Strike!

[bocadillo]

Did you know club sides can't enter the European Championship?

Where is this leading?

 

[Blue Maniac]

Where is this leading?

Nowhere.

 

[bocadillo]

Nowhere.

That's a relief.

 

[Dour]

You both need to think about what you have said. Gold was not sold below the market value at the time. However, it was sold at a time when there was no need to sell it, and left the country with deminished reserves which we could really do with round about now.

As for privatisations, yes they are sold below market value, but their increased profitability in the private sector generates large tax revenue which has to be a good thing. In the case of BT, there was also the windfall tax, and the 3G license auction which netted the country huge amounts of cash. It also pushed the burden for future pension scheme problems into the private sector. Good forward planning?

I'm pretty sure I have thought about what I've said, thank you. Since we abandoned the gold standard (one of the best, if accidental moves, any government has made) there has been no real reason to hang on to gold. Those following some variants of Austrian economics like to argue otherwise, but they are generally nuts and are just trying to give an objective value to money when it has long since gone past any point where that pretence would make any sense.

As to increased profitability and tax revenue, that's just bollocks. Increased profitability decreases net tax revenue since income tax decreases as employee numbers and pay contract (those at the top earning more are those who do the most to shelter their earnings) and company tax is less than income tax and NI (although, of course, most of these large corporations don't like to pay even that). Add in transfer pricing cons that the utility companies like to play and the tax revenues start to look pretty paltry.

Windfall taxes are just belated and half-hearted attempts to claw back some of the money pissed away.

3G auctions have nothing to do with privatisation.

And I'm not sure I'd see ****ing up more people's pensions as a good thing.

 

[Brown Nose]

Presumably in order to see teachers arriving and leaving work in line with the short days you suggest they work, you mustn't work a particularly long day yourself.

I work varied hours. Sometimes starting early, sometimes finishing late. I'm mates with the school caretaker who unlocks the gates to the school 45 mins before it starts. Most of the staff arrive about 30 mins before class begins and they're almost all out of the car park before 4pm. I said in my previous post that there are wonderful public servants everywhere. Including the school next door. But there are also a far higher proportion of people getting away with it, and being over rewarded for this. Management, customer service, value for money and productivity are almost always absymal in places like schools and hospitals. One day someone will have the guts to reward people in the public sector by their individual performance and ability and they will not be protected by Unions and Governments.

Whenever anyone dares to challenge the notion that a lot of people in these holy professions are not saints, the most absurd bile and retribution follows. I understand the desire to defend your profession or that of loved ones or a profession where you've been lucky enough to have been dealt with brilliantly.

But haven't you never visited someone in hospital and been furious at the appalling staff ignoring your loved ones needs? Or treated like scum by someone in a uniform because you dare to follow your football team to another City? Or felt like your child's school is more like a baby sitting playground than a place of enlightenment and learning?

All of these things and many, many more are all too common.

Believe it or not, my argument is based around wanting a better public sector. One that no Government could get away with slashing and abusing. One that would have the whole Country out in support of them if such a notion were to be considered.

 

[RHYDAL]

I'm pretty sure I have thought about what I've said, thank you. Since we abandoned the gold standard (one of the best, if accidental moves, any government has made) there has been no real reason to hang on to gold. Those following some variants of Austrian economics like to argue otherwise, but they are generally nuts and are just trying to give an objective value to money when it has long since gone past any point where that pretence would make any sense..

For those of us who lived through the housing recession of the late 80's, gold was the haven of choice for nervous investors. It always has been. It is also a globally accepted currency which governments around the world have in reserve for when things come to the worst. GB forgot about that in an attempt to sure up his spending, whilst also forgetting that defaulting house owners was the reason for recession back then too.

As to increased profitability and tax revenue, that's just bollocks. Increased profitability decreases net tax revenue since income tax decreases as employee numbers and pay contract (those at the top earning more are those who do the most to shelter their earnings) and company tax is less than income tax and NI (although, of course, most of these large corporations don't like to pay even that). Add in transfer pricing cons that the utility companies like to play and the tax revenues start to look pretty paltry..

You seem to be forgetting that the wage bill for the huge overstaffing in the likes of BT was a far bigger drain on the revenue streams that the hamstrung GPO could raise. They went from 250,000 employees down to around the 100,000 that there is today.

