Sorry.
I wonder whether you would like to say sorry to someone? A blog offers you the chance to do so pretty anonymously if you wish.
I'm asking because I was struck by this story.
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The blog for the afternoon news and current affairs programme presented by Eddie Mair.
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I am sorry for all the nasty things I said to BBC about itself on its blog sites and in e-mail letters. I am sorry I had to. I am sorry I was right. But being sorry doesn't fix anything. Were BBC to go back to being a first rate reporter of the news the way it was 30, 40, 50 and more years ago, I wouldn't have to send them. I'm sorry it won't. And I'm sorry I will have to when they make their most egregious and offensive blunders.
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MAII 1, I'm sorry for you.
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David_McNickle, I'm not sorry for you. You deserve whatever it is you are or get in life. Reading your prior posts has convinced me of that. I'm not sorry if you don't like my opinions either. I do not live for the benefit of others, I do not exist to please them...except on my job.
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MAII 3, I'm sorry you have no sense of humor. Your opinions are of no consequence to me.
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Now now children, play nicely!
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DI_W 4, That's as nice as either of us get.
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This has made the WHOLE of the front page of the Bristol Evening Post - and who says good news does not [sometimes] sell papers..
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lBG 7, That's what you get for living in Bristol.
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I'm sorry.
Really, really sorry.
There, now, I've said it to you all.
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BS 9, But are you as sorry as MAII?
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I am also sorry that I did not proof read my last comment.
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RJM, I had an 'urege' once, but me dear ol' Gran told me off and made me take it back!
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Well ,with Sid and Edgie posting too, we'd have ALL the right people, but so far we don't seem to be saying the right things.
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Sorry, I posted that by accident.
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I'm sorry pmL didn't separete the two lines of 14.
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pmL - sorry I didn't post earlier ...
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Oh..Hi Sid!
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Am I the only one around here getting fed-up with the sound of insincere apologies all over the media?
The MoD is sorry about the deaths of Forces personnel - but declines to accept that lack of the right equipment may have been a contributory factor in some of them.
The BBC is sorry about the Ross/Brand incident - but declines to acknowledge that it was the result of a similar kind of failure as the dodgy edit of the trail for the TV series about the Queen.
Politicians of every flavour are sorry about the economic meltdown - but nobody is calling for the FSA to explain why its regulatory framework didn't head this trouble off at the pass.
Saying sorry is awfully easy. Two syllables, and it's done.
Acting as if you mean it seems to be much, much harder.
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Fifi 19, Is the BBC sorry about Jeremy Clarkson?
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Fifi: Do you mean to say you don't believe my apology?
David: I am much sorrier that Marcus. Truly, madly, deeply sorry.
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Okay Eddie, okay. You're right.
As usual!
Clearly, I need to apologise.
Thank God you said anonymously..!
BUT, in my defence, I thought I was doing the right thing:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3405928/Foreplay-is-overrated-researchers-claim.html
It seems our American cousins with their "Wham, Bam, Thank-you-Ma'am" attitude were nearer the mark...
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
In Oz, many moons ago, my uncle went outside late one night to bring the car in from the road to the garage and it was gone. Stolen. They reported it to the police. A few days later it was returned with a heartfelt letter of apology, explaining the urgent and desperate need for a car to take an elderly relative to hospital and enclosed with the letter of apology were tickets for a theatre/dinner restaurant.
My aunt and uncle were touched by the thoughtfulness of this and thoroughly forgave the poor thief, who clearly felt the error of his ways. They went out to the theatre/dinner restaurant and had a perfectly lovely evening. When they arrived back home, everything in their house had been stolen, even the fridge!
Be warned, ladies and gentlemen, things aren't always what they seem!
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I am sorry Mr Ross has decided to lay low despite another resignation. This makes him GLOW IN THE DARK rather than slip away from public view. As I listened to the BBC apology today (only for 'editorial' failures (are they afraid of Ross?) I wondered whether my dissapointment re his lack of open remorse was wrong. Perhaps he is weeping about in a repentent depression , drinking and sending text after text saying sorry to Mr Sachs.
Or could it be that he has a PR manager saying 'Trust me Johnny Woss, the suckers will forget all about it as we lead up to Christmas'.
