Off Topic 2023 NEW START - - inflation - POST EVENT INQUIRIES ++ ARE PEOPLE GETTING Fed up?

Yea running out of them ... difficult to find them! Actually dont disagre with anything he said ... even said I have been to Bizzy to read it all But a large number of processed immigrants could get given the choice of home country or Rwanda.
MERRY CHRISTMAS ANYWAY.....

 

My friends wife is a bank nurse, she does not get paid double in fact before she had to "become a bank nurse" she earned more. The cost of hiring "agency" nurses is stupid ... who gets the lions share? .... agency does. Cant remember which one but an agency at end of 1980's I was attached to used to pay a different rate for each job [ company needing the agency workers own rate for job ] with a minimum payment but charge 30% plus I believe VAT on top ........ so not double or near it ... flexibility if Agency and regular pre set rate and times if Bank ...

 

Careful JGF - some might label you a ‘Woke Lefty’ for these comments!!

 

.........and you.

 

Mate of mine retired 10 years ago from the Police aged 50 on £30k annual salary.
The following Monday, a few days letter started the same job.
Earning £60k annual salary.
I chat with 2 Teachers on a Friday in our local. Both retired in their 50s.
Happy days.
Their words not mine.

 

A new year, a bleak future? or a future of our own making?
My wish was for a stiffening of the British "stiff" upper lip! With so much more time to be indoors with Rain pretty much a constant companion for 3 or 4 days perusing the news feeds has been interesting.
1 item that was shown was a manageress of a food bank complaining that pasta and beans is just not enough and that free donations of foods is drying up! REALLY! she has had to go out and try to raise money to buy stuff! and complainds the .GOV should help by donating? toward her cause ...... REALLY!
Are we becoming a nation of softeee's ... are certain people taking advantage?
I looked around the shelves of one "shop?" on the box and there is things like Salmon.. avocado's ... that is luxury foods! .... whats wrong with baked beans on toast with a sausage and an egg!

 

I think you are missing the point. We are one of the richest countries in the world, and yet we have the need for food banks, personally I’m embarrassed at the need for their existence at all.

 

you say missing the point! but agree with what I say! latest is the geezer who packs his job in opens a cafe for those without then wants the .gov to empower him .... TWAT

 

S T R I K E S ....... YiKeS.....
Under the proposals, some public sector workers would be required to work during a strike.
Downing Street said the new legislation was necessary to "protect the public".


TUC general secretary Mr Nowak said: "This legislation would mean that when workers democratically vote to strike, they can be forced to work and sacked if they don't comply.
"That's undemocratic, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal."

YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER all TUC staff and officers do not have to give up their wages when its members go on strike! ... basically as jobsworth's they have to show they are doing "something" to warrant their often over inflated remuneration!
How can it be illegal if the law states a precedent that to protect the general public a minimal number of staff must be available to cover basic need! The members would be voting to go on strike knowing that the law stated a minimal number of staff needed to comply with the law as it stands [after new law is implemented later in 2023 ]. It wouldnt be undemocratic as they are voting to strike within the parameters of the law! This session of destructive strikes shows it is not unworkable.. ambulance/ emergency/ NHS staffing so rules that one out.
what it means really is the unions [ those that call the strikes and do not lose any money ] will actually have to work for their money to activate a strike! LIKE SET OUT THE VOTE, after having agreed the staffing level required, maybe asking for volunteers to cover basic's and whether they get paid todo so [ after all if on strike should be free to work as opposed to taking family off on a daytrip or days away! ] have a neighbour who went off for an extended break using 2 strike days to join up holiday days! comment was losing 2 or 3 days money a month hardly noticeable after tax / NI / Pension reductions .... just do an extra 8 hours overtime!
SO Mr Nowak ..tough sh**e

 

egg on face Grant Shapps!

 

Obviously sacking workers who strike, having voted to do so, but are told they have to work to maintain some arbitrary safety level, won’t make the already worker shortages even worse. If that’s not counterproductive I don’t know what is. The government should be spending its time ensuring the strikes don’t need to go ahead, by resolving the disputes, rather than posturing to appease their own hardliners.

 

? sort of lost the jist there a bit? [ italics bit! ]
I am pretty much against strikes! with the provisio that demonstrating against something that is warranted / needed/ fits the bill should be done with respect to everyone!
there is something like 45 million workers in the UK [ POTENTIAL WORKERS] ! these strikes are mainly to line the pockets of less than 3-4 million! [ I can see/ support a pay rise or paynent for nurses ] Nurses should get a rise of 4-5% and in general all other workers striking or not should get 3 -4%.
2022 with the invasion it all kicked off but is coming back .. petrol is now £1.48 from £1.85 diesel has dropped by 30-33p from highest I paid at its peak! CEREAL based foods now dropping back and cooking oil back from £2.50 litre to around £2....
Inflation is being driven by wage demands that round robin circus that keeps going round and round n a gradual up hill cycle. September is the bench mark to base mark to set pensions and some public expenditures. It is not a given right! just a bench mark.
For 10 years and longer Pensioners have been lagging behind, even with the windfall rise this time still are ... but the unions [ them that dont lose money when members go on strike ] saw an opportunity to blackmail the economy by getting members to strike at times that would put hardship on many that just wanted to go about their business and not be greedy!
Problem is the bad bits, the negative bits make the headlines ... weekend meeting of NHS etc, started off with " useful exercise/ but nothing settled / basis for future talks and understanding! come mid day Monday when the militants got hold of the "calmness" they completely turned it over and said it was a waste of time / negative/ need more action .gov will be defeated etc etc etc
Really weird ... when you ask people you know about how they feel about strikes/ pay etc etc they seem to be " would be happy if we got x [5?] % and maybe 4 day week or ..... its only on the media you get the hardliners who want the earth and a 2 day week with 6 weeks holiday .... bu**sh** really...

