Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
I have no doubt that the Ofsted inspection will be conflated by some as being some form of vindication of the teachers position in the incident itself.
The government didn't have any choice, really, either on the pay rises or the financing of them. They've used the recommendations of the pay review bodies in the past to justify resisting higher pay claims, making it hard to ignore the recommendations now. In any case, the acute problems of recruitment and retention of staff in all of these sectors mean that pay has to increase. The suggested rises are reasonable in the circumstances, although of course unions will scream that they are not. Private-sector pay (albeit not quite comparable, because of the large hidden-pay element of pensions in the public sector) are in the same ballpark, or even higher. Increasing borrowing to even higher levels at the moment is not realistic, and increasing taxes even more than they are already being increased is also not politically realistic.
Financing from the underspend is a short-term fudge, of course, so the problem isn't going to go away. We need more economic growth, better productivity, and better-managed public services, especially better management in the NHS. But none of that can be done quickly, and meanwhile we have the long-term deadweight of Brexit red tape dragging us down and stifling investment. The medium-term future is pretty bleak, to be honest. Labour are going to inherit a very, very difficult situation.
"And meanwhile we have the long term deadweight of Brexit dragging us down and stifling investment"
Interesting that this key passage had 'likes' from three of the most vociferous Brexiteers who post here. It's almost as though we're dealing with alter egos.
Almost as if people can deal with more than one issue at once and don't judge every thought through the prism of Leaver vs Remainer.
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix.
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
Just got a great beer deal at Waitrose - four pack of Blue Moon for £2.29 (had a yellow sticker on because its best before date 31/12/23 is now less than six months away)
I bought two packs and am celebrating my find with the first can
"Blue Moon Belgian White American Craft Wheat Beer." A lot to unpack there. But enjoy!
Certainly sounds a little bit more unique than your average brew.
Just got a great beer deal at Waitrose - four pack of Blue Moon for £2.29 (had a yellow sticker on because its best before date 31/12/23 is now less than six months away)
I bought two packs and am celebrating my find with the first can
"Blue Moon Belgian White American Craft Wheat Beer." A lot to unpack there. But enjoy!
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
Quite. Well-to-do elderly rentiers are effectively getting a 6% pay rise next time the interest resets on their deposit accounts. You would have to be a pretty rabid pinko to argue for a larger rise for the "working" "poor" than these good folk are getting.
On the other hand, the tax treatment of savings interest is a lot more generous than wages.
The government didn't have any choice, really, either on the pay rises or the financing of them. They've used the recommendations of the pay review bodies in the past to justify resisting higher pay claims, making it hard to ignore the recommendations now. In any case, the acute problems of recruitment and retention of staff in all of these sectors mean that pay has to increase. The suggested rises are reasonable in the circumstances, although of course unions will scream that they are not. Private-sector pay (albeit not quite comparable, because of the large hidden-pay element of pensions in the public sector) are in the same ballpark, or even higher. Increasing borrowing to even higher levels at the moment is not realistic, and increasing taxes even more than they are already being increased is also not politically realistic.
Financing from the underspend is a short-term fudge, of course, so the problem isn't going to go away. We need more economic growth, better productivity, and better-managed public services, especially better management in the NHS. But none of that can be done quickly, and meanwhile we have the long-term deadweight of Brexit red tape dragging us down and stifling investment. The medium-term future is pretty bleak, to be honest. Labour are going to inherit a very, very difficult situation.
"And meanwhile we have the long term deadweight of Brexit dragging us down and stifling investment"
Interesting that this key passage had 'likes' from three of the most vociferous Brexiteers who post here. It's almost as though we're dealing with alter egos.
Not sure that's right, Roger. The 'likes' include only one vociferous Brexiteer and this is the almost spookily unrepresentative Richard Tyndall, who seems to agree with his fellow Leavers about very little.
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix.
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
Ask any professional in public service. Do they say that
1) the system enables them to do their job without any problems. 2) they are snowed under with paperwork bullshit and have to actively fight the system to do their jobs
?
2) is universal. Productivity (and good management) is invisible when it is working well.
All the teachers I’ve met are not exhausted, fed up, etc of teaching Physics to Year 8. It’s the other shit.
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
Aren't you a public sector worker? If so, are you happy to see your wage shrink in real terms?
No I am a third sector worker and no I don't want to fuel an inflationary wage spiral
Oh I thought you were public sector. You not on Epping Town Council anymore?
Very noble of you to be happy to work for less.
The internet never forgets does it? You’re a quangocrat HYUFD. Public sector workers pay your wages. God that must sting.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Is that an Ofsted issue though? Maybe it is, in this case, but surely isolated incidents are within the authority of the school in question. Their job to speak to the teacher/pupil(s) in question, establish the facts and take any necessary action. The Ofsted role surely being more general on overall situation and procedures within the school?
Yes, you are probably right, but lots of commentators on the left are claiming that this is some kind of vindication which shows that those who expressed shock at the horrendous comments of the teacher were completely wrong.
Yep. Would be interesting to know what action was take on that. From the recording (and I'm of course aware of the lack of context, but it does sound bad) what starts as an interesting debate gets shut down by the (presumed) teacher with threats of disciplinary action. The (presumed) student seems to behave entirely reasonably.
