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Our resident cartoonist Jan is open to any ideas for our weekly Friday Funny cartoon.

It's nice to keep it topical and current if possible, but pretty much anything goes (as long as it's family friendly ).

So if you have any ideas, feel free to add them in the thread below. Jan normally draws up the cartoon on a Thursday, so it's ready for Friday morning. So we need any ideas by Thursday morning latest.

If you fancy a nice souvenir for the downstairs toilet and your idea is chosen, for a small(ish) fee Jan will put the original artwork in a frame and send it to you.

So are the creative juices flowing? Any comic genius's out there?

Cartoons can be about absolutely anything, but preferably newsworthy so people understand it.

Well according to an article on the Beeb, the humble smartphone app, all 4.5 million of them could be on the way out. User apathy, relentless updates and the fact they waste so much space on your phone are reasons cited.

So what will replace them?

Apparently "bots".

These programs, thanks to AI [artificial intelligence] software in the cloud, can chat to humans via text, extract the meaning and then act on it.

They are little digital helpers.

Any time you see a live chat box open up on a retailer's website, or order a taxi or flowers through chat platforms such as WeChat and Facebook Messenger, you're most likely talking to a bot.

BBC  - Killer Bots

So rather than downloading multitudes of bloatware apps, you can download a small bot, which allows you to interact with the product or service you want to use. It seems all the big boys can see which way the wind is blowing, with Facebook announcing a bot framework to make it easier for developers to create bots.

I must admit, I rarely use the majority of apps on my phone, and they do seem to want to update every month, (along with everything else these days ). I like the idea of just interacting with a bot, preferably by voice to get things done. We are starting to go down this road with the likes of Apples Siri which is getting much better.

As with all things new, the key question is how to make any money from it 

Originally Posted by Rebecca (PayforPrecision)

“I love the cartoon and hate marmite. ”

Yup, ditto

Couldn't resist it, had to watch the Trumpton / Hillary debate last night on iplayer. It was worse than how the media made it out to be

Although Trump comes over as a political amateur, and his taunts are better suited in a school playground, Clinton wasn't really that much better.

It's frightening that one of these two numpties is going to be the worlds most powerful person 

Maybe it is time to build a shelter in the back garden...

So Unilever, Tesco's and Asda have ended the recent food price dispute and done some hasty behind the scenes negotiations to keep our Marmite and Mayonnaise on the shelves.

But with Unilver wanting to increase it's prices by 10% across its product range, are big price increases only a matter of time?

Supermarkets are forever locked into a price war with each other, and now they are having to do battle with suppliers. But if products made in Europe or overseas are now more expensive to import due to drop in sterling, then surely prices will have to increase at some point?

Or will our buying habits change and we'll forget previous brand loyalty in favour of cheaper home grown or generated alternatives? 

Could this be an opportunity and welcome boost for the UK farming and manufacturing industry? Or is the reality we still need to import the majority of raw materials, which will still reflect in higher prices? 

As it's with the court, it will be down to them to deliver the verdict. So anything we say or add is just hearsay and speculation.

But..

In theory the customer should come to you first and raise a complaint with you, working through your own complaints process. The fact the customer didn't complain to you directly and hasn't given you a chance to resolve any perceived issue, would in my mind work against the customer. 

My understanding is that Judges like to see all dispute avenues have been explored before cases are bought to court and I would have thought your solicitor would have said the same.

Be interesting to hear what happens, be nice if you come back and let us know.

Originally Posted by Barney

“Reading between the lines.... I'm guessing you don't tip very often....”

Which is probably why I don't mind tipping  

Nice one Dan for confirming and letting us know.

Have renamed the thread and moved it into the scams section as a warning for others.

Originally Posted by Barney

“Not one for giving tips.... But I do like to write the occasional review...”

You went to a little thief? What did you expect

I confess to going full circle about tips. I used to be 100% anti tips with the standard lines of "I don't get a tip in my job" or when given the low wages sob story, "go get a better job!"

But maybe it's me getting older, or the fact that tipping is now embedded in our culture, but I now expect to pay a tip. But I'm also a lot more likely to complain and asked for a reduced meal price if the service or food hasn't met our perceived standard. 

So I'll happily tip, but you need to get all the meals out at the same time, include all the things on the plate I ordered, it needs to be hot, and taste as good as I expect it to. Otherwise no tip, and a discount on the bill.

Sadly, these basic prerequisites are rarely met, to the point now have to we read back the order to the waitress/waiter as we are bored of people getting it continually wrong

It seems even with the review culture we live in, so many (and particularly chain pubs/restaurants) seem to care.