............Or Press 234 If You Give Up.

Here's one. I've just seen an advert for a bank - Nat West, I think it was, but that's by the by. The selling point they were putting across was that when you phone them up you will be spoken to by someone "at a CALL CENTRE in THIS country".

How the bloody Hell do they find that something to crow about? It's someone in your fucking branch you want to talk to and, indeed, used to be able to in the happy times. Once they decided to sack loads of staff and hive phone-answering off to call centres, who bloody cared where their call was being answered? Someone in a call centre in Dagenham is about as in touch with you and caring as someone in a centre in fucking Bangalore!
The ad's theme, of course, could be thinly veiled racism - you know, "Oh we don't have Johnny Indian answering our calls at a centre in Dehli. No, we've got genuine Essex-types doing it."
More worrying still is that this is a blatant attempt to make call centres appear acceptable, when almost everyone alive hates them, by turning the focus of annoyance elsewhere. Well, they ARE a disgrace and some of us will keep saying that until they are scrapped and we can get back to talking to "real" people again. No doubt that will be the same day there is a sudden, extremely cold snap in Hades.
Call centres of any description - for Grantham.
PS. On a brighter note, the will to carry on living was instilled in me this evening by the fantastic "The Trial of Tony Blair" on More 4. Excellent stuff!