Applicant said: "First thing that jumped off the page for me on that was the 16.9floz/500ml Coke bottles - $12 for 4 - this is supposed to be a discount?"
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
I look forward to you personally blaming Boris Johnson for the rail strikes in England, some of which involve also nationalised operators (and Railtrack of course).
Is food still more expensive in the UK than in the US? (It was when last I visited, but that was many years ago.)
Food inflation has hit here, as well as almost everywhere else in the world, but it's my impression that food costs are still low here, compared to most other nations. (And probably much lower for the poor, thanks to what we still call "food stamps".)
(I haven't seen numbers but food costs for most items are probably a little higher in the greater Seattle area than in most of the US.)
On holiday we always notice things which are much more or less expensive. My US examples are bread ($3 for a cheap sliced loaf, $5 for the decent stuff. Compare 80p / £1.60) and biscuits (300g bourbon creams 45p at Tesco, $2.79 for own-brand oreo equivalents).
But looking at the flyer you link, it looks pretty cheap overall.
The overall cost of living is roughly similar in Seattle and London, but food is quite a bit cheaper in London.
I always remember food being cheaper in America, when I was young. Certainly in supermarkets (not NYC restaurants)
Definitely not true now, And the quality in America is seriously inferior
Eg my attempted picnic in New Orleans, which I mentioned on here, in a high end but not insanely posh supermarket. $50 for basics - nice cheese, nice bread, nice salami, etc
America is still maybe cheaper if your want to buy 30 tonnes of purple Cheddar balls or a vast amount of crappy beer, but even then I’m not sure
I too remember those heady days. Yeah the food here is expensive shite.
On the other hand, you can get no-preservatives-added carrot juice. Which I love.
You can’t get it in the UK for some reason. Comes with some acidic stabiliser.
I don’t understand WHY it is more expensive and yet worse?
America is a naturally wealthy country - enormously wealthy. It is a huge and dynamic capitalist economy. It is green and fertile and produces everything it needs and beyond, from wine to wheat, from Florida citrus fruit to New England lobster, it has vast natural resources and a wealthy populace willing to spend
Yet… the supermarket food is often shite. AND costly. What’s going on?
And this isn’t a distance and tiny towns thing. This was also true in New Orleans and Nashville on my latest visit. Big cities in fertile areas with wealthy people
it is some deeper dysfunction, which I don’t quite grasp
This was also my question. (Living over here is great in the sense it raises so many questions like this).
I think we discussed it a few weeks ago.
The reason seems to be:
1. US customers demand crap 2. It is also more efficient for “big agri” to churn out crap.
You see it even in the weirdest details. Even my 7 year old says,
“Daddy, why do the ice creams not come in many flavours, but you can choose so many different types of topping?”
Have you been to Australia?
That provides a fascinating counter example which is not Europe or America
Somehow Australia has gone the way of Europe. Not the USA. in the big Aussie cities you can go to a supermarket and get good cheese, bread, wines, meats, charcuterie, seafood, fruit, veggies, and it won’t bankrupt you as it is not seen as “posh” it is just what customers expect. OK it won’t be quite as good as Carrefour in France or M&S in the UK but it will be good
And Australia wrestles with the same distance problems as the USA (indeed much worse, as the population is so scattered)
So I think you’re right. Part of the problem is the CUSTOMERS, not the suppliers
NZ too, although NZ is a v small market and the supermarket industry is effectively a duopoly. But I think we get many of our food trends from Australia.
Australia benefited of course from high Italian/Greek migration.
But America is hardly a migration free zone.
And none of this explains why it’s so damn EXPENSIVE.
It’s a puzzler.
Maybe businesses try to rip off customers in the United States. It may be that they rely on the fact that Americans never like to complain about price because they fear it makes them sound like someone with money problems which is the worst possible thing to admit to in the United States. Everyone has to pretend to have loads of money. Therefore the prices stay high, with everyone paying too much for rubbish products, but refusing to complain about them.
Not true, I think.
There’s an obsession here with coupons which would embarrass a retirement home.
I can’t believe the cost is in production. I can’t believe the costs are in distribution. I can’t believe the costs are in retail.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
Applicant said: "First thing that jumped off the page for me on that was the 16.9floz/500ml Coke bottles - $12 for 4 - this is supposed to be a discount?"
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
I look forward to you personally blaming Boris Johnson for the rail strikes in England, some of which involve also nationalised operators (and Railtrack of course).
I hope the conservative party whoever leads them resists the RMT
Why?
Are they asking for anything unreasonable? That's not me trying to set a trap, BTW, it's a genuine question. I don't know the details of this dispute.
Is food still more expensive in the UK than in the US? (It was when last I visited, but that was many years ago.)
Food inflation has hit here, as well as almost everywhere else in the world, but it's my impression that food costs are still low here, compared to most other nations. (And probably much lower for the poor, thanks to what we still call "food stamps".)
(I haven't seen numbers but food costs for most items are probably a little higher in the greater Seattle area than in most of the US.)
On holiday we always notice things which are much more or less expensive. My US examples are bread ($3 for a cheap sliced loaf, $5 for the decent stuff. Compare 80p / £1.60) and biscuits (300g bourbon creams 45p at Tesco, $2.79 for own-brand oreo equivalents).
But looking at the flyer you link, it looks pretty cheap overall.
The overall cost of living is roughly similar in Seattle and London, but food is quite a bit cheaper in London.
I always remember food being cheaper in America, when I was young. Certainly in supermarkets (not NYC restaurants)
Definitely not true now, And the quality in America is seriously inferior
Eg my attempted picnic in New Orleans, which I mentioned on here, in a high end but not insanely posh supermarket. $50 for basics - nice cheese, nice bread, nice salami, etc
America is still maybe cheaper if your want to buy 30 tonnes of purple Cheddar balls or a vast amount of crappy beer, but even then I’m not sure
I too remember those heady days. Yeah the food here is expensive shite.
On the other hand, you can get no-preservatives-added carrot juice. Which I love.
You can’t get it in the UK for some reason. Comes with some acidic stabiliser.
I don’t understand WHY it is more expensive and yet worse?
America is a naturally wealthy country - enormously wealthy. It is a huge and dynamic capitalist economy. It is green and fertile and produces everything it needs and beyond, from wine to wheat, from Florida citrus fruit to New England lobster, it has vast natural resources and a wealthy populace willing to spend
Yet… the supermarket food is often shite. AND costly. What’s going on?
And this isn’t a distance and tiny towns thing. This was also true in New Orleans and Nashville on my latest visit. Big cities in fertile areas with wealthy people
it is some deeper dysfunction, which I don’t quite grasp
This was also my question. (Living over here is great in the sense it raises so many questions like this).
I think we discussed it a few weeks ago.
The reason seems to be:
1. US customers demand crap 2. It is also more efficient for “big agri” to churn out crap.
You see it even in the weirdest details. Even my 7 year old says,
“Daddy, why do the ice creams not come in many flavours, but you can choose so many different types of topping?”
Have you been to Australia?
That provides a fascinating counter example which is not Europe or America
Somehow Australia has gone the way of Europe. Not the USA. in the big Aussie cities you can go to a supermarket and get good cheese, bread, wines, meats, charcuterie, seafood, fruit, veggies, and it won’t bankrupt you as it is not seen as “posh” it is just what customers expect. OK it won’t be quite as good as Carrefour in France or M&S in the UK but it will be good
And Australia wrestles with the same distance problems as the USA (indeed much worse, as the population is so scattered)
So I think you’re right. Part of the problem is the CUSTOMERS, not the suppliers
NZ too, although NZ is a v small market and the supermarket industry is effectively a duopoly. But I think we get many of our food trends from Australia.
Australia benefited of course from high Italian/Greek migration.
But America is hardly a migration free zone.
And none of this explains why it’s so damn EXPENSIVE.
It’s a puzzler.
Oz also benefited from major immigration from Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, HK, Malaysia
If you want to speedily improve your food culture, import people from those places, because they have maybe the best food in the world, and they also know how to do it cheaply
This still doesn’t explain why mediocre American supermarket food and bev is actually quite pricey
And here’s another thing. American wine is expensive in America. WTF is that about?
You can go into a supermarket in, say, New Orleans and decent wine from Chile, South Africa or Argentine will be very competitively priced against wine from California or Oregon or wherever, if not actually much cheaper
I’m used to good American wine being expensive in the UK, but in the USA?
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
1 As I said I would fine banks that shut too many branches
2 Youth clubs depend on volunteers, I am for the big society
Youth clubs, like bank branches, need money. The money has to come from somewhere.
You suggest penalising banks by using the threat of fines to cajole them into keeping unprofitable, underused branches open. OK. In that case, who are you going to force to cough up the money to keep the youth clubs open, and to restore those in areas where provision has already been eradicated?
If it were as easy as falling back on volunteers to provide local services and funds out of the kindness of their hearts then why do we not stop shelling out for old age pensions and social care from tax receipts, and fund them by community whip round instead? Answer: because that's no basis on which to fund things that are (a) societally essential and (b) expensive.
Therefore, according to your logic, one of two things must be true. Firstly, youth clubs (presumably because they are used by teenagers and not pensioners) are an unnecessary luxury that society can therefore afford to allow to die out (because, unlike cutesy puppies and country houses, fourteen year olds don't have a huge, wealthy national charity to look out for them.) Or, secondly, they are necessary, in which case the people responsible for funding them - in this instance, local authorities - must be forced to cough up the money.
In short: if you're going to force banks to keep branches open for the convenience of computer illiterate octogenarians then you should also be in favour of forcing councils to keep their youth services running. Indeed, young people - especially poor or troubled young people - arguably need those services a Hell of a lot more than doddery Doris needs to be able to speak to a bank cashier once every couple of years. What's sauce for the goose, etc, etc.
I would be quite happy giving some of the funds from fined banks for branch closures to councils to help keep youth clubs open
Funding for youth services from local authorities in England and Wales declined by approximately two-thirds in the period between 2010 and 2019. That's £1bn per year you've got to find out of fining the banks.
Faced with that kind of punishment they'll probably keep the branches open, so no fines.
Next question: where does the £1bn come from instead?