We used to have good debates with a very left wing teacher at school, but she welcomed the engagement (and believed in her ability to win the argument, so was never defensive) and would certainly never have threatened anyone for simply disagreeing.
It's really none of our business, but a matter between school management, and its employee - and quite possibly the school governing body.
It was reported that ...the trust has already met with the DfE to share an update on the events that took place.. some weeks back.
The (repeated) OFSTED inspection makes it clear (as far as any OFSTED inspection does) that there is no systemic problem.
The government didn't have any choice, really, either on the pay rises or the financing of them. They've used the recommendations of the pay review bodies in the past to justify resisting higher pay claims, making it hard to ignore the recommendations now. In any case, the acute problems of recruitment and retention of staff in all of these sectors mean that pay has to increase. The suggested rises are reasonable in the circumstances, although of course unions will scream that they are not. Private-sector pay (albeit not quite comparable, because of the large hidden-pay element of pensions in the public sector) are in the same ballpark, or even higher. Increasing borrowing to even higher levels at the moment is not realistic, and increasing taxes even more than they are already being increased is also not politically realistic.
Financing from the underspend is a short-term fudge, of course, so the problem isn't going to go away. We need more economic growth, better productivity, and better-managed public services, especially better management in the NHS. But none of that can be done quickly, and meanwhile we have the long-term deadweight of Brexit red tape dragging us down and stifling investment. The medium-term future is pretty bleak, to be honest. Labour are going to inherit a very, very difficult situation.
"And meanwhile we have the long term deadweight of Brexit dragging us down and stifling investment"
Interesting that this key passage had 'likes' from three of the most vociferous Brexiteers who post here. It's almost as though we're dealing with alter egos.
Problem for you is that most sensible posters accept Brexit has contributed to our problems, but unlike your fixation with it, there are many other factors at play and this is a well balanced comment piece in that respect and worthy of the likes
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
The government didn't have any choice, really, either on the pay rises or the financing of them. They've used the recommendations of the pay review bodies in the past to justify resisting higher pay claims, making it hard to ignore the recommendations now. In any case, the acute problems of recruitment and retention of staff in all of these sectors mean that pay has to increase. The suggested rises are reasonable in the circumstances, although of course unions will scream that they are not. Private-sector pay (albeit not quite comparable, because of the large hidden-pay element of pensions in the public sector) are in the same ballpark, or even higher. Increasing borrowing to even higher levels at the moment is not realistic, and increasing taxes even more than they are already being increased is also not politically realistic.
Financing from the underspend is a short-term fudge, of course, so the problem isn't going to go away. We need more economic growth, better productivity, and better-managed public services, especially better management in the NHS. But none of that can be done quickly, and meanwhile we have the long-term deadweight of Brexit red tape dragging us down and stifling investment. The medium-term future is pretty bleak, to be honest. Labour are going to inherit a very, very difficult situation.
"And meanwhile we have the long term deadweight of Brexit dragging us down and stifling investment"
Interesting that this key passage had 'likes' from three of the most vociferous Brexiteers who post here. It's almost as though we're dealing with alter egos.
Not sure that's right, Roger. The 'likes' include only one vociferous Brexiteer and this is the almost spookily unrepresentative Richard Tyndall, who seems to agree with his fellow Leavers about very little.
Leavers, like Remainers, are a broad church. Which is as you would expect. It would be very odd if people all had one of only two possible packages of opinions covering everything from Brexit to the environment to taxation to outdoors carpets to organ shoes.
Edit: though I do agree with Richard Tyndall about quite a lot, and I don't find his package of views particularly strange. But then I also find things to agree with you about, and also Leon, HYUFD and Sandy Rentool. Most people really.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
At school, we'd have discussions about politics in Civics, but I don't ever recall a teacher describing a pupil's opinions as "despicable".
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix...
Most governments seem to find it extremely difficult to take any useful view on anything beyond their term in office.
Just got a great beer deal at Waitrose - four pack of Blue Moon for £2.29 (had a yellow sticker on because its best before date 31/12/23 is now less than six months away)
I bought two packs and am celebrating my find with the first can
Blue Moon, I believe, is one of the beers I drank when I was recently in Shenandoah, VA
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix.
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
There's almost no commercial physics. Physics solved the world and put itself out of business. A bit like Economists. I suspect both professions will see a resurgence once they own up.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
Aren't you a public sector worker? If so, are you happy to see your wage shrink in real terms?
No I am a third sector worker and no I don't want to fuel an inflationary wage spiral
It might be time to question the economic dogmas that became the consensus view during the 1990s. The idea that trying to fix wage inflation at 2% forever was the secret recipe for permanent economic stability has surely been completely discredited by now.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
It's hard to judge from a snippet of recorded conversation though. You don't get the context or the tone. You need to have been there really.
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix.
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
There's almost no commercial physics. Physics solved the world and put itself out of business. A bit like Economists. I suspect both professions will see a resurgence once they own up.
Aren't the fusion guys having a brief moment ? Granted that requires their turning into engineers.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
Quite. Well-to-do elderly rentiers are effectively getting a 6% pay rise next time the interest resets on their deposit accounts. You would have to be a pretty rabid pinko to argue for a larger rise for the "working" "poor" than these good folk are getting.
