The VW problem was not caused by software engineers.
Lol, are you a software engineer yourself or some such :P ?
"I was only following orders !"
I was a software engineer. Worse, I worked in embedded software.
The problem is that individual engineers may not have known the evil purpose behind the software they were creating, which might have had thoroughly benign uses as well. For instance, a comment below that article makes a good point that software detecting test mode (i.e. the car being on a rolling road) might actually have been a necessity. If that is the case, then linking that in with the engine control software was the crime, and that would have been a much smaller software job. But it would have been specified and agreed somewhere.
In fact, more fire may need to be put onto the QA engineers, who should as part of their process picked up on this in any number of ways.
As I've said before, I'm amazed VW's competitors did not pick up on this when they tested their competitors' cars. And if they did pick up on it, then why did they not publicise it?
Wont someone think of all those who lost tax credits and benefits last year and every year simply for the cruel fate of their children having a birthday and hence no longer being eligible ?
How will these hard working families cope with this callous withdrawl of equitable funding ?
When will the government make child benefit and tax credits available to children over 16 ??
I'm utterly convinced the tax credit changes will be this government's 10p tax rate disaster
Finally a reasonable Tory has woken up. It could be worse, It could be the Poll Tax.
I noticed during the Tory Party conference, that "9 out of 10 will not lose" was changed to "8 out of 10 will not lose"
2 out of 10 is one hell of a lot of people. And, they remember !
No. The 10p change was a disaster because Brown spun it as a tax cut when for many it was the precise opposite. The Poll Tax was a disaster because it was so obviously unfair.
No-one is claiming that no-one will lose out and deficit reduction is a stated aim of the government and was flagged up in the election campaign. Indeed, the government is currently trying to make it law (which is gesture politics but the gesture is still worth noting).
The changes will undoubtedly cause a fuss but it will be one that dies down by 2020 or, like the Housing Benefit changes, is noticed only by a specific group that is already politically active, anti-Tory and and isn't able to make its case gain wider traction because it's neither relevant nor contains an inherent unfairness.
As I've said before, I'm amazed VW's competitors did not pick up on this when they tested their competitors' cars. And if they did pick up on it, then why did they not publicise it?
And if they did pick up on it, then why did they not publicise it?
Well it is the sort of thing that the longer you let it stew for, the bigger the potential fines, reputation damage and backlash. Also may not want to get into a tit for tat war as VW may well know about some of their glass houses themselves.
I'm utterly convinced the tax credit changes will be this government's 10p tax rate disaster
Finally a reasonable Tory has woken up. It could be worse, It could be the Poll Tax.
I noticed during the Tory Party conference, that "9 out of 10 will not lose" was changed to "8 out of 10 will not lose"
2 out of 10 is one hell of a lot of people. And, they remember !
1.8m families had tax credits completely taken off them in the last parliament.
These were often quite small amounts at the higher end of the income scales. The big tax credit losers are those at the bottom of the scale. The government has a good story to tell on this.
Government spokespeople always refer to how the changes will impact people on the minimum wage. As JC highlighted at PMQs, it is the people who are earning a little bit more than the minimum who are going to be shafted. Random warblings about pay differentials perhaps being maintained doesn't cut it as a response to this.
And if they did pick up on it, then why did they not publicise it?
Well it is the sort of thing that the longer you let it stew for, the bigger the potential fines, reputation damage and backlash. Also may not want to get into a tit for tat war as VW may well know about some of their glass houses themselves.
The latter point's my fear. Was there some form of MAD going on: "They know we've cheated here, so if we let the outside world know they've cheated there, they'll squeal on us."
The only good thing about the VW scandal is that, unlike the GM key scandal, is that no-one has directly died. How many people will indirectly die or be harmed from the extra pollution is a different matter.
Incidentally, the GM scandal might be one where it is possible that only a handful of engineers were in on it.
In 2006, DeGiorgio — one of the employees dismissed by GM — approved a new design for the part without documenting the change or alerting executives who could have ordered a recall, according to the report. In a 2013 deposition taken in connection with a suit against GM, DeGiorgio denied making the change. The report said he has steadfastly insisted that he simply forgot about it.
I'd walked for years without seeing a brocken spectre, and was always jealous of people who had seen them. I'd also only ever seen one adder whilst walking.
One of the first major walks I took Mrs J across the Lulworth Ranges. at the top of one of the hills we saw a brocken spectre. A few yards on we came across an adder, followed by another spectre.
She seemed to think they were common...
The best light effect I ever saw was on the Pembrokeshire coast: a column of red light beaming into the sky as the sun sunk below the waves, with a white lighthouse beam sweeping across horizontally. Magnificent, and I'll probably never see it again. Fortunately I have some photos.
The problem with the labour critique is it is so relentlessly downbeat. See above.
