I like Mr Nicholson's suggestion she's adopted the dead cat strategy. Rather apt.
It's not a spoof story. A teacher called a child despicable and suggested they go to a different school because they had a binary view on sex. The cat element is a red herring.
Talking of Boris, I think he's finally cracked. His Mail column today is a paean to the Titanic explorers who died, who were "pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge" - their exploration made him proud to be British and, of course he has a dig at "sneering lefties".
But most remarkably, he claims the explorers were trying to "democratise the ocean floor". WTF?
Well, punters paying $250,000 a pop to get what they want certainly sounds like BoJo's idea of democracy
The actual business plan behind the sub was to make subs much cheaper than traditional DSVs. This would sell like hot cakes - first to existing companies (oil and gas say), then new companies taking advantage of the low costs to open new markets.
This in turn mould mean mass production - at least by DSV standards - dropping the price further.
There was a small flaw in the plan. The sub design was rubbish.
This meant the traditional customers didn’t buy. Which meant the Titanic trips as a proving ground.
I like Mr Nicholson's suggestion she's adopted the dead cat strategy. Rather apt.
It was a purrfect pun.
On a serious note, nobody who is worried about safeguarding would call in OFSTED. They haven't a clue what it is. Spielman literally can't define it. If you're worried about safeguarding you call the local authority.
Regardless of your views on Ofsted, Badenoch's letter to Spielman calling for the school to be inspected is wholly inappropriate. As I understand it, the concerns are about one teacher, one lesson, that was leaked online - not about the school as a whole. You don't have an inspection about such a complaint. It is a matter for the Head and/or governors to deal with (and maybe the LA if it is an LA school).
I can't believe the government would be so stupid as to freeze public sector pay (well maybe I could) next year. Their employees would not stand for it, and nor should they stand for it.
Indeed, instead of a wage freeze the government needs to look at mass layoffs in order to increase pay. The public sector is unproductive and a major reason for it is that it is completely bloated. Sacking 20% of public sector employees would free up labour supply in the private sector, enable pay rises for the remaining 80% and allow for a big reduction in spending. I doubt anyone would notice either if the cuts were made among the army of do nothing paper shufflers.
Yeah, firing doctors, nurses, policemen, firefighters and teachers is the way to go!
Perhaps not.
I could save you half a million in one hit. Sack Andrew Bailey.
Or how about sacking all of the local council paper shufflers and NHS and DfE box tickers? The state now has 1m more people employed since 2016, are you seriously suggesting that services are better today than in 2016? What value have these extra million people provided to the public, they've added £50-60bn to the bill which means there's no room for public sector payrises or tax cuts for the rest of us.
There's too many layers of management, too many consultants and too many agency workers. It's time for the public sector to slim down just as businesses are doing. More for less, which means cutting whole divisions of unproductive sectors.
Two Lab voters for every Tory, and enough left over to cover MOE.
Can Sunak survive if he loses all the byelections?
Good morning
Sunak will lead into GE24 as changing leader again is not an option
Apparently Sunak and Hunt have decided they will not implement next year's pay review bodies recommendations as they are inflationary
It seems to me they know GE24 is lost but are putting the economy and the fight against inflation above all else
Actually this is exactly what Starmer and Reeves must want as it is the right thing to do, will benefit everyone ultimately, and will see Starmer and Reeves in government in 24 with a good majority
Yet the Triple Lock for pensioners goes ahead.
Tories deserve wipeout, and may well get it..
Is it time for a 0% freeze on all pensions, welfare, minimum wage, public sector pay for 2024 as a last ditch effort to control inflation? And cancel HS2 which is such a waste of money?
And HS2 isn't in itself unreasonable at all, because of the capacity expansion. Though arguably the way it is being chopped up is a hugely inefficient way to spend money (no link to HS1 early on, now ending at Old Oak, etc.)
I suspect the reason it is being chopped up is to try and cancel it by stealth. Not because it is unnecessary - it's urgently needed for capacity, as you say - but because the DfT don't like railways and the Treasury don't like spending money.
