Who are these "rip-off energy companies" that Labour's PPB mentions?
Or are they just denigrating a massively important sector?
Just because they are important doesn't mean they aren't ripping us off. Bit of a logic fail there JJ. Even the govt is worried - they have launched a probe after arguing that they, erm, weren't ripping us off, now they apparently suspect they are.....
Just because you don't like them and - shock, horror - they involve large sums, does not mean they're ripping us off.
There's a difference between launching a probe and knowing guilt. You've presumed guilt.
Tell me, if the probe clears them, would you believe the result?
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Is anybody keeping a running total of how many UKIP candidates have been sacked in the run-up to May 22?
Who are these "rip-off energy companies" that Labour's PPB mentions?
Or are they just denigrating a massively important sector?
Just because they are important doesn't mean they aren't ripping us off. Bit of a logic fail there JJ. Even the govt is worried - they have launched a probe after arguing that they, erm, weren't ripping us off, now they apparently suspect they are.....
Just because you don't like them and - shock, horror - they involve large sums, does not mean they're ripping us off.
There's a difference between launching a probe and knowing guilt. You've presumed guilt.
Tell me, if the probe clears them, would you believe the result?
Shows what a good union the doctors, lawyers, etc, have? Of course you don't think of them as "unions" do you? Only the lower class have those.
I most certainly do think of them as 'unions', and extremely effective ones they are too at protecting their vested interests.
In this particular case, however, it wasn't the effectiveness of the doctors' union, it was absolute crass incompetence by a profligate Labour government completely uninterested in value for money. That's not surprising, because they we so keen to boast about how much extra money they were 'investing' in the health service:
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Is anybody keeping a running total of how many UKIP candidates have been sacked in the run-up to May 22?
Is anybody keeping a running total of how many L/Dem candidates have been sacked in the run-up to May 22?
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Yeah! One flew over the cuckoos nest. I'm glad that Andre Lampitt has been sacked. Now done swiftly, but it has done some damage to UKIP I'm afraid; if only to let the MSM have a field day with his deranged statements.
Is anybody keeping a running total of how many UKIP candidates have been sacked in the run-up to May 22?
These amateurs who don't check things out properly before publishing eh Mike?
Blue arrows on the Daily Mail's site flocking to Lampitt's defence...
This is proving a very amusing story. Not only the bonkers tweets themselves (I particularly enjoyed the irony of someone born and brought up in Zimbabwe accusing Ed M of not being British), but, perhaps even better, the nutters now rapidly infesting the Mail's comments, such as this gem (amongst the 'best rated'):
YAZ DAVID, ISLE OF SHEPPEY, United Kingdom, 29 minutes ago: What a co-incidence that this story breaks so close to the EU Elections. No points for guessing which of the Lib-Lab-Cons planted this idiot into our Party
'As for RBS, it might find borrowing became quite a lot more expensive, and it might even see withdrawals by risk-averse creditors.'
Eck won't have a problem bailing it out, will he?
If Scotland votes for independence, it is inevitable that RBS Group PLC becomes a rUK company headquartered in London, and there will be a subsidiary, based in Scotland, called RBS Scotland or equivalent, which operated the (much smaller) Scottish business,
I honestly believe that there are some things that should be a service, government run, not for profit. Police, Fire, Armed Forces, and some aspects of the NHS are the ones I'd want kept in state control. I'm just not sure how you can offer the best service trying to make money out of those emergency services.
But state control is not synonymous with directly state-run by state-employed staff.
For some bizarre reason no-one, even amongst the most leftie lefties, ever seems to worry about the fact that our GP service is 100% outsourced to private providers, run for profit. If GP surgeries, why not hospitals or fire stations? There may be practical reasons, of course, but the objections are almost always ideological. We should be able to have a sensible debate about the best way to organise things without all that nonsense about 'dismantling the NHS' or 'dismantling the fire service', any more than we've 'dismantled' the GP service (or rather, Attlee never mantled it!)