On the other hand, the tax treatment of savings interest is a lot more generous than wages.
Err, no 'rentier' (unless you count the ultra-low paid as 'rentiers') gets a £5K tax-free allowance on savings. Basic-rate taxpayers get a £1K tax-free allowance, and higher-rate taxpayers £500.
I agree ISAs are very generous, although the number of people who have fully used them and built up very large tax-protected sums (up to a £ million or more is possible) is surprisingly small:
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
I'm pretty sure that wasn't the central point, unless you were really expecting Ofsted to go in with image and audio analysts and cross-referencing the timing to the phone, whilst checking that the phone, pupil, teacher and school exists.
I assume you meant the central point was what the teacher said to the pupil. Or at least should have been, since the following week was full of various NatCons saying that they personally knew of children that identified as cats, birds, holograms, and whatever psychedelic image burst into their head at the time.
Just got a great beer deal at Waitrose - four pack of Blue Moon for £2.29 (had a yellow sticker on because its best before date 31/12/23 is now less than six months away)
I bought two packs and am celebrating my find with the first can
"Blue Moon Belgian White American Craft Wheat Beer." A lot to unpack there. But enjoy!
And brewed in the UK!
It all makes sense once in a blue moon
(Or, possibly, after consumption of sufficient Blue Moons...)
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix.
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
Ask any professional in public service. Do they say that
1) the system enables them to do their job without any problems. 2) they are snowed under with paperwork bullshit and have to actively fight the system to do their jobs
?
2) is universal. Productivity (and good management) is invisible when it is working well.
All the teachers I’ve met are not exhausted, fed up, etc of teaching Physics to Year 8. It’s the other shit.
Yes and no.
Yes the other shit is a massive problem. The external bobbins, the internal bobbins, the struggling with stuff that doesn't work. It's draining and morale sapping, and helps explain why some schools can still recruit when others can't. (And it's why I'm very happy to not be attached to a school five days a week any more.)
But you could magic all that away tomorrow- and schools and the DfE absolutely should- and you would still need basically the same number of teachers. Because of the irreducible core thing of a teacher in a room for an hour with 30 pupils. Mechanisation and IT can make a worker two, five, ten, a hundred times more productive, but there are areas of work which don't work like that. And they tend to be found in the public sector, I suspect because if productivity gains were easy the private sector would have moved in to profit from them.
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
These are roles for which the funding exists, but no-one can be recruited. Salaries that have failed to keep up with inflation for fifteen years are a major reason.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re Labour or Conservative, if you want public services to be run efficiently then you need to pay enough to keep & retain staff or else you end up paying a fortune to fill the roles with temporary contract staff, if you can find them at all.
We long since passed the point of keeping pay down to the point where it balanced recruitment; it’s been pushed so far down that public services are failing.
I know Labour bangs the “save the NHS” drum every election, but this time around teaching is suffering similar problems, yet it doesn’t have the ageing population pressures that the NHS does. The Conservatives have cut salaries relative to other jobs in the UK economy to the point that these services are breaking down.
A fundamental problem is that the UK public services work on a bulk cheap labour basis - rather than high wage/skill/productivity.
And no, that's not worker blaming. Productivity is difficult and often expensive to increase. Just Work Harder has almost never worked, in human history.
It's a real problem. Partly because improving productivity is always expensive upfront and the British voter is terrible at voting for upfront expense, even if it has a long term payoff. But also, a lot of the services that remain in the public sector are ones where it's damn hard to imagine what improved productivity would look like. You might be able to triage better, use paraprofessionals more cleverly. There might even be gains by using big data to spot problems earlier when they are still cheap to fix.
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
There's almost no commercial physics. Physics solved the world and put itself out of business. A bit like Economists. I suspect both professions will see a resurgence once they own up.
Aren't the fusion guys having a brief moment ? Granted that requires their turning into engineers.
Well yes - it's engineering. Optics seems to have some excitement, and then quantum computing is an obvious hotspot (Baffles me entirely though).
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
They are a right pain. The whole system really does need a complete overhaul. They bitch about trivia, and invent completely spurious rules which have nothing to do with what the legislation actually says.
Of course, in your case a site plan is completely irrelevant to the application. How can the impact of an internal fitting depend on the location of the fireplace in the building? It affects only the room in which it is placed.
Unfortunately you have to go along with their nonsense.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
THose are suspiciously round numbers. Suggests someone has run it through the photocopier or is viewing it with a reduction to 65% precisely. I wonder who?
I was taught never, never to work from a copied drawing without using the directly marked dimensions and/or checking the scale bar.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
I have no doubt that the Ofsted inspection will be conflated by some as being some form of vindication of the teachers position in the incident itself.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
It's hard to judge from a snippet of recorded conversation though. You don't get the context or the tone. You need to have been there really.
It's more than a snippet. The teacher calls the child "despicable" for having a different opinion to the absolute latest gibberish on gender. That is clear enough
The children are smarter than the brainwashed teacher - that is also clear
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
Quite. Well-to-do elderly rentiers are effectively getting a 6% pay rise next time the interest resets on their deposit accounts. You would have to be a pretty rabid pinko to argue for a larger rise for the "working" "poor" than these good folk are getting.