The recovery isn;t a real recovery. Your job isn't a real job. You'll be doing that job for the rest of your life. Your employer will never raise your salary. The price of everything will only ever rise more than your wages. Nobody will ever offer you a better paid job. Recession and redundancy are just around the corner.
''Random warblings about pay differentials perhaps being maintained doesn't cut it as a response to this. ''
How can you know what persons A and B will be earning in one, two, three, four years time?
Quite. The setting of the NMW has a significant impact on all employers who are in low wage sectors, not just those that pay the NMW. It acts as a base line.
NMW gets you a certain calibre of staff, NMW plus £1 gets you a whole lot more, and employers know this, to the point that many companies now make pay settlements in the month the NMW is set, even if they dont employ anyone on the NMW.
The problem with the labour critique is it is so relentlessly downbeat. See above.
The recovery isn;t a real recovery. Your job isn't a real job. You'll be doing that job for the rest of your life. Your employer will never raise your salary. The price of everything will only ever rise more than your wages. Nobody will ever offer you a better paid job. Recession and redundancy are just around the corner.
Labour became the 'Yeah, but' party. Whatever good news came out (and there was a lot), it was always followed by Yeah but, with the odd 'zero hours' thrown in for good measure. No matter what it was. We witnessed breath taking reductions in unemployment, but all that would get shouted back is foodbanks and bedroom tax. It started to get a bit ridiculous.
The BBC story says that she "had initially gone to an out of hours doctor in Glasgow on Monday of last week, but was sent home after being told she probably had a virus.”
I’m very pro NHS, but really!
To be fair to the doctor, Ebola is a virus, so he/she was right in their diagnosis if wrong in their recommended next steps.
@asabenn: Juncker to EU Parliament: "We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs the European Union."
*spittake*
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
''Quite. The setting of the NMW has a significant impact on all employers who are in low wage sectors, not just those that pay the NMW. It acts as a base line.''
Completely anecdotally I have noticed that the market for so-called cheap labour is starting to tighten. For example, Adverts being run on Talk Sport for thousands of delivery staff. 7,000 jobs being created at Yodel.
In two years time the minimum wage could be a joke because everybody pays well above it.
OK that's an optimistic call, but by no means impossible.
And where does that leave labour, whose strategy is completely wedded to a catalogue of economic failure.
The problem with the labour critique is it is so relentlessly downbeat. See above.
The recovery isn;t a real recovery. Your job isn't a real job. You'll be doing that job for the rest of your life. Your employer will never raise your salary. The price of everything will only ever rise more than your wages. Nobody will ever offer you a better paid job. Recession and redundancy are just around the corner.
Talk about bleedin' Cassandra.
The recovery has not been great by historical standards, since May 2010.
But, it has been a real one. Things are plainly better now than when the government took offices. And their record compares favourably with a lot of countries of similar economic development.
@asabenn: Juncker to EU Parliament: "We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs the European Union."
*spittake*
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
Thus begging the question if Junker thinks the EU would be better off (not in income terms) without UK.
Would it be more harmonious, the rebel would be gone and the remainder would, in his view, be more malleable to the wishes of the leaders and bureaucrats.
Tomkins is a real unionist loser, second rate educationalist trying to get somewhere as a Tory after flipping from a republican Labour loser. PS: will have the loyalists frothing
The BBC story says that she "had initially gone to an out of hours doctor in Glasgow on Monday of last week, but was sent home after being told she probably had a virus.”
I’m very pro NHS, but really!
To be fair to the doctor, Ebola is a virus, so he/she was right in their diagnosis if wrong in their recommended next steps.
Would that be a suitable defense against any medical negligence claims ?
The problem with electronic voting is that even if you have an apparently safe system, you'd never know whether someone has come up with a new way of hacking in. It's not like you can check which way you've voted.
The ERS (or whoever) would know. While it would be embarrassing for them to admit it, it would be a great deal more embarrassing (indeed, fatal), to not admit it and then for it to be found out.
Besides, security software can be pretty robust these days. The efforts that would be needed would not be worth the cost (or, for that matter, the risk).
Would they really? The NSA have admitted to Congress that Edward Snowden was skilled enough that they don't really know what he has accessed and what he has not. Even stuff they thought he couldn't access he has released.
And I don't believe that the efforts needed to rig elections wouldn't be worth it to someone. I'm sure the Russians would love to encourage industrial unrest in the UK.
It's one thing to hack something to read it or even copy it; it's another to change the data there - potentially quite a lot of data - in such a way as not to leave any obvious markers as to what's happened.
If the Russians wanted to ferment industrial unrest, I'd have thought there were much easier and cheaper ways, which didn't risk being directly fingered; bribes and blackmail being the most obvious.
If this should happen, it would be interesting to see the level of support an independent MP received, versus the official Labour Party candidate. – Even Frank Field, who has been an MP for 36 years I think would struggle to win against a donkey with a red rosette in some areas.