The trouble is, Richard, the companies that want to run the Fire Service are the ones that couldn't run the Olympics, or the Prison Service, or LFB's fire engines. There's just no confidence in them offering a better service for a cheaper price. Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders? Where's the extra cash coming from? The council tax can't be increased without a referendum, and we've been told that will cost us a million. They might say, Ok, we'll do it for 40 mill a year, for 5 years, but they won't invest in the infrastructure, they'll keep trucks longer, skimp on training, run equipment down. Then, when their contract is up, what then? Who pays for the reinvestment? The Fire Service doesn't make any profit, it's a drain on resources. I think that's why things like the prison service suffer when certain companies get involved. I know it's quite a blinkered view on my part, but I just can't see it benefiting the end user, poor Joe Bloggs when he wants his chip pan putting out. Finally, I'm prepared to take a bit of risk for the county, it's people, it's history, it's buildings. I can't say I'd be willing to take that risk for G4S, or AssetCo or Falke. I realise its a fairly naive mindset, but its one shared by most firemen.
YAZ DAVID, ISLE OF SHEPPEY, United Kingdom, 29 minutes ago: What a co-incidence that this story breaks so close to the EU Elections. No points for guessing which of the Lib-Lab-Cons planted this idiot into our Party
Today's PB Tory wisdom: privatise the Fire Brigade. Creating a profit incentive in an emergency service. Get some cost efficiencies. What could possibly go wrong?
You want to privatise BA ? BT ? Vodaphone ? Pfizer ?
Aren't they already privatised?
Yes - and booming because of it and providing a far better service than when they weren't
If privatisation is such a panacea why not privatise all roads, the police, the army, navy and Air Force? And all schools?
Privatise the Police? Heaven forfend. Labour just privatised their top tier - ACPO is a private limited company, which is in part funded by making charges for access to data collected by by public bodies. Anyone want to try an justify that one?
Oh, on the subject of ACPO, is its chairman a police officer? If so who gives him a warrant card? If not how can he ponce about in a police uniform without committing a criminal offence?
Today's PB Tory wisdom: privatise the Fire Brigade. Creating a profit incentive in an emergency service. Get some cost efficiencies. What could possibly go wrong?
You want to privatise BA ? BT ? Vodaphone ? Pfizer ?
Aren't they already privatised?
Yes - and booming because of it and providing a far better service than when they weren't
If privatisation is such a panacea why not privatise all roads, the police, the army, navy and Air Force? And all schools?
Great chunks are the armed forces are already outsourced. Comms, air bridges, in flight refuelling, logistics, etc etc Seems to work for the Yanks too.
Oh, and all those suspiciously Russian looking unbadged soldiers in Ukraine? Rumour has it they're private contractors. (Vnevedomstvenaya Okhrana).
Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders?
That's always the argument, and it's false. Outsourcing has, in many cases, saved a lot of money; it's not a zero-sum game. Look at council refuse collections for lots of good examples - people said exactly the same about those.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily advocating that the fire service should be run in that way; there may well be special features of the fire service which make it private provision less appropriate, and I take the points you make in that respect. All I'm saying is that it is (or should be) a practical question, not an ideological one. Whatever works best.
And, applying that logic, I'm quite certain that we should (for example) be using private hospitals more; there, the evidence is pretty unassailable.
I honestly believe that there are some things that should be a service, government run, not for profit. Police, Fire, Armed Forces, and some aspects of the NHS are the ones I'd want kept in state control. I'm just not sure how you can offer the best service trying to make money out of those emergency services.
But state control is not synonymous with directly state-run by state-employed staff.
For some bizarre reason no-one, even amongst the most leftie lefties, ever seems to worry about the fact that our GP service is 100% outsourced to private providers, run for profit. If GP surgeries, why not hospitals or fire stations? There may be practical reasons, of course, but the objections are almost always ideological. We should be able to have a sensible debate about the best way to organise things without all that nonsense about 'dismantling the NHS' or 'dismantling the fire service', any more than we've 'dismantled' the GP service (or rather, Attlee never mantled it!)
The trouble is, Richard, the companies that want to run the Fire Service are the ones that couldn't run the Olympics, or the Prison Service, or LFB's fire engines. There's just no confidence in them offering a better service for a cheaper price. Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders? Where's the extra cash coming from? The council tax can't be increased without a referendum, and we've been told that will cost us a million. They might say, Ok, we'll do it for 40 mill a year, for 5 years, but they won't invest in the infrastructure, they'll keep trucks longer, skimp on training, run equipment down. Then, when their contract is up, what then? Who pays for the reinvestment? The Fire Service doesn't make any profit, it's a drain on resources. I think that's why things like the prison service suffer when certain companies get involved. I know it's quite a blinkered view on my part, but I just can't see it benefiting the end user, poor Joe Bloggs when he wants his chip pan putting out. Finally, I'm prepared to take a bit of risk for the county, it's people, it's history, it's buildings. I can't say I'd be willing to take that risk for G4S, or AssetCo or Falke. I realise its a fairly naive mindset, but its one shared by most firemen.