And my question is: are youth services, and specifically youth clubs, statutory spending, like social care, education and libraries are? If not, then forget it, I presume?
I don't believe so, which is how come some councils have completely axed them already.
The broader point was, of course, to question why banks ought to be forced to provide branches for the occasional benefit of (predominantly elderly) technophobes, whereas youth services in their entirety are to be regarded as an expendable frippery. If the state can't be arsed to provide important services for young people then it certainly shouldn't be attempting to force private enterprises into retaining loss making, surplus facilities so that pensioners can visit them to ask questions about their bills once every couple of years.
Yep. We have Internet banking now. The excuse "But I can't be arsed to learn how so you must organise yourselves around me and my refusal to learn." Wouldn't be tolerated from any other group in society.
Cutting 30,000 public sector jobs would be "unsustainable", a union leader has warned.
It comes after the Scottish government set out its plans at Holyrood on Tuesday to reform public services in the face of a £3.5bn funding gap. Linda Sommerville, of the Scottish Trade Unions Congress, said the review had "set alarm bells ringing".
She added that the pay bill was to be held down over the next five years by job losses across the public sector. "There are estimates of up to 30,000 job losses which is unsustainable," adding that services were already stretched.
Ms Sommerville added that there was nothing in the statement on the long-term investment needed to rebuild the economy.
She told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the economy had been harmed not just by Covid and Brexit but also by "years of austerity before that".
Unison, Scotland's largest union which represents public service workers, said there would be "catastrophic consequences", and that public services had already been "cut to the bone".
The union's Scottish secretary, Tracey Dalling, said: "The pandemic has shown us who really are the essential workers. It's the people who've looked after our elderly relatives, cared for our sick and dying in hospitals, the workers that deliver our housing, our education and social care, among others."
The cuts were not inevitable and were "a political choice by an out-of-touch Scottish government," she said.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Is food still more expensive in the UK than in the US? (It was when last I visited, but that was many years ago.)
Food inflation has hit here, as well as almost everywhere else in the world, but it's my impression that food costs are still low here, compared to most other nations. (And probably much lower for the poor, thanks to what we still call "food stamps".)
(I haven't seen numbers but food costs for most items are probably a little higher in the greater Seattle area than in most of the US.)
On holiday we always notice things which are much more or less expensive. My US examples are bread ($3 for a cheap sliced loaf, $5 for the decent stuff. Compare 80p / £1.60) and biscuits (300g bourbon creams 45p at Tesco, $2.79 for own-brand oreo equivalents).
But looking at the flyer you link, it looks pretty cheap overall.
The overall cost of living is roughly similar in Seattle and London, but food is quite a bit cheaper in London.
I always remember food being cheaper in America, when I was young. Certainly in supermarkets (not NYC restaurants)
Definitely not true now, And the quality in America is seriously inferior
Eg my attempted picnic in New Orleans, which I mentioned on here, in a high end but not insanely posh supermarket. $50 for basics - nice cheese, nice bread, nice salami, etc
America is still maybe cheaper if your want to buy 30 tonnes of purple Cheddar balls or a vast amount of crappy beer, but even then I’m not sure
I too remember those heady days. Yeah the food here is expensive shite.
On the other hand, you can get no-preservatives-added carrot juice. Which I love.
You can’t get it in the UK for some reason. Comes with some acidic stabiliser.
I don’t understand WHY it is more expensive and yet worse?
America is a naturally wealthy country - enormously wealthy. It is a huge and dynamic capitalist economy. It is green and fertile and produces everything it needs and beyond, from wine to wheat, from Florida citrus fruit to New England lobster, it has vast natural resources and a wealthy populace willing to spend
Yet… the supermarket food is often shite. AND costly. What’s going on?
And this isn’t a distance and tiny towns thing. This was also true in New Orleans and Nashville on my latest visit. Big cities in fertile areas with wealthy people
it is some deeper dysfunction, which I don’t quite grasp
This was also my question. (Living over here is great in the sense it raises so many questions like this).
I think we discussed it a few weeks ago.
The reason seems to be:
1. US customers demand crap 2. It is also more efficient for “big agri” to churn out crap.
You see it even in the weirdest details. Even my 7 year old says,
“Daddy, why do the ice creams not come in many flavours, but you can choose so many different types of topping?”
Have you been to Australia?
That provides a fascinating counter example which is not Europe or America
Somehow Australia has gone the way of Europe. Not the USA. in the big Aussie cities you can go to a supermarket and get good cheese, bread, wines, meats, charcuterie, seafood, fruit, veggies, and it won’t bankrupt you as it is not seen as “posh” it is just what customers expect. OK it won’t be quite as good as Carrefour in France or M&S in the UK but it will be good
And Australia wrestles with the same distance problems as the USA (indeed much worse, as the population is so scattered)
So I think you’re right. Part of the problem is the CUSTOMERS, not the suppliers
NZ too, although NZ is a v small market and the supermarket industry is effectively a duopoly. But I think we get many of our food trends from Australia.
Australia benefited of course from high Italian/Greek migration.
But America is hardly a migration free zone.
And none of this explains why it’s so damn EXPENSIVE.
It’s a puzzler.
Maybe businesses try to rip off customers in the United States, in the sense of charging too much for poor products. It could be that they rely on the fact that Americans never like to complain about price because they fear it makes them sound like someone with money problems which is the worst possible thing to admit to in the United States. Everyone has to pretend to have loads of money. Therefore the prices stay high, with everyone paying too much for rubbish products, but refusing to complain about them.
Astute. There is definitely something in American customer psychology at work
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
And how would him have being thrown out the scouts have prevented dunblane? Answer it wouldn't have and you would hope firearms licensing would if anything be tighter than being a scout master.
Fact remains DBS and as I have said I have passed it and developed vetting so its not an issue for me passing it however I will not volunteer now if I have to go through that check and a lot of people feel that way. Where as those with ill intentions will find ways round the check anyway so all you have done is make those organisations more unsafe. Shrugs your issue I lose nothing by not giving time to them.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
I look forward to you personally blaming Boris Johnson for the rail strikes in England, some of which involve also nationalised operators (and Railtrack of course).
I hope the conservative party whoever leads them resists the RMT
Is food still more expensive in the UK than in the US? (It was when last I visited, but that was many years ago.)
Food inflation has hit here, as well as almost everywhere else in the world, but it's my impression that food costs are still low here, compared to most other nations. (And probably much lower for the poor, thanks to what we still call "food stamps".)
(I haven't seen numbers but food costs for most items are probably a little higher in the greater Seattle area than in most of the US.)
On holiday we always notice things which are much more or less expensive. My US examples are bread ($3 for a cheap sliced loaf, $5 for the decent stuff. Compare 80p / £1.60) and biscuits (300g bourbon creams 45p at Tesco, $2.79 for own-brand oreo equivalents).
But looking at the flyer you link, it looks pretty cheap overall.
The overall cost of living is roughly similar in Seattle and London, but food is quite a bit cheaper in London.
I always remember food being cheaper in America, when I was young. Certainly in supermarkets (not NYC restaurants)
Definitely not true now, And the quality in America is seriously inferior
Eg my attempted picnic in New Orleans, which I mentioned on here, in a high end but not insanely posh supermarket. $50 for basics - nice cheese, nice bread, nice salami, etc
America is still maybe cheaper if your want to buy 30 tonnes of purple Cheddar balls or a vast amount of crappy beer, but even then I’m not sure
I too remember those heady days. Yeah the food here is expensive shite.
On the other hand, you can get no-preservatives-added carrot juice. Which I love.
You can’t get it in the UK for some reason. Comes with some acidic stabiliser.
I don’t understand WHY it is more expensive and yet worse?
America is a naturally wealthy country - enormously wealthy. It is a huge and dynamic capitalist economy. It is green and fertile and produces everything it needs and beyond, from wine to wheat, from Florida citrus fruit to New England lobster, it has vast natural resources and a wealthy populace willing to spend
Yet… the supermarket food is often shite. AND costly. What’s going on?
And this isn’t a distance and tiny towns thing. This was also true in New Orleans and Nashville on my latest visit. Big cities in fertile areas with wealthy people
it is some deeper dysfunction, which I don’t quite grasp
This was also my question. (Living over here is great in the sense it raises so many questions like this).
I think we discussed it a few weeks ago.
The reason seems to be:
1. US customers demand crap 2. It is also more efficient for “big agri” to churn out crap.
You see it even in the weirdest details. Even my 7 year old says,
“Daddy, why do the ice creams not come in many flavours, but you can choose so many different types of topping?”
Have you been to Australia?
That provides a fascinating counter example which is not Europe or America
Somehow Australia has gone the way of Europe. Not the USA. in the big Aussie cities you can go to a supermarket and get good cheese, bread, wines, meats, charcuterie, seafood, fruit, veggies, and it won’t bankrupt you as it is not seen as “posh” it is just what customers expect. OK it won’t be quite as good as Carrefour in France or M&S in the UK but it will be good
And Australia wrestles with the same distance problems as the USA (indeed much worse, as the population is so scattered)
So I think you’re right. Part of the problem is the CUSTOMERS, not the suppliers
They fetishise the ideology of the free market in the US, but in practice they can be really quite bad at it, because their politics is vulnerable to regulatory capture by large corporations.
For example, it seems that the gross profit margin for the largest US food retailer, Walmart, is an average of 25% over the last few years. The average gross profit margin for the largest UK food retailer, Tesco, is 6.5% (Figures: Google).
Crap food + high prices = mega profits (protected by anti-competitive practices)
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
The other problem with DBS is you can't, as an individual, just apply for one. Apart from the very basic which is as good as useless. You have to through an employer or organisation. Which means there's a long wait if you don't have one. I don't see why this is. It should be like a driving licence.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
The other problem with DBS is you can't, as an individual, just apply for one. Apart from the very basic which is as good as useless. You have to through an employer or organisation. Which means there's a long wait if you don't have one. I don't see why this is. It should be like a driving licence.
So we should get the touts in to block book all the appointments and charge an exorbitant fee to the intended recipients?