You may very well be right. (Though a cynic might also suggest that the big sums have been spent, so why bother with running the actual trains? Bo-ring, and no juicy directorships or profits).
The DfT, with its approach to electrification, not least the increasingly common insistence that trains carry [edit] what are effectively diesel and electric locomotives around at the same time, not to mention batteries also it seems, does recall to mind the relationship between the Dept of Education and education as you portray it.
Because of the absurd escalation in costs for installing overhead wire electrification, battery powered trains may very well win on cost grounds.
Sure, you are hauling batteries around. But when you considered the zillions a mile that electrification costs..
Bit like the discussion of battery storage for electrical power vs other methods - yes, battery storage may not be optimal, but it can be setup for a non insane price and doesn’t require a decade of planning
Two Lab voters for every Tory, and enough left over to cover MOE.
Can Sunak survive if he loses all the byelections?
Good morning
Sunak will lead into GE24 as changing leader again is not an option
Apparently Sunak and Hunt have decided they will not implement next year's pay review bodies recommendations as they are inflationary
It seems to me they know GE24 is lost but are putting the economy and the fight against inflation above all else
Actually this is exactly what Starmer and Reeves must want as it is the right thing to do, will benefit everyone ultimately, and will see Starmer and Reeves in government in 24 with a good majority
Yet the Triple Lock for pensioners goes ahead.
Tories deserve wipeout, and may well get it..
Is it time for a 0% freeze on all pensions, welfare, minimum wage, public sector pay for 2024 as a last ditch effort to control inflation? And cancel HS2 which is such a waste of money?
And HS2 isn't in itself unreasonable at all, because of the capacity expansion. Though arguably the way it is being chopped up is a hugely inefficient way to spend money (no link to HS1 early on, now ending at Old Oak, etc.)
I suspect the reason it is being chopped up is to try and cancel it by stealth. Not because it is unnecessary - it's urgently needed for capacity, as you say - but because the DfT don't like railways and the Treasury don't like spending money.
You may very well be right. (Though a cynic might also suggest that the big sums have been spent, so why bother with running the actual trains? Bo-ring, and no juicy directorships or profits).
The DfT, with its approach to electrification, not least the increasingly common insistence that trains carry [edit] what are effectively diesel and electric locomotives around at the same time, not to mention batteries also it seems, does recall to mind the relationship between the Dept of Education and education as you portray it.
Because of the absurd escalation in costs for installing overhead wire electrification, battery powered trains may very well win on cost grounds.
Sure, you are hauling batteries around. But when you considered the zillions a mile that electrification costs..
Bit like the discussion of battery storage for electrical power vs other methods - yes, battery storage may not be optimal, but it can be setup for a non insane price and doesn’t require a decade of planning
Batteries work.
That's pretty much the reason batteries are replacing things in multiple sectors around the globe.
The technology works, it can simply be done and just get on with it.
I can't believe the government would be so stupid as to freeze public sector pay (well maybe I could) next year. Their employees would not stand for it, and nor should they stand for it.
Indeed, instead of a wage freeze the government needs to look at mass layoffs in order to increase pay. The public sector is unproductive and a major reason for it is that it is completely bloated. Sacking 20% of public sector employees would free up labour supply in the private sector, enable pay rises for the remaining 80% and allow for a big reduction in spending. I doubt anyone would notice either if the cuts were made among the army of do nothing paper shufflers.
Won’t work the redundancy payments would destroy the first 2 years of savings.
Also some departments are already stupidly short staffed - some HMRC helplines are currently closed for 3 months as the staff are needed elsewhere.
AIUI there aren't actually enough managers in the health service. Someone with insider knowledge would be able to confirm, but quite a lot of senior clinicians' time is apparently chewed up by admin.
But you're still falling for the trap of thinking this work is essential to the running of the health service. Let's get rid of the forms and boxes, automate where we can and sack half of the admin and management staff.
