Banking Lament

Its a terrible parting and a very bad show

Another local amenity is about to go

Barclays Bank are shutting their doors as they leave this market town

So all its customers can only moan and frown

But with banking now on line or over the telephone

Will it still be easy for people to cancel a standing order or get a loan

Who will look for a deceased persons Will

If you can't talk to someone at the till

It's sad no face to face banking any more

So will closing of accounts come to the fore

At least we won't have to stand 2 metres apart in a line

In sunshine and rain hoping our banking is correct and fine

Sadly a large profit margin is now the norm

No matter how much their action causes a customer storm

KEITH WILKINSON


CALM raffle

Travel agent Holiday With Us has donated a £200 holiday voucher as a prize for a local raffle organised by Savannah Farrell, team member of Trackstar Racing at the Adrian Flux Arena in King's Lynn.

The team at Trackstar sadly lost some of their drivers to suicide last year, so are holding a raffle to raise money for The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), which is leading a movement against suicide.

CALM recognises that 75% of all UK suicides are male, and they work to change that fact.

CALM runs a helpline and webchat for anyone who needs to talk about life’s problems, and they provide support to those bereaved by suicide.

We are delighted to be able to support the team at Trackstar with their raffle, helping to raise awareness for the life-saving work that those at CALM are doing.

The raffle will be running until June 5, and prize winners will be announced on June 6.

To purchase raffle tickets, contact Savannah by email on savannahfarrell1998@icloud.com

CHRISTINA FITZPATRICK, managing director of Holiday With Us


Thanks for voting

I would like to thank all those who voted for me and I promise to serve all the people of Roman Bank & Peckover regardless of party.

SIMON KING, Roman Bank & Peckover county councillor


Have you got a nightmare neighbour?

I am a casting researcher working on the Channel 5 TV series, The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door.

The series features a wide variety of neighbourhood issues and disputes, from across the nation, and we are looking for people to take part.

We are keen to hear from people in your area who are currently having problems, but also those who may have had issues/disputes in the past.

Email neighbours@avalonuk.com or call 0207 598 7392 if you are interested.

NAOMI ABEL-HIRSCH, casting researcher for The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door


Putting on the style

Sir, re; Sukjit Singh's letter regarding an egregious grammatical error...

I have played the phrase “racially abused a colleague also sat at the table” that was quoted in Sukjit Singh’s letter over and over in my mind and I can’t hear anything wrong with it.

The words in the phrase, not the act of abusing. The meaning is clear.

Of course ‘sitting’ also does nicely and so would ‘abusing’ (‘racially abusing a colleague also sitting at the table’ and ‘racially abusing a colleague also sat at the table’).

And, as Mr. Singh would have it, ‘racially abused a colleague also sitting at the table’.

A heady mix of present and past participles but, fortunately, the context always makes the meaning clear.

Unfortunately Sukjit Singh has not noticed that “abused” is also a past participle (of the word ‘abuse’) - so ‘abused’ and ‘sat’ go together as past participles.

The thing I love about the English Language is its flexibility.

Apart from a few grammatical errors that grate when you read them, and some when you hear them (‘we was’ instead of ‘we were’, for example and the common errors of mixing up ‘their’ and ‘there’ and ‘to’ and ‘too ‘) it's a case of, most of the time, if it sounds right, it is right.

Mr. Singh states that he is a linguistics expert but his letter confines itself to describing the rule-governed structures of the language - grammar.

Rather than pick up on this minor point, he should acknowledge the primary goal of linguistics - to understand the nature of language in general and celebrate that grammar is sometimes a moveable feast.

That’s why we have Shakespeare and an army of great writers and poets and dramatists.

For most of us, linguistics is an arcane pursuit. If you have ever been subjected at school, or college, or uiversity to the study of it, it is a great turn off because it is a discipline that tries to scientifically explain a moving target.

The English language is dynamic acquiring new words, changing the meaning of words over time, and utterly flexible as to word order in many instances (as to word order, utterly flexible in many instances; in many instances as to word order, utterly flexible; in many instances utterly flexible as to word order).

Four ways of using the same phrases in a different order and still keeping the meaning.

This all brings us back to the sentence under discussion; quite simply from the point of view of meaningful communication (which is what Linguistics is all about) it works!

DAVID SILVER, Wisbech