I posted this last night, but at midnight no one really replied. Trying again this morning:
"Question for the PB Brains Trusts this late night morning.
Every week I keep seeing the discussion drift off into aliens. By some reasonably respected posters too.
Why can I only find this stuff here? Is there any news items anywhere else? I haven't looked hard but I just can't obviously see what is going on."
It's just the drunken bollocks du jour from LeadricT. He'll be on to something else soon enough. His Islam-as-an-existential-threat-to-everything material is overdue for another airing.
Far more interesting than alleged aliens is the fact that LeadricT is not only a regenerating alien, but he is is also Yvette Cooper as rcs let slip...
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
The curious thing is that believers in the free market ought to understand that; the principles of supply and demand apply to workers as well as goods. If the government sets the price of a nurse or a care worker or a teacher or a doctor or a lawyer too low, recruitment will be much harder. People, like goods, cost what they cost.
That's trivially true for people like lawyers or analysts, who can easily take their skills into the private sector. But it even works for jobs where the public sector has a near-monopoly, like education or healthcare. People will just go and do other stuff instead.
It's not entirely true, because people have a pressing need to sell their labour. This often puts them in the position of a distressed seller, which makes it easier to exploit them.
The curious thing is that believers in the free market ought to understand that; the principles of supply and demand apply to workers as well as goods. If the government sets the price of a nurse or a care worker or a teacher or a doctor or a lawyer too low, recruitment will be much harder. People, like goods, cost what they cost.
That's trivially true for people like lawyers or analysts, who can easily take their skills into the private sector. But it even works for jobs where the public sector has a near-monopoly, like education or healthcare. People will just go and do other stuff instead.
It's not entirely true, because people have a pressing need to sell their labour. This often puts them in the position of a distressed seller, which makes it easier to exploit them.
Especially when there is only one buyer of the labour they are selling - i.e. the state.
As somebody who is always on the lookout for attack lines that will destroy Boris and the government, even I think the Jenny McGee story is a complete non-story.
There is no way that it could destroy the government. But it should resonate. Think about it. People were clapping on their doorstep every Thursday for the Nurses. Heroes! Every one of them! And now when it comes to them getting a pay rise that even keeps pace with inflation? The same people who were clapping their heroism think they should do one.
The Cult of Boris remains strong.
Personally I'd like to see support given to front line NHS staff to help them get over the last 15 months (make sure they can take time off etc.).
Should they get a bigger pay rise? Personally I think the government should pay what it needs to retain the staff of sufficient quality. Right now, a public sector job is quite a nice place to be. So I'd suggest that the pressure to increase pay to keep staff is not that high.
Australia is preparing to challenge Britain’s plans to maintain a ban on hormone-treated beef and to push for the free flow of its agricultural products.
Simon Birmingham, the country’s trade minister, will stand by the “safety and quality” of Australian produce during trade talks, which could begin within weeks of Britain’s departure from the European Union on Friday.
Theresa Villiers, the environment secretary, has stated categorically that Britain will maintain the EU’s ban on meat from cattle treated with growth hormones.
Flights from India have continued to land in Britain at a rate of 4.5 per day in the three and a half weeks since the Asian country was added to the UK's red list of destinations, according to an analysis of flight data by LBC.
Though the UK has banned direct flights from 11 other red list nations including Brazil and South Africa, it did not adopt a similar policy when India was placed on the list. Direct flights into the UK are also allowed from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, both red list countries.
I posted this last night, but at midnight no one really replied. Trying again this morning:
"Question for the PB Brains Trusts this late night morning.
Every week I keep seeing the discussion drift off into aliens. By some reasonably respected posters too.
Why can I only find this stuff here? Is there any news items anywhere else? I haven't looked hard but I just can't obviously see what is going on."
It's just the drunken bollocks du jour from LeadricT. He'll be on to something else soon enough. His Islam-as-an-existential-threat-to-everything material is overdue for another airing.
I posted this last night, but at midnight no one really replied. Trying again this morning:
"Question for the PB Brains Trusts this late night morning.
Every week I keep seeing the discussion drift off into aliens. By some reasonably respected posters too.
Why can I only find this stuff here? Is there any news items anywhere else? I haven't looked hard but I just can't obviously see what is going on."
It's just the drunken bollocks du jour from LeadricT. He'll be on to something else soon enough. His Islam-as-an-existential-threat-to-everything material is overdue for another airing.
What if the Aliens are Muslims?
Reminds me of the competition to create the headline for a UK tabloid that hits all the buzz words....