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
After 15 years in government, the SNP remain the most trusted party across a range of issues: * 38% trust the SNP most to grow Scotland’s economy (Conservatives 18%, Labour 16%) * 37% trust the SNP most to manage the NHS in Scotland (Labour 20%, Conservatives 13%) * 36% trust the SNP most to manage education and schools in Scotland (Labour 19%, Conservatives 15%) * 33% trust the SNP most to tackle the cost of living crisis (Labour 20%, Conservatives 12%).
Emily Gray, Managing Director of Ipsos in Scotland, commented: “Boris Johnson has never received positive ratings in Scotland, but these latest Ipsos and STV News findings are a new low for the Prime Minister. Although the SNP continues to dominate voting intentions, there are tentative signs of a recovery for Scottish Labour, with continued positive ratings for Anas Sarwar, and Labour ahead of the Conservatives on Westminster voting intention. However, the scale of the challenge facing Labour is underlined by the fact that after 15 years in government the SNP remains the most trusted party across a wide range of policy areas. This includes the cost of living – which the public say is the most important issue facing Scotland at present.”
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
You espouse socialism.
No traditional Conservativism ie respect for tradition and the local community. I am not proposing nationalising all the banks permanently which a socialist would do
Traditional Conservatism is all about letting businesses operate without needless interference from the state.
No, that is traditional classical liberalism, hence you now vote LD not Tory
I think you should consider yourself put in your place now @TheScreamingEagles
The funny thing is that if Boris Johnson is replaced in the next few weeks and the new leader goes for my kind of policies then HYUFD will reboot and declare those policies true Conservatism.
That is a certainty
The exact same can be said of @NickPalmer, who has managed to be a sworn Blairite and a faithful Corbynite
PB has its party loyalists, who always salute the flag. There is possibly something noble in it
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
The other problem with DBS is you can't, as an individual, just apply for one. Apart from the very basic which is as good as useless. You have to through an employer or organisation. Which means there's a long wait if you don't have one. I don't see why this is. It should be like a driving licence.
And thats before you get to the enhanced check whereby they can include any gossip or innuendo about you even if they had no evidence to investigate
Is food still more expensive in the UK than in the US? (It was when last I visited, but that was many years ago.)
Food inflation has hit here, as well as almost everywhere else in the world, but it's my impression that food costs are still low here, compared to most other nations. (And probably much lower for the poor, thanks to what we still call "food stamps".)
(I haven't seen numbers but food costs for most items are probably a little higher in the greater Seattle area than in most of the US.)
On holiday we always notice things which are much more or less expensive. My US examples are bread ($3 for a cheap sliced loaf, $5 for the decent stuff. Compare 80p / £1.60) and biscuits (300g bourbon creams 45p at Tesco, $2.79 for own-brand oreo equivalents).
But looking at the flyer you link, it looks pretty cheap overall.
The overall cost of living is roughly similar in Seattle and London, but food is quite a bit cheaper in London.
I always remember food being cheaper in America, when I was young. Certainly in supermarkets (not NYC restaurants)
Definitely not true now, And the quality in America is seriously inferior
Eg my attempted picnic in New Orleans, which I mentioned on here, in a high end but not insanely posh supermarket. $50 for basics - nice cheese, nice bread, nice salami, etc
America is still maybe cheaper if your want to buy 30 tonnes of purple Cheddar balls or a vast amount of crappy beer, but even then I’m not sure
I too remember those heady days. Yeah the food here is expensive shite.
On the other hand, you can get no-preservatives-added carrot juice. Which I love.
You can’t get it in the UK for some reason. Comes with some acidic stabiliser.
I don’t understand WHY it is more expensive and yet worse?
America is a naturally wealthy country - enormously wealthy. It is a huge and dynamic capitalist economy. It is green and fertile and produces everything it needs and beyond, from wine to wheat, from Florida citrus fruit to New England lobster, it has vast natural resources and a wealthy populace willing to spend
Yet… the supermarket food is often shite. AND costly. What’s going on?
And this isn’t a distance and tiny towns thing. This was also true in New Orleans and Nashville on my latest visit. Big cities in fertile areas with wealthy people
it is some deeper dysfunction, which I don’t quite grasp
This was also my question. (Living over here is great in the sense it raises so many questions like this).
I think we discussed it a few weeks ago.
The reason seems to be:
1. US customers demand crap 2. It is also more efficient for “big agri” to churn out crap.
You see it even in the weirdest details. Even my 7 year old says,
“Daddy, why do the ice creams not come in many flavours, but you can choose so many different types of topping?”
Have you been to Australia?
That provides a fascinating counter example which is not Europe or America
Somehow Australia has gone the way of Europe. Not the USA. in the big Aussie cities you can go to a supermarket and get good cheese, bread, wines, meats, charcuterie, seafood, fruit, veggies, and it won’t bankrupt you as it is not seen as “posh” it is just what customers expect. OK it won’t be quite as good as Carrefour in France or M&S in the UK but it will be good
And Australia wrestles with the same distance problems as the USA (indeed much worse, as the population is so scattered)
So I think you’re right. Part of the problem is the CUSTOMERS, not the suppliers
NZ too, although NZ is a v small market and the supermarket industry is effectively a duopoly. But I think we get many of our food trends from Australia.
Australia benefited of course from high Italian/Greek migration.
But America is hardly a migration free zone.
And none of this explains why it’s so damn EXPENSIVE.
It’s a puzzler.
Maybe businesses try to rip off customers in the United States, in the sense of charging too much for poor products. It could be that they rely on the fact that Americans never like to complain about price because they fear it makes them sound like someone with money problems which is the worst possible thing to admit to in the United States. Everyone has to pretend to have loads of money. Therefore the prices stay high, with everyone paying too much for rubbish products, but refusing to complain about them.
As a business person, I can assure you that businesses try to rip off consumers in every country in the world.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
It probably means he's finished for the long weekend.
Is food still more expensive in the UK than in the US? (It was when last I visited, but that was many years ago.)
Food inflation has hit here, as well as almost everywhere else in the world, but it's my impression that food costs are still low here, compared to most other nations. (And probably much lower for the poor, thanks to what we still call "food stamps".)
(I haven't seen numbers but food costs for most items are probably a little higher in the greater Seattle area than in most of the US.)
On holiday we always notice things which are much more or less expensive. My US examples are bread ($3 for a cheap sliced loaf, $5 for the decent stuff. Compare 80p / £1.60) and biscuits (300g bourbon creams 45p at Tesco, $2.79 for own-brand oreo equivalents).
But looking at the flyer you link, it looks pretty cheap overall.
The overall cost of living is roughly similar in Seattle and London, but food is quite a bit cheaper in London.
I always remember food being cheaper in America, when I was young. Certainly in supermarkets (not NYC restaurants)
Definitely not true now, And the quality in America is seriously inferior
Eg my attempted picnic in New Orleans, which I mentioned on here, in a high end but not insanely posh supermarket. $50 for basics - nice cheese, nice bread, nice salami, etc
America is still maybe cheaper if your want to buy 30 tonnes of purple Cheddar balls or a vast amount of crappy beer, but even then I’m not sure
I too remember those heady days. Yeah the food here is expensive shite.
On the other hand, you can get no-preservatives-added carrot juice. Which I love.
You can’t get it in the UK for some reason. Comes with some acidic stabiliser.
I don’t understand WHY it is more expensive and yet worse?
America is a naturally wealthy country - enormously wealthy. It is a huge and dynamic capitalist economy. It is green and fertile and produces everything it needs and beyond, from wine to wheat, from Florida citrus fruit to New England lobster, it has vast natural resources and a wealthy populace willing to spend
Yet… the supermarket food is often shite. AND costly. What’s going on?
And this isn’t a distance and tiny towns thing. This was also true in New Orleans and Nashville on my latest visit. Big cities in fertile areas with wealthy people
it is some deeper dysfunction, which I don’t quite grasp
This was also my question. (Living over here is great in the sense it raises so many questions like this).
I think we discussed it a few weeks ago.
The reason seems to be:
1. US customers demand crap 2. It is also more efficient for “big agri” to churn out crap.
You see it even in the weirdest details. Even my 7 year old says,
“Daddy, why do the ice creams not come in many flavours, but you can choose so many different types of topping?”
Have you been to Australia?
That provides a fascinating counter example which is not Europe or America
Somehow Australia has gone the way of Europe. Not the USA. in the big Aussie cities you can go to a supermarket and get good cheese, bread, wines, meats, charcuterie, seafood, fruit, veggies, and it won’t bankrupt you as it is not seen as “posh” it is just what customers expect. OK it won’t be quite as good as Carrefour in France or M&S in the UK but it will be good
And Australia wrestles with the same distance problems as the USA (indeed much worse, as the population is so scattered)
So I think you’re right. Part of the problem is the CUSTOMERS, not the suppliers
NZ too, although NZ is a v small market and the supermarket industry is effectively a duopoly. But I think we get many of our food trends from Australia.
Australia benefited of course from high Italian/Greek migration.
But America is hardly a migration free zone.
And none of this explains why it’s so damn EXPENSIVE.
It’s a puzzler.
Maybe businesses try to rip off customers in the United States, in the sense of charging too much for poor products. It could be that they rely on the fact that Americans never like to complain about price because they fear it makes them sound like someone with money problems which is the worst possible thing to admit to in the United States. Everyone has to pretend to have loads of money. Therefore the prices stay high, with everyone paying too much for rubbish products, but refusing to complain about them.
As a business person, I can assure you that businesses try to rip off consumers in every country in the world.
Which is why all businesses must be state owned and run by civil servants so we get cheaper and better one services...nods.....we will also get a free unicorn and an owl each when this happens
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
The other problem with DBS is you can't, as an individual, just apply for one. Apart from the very basic which is as good as useless. You have to through an employer or organisation. Which means there's a long wait if you don't have one. I don't see why this is. It should be like a driving licence.
And thats before you get to the enhanced check whereby they can include any gossip or innuendo about you even if they had no evidence to investigate
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
Restaurant booking at 8 perhaps? What time does Brady normally leave?
You know where hasn’t attracted many migrants? Scotland.
Some of the consequences of that may be seen in the latest SNP budget.
It's actually a big problem. Scotland's demographic profile is pretty bleak. And Scot Nattery doesn't help as it definitely puts off investors worried about potential loss of access to UK market.