Previously, you've posted that Fire HQ is stuffed to the gills with admin staff and desk warriors - there's money that can be saved, and reallocated.
"... I'm prepared to take a bit of risk for the county, it's people, it's history, it's buildings. I can't say I'd be willing to take that risk for G4S, or AssetCo or Falke...."
That's a message you need to keep pushing, Mr. Stopper. Unfortunately, in my fairly recent experience a lot of senior fire and rescue people, those that inhabit those nice new HQ buildings, have spent the last decade or so minimising the risk part of your job. Putting out fires, rescuing people and those ruffty-tuffty parts is now "a small part of what we do". If your service leaders are going about saying some asthmatic bint who couldn't climb a flight of stairs much less carry a 12 stone man down a ladder is an equally valued and valuable member of the Fire and Rescue service then you can't complain when G4S puts in a bid to run the service.
Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders?
That's always the argument, and it's false. Outsourcing has, in many cases, saved a lot of money; it's not a zero-sum game. Look at council refuse collections for lots of good examples - people said exactly the same about those.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily advocating that the fire service should be run in that way; there may well be special features of the fire service which make it private provision less appropriate, and I take the points you make in that respect. All I'm saying is that it is (or should be) a practical question, not an ideological one. Whatever works best.
And, applying that logic, I'm quite certain that we should (for example) be using private hospitals more; there, the evidence is pretty unassailable.
I can't argue about bin collections. There's money to be made in recycling, and you can tie that in with council collections. Likewise private hospitals, I have good experience of nhs operations in a private bed. I'm obviously biased, but I genuinely can't see how you can make sufficient money out of what I do, on the available funding, delivering what is, frankly, "The Finest Fire Service in the Country, and therefore, The World "(cf my CFO!) That's not to say that things shouldn't be done differently. Why we need 44 different FR Services, with different trucks, equipment, clothing and suchlike is barmy.
The Tories' increasingly poor setup in Eastleigh is illustrated by the fact that they're only contesting 13 out of 15 wards in the local elections, whereas LDs, Lab and UKIP are each contesting all 15:
Today's PB Tory wisdom: privatise the Fire Brigade. Creating a profit incentive in an emergency service. Get some cost efficiencies. What could possibly go wrong?
You want to privatise BA ? BT ? Vodaphone ? Pfizer ?
Aren't they already privatised?
Yes - and booming because of it and providing a far better service than when they weren't
If privatisation is such a panacea why not privatise all roads, the police, the army, navy and Air Force? And all schools?
Most roads are - mr Gove is doing a great job in privatising schools started under Labour - academies and free schools.
Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders?
That's always the argument, and it's false. Outsourcing has, in many cases, saved a lot of money; it's not a zero-sum game. Look at council refuse collections for lots of good examples - people said exactly the same about those.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily advocating that the fire service should be run in that way; there may well be special features of the fire service which make it private provision less appropriate, and I take the points you make in that respect. All I'm saying is that it is (or should be) a practical question, not an ideological one. Whatever works best.
And, applying that logic, I'm quite certain that we should (for example) be using private hospitals more; there, the evidence is pretty unassailable.
I can't argue about bin collections. There's money to be made in recycling, and you can tie that in with council collections. Likewise private hospitals, I have good experience of nhs operations in a private bed. I'm obviously biased, but I genuinely can't see how you can make sufficient money out of what I do, on the available funding, delivering what is, frankly, "The Finest Fire Service in the Country, and therefore, The World "(cf my CFO!) That's not to say that things shouldn't be done differently. Why we need 44 different FR Services, with different trucks, equipment, clothing and suchlike is barmy.
Your last point, is an excellent one.
As to why there are still 44 brigades, well, power, fiefdoms, petty empire building and squabbling are probably as good a reason as any. If the service can't sort itself out, someone else should. They've had long enough.
Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders?
That's always the argument, and it's false. Outsourcing has, in many cases, saved a lot of money; it's not a zero-sum game. Look at council refuse collections for lots of good examples - people said exactly the same about those.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily advocating that the fire service should be run in that way; there may well be special features of the fire service which make it private provision less appropriate, and I take the points you make in that respect. All I'm saying is that it is (or should be) a practical question, not an ideological one. Whatever works best.