Should the government cut funding to businesses that have been impacted, like VAT cuts, furlough, grants, loans, rates relief and much more - put VAT on hospitality back up and give that money to the NHS? 🤔
yes
So devastate even more the businesses like pubs and restaurants etc that are on their knees in order to give more money to those in secure jobs? 🤔
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
Flights from India have continued to land in Britain at a rate of 4.5 per day in the three and a half weeks since the Asian country was added to the UK's red list of destinations, according to an analysis of flight data by LBC.
Though the UK has banned direct flights from 11 other red list nations including Brazil and South Africa, it did not adopt a similar policy when India was placed on the list. Direct flights into the UK are also allowed from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, both red list countries.
The flights are carrying cargo, and people leaving the UK bound for India. No incoming travellers except for crew, who are tested regularly and quarantined in their hotel between flights.
As somebody who is always on the lookout for attack lines that will destroy Boris and the government, even I think the Jenny McGee story is a complete non-story.
There is no way that it could destroy the government. But it should resonate. Think about it. People were clapping on their doorstep every Thursday for the Nurses. Heroes! Every one of them! And now when it comes to them getting a pay rise that even keeps pace with inflation? The same people who were clapping their heroism think they should do one.
The Cult of Boris remains strong.
Also, the Cult of The Massive Event That Brings The Government Down.
We were spoilt for political drama in 2015-20. There were multiple dramatic events that really did bring Prime Ministers down. Mostly it's not like that; it's a scratch here, a dent there, or very occasionally a significant bit falls off.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
Dripping water eventually wears a mountain down. And enough erosion in the right place can trigger a spectacular collapse.
Yes. 4% in Scotland. Only 1% in England. Which as 1.5% is the rate of inflation means that Boris rewarded the nurses who saved his life with a real terms pay cut.
Don’t make the poor lambs’ heads hurt.
Our wise and generous government has given nurses a 4% pay rise.
What’s that you say, it’s only 1%, it’s actually the Scottish government that has given 4%?
Typical, bloody profligate Nats using my hard earned to bribe their rubbish health workers, anything to be different, why can’t they just do the same as us, etc etc
The Unions though, what a bunch of tossers. Scotland offer 4% - in line with a good pay award in the private sector. England offers 1% - derisory. So what does UNISON ask for? 12%. Wankers.
It's the 'transitional demand' as advocated by Trotsky in The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International.
And that doesn't still make them look a bunch of wankers ?
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
The Dom is reputed to be a genius campaigner.
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 4m One thing we need at 5.00 pm. Hard facts on projected hospitalisation rates if people in remaining unvaccinated groups fail to take the vaccine. We need actual figures, not abstractions about "pressure on the NHS".
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Do UK farmers want tariff-free access to the Australian market?
Genuine question.
No
Someone posted last night the reason Australian imports were banned by the EU is they don't meet animal welfare standards.
On the face of it - and I don't wish to be rude - but it seems unlikely that Australian and New Zealand animals will e kept in worse conditions than European ones. I don't know for sure, but it seems a little counter-intuitive.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
Not true, UK farmers would get tariff free access to the Australian market too, that is the whole point of trade deals
A lot of good that's going to do, most of the food we would export would be stinking by the time it reaches Australia by boat
Vacuum-packed meat lasts about three months in the fridge. We get Aussie beef here in the sandpit, usually arrives with 6 weeks or so left on it.
Food imports from NZ & Australia kick started international frozen food transport. In the 19th cent...
Oh yeah, frozen food keeps pretty much forever.
Of course, most of the arguments here are nothing to do with the merits of Australian food, but a revisiting of the old Brexit arguments. A comprehensive UK-Aus trade deal is a huge barrier to re-entry to the EU, and it’s from that angle that it’s being argued against.
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Yes. But the evidence so far is the Indian variant has created a spike, not a wave of infections.
We will be certain, either way, after todays data, I think.
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Or will they turn on the anti-vaxxers? Seems there is very serious discussion going on about locking us down because a % of people are refusing the vaccine.