On the other hand, the tax treatment of savings interest is a lot more generous than wages.
Err, no 'rentier' (unless you count the ultra-low paid as 'rentiers') gets a £5K tax-free allowance on savings. Basic-rate taxpayers get a £1K tax-free allowance, and higher-rate taxpayers £500.
I agree ISAs are very generous, although the number of people who have fully used them and built up very large tax-protected sums (up to a £ million or more is possible) is surprisingly small:
You may also get up to £5,000 of interest and not have to pay tax on it. This is your starting rate for savings.
The more you earn from other income (for example your wages or pension), the less your starting rate for savings will be."
Admittedly this is for people with little or no other income [erdit] as you note - but what I said is strictly correct.
Of course, in practice many folk will at least have most of the State Pension - but not all. The comparison gets all squirrelly below about 12K net income, obviously.
Just got a great beer deal at Waitrose - four pack of Blue Moon for £2.29 (had a yellow sticker on because its best before date 31/12/23 is now less than six months away)
I bought two packs and am celebrating my find with the first can
"Blue Moon Belgian White American Craft Wheat Beer." A lot to unpack there. But enjoy!
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
I have no doubt that the Ofsted inspection will be conflated by some as being some form of vindication of the teachers position in the incident itself.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
I have no doubt that the Ofsted inspection will be conflated by some as being some form of vindication of the teachers position in the incident itself.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
I have no doubt that the Ofsted inspection will be conflated by some as being some form of vindication of the teachers position in the incident itself.
Well done for being outraged by a hypothetical.
Cat-egory error.
A puss-ilanimous suggestion.
To easy to hurt people’s felines nowadays.
I suspect this puss-h back won't stop Kemi Badenoch believing that she's the cat's whiskers.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar used to be a treat for kids
That's how the Flavour Thesaurus starts its section on rhubarb and cucumber!
Raw rhubarb just tastes like slightly sourer apple. I was surprised to be given it by a friend's mother once as a child, having only had it cooked before. It's not the best use of rhubarb.
You'd want smaller stems, to avoid the stringiness.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
I'm pretty sure that wasn't the central point, unless you were really expecting Ofsted to go in with image and audio analysts and cross-referencing the timing to the phone, whilst checking that the phone, pupil, teacher and school exists.
I assume you meant the central point was what the teacher said to the pupil. Or at least should have been, since the following week was full of various NatCons saying that they personally knew of children that identified as cats, birds, holograms, and whatever psychedelic image burst into their head at the time.
Have any of them provided evidence for their outlandish claims ?
Fantastic. They should sell tickets to watch the orcs fighting each other.
They must be running out of equipment for command posts by now, their locations don’t seem particularly secret, and the Storm Shadow has proved to be rather accurate.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
Wasn't the issue that the teacher described one pupil's (perfectly normal) opinions as "despicable."
Yes, precisely. If that recording is genuine, and I haven't seen any credible suggestion that it is not, the teacher should be sacked. It really is as simple as that.
I have no doubt that the Ofsted inspection will be conflated by some as being some form of vindication of the teachers position in the incident itself.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
On topic, another way to look at those findings is that less than half of respondents think that public sector workers should be given more. 46% is still a large number but it is not knocking it out of the park.
Ofsted haven't addressed the crucial point, which is whether that was a genuine recording of what the teacher said (and is nothing whatsoever to do with cats).
I'm pretty sure that wasn't the central point, unless you were really expecting Ofsted to go in with image and audio analysts and cross-referencing the timing to the phone, whilst checking that the phone, pupil, teacher and school exists.
I assume you meant the central point was what the teacher said to the pupil. Or at least should have been, since the following week was full of various NatCons saying that they personally knew of children that identified as cats, birds, holograms, and whatever psychedelic image burst into their head at the time.
Have any of them provided evidence for their outlandish claims ?
Why would they possibly want to do that? The importance of words is not that they be true or anchored to any fact whatsoever, it is simply that they be spoken to make a point. If saying the exact opposite would serve their purposes they would do that too. The words were spoken, the Daily Mail (or similar) article appeared, and we move on to the next caravan of lies.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar used to be a treat for kids
That's how the Flavour Thesaurus starts its section on rhubarb and cucumber!
Raw rhubarb just tastes like slightly sourer apple. I was surprised to be given it by a friend's mother once as a child, having only had it cooked before. It's not the best use of rhubarb.
You'd want smaller stems, to avoid the stringiness.
I have one of these so can slice it into sixteenth of an inch thick slices, which shouldn't be too stringy
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The polling says otherwise.
No it doesn't. 44% say a 6% pay rise for public sector workers was about right or too large, so more even than the 43% who voted Conservative in 2019
Look at the YouGov poll. It breaks it down by party affiliation, plenty of Tories want big pay increases for public sector workers.
60% of 2019 Conservative voters think a 6% payrise for workers too large or about right.
61% of 2019 Labour voters think a 6% payrise too small
Missing the point again 34% of Tory voters think it is too small.
Which is what I originally said.
Missing the point again.