I haven't looked through all the replies, but I posed the question earlier: what's the net non-rUK immigration rate to Scotland, and how does it compare to the overall UK rate?
The figures I found were: 20,000 to Scotland (population 5.45 million) 239,000 to UK (population 65 million)
Those rates are exactly the same.
Have I got my numbers wrong? Or is the idea that immigrants don't come to Scotland a lie?
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
The Scottish electorate is not noted for delivering negative reports of the performance of the SNP. I'm not sure that's going to change any time soon.
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
Yawn.
You’ve been cutting and pasting garbage like that since 2007. Try a new trick occasionally.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
I don't know what it is like now but the recruitment shop at the top of the road, which mainly advertised driving and semi-skilled manual jobs, seemed to have slapped a DBS requirement onto every card.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
You need government sanction to drive. And to go abroad. Do you object to that too?
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
I don't know what it is like now but the recruitment shop at the top of the road, which mainly advertised driving and semi-skilled manual jobs, seemed to have slapped a DBS requirement onto every card.
The other thing to note, fail dbs even once even if its due to beaurecratic cock up which seems to happen often enough to be troubling it can effect your current job and any future job you apply for. I have certainly seen one of my team marched off site and suspended before now because they applied for dbs elsewhere and it got turned down....weeks later to be allowed back because someone mixed them up with someone of the same name
Watching Top Gun, first time my other half has seen it
nearly 40 years ago now. I wasn’t around in the eighties. Did all the Homo Eroticism cause a stir?
Must have been groundbreaking Gay Film for it’s time. Top Gun still a bit of a ground breaking Gay film today.
It wasn't in the Tony Scott original which in my opinion was a much better film. This was 90% CGI. As for the homo erotic stuff TS just wasn't into that kind of thing. It looked so tagged on It had to be a market research idea. I knew the second of his wives Glynnis
They fetishise the ideology of the free market in the US, but in practice they can be really quite bad at it, because their politics is vulnerable to regulatory capture by large corporations.
For example, it seems that the gross profit margin for the largest US food retailer, Walmart, is an average of 25% over the last few years. The average gross profit margin for the largest UK food retailer, Tesco, is 6.5% (Figures: Google).
Crap food + high prices = mega profits (protected by anti-competitive practices)
I'm afraid either you or Google are hopelessly confusing apples and boxes of chalk..
"Gross profit" in retailing is generally used by other retailers to mean the difference between the price of goods bought and the price they're sold at. Walmart declares this (it was about 25% for their worldwide operations in 2021), but Tesco doesn't. What Tesco DOES declare, though is the total difference between its sales and the number that's the sum of the goods it's bought and its other normal operating costs (wages, NI contributions, rent, etc) - but it sometimes refers to this in its annual report as "gross profit" (though its managers never use this odd form of wording talking to other people
That roughly describes what Walmart calls "operating income" in its annual report - which for 2021 was 4.6% of sales: much the same as Tesco's. Walmart, notoriously (to other grocers), is less profitable than Tesco because: - it's more sloppily managed - being American, it's more locked into brands, where suppliers make the running - it doesn't enjoy the mega market share of food in its home country that Tesco does.
But it would help, of course, is Tesco was more open inits accounts.
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
It probably means he's finished for the long weekend.
I have a feeling the 54 letters are in or nearly in, and Sir Graham Brady is possible in Parliament during the Recess getting orgainised because a vote of no confidence would happen very quickly once he makes an announcement?
I think the airport situation is quite simple. 20 years ago working at an airport paid really well, stupidly so in many respects for all the retail, cleaning etc etc, supposed making up for all that inconvenience of weird shifts and anti-social hours.
With the influx of cheap labour its now nowhere near as well paid but still all downside including extremely high cost of housing near airports. Then everything stopped and people have gone why the hell do i actually do this, and very difficult to attract them back.
The FOM aspect is a bit of a red herring, remember any EU national working here could easily have got right to remain and millions did. Its more likely went back to home country during covid, reevaluated living 10 to a house in Crawley to earn poor wages while having to start work at 4am every day.
I had no idea that airport work was ever particularly attractive in terms of pay. That's news to me.
Mrs U as a teenager worked at one. Her retail job paid a very large premium compared to working in the same shop in the local town. The pay was so good it was very difficult to ever actually get your foot in the door, it was always my mate knows such and such will give you in.
And this should continue because?
Of course people should be paid properly and to the extent airport managers have been shafting lower paid workers they deserve what has come to the them,
But consumers have to pay for this somewhere down the line - in higher landing charges or higher prices.
Sounds like an argument for FOM keeping wages down, so consumers can have cheaper travel on the back of others low pay
I think you have unwittingly just made the case for Brexit and controlled immigration
Not at all.
I’m just noting that wage increases are paid for by everyone eventually, especially those in the non-tradeable (ie non-exporting) sector.
As I said upthread, most economists (but not all) believe that immigration increases wages over time, by increasing firm productivity.
There is also a view that immigrants, by taking lower paid jobs, allow native born workers to move up into high paid positions.
Assume they have the necessary training and skills. The reality is that it depresses wage increases without the ability to move up because of failings in the education system. It also undermines the imperative to invest in capital equipment that can enhance productivity
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
Restaurant booking at 8 perhaps? What time does Brady normally leave?
Well, yes, unless people expect him to hibernate in Parliament till Monday, he was bound to come out sometime. I don't see why his appearance excites John Stevens.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
I don't know what it is like now but the recruitment shop at the top of the road, which mainly advertised driving and semi-skilled manual jobs, seemed to have slapped a DBS requirement onto every card.
It's a way of filtering out people. Like the clean, valid driving licence for non-driving jobs. And one of the few legal ways of discrimination. Doesn't work so well in a labour shortage.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
You need government sanction to drive. And to go abroad. Do you object to that too?
That doesn't a) potentially impact on my right to work and if I do either I am doing it for me not doing it to help out and being treated like a criminal and have to prove my innocence. To go abroad all I need to prove is I am eligible for a british passport, to drive all I have to prove is I can drive safely.....neither are assuming you are a criminal till you prove otherwise.
The bringing in of dbs for volunteers cost this country a lot of volunteers, it did sod all to protect young people against paedophiles and exploiters, those offences if anything are increasing.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
1 As I said I would fine banks that shut too many branches
2 Youth clubs depend on volunteers, I am for the big society
Why not fine buildings that don't employ lift operators?
As pressing one button to use a lift is not the same thing as having someone in person you can chat to at your bank in your own town!!
Before I retired, I had to visit a firm whose office was in a building with a listed lift. As they weren’t allowed to modernise it, they needed to employ a lift operator.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
1 As I said I would fine banks that shut too many branches
2 Youth clubs depend on volunteers, I am for the big society
Youth clubs, like bank branches, need money. The money has to come from somewhere.
You suggest penalising banks by using the threat of fines to cajole them into keeping unprofitable, underused branches open. OK. In that case, who are you going to force to cough up the money to keep the youth clubs open, and to restore those in areas where provision has already been eradicated?
If it were as easy as falling back on volunteers to provide local services and funds out of the kindness of their hearts then why do we not stop shelling out for old age pensions and social care from tax receipts, and fund them by community whip round instead? Answer: because that's no basis on which to fund things that are (a) societally essential and (b) expensive.
Therefore, according to your logic, one of two things must be true. Firstly, youth clubs (presumably because they are used by teenagers and not pensioners) are an unnecessary luxury that society can therefore afford to allow to die out (because, unlike cutesy puppies and country houses, fourteen year olds don't have a huge, wealthy national charity to look out for them.) Or, secondly, they are necessary, in which case the people responsible for funding them - in this instance, local authorities - must be forced to cough up the money.
In short: if you're going to force banks to keep branches open for the convenience of computer illiterate octogenarians then you should also be in favour of forcing councils to keep their youth services running. Indeed, young people - especially poor or troubled young people - arguably need those services a Hell of a lot more than doddery Doris needs to be able to speak to a bank cashier once every couple of years. What's sauce for the goose, etc, etc.
I would be quite happy giving some of the funds from fined banks for branch closures to councils to help keep youth clubs open
Funding for youth services from local authorities in England and Wales declined by approximately two-thirds in the period between 2010 and 2019. That's £1bn per year you've got to find out of fining the banks.
Faced with that kind of punishment they'll probably keep the branches open, so no fines.
Next question: where does the £1bn come from instead?
And my question is: are youth services, and specifically youth clubs, statutory spending, like social care, education and libraries are? If not, then forget it, I presume?
I don't believe so, which is how come some councils have completely axed them already.
The broader point was, of course, to question why banks ought to be forced to provide branches for the occasional benefit of (predominantly elderly) technophobes, whereas youth services in their entirety are to be regarded as an expendable frippery. If the state can't be arsed to provide important services for young people then it certainly shouldn't be attempting to force private enterprises into retaining loss making, surplus facilities so that pensioners can visit them to ask questions about their bills once every couple of years.
If the government were to properly tax pensioners, they wouldn’t have enough money to need a bank. Job done!
It's nailed on that Scotland win tonight and defeat Wales on Sunday to qualify for the world cup.
Because it is destiny that the Tartan Army's first world cup in 24 years is going to be in a country than bans drinking alcohol in public and being drunk in public.
Oz also benefited from major immigration from Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, HK, Malaysia
If you want to speedily improve your food culture, import people from those places, because they have maybe the best food in the world, and they also know how to do it cheaply
This still doesn’t explain why mediocre American supermarket food and bev is actually quite pricey
And here’s another thing. American wine is expensive in America. WTF is that about?
You can go into a supermarket in, say, New Orleans and decent wine from Chile, South Africa or Argentine will be very competitively priced against wine from California or Oregon or wherever, if not actually much cheaper
I’m used to good American wine being expensive in the UK, but in the USA?
Completely mystifying
There's a curious "patriotism penalty" in cars, that most manufacturers charge more for the home market, presumably because they've found that people like to buy locally-made cars. Perhaps American wine-growers have the same theory?
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
Restaurant booking at 8 perhaps? What time does Brady normally leave?
