Apologies for a rant

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can prune roses with a hedgecutter thingy.

Yes, I read that too. I think it was in Gardening Which? some years ago. They did a trial, discovered that they got just as many flowers using a hedgetrimmer as doing it "properly".

I'm still not doing it that way though. I like taking my time over it with a nice sharp pair of secateurs.