34% of Tory voters think it if
Who cares? Most Tory voters DON'T think it is too small. The Tory party's role is partly to stand up to the left and unions not give in to them like Labour
I thought the Tory Party’s role was to be govern effectively for the good of all Britons? Or did I miss a memo?
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
On topic, another way to look at those findings is that less than half of respondents think that public sector workers should be given more. 46% is still a large number but it is not knocking it out of the park.
When you have massive staff shortages, it does not matter much either way what voters think the correct level of pay is. You can't beat the market.......
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar used to be a treat for kids
That's how the Flavour Thesaurus starts its section on rhubarb and cucumber!
Raw rhubarb just tastes like slightly sourer apple. I was surprised to be given it by a friend's mother once as a child, having only had it cooked before. It's not the best use of rhubarb.
You'd want smaller stems, to avoid the stringiness.
Best to just avoid it all together, TBH. It's like swede and turnip (sorry, Malc): something you got from the field because you couldn't afford proper potato.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar used to be a treat for kids
Ah, but what about the scrapings of the cake mix?
I remember that - I presume it was just raw egg, flour and sugar. (My mum died when I was quite young, so flour didn't feature so much afterwards)
I'm rather sad to hear that. Am sympathetic.
Ah, Dad's cooking was great! Actually there was flour involved - spam fritters for example. Also huge steaks with onions and (I never worked out why) spaghetti.
Bear in mind, we are only in July 2023 and it is increasingly clear this issue will not go away despite the best hopes of some (especially on PB).
I have topped up on Whitmer (66/1 - Ladbrokes) and Cooper (200-1) as the Democrat nominee, and added Duckworth and Pritzker, both at 100/1
Given he most probably wasn't on the take (assuming such a charge requires evidence) I'd have thought everybody bar the most partisan of GOP supporters would be hoping this goes away.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
I guess it complicates selling the property at a later stage when you have to scramble to get retrospective planning permission .
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
It sounds like he has encountered a specimen of Thundercuntus Clipboardus. There is a good chance it will irritated and attempt legal proceedings if not fed an appropriate diet of countersigned forms.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
The public sector has had fifteen years of below inflation pay rises. Politically, asking them to continue to take real terms pay cuts in the face of rapidly rising prices is extremely difficult, as the wave of public sector strikes is showing.
If public sector workers want bigger pay rises they will vote for Labour. Remember in 2010 when the Tories got in average public sector pay was higher than average private sector pay after 13 years of Labour government and public sector workers had final salary pensions which private sector workers don't (and they still do have those generous public sector pensions)
Aren't you a public sector worker? If so, are you happy to see your wage shrink in real terms?
No I am a third sector worker and no I don't want to fuel an inflationary wage spiral
It might be time to question the economic dogmas that became the consensus view during the 1990s. The idea that trying to fix wage inflation at 2% forever was the secret recipe for permanent economic stability has surely been completely discredited by now.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
I guess it complicates selling the property at a later stage when you have to scramble to get retrospective planning permission .
The Scottish house seller questionnaire specifically asks about any internal modifications in the last 20 (IIRC) years, and the solicitors will want to see the bumf.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
I guess it complicates selling the property at a later stage when you have to scramble to get retrospective planning permission .
The Scottish house seller questionnaire specifically asks about any internal modifications in the last 20 (IIRC) years, and the solicitors will want to see the bumf.
Edit: and it's a listed building anyway.
Plus you may need a new flue or flue liner that terminates externally.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar used to be a treat for kids
That's how the Flavour Thesaurus starts its section on rhubarb and cucumber!
Raw rhubarb just tastes like slightly sourer apple. I was surprised to be given it by a friend's mother once as a child, having only had it cooked before. It's not the best use of rhubarb.
You'd want smaller stems, to avoid the stringiness.
Best to just avoid it all together, TBH. It's like swede and turnip (sorry, Malc): something you got from the field because you couldn't afford proper potato.
I had to buy a pack of rhubarb that would be enough for about a month of the salad if I ate it twice a day
I'm going to make Khoresh with the rest of it this weekend. It's another Iranian dish, of lamb and rhubarb stew
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
I guess it complicates selling the property at a later stage when you have to scramble to get retrospective planning permission .
Yes it can do - but once a certain period has passed there's no need to do that.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
Actually he probably doesn't need listed building consent for this. It's a very badly defined area, but what the legislation actually says is:
Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised
If you ask the council, they will ALWAYS say it needs listed building consent, but actually installing a fitting is hardly doing something which will affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Still, you probably don't want to have to argue it in court!
It's not the case that "after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe)". That's true of most normal planning-permission cases, but not listed building consent.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
Yes that's what both we and the stove people thought. But I was speaking to planning about something external which will need their approval (replacing a fence with a simpler design) and the stove came up in conversation.
I've got the council's built heritage officer visiting in a few weeks for the external stuff, and having now spoken to a human in their planning team I know what I need to do to fix the drawings. Is the scale relevant to what needs to be looked at? No. Are they following ticky boxes? Yes.
Far more fun is that she's stressed twice that as the owner I'm criminally liable for any alterations they aren't happy with. Including the ones that were done before I bought it! "It depends on what was there when it was listed" - which was in 1971, and as Cat B which has since been downgraded to Cat C specifically because of the "group interest" of it being part of a planned village. Whatever in practice that means...