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19. 'Acting as if'?
What about actually meaning it. The pathway to the land of Sincerity is lightly trodden.
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I am sorry people choose to attack the BBC instead of commercial broadcasters.
I'm sorry people seem to think advert riddled radio is an alternative to BBC radio.
I'm sorry the reprehensible Murdoch is still allowed to foul our airwaves.
I'm sorry Mandleson manages to creep from his pit to sully public life.
I'm sorry for thinking that the whole R2 fiasco was blown out of all proportion by unpleasant vested interests.
I apologise to cynics everywhere for still thinking that things can, and will improve.
I make no apologies for being a libertarian, a socialist and an idealist.
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I am sorry that the Daily Mail has so little self awareness that it expects apologies from everyone else, without ever showing any contrition for the torrent of vile abuse it heaps on all of us that do not fit in to its narrow concept of Britishness.
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Big Sister : I said 'insincere'. I can't imagine you ever being insincere!
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Charlie, I clicked your link and this is what I got:
Error 404
Sorry, the page you have requested is not available
Please try again later
They're all at it!
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And I have some sympathy with Laurencekaye's post. What a sorry bunch they are.
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Frances_O@30
It's working now. I've just this minute "played-around" with it...
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Lady_Sue@24
I couldn't agree with you more.
"Things" not always what they seem.
Nor, I suspect, are "Bloggers..."
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Lady_Sue@24
I couldn't agree with you more.
"Things" are not always what they seem.
Nor, I suspect, are "Bloggers..."
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Lady Sue: 'Ouch!'
What a nasty piece of work - and how horrible for your relatives!
The story to which Eddie has linked was quite moving, and very rare. Perhaps, though, the publicity will make others think again and make some kind of reparation?
Charlie: Have you got hiccups?
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Big Sister@35
I did have & more worryingly, I also appear to have more than a 'touch" of what may be, terminal foolishness.
Sorry...
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Charlie: No apology necessary! Though I could be offended at being described as 'not being what I seem' ..... ;o)
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@pocketpoet
"I make no apologies for being a libertarian, a socialist and an idealist"
-Isn't libertarianism and socialism pretty much mutually exclusive?
One wants as little control by the state as possible, and the other wants more control by the state over the economy...
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Sorry I put my bit about Obama on the wrong thread. I put it in The Glass Box.
He was on my mind re saying sorry because once again he said sorry for an 'error'. If it was one. Some people were offended by his gag/comment about Nancy Regan and her attempts to contact the dead. 'No Drama Obama' is a man who has the quick apology off to a fine art. Unlike 'Don't give a Toss Ross'.
I listened to the BBC apology yesterday at 10am and knew it had not hit the mark. Mr Sachs was not satisfied either. The actual 'sorry' is a very powerful thing. Get it wrong or fail to do one and real consequences can ensue. It needs sincerity and a touch at least of humility. I cannot stand the cringeworthy trickery of the 'I am sorry you feel that way' technique. This carries the subtext of (sorry you are so sensitive and none of this my fault).
I am sorry the 'sorry' has become such a tool/weapon.
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I'd like to say sorry to my neighbours for not remembering to switch off the alarm clock before I went away yesterday.
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I'm sorry for all those incredibly rich people who have their dosh in tax havens - Obama is after you...
I'm sorry for the British Government who have to tell Obama that they think tax havens are really good.
Oh, and I feel sorry that the conservatives are still looking such a rubbish opposition after all this time.
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Eddie
I am in "shock-and-awe" over the reach of your influence..!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/07/obama.seance/index.html
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Sorry..?
Well... yes I am. Sorry to have to raise this issue again, that is.
But what, I wonder, did actually happen? Or, is this similar to the "Profumo" affair where, "we" have to wait 100 yrs for the "truth"?
And, didn't I read somewhere that the now called Brand/Ross "Independent Producer" was, in fact an employee of one the hapless duos production company's?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/09/russell-brand-jonathan-ross-sachs
"He goes on to explain that he and his guest, Jonathan Ross, had been reassured by the fact that the 25-year-old independent producer of the programme had spoken to Sachs and agreed to edit out the lewdest sections of dialogue, which concerned Brand's sexual encounter with Sachs's 23-year-old granddaughter..."
