Off Topic Politics Thread

[......loading......]

Gone phishing?

No genuinely believe it. Work in the public sector. I know my real pay has absolutely crashed over the last ten years. I know my working conditions have gone to ****. I know the service we offer is not as good - and that the fact it isn’t noticeable worse is only because public sector employees are often made to feel guilty about those we serve.
I know that big business profit is going through the roof and that profits are driving inflation. This whole country is a mess.

 

[......loading......]

One more thing. I know that I am better off than most of those working with me as I am at the top of my pay scale. There will be many many people who work full time who cannot pay their bills by the winter.

 

[Number 1 Jasper]

The BIG problem openreach have in going on strike , is there are LOADS of contractors that can do a lot of the work .

 

[Lemons and Oranges]

No genuinely believe it. Work in the public sector. I know my real pay has absolutely crashed over the last ten years. I know my working conditions have gone to ****. I know the service we offer is not as good - and that the fact it isn’t noticeable worse is only because public sector employees are often made to feel guilty about those we serve.
I know that big business profit is going through the roof and that profits are driving inflation. This whole country is a mess.

But we've got our borders back, and now we can govern ourselves, so we'll be soon able to send children up chimneys and down coal mines, without Brussels busybodys interfering. The sooner we repeal the Magna Carta, the better.

 

[Archers Road]

No genuinely believe it. Work in the public sector. I know my real pay has absolutely crashed over the last ten years. I know my working conditions have gone to ****. I know the service we offer is not as good - and that the fact it isn’t noticeable worse is only because public sector employees are often made to feel guilty about those we serve.
I know that big business profit is going through the roof and that profits are driving inflation. This whole country is a mess.

Yep. Working people took the hit when the bankers crashed the economy in 2008. Bailed out with public money, the bankers were soon back awarding themselves bonuses, while the rest of us endured stagnant wages and 12 years of austerity.. Now the economy has taken two more hits with Brexit and Covid, and who is expected to bear the cost? Not the train company shareholders, not Uber and Amazon who got rich off the lockdowns, not donors to the Tory party. It's ordinary working people, again. Enough is enough I say.

 

[Number 1 Jasper]

One more thing. I know that I am better off than most of those working with me as I am at the top of my pay scale. There will be many many people who work full time who cannot pay their bills by the winter.

Some of my cousins in Devon for example .

One of them even votes Tory .

His Mum and Dad bought their council house VERY cheap , then his Dad criticised his children for never owning a property

I am sure my cousin only votes Tory because he doesn’t like thinking of himself as working class .

Double

 

[StJabbo1]

Yep. Working people took the hit when the bankers crashed the economy in 2008. Bailed out with public money, the bankers were soon back awarding themselves bonuses, while the rest of us endured stagnant wages and 12 years of austerity.. Now the economy has taken two more hits with Brexit and Covid, and who is expected to bear the cost? Not the train company shareholders, not Uber and Amazon who got rich off the lockdowns, not donors to the Tory party. It's ordinary working people, again. Enough is enough I say.

Enough to bring people on to the street to protest and probably breaking the law with the public order bill.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/activism/public-order-bill-criminalises-peaceful-protest/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...er-criminalising-protest-is-bad-for-democracy
The mail comments worth a read. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...new-powers-tackle-eco-hooligans.html#comments

 

[Number 1 Jasper]

.

 

[Shandy_top_89]

Enough to bring people on to the street to protest and probably breaking the law with the public order bill.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/activism/public-order-bill-criminalises-peaceful-protest/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...er-criminalising-protest-is-bad-for-democracy
The mail comments worth a read. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...new-powers-tackle-eco-hooligans.html#comments

We need a law whereby the authors of the best rated comments on the Mail are rounded up and placed on a dinghy in the middle of the Pacific.

Most of them are borderline PREVENT referrals.

 

[Gregm1988]

We need a law whereby the authors of the best rated comments on the Mail are rounded up and placed on a dinghy in the middle of the Pacific.

Most of them are borderline PREVENT referrals.

Top two comments

- Lock them up and take away their homes

I think the point is most don’t and can’t own a home. Lack of self awareness

- Send them to Rwanda

Because that is really a precedent you want to set. Sending criminals and political prisoners overseas. I know we did it before but centuries ago. I guess that comment was from Rees-Mogg

 

[Lemons and Oranges]

Top two comments

- Lock them up and take away their homes

I think the point is most don’t and can’t own a home. Lack of self awareness

- Send them to Rwanda

Because that is really a precedent you want to set. Sending criminals and political prisoners overseas. I know we did it before but centuries ago. I guess that comment was from Rees-Mogg

You mean that transportation is no longer allowed? What are we going to do with all these sheep-stealers? The next thing you know, ordinary people will be allowed to vote. What will the queen think? She's got enough problems, now that Albert's passed on.

 

[Archers Road]

You mean that transportation is no longer allowed? What are we going to do with all these sheep-stealers? The next thing you know, ordinary people will be allowed to vote. What will the queen think? She's got enough problems, now that Albert's passed on.

She’s still trying to get his bolt out

 

[San Tejón]

We have to be pragmatic. If labour do not win the next election we will have this bunch of Tory Tossers for another 5 years. We have to capture the middle ground. You may have hated Blair but he kept the Tories out. Labour can improve the lot of working people but not by shooting itself in the foot. First it has to be elected.

