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Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Varche on 17 August 2017, 23:05:40

Title: Big Ben
Post by: Varche on 17 August 2017, 23:05:40
My version of council minutes.

We need to do some maintenance on the clock. OK

It will be out of service for four years OK

No chimes as a danger to workers OK

Next item


Why didnt someone come up with a Little Ben and make a tourist attraction of it and auction it off afterwards. .? Could have been an LCD clock with speakers half way down the building. Bit lacking in imagination.
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Entwood on 17 August 2017, 23:08:41
I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: ronnyd on 17 August 2017, 23:08:49
The Japs would probably done it in about a fortnight. :D
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 17 August 2017, 23:19:22
2 quick off the cuff solutions!  :y

1) Turn the bongs off during the day when the guys are working on the tower and turn them on again in the evening and at weekends.

2) Install speakers on the Victoria Tower and play the bongs from there.

Or maybe a combination of the 2.  Simples!  :y
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: frostbite on 17 August 2017, 23:21:42
Then it would have an led casio billboard flashing on the side like picadilly circus
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Varche on 17 August 2017, 23:22:43
I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

Well i am not a luvvie and havent read about anyone having a go. I was gobsmacked when i saw the news item on uk tv a fw days ago.. lots of tourists go to see Big ben , houses of parliament, tower and buck palace. I just think we missed a trick through lack of imagination. Handled well it would have been cheap, good tourist publicity.

I havent an issue with the four years to refurbish.
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Entwood on 17 August 2017, 23:25:31
I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

Well i am not a luvvie and havent read about anyone having a go. I was gobsmacked when i saw the news item on uk tv a fw days ago.. lots of tourists go to see Big ben , houses of parliament, tower and buck palace. I just think we missed a trick through lack of imagination. Handled well it would have been cheap, good tourist publicity.

I havent an issue with the four years to refurbish.

That's my point .. its not a news item .. until the "luvvies" decided to make it one. They closed a road here for 2 years whilst a new bridge was built ... that didn't make the evening news did it ??   :)
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Doctor Gollum on 17 August 2017, 23:27:52
I suspect thast the safety elf has been misconstrued...

Yes the bongs would be rather loud, but more importantly, the resonance of the bells tolling would probably cause a real issue with the scaffolding... the works are due to take four years, ergo the bells need silencing for that time to prevent significant issues with the scaffolding and nothing at all to do with hearing protection.

I suspect that in the name of 'journalism', this has been contrived to sell outrage :-X
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Nick W on 17 August 2017, 23:39:03
I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....


They're not rung, but chimed. And anyone who has been in a belfry will understand why the bells need to be silenced whilst working near them.
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: TD on 18 August 2017, 06:06:24
I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

Well i am not a luvvie and havent read about anyone having a go. I was gobsmacked when i saw the news item on uk tv a fw days ago.. lots of tourists go to see Big ben , houses of parliament, tower and buck palace. I just think we missed a trick through lack of imagination. Handled well it would have been cheap, good tourist publicity.

I havent an issue with the four years to refurbish.

That's my point .. its not a news item .. until the "luvvies" decided to make it one. They closed a road here for 2 years whilst a new bridge was built ... that didn't make the evening news did it ??   :)

It did in the local rag..

A road in RWB is hardly a tourist attraction....where as Big Ben is.... :)
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Gaffers on 18 August 2017, 07:49:52
People dont go to hear Big Ben, they go to see it, or rather the Elizabeth tower, to get some kind of photo.  Once that is done they often but some over-priced sh!te from one of the stalls and bugger off to the next attraction.  They dont wait around for the bongs and you dont hear a tourist saying "I was really excited to hear the chimes of Big Ben". 

If you want to keep hearing Big Ben twice a day during the refurbishment then listen to R4 news at 6pm and midnight.  They have thought ahead made a recording, in fact they have known about this for a while and it is no suprise to anyone who listens to the PM programme.

It needs fixing, so let it be fixed.  Whingers, wailers and attention-grabbers can do one.
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Kevin Wood on 18 August 2017, 09:45:12
Why didnt someone come up with a Little Ben and make a tourist attraction of it and auction it off afterwards. .? Could have been an LCD clock with speakers half way down the building. Bit lacking in imagination.