"...So we did. We took out the more personal stuff."
(no doubt true so, God help us..!)
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It's been pointed out on another blog I frequent (yes! I'm so fickle!) that addicts who are in a 12-step recovery programme do, as part of their recovery, apologise and try to make up for the harm they did when in active addiction, and that this is not, therefore, as uncommon an event as you might suppose.
Still, it's given us a good thread...
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Maybe there is a sitcom in this!
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ingeiousCliff@45
Perhaps you mean, in this..?
"Queen Mother was ?ghastly bigot?, says BBC presenter"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5114788.ece
"He added: ?...The Queen Mother came from a certain generation when people did talk like that.""
Or maybe, young Ed meant "...when people said what they meant..?"
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Argh! Charlie, maybe it's my ISP or OS or something, but all these tantalising links you post come up with
"Error 404
Sorry, the page you have requested is not available
Please try again later"
again.
Seems that this apologising thing is highly contagious. Well, selectively highly contagious, if such a thing is possible.
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Click on the link. At the error page, take out
anglebracket br / anglebacket
from the URL of the error page in the address bar (just that, no more, no less) It appears immediately after
114788.ece
Then hit return. Hey presto.
Do keep up, F-O. Jimmy Giro was telling us all how to do that when he was supposed to be SUCH a troll!!!!!
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Thank you, pml. I'll give it a shot.
I admit I took the often-repeated advice to scroll past posts that seemed to be from a "SUCH a troll".
Maybe trolls can give us useful information, after all.
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I'm surprised that in the list of insincere apologies, we haven't had the civil service managers apologising for being too tight-fisted to send their staff on Information Governance courses (which teach things such as Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Confidentiality, Caldicott Principles, Computer Security etc.)...
Oh, of course, they'll never admit to that. All they'll say is "Sorry we lost your data" - never "Sorry we didn't think of encrypting the data before copying it onto CD", or "Sorry we didn't implement measures to prevent (or even discourage) staff taking database dumps outside the office"...
-oOo-
Moving closer to home, can we have an apology from the BBC IT techs for not allowing their implementation of MT to handle HTML or non-standard characters very well?
PM bloggers in general: We're sorry we occasionally allow multiple threads to get crowded with the same debate.
We're sorry if anything we've posted has unintentionally offended anyone.
And finally: I'm sorry if anything I've written here has offended anyone. If you let me know what's offended you, and I agree your claim to offence is genuine, then I'll try to avoid causing the same offence in future :)
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From now on I'm going to avoid threads featuring the s-word.
TOO ANNOYING!
(sorry)
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None of you are forgiven. Your apologies are no more than empty words. I'll have to think up real pennance for you all in the coming days and weeks. If you comply, then I will know you are sincere. If not, well then it's just as I guessed. But I warn you, I don't hold out much hope for you at all. Pocketpoet, your pennance is to read the dictionary from cover to cover to learn the English language is and then a book on logic to understand what the concept "mutually exclusive" means.
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MA2: Talking of empty apologies, I'm sorry but I'll have to correct your English... :)
"pennance" - ITYM "penance"
"...to learn the English language is and then..." - ITYM either "...to learn what the English language is and then..." or "...to learn the English language and then..."
(ITYM = I Think You Mean)
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I'm sorry that is Monday morning.
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QL - as usual, succinct, to the point and funny. You win the prize for this thread.
Ooops, just remembered no competitions allowed now. Too much paperwork involved, apparently.
Sorry for raising your hopes.
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QL: So, you are the person we can blame for this accident of calendar? - Fie on you! ;o)
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MAII 52, Webster's or OED?
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I'm also sorry that I left an 'it' out of my last post.
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QL 58, I'm sorry I didn't mention before you did.
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The apologies I wonder about are the ones that go, "I'm sorry, but..." For instance, "I'm sorry I lost my temper, but you were being so annoying." The "but" bit seems to imply "you deserved it". Thus, the "apology" transforms itself into a repeat of the original offence, plus a self-justification.
I'm sorry I posted this, but I felt I had to.
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Mmm. What an interesting strand. We are thinking of doing more on "sorry" for iPM this week.
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EM 61, Sorry, I don't look at iPM.
