Is it just the placement, or are HMRC suggesting that the lady they have pictured is representitive of a plumber, heating engineer or gas installer?
She doesn't even have a spanner (though she does seem to have a washer round her neck I concede)!
Replies (21)
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They
Obviously saw this criticism and changed it promptly.
If only they would pay attention to everything else we put on here...
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I also just get a stop-[***].
Perhaps the female plumber was Lesley Strathie moonlighting in her spare time - ("cash only guv & we can forget the VAT").
A new one on me
I've never before heard the word "stopcock" used as a euphemism for an ugly lady!
David
I've seen her
She's not the prettiest in the world that's for sure have to laugh at Cathy's comment tho.
Strange?
How strange, CC, I get the stopcock when i follow your link! How can we follow the same link and see different things? No - don't tell me all you compuet geeks out there - I have given up trying to understand computers/the Internet/the WWW etc etc as it makes my brain hurt. I'll stick with tax advice - much easier on the brain cells!
Cathy
Get out of the office a bit more
It's clear that the problem here is that some of you can't actually tell the difference between a stopcock and a lady.
It's quite simple to tell the the difference. One is quite easy to turn on, whereas the other is often difficult, requiring the application of a specialist tool.
Refreshing - or not
If you still see the lady then you may have a copy of the HMRC website homepage stored on your own computer hard drive (in what's called a cache I think).
When you 'go to the website' your computer first checks to see if it already has the page and, if so, retrieves that rather than going online to download it again. So you may be looking at an old copy.
Try refreshing the page (sometimes pressing F5 will do that). If the lady vanishes then that's the answer.
David
Not being personal!
It has just occured to me that some of you might think I was being very rude about the lady in question. I wasn't as I haven't seen her picture - just the stopcock. My comment was on the aptness of using the word for an unattractive woman generally - not on this lady in particular (although I'm not sure that makes my comment any more PC!).
I think I'll stop digging now!
Cathy
Gate valve?
I'm sure you're right but it's all but impossible to get a double entendre out of 'gate valve'
Gate Valve not Stopcock
Just a technical point but I think you will find the picture is actually that of a gatevalve and not a stopcock. A stopcock generally allows the flow of water in one direction only to isolate a house or property, whereas a gatevalve will allow the water or fluid to flow in either direction.
As said just a minor technical point.
Sorry just seen that someone has beaten me to it earlier on in the post
Not a plumber!
That's not a plumber, she has a laptop in front of her (not that plumbers can't use a laptop).... No wonder they changed the picture to a stopcock!
That woman looks like a generic business-woman :-)
(S)he's Back
You are quite right she is rather plain, but you must applaud her for not letting her baldness prevent her from pursuing a modeling career.
I must say the laptop mentioned is rather old fashioned though, a large wooden laptop must be difficult to carry around!
Of course my serious comment would be that they've seen this thread and are messing with our heads in an atempt to confuse and possibly discredit professional advisors and make their jobs easier (that bloke on the apprentice was probably an HMRC plant as well)
I see her!
Doesn't look like a plumber to me. Surely even HMRC would have given her an appropriate tool if they had wanted her to look like a plumber?
Maybe she's supposed to be the helpful HMRC officer? I can't imagine any small business woman looking that happy about doing her tax returns!
Cathy