Well, yes, unless people expect him to hibernate in Parliament till Monday, he was bound to come out sometime. I don't see why his appearance excites John Stevens.
He is trying to be funny, earlier tweet says Crash of thunder in Westminster, which may or may not mean the 54 letters are in…
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
You need government sanction to drive. And to go abroad. Do you object to that too?
That doesn't a) potentially impact on my right to work and if I do either I am doing it for me not doing it to help out and being treated like a criminal and have to prove my innocence. To go abroad all I need to prove is I am eligible for a british passport, to drive all I have to prove is I can drive safely.....neither are assuming you are a criminal till you prove otherwise.
The bringing in of dbs for volunteers cost this country a lot of volunteers, it did sod all to protect young people against paedophiles and exploiters, those offences if anything are increasing.
Are those both true? Did we lose loads of volunteers? And are offences increasing, or is it more in the media? And what would you do to protect youngsters?
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
The Scottish electorate is not noted for delivering negative reports of the performance of the SNP. I'm not sure that's going to change any time soon.
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
It will come down to getting the vote out. That will prove the SNPs biggest challenge after running the shop since 2007 up there and a lot will hang on where any referendum proposal is at. If no referendum has been achieved, nationalist turnout will drop off, they wont be able to campaign on a 'give us all the seats and we give you a referendum' style ticket again. That being said, labours recovery will be limited but visible i think and the Tories will struggle compared to 17 and 19, probably retreating from their comparative upturn in central areas etc under Ruth and they are in full retreat in Edinburgh. They might cobble together 20 or 21% if Boris goes. I can see something like 40 SNP 28 Lab 20 Tory. Labour gaining back 4 or 5, Tories holding borders plus a couple in the NE, LDs holding the northern islands, maybe Caithness, SNP get the rest although i think Ayrshire will be very interesting.
I think the airport situation is quite simple. 20 years ago working at an airport paid really well, stupidly so in many respects for all the retail, cleaning etc etc, supposed making up for all that inconvenience of weird shifts and anti-social hours.
With the influx of cheap labour its now nowhere near as well paid but still all downside including extremely high cost of housing near airports. Then everything stopped and people have gone why the hell do i actually do this, and very difficult to attract them back.
The FOM aspect is a bit of a red herring, remember any EU national working here could easily have got right to remain and millions did. Its more likely went back to home country during covid, reevaluated living 10 to a house in Crawley to earn poor wages while having to start work at 4am every day.
I had no idea that airport work was ever particularly attractive in terms of pay. That's news to me.
Mrs U as a teenager worked at one. Her retail job paid a very large premium compared to working in the same shop in the local town. The pay was so good it was very difficult to ever actually get your foot in the door, it was always my mate knows such and such will give you in.
And this should continue because?
Of course people should be paid properly and to the extent airport managers have been shafting lower paid workers they deserve what has come to the them,
But consumers have to pay for this somewhere down the line - in higher landing charges or higher prices.
Sounds like an argument for FOM keeping wages down, so consumers can have cheaper travel on the back of others low pay
I think you have unwittingly just made the case for Brexit and controlled immigration
Not at all.
I’m just noting that wage increases are paid for by everyone eventually, especially those in the non-tradeable (ie non-exporting) sector.
As I said upthread, most economists (but not all) believe that immigration increases wages over time, by increasing firm productivity.
There is also a view that immigrants, by taking lower paid jobs, allow native born workers to move up into high paid positions.
Assume they have the necessary training and skills. The reality is that it depresses wage increases without the ability to move up because of failings in the education system. It also undermines the imperative to invest in capital equipment that can enhance productivity
We did all they earlier and the conclusion was that there’s no actual evidence for this.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
I look forward to you personally blaming Boris Johnson for the rail strikes in England, some of which involve also nationalised operators (and Railtrack of course).
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
It looks like that 40,000 fake tickets from Liverpool fans which dwindled to less than 3,000 includes people like myself and Andrew Robertson's friends and family whose tickets were genuine and from UEFA.
Was that because someone in uefa cloned your tickets? Or just it wasn’t read properly and they claimed it was a fake rather than trying again?
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
You need government sanction to drive. And to go abroad. Do you object to that too?
That doesn't a) potentially impact on my right to work and if I do either I am doing it for me not doing it to help out and being treated like a criminal and have to prove my innocence. To go abroad all I need to prove is I am eligible for a british passport, to drive all I have to prove is I can drive safely.....neither are assuming you are a criminal till you prove otherwise.
The bringing in of dbs for volunteers cost this country a lot of volunteers, it did sod all to protect young people against paedophiles and exploiters, those offences if anything are increasing.
Are those both true? Did we lose loads of volunteers? And are offences increasing, or is it more in the media? And what would you do to protect youngsters?
Yes we lost volunteers and many clubs closed down junior sections when it came in...my local bsac club did for example. Not because they wanted to but they just had no one willing to supervise if they had to take at the time CRB checks.
As far as I am aware vetting has made no difference in the number of offcences against minors at such volunteer organisations which in any case fairly small in number as most sexual offences against minors continue to be from family and close family friends......if you want to protect minors you would do far better implementing a check against boyfriends of single mothers. That however I suspect you will say don't be ridiculous about and quite rightly.....however you support checks for people who volunteer who mostly have far less access to the children they are supervising
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
And how would him have being thrown out the scouts have prevented dunblane? Answer it wouldn't have and you would hope firearms licensing would if anything be tighter than being a scout master.
Fact remains DBS and as I have said I have passed it and developed vetting so its not an issue for me passing it however I will not volunteer now if I have to go through that check and a lot of people feel that way. Where as those with ill intentions will find ways round the check anyway so all you have done is make those organisations more unsafe. Shrugs your issue I lose nothing by not giving time to them.
DBS checks were a response to the Soham murders, not Dunblane.
Not that they would have prevented those either, as it happens.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
The Scottish electorate is not noted for delivering negative reports of the performance of the SNP. I'm not sure that's going to change any time soon.
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
It will come down to getting the vote out. That will prove the SNPs biggest challenge after running the shop since 2007 up there and a lot will hang on where any referendum proposal is at. If no referendum has been achieved, nationalist turnout will drop off, they wont be able to campaign on a 'give us all the seats and we give you a referendum' style ticket again. That being said, labours recovery will be limited but visible i think and the Tories will struggle compared to 17 and 19, probably retreating from their comparative upturn in central areas etc under Ruth and they are in full retreat in Edinburgh. They might cobble together 20 or 21% if Boris goes. I can see something like 40 SNP 28 Lab 20 Tory. Labour gaining back 4 or 5, Tories holding borders plus a couple in the NE, LDs holding the northern islands, maybe Caithness, SNP get the rest although i think Ayrshire will be very interesting.
Interesting. What do you reckon for Holyrood 2026? Presuming - by then - there has been no indyref2? (This is 92.3% likely to my mind)
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
And how would him have being thrown out the scouts have prevented dunblane? Answer it wouldn't have and you would hope firearms licensing would if anything be tighter than being a scout master.
Fact remains DBS and as I have said I have passed it and developed vetting so its not an issue for me passing it however I will not volunteer now if I have to go through that check and a lot of people feel that way. Where as those with ill intentions will find ways round the check anyway so all you have done is make those organisations more unsafe. Shrugs your issue I lose nothing by not giving time to them.
DBS checks were a response to the Soham murders, not Dunblane.
Not that they would have prevented those either, as it happens.
Which is my point, they were a something must be done response and this is something. The net result is a drop in people wishing to volunteer with young people
Can't bear to watch but if 2 is true it's the worst thing I have ever heard about him
I concur.
Can someone bravely watch the thing and tell us whether there’s any evidence behind this claim?
Someone on twitter says
"The whole interview is on YouTube. Most telling was the answer to the 'Which books do you read to your children?' question. He stopped, thought for a while and realised he didn't know any children's books so said, 'Oh, I read the ones l used to like as a child.' Got out of that."
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
You need government sanction to drive. And to go abroad. Do you object to that too?
That doesn't a) potentially impact on my right to work and if I do either I am doing it for me not doing it to help out and being treated like a criminal and have to prove my innocence. To go abroad all I need to prove is I am eligible for a british passport, to drive all I have to prove is I can drive safely.....neither are assuming you are a criminal till you prove otherwise.
The bringing in of dbs for volunteers cost this country a lot of volunteers, it did sod all to protect young people against paedophiles and exploiters, those offences if anything are increasing.
Are those both true? Did we lose loads of volunteers? And are offences increasing, or is it more in the media? And what would you do to protect youngsters?
Yes we lost volunteers and many clubs closed down junior sections when it came in...my local bsac club did for example. Not because they wanted to but they just had no one willing to supervise if they had to take at the time CRB checks.
As far as I am aware vetting has made no difference in the number of offcences against minors at such volunteer organisations which in any case fairly small in number as most sexual offences against minors continue to be from family and close family friends......if you want to protect minors you would do far better implementing a check against boyfriends of single mothers. That however I suspect you will say don't be ridiculous about and quite rightly.....however you support checks for people who volunteer who mostly have far less access to the children they are supervising
You are not wrong in the way abusers gain access. And of course no one would suggest. DBS style check on prospective partners. But I am surprised at the level of your antipathy to something that takes minutes to do. Perhaps you are just far more anti state/government than I am?
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
And how would him have being thrown out the scouts have prevented dunblane? Answer it wouldn't have and you would hope firearms licensing would if anything be tighter than being a scout master.
Fact remains DBS and as I have said I have passed it and developed vetting so its not an issue for me passing it however I will not volunteer now if I have to go through that check and a lot of people feel that way. Where as those with ill intentions will find ways round the check anyway so all you have done is make those organisations more unsafe. Shrugs your issue I lose nothing by not giving time to them.
DBS checks were a response to the Soham murders, not Dunblane.
Not that they would have prevented those either, as it happens.
Which is my point, they were a something must be done response and this is something. The net result is a drop in people wishing to volunteer with young people
However, I should point out that two of their staff had been dismissed for inappropriate sexual behaviour, including one who went to prison over it, so it was perhaps foolish but understandable on the part of Gloucester Cathedral.