Windfall taxes are just another belated and half-hearted attempt by GB to subsidise his spending spree

Agreed.

3G auctions have nothing to do with privatisation..

Really? So the ability that BT gained to invest heavily in reasearch and development as a result of privatisation didn't produce the technology involved?

And I'm not sure I'd see ****ing up more people's pensions as a good thing.

Not ****ed up, just put on a more business footing, which is what this is all about really.


BM and Homer eat your hearts out.

 

[pork pie fox]

Management, customer service, value for money and productivity are almost always absymal in places like schools and hospitals.

I agree in part with this. The amount of red tape in the NHS (where my wife works) means that she is forever doing paperwork instead of being able to see more patients, something she finds incredibly annoying.

Whenever anyone dares to challenge the notion that a lot of people in these holy professions are not saints, the most absurd bile and retribution follows. I understand the desire to defend your profession or that of loved ones or a profession where you've been lucky enough to have been dealt with brilliantly.

I haven't done this to you. I expressed surprise at your incredibly harsh judgement of teachers in general in your initial post with my post of "wow". I then asked you the question about your hours so that I could understand how you were able to judge the hours the teachers you were bemoaning worked. There has been no 'absurd bile and retribution' from me.

But haven't you never visited someone in hospital and been furious at the appalling staff ignoring your loved ones needs? Or treated like scum by someone in a uniform because you dare to follow your football team to another City? Or felt like your child's school is more like a baby sitting playground than a place of enlightenment and learning?

I may be lucky, but my hospital visits have all been excellent and my daughter's school is fantastic. I have had one bad experience of policing at a football match (away at Forest), but given how many matches I've been to, I see this as the exception rather than the rule.

All of these things and many, many more are all too common.

Maybe so in your experience, not in mine though, so I am entitled to put my viewpoint across and you are perfectly entitled to dispute it.

Believe it or not, my argument is based around wanting a better public sector. One that no Government could get away with slashing and abusing. One that would have the whole Country out in support of them if such a notion were to be considered

Then I think you have a strange way of communicating that desire. I agree with the sentiment though.

 

[Matt_B]

I work varied hours. Sometimes starting early, sometimes finishing late. I'm mates with the school caretaker who unlocks the gates to the school 45 mins before it starts. Most of the staff arrive about 30 mins before class begins and they're almost all out of the car park before 4pm. I said in my previous post that there are wonderful public servants everywhere. Including the school next door. But there are also a far higher proportion of people getting away with it, and being over rewarded for this. Management, customer service, value for money and productivity are almost always absymal in places like schools and hospitals. One day someone will have the guts to reward people in the public sector by their individual performance and ability and they will not be protected by Unions and Governments.

Whenever anyone dares to challenge the notion that a lot of people in these holy professions are not saints, the most absurd bile and retribution follows. I understand the desire to defend your profession or that of loved ones or a profession where you've been lucky enough to have been dealt with brilliantly.

But haven't you never visited someone in hospital and been furious at the appalling staff ignoring your loved ones needs? Or treated like scum by someone in a uniform because you dare to follow your football team to another City? Or felt like your child's school is more like a baby sitting playground than a place of enlightenment and learning?

All of these things and many, many more are all too common.

Believe it or not, my argument is based around wanting a better public sector. One that no Government could get away with slashing and abusing. One that would have the whole Country out in support of them if such a notion were to be considered.

If any of that is true then it is a shit school. Our caretaker is in at 5.30am and most teachers by 7.45-8. None leave before 4.30 and continue to work at home until the late hours. I'm beginning to realise that the reason teachers are so defensive (something I never understood working in the private sector) is because everyone has an opinion on your job and knows it better than you, regardless of how little information they actually have.

I particularly enjoy the 9-3 comments as most people are stumped when I ask them whether the kids are teaching themselves for the 20 minutes before and 15 minutes after I leave.

 

[Matt_B]

I agree in part with this. The amount of red tape in the NHS (where my wife works) means that she is forever doing paperwork instead of being able to see more patients, something she finds incredibly annoying.



I haven't done this to you. I expressed surprise at your incredibly harsh judgement of teachers in general in your initial post with my post of "wow". I then asked you the question about your hours so that I could understand how you were able to judge the hours the teachers you were bemoaning worked. There has been no 'absurd bile and retribution' from me.