If this should happen, it would be interesting to see the level of support an independent MP received, versus the official Labour Party candidate. – Even Frank Field, who has been an MP for 36 years I think would struggle to win against a donkey with a red rosette in some areas.
Indeed better to go independent and remain as an MP. Then wait to stand on their independent record in 2020.
If Corbyn is gone by then, they might be welcomed back anyway.
Antifrank..A woman walks into a doctors surgery..tells him she is not well and has recently been treated for Ebola..one of the deadliest virus's of recent times..He confirms her symptoms...then sends her home..WTF
Antifrank..A woman walks into a doctors surgery..tells him she is not well and has recently been treated for Ebola..one of the deadliest virus's of recent times..He confirms her symptoms...then sends her home..WTF
Antifrank..A woman walks into a doctors surgery..tells him she is not well and has recently been treated for Ebola..one of the deadliest virus's of recent times..He confirms her symptoms...then sends her home..WTF
I wasn't being entirely serious.
Perhaps neither was the doctor Some people can't take a joke.
The problem with electronic voting is that even if you have an apparently safe system, you'd never know whether someone has come up with a new way of hacking in. It's not like you can check which way you've voted.
The ERS (or whoever) would know. While it would be embarrassing for them to admit it, it would be a great deal more embarrassing (indeed, fatal), to not admit it and then for it to be found out.
Besides, security software can be pretty robust these days. The efforts that would be needed would not be worth the cost (or, for that matter, the risk).
Would they really? The NSA have admitted to Congress that Edward Snowden was skilled enough that they don't really know what he has accessed and what he has not. Even stuff they thought he couldn't access he has released.
And I don't believe that the efforts needed to rig elections wouldn't be worth it to someone. I'm sure the Russians would love to encourage industrial unrest in the UK.
It's one thing to hack something to read it or even copy it; it's another to change the data there - potentially quite a lot of data - in such a way as not to leave any obvious markers as to what's happened. (snip)
You wouldn't need to: a third party could implement a man-in-the-middle attack and change all - or more likely some - of the incoming data on the fly. Or a virus on users' computers that altered their votes before dispatch. Or any other number of attack vectors.
But the most danger of fraud is on the receiving end, by people holding and collating the data. That's one area our paper system works well: the process is so much more visible.
"Those of us who are not going to let Momentum win have a trump card on our side, which is that we would probably win the by-election."
Therein lies the flaw in his argument. Frank is one of the few who could win as an independent since, whether you agree with his politics, he's done a lot for the area and has integrity. But if the likes of Chuka, Liz and Tristram were to run as independents, I suspect the result wouldn't be pretty; they owe everything to the Labour brand, which only has value thanks to the work/money of the activists they're so disdainful of.
Antifrank..A woman walks into a doctors surgery..tells him she is not well and has recently been treated for Ebola..one of the deadliest virus's of recent times..He confirms her symptoms...then sends her home..WTF
I had a school nurse like that. No matter what the problem was, twenty minutes of fresh air was the cure.
"Those of us who are not going to let Momentum win have a trump card on our side, which is that we would probably win the by-election."
Therein lies the flaw in his argument. Frank is one of the few who could win as an independent since, whether you agree with his politics, he's done a lot for the area and has integrity. But if the likes of Chuka, Liz and Tristram were to run as independents, I suspect the result wouldn't be pretty; they owe everything to the Labour brand, which only has value thanks to the work/money of the activists they're so disdainful of.
LOL, integrity for his wallet, he has been there over 30 years and is invisible, always has been apart from a few weaselly words.
If this should happen, it would be interesting to see the level of support an independent MP received, versus the official Labour Party candidate. – Even Frank Field, who has been an MP for 36 years I think would struggle to win against a donkey with a red rosette in some areas.
Indeed better to go independent and remain as an MP. Then wait to stand on their independent record in 2020.
If Corbyn is gone by then, they might be welcomed back anyway.
It’sbeen done successfuly, at least for a while, in S Wales and for a very short time in the NE.
... they owe everything to the Labour brand, which only has value thanks to the work/money of the activists they're so disdainful of.
The value of the Labour brand has very little to do with the current activists. Indeed, you could easily argue that they are a net negative.
The value of the Labour brand derives from (a) its founding principles, and the ongoing assumption that they are on the side of the masses; (b) the folk memory of previous Labour governments, especially Attlee's; and (c) not being the Tories.
Just sums up the cosy money making schemes the government has in place with its chums.
This seems like a bit of a childish argument. What do you mean 'chums'? You do realise that contracts are not let out to friends, they go through a competitive process and recommendations given by a senior civil servant. In this case i understand that Serco have a contract. The cost of the stretch limo (crass by any sense) was coming from serco not the taxpayer directly. Extra cost or otherwise. It might have been cheaper to hire the stretch limo then it would be a taxi for seven people, which again might have been cheaper than a minibus and driver. A minibus and driver might not have been available, and the alternative was this or putting them up in a hotel for another night.