You can already see a bit of anger building on social media.
my tip for the Eurovision song contest is Serbia Top 10 at 10/1 (Unibet - others have it as a less attractive 7/1 or so). The Balkans was decimated in the Semi final 1 with four Balkan nations being knocked out and although Serbia have to get through semi final 2 tomorrow (they are 75% to make it on that market ) then they will be about the only Balkan left standing (aside from Bulgaria) . Will concentrate the infamous Balkan block vote to them no doubt , enough imho to get a top 10 finish
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Great start to today, anyway, hearing that Trump's legal problems are doing the opposite of going away. I think him in a jumpsuit doing a stretch is a stretch, but I have reasonable hopes of it being enough to neuter him. Donald Trump being neutered is, for me, a good outcome and a suitable alternative to prison. If he's neutered - and such is properly verified - he can roam free but not do any damage.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Great start to today, anyway, hearing that Trump's legal problems are doing the opposite of going away. I think him in a jumpsuit doing a stretch is a stretch, but I have reasonable hopes of it being enough to neuter him. Donald Trump being neutered is, for me, a good outcome and a suitable alternative to prison. If he's neutered - and such is properly verified - he can roam free but not do any damage.
You should worry a bit about a properly neutered Trump. A properly neutered Trump clears the way for someone a bit Trumpish but without so many negatives to lead the Republicans in 2024. At the moment, I can't see a way back for Trump. But I can see a way back for the Republicans with such a candidate. Perhaps after 2016-2020 though you'd take that in the same way that I was relieved to see Jeremy Corbyn ousted from the Labour Party, even though it made Labour more electable.
If only you could explain the situation to Ms McGee that would sort out her wrongheaded confusion over this matter.
Its not surprising there is confusion......as there is on here. I understand it someone on here is editing comments to misrepresentwhat a poster has been saying.
The confusion is that most people in England assume everything relates to UK and are ignorant to the fact that Scotland has many differences , like their own law, education < NHS, police, Fire service , animal cruelty service and on and on , IGNORANCE explains it well.
If only you could explain the situation to Ms McGee that would sort out her wrongheaded confusion over this matter.
Its not surprising there is confusion......as there is on here. I understand it someone on here is editing comments to misrepresentwhat a poster has been saying.
The confusion is that most people in England assume everything relates to UK and are ignorant to the fact that Scotland has many differences , like their own law, education < NHS, police, Fire service , animal cruelty service and on and on , IGNORANCE explains it well.
Yet another good reason for an English Parliament.
If only you could explain the situation to Ms McGee that would sort out her wrongheaded confusion over this matter.
Its not surprising there is confusion......as there is on here. I understand it someone on here is editing comments to misrepresentwhat a poster has been saying.
The confusion is that most people in England assume everything relates to UK and are ignorant to the fact that Scotland has many differences , like their own law, education < NHS, police, Fire service , animal cruelty service and on and on , IGNORANCE explains it well.
Scottish devolution was a mistake - I think we all understand that now.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Also the media and opposition had a good go at 1%, only 1% pay rise, in fact it was a major pillar of Labour's local election campaign. And the public seem to have shrugged.
Her other criticisms seem to be they wanted her to big.a big photo op and she didn't want to, and that was that, and that COVID was really bad in part due to poor government messgaing...the first, its not exactly rare occurrence and she is entitled to say no and the second, well she isn't the first to point that out
If the government were smart i think some extra one off holiday would be a middle ground of rewarding NHS staff without the inflationary pay increase...but they will probably be spun as offensive slap in the face or something.
The 1% real terms pay cut WAS an offensive slap in the face. That Boris rampers think it is a Good Thing shows how bought into the personality cult they are.
The Unions though, what a bunch of tossers. Scotland offer 4% - in line with a good pay award in the private sector. England offers 1% - derisory. So what does UNISON ask for? 12%. Wankers.
"in line with a good pay award in the private sector" - many in the private sector have seen a 20% pay cut, or pay freezes. 1% (plus possible progression) would be a great award for many in the private sector.
Exactly , people in private companies would be amazed at 4%, knowing that it would mean headcount cuts to cover it. Easy when you just take other people's money to pay for the increases.
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Seemingly Neil Ferguson is surprisingly chipper about the Indian variant - suggesting that it may not be nearly as transmissable as had been worried.
Mr. Max, aye. Already rated Norris but he's been very good indeed so far this year. Him and Ricciardo are a great lineup.
What do you think about the possibility of Ferrari sneaking a win this weekend ? Good car for the slow corners, and aero efficiency doesn't matter so much. Probably their best chance this season.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Yes this makes it difficult for civil service to hire people with specialist skills. This is of course what all these agencies & consultancies want.
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Seemingly Neil Ferguson is surprisingly chipper about the Indian variant - suggesting that it may not be nearly as transmissable as had been worried.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
The Dom is reputed to be a genius campaigner.
