that if you say "Aitch" you're being lazy and yer dropping yer haitches, innit?

'allo, 'allo?

[french frank]

how I hate HAITCH!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11642588

(The video clip is quite amusing)

[mercia]

and who was the first person to comment ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/10/do_you_say_aitch_or_haitch.html

[french frank]

and who was the first person to comment ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyours...or_haitch.html

Pronunciation quite 'correct' - typing faulty?

[Radio64]

and who was the first person to comment ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyours...or_haitch.html

oozat?

[Richard Tarleton]

oozat?

A distinguished member of this forum, R64!

[jean]

I hadn't seen that item (or Mary's comment) but I'm surprised no menntion was made, either in the article itself or in the comments, of the haitch pronunciation as a feature of (Catholic) Hiberno-English.

Here's a good account:

http://stancarey.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/an-aitch-or-a-haitch-lets-ear-it/