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
I thought CRB (precursor to DBS) was associated with Soham, not Dunblane. I also recall the surprise at how many volunteers there were and how many needed multiple checks, as originally CRB was not portable.
Yes CRB came first then morphed into dbs....fact remains the same you want to volunteer to help you reach the oh the governement needs to tell us you aren't a criminal stage and most people just go forget it. CRB and DBS have cut off a lot of people from being willing to help. I doubt they have done much to cut off the ill inclined who always seems to be able to find a way round these systems because they have motive.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Not my experience. Recently been DBS’d to help coach cricket. Form took about 5 mins, checked by someone at the club, job done.
The form can't be checked by someone at the cricket club. They don't have permission to clear you. What you mean is they checked the form was complete then sent it away for governement fuckwits to do a deep scan on your life and say yay or nay
Well yes I know that. Each club has an approved person who verifies ID. My completed DBS came within a week. I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Because I don't care to get government sanction for me lending support to the local chess club, and organisation where I would have pretty much zero chance to abuse anyone even if I was minded to on the grounds they have one member thats only 16....the government can fuck off and wonder why no one helps anymore instead. I know a lot of people that just went no its not just me......want to check me out if you are paying me fine.....if you arent paying me then fuck off and I will go do something else instead. I will volunteer somewhere that doesn't have a junior section and the young can hang round street corners with the drug dealers and pimps instead
You need government sanction to drive. And to go abroad. Do you object to that too?
That doesn't a) potentially impact on my right to work and if I do either I am doing it for me not doing it to help out and being treated like a criminal and have to prove my innocence. To go abroad all I need to prove is I am eligible for a british passport, to drive all I have to prove is I can drive safely.....neither are assuming you are a criminal till you prove otherwise.
The bringing in of dbs for volunteers cost this country a lot of volunteers, it did sod all to protect young people against paedophiles and exploiters, those offences if anything are increasing.
Are those both true? Did we lose loads of volunteers? And are offences increasing, or is it more in the media? And what would you do to protect youngsters?
Yes we lost volunteers and many clubs closed down junior sections when it came in...my local bsac club did for example. Not because they wanted to but they just had no one willing to supervise if they had to take at the time CRB checks.
As far as I am aware vetting has made no difference in the number of offcences against minors at such volunteer organisations which in any case fairly small in number as most sexual offences against minors continue to be from family and close family friends......if you want to protect minors you would do far better implementing a check against boyfriends of single mothers. That however I suspect you will say don't be ridiculous about and quite rightly.....however you support checks for people who volunteer who mostly have far less access to the children they are supervising
You are not wrong in the way abusers gain access. And of course no one would suggest. DBS style check on prospective partners. But I am surprised at the level of your antipathy to something that takes minutes to do. Perhaps you are just far more anti state/government than I am?
I am anti intrusion for no reason whether by state or business.
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Erewhon? Seriously? That's the name? As in Samuel Butler's dystopian novel of 1870s?
You know where hasn’t attracted many migrants? Scotland.
Some of the consequences of that may be seen in the latest SNP budget.
It's actually a big problem. Scotland's demographic profile is pretty bleak. And Scot Nattery doesn't help as it definitely puts off investors worried about potential loss of access to UK market.
I haven't looked through all the replies, but I posed the question earlier: what's the net non-rUK immigration rate to Scotland, and how does it compare to the overall UK rate?
The figures I found were: 20,000 to Scotland (population 5.45 million) 239,000 to UK (population 65 million)
Those rates are exactly the same.
Have I got my numbers wrong? Or is the idea that immigrants don't come to Scotland a lie?
I think London & SE skews the figs somewhat; I believe eg Glasgow and Newcastle's non UK born residents are similar. It's a problem for sure though. Unionists would rather bore on about how crap Scotland is as a destination than give 'the most powerful devolved administration in the world' a modicum of control over immigration.
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Also: NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
I confess i am geekily obsessed with charcuterie, cheese, breads, picnic fruits and veggies, and wine, but anyway, they are quite a good way of judging a food culture (at least in the west)
That insane posho LA supermarket has moderately pleasant cheese and rather average salami and it costs about five trillion dollars
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
It's nailed on that Scotland win tonight and defeat Wales on Sunday to qualify for the world cup.
Because it is destiny that the Tartan Army's first world cup in 24 years is going to be in a country than bans drinking alcohol in public and being drunk in public.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
The Scottish electorate is not noted for delivering negative reports of the performance of the SNP. I'm not sure that's going to change any time soon.
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
It will come down to getting the vote out. That will prove the SNPs biggest challenge after running the shop since 2007 up there and a lot will hang on where any referendum proposal is at. If no referendum has been achieved, nationalist turnout will drop off, they wont be able to campaign on a 'give us all the seats and we give you a referendum' style ticket again. That being said, labours recovery will be limited but visible i think and the Tories will struggle compared to 17 and 19, probably retreating from their comparative upturn in central areas etc under Ruth and they are in full retreat in Edinburgh. They might cobble together 20 or 21% if Boris goes. I can see something like 40 SNP 28 Lab 20 Tory. Labour gaining back 4 or 5, Tories holding borders plus a couple in the NE, LDs holding the northern islands, maybe Caithness, SNP get the rest although i think Ayrshire will be very interesting.
I think the LDs hold O&S, Edinburgh West and (probably) North East Fife. I doubt they'll hold on to the successor of the Caithness seat. Indeed, I doubt they'll even be particularly close.
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
Restaurant booking at 8 perhaps? What time does Brady normally leave?
Well, yes, unless people expect him to hibernate in Parliament till Monday, he was bound to come out sometime. I don't see why his appearance excites John Stevens.
If the letters are in, he goes to see Johnson.
Johnson will be at Chequers surely for a long Bank Holiday weekend of pissing up, shouting at staff and the odd game of tennis?
It's nailed on that Scotland win tonight and defeat Wales on Sunday to qualify for the world cup.
Because it is destiny that the Tartan Army's first world cup in 24 years is going to be in a country than bans drinking alcohol in public and being drunk in public.
It looks like that 40,000 fake tickets from Liverpool fans which dwindled to less than 3,000 includes people like myself and Andrew Robertson's friends and family whose tickets were genuine and from UEFA.
Was that because someone in uefa cloned your tickets? Or just it wasn’t read properly and they claimed it was a fake rather than trying again?
At first they said it was fake without scanning it.
After I asked them to scan it, they scanned it and it was genuine.
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Also: NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
I confess i am geekily obsessed with charcuterie, cheese, breads, picnic fruits and veggies, and wine, but anyway, they are quite a good way of judging a food culture (at least in the west)
That insane posho LA supermarket has moderately pleasant cheese and rather average salami and it costs about five trillion dollars
It actually has very good cheese, very good salami, and excellent fresh meat.
But it is insanely expensive. Like 3-4x the price of Tesco or Sainsbury's.
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
If opposition to Boris is associated with rejoinery then I'd say that helps Boris with his backbenches.
You know where hasn’t attracted many migrants? Scotland.
Some of the consequences of that may be seen in the latest SNP budget.
It's actually a big problem. Scotland's demographic profile is pretty bleak. And Scot Nattery doesn't help as it definitely puts off investors worried about potential loss of access to UK market.
I haven't looked through all the replies, but I posed the question earlier: what's the net non-rUK immigration rate to Scotland, and how does it compare to the overall UK rate?
The figures I found were: 20,000 to Scotland (population 5.45 million) 239,000 to UK (population 65 million)
Those rates are exactly the same.
Have I got my numbers wrong? Or is the idea that immigrants don't come to Scotland a lie?
I think London & SE skews the figs somewhat; I believe eg Glasgow and Newcastle's non UK born residents are similar. It's a problem for sure though. Unionists would rather bore on about how crap Scotland is as a destination than give 'the most powerful devolved administration in the world' a modicum of control over immigration.
Is the most powerful devolved administration in the world a genuine tagline?
If you want personal banking, then you can always pay for it. People vote with their feet, for the cheaper option.
I've seen some stats, and 98% of in branch visits can be done over the phone or online.
Given how pre pandemic branch footfall has dropped, a branch may only have a dozen queries a week can be done in branch, that's uneconomical.
Post Offices are picking up the slack.
Plenty of elderly people are not online, especially those on lower incomes and after you have spent an age getting through bank phone security you waste double the time you could have spent had you actually spoken to someone in person at the bank
Tough, running branches costs money, if it is uneconomical then the banks will have to do what is best for them not for a handful of customers.
It is perfectly economical to have 1 bank branch in all reasonably sized towns. Epping only has 1 bank left and they are cutting them in Loughton too.
As a Conservative not a free market Libertarian like you the banks slashing their number of branches is something I firmly oppose
Interesting.
1. Would you favour the state forcing the last bank in any given locality to stay open? If not, why not? If you would, then why hasn't the Conservative Government done this? 2. Would you apply the same logic to youth clubs? The national network of those has been butchered in the last decade as well.
The second though is not necessarily down to funding. I used to volunteer at a youth club for example and would do so again but now its "we dont believe you arent a pervert so prove it first" to which my responses is fuck off then I will go do something else. A DBS check wouldn't find anything on me as had a couple for places I have worked....but the clue is there....places I worked and was paid to be.....not going to bother for somewhere I am doing a favour
OTOH Dunblane.
Was the guy in dunblane in anyway for his crime going to come under dbs vetting? No he wasn't. He didnt have reason to be at the school for a start so no dbs there. He was a holder of a firearms license however so was some vetting though don't know if it was DBS....wow it failed to catch him....what a surprise.
I suspect for every single person put off because of vetting they have probably lost 20 people who might have actually bothered to volunteer....indeed a lot of clubs shut down youth membership because people went fuck off to vetting
He was originally in the Scouts but got thrown out. DBS would have picked up his earlier problems with the police much earlier and reduced his overall involvement. Also it would have removed the onus from the Scouts. Both very important.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
And how would him have being thrown out the scouts have prevented dunblane? Answer it wouldn't have and you would hope firearms licensing would if anything be tighter than being a scout master.
Fact remains DBS and as I have said I have passed it and developed vetting so its not an issue for me passing it however I will not volunteer now if I have to go through that check and a lot of people feel that way. Where as those with ill intentions will find ways round the check anyway so all you have done is make those organisations more unsafe. Shrugs your issue I lose nothing by not giving time to them.