Yep, my mate has one of those in his hallway. Plays the chimes and everything. Could hook one of those up to a giant PA system. About 10kW ought to do it. Wouldn't be cheap and tacky at all - well, not in comparison to all the other tat that the tourists lap up in spades there. ;D
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Bigron on 18 August 2017, 10:29:28
Actually Monsieur le Guffer, loads of tourists DO wait around for the chimes - especially the Americans, whom you might have expected to be impatient - and pass the time looking at the river and/or chatting to cockneys....me, for example, which is why I know.
Long may they do it; we get money from them!
Ok, I appreciate that the tower/clock/bells need renovation, but FOUR YEARS? Must be council workers!   :o ::)

Ron.
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Rods2 on 18 August 2017, 10:36:56
Politicians have no business sense, who would have thought it? If they had they would be making much more money running businesses! ::) ::) ::) I don't have a problem in protecting the workforce while they are working on it, I can't see why it can't be rung at other times, which is apparently what the Government has very belatedly decided, but when you have an over promoted office junior, bimbo, serial political failure as PM, who concentrates on making fashion statements, no surprises that no action was taken until there was an outcry. :( :( :(
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: aaronjb on 18 August 2017, 10:59:25
Long may they do it; we get money from them!

Cockney pickpocketing?  :P ;D
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Bigron on 18 August 2017, 11:04:43
Oh Aaron, I am mortally wounded by your slur and imputation!  >:( :(

Ron.
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 18 August 2017, 11:09:23
I suspect that the whole of the Elizabeth Tower will be wrapped up in scaffolding and sheeting for the duration, so you won't see anything of the Tower so does it matter if you can't hear Big Ben?  ::)

I like the idea of 4 big LED clocks installed temporarily on the Victoria Tower with speakers broadcasting the bongs of Big Ben at full volume!  :y

It could become a tourist attraction in it's own right and then we'd be arguing in 4 years time whether to leave the LED clocks in place or not!  ;D 
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Rods2 on 18 August 2017, 20:37:35
I suspect that the whole of the Elizabeth Tower will be wrapped up in scaffolding and sheeting for the duration, so you won't see anything of the Tower so does it matter if you can't hear Big Ben?  ::)

I like the idea of 4 big LED clocks installed temporarily on the Victoria Tower with speakers broadcasting the bongs of Big Ben at full volume!  :y

It could become a tourist attraction in it's own right and then we'd be arguing in 4 years time whether to leave the LED clocks in place or not!  ;D

Use large screens on the tower for wall-to-wall advertising and LED clocks, all done in the best possible taste, of course! :o :o :o ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Terbs on 19 August 2017, 08:47:39
Houses of Parliment should be renamed.
I was on an 'Afternoon tea' river cruise last sunday, and as we passed, I said to the wife, 'There are the Houses of Corruption.' I was evidently overheard as a lot of people laughed, and shouted back,
  'Absolutely true, mate' ;)
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Varche on 19 August 2017, 09:11:41
Politics

Poli. Means many

Tics. Parasites
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Rods2 on 19 August 2017, 19:17:52
Long may they do it; we get money from them!

Cockney pickpocketing?  :P ;D

In the pickpocketing world league, the Chileans are the world champions, followed by the Romanians.  :( :( :( Poor old Cockneys don't even get an honourable mention. :o :o :o

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/5gknxa/anti-pickpocket-police-london-045 (https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/5gknxa/anti-pickpocket-police-london-045)
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Lizzie Zoom on 19 August 2017, 19:56:31
Long may they do it; we get money from them!

Cockney pickpocketing?  :P ;D

In the pickpocketing world league, the Chileans are the world champions, followed by the Romanians.  :( :( :( Poor old Cockneys don't even get an honourable mention. :o :o :o

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/5gknxa/anti-pickpocket-police-london-045 (https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/5gknxa/anti-pickpocket-police-london-045)

No, it hasn't been the same since the days of Fagin and his boys :D ;)
Title: Re: Big Ben
Post by: Bigron on 19 August 2017, 20:25:14
You were there?