The Ruler of Hell Is Still Not Letting Me Finish With Room 101

I suppose we all have niggles. Here goes - more things to throw into Room 101:

Number One - Laziness About Punctuation

I know what you're thinking, "Oh bloody Hell. He's a snob." etc etc.

No, actually I'm an author. I've got to get my punctuation right. I'd be a shit writer if I didn't.

I remember a framed poster for sale that had a quote on it in big letters. It said something like, "Your unique. Never forget that."

Why would I buy poster that should have said, "You're unique" and never, "Your unique." The apostrophe is to indicate a letter has been missed out. "You're" is short for "you are".

Now some people would say, "I don't care. It's not important." Well actually it is if you're writing. Your job would probably depend upon that.

Then of course there is the lack of care in the words "there", "their" and "they're".

They sound the same but they are completely different. If I said "there - bikes" or "their bikes" or "they're bikes" they would sound the same but would mean totally different things. That's the English language for you.

We all can possibly make punctuation mistakes but to habitually do so and not care only damages yourself. People may look down upon you if you systematically don't punctuate correctly.

Number Two - The People Who Get Jobs They Plainly Can't Do

 I suspect many of us have thought that at some point about someone in a senior position.

There's recently been discussions about the recession that began around ten years ago. I suspect many of those think how did these bankers get such senior jobs where they messed up the economies around the world? And more disturbingly there are some analysts who feel these bankers likely to make the same mistake again.

In other words they didn't learn from their mistakes. Or perhaps it is that they didn't care because they made a lot of money (often from the people whose businesses collapsed).

Of course the same critical observations are made by people when they look at MPs - or presidents - or prime ministers etc etc. You choose whoever is going to mess up your country's economy.

Number Three - Hate Crime

So hate crime is racism; disabilism; homophobia; transphobia; anti-theism; and alterophobia. (These categories are according to the UK Greater Manchester Police.) 

Now some of you might be thinking, "Yeah, right. Anti-hate crime's going to happen any time soon."

Let's face it - hate crime comes from people being insecure about difference.

And before anyone says, "Hate crimes should include violence against women." (I've had that from a Manchester university student - maybe being there doesn't mean you're bright or maybe it's just that she doesn't understand what hate crime actually is.) 

These hate crime categories include women plus there are specific laws identifying prejudice/violence against women.

Well, things are changing. I've done a great deal of support for transgender issues and seen things are slowly changing for the good. (Baby steps actually.) Now there's soon to be another mainstream series about transgenderism. This time on the UK ITV television channel:

I have a transwoman in one of my novels but there's a twist that makes it... well, if you've got a psycho for a colleague, well, anything could happen.