DBS checks were a response to the Soham murders, not Dunblane.
Not that they would have prevented those either, as it happens.
Which is my point, they were a something must be done response and this is something. The net result is a drop in people wishing to volunteer with young people
However, I should point out that two of their staff had been dismissed for inappropriate sexual behaviour, including one who went to prison over it, so it was perhaps foolish but understandable on the part of Gloucester Cathedral.
I didn't see anything in the article about the flower arrangers guild being arrested or dismissed but only skimmed the article. But it does point out to people like turbotubbs I am not the only person who objects to be assumed guilty until I prove my innocence which is what CRB/DBS is in reality. You are a child danger unless you take the test and prove you arent.
It strikes at the heart of our whole law system in a very real way. I object to it for work too in many ways but you have to earn so less choice. I still remain far from convinced it has made any child safer
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
The Scottish electorate is not noted for delivering negative reports of the performance of the SNP. I'm not sure that's going to change any time soon.
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
It will come down to getting the vote out. That will prove the SNPs biggest challenge after running the shop since 2007 up there and a lot will hang on where any referendum proposal is at. If no referendum has been achieved, nationalist turnout will drop off, they wont be able to campaign on a 'give us all the seats and we give you a referendum' style ticket again. That being said, labours recovery will be limited but visible i think and the Tories will struggle compared to 17 and 19, probably retreating from their comparative upturn in central areas etc under Ruth and they are in full retreat in Edinburgh. They might cobble together 20 or 21% if Boris goes. I can see something like 40 SNP 28 Lab 20 Tory. Labour gaining back 4 or 5, Tories holding borders plus a couple in the NE, LDs holding the northern islands, maybe Caithness, SNP get the rest although i think Ayrshire will be very interesting.
Interesting. What do you reckon for Holyrood 2026? Presuming - by then - there has been no indyref2? (This is 92.3% likely to my mind)
Does the SNP falter there as well?
Depends what happens in 2024. If there is a weak Starmer minority then the SNP might have a big surge and force Starmers hand, so renewed interest in the chance of Indy sees them storm it. Otoh if theyve already negotiated 'something' with Starmer to prop him up then 19 years in power fatigue kicks in and they fade backwards, especially if no referendum has happened. Tory govt.... i think a more radical nat movement might emerge under the Alba banner or some new variation and things will start to mix up . If theyve suceeded in a referendum and it failed they go backwards, if it succeeds then they are the first government of an indy Scotland whenever that happens. All in my opinion of course
It's nailed on that Scotland win tonight and defeat Wales on Sunday to qualify for the world cup.
Because it is destiny that the Tartan Army's first world cup in 24 years is going to be in a country than bans drinking alcohol in public and being drunk in public.
Hubris then naymaregettingpissed.
You'd be buckying the trend.
Hope you're feeling a bit better.
Not bad thanks. Slight wooly feeling of disassociation, can't even get too worked up about the football.
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
Isn't the question whether or not being in the single market is an unraveling of Brexit, a betrayal of it, or what the mind of the country was in 2016 anyway?
Twitter - John Stevens@johnestevens 🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
Restaurant booking at 8 perhaps? What time does Brady normally leave?
Well, yes, unless people expect him to hibernate in Parliament till Monday, he was bound to come out sometime. I don't see why his appearance excites John Stevens.
If the letters are in, he goes to see Johnson.
Johnson will be at Chequers surely for a long Bank Holiday weekend of pissing up, shouting at staff and the odd game of tennis?
In between the serious business of trying to ride some young filly.
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Also: NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
I confess i am geekily obsessed with charcuterie, cheese, breads, picnic fruits and veggies, and wine, but anyway, they are quite a good way of judging a food culture (at least in the west)
That insane posho LA supermarket has moderately pleasant cheese and rather average salami and it costs about five trillion dollars
It actually has very good cheese, very good salami, and excellent fresh meat.
But it is insanely expensive. Like 3-4x the price of Tesco or Sainsbury's.
Wow.
I will say for Waitrose and MS they do do very good food.
I don't think it's worth the premium they charge over what I can get from other supermarkets. Because they also do some very good food. And if I want genuinely premium stuff I'll buy from a farm shop.
But to be more expensive than Waitrose and the implication being comparable to Tesco in quality? That's mad. When I was in America I thought how cheap everything was, but clearly it's changed!
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
Rejoining would be the 21st century answer to the Restoration of 1660. Discuss.
You know where hasn’t attracted many migrants? Scotland.
Some of the consequences of that may be seen in the latest SNP budget.
It's actually a big problem. Scotland's demographic profile is pretty bleak. And Scot Nattery doesn't help as it definitely puts off investors worried about potential loss of access to UK market.
I haven't looked through all the replies, but I posed the question earlier: what's the net non-rUK immigration rate to Scotland, and how does it compare to the overall UK rate?
The figures I found were: 20,000 to Scotland (population 5.45 million) 239,000 to UK (population 65 million)
Those rates are exactly the same.
Have I got my numbers wrong? Or is the idea that immigrants don't come to Scotland a lie?
I think London & SE skews the figs somewhat; I believe eg Glasgow and Newcastle's non UK born residents are similar. It's a problem for sure though. Unionists would rather bore on about how crap Scotland is as a destination than give 'the most powerful devolved administration in the world' a modicum of control over immigration.
Is the most powerful devolved administration in the world a genuine tagline?
Apologies, on checking it was one of the most powerful devolved administrations in the world, author one David Cameron.
Edit: though the Tele reports in another speech he said "In Scotland our plans are to create the strongest devolved government anywhere in the world, with important powers over taxation."
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Also: NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
I confess i am geekily obsessed with charcuterie, cheese, breads, picnic fruits and veggies, and wine, but anyway, they are quite a good way of judging a food culture (at least in the west)
That insane posho LA supermarket has moderately pleasant cheese and rather average salami and it costs about five trillion dollars
It actually has very good cheese, very good salami, and excellent fresh meat.
But it is insanely expensive. Like 3-4x the price of Tesco or Sainsbury's.
Wow.
I will say for Waitrose and MS they do do very good food.
I don't think it's worth the premium they charge over what I can get from other supermarkets. Because they also do some very good food. And if I want genuinely premium stuff I'll buy from a farm shop.
But to be more expensive than Waitrose and the implication being comparable to Tesco in quality? That's mad. When I was in America I thought how cheap everything was, but clearly it's changed!
Isn't part of this just the weakness of Sterling? If we were still getting $1.80 for every £1 then the prices in American shops wouldn't look as high as they do at the moment?
It's a measure of how much poorer we've become as a result of the weakness of the currency.
The train drivers' union Aslef has rejected the latest 4.2% pay deal from ScotRail. The union's national executive said it would ballot for industrial action unless ScotRail offered further talks. Many drivers have been refusing to work overtime or on rest days during the pay dispute. The driver shortage has led to the now-nationalised train operator cutting a third of services under a temporary timetable.
Transport Scotland said it was disappointed that Aslef had rejected a deal which it described as "both fair and affordable".
Scotland's Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth had said earlier this week she was hopeful the 4.2% pay offer would resolve the dispute. However, it was turned down by a meeting of Aslef's national executive committee on Wednesday.
Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: "Aslef wants to negotiate a fair deal for our members, we are once again calling on ScotRail to return to the talks, so we can negotiate a fair pay offer that we can put to our members."
ScotRail introduced an emergency timetable last month to give customers a degree of certainty about services after being hit by numerous cancellations.
But the timetable involved almost 700 fewer services a day, with many later trains no longer running.
The SNP won 48 seats at the last UK General Election.
What do we think about next time - higher or lower?
Much lower as Scottish voters hand the SNP Gov at Holyrood a very negative midterm report card.. The SNP failures/scandals have been piling up in a holding pattern for the last year, now its all starting to unravel as we move on from the Covid pandemic. The ferry scandal was finally cutting through, but the impact of the Scotrail chaos has been immediate across the country with no sign of it improving anytime soon.
The Scottish electorate is not noted for delivering negative reports of the performance of the SNP. I'm not sure that's going to change any time soon.
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
It will come down to getting the vote out. That will prove the SNPs biggest challenge after running the shop since 2007 up there and a lot will hang on where any referendum proposal is at. If no referendum has been achieved, nationalist turnout will drop off, they wont be able to campaign on a 'give us all the seats and we give you a referendum' style ticket again. That being said, labours recovery will be limited but visible i think and the Tories will struggle compared to 17 and 19, probably retreating from their comparative upturn in central areas etc under Ruth and they are in full retreat in Edinburgh. They might cobble together 20 or 21% if Boris goes. I can see something like 40 SNP 28 Lab 20 Tory. Labour gaining back 4 or 5, Tories holding borders plus a couple in the NE, LDs holding the northern islands, maybe Caithness, SNP get the rest although i think Ayrshire will be very interesting.
I think the LDs hold O&S, Edinburgh West and (probably) North East Fife. I doubt they'll hold on to the successor of the Caithness seat. Indeed, I doubt they'll even be particularly close.
I think NE Fife is SNP, edinburgh W yeah they may keep that, i find Edinburgh very hard to predict though. Initial thoughts only, and ive been struggling with fatigue all day so my spider senses may be a bit off
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
Rejoining would be the 21st century answer to the Restoration of 1660. Discuss.
Well, we've had the plague. When do you expect London to burn to the ground?
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
Rejoining would be the 21st century answer to the Restoration of 1660. Discuss.
Well, we've had the plague. When do you expect London to burn to the ground?
Well, you can get exceptional supermarket food in the US. But you will pay through the absolute nose for it. Erewhon - here in Los Angeles - is craptacularly expensive, but they have outstanding bread, salami, cheese etc.
Bloody hell, I've just looked at some of their produce and it makes Waitrose look cheap.
Also: NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
I confess i am geekily obsessed with charcuterie, cheese, breads, picnic fruits and veggies, and wine, but anyway, they are quite a good way of judging a food culture (at least in the west)
That insane posho LA supermarket has moderately pleasant cheese and rather average salami and it costs about five trillion dollars
It actually has very good cheese, very good salami, and excellent fresh meat.