The company that provides the normal transport might be the same company that provides these kind of limos and that was the only one in the pool at that time.
I specifically referenced the possibility of changes in the nomination rules in my article. /smug
He still only wins in a crazy post-modern new-politics dystopia, in which the Labour Party chooses to render itself utterly irrelevant. So you've got every chance.
"Serco said the move had not cost the taxpayer any extra money and that it was a one-off."
I'm intrigued to know how this is possible. Taking a gander at the 2014 annual report for Serco now.
£3000 to take them instead of giving them a bus ticket at a fiver each.
But they might have needed supervision. The alternative might have been a night at a hotel. The cost was held by serco. It makes you wonder how much gravy is in the contract if they are slack when it comes to expenditure though.
If this should happen, it would be interesting to see the level of support an independent MP received, versus the official Labour Party candidate. – Even Frank Field, who has been an MP for 36 years I think would struggle to win against a donkey with a red rosette in some areas.
Indeed better to go independent and remain as an MP. Then wait to stand on their independent record in 2020.
If Corbyn is gone by then, they might be welcomed back anyway.
It’sbeen done successfuly, at least for a while, in S Wales and for a very short time in the NE.
You need to be exceptional though. You need to be bigger than the Labour brand. There arent that many exceptional MPs, though someone like Frank might actually be one. Many of the LibDems who normally would be bigger than their brand still ended up wiped out.
The value of the Labour brand derives from (a) its founding principles, and the ongoing assumption that they are on the side of the masses; (b) the folk memory of previous Labour governments, especially Attlee's; and (c) not being the Tories.
And you can't detach any of that from its activists, past and present. It's like saying any country's achivements is because of the country as a physical thing, rather than being the result of the people within the country.
Do you think Kendall and Umunna could hold their seats as independents, without the help of the funding and canvassing from Labour activists?
Just sums up the cosy money making schemes the government has in place with its chums.
This seems like a bit of a childish argument. What do you mean 'chums'? You do realise that contracts are not let out to friends, they go through a competitive process and recommendations given by a senior civil servant. In this case i understand that Serco have a contract. The cost of the stretch limo (crass by any sense) was coming from serco not the taxpayer directly. Extra cost or otherwise. It might have been cheaper to hire the stretch limo then it would be a taxi for seven people, which again might have been cheaper than a minibus and driver. A minibus and driver might not have been available, and the alternative was this or putting them up in a hotel for another night.
The company that provides the normal transport might be the same company that provides these kind of limos and that was the only one in the pool at that time.
LOL, I take you are on the gravy train , their chums get the deals , £3000 for a taxi rather than £50 on the bus. Yes all above board and sure nobody could have done it for less. PS , you obviously know well these companies that magically win these contracts are stuffed with ex politicians, chums and civil servants etc.
If this should happen, it would be interesting to see the level of support an independent MP received, versus the official Labour Party candidate. – Even Frank Field, who has been an MP for 36 years I think would struggle to win against a donkey with a red rosette in some areas.
Indeed better to go independent and remain as an MP. Then wait to stand on their independent record in 2020.
If Corbyn is gone by then, they might be welcomed back anyway.
It’sbeen done successfuly, at least for a while, in S Wales and for a very short time in the NE.
You need to be exceptional though. You need to be bigger than the Labour brand. There arent that many exceptional MPs, though someone like Frank might actually be one. Many of the LibDems who normally would be bigger than their brand still ended up wiped out.
The value of the Labour brand derives from (a) its founding principles, and the ongoing assumption that they are on the side of the masses; (b) the folk memory of previous Labour governments, especially Attlee's; and (c) not being the Tories.
And you can't detach any of that from its activists, past and present. It's like saying any country's achivements is because of the country as a physical thing, rather than being the result of the people within the country.
Do you think Kendall and Umunna could hold their seats as independents?
No, but they could probably hold their seats without activists :-)
"Serco said the move had not cost the taxpayer any extra money and that it was a one-off."
I'm intrigued to know how this is possible. Taking a gander at the 2014 annual report for Serco now.
£3000 to take them instead of giving them a bus ticket at a fiver each.
But they might have needed supervision. The alternative might have been a night at a hotel. The cost was held by serco. It makes you wonder how much gravy is in the contract if they are slack when it comes to expenditure though.
Judging by Serco's annual report it looks like they're more likely to be at the food bank rather than on the gravy train in the near future. The company was 66 million in the red at the Yr End 2014. They 'lost' around a billion quid last year !!!
@asabenn: Juncker to EU Parliament: "We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs the European Union."
*spittake*
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
I think there's a growing attitude within the EU that they don't really want us. And in my opinion they're right.
Just sums up the cosy money making schemes the government has in place with its chums.
