NATO is a military alliance. Whatever the EU is, it isn't that. And the vast majority of NATO's military capacity is US armed forces.
The pic seems to have come from a site for Republican memes. It isn’t clear to me why US republicans would use this and what for. But likely a culture war related thing
As someone who worked at Sainsburys under Mike Coupe’s tenure, it became a much less pleasant place to work with a lovely mix of reducing employee perks, removing bonuses for department managers and team leaders, downgrading pensions, removing staff canteens and subsidised vending machines, introducing more restrictive contracts, counterbalanced with a massive ‘isn’t this a great place to work, we won’t do anything to make it that way, but if we tell you every day then it must be!’ campaign. Although to be fair the change started under Justin King, but Mike Coupe saw it through. Either way it doesn’t surprise me that he mixes in these circles.
I look forward to hearing about that on tonight’s news. There doesn’t appear to be anything on the BBC or ITV Websites, but I’m sure they will catch up with it soon.
I was a Department Manager for them for most of the 1990s and hated every second of my time working for them. The only thing I gained from my time with them was a qualification as a NVQ assessor, at a time when they were chasing the Investors in People badge of honour and they wanted their staff to do retail NVQs, but assessed by Department Managers to save paying outsiders. I was made redundant during one of their several reshuffles but owing to my only just acquired qualification, I had already started applying for jobs as I knew I would get the chop - I had history with the manager. The morning I was escorted from the branch, having been informed of my redundancy, I left with a payment of around £12k, then received a phone call the same afternoon offering me a job as a NVQ assessor. Unemployed for barely 5 hours. Win, win. Oh and I had already started a grievance procedure against the store manager, for unfair treatment, which was followed through with, resulting in the manager being busted down to the smallest store (at the time, before the locals) on the district, at Bocombe. Boy did I stick the boot in, including telling the District Manager that following his weekly meetings with the store managers, at the Hedge End store, my manager wasn’t returning immediately to his store, because he was stopping off at a woman’s house for a shag. The deputy managers were covering up for his absence, but one let it slip to me and I thought I would make use of it, plus so much more.
Some interesting figures in this article. A very small survey shows a vote to rejoin would be 53-47 for rejoining, and that 82% of those who didn’t vote in 2016 would now vote rejoin. As I say, very small survey but I think the young who have qualified for the vote since then would be pro EU. If a pro EU party was to set up before the next General Election, it would get my vote. https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk...bFsCTe_hRqAjJQISlldxebEdwT2hblh9e06zqmWIkaU_Q
Absolutely beautiful. I can assure you that the management culture you describe was very much alive and well as of the mid 2010s, you had 30-60 year olds behaving like they had never left school, sitting in their little cliques on break, stitching up other members of staff, inter-management affairs all over the place, bullying off the charts, constructive dismissal practises alive and well if your face didn’t fit. I dropped out of the trainee manager scheme there. Completely demolished my confidence and sense of self-worth and was made to feel like a totally useless waste of space that would fail anywhere, actually started to believe it. Leaving was the best thing I ever did, I actually thought all work environments must be similar, but it’s only since getting out I have fully realised what a toxic ****hole it was. Not that I’m bitter or anything….
What you say is how it was in my time, but is generally a retail thing, from what I have heard and seen. The last I heard one of deputy managers at the time, has since risen to district manager status. You might know him. Initials DN. He also had a stint as manager at Hedge End. He was the one who told me the store manager’s dirty little secret, although we already suspected it. He had a secret of his own, that was revealed when a female member of staff dropped her diary, which was then handed in to personnel. The diary owner hadn’t put her name in the diary but what she had put in there was rather revealing, including a quick shag in the plant room. Once we knew who’s diary it was everything clicked into place as to who the other person was. He had a young daughter at the time, a lovely wife and acted like a piece of ****. Better say something about politics before the mods tell me to stop. People like Mike Coupe fit nicely into the set up of so many governmental departments. Not nice people, totally lacking in empathy.
You are quite right that it is more than likely the culture across retail, but it’s funny from your post to see that the experience has remained pretty consistent! Yeah I am familiar with that name, didn’t ever really spend any time around that particular person but that behaviour was definitely present around store management teams in the area, they obviously learned to bury the diaries after that though. Anyway yes, politics! The realisation I am having is that the leadership of our country and a typical Sainsburys store seem to have a lot in common.
Thing is, imagine if Russia or China were aggressively forming alliances with South American countries and deploying military south of the US border. The US would rightly be outraged. I hope there is anything to worry about with this stuff, i hope it’s mostly posturing. I think putin is too smart to escalate this now. But who knows what’s going on behind the scenes.
I think I have mentioned it on here before during the England game against them, but my girlfriend is Ukrainian. We were meant to be on a skiing trip to the Carpathians at the start of the month. Her family weren't taking it very seriously until a month or so ago(which is why we only cancelled our trip less than a week beforehand!) but they have started treating it like a realistic threat now. They live mostly in a town in the Poltava Oblast, but on the border to Kharkiv Oblast which is quite near to the Russian border (relative to the size of Ukraine) They've started acting on the assumption that if anything happens utilities will be quickly cut off so they took their money out of the bank and started stockpiling food/water catfood etc. Was shown a photo in the city itself of a system they just built to supply water if the normal water system goes down. Her family's view is that they like Russia but hate Putin, and said they wouldn't want to join NATO or see the need for it if it wasn't for him. (my girlfriend forced me to vote for Russia in Eurovision last year! it was because it was apparently woman's rights song which is a serious issue in both Russia and Ukraine. though I couldn't understand a thing.) Don't like being stuck between NATO and Putin but accept that's the situation they are in and side with the west. But that's just their opinion. I don't know much outside that. Anyway I think they just hate the uncertainty right now. but they also seem to be influenced by western media to be fair. Was asked for our opinion on the Sun yesterday
While it is good to read the judgement in this case, the kimono-wearing fox-killer seems to be spinning this as a 'win' for the Good Law Project when in fact Mr Maugham took a bit of a bashing at the High Court. Here is Barrister Barbara Rich's analysis- ...the claim by the Good Law Project failed in its entirety (paragraph 126), as did the “cronyism” grounds, of indirect discrimination and apparent bias Of course it is important that ministers comply with the law, in this instance with the public sector equality duty, but this crowdfunded claim was promoted by the [Good Law Project] under the headline “Jobs for their mates. We’re suing”, and that headline is a long way from the judgment itself The judgment also has implications for the Good Law Project and those who contribute to its financial support beyond this case, in its ruling on standing - the entitlement to apply for judicial review of decisions made by a public authority. It has no wide carte blanche to bring any claim for judicial review no matter what the issues and no matter what the circumstances Hyperbole and selective focus in describing the outcome of litigation would not matter much, but for the fact that the GLP relies on public contributions to its finances, and that it occupies the territory where law and politics meet The judgment made no findings to support the claims of either corruption or cronyism, dismissed the claims of the Good Law Project in their entirety, and raised wider questions about its standing. Runnymede Trust is an unconnected charity. The Good Law Project is on the rocks.
As well as rejoining electoral reform is high on my list. Removing the tories will take cooperation with the opposition parties leaving the best placed candidate standing in each ward. Much as I'd like to see that happen it's probably not going to happen so tactical voting may be the answer. This is from the Electoral Reform Society regarding the 2019 GE. Lot of analysis but the bottom line is we were ****ed by the FPTP system. https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk...-2019-general-election-voters-left-voiceless/
