Best Of

Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...

The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.

I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.

Don't need AI to make a mess of that. One company I had to book an engineer with had a bizarre system. Phone Customer Services to book appointment, but CS can only see engineer's diary not update it. CS has to email Engineer Dept to book your chosen date/time and by the time your email is read that space has probably gone. So they call you to fix an alternative.

WTF?

One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level

Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans

Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.

The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.

Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.

The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/a-levels-university-students-z76bnsj8t

Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.

Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....

I'm out of touch - what do you mean?

The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,

a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,

and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.

They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.

In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.

Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.

Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.

Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.

*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.

Hi everyone, YouTuber and X influencer here. I make money by making and posting video content. Some of that revenue comes from sponsors who both pay my business to produce either a stand-alone review or sponsored segments to include in the main video. I also receive sales commission on products which are sold using my referral links.

Why is this relevant? Because I have turned down far more money from refused sponsors than I have made from contracted sponsors. If I don't like the product or the brand or the company I'm not doing it. I'm a performing monkey, but I choose for whom I will be performing.

Farage knows very well what he is doing. What he is saying. For whom. Why. So if he is shilling for neo-nazis its by choice.

He is the leader of what is billed as a moderately hard right party. If we give the benefit of the doubt and count that as his day job, it is absolutely critical to that v role to know where the line is.

And he doesn't.

He is shilling neo-nazis for the cash. In that respect, he is Trump, he is a cancer on our politics and he needs to be excised from it now before he shills for neo-nazis for grift as PM.

We saw where the parroting of neo-nazis nearly led after Southport, I've banged on about that a few times, but it triggered me to how evil some elements of the opposition were prepared to be to slur this Labour government, and there are some of the amateurs on here I've not forgiven on here for shilling for neo-nazis even unwittingly and at second or third hand.

I do not tolerate this stuff, Farage needs to go and this needs to be the thing on which his political career dies. No compromise.

Ferfuxake,

Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row

The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told

Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.

Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.

In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.

https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/crispin-odey-offered-compliance-chief-1m-and-top-job-after-row-5zsk6cmmr

WTF?

One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level

Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans

Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.

The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.

Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.

The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/a-levels-university-students-z76bnsj8t

I thought everybody was getting 5 A* A levels.