This seems like a bit of a childish argument. What do you mean 'chums'? You do realise that contracts are not let out to friends, they go through a competitive process and recommendations given by a senior civil servant. In this case i understand that Serco have a contract. The cost of the stretch limo (crass by any sense) was coming from serco not the taxpayer directly. Extra cost or otherwise. It might have been cheaper to hire the stretch limo then it would be a taxi for seven people, which again might have been cheaper than a minibus and driver. A minibus and driver might not have been available, and the alternative was this or putting them up in a hotel for another night.
The company that provides the normal transport might be the same company that provides these kind of limos and that was the only one in the pool at that time.
LOL, I take you are on the gravy train , their chums get the deals , £3000 for a taxi rather than £50 on the bus. Yes all above board and sure nobody could have done it for less. PS , you obviously know well these companies that magically win these contracts are stuffed with ex politicians, chums and civil servants etc.
I'm not sure exactly how this puts them on the gravy train? Surely that would be if they were charging the government £3k, but then sending them on buses for £50. The real winners are the limo company!
The value of the Labour brand derives from (a) its founding principles, and the ongoing assumption that they are on the side of the masses; (b) the folk memory of previous Labour governments, especially Attlee's; and (c) not being the Tories.
And you can't detach any of that from its activists, past and present. It's like saying any country's achivements is because of the country as a physical thing, rather than being the result of the people within the country.
Do you think Kendall and Umunna could hold their seats as independents?
No, but they could probably hold their seats without activists :-)
Where would their money come from? Who would do their canvassing? Who would promote their messages?
If you accept that Kendall and Umunna couldn't succeed without the Labour brand, then logically it follows that the stakeholders of that brand (and the ones who by default keep it going) are enntitled to hold them to certain standards.
"Part of the problem is the four elections under Blair and Brown. Labour parties weren’t allowed to select the candidates they wanted, they had to choose from an approved list, which shifted the Parliamentary Labour Party massively to the right." He praised Ed Miliband for "abolishing the Blairite pre-vetting rule" and said "parties are now free to select the candidate they want".
So not only has Miliband handed control of the leadership appointment to the far left, he's handed control of the MP selections too.
The problem with electronic voting is that even if you have an apparently safe system, you'd never know whether someone has come up with a new way of hacking in. It's not like you can check which way you've voted.
The ERS (or whoever) would know. While it would be embarrassing for them to admit it, it would be a great deal more embarrassing (indeed, fatal), to not admit it and then for it to be found out.
Besides, security software can be pretty robust these days. The efforts that would be needed would not be worth the cost (or, for that matter, the risk).
Would they really? The NSA have admitted to Congress that Edward Snowden was skilled enough that they don't really know what he has accessed and what he has not. Even stuff they thought he couldn't access he has released.
And I don't believe that the efforts needed to rig elections wouldn't be worth it to someone. I'm sure the Russians would love to encourage industrial unrest in the UK.
It's one thing to hack something to read it or even copy it; it's another to change the data there - potentially quite a lot of data - in such a way as not to leave any obvious markers as to what's happened.
If the Russians wanted to ferment industrial unrest, I'd have thought there were much easier and cheaper ways, which didn't risk being directly fingered; bribes and blackmail being the most obvious.
I believe the word is 'foment' - unless they're going to do it via Vodka.
"Serco said the move had not cost the taxpayer any extra money and that it was a one-off."
I'm intrigued to know how this is possible. Taking a gander at the 2014 annual report for Serco now.
£3000 to take them instead of giving them a bus ticket at a fiver each.
But they might have needed supervision. The alternative might have been a night at a hotel. The cost was held by serco. It makes you wonder how much gravy is in the contract if they are slack when it comes to expenditure though.
The idiots that fork out £3K of taxpayers hard earned cash are the ones that need supervision.
The problem with electronic voting is that even if you have an apparently safe system, you'd never know whether someone has come up with a new way of hacking in. It's not like you can check which way you've voted.
The ERS (or whoever) would know. While it would be embarrassing for them to admit it, it would be a great deal more embarrassing (indeed, fatal), to not admit it and then for it to be found out.
Besides, security software can be pretty robust these days. The efforts that would be needed would not be worth the cost (or, for that matter, the risk).
Would they really? The NSA have admitted to Congress that Edward Snowden was skilled enough that they don't really know what he has accessed and what he has not. Even stuff they thought he couldn't access he has released.
And I don't believe that the efforts needed to rig elections wouldn't be worth it to someone. I'm sure the Russians would love to encourage industrial unrest in the UK.
It's one thing to hack something to read it or even copy it; it's another to change the data there - potentially quite a lot of data - in such a way as not to leave any obvious markers as to what's happened.
If the Russians wanted to ferment industrial unrest, I'd have thought there were much easier and cheaper ways, which didn't risk being directly fingered; bribes and blackmail being the most obvious.
I believe the word is 'foment' - unless they're going to do it via Vodka.
Ok, that makes more sense. Suddenly conceding someone could do ok without the EU certainly sounded like going offscript for an EU bureaucrat. Normal positions everyone.