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
Because he destroyed his own reputation last year and made himself a punchline.
Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair used to be genius campaigners. Campbell has been pissing into the wind for years now on Brexit and Blair's exortations on it were ignored too.
Although you probably find CampbellClaret's Tweets to be the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why he's not being listened to.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Yes this makes it difficult for civil service to hire people with specialist skills. This is of course what all these agencies & consultancies want.
Paying someone X was "insulting to their managers" but paying their personal service company 800 a day wasn't.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
Blair won 2005 (post Iraq) so whatever you're trying to spin here is null and void.
Mr. B, interesting, I did note Leclerc had slightly shorter odds than Perez when I checked.
I think their problem is they're still likely to be behind the top two and McLaren might get in the way too.
Passing's nigh on impossible so good luck with a safety car or rain (last I checked it's forecast to be dry) would almost certainly be necessary. What odds did you get on Leclerc?
Flights from India have continued to land in Britain at a rate of 4.5 per day in the three and a half weeks since the Asian country was added to the UK's red list of destinations, according to an analysis of flight data by LBC.
Though the UK has banned direct flights from 11 other red list nations including Brazil and South Africa, it did not adopt a similar policy when India was placed on the list. Direct flights into the UK are also allowed from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, both red list countries.
The flights are carrying cargo, and people leaving the UK bound for India. No incoming travellers except for crew, who are tested regularly and quarantined in their hotel between flights.
My colleague, and his family, were on a flight back to the UK yesterday from India, and will now be in hotel quarantine.
He, and everyone else on his flight, will likely have been spending hours in a queue at the border with people arriving into Heathrow who aren't required to go into hotel quarantine, perhaps some from green list countries who aren't even asked to self-isolate at home.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
Yep, was maybe lower in civil service, I forget (long time ago).
In universities, each point on the pay scale [1] is actually (just checked) ~3% higher than the point before (lower down the scale, sub £20k, it's less than that, but above £20k it's pretty consistent). Each year, within band, you go up one point (sometimes two, due to universities sharing a pay scale but mapping roles on to that differently - this year I go up two points, yay!). That goes on until you reach the top of band (after ~6 years) at which point you have to get promoted to get a pay rise. Each year, the national pay award adds X% to each of those points. So my pay next year is approximately paynow * 1.03 * (1+risenat/100) where risenat is the national pay award in %. So next year, if the national pay award is 1% I'll earn ~4% more than this year. I do, though that process, also at least in theory take on more responsibility and I'm expected to be already doing the next grade job at the point at which I get promoted, so for those of us wanting to progress, it effectively means that it smooths out what would be a bigger pay rise between roles. However, I could decide I'm happy at my grade and just take the pay rises for 5-6 years until reaching top of grade without actually having to do more as per job description. Although if I did I might find my job disappeared as there would be cheaper people (lower points in the grade) offering the same as me.
[1] https://www.ucu.org.uk/he_singlepayspine (2020 is still proposed, as it's still in dispute, as every other year in living memory. Normally the universities just impose and backdate the pay rise a few months later. 2019-2020 was frozen pay, but I still moved up a point and so got ~3%)
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
"at best mediocre" 😂
The UK got a revised exit deal you lot said was impossible to get. The UK got a trade deal in eleven months you lot said was impossible to get. The UK exited the EU transition on schedule and without any of the disruption you lot were screaming about. The UK has gone through a global pandemic and come out the other side before any other major developed nation. The UK has a better vaccine procurement and rollout than any other major developed nation in the entire planet.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
Blair won 2005 (post Iraq) so whatever you're trying to spin here is null and void.
Both Thatcher and Blair continued on after their respective "mortal wounds" - but the trajectory was clear. Blair was smart enough to do another election (the Conservative opposition was still shambolic) and then exit stage left.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Yes this makes it difficult for civil service to hire people with specialist skills. This is of course what all these agencies & consultancies want.
Paying someone X was "insulting to their managers" but paying their personal service company 800 a day wasn't.
Humans are weird.
Yes they are, these sort of blind spots are cost the government a fortune in consultants - and often end up with the consultants themselves having to be switched out because IR35 - so for example your infosec lead changes every six months, which is somewhat sub-optimal from an infosec point of view!
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
HMRC. I don't know whether people on older contracts still get automatic increases within the pay band. On the modern contracts we certainly don't.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
The Dom is reputed to be a genius campaigner.
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
Because he destroyed his own reputation last year and made himself a punchline.
Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair used to be genius campaigners. Campbell has been pissing into the wind for years now on Brexit and Blair's exortations on it were ignored too.
Although you probably find CampbellClaret's Tweets to be the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why he's not being listened to.
Dom got swept up in his own mythology and started to believe that he upturned history and brought about Brexit. (I blame that Benedict Cumberbatch film). Of course, from what we now know, if anyone is to be given that 'credit' it's Boris: unlike slippery Dave, people trusted him to make an honest assessment and recommend the sensible course of action.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Yes this makes it difficult for civil service to hire people with specialist skills. This is of course what all these agencies & consultancies want.
Paying someone X was "insulting to their managers" but paying their personal service company 800 a day wasn't.
Humans are weird.
Yes they are, these sort of blind spots are cost the government a fortune in consultants - and often end up with the consultants themselves having to be switched out because IR35 - so for example your infosec lead changes every six months, which is somewhat sub-optimal from an infosec point of view!
IR35 - either the person is outside or they are inside. time spent at a site really shouldn't make much difference.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Well it's all relative in that if the alternatives are unpopular it makes him look a better proposition. So I agree with that. And it's not that he's wildly and widely popular. He's disliked by many and I'm sure there are plenty who can just take him or leave him.
But he's a very unusual politician. He's a brand rather than a real person to an extent that's quite rare in politics. And what a powerful brand it is. People cut him slack. They are indulgent of him because they feel like they know him. Just observe how he's talked about if you doubt this.
So when you add to that brand power him being the man who (for real) Got Brexit Done, and the man who (for real) Saw Us Through The Pandemic, regardless of Brexit not making anybody's life better, and regardless of our Covid response other than vaccines being objectively pisspoor, you get something that is pretty formidable and will take a lot of shifting.
Track these fkers down and drone em wherever they are.
Would that involve them being locked in a room and HYUFD repeatedly explaining why there wasn't going to be indy ref II? They'd put the handcuffs on themselves.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
The Dom is reputed to be a genius campaigner.
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
Because he destroyed his own reputation last year and made himself a punchline.
Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair used to be genius campaigners. Campbell has been pissing into the wind for years now on Brexit and Blair's exortations on it were ignored too.
Although you probably find CampbellClaret's Tweets to be the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why he's not being listened to.
The *only* thing that will give Dom any credibility on this is when he produces the evidence. I am uninterested in his opinion. I am interested in his facts.
Even then, with proof on the table that the PM ignored the science and was happy to let the bodies pile high, the Cult will just shrug. Yeah ok he killed granny but he's a lad isn't he and I'd still have a pint with him.
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Yes this makes it difficult for civil service to hire people with specialist skills. This is of course what all these agencies & consultancies want.
Paying someone X was "insulting to their managers" but paying their personal service company 800 a day wasn't.
Humans are weird.
Yes they are, these sort of blind spots are cost the government a fortune in consultants - and often end up with the consultants themselves having to be switched out because IR35 - so for example your infosec lead changes every six months, which is somewhat sub-optimal from an infosec point of view!
Indeed.
But, to this day, if you suggested the Civil Service hire programmers at £90,000... that would be Fascism or something.
If only you could explain the situation to Ms McGee that would sort out her wrongheaded confusion over this matter.
Its not surprising there is confusion......as there is on here. I understand it someone on here is editing comments to misrepresentwhat a poster has been saying.
The confusion is that most people in England assume everything relates to UK and are ignorant to the fact that Scotland has many differences , like their own law, education < NHS, police, Fire service , animal cruelty service and on and on , IGNORANCE explains it well.
Scottish devolution was a mistake - I think we all understand that now.
The English shouldn't have voted (in a landslide) for it then.
There’s a lot of it about. Seems everyone wants to grass on everyone else. Having said that, the Deliveroo riders on the pedestrianised areas of Liverpool city centre deserve a smack. Ignorant fuckers.
Worthwhile thread 1/ Since no one asked, here's a thread on the UK-Australia FTA.
Biases on the table: - I was an Australian trade negotiator - I have trained many of DIT's negotiators, likely including some of the ones working on this FTA - I'm neoliberal scum who generally thinks tariffs = bad https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1394942626424623104
Mr. B, interesting, I did note Leclerc had slightly shorter odds than Perez when I checked.
I think their problem is they're still likely to be behind the top two and McLaren might get in the way too.
Passing's nigh on impossible so good luck with a safety car or rain (last I checked it's forecast to be dry) would almost certainly be necessary. What odds did you get on Leclerc?