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
Actually he probably doesn't need listed building consent for this. It's a very badly defined area, but what the legislation actually says is:
Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised
If you ask the council, they will ALWAYS say it needs listed building consent, but actually installing a fitting is hardly doing something which will affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Still, you probably don't want to have to argue it in court!
It's not the case that "after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe)". That's true of most normal planning-permission cases, but not listed building consent.
Is that act not specific to E&W? RP is in Scotland.
The government didn't have any choice, really, either on the pay rises or the financing of them. They've used the recommendations of the pay review bodies in the past to justify resisting higher pay claims, making it hard to ignore the recommendations now. In any case, the acute problems of recruitment and retention of staff in all of these sectors mean that pay has to increase. The suggested rises are reasonable in the circumstances, although of course unions will scream that they are not. Private-sector pay (albeit not quite comparable, because of the large hidden-pay element of pensions in the public sector) are in the same ballpark, or even higher. Increasing borrowing to even higher levels at the moment is not realistic, and increasing taxes even more than they are already being increased is also not politically realistic.
Financing from the underspend is a short-term fudge, of course, so the problem isn't going to go away. We need more economic growth, better productivity, and better-managed public services, especially better management in the NHS. But none of that can be done quickly, and meanwhile we have the long-term deadweight of Brexit red tape dragging us down and stifling investment. The medium-term future is pretty bleak, to be honest. Labour are going to inherit a very, very difficult situation.
"And meanwhile we have the long term deadweight of Brexit dragging us down and stifling investment"
Interesting that this key passage had 'likes' from three of the most vociferous Brexiteers who post here. It's almost as though we're dealing with alter egos.
Not sure that's right, Roger. The 'likes' include only one vociferous Brexiteer and this is the almost spookily unrepresentative Richard Tyndall, who seems to agree with his fellow Leavers about very little.
Leavers, like Remainers, are a broad church. Which is as you would expect. It would be very odd if people all had one of only two possible packages of opinions covering everything from Brexit to the environment to taxation to outdoors carpets to organ shoes.
Edit: though I do agree with Richard Tyndall about quite a lot, and I don't find his package of views particularly strange. But then I also find things to agree with you about, and also Leon, HYUFD and Sandy Rentool. Most people really.
Leavers and Remainers are indeed broad churches. That's because the issue is about a foundational constitutional issue, and leaves entirely alone what our practical polity might be. I am a Leaver but pro EFTA/EEA, SM and so on, so have almost nothing in common with Farage and co, except that in the long run I think that the envisaged political 'ever closer union' of most of Europe may be right for them but not for us.
In the same way it is odd that the only sizable nationalist party in Scotland has a fairly leftish mindset. To support Scottish independence (I don't BTW) is nothing to do with left, right or whatever. The best reason for unionism at the moment is Scotland is the uselessness of the SNP.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
It sounds like he has encountered a specimen of Thundercuntus Clipboardus. There is a good chance it will irritated and attempt legal proceedings if not fed an appropriate diet of countersigned forms.
Hence why it can be better not to ask for permission. But, yes, once you have you're in the process till the bitter end. Then you have to be patient, meticulous and methodical. Plod, plod, plod until you get there, smiling all the time regardless of the anger and frustration you feel inside.
Yes that's what both we and the stove people thought. But I was speaking to planning about something external which will need their approval (replacing a fence with a simpler design) and the stove came up in conversation.
I've got the council's built heritage officer visiting in a few weeks for the external stuff, and having now spoken to a human in their planning team I know what I need to do to fix the drawings. Is the scale relevant to what needs to be looked at? No. Are they following ticky boxes? Yes.
Far more fun is that she's stressed twice that as the owner I'm criminally liable for any alterations they aren't happy with. Including the ones that were done before I bought it! "It depends on what was there when it was listed" - which was in 1971, and as Cat B which has since been downgraded to Cat C specifically because of the "group interest" of it being part of a planned village. Whatever in practice that means...
I don't think you're criminally liable for things done before you bought the place, but you could be compelled to undo them (at least I think that's the case in England & Wales, could be different in Scotland).
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
The worst are maybe the Stingers in Queensland. You get these magnificent clear turqoise seas, with glorious empty beaches, the temperature is 34C in the shade, every atom of your being wants to run into the sea and joyously cool off, but you can't, because of the fucking Stingers
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
Actually he probably doesn't need listed building consent for this. It's a very badly defined area, but what the legislation actually says is:
Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised
If you ask the council, they will ALWAYS say it needs listed building consent, but actually installing a fitting is hardly doing something which will affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Still, you probably don't want to have to argue it in court!
It's not the case that "after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe)". That's true of most normal planning-permission cases, but not listed building consent.
Is that act not specific to E&W? RP is in Scotland.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
What is it with Australia and needlessly venomous wildlife? Everything in Australia seems to have the potential to kill massive things several times over, while actually subsisting on something small and innocuous like crickets. A 'that escalated quickly' of the natural world.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar used to be a treat for kids
That's how the Flavour Thesaurus starts its section on rhubarb and cucumber!