Serco (Unless their fortunes have improved dramatically in the last 8 months) are really in the shit. Their 2014 report looks like they're heading towards El Busto to me.
Up to you if you want to lay off, the price now looks about right. I'll probably wait to see their NLCS (= semi-final) opponent and back them for that series to give myself a bit of a hedge.
Just sums up the cosy money making schemes the government has in place with its chums.
This seems like a bit of a childish argument. What do you mean 'chums'? You do realise that contracts are not let out to friends, they go through a competitive process and recommendations given by a senior civil servant. In this case i understand that Serco have a contract. The cost of the stretch limo (crass by any sense) was coming from serco not the taxpayer directly. Extra cost or otherwise. It might have been cheaper to hire the stretch limo then it would be a taxi for seven people, which again might have been cheaper than a minibus and driver. A minibus and driver might not have been available, and the alternative was this or putting them up in a hotel for another night.
The company that provides the normal transport might be the same company that provides these kind of limos and that was the only one in the pool at that time.
LOL, I take you are on the gravy train , their chums get the deals , £3000 for a taxi rather than £50 on the bus. Yes all above board and sure nobody could have done it for less. PS , you obviously know well these companies that magically win these contracts are stuffed with ex politicians, chums and civil servants etc.
I'm not sure exactly how this puts them on the gravy train? Surely that would be if they were charging the government £3k, but then sending them on buses for £50. The real winners are the limo company!
They are all ripping us off , the Limo woudl cost a few hundred for petrol and wages , they got £3K, if they charged Serco £3K they would be charging the government £6K minimum. Lots of gravy.
@asabenn: Juncker to EU Parliament: "We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs the European Union."
*spittake*
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
I think there's a growing attitude within the EU that they don't really want us. And in my opinion they're right.
Hmm. How about this. Cameron is told.... look mate this is the club. These are the rules. You knew what they were when you joined, and you’ve helped to make any changes since. If you don’t like them now, “go away”. But don’t come looking for any special deals. You’ll be treated no worse but no better than anyone else outside.
I can see that playing well with some, but very badly with others.
Of course, a cynic might suggest a French president arguing for Out makes In likelier to win.
Let the EU be the EU - let them regulate and harmonise each other to kingdom come, let's just be shot of it and them be shot of us. We may well like each other a good deal more.
Just sums up the cosy money making schemes the government has in place with its chums.
This seems like a bit of a childish argument. What do you mean 'chums'? You do realise that contracts are not let out to friends, they go through a competitive process and recommendations given by a senior civil servant. In this case i understand that Serco have a contract. The cost of the stretch limo (crass by any sense) was coming from serco not the taxpayer directly. Extra cost or otherwise. It might have been cheaper to hire the stretch limo then it would be a taxi for seven people, which again might have been cheaper than a minibus and driver. A minibus and driver might not have been available, and the alternative was this or putting them up in a hotel for another night.
The company that provides the normal transport might be the same company that provides these kind of limos and that was the only one in the pool at that time.
LOL, I take you are on the gravy train , their chums get the deals , £3000 for a taxi rather than £50 on the bus. Yes all above board and sure nobody could have done it for less. PS , you obviously know well these companies that magically win these contracts are stuffed with ex politicians, chums and civil servants etc.
You find these kind of ridicukous things all over the place, usually the tax payer footing the excesses at some point. You blame corruption, which is usually not the case. Corruption is quite rare in the UK.
My sister told us of a case a few years ago, she had to drive from cumbria to a clinic in london to perform a late abortion for a patient who was at the time in the care of the local mental health trust. Three members of staff, one patient, and two overnight stays, because (for the second time) she couldnt be arsed to get the abortion earlier. I understand the baby was either over 24 weeks or very close to it and no other doctors outside this london clinic was prepared to carry out the procedure.
"Part of the problem is the four elections under Blair and Brown. Labour parties weren’t allowed to select the candidates they wanted, they had to choose from an approved list, which shifted the Parliamentary Labour Party massively to the right." He praised Ed Miliband for "abolishing the Blairite pre-vetting rule" and said "parties are now free to select the candidate they want".
So not only has Miliband handed control of the leadership appointment to the far left, he's handed control of the MP selections too.
I don't know what New Labour types can do here. The membership is now thoroughly left wing, and it's also massive, meaning it will be very hard for new members to moderate it. The internet and social media networks increase the bubble effect, where all setbacks get explained away, so these people are unlikely to be persuaded round after an election loss or two. And these people will control leadership and MP appointments for the next 10-15 years.
The value of the Labour brand derives from (a) its founding principles, and the ongoing assumption that they are on the side of the masses; (b) the folk memory of previous Labour governments, especially Attlee's; and (c) not being the Tories.
And you can't detach any of that from its activists, past and present. It's like saying any country's achivements is because of the country as a physical thing, rather than being the result of the people within the country.