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David_McNickle, I'm sorry for not being more specific. That would depend on which side of the pond you are on.
mittfh #53
My self assigned punishment is to listen to the entire operetta "The Pirates of Penance." :-)
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Hmm.. I'm sorry for being such an old whinger about iPM being on at such an early hour, and having a go at people who get up early, when it was a doddle to listen to it on iPlayer.. But I didn't listen to the whole thing, because 'Split' Ends with Clive Anderson was coming on..
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1 MA2: Stop listening, watching and reading then, and find some media outlet which you find more acceptable.
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*sings*
Sorry seems to be the hardest word......
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Hmmm... 12:10 and Eddie hasn't posted a new thread yet...
Perhaps he's too busy reading our apologies... :)
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Sorry means never having to say . . . no - that's not right, is it?
Sorry.
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I should really apologise to the guy who I met one night in the Student Union bar. I recommended Vicks Vaporub for his Jogger's Nipple because he was annoying me. It must have really smarted...
My friend used the same ruse with another chap - she recommended it for further south for performance enhancement. That must have stung. She is probably unrepentant.
I'm older and wiser and "on the register" now so I wouldn't dream of being that irresponsible today.
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Gillianian (66):
Sorry, but surely "diamond" is the hardest word?
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SSCat (70) - Nah. Fullerites.
Or to you - Polymerized Single Walled NanoTubules.
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Ooouuch, QL (71) Try some Vaporub on them!
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Gillianian - Done that already! They glow in the dark now.
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As ever, threads go off in weird and wonderful ways! If you do have someone to whom you want to say sorry, there's a place over at iPM. I have made an apology myself there... http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2008/11/sorry.shtml
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Eric, that's one of the glories of the frogosphere; its weirdness and wonderfulness.
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I am sorry I ever started banking with **$£("^"!
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Then there's
I'm Sorry,
So Sorry
from a song the rest of which (the above was the only vaguely good bit) I'm glad to say I've forgotten)
and
I apol-o-gise
from a song, which I'm sorry to say, I can't remember the rest of, 'cos I liked it, but it was sung in a talking-like-Elvis way (well after Elvis had left the building) in a style I'd call rock R and B.
Is there any real difference except in the degree of formality or is claiming there's a difference hair splitting, strictly for the domain of bankers and other charlatans?
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pmLeader@77
Oh dear! If you follow this link, you may well be reminded...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2008/11/sorry.shtml#commentsanchor
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78. Cheers, Charlie.
My memory must be going!
Brenda Lee, yep, but Sweet Nuttin' was better, wasn't it?
Hey, I thought with the talk of Eckstein from ingeniouscliff and you mentioning pj proby that I was going to get another lesson (always welcome) in the history of rock (like finding 'Chillun Boogie' was in the US hit parade in the late forties)
But (I'm sorry, I apologise to you both) I don't think I'm thinking of the same song.
If I was, it was taken a lot, lot faster, and the 'I apologise' was swooped down on, staccato Elvis syle - no trace of the ballad sound there at all. Only younger.
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Well done pmLeader (77) for putting the words "bankers and other charlatans" into the same sentence.
Cheered me up no end.
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I am sorry that the 'Sorry' blog has attracted such a loot of silly comments and there are so few of the sort that I assume the Beeb was hoping for. Like my genuine one. My parents forced me to write a nasty letter to a young lad called John Lorraine Allen in 1956 or thereabouts. I had run away from home in Shropshire, & he had helped me when I was lost, and my parents didn't want me to contact him again. He was sent to an Outward Bound scheme, & I was never able to tell him that I wrote under duress. I often wonder what happened to him, and if it affected his future. I would so love to say sorry to him.
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Well, G-Dubbya wants to say sorry and "tell-the-truth" (wot-dat?!)
So I thought. Well, I thought, as he and I are like bro.....
Okay, okay, he doesn't know me from a-hole-in-the-ground and I, thankfully, don't know him.
Nevertheless, I "know" he'd want to start his apologies here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bush-i-regret-saying-the-things-i-shouldnt-have-said-1015849.html
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D 81, I'm sorry you dont like the sorry thread.
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I'm sorry...but in the light of recent news stories about saying sorry / apologising / kicking yourself / regretting your actions, I couldn't resist reopening this old thread :)
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No probs.
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