I may be lucky, but my hospital visits have all been excellent and my daughter's school is fantastic. I have had one bad experience of policing at a football match (away at Forest), but given how many matches I've been to, I see this as the exception rather than the rule.



Maybe so in your experience, not in mine though, so I am entitled to put my viewpoint across and you are perfectly entitled to dispute it.



Then I think you have a strange way of communicating that desire. I agree with the sentiment though.

This

 

[Jeff]

Most of the staff arrive about 30 mins before class begins and they're almost all out of the car park before 4pm.

Do you stalk the teachers so you know how much work they do at home?

My sister is a primary school teacher and she spends a couple of hours a night preparing lessons for the following day.

 

[Lako42]

Do you stalk the teachers so you know how much work they do at home?

My sister is a primary school teacher and she spends a couple of hours a night preparing lessons for the following day.

Tut tut, leaving things till the last minute will get her nowhere in education.

 

[Matt_B]

Tut tut, leaving things till the last minute will get her nowhere in education.

You can't plan the details any earlier, a good teacher will adapt their plans to the children depending on what they have taken in that day.

 

[SwedeFox]

I've never worked in a school (though my mum is a teacher) but I went to one quite recently.

The best teachers I had didn't treat their job as a factory job. They didn't look at the clock to make sure they had worked this or that many hours every week, they would let us watch a DVD without feeling bad for it, and they would happily talk about something unrelated to the subject for a lesson instead of doing what we were supposed to do, because they recognized that anything that encourages the love of knowledge will help us so much more in the long run than merely repeating what the teacher says. I have no idea if the primary reason for this laissez-faire attitude was that they couldn't be bothered to do it "properly", and if it was, I hope more teachers adopt it: many in my class, including myself, have gone on to study the subject at university in which our favourite teacher first instilled the urge in us to always want to learn more.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the amount of hours you put in means **** all when you're trying to decide whether teachers are overpaid or not. Good teachers are underpaid, bad teachers are overpaid.

 

[Matt_B]

I've never worked in a school (though my mum is a teacher) but I went to one quite recently.

The best teachers I had didn't treat their job as a factory job. They didn't look at the clock to make sure they had worked this or that many hours every week, they would let us watch a DVD without feeling bad for it, and they would happily talk about something unrelated to the subject for a lesson instead of doing what we were supposed to do, because they recognized that anything that encourages the love of knowledge will help us so much more in the long run than merely repeating what the teacher says. I have no idea if the primary reason for this laissez-faire attitude was that they couldn't be bothered to do it "properly", and if it was, I hope more teachers adopt it: many in my class, including myself, have gone on to study the subject at university in which our favourite teacher first instilled the urge in us to always want to learn more.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the amount of hours you put in means **** all when you're trying to decide whether teachers are overpaid or not. Good teachers are underpaid, bad teachers are overpaid.

I agree completely. I don't count my hours unless someone tries to claim I am lazy because of my profession. It is increasingly hard to be a bad teacher and with academies, good ones will be rewarded more.

 

[drew]

I'm pretty sure I have thought about what I've said, thank you. Since we abandoned the gold standard (one of the best, if accidental moves, any government has made) there has been no real reason to hang on to gold. Those following some variants of Austrian economics like to argue otherwise, but they are generally nuts and are just trying to give an objective value to money when it has long since gone past any point where that pretence would make any sense.

Gold is a safe haven for currency that is becoming worthless by quantitative easing, fractional reserve banking and inflation. Silver is coming into its own now as its more accessible and the price is being held artificially low, which is great for now.

Skip to 4:25

 

[Steven]

Gold is a safe haven for currency that is becoming worthless by quantitative easing, fractional reserve banking and inflation. Silver is coming into its own now as its more accessible and the price is being held artificially low, which is great for now.

Skip to 4:25

Vote Ron Paul 2012

 

[Dour]

Vote Ron Paul 2012

Stupid question, stupid answer.

 

[Macky]

Vote Ron Paul 2012

A couple of problems with this Steven:

• Very few of us have the ability to vote in US elections
• He will not get the nomination, not in a million ****ing years
• Aside from his antiwar and antifed stance, he really is a completely clueless ****wad

 

[Miles Away]

Vote Ron Paul 2012

Or don't...he's a ****ing lunatic.

 

[OldGit]