A couple of stories from BBC News relating to the North East that I want to share with you, and I’m looking for audience participation here. I’m going to describe the details, provide a link to the relevant news story, and ask you, my loyal and humbly devoted readers, to decide whether, in your opinion, the appropriate person in the news story was acting like an idiot or an arsehole. Or, if you should wish, you can vote for them as exhibiting perfectly sensible and appropriate behaviour. But in each case, you can only choose one of these options; so if you decide there are elements of more than one, you have to pick the one you feel is strongest…

Obviously, this is just for fun. Results are not legally binding. It might also be fair to point out that these people are probably perfectly capable of acting in a manner which seems neither full of arsiness nor idiocy in most circumstances. I’m simply looking for how you feel they behaved in these particular circumstances.

So let us start…

The Nursery Boss

A nursery boss has apologised for sending a pair of fake plastic breasts to an employee recovering from a mastectomy operation. Mrs B[...] underwent a series of operations after being told she had breast cancer six years ago. The false breasts were sent in 2004, weeks after her second breast had been removed by surgeons.

She said: “When I was having meeting with [...] she started saying things like ‘keep abreast of things, [...]” or ‘you’ve dropped a boob there’.” The nursery sacked her in 2007, following allegations she had breached child protection rules. However, the chairman of the employment tribunal in Newcastle found she had been unfairly dismissed under the disability discrimination act.

BBC News: Boss ‘sorry’ over fake boobs joke

So, the question is, do you think that the owner of the Ring O’ Roses nursery in Winlaton, Gateshead behaved like an idiot, an arsehole, or perfectly sensibly and appropriately?

And no, this isn’t the nursery that my youngest child goes to.

Sorry, Was That Sign Supposed To Apply To Me?

On average about one vehicle a month is caught out on the half-mile stretch of road which links [Holy Island] to mainland Northumberland. [...] The causeway floods twice a day at high tide and islanders are mystified as to why some visitors ignore widely-publicised safe crossing times.

The latest rescue involved a couple from Glasgow being winched from their car by an RAF helicopter crew, after being cut off by the tide.

Susan Massey, parish council chairman and owner of the island’s Oasis cafe, said: “Anyone that gets stuck really has got to be an idiot as there are warning signs with tidal times all over the island”.

Islanders also tell of a visitor who bragged that the warnings were “just to frighten the tourists” after being told he was close to missing the safe crossing time. Half-an-hour later he was being winched into an RAF helicopter with his wife and two children. There have been six rescues involving lifeboat crews and coastguards so far this year.

Each lifeboat call out costs the RNLI between £1,800 and £2,000. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency estimates each helicopter call out costs upwards of £4,000

BBC News: Tidal tourists mystify islanders

Obviously Susan Massey has made her mind up, but there’s no need for you to jump to the same conclusion as her. Remember, we want to know whether these people who don’t think that the causeway signs apply to them are acting idiotically, like an arsehole or perfectly sensibly and appropriately.

Although I do have an alternative idea for these people. Turn up in the rescue boats or helicopters, and refuse to actually rescue them until they’ve signed some sort of contract to indicate that they will pay for their rescue in full. Some people may think that is being unsympathetic, but I’d suggest that if I was to be displaying a lack of sympathy, I’d just suggest not bothering with the rescue: after all, they were warned.

So, let’s have your votes please for the nursery boss and the tidally trapped tourists…