I fully understand that, but my fear, as I mentioned a day or so back, is that the party will splinter leaving the Tories unassailable, unless a minority coalition government can be formed between about 4 left of centre parties, if that is allowed.
Which, coincidentally, would be close to what we would get from PR, so maybe a good thing.

 

[St. Luigi Scrosoppi]

Oh don't be so dramatic. Pretty much every low to middle paid worker has suffered from the cost of living crisis. The majority of them don't have a union that tells them to go on strike every other month. And train drivers get decent pay so they're not going to starve. Anyway, this is getting off topic.

You ****ing started it.

 

[San Tejón]

What bloody well annoys me, with some of the working class, are the “freeloaders”.
By that, I mean those people who work in an industry that is represented by a union, that negotiates pay rises, longer holidays, shorter hours, safer working conditions etc, without ever becoming a union member themselves.
These freeloaders are quite happy to benefit from the endeavour of free union representation, when it improves their lives, yet they are often amongst the first to whine and whinge when a union takes strike action in order to attain a suitable agreement for their members, and in many cases, the freeloaders who never join unions.
Maybe non union members should be forced to negotiate their own pay rises and working conditions individually, instead of being allowed to be on the same contract as those negotiated for union members.
They might see things differently then.

 

[......loading......]

What bloody well annoys me, with some of the working class, are the “freeloaders”.
By that, I mean those people who work in an industry that is represented by a union, that negotiates pay rises, longer holidays, shorter hours, safer working conditions etc, without ever becoming a union member themselves.
These freeloaders are quite happy to benefit from the endeavour of free union representation, when it improves their lives, yet they are often amongst the first to whine and whinge when a union takes strike action in order to attain a suitable agreement for their members, and in many cases, the freeloaders who never join unions.
Maybe non union members should be forced to negotiate their own pay rises and working conditions individually, instead of being allowed to be on the same contract as those negotiated for union members.
They might see things differently then.

In my profession you would be a damn fool not to be in a union, but the vast majority join the soft unions because they seem to hate themselves. There is a belief that striking is bad because of what it does to the population. But the point is that not striking damages society more IN THE LONG TERM. Everything in society is such short term thinking. Sick of British society tbh.

 

[San Tejón]

In my profession you would be a damn fool not to be in a union, but the vast majority join the soft unions because they seem to hate themselves. There is a belief that striking is bad because of what it does to the population. But the point is that not striking damages society more IN THE LONG TERM. Everything in society is such short term thinking. Sick of British society tbh.

Not enough people understand that pretty much every good thing about their employment, conditions, pay etc, were fought for by unions.
They might work for a small independent company, with absolutely no connection to a union, but those companies have to keep an eye on the going rates of pay in their industry, to prevent losing staff to companies that pay more than the minimum wage (it isn’t a living wage as the government keeps on saying).
I think this is another reason why I am so pissed off with Starmer.
He should be shoulder to shoulder with Mick Lynch emphasising that every claim Lynch has made, in reference to the government and the negotiations, are true and confirming that the strikes are being engineered by the government as a distraction from everything else that is going wrong in the country, such as utility bills, border queues, soaring inflation and economy, the blue on blue attacks at the Tory hustings, the worst GDP growth in the G7, with the exception of Russia.

 

[StJabbo1]

Add the dockers to the list of sectors driven to industrial action.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...o-strike-in-august?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

[Lemons and Oranges]

Not enough people understand that pretty much every good thing about their employment, conditions, pay etc, were fought for by unions.
They might work for a small independent company, with absolutely no connection to a union, but those companies have to keep an eye on the going rates of pay in their industry, to prevent losing staff to companies that pay more than the minimum wage (it isn’t a living wage as the government keeps on saying).
I think this is another reason why I am so pissed off with Starmer.
He should be shoulder to shoulder with Mick Lynch emphasising that every claim Lynch has made, in reference to the government and the negotiations, are true and confirming that the strikes are being engineered by the government as a distraction from everything else that is going wrong in the country, such as utility bills, border queues, soaring inflation and economy, the blue on blue attacks at the Tory hustings, the worst GDP growth in the G7, with the exception of Russia.

Maybe Starmer is playing the long game, by not giving the red top press a reason to vilify him as a union-loving apologist. This will mean that the media will be unable/unwilling to slate Starmer, when it comes to a general election, so Labour has a better chance of being elected. Then, once Labour is in power, any union legislation that goes against 'reasonable' workers' rights can be repealed. Who knows, we may even get PR, just to remove any opportunity for Tory press barons to convince their readership that a vote for Labour/Lib Dems/not the Tories is a wasted vote.

 

[Number 1 Jasper]

What bloody well annoys me, with some of the working class, are the “freeloaders”.
By that, I mean those people who work in an industry that is represented by a union, that negotiates pay rises, longer holidays, shorter hours, safer working conditions etc, without ever becoming a union member themselves.
These freeloaders are quite happy to benefit from the endeavour of free union representation, when it improves their lives, yet they are often amongst the first to whine and whinge when a union takes strike action in order to attain a suitable agreement for their members, and in many cases, the freeloaders who never join unions.
Maybe non union members should be forced to negotiate their own pay rises and working conditions individually, instead of being allowed to be on the same contract as those negotiated for union members.
They might see things differently then.

Always has wound me up that the bastards who weren’t in the union got the same pay rise as us .

And when openreach got ( partially ) hived off and HR started flexing their muscles , then the fu**ers joined