WorcsWuss

Exactly right Dave.

The world cannot operate if every decision has to factor in one in a million occurrences such as this. What if you dismantle a veteran tree in a park for a council? And a man kills himself. Because that tree was where he proposed to his now dead wife and he went there every day to remember her. And without it he couldn't live. Would you accept the blame for his death?

You are of course correct (although 'convict related waster ' is a bit strong, even by my standards!) My personal opinion of a mother leaving her children at Christmas, for whatever reason, being inexcusable, aside, the balance I was trying to introduce was a basic fact that she chose suicide, there's not a court in the land which will decree that one prank phone call was the sole cause for her death. Sack the dj's and their producers for being rubbish by all means, but charging them with man slaughter is a bit extreme. And I'm not at all liberal.

That's posting without smilies for you. Bloody iPhone. My opinion on the suicide isirrelevant really, all if our opinions are, because we don't know all the facts. I only stated my opinion as a side note to why I feel that the dj's shouldn't be blamed for her death. When my wife was ill I was angry with everything, everyone, but if she had died I would mostly have been angry at her for letting the cancer win. It's a pretty shameful thing to admit but it's a point which needs making. My guess is that her kids will be angry with the media, the dj's, the hospital, but mostly their mother for choosing to leave them. Sitting here cuddling my daughter I have tremendous sympathy for her kids. The sympathy I have for the nurse us that she couldn't get the help she obviously needed in time. But you can't blame a pair if idiots ( or more specifically, their producer ) for that.

News corporation Not you!

Social media generates huge numbers and I am always wary of it as a yardstick. This type of 'entertainment' has been done before in exactly the same way, and also in different but equally as hurtful formats - Ross and Brand? But they're still working, making loads of money. The difference here is that a delicate person has been tragically affected (allegedly) by the prank. I strongly feel that the dj's, puerile though they may be, have been drawn into something personal to the nurse and her family which had little to do with them, by the media which made them. Delicious irony? Perhaps, but still not entirely fair. The suicide, emotive though it is, needs to be separated out of the decision over their professional conduct, it is not relevant to that particular enquiry.

Fair play, there aren't many who can or will do that. I only listen to my iPod or radio 4 ( but even r4 can be a bit biased at times), I don't read newspapers and I couldn't identify a celebrity or footballer in a line up of 2. But I can't absolve myself of blame, I watch fox comedies.

If you're suggesting she may have had a mental illness, then we're saying the same thing. It's not as cut and dried as society likes to make things these days, tie it all up with a nice blame bow and move on. That doesn't work.

So you don't listen to radio 1, or any other commercial station, or read the odd tabloid, or like to see a fit celeb girl topless on the beach? They're all from the same mould, and in spending our money on this crap we proliferate it.... Unfortunately this inane drivel in the media is unavoidable these days. But we don't do anything about it, we just get all moral when it hurts someone.

She wasn't murdered mate. Although has suicide been confirmed? Not at all. In this case I disagree that suicide was appropriate. 2 children without a mother at Christmas is not on. I must clarify, I'm not anti suicide, I fully respect the rights of the individual to make their own choices. Again, the point I'm trying to make us that it was her choice, the dj's didn't murder her. My wife battled cancer to be able see our children grow up. Seems odd that a woman who seemingly had it all, great career, happy family etc would end it all because of a half arsed prank by some non celebrities. Unless everything wasn't so peachy, in which case blaming the radio prank is also wrong. There is no blame here. It's just a very sad event. So be as sanctimonious as you like about the psychology of suicide, I'm not without experience, but this thread is not about that, it's whether there's a criminal case against the dj's. I say there isn't.

Don't think I'm having a go at the late nurse. I'm all for personal choice and don't judge people on their choices. I do have an opinion though when they affect others. Did her children have a choice in this? If we must blame anyone for this, then surely it's all of us, for lapping up the kind of crap they put on the tv and radio these days, and the media feeding frenzy every time something goes wrong.

I'm sorry you feel that way (and surprised that anyone thinks I ever talk sense!) Which bit specifically? The facts as I see them are as follows. A couple of idiot dj's (of the variety I can't listen to) played a stupid joke to get some attention. Been done before, boring. A nurse, a wife and mother, on the periphery of the prank, tops herself just before Christmas. It may or may not be connected. My opinion is that what the dj's did was feeble and not very original. What the nurse did sems selfish to me. All that said, we don't know the whole story. The hospital have said she was a wonderful nurse. But for all we know she could have been under investigation for stealing drugs from the hospital. This may have been the final straw or a way she could protect her family from the shame. But the fact is she has left 2 teenage children mourning their mother at Christmas. That was her conscious decision and I can't see how her kids deserved that.

You're absolutely right, our friend and neighbour hung himself in his workshop at the end of my drive, and I know that he had good reason, something he couldn't live with. I don't think any less of him for doing it. I'm the same way, this nurse may have had good reason. If she did, it certainly wasn't putting the dj's through, and the media need to stop the witch hunt. That's the point I'm trying to make.

I'm not turning on her, but I disagree that the radio dj's should be blamed for her death, I also disagree that suicide is a valid solution to personal problems, even serious ones, and certainly not mild embarrassment. She chose that path and as a parent I can't see how it was the right one.... She has 2 kids and a husband. They should have been enough to get her through this, but if they weren't then everything was clearly not rosey for her and the dj's should not be blamed for her death.

Don't underestimate yourself Felix! I jest of course.....! Suicide is not a brave thing to do, the brave thing to do is face up to your problems and put in the hard work to get through them. Killing yourself, if that is indeed what she did, because you're a bit red faced after making a cock up at work is a ridiculous solution and certainly not the courageous option!

As usual the media have turned a non event into a circus. No one is to blame, it's just an unhappy coincidence. She can't have topped herself because of the prank call, and if she did, she was clearly unstable and needed help before this happened. I have no sympathy for suicides, coward's way out. How could she do that to her children? Disgusting act of selfishness.

You're not on the clock on a rec climb, you can go as slow as you like!

It's less dangerous on the new one but still a pain in the arse. I usually hear it referred to as presumptive text! I can see the advantages of srt now and I'm looking forward to trying it out. The nice thing is if you don't like it / can't use it, all but the friction sharer is ddrt kit anyway.

You using an iPhone Drew?!

Srt is still in it's infancy really with regards tree work. Work positioning techniques are developing all the time though, see rope wrench and hitch hiker threads. Ddrt (which is what I presume you mean) is still the quickest way to get set up, and presents the widest range of options in terms of hardware. Srt is better suited to long ascents up a rope than ddrt but personally I don't go that high so don't worry too much. I do fancy trying srt soon though. Depends how you want to climb and what you want to invest!

Better limit your cider intake next week then Jon!!

My wife has told me she doesn't want anything because she got her iPad a couple of weeks ago for her birthday.... And that I can go but the little log splitter I want for 'us both'.... Am I being suspicious in thinking that might be too good to be true....? She must be after something!!

The exciting part is that the world is currently your oyster and you could go in any direction, just try as many systems as you can. The other thing to bear in mind is cross system compatibility. For instance, a hitch climber pulley with a decent eye to eye cord and pantin can convert from ddrt to srt with the addition of and ascender and friction sharing device. Make sure you do plenty of research and try some systems and I'm sure you'll find something you like. I climb on a multi saver, 11mm aeris, 75cm 8mm beeline VT & hc pulley and I love it, very happy with it, but everyone is different. Next step for me is to try srt with a rope wrench and pantin into my existing system....

It's ticket sales which really benefit the kids Rich!

Had anyone considered making a solid tether from a strip of ali, to suit their hitch length? Seems to be the answer to me?