But it is insanely expensive. Like 3-4x the price of Tesco or Sainsbury's.
Wow.
I will say for Waitrose and MS they do do very good food.
I don't think it's worth the premium they charge over what I can get from other supermarkets. Because they also do some very good food. And if I want genuinely premium stuff I'll buy from a farm shop.
But to be more expensive than Waitrose and the implication being comparable to Tesco in quality? That's mad. When I was in America I thought how cheap everything was, but clearly it's changed!
Isn't part of this just the weakness of Sterling? If we were still getting $1.80 for every £1 then the prices in American shops wouldn't look as high as they do at the moment?
It's a measure of how much poorer we've become as a result of the weakness of the currency.
But, Sterling is an automatic stabiliser.
If it weakens in value it makes our exports more competitive and makes us a more attractive investment destination and thus staves off recession.
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
If opposition to Boris is associated with rejoinery then I'd say that helps Boris with his backbenches.
Poor move by Ellwood.
Its inviting most of the 2019 voting coalition to sod off. Idiot move politically and electorally.
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
If opposition to Boris is associated with rejoinery then I'd say that helps Boris with his backbenches.
Poor move by Ellwood.
Looks at constituency.
Bournemouth East trending leftwards, predicted Labour gain by electoral calculus.
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
If opposition to Boris is associated with rejoinery then I'd say that helps Boris with his backbenches.
Poor move by Ellwood.
Looks at constituency.
Bournemouth East trending leftwards, predicted Labour gain by electoral calculus.
Yes, quite. The self preservation society wrote that proposal
Comments
There’s an obsession here with coupons which would embarrass a retirement home.
I can’t believe the cost is in production.
I can’t believe the costs are in distribution.
I can’t believe the costs are in retail.
It’s bloody weird.
I don't understand this reluctance for DBS - having been through vetting myself for my work which was with an organization which also involved some vulnerable/young people; now you will say 'work', but I take the view that volunteers in an organization should be held to the same legal and moral and corporate standards as the paid staff. And they should be treated with the same respect too. If they are not willing to follow those standards, then that's it, no basis for further progress.
Edit: the *delays* with DBS (as noted here earlier in another context) are a separate matter, and a cvery real problem.
I'm not seriously suggesting you thought (or anyone could think) imperial units could be the issue.
Are they asking for anything unreasonable? That's not me trying to set a trap, BTW, it's a genuine question. I don't know the details of this dispute.
The excuse "But I can't be arsed to learn how so you must organise yourselves around me and my refusal to learn." Wouldn't be tolerated from any other group in society.
Net result I suspect is your youngster is now more likely to go to a club where the volunteers have motives beyond helping out.
Fact remains DBS and as I have said I have passed it and developed vetting so its not an issue for me passing it however I will not volunteer now if I have to go through that check and a lot of people feel that way. Where as those with ill intentions will find ways round the check anyway so all you have done is make those organisations more unsafe. Shrugs your issue I lose nothing by not giving time to them.
For example, it seems that the gross profit margin for the largest US food retailer, Walmart, is an average of 25% over the last few years. The average gross profit margin for the largest UK food retailer, Tesco, is 6.5% (Figures: Google).
Crap food + high prices = mega profits (protected by anti-competitive practices)
Which means there's a long wait if you don't have one.
I don't see why this is. It should be like a driving licence.
🚨 Sir Graham Brady just seen walking out of Parliament… does this mean the 54 letter are in or does it indicate absolutely nothing?
You’re very noble too. Ya nob.
I don’t regard it as a barrier. As you say you have had DBS in the past, so why would it stop you giving your time now? Coaching, helping is not a one way street. You may gain from it too.
Yer a braver man than I!
Hampden Park
7:45 kick off
Scotland 2.52 (from 2.38 two days ago)
Ukraine 3.35 (from 3.5)
The figures I found were:
20,000 to Scotland (population 5.45 million)
239,000 to UK (population 65 million)
Those rates are exactly the same.
Have I got my numbers wrong? Or is the idea that immigrants don't come to Scotland a lie?
I reckon there's a good chance they make fifty again next time. Cumulative effect of continuing Labour weakness with its old core vote, and Ross wrecking his credibility through his vacillation over Boris Johnson.
You’ve been cutting and pasting garbage like that since 2007. Try a new trick occasionally.
For example, it seems that the gross profit margin for the largest US food retailer, Walmart, is an average of 25% over the last few years. The average gross profit margin for the largest UK food retailer, Tesco, is 6.5% (Figures: Google).
Crap food + high prices = mega profits (protected by anti-competitive practices)
I'm afraid either you or Google are hopelessly confusing apples and boxes of chalk..
"Gross profit" in retailing is generally used by other retailers to mean the difference between the price of goods bought and the price they're sold at. Walmart declares this (it was about 25% for their worldwide operations in 2021), but Tesco doesn't. What Tesco DOES declare, though is the total difference between its sales and the number that's the sum of the goods it's bought and its other normal operating costs (wages, NI contributions, rent, etc) - but it sometimes refers to this in its annual report as "gross profit" (though its managers never use this odd form of wording talking to other people
That roughly describes what Walmart calls "operating income" in its annual report - which for 2021 was 4.6% of sales: much the same as Tesco's. Walmart, notoriously (to other grocers), is less profitable than Tesco because:
- it's more sloppily managed
- being American, it's more locked into brands, where suppliers make the running
- it doesn't enjoy the mega market share of food in its home country that Tesco does.
But it would help, of course, is Tesco was more open inits accounts.
And one of the few legal ways of discrimination.
Doesn't work so well in a labour shortage.
The bringing in of dbs for volunteers cost this country a lot of volunteers, it did sod all to protect young people against paedophiles and exploiters, those offences if anything are increasing.
1. Boris thinks no one had it harder during lockdown than him
2. He’s never read his kids a book
https://twitter.com/JohnJCrace/status/1531978564610019328
Can't bear to watch but if 2 is true it's the worst thing I have ever heard about him
Because it is destiny that the Tartan Army's first world cup in 24 years is going to be in a country than bans drinking alcohol in public and being drunk in public.
arse
And what would you do to protect youngsters?
That being said, labours recovery will be limited but visible i think and the Tories will struggle compared to 17 and 19, probably retreating from their comparative upturn in central areas etc under Ruth and they are in full retreat in Edinburgh. They might cobble together 20 or 21% if Boris goes.
I can see something like 40 SNP 28 Lab 20 Tory. Labour gaining back 4 or 5, Tories holding borders plus a couple in the NE, LDs holding the northern islands, maybe Caithness, SNP get the rest although i think Ayrshire will be very interesting.
As far as I am aware vetting has made no difference in the number of offcences against minors at such volunteer organisations which in any case fairly small in number as most sexual offences against minors continue to be from family and close family friends......if you want to protect minors you would do far better implementing a check against boyfriends of single mothers. That however I suspect you will say don't be ridiculous about and quite rightly.....however you support checks for people who volunteer who mostly have far less access to the children they are supervising
Not that they would have prevented those either, as it happens.
(I actually cannot remember my parents ever reading me a book, but I assume they must have done as I've always been a big reader).
Does the SNP falter there as well?
"The whole interview is on YouTube. Most telling was the answer to the 'Which books do you read to your children?' question. He stopped, thought for a while and realised he didn't know any children's books so said, 'Oh, I read the ones l used to like as a child.' Got out of that."
But I am surprised at the level of your antipathy to something that takes minutes to do. Perhaps you are just far more anti state/government than I am?
This is the silliest example I know of:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1333114/A-middle-class-revolt-Flower-arrangers-bell-ringers-fight-crazy-vetting-works-near-children.html
However, I should point out that two of their staff had been dismissed for inappropriate sexual behaviour, including one who went to prison over it, so it was perhaps foolish but understandable on the part of Gloucester Cathedral.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/01/britain-should-rejoin-eu-single-market-ease-cost-living-crisis/
Exactly as I was discussing the other night (last night?) and I was much pooh-poohed. Yet I am right. If a Tory is gunning for this then you can be sure a Labour govt under 2nd vote Starmer will actively pursue it
Indeed it may be the way Starmer buys off the SNP and LDs to get a functional NOM govt
A Duchy Organic avocado at Waitrose on Finchley Road is £1.40 ($1.80ish).
That's more than twice the price at Erewhon.
I confess i am geekily obsessed with charcuterie, cheese, breads, picnic fruits and veggies, and wine, but anyway, they are quite a good way of judging a food culture (at least in the west)
That insane posho LA supermarket has moderately pleasant cheese and rather average salami and it costs about five trillion dollars
Johnson will be at Chequers surely for a long Bank Holiday weekend of pissing up, shouting at staff and the odd game of tennis?
Hope you're feeling a bit better.
After I asked them to scan it, they scanned it and it was genuine.
But it is insanely expensive. Like 3-4x the price of Tesco or Sainsbury's.
Poor move by Ellwood.
It strikes at the heart of our whole law system in a very real way. I object to it for work too in many ways but you have to earn so less choice. I still remain far from convinced it has made any child safer
Tory govt.... i think a more radical nat movement might emerge under the Alba banner or some new variation and things will start to mix up .
If theyve suceeded in a referendum and it failed they go backwards, if it succeeds then they are the first government of an indy Scotland whenever that happens.
All in my opinion of course
I will say for Waitrose and MS they do do very good food.
I don't think it's worth the premium they charge over what I can get from other supermarkets. Because they also do some very good food. And if I want genuinely premium stuff I'll buy from a farm shop.
But to be more expensive than Waitrose and the implication being comparable to Tesco in quality? That's mad. When I was in America I thought how cheap everything was, but clearly it's changed!
Edit: though the Tele reports in another speech he said "In Scotland our plans are to create the strongest devolved government anywhere in the world, with important powers over taxation."
It's a measure of how much poorer we've become as a result of the weakness of the currency.
Initial thoughts only, and ive been struggling with fatigue all day so my spider senses may be a bit off
If it weakens in value it makes our exports more competitive and makes us a more attractive investment destination and thus staves off recession.
Bournemouth East trending leftwards, predicted Labour gain by electoral calculus.