And, applying that logic, I'm quite certain that we should (for example) be using private hospitals more; there, the evidence is pretty unassailable.
I can't argue about bin collections. There's money to be made in recycling, and you can tie that in with council collections. Likewise private hospitals, I have good experience of nhs operations in a private bed. I'm obviously biased, but I genuinely can't see how you can make sufficient money out of what I do, on the available funding, delivering what is, frankly, "The Finest Fire Service in the Country, and therefore, The World "(cf my CFO!) That's not to say that things shouldn't be done differently. Why we need 44 different FR Services, with different trucks, equipment, clothing and suchlike is barmy.
Your last point, is an excellent one.
As to why there are still 44 brigades, well, power, fiefdoms, petty empire building and squabbling are probably as good a reason as any. If the service can't sort itself out, someone else should. They've had long enough.
Just because there are problems with public ownership doesn't mean private ownership will be better, it would have its own problems. Not everything imperfect can be improved in the real world, sadly.
It is, but they do jobs that the government deem essential. Community Fire Safety, data collection, HR, health and safety, equality and diversity. Some of those departments actually make money selling their services. It's frontline firemen that get in the way of all that, running around, actually doing fire and rescue! You need to tell the government they can unstuff those gills, they ain't listening to us.
Mr. Stopper, stop being so selfish. It's vital that we ensure that the fire brigade has sufficient diversity and embraces ethnic minorities. I hope you have the requisite number of Cornishmen on your crew.
It's staggering how much fat can be cut from some things, and how sometimes (often?) that just doesn't happen.
£120,000 of taxpayer money thrown towards Cornwall. Not for infrastructure, but for the Cornish language.
"In March this year, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced the government would be investing £120,000 into the Cornish Language Partnership to promote and develop the language."
Today's PB Tory wisdom: privatise the Fire Brigade. Creating a profit incentive in an emergency service. Get some cost efficiencies. What could possibly go wrong?
You want to privatise BA ? BT ? Vodaphone ? Pfizer ?
Aren't they already privatised?
Yes - and booming because of it and providing a far better service than when they weren't
If privatisation is such a panacea why not privatise all roads, the police, the army, navy and Air Force? And all schools?
Most roads are - mr Gove is doing a great job in privatising schools started under Labour - academies and free schools.
Serious point: surely contracting out maintenance is not the same thing as privatization. Up here in Scotland BEAR don't send me a bill or charge me a toll for me to drive along a trunk road.
@DPJHodges: If Ukip are so outraged at Andre Lampitt, why is the PPB featuring him still sitting on the front of their website.
Because no one except the establishment cares.
Still, its a first to see the establishment and their media attack dogs going after a refugee, bu then he is actually from this country and is genuinely had to flee for his life.
Today's PB Tory wisdom: privatise the Fire Brigade. Creating a profit incentive in an emergency service. Get some cost efficiencies. What could possibly go wrong?
You want to privatise BA ? BT ? Vodaphone ? Pfizer ?
Aren't they already privatised?
Yes - and booming because of it and providing a far better service than when they weren't
If privatisation is such a panacea why not privatise all roads, the police, the army, navy and Air Force? And all schools?
Most roads are - mr Gove is doing a great job in privatising schools started under Labour - academies and free schools.
Serious point: surely contracting out maintenance is not the same thing as privatization. Up here in Scotland BEAR don't send me a bill or charge me a toll for me to drive along a trunk road.
According to Boba only a state employee can maintain a highway - it was set down by the Tolpuddle Martyrs and Marx or something.
Re. fire service. It is not widely known that the original fire brigades were run by the insurance companies. You can see the logic: put out the fires quickly and we have fewer claims. How about Aviva running them?
Today's PB Tory wisdom: privatise the Fire Brigade. Creating a profit incentive in an emergency service. Get some cost efficiencies. What could possibly go wrong?
You want to privatise BA ? BT ? Vodaphone ? Pfizer ?
Aren't they already privatised?
Yes - and booming because of it and providing a far better service than when they weren't
If privatisation is such a panacea why not privatise all roads, the police, the army, navy and Air Force? And all schools?
Most roads are - mr Gove is doing a great job in privatising schools started under Labour - academies and free schools.