Do you think Kendall and Umunna could hold their seats as independents?
No, but they could probably hold their seats without activists :-)
Where would their money come from? Who would do their canvassing? Who would promote their messages?
If you accept that Kendall and Umunna couldn't succeed without the Labour brand, then logically it follows that the stakeholders of that brand are enntitled to hold them to certain standards.
Sure, but the "stakeholders" here are mostly people who've only laid claim to that stake in the last 5 months. The history of the brand is more important: Hardie, Attlee, the NHS, the trade unions, Blair, Brown, not-being-Thatcher etc.
That's not to say that activism isn't or can't be noble in its own right, but the PLP - who've been a much bigger part of building that brand - are more than entitled to push back against Momentum and all that it implies.
@asabenn: Juncker to EU Parliament: "We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs the European Union."
*spittake*
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
I think there's a growing attitude within the EU that they don't really want us. And in my opinion they're right.
Hmm. How about this. Cameron is told.... look mate this is the club. These are the rules. You knew what they were when you joined, and you’ve helped to make any changes since. If you don’t like them now, “go away”. But don’t come looking for any special deals. You’ll be treated no worse but no better than anyone else outside.
I can see that playing well with some, but very badly with others.
@asabenn: Juncker to EU Parliament: "We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs the European Union."
*spittake*
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
I think there's a growing attitude within the EU that they don't really want us. And in my opinion they're right.
Hmm. How about this. Cameron is told.... look mate this is the club. These are the rules. You knew what they were when you joined, and you’ve helped to make any changes since. If you don’t like them now, “go away”. But don’t come looking for any special deals. You’ll be treated no worse but no better than anyone else outside.
I can see that playing well with some, but very badly with others.
Indeed - although if that's the attitude, how would a country request changes? It presumes there have been changes which were generally agreed, and all changes start with someone proposing something, so surely any club member, such as Britain, needs to stick their head and request changes to see if the club is willing to agree, and if the attitude is 'don't like the rules now, well then bugger off', that suggests others are not allowed to request changes either, when sometimes it is necessary and who knows, might be popular - but you don't know until you actually ask.
Comments
The problem is that individual engineers may not have known the evil purpose behind the software they were creating, which might have had thoroughly benign uses as well. For instance, a comment below that article makes a good point that software detecting test mode (i.e. the car being on a rolling road) might actually have been a necessity. If that is the case, then linking that in with the engine control software was the crime, and that would have been a much smaller software job. But it would have been specified and agreed somewhere.
In fact, more fire may need to be put onto the QA engineers, who should as part of their process picked up on this in any number of ways.
As I've said before, I'm amazed VW's competitors did not pick up on this when they tested their competitors' cars. And if they did pick up on it, then why did they not publicise it?
How will these hard working families cope with this callous withdrawl of equitable funding ?
When will the government make child benefit and tax credits available to children over 16 ??
No-one is claiming that no-one will lose out and deficit reduction is a stated aim of the government and was flagged up in the election campaign. Indeed, the government is currently trying to make it law (which is gesture politics but the gesture is still worth noting).
The changes will undoubtedly cause a fuss but it will be one that dies down by 2020 or, like the Housing Benefit changes, is noticed only by a specific group that is already politically active, anti-Tory and and isn't able to make its case gain wider traction because it's neither relevant nor contains an inherent unfairness.
Corbyn's problem is not the people in front of him, it's the people behind him.
a) Two people
b) Two people with 2 kids.
How do the Gov't plans change this.
People will vote for Corbyn???
How can you know what persons A and B will be earning in one, two, three, four years time?
The only good thing about the VW scandal is that, unlike the GM key scandal, is that no-one has directly died. How many people will indirectly die or be harmed from the extra pollution is a different matter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_switch_scandal
Incidentally, the GM scandal might be one where it is possible that only a handful of engineers were in on it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gm-ceo-15-fired-over-ignition-switch-recalls-probe-shows-pattern-of-failures-no-coverup/2014/06/05/2dc575bc-ecb8-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html
I'd walked for years without seeing a brocken spectre, and was always jealous of people who had seen them. I'd also only ever seen one adder whilst walking.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/07/article-1318578-0B8442F2000005DC-111_640x618.jpg
One of the first major walks I took Mrs J across the Lulworth Ranges. at the top of one of the hills we saw a brocken spectre. A few yards on we came across an adder, followed by another spectre.
She seemed to think they were common...
The best light effect I ever saw was on the Pembrokeshire coast: a column of red light beaming into the sky as the sun sunk below the waves, with a white lighthouse beam sweeping across horizontally. Magnificent, and I'll probably never see it again. Fortunately I have some photos.
The problem with the labour critique is it is so relentlessly downbeat. See above.