I can't believe the government would be so stupid as to freeze public sector pay (well maybe I could) next year. Their employees would not stand for it, and nor should they stand for it.
Any pay rise in public sector should be covered by productivity, government should just say sure you can have 10% pay rise , go ahead and pick the 10% who lose their jobs to pay for it.
Nobody can question your commitment to productivity Malc.
The trouble the government have is that they couldn't enforce that even if they wanted to.
Public sector staff can, will and already have, buggered off to other jobs or countries. As someone once said, they hold all the cards.
If that press briefing from the British MoD is right, they are just moving quietly to moscow.
I imagine Putin is extremely reluctant to get into open armed conflict with Wagner on Russian soil which couldn’t be described as anything but civil war. I bet he’s secretly negotiating his withered ass off with Prigozhin through ‘channels’, whether Big YVP is listening is another question.
Its too late. He is not negotiating, he is losing.
Rumours of an announcement of a transitional military government to be established in Miensk.
Transitioning to what?
Again, I cannot imagine the Belarusian military handing over to the rightful government. Not only are they Lukashenko's patsies but too many of them were involved in the crimes he committed to stay in power.
The traditional thing to offer them is “support freedom/the revolution and you get a pardon for the past. Don’t, and the tribunal will have you against a wall in 20 minutes.”
I can't believe the government would be so stupid as to freeze public sector pay (well maybe I could) next year. Their employees would not stand for it, and nor should they stand for it.
Indeed, instead of a wage freeze the government needs to look at mass layoffs in order to increase pay. The public sector is unproductive and a major reason for it is that it is completely bloated. Sacking 20% of public sector employees would free up labour supply in the private sector, enable pay rises for the remaining 80% and allow for a big reduction in spending. I doubt anyone would notice either if the cuts were made among the army of do nothing paper shufflers.
Ideological sackings at HMRC under Osborne mean that we've become far less efficient at extracting taxes from the shadier elements of the economy.
I can't believe the government would be so stupid as to freeze public sector pay (well maybe I could) next year. Their employees would not stand for it, and nor should they stand for it.
Indeed, instead of a wage freeze the government needs to look at mass layoffs in order to increase pay. The public sector is unproductive and a major reason for it is that it is completely bloated. Sacking 20% of public sector employees would free up labour supply in the private sector, enable pay rises for the remaining 80% and allow for a big reduction in spending. I doubt anyone would notice either if the cuts were made among the army of do nothing paper shufflers.
Won’t work the redundancy payments would destroy the first 2 years of savings.
Also some departments are already stupidly short staffed - some HMRC helplines are currently closed for 3 months as the staff are needed elsewhere.
AIUI there aren't actually enough managers in the health service. Someone with insider knowledge would be able to confirm, but quite a lot of senior clinicians' time is apparently chewed up by admin.
But you're still falling for the trap of thinking this work is essential to the running of the health service. Let's get rid of the forms and boxes, automate where we can and sack half of the admin and management staff.
Comments
This in turn mould mean mass production - at least by DSV standards - dropping the price further.
There was a small flaw in the plan. The sub design was rubbish.
This meant the traditional customers didn’t buy. Which meant the Titanic trips as a proving ground.
There's too many layers of management, too many consultants and too many agency workers. It's time for the public sector to slim down just as businesses are doing. More for less, which means cutting whole divisions of unproductive sectors.
Sure, you are hauling batteries around. But when you considered the zillions a mile that electrification costs..
Bit like the discussion of battery storage for electrical power vs other methods - yes, battery storage may not be optimal, but it can be setup for a non insane price and doesn’t require a decade of planning
That's pretty much the reason batteries are replacing things in multiple sectors around the globe.
The technology works, it can simply be done and just get on with it.
The trouble the government have is that they couldn't enforce that even if they wanted to.
Public sector staff can, will and already have, buggered off to other jobs or countries. As someone once said, they hold all the cards.
called "On the road to Moscow"