Serious point: surely contracting out maintenance is not the same thing as privatization. Up here in Scotland BEAR don't send me a bill or charge me a toll for me to drive along a trunk road.
Contracting out is not the same thing as privatisation. There are lots of people who will tell you that it is and that it is wrong an probably evil. However, they are normally the same people that will tell you that leaving patients to die of thirst whilst in a bed of their own poo was just unfortunate but lessons have been learned. So I shouldn't listen to them if I were you.
Most roads are - mr Gove is doing a great job in privatising schools started under Labour - academies and free schools.
Strangely that's not how it works. Academies are really bringing schools directly under DoE control. Previously if the DoE didn't like something they had to go via the local authority to remove the head and governors now they can directly deal with the school.
There is of course a third way avoiding either the incompetence of both government control and the penny pinching need for profit of private.
I offer as an example the RNLI which I think I believe I am safe in saying do an excellent job as a volunteer service funded by charity. Indeed while they receive it is true some government funding it amounts to less than 2% of their budget.
Hands up who believes the RNLI would be better run by the government or private companies?
'As for RBS, it might find borrowing became quite a lot more expensive, and it might even see withdrawals by risk-averse creditors.'
Eck won't have a problem bailing it out, will he?
If Scotland votes for independence, it is inevitable that RBS Group PLC becomes a rUK company headquartered in London, and there will be a subsidiary, based in Scotland, called RBS Scotland or equivalent, which operated the (much smaller) Scottish business,
Who are these "rip-off energy companies" that Labour's PPB mentions?
Or are they just denigrating a massively important sector?
Just because they are important doesn't mean they aren't ripping us off. Bit of a logic fail there JJ. Even the govt is worried - they have launched a probe after arguing that they, erm, weren't ripping us off, now they apparently suspect they are.....
Just because you don't like them and - shock, horror - they involve large sums, does not mean they're ripping us off.
There's a difference between launching a probe and knowing guilt. You've presumed guilt.
Tell me, if the probe clears them, would you believe the result?
I was merely pointing out your logic fail JJ....
No logic fail at all. Innocent until proven guilty and all that, instead of presuming guilt.
So perhaps you should answer the question: if the probe clears them, would you believe the result?
Comments
There's a difference between launching a probe and knowing guilt. You've presumed guilt.
Tell me, if the probe clears them, would you believe the result?
Shows what a good union the doctors, lawyers, etc, have?
Of course you don't think of them as "unions" do you? Only the lower class have those.
And all castles.
In this particular case, however, it wasn't the effectiveness of the doctors' union, it was absolute crass incompetence by a profligate Labour government completely uninterested in value for money. That's not surprising, because they we so keen to boast about how much extra money they were 'investing' in the health service:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6314301.stm
Hmmmm, ....Why are they back on the list?
YAZ DAVID, ISLE OF SHEPPEY, United Kingdom, 29 minutes ago: What a co-incidence that this story breaks so close to the EU Elections. No points for guessing which of the Lib-Lab-Cons planted this idiot into our Party
Sure, it'd start out cheaper. My Brigade cost 37 million last year, mostly in wages, and that is getting cut by at least 5 million over the next few years. How can a private company offer the same service for that, whilst making profit for share holders?
Where's the extra cash coming from? The council tax can't be increased without a referendum, and we've been told that will cost us a million. They might say, Ok, we'll do it for 40 mill a year, for 5 years, but they won't invest in the infrastructure, they'll keep trucks longer, skimp on training, run equipment down. Then, when their contract is up, what then? Who pays for the reinvestment?
The Fire Service doesn't make any profit, it's a drain on resources. I think that's why things like the prison service suffer when certain companies get involved. I know it's quite a blinkered view on my part, but I just can't see it benefiting the end user, poor Joe Bloggs when he wants his chip pan putting out.
Finally, I'm prepared to take a bit of risk for the county, it's people, it's history, it's buildings. I can't say I'd be willing to take that risk for G4S, or AssetCo or Falke. I realise its a fairly naive mindset, but its one shared by most firemen.
If only the Andre Lampitt story had broken earlier, I'd have had so much. fun
I'm also glad all those UKIP background checkes have worked wonders.
Ex-KKK leader behind Kansas Jewish center killings paid for sex with black man dressed as woman: report
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ex-kkk-leader-behind-kansas-killings-paid-sex-black-man-dressed-woman-report-article-1.1767662#ixzz2zpOP7ogF
My favourite was...