The recovery isn;t a real recovery. Your job isn't a real job. You'll be doing that job for the rest of your life. Your employer will never raise your salary. The price of everything will only ever rise more than your wages. Nobody will ever offer you a better paid job. Recession and redundancy are just around the corner.
Talk about bleedin' Cassandra.
NMW gets you a certain calibre of staff, NMW plus £1 gets you a whole lot more, and employers know this, to the point that many companies now make pay settlements in the month the NMW is set, even if they dont employ anyone on the NMW.
[Same applies to posters on the interweb who are uniformly pro- or anti-something].
When's the vote on the Fiscal Trap To See If Labour Is Still Stupid?
Seriously, our local candidate weaved into every single conversation and press release: Food banks, zero hours and bedroom tax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYtbWWmtVYM
Even if that's only playing politics rather than a true belief, I had not credited him with willing to break such a seeming tenet of EU politics by not being overbearingly arrogant.
Completely anecdotally I have noticed that the market for so-called cheap labour is starting to tighten. For example, Adverts being run on Talk Sport for thousands of delivery staff. 7,000 jobs being created at Yodel.
In two years time the minimum wage could be a joke because everybody pays well above it.
OK that's an optimistic call, but by no means impossible.
And where does that leave labour, whose strategy is completely wedded to a catalogue of economic failure.
http://t.co/bRTBkPugjE
But, it has been a real one. Things are plainly better now than when the government took offices. And their record compares favourably with a lot of countries of similar economic development.
Would it be more harmonious, the rebel would be gone and the remainder would, in his view, be more malleable to the wishes of the leaders and bureaucrats.
PS: will have the loyalists frothing
If the Russians wanted to ferment industrial unrest, I'd have thought there were much easier and cheaper ways, which didn't risk being directly fingered; bribes and blackmail being the most obvious.
Indeed better to go independent and remain as an MP. Then wait to stand on their independent record in 2020.
If Corbyn is gone by then, they might be welcomed back anyway.
(Good old Yellow Pages!)
On the other hand, I very rarely go on holiday. I wouldn't be best pleased if I'd thought it was a certain price then discovered a 430% hike.
But the most danger of fraud is on the receiving end, by people holding and collating the data. That's one area our paper system works well: the process is so much more visible.
Serco apologises after hiring stretch limo for asylum seekers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34527534
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34528682
Reminds me a bit of London buses refusing cash. The bus is there for passengers, and the Legion should be there for veterans.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/10/ken-livingstone-calls-labour-leadership-rules-be-changed
LOL, integrity for his wallet, he has been there over 30 years and is invisible, always has been apart from a few weaselly words.
I'm intrigued to know how this is possible. Taking a gander at the 2014 annual report for Serco now.
The value of the Labour brand derives from (a) its founding principles, and the ongoing assumption that they are on the side of the masses; (b) the folk memory of previous Labour governments, especially Attlee's; and (c) not being the Tories.
The company that provides the normal transport might be the same company that provides these kind of limos and that was the only one in the pool at that time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMa0CxgCqiM
Do you think Kendall and Umunna could hold their seats as independents, without the help of the funding and canvassing from Labour activists?
PS , you obviously know well these companies that magically win these contracts are stuffed with ex politicians, chums and civil servants etc.
If you accept that Kendall and Umunna couldn't succeed without the Labour brand, then logically it follows that the stakeholders of that brand (and the ones who by default keep it going) are enntitled to hold them to certain standards.
Chicago Cubs @ 40/1World Series WinnerOpen
World Series 2015
Stake: £20.00Potential Returns: £620.00
Should I lay off now or ?
I have no idea about baseball.
Of course, a cynic might suggest a French president arguing for Out makes In likelier to win.
@paulwaugh: For the full version of Juncker watch from 33mins 20 secs
http://t.co/sixmfa1jGG
So not only has Miliband handed control of the leadership appointment to the far left, he's handed control of the MP selections too.
minimum. Lots of gravy.
I can see that playing well with some, but very badly with others.
My sister told us of a case a few years ago, she had to drive from cumbria to a clinic in london to perform a late abortion for a patient who was at the time in the care of the local mental health trust.
Three members of staff, one patient, and two overnight stays, because (for the second time) she couldnt be arsed to get the abortion earlier. I understand the baby was either over 24 weeks or very close to it and no other doctors outside this london clinic was prepared to carry out the procedure.
Could you imagine the cost?
So not only has Miliband handed control of the leadership appointment to the far left, he's handed control of the MP selections too.
I don't know what New Labour types can do here. The membership is now thoroughly left wing, and it's also massive, meaning it will be very hard for new members to moderate it. The internet and social media networks increase the bubble effect, where all setbacks get explained away, so these people are unlikely to be persuaded round after an election loss or two. And these people will control leadership and MP appointments for the next 10-15 years.
That's not to say that activism isn't or can't be noble in its own right, but the PLP - who've been a much bigger part of building that brand - are more than entitled to push back against Momentum and all that it implies.