h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28493958
Lightning strikes cause "major disruption" to rail services in England and south Wales.

This is one of the most poorly written news stories I can remember seeing in a good while. I had to read it though to the end, and then read it again to be, well, I'm still not entirely sure if the 'lightning strikes' in question are weather-related or the result of industrial action. I'm assuming the former, even though there's no mention of storms, rain, flooding or any other meteorological phenomena, because I know the BBC well enough by now that had it been the latter, the piece would have been liberally peppered with angry vox pops from irate commuters railing at the bolshy railways staff and their inhumanity and arrogance.

"A strike in the Surbiton area" also makes me lean towards the probability of electrical discharges from above, because such localised industrial action seems improbable.

However, after scrolling beyond the bottom of the BBC-written content I now see:

More on This Story

From other news sites

ITV.com Storms cause commuter chaos 1 hr ago
MSN UK Lightning causes travel disruption 4 hrs ago
Huffington Post UK UK Weather Blighted As Summer Storms Return With A Bang (PICTURES) 8 hrs ago

So I guess that clears that up. I swear they must be employing 12-year-olds to write for the BBC these days. Perhaps that's all they can afford now. Bloody austerity measures. Pay your licence fee! Hell, it's worth it for Just a Minute on its own... right?

I agree wholeheartedly with that. Didn't the BBC used to be a foundation stone of the spoken English language, along with the Queen? So surely we should expect exemplary writing from them, too, (in form and content). The worst examples are to be found on the podcast pages - who on earth writes the podcast blurbs? And why don't they get them proof-read. Not to mention my pet hate, the non-use of adjective to describe countries. Sounds like a two-year-old is talking.

At any given time you can find examples on the BBC front page (spot check - right now you can read: >>Senegal farmers get cow tracker tech<<.

PS - I've read things in our local paper giving reports on matches between different village teams, telling you who won and what the score was, but no mention of what sport was being played.

OK - off to read the article you linked to now.