oh PS voting % given out is only those that voted ... often people against something [ like strike action ] dont vote and vice versa

 

The reason the public sector (mainly) are asking for such high % , is since 2010 most public sector salaries have gone down in real terms circa 25%, on top of that now inflation is around 10%, (a conservative figure), and interests are at the highest levels for years. After 12 years of seeing their salaries eroded, and in many cases the ability to recruit and retain staff meaning they are having to work longer hours, under increasing pressure, they’ve had enough.

The unions have to get very high number of votes to be able to call a strike, & rightly so. Imo in order to vote to strike most people would have to feel really strongly about it, as most people would rather not rock the boat, don’t think it’s worth while or just can’t afford to lose a days wage. It shows feelings are running really high that so many, across so many sectors actually feel strong enough to vote to strike. Many of these are highly intelligent people, doctors, nurses, possible teachers will join them too.

 

I think the vote is usually do you want to strike ... no altrernatives? or choice of when or what figure the member actually wants say 5% 6% etc Labour and unions are opposition to .gov, so making life hard for them means they are attempting point gatherings!
I dont think nurses will ever be tarred with same brush, but they have a few militant union reps that are very anti .gov!

 

The nurses have never been on strike before, the conditions they have to work in are horrendous, seeing poorly people and not being able to give them the care they deserve every day must be heartbreaking, they deserve a medal, let alone a pay rise.

 

When I was a teenager I would have agreed.

Now I'm an adult I believe this statement to be utter bollocks.

 

Which bit? , the fact that teachers, nurses and doctors are highly intelligent?

 

there is a difference ... knowledgeable or intelligent ... I spend /spent a lot of time with Teachers/ doctors / nurses and they do have a fantastic knowledge [ mostly ] about their title .. as for intelligence they can be very lacking!

 

watched the first PMQ's of 2023 ... and was quite impressed with Rishi [ he was not really my cup of tea to be PM ], Whilst the questions posed are " briefed by the opposition" the secret is being able to counter the answer you get! I'm afraid neither KS or the Scot's leaders have mastered that yet! Opposition threw in a "personal attack" comment as opposed to a Q about ex PM making speech money ... guess what .... !
NHS was the new ongoing battering ram. Reference was made to last time Labour was in power and no nurses went on strike .... and there was no problems [ or very few bed problems] . IMO and part of the answer given was circumstance. People using the bits that fit their argument only without looking at the reasons behind it and even trying to qualify it by stating before Covid Jan 2020.
interviews with strikers, in the main are with those on strike, yesterday Ambulance, well listen to what they sayand how they say it it is about money, the real reason is about money .. to gilt the ginger bread they add it is also about the patients and how they are suffering, and their own remorse that one might die because they are on strike. But Q's from the interviewer tend to get the real picture as the striker gives up the reasons why there is a problem ... it is a chain reaaction scenario ....

note: a lot of bank/agency nurses / migrating nhs trained staff get their training then fall out of the NHS WORK FORCE! This then means they get paid agency rates if and when they want the money or to work so NHS IS PAYING THE SALARY FOR 2 NURSES WHEN ONLY GETTING 1 !!!
quite a few years ago about 2003 I think, a cousin worked over Christmas 12 hour shifts 4 days and did the same over new year 16 hour shifts 3 days he worked for an agency as a basic ward nurse. he got 7 days paid holiday added and his wage packet was equal to almost 3 months money before tax!

 

PMQ's
ANOTHER ISSUE [ Q ] WAS WAITING TIMES .. done a bit of research on this and a big feature is transplants, [ convieniently not mentioned by opposition ] One article Icame across was BLM! but not it seems where transplants are concerned. The vast majority of Black people seemingly do believe in or practice organ donation! Ethenicity is a factor in most transplants, but the % of the estimated 3 million black people in this country actually donating is miniscule one example given was kidney ... national overall average was about a 18 month wait [ all ethenicities ] whilst for a black person it was about 3 years!!! [ reason being very few donate! ] less than 2% of all organ donations are from black people.
Cancer seems to be the biggest spoken about wait ... but joint replacements are high % as well.
I find it rather strange that I know of about 12 or more people who have had new joints only 1 has been waiting longer than the 18 weeks I was told it would be when I had mine! [ actually was only 3 weeks from time of xray ] he has other health problem which when is stable at the time of the "op" they will proceed, had 2 cancellations so far and been on list for 18 month's plus.
of course the simple answer to waiting times is sort out the care homes! 13,000 patients in beds that need to be elsewhere............