This blog has now been live for almost three months and we have had over 45,000 views. What is intriquing at times, though, is the words and phrases people enter in to search engines in order to reach us. Obviously, ‘lords blog’ or the like is fairly straightforward but some visitors have reached the site through typing in some unusual terms.
One visitor recently reached us by typing in ‘tights worn by black rod’. A more recent visitor reached us by typing in ‘cruising lords’. I am not quite sure what they expected to find! Or whether they have been disappointed.
Perhaps ‘cruising lords’ would have been more appropriate when Lord Boothby was alive.
Then there was Lord Driberg – am sure he did not disappoint anyone when it came to cruising.
I’m not sure the phrase ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’ really does justice to what I’m trying to say, but hey, you get the gist…
I’m always baffled and amused by the strange search terms people find my blog, too. And I always wonder why they would be looking for some of these things in the first place. 🙂
Tori Lennox: I know exactly what you mean. The terms I mentioned were just two out of a great many weird and wonderful terms and some, as you say, leave one wondering what the people using them were actually looking for.
Bedd Gelert: I am not sure that I do know what you mean!
howridiculous: People interpret phrases in different ways. Some peers give lectures on board cruise ships, and I was thinking that this may be what the person had in mind. Your interpretation may involve sailors, but in a somewhat different way.
Its not as strange as spell checkers that use phonetics to provide a list of alternate words. One presupposes that search engines use them too?
We all now rely upon spell checkers, for example I’m writing this with the aid of a Firefox 3 spelling add-on. Spelling presents particular problems to students with some degree of dyslexia or those who have not grasped the basics of grammar. The results can sometimes make you smile.
For example, one might consider that the Lords is a “Powershell”. A spell checker might thing otherwise. Have you tried Google in a spell checker? Firefox suggests “Go Ogle” which is exactly what happens.
I believe Parliament uses Microsoft products like Word. One thing that might help is the latest version, which puts a blue squiggly line under words that it thinks is contextually wrong, see the link below.
Ref:
http://www.dyslexic.com/overview
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphone
http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2006/10/25/contextual-spell-checking.aspx
Lord Norton, I guess my point is that you should accept the extra ‘hits’ which may have come through serendipity and chance, and not question too much whether this was their intended destination.
Indeed, on a journey sometimes the most enjoyable destinations are one’s just stumbled upon by chance.
On a more serious note, what is your view on those noble Lords who are not resident in the UK for tax purposes ? Is it really right that those ‘foreigners’ who are not paying British taxes should be making laws ?
Maybe we need a kind of ‘no representation without taxation’ rule ?
Bedd Gelert: I understand now – and I completely accept he point you make. I welcome all visitors to the site, whether they have come directly and knowingly or whether thay have reached us by serendipity. Indeed, as you say, sometimes the most enjoyable destinations are one’s just stumbled on for chance. It would be nice to think that those who arrive at this site more by chance than design find it is welcome surprise.
On your latter point, I am sympathetic to the view that members of the legislature should be residents of the UK. Were I ever to be in a situation of having a massive income (fat chance, I admit) I would never dream of living outside the UK. That would apply whether I was a peer or not. Money to me isn’t that important: what is important is that I do what I enjoy doing.
I used to run a website run by a member of the Lords. Someone got to the site once after searching for the term ‘baroness sex’. Not only must this person have been jolly disappointed when he clicked to discover a speech on gender equality, but one does wonder what he was after…