Raw rhubarb just tastes like slightly sourer apple. I was surprised to be given it by a friend's mother once as a child, having only had it cooked before. It's not the best use of rhubarb.
You'd want smaller stems, to avoid the stringiness.
Best to just avoid it all together, TBH. It's like swede and turnip (sorry, Malc): something you got from the field because you couldn't afford proper potato.
I had to buy a pack of rhubarb that would be enough for about a month of the salad if I ate it twice a day
I'm going to make Khoresh with the rest of it this weekend. It's another Iranian dish, of lamb and rhubarb stew
Meanwhile, you remember that conversation in the previous thread about how a small number of promiscuous people were getting all the sex and others were going without?
Turns out that it's not really the case. Data for 2022 from the United States General Social Survey;
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
Methods wise, they've cocked up a bit here, particularly with the about right bit. People will pick a point for about right and then put higher/lower as too high/too low. You can see that here with the peaks for about right at 5% and 10% - people like round(er) numbers.
Better approach is to do a referendum style question - should employers be offering at least this amount? (with amount chosen at random for each respondent) and then logistic model or similar from the yes/no answers.
Very much off-topic. I have had to engage with Aberdeenshire council's planning department as they're requiring listed building consent to install a wood burning stove in my Category C listed house. So have gone through 3 rounds of submitting documents this week, and keep getting the same copy and paste "I don't have enough information" response back from this planning officer with then details as to what he is unhappy about.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
For small internals such as this is it not very common to just go ahead and do it without getting formal permission? A risk, yes, but quite small because after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe).
Actually he probably doesn't need listed building consent for this. It's a very badly defined area, but what the legislation actually says is:
Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised
If you ask the council, they will ALWAYS say it needs listed building consent, but actually installing a fitting is hardly doing something which will affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Still, you probably don't want to have to argue it in court!
It's not the case that "after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe)". That's true of most normal planning-permission cases, but not listed building consent.
Is that act not specific to E&W? RP is in Scotland.
Yes, there may be a difference. Not sure.
Quite so. Maybe nothing much. But one recalls the story of the Scot who believed his DM article about marriage law and got done for incest because the article only applied in E&W.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
Australia seems to be home to more than its fair share of the world's most venomous lifeforms. There's also the box jellyfish, and the blue ringed octopus.
Well tough, we have inflation rising at 8%, average pay only rising at 7% and if you give public sector workers a pay rise beyond the 6% the pay body recommends then you will have an inflationary wage spiral.
Voters who want big pay rises for public sector workers will vote Labour anyway
If the answer is always for public sector pay to rise less than the average, over the years public sector pay becomes uncompetitive and unsustainably low.
If public sector pay is below the average next year, what year do you let the public sector catch up in pay?
Comments
But services like health, social care, education, policing also have an irreducible core of what needs to be done and how many people you need to do it. And the big productivity gains you can get in manufacturing or data processing don't (so far) apply to those fields. It would be lovely if they could.
(Actually, its worse that. Take physics teachers. They (we) could make a fortune by going and crunching numbers for someone else. And as physics graduates who don't teach become more productive and valuable, physics graduates who can be persuaded to teach become more expensive, even if we aren't any more productive. Which is why I'm being bombarded with emails from schools desperate for someone to do lessons for them in September.)
Rentier: up to 5K savings interest tax free, *plus all interest on savings in ISAs*.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings
Worker: NI on any wages abover 12K.
1) the system enables them to do their job without any problems.
2) they are snowed under with paperwork bullshit and have to actively fight the system to do their jobs
?
2) is universal. Productivity (and good management) is invisible when it is working well.
All the teachers I’ve met are not exhausted, fed up, etc of teaching Physics to Year 8. It’s the other shit.
It was reported that ...the trust has already met with the DfE to share an update on the events that took place.. some weeks back.
The (repeated) OFSTED inspection makes it clear (as far as any OFSTED inspection does) that there is no systemic problem.
For the last few days he has been rejecting my submission because of an issue with scale drawings of a site plan. Initially this was "we need to see the layout of the site and where the fireplace is on the building.
Now he's arsing about with scale bars not measuring to scale, e.g. (on the 1:200 plan the scale bar measured 12.99m at the 20m bar". Well I've got a wall that's marked as 19.79m and the scale bar fits ever so slightly longer than that, so it shows the scale of the drawing.
What is this guy doing with it? Also he says on the template response "please call with queries". Have been doing so for 3 days and leaving voicemails and not getting a call back, only shitty emails.
Edit: though I do agree with Richard Tyndall about quite a lot, and I don't find his package of views particularly strange. But then I also find things to agree with you about, and also Leon, HYUFD and Sandy Rentool. Most people really.
I was looking in the Flavour Thesaurus for things to do with cucumber and saw the suggestion of raw rhubarb and cucumber salad; apparently an Iranian recipe
I'm going to try it this evening with smoked mackerel. I don't think I've had raw rhubarb before
https://www.smh.com.au/goodfood/recipes/rhubarb-cucumber-and-rocket-salad-20111019-29vib.html
Granted that requires their turning into engineers.