Is nobody entitled to express an opinion?
Oh, on the subject of ACPO, is its chairman a police officer? If so who gives him a warrant card? If not how can he ponce about in a police uniform without committing a criminal offence?
Oh, and all those suspiciously Russian looking unbadged soldiers in Ukraine? Rumour has it they're private contractors. (Vnevedomstvenaya Okhrana).
The people in the background are czechs? bloody knew it...first our jobs, now our backgrounds!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily advocating that the fire service should be run in that way; there may well be special features of the fire service which make it private provision less appropriate, and I take the points you make in that respect. All I'm saying is that it is (or should be) a practical question, not an ideological one. Whatever works best.
And, applying that logic, I'm quite certain that we should (for example) be using private hospitals more; there, the evidence is pretty unassailable.
I've heard of these in USA elections before, but this is the first time I've come across them being used in the UK.
Is this new, or am I just out of date?
The only difference to UKIP is that the MSM very seldom mentions their peccadillos.
That's a message you need to keep pushing, Mr. Stopper. Unfortunately, in my fairly recent experience a lot of senior fire and rescue people, those that inhabit those nice new HQ buildings, have spent the last decade or so minimising the risk part of your job. Putting out fires, rescuing people and those ruffty-tuffty parts is now "a small part of what we do". If your service leaders are going about saying some asthmatic bint who couldn't climb a flight of stairs much less carry a 12 stone man down a ladder is an equally valued and valuable member of the Fire and Rescue service then you can't complain when G4S puts in a bid to run the service.
I'm obviously biased, but I genuinely can't see how you can make sufficient money out of what I do, on the available funding, delivering what is, frankly, "The Finest Fire Service in the Country, and therefore, The World "(cf my CFO!)
That's not to say that things shouldn't be done differently. Why we need 44 different FR Services, with different trucks, equipment, clothing and suchlike is barmy.
Cllr Thomas Fearns
http://councillors.knowsley.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=109&StyleType=standard&StyleSize=none
Cllr Veronica McNeill
http://councillors.knowsley.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=172&StyleType=standard&StyleSize=none
elected unopposed in Knowsley. Such a brilliant campaign for them.....
http://www.vote-2012.proboards.com/post/153327/thread
As to why there are still 44 brigades, well, power, fiefdoms, petty empire building and squabbling are probably as good a reason as any. If the service can't sort itself out, someone else should. They've had long enough.
It's frontline firemen that get in the way of all that, running around, actually doing fire and rescue! You need to tell the government they can unstuff those gills, they ain't listening to us.
Mr. Stopper, stop being so selfish. It's vital that we ensure that the fire brigade has sufficient diversity and embraces ethnic minorities. I hope you have the requisite number of Cornishmen on your crew.
It's staggering how much fat can be cut from some things, and how sometimes (often?) that just doesn't happen.
£120,000 of taxpayer money thrown towards Cornwall. Not for infrastructure, but for the Cornish language.
"In March this year, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced the government would be investing £120,000 into the Cornish Language Partnership to promote and develop the language."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-27132035
A deficit of over £100bn, the debt over a trillion pounds and we're frittering away money on this nonsense.
http://ukgeneralelection2015.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/statement-of-parties-nominated-for-uk.html
London includes a "National Liberal Party - true liberalism"
http://londoneuroelections.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/StatementOfPersonsNominatedFinal.pdf
There's also a "Harmony Party" on a lot of the regions.
twitter.com/johnerskine/status/459336538049220608/photo/1
Still, its a first to see the establishment and their media attack dogs going after a refugee, bu then he is actually from this country and is genuinely had to flee for his life.
@DaleJr: “@S3Dobbins3: @DaleJr if@ Jerry Jones sponsored you with a Cowboys car would you drive it?” I'd advise Mr H. against doing that deal.
There is of course a third way avoiding either the incompetence of both government control and the penny pinching need for profit of private.
I offer as an example the RNLI which I think I believe I am safe in saying do an excellent job as a volunteer service funded by charity. Indeed while they receive it is true some government funding it amounts to less than 2% of their budget.
Hands up who believes the RNLI would be better run by the government or private companies?
Anyone?
Almost tempted, but think I'm on a flight...
I walked past a cemetery earlier. Looked like there was room for a pay kiosk as you walked in...
So perhaps you should answer the question: if the probe clears them, would you believe the result?