I agree ISAs are very generous, although the number of people who have fully used them and built up very large tax-protected sums (up to a £ million or more is possible) is surprisingly small:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022/commentary-for-annual-savings-statistics-june-2022
I also agree on the NI anomaly.
Russian general says he has been fired for telling truth about Ukraine problems
Ivan Popov appears to criticise head of army and defence minister, saying: ‘Our most senior commander hit us in the back’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/13/missing-russian-general-with-links-to-wagner-boss-is-resting-says-official
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=johnny+engish+clips#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:0e69d6fa,vid:2uyy1EOBBm4
I assume you meant the central point was what the teacher said to the pupil. Or at least should have been, since the following week was full of various NatCons saying that they personally knew of children that identified as cats, birds, holograms, and whatever psychedelic image burst into their head at the time.
(Or, possibly, after consumption of sufficient Blue Moons...)
Yes the other shit is a massive problem. The external bobbins, the internal bobbins, the struggling with stuff that doesn't work. It's draining and morale sapping, and helps explain why some schools can still recruit when others can't. (And it's why I'm very happy to not be attached to a school five days a week any more.)
But you could magic all that away tomorrow- and schools and the DfE absolutely should- and you would still need basically the same number of teachers. Because of the irreducible core thing of a teacher in a room for an hour with 30 pupils. Mechanisation and IT can make a worker two, five, ten, a hundred times more productive, but there are areas of work which don't work like that. And they tend to be found in the public sector, I suspect because if productivity gains were easy the private sector would have moved in to profit from them.
He’s not pining for the fjords
He’s dead
He’s an ex-general
He has ceased to be
Of course, in your case a site plan is completely irrelevant to the application. How can the impact of an internal fitting depend on the location of the fireplace in the building? It affects only the room in which it is placed.
Unfortunately you have to go along with their nonsense.
I was taught never, never to work from a copied drawing without using the directly marked dimensions and/or checking the scale bar.
The children are smarter than the brainwashed teacher - that is also clear
https://twitter.com/auto_glam/status/1679249294660976641
You may also get up to £5,000 of interest and not have to pay tax on it. This is your starting rate for savings.
The more you earn from other income (for example your wages or pension), the less your starting rate for savings will be."
Admittedly this is for people with little or no other income [erdit] as you note - but what I said is strictly correct.
Of course, in practice many folk will at least have most of the State Pension - but not all. The comparison gets all squirrelly below about 12K net income, obviously.
You'd want smaller stems, to avoid the stringiness.
They must be running out of equipment for command posts by now, their locations don’t seem particularly secret, and the Storm Shadow has proved to be rather accurate.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
https://twitter.com/DrSueMoss/status/1679019114545676289?s=20
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
https://www.johnlewis.com/oxo-good-grips-chefs-mandoline/p4789091
ps://tippinsights.com/56-of-voters-agree-biden-likely-took-bribes-in-office-i-i-tipp-poll/
Bear in mind, we are only in July 2023 and it is increasingly clear this issue will not go away despite the best hopes of some (especially on PB).
I have topped up on Whitmer (66/1 - Ladbrokes) and Cooper (200-1) as the Democrat nominee, and added Duckworth and Pritzker, both at 100/1
But the yummy cake mix days were over
Edit: and it's a listed building anyway.
I'm going to make Khoresh with the rest of it this weekend. It's another Iranian dish, of lamb and rhubarb stew
https://www.linsfood.com/khoresh-rivas-persian-rhubarb-stew/
https://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2013/02/12/3688635.htm
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-dangerous-ant
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
It is a member of the nettle family, so a similar action to our common or garden nettle, but the toxin is much worse.
Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/9/section/7
If you ask the council, they will ALWAYS say it needs listed building consent, but actually installing a fitting is hardly doing something which will affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Still, you probably don't want to have to argue it in court!
It's not the case that "after a number of years any objection becomes unactionable (ie you're safe)". That's true of most normal planning-permission cases, but not listed building consent.
I've got the council's built heritage officer visiting in a few weeks for the external stuff, and having now spoken to a human in their planning team I know what I need to do to fix the drawings. Is the scale relevant to what needs to be looked at? No. Are they following ticky boxes? Yes.
Far more fun is that she's stressed twice that as the owner I'm criminally liable for any alterations they aren't happy with. Including the ones that were done before I bought it! "It depends on what was there when it was listed" - which was in 1971, and as Cat B which has since been downgraded to Cat C specifically because of the "group interest" of it being part of a planned village. Whatever in practice that means...
In the same way it is odd that the only sizable nationalist party in Scotland has a fairly leftish mindset. To support Scottish independence (I don't BTW) is nothing to do with left, right or whatever. The best reason for unionism at the moment is Scotland is the uselessness of the SNP.
https://greatbarrierreeftourscairns.com.au/blog/what-are-stingers-and-should-you-be-scared/
https://www.honest-broker.com/p/heres-my-mission-impossible-articlebut
(On a more conventional note, Rhubarb crumble freezes very well)
Turns out that it's not really the case. Data for 2022 from the United States General Social Survey;
https://datepsychology.com/how-many-sexual-partners-did-men-and-women-have-in-2022
There's also the box jellyfish, and the blue ringed octopus.
If public sector pay is below the average next year, what year do you let the public sector catch up in pay?