I beg to differ about passing. The Formula E race proved that you absolutely can pass at Monaco. OK there are only a couple of real passing places but the same was true about Barcelona, and I know where I'd rather be.
The only problem with Monaco this year is that the Eurovision Song Contest is the night before so I am likely to be nursing a slight* hangover.
"A member of Independent Sage who berated the Government on Tuesday for not delaying the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Britain is a social scientist turned race adviser who has no medical qualifications.
Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group, specialises in racial equality and has been involved with various government-commissioned reports on welfare issues."
Public sector workers - and I am one - still tend to have an outdated view of what cost-of-living increases tend to look like - so 1% is views as 'insulting' or 'derisory'. There seems to be a view that in the private sector people are getting 3% and 4% as a matter of course. That sort of level went out the window 15-20 years ago - 1% is now a pretty good deal. This isn't a comment on the level nurses or anyone else deserves, just a comment on the slightly skewed view the public sector have of what people in the private sector get.
One thing that is common in the public sector is automatic progression (also in universities, where I work). So, eahc year you get not only the pay rise for your job, but you automatically (at least wthin bands) move up a point and get a pay rise that way. So our pay settlements are often 1% or so, but I get a pay rise each year of more like 3% overall. Now, it's still a problem if I, in five years, earn less in real terms than someone five points above me does today, but it does mean that most of us get real terms increases every year (the one thing that might break that is the USS contributions fiasco, but we'll see).
In competitive, professional private sector, there's often similar, although less define progression - my wife's annual pay increases in the same role often outstripped min. But in other roles, supermarkets etc, you're in hte role you're in and all you get is the national pay increase. If it's 1% pay rise it's really 1% pay rise.
I can only comment on my own department and say we get no automatic rise within the pay band. I don't know about people on older contracts.
I should clarify that my experience is national government civil service (automatic annual increments within band, plus national pay settlement), private sector (no automatic increments, but in practice there was competition for staff, so I got a pay rise every year within the same role - athough the size of that did vary) and university (annual increments within bands, move up one point each year, plus the national pay rise).
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
I did 5 yrs in civil service central govt dept. Think there were automatic increments but don't remember them being as high as 3%. Never understood the fuss about 1% or 3% or whatever. The difference always seemed to be negligible at the end of the day.
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
I saw a reflection of the salary difference issue - I worked for an oil company that hired alot of ex-civil servants.
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Yes this makes it difficult for civil service to hire people with specialist skills. This is of course what all these agencies & consultancies want.
It's also te case in universities, to a large extent - the profs are, largely, managers and if you're a specialist who doesn't realy fancy that then you're better off (financally) shipping out. There are exceptions for the really good/high profile specialists - I've worked with one very eminnent (now retired) prof who was never principal investigator (i.e. overall manager) on a grant, but that's really rare (and maybe more of a thing of the past). I couldn't have got to my current grade (which is not prof!) without being a PI.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
Blair won 2005 (post Iraq) so whatever you're trying to spin here is null and void.
Both Thatcher and Blair continued on after their respective "mortal wounds" - but the trajectory was clear. Blair was smart enough to do another election (the Conservative opposition was still shambolic) and then exit stage left.
Brown only got a couple (or 3?) years and there's never been a Labour government since. How many 16 year-olds care about Iraq.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
The Dom is reputed to be a genius campaigner.
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
Because he destroyed his own reputation last year and made himself a punchline.
Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair used to be genius campaigners. Campbell has been pissing into the wind for years now on Brexit and Blair's exortations on it were ignored too.
Although you probably find CampbellClaret's Tweets to be the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why he's not being listened to.
The *only* thing that will give Dom any credibility on this is when he produces the evidence. I am uninterested in his opinion. I am interested in his facts.
Even then, with proof on the table that the PM ignored the science and was happy to let the bodies pile high, the Cult will just shrug. Yeah ok he killed granny but he's a lad isn't he and I'd still have a pint with him.
Alternatively thanks to Boris's government granny has been vaccinated.
My grandparents have had both vaccines and I'll be going to see them (having had one myself already too) this weekend. 👍
Worthwhile thread 1/ Since no one asked, here's a thread on the UK-Australia FTA.
Biases on the table: - I was an Australian trade negotiator - I have trained many of DIT's negotiators, likely including some of the ones working on this FTA - I'm neoliberal scum who generally thinks tariffs = bad https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1394942626424623104
The important one is
13/ Exactly how much additional pressure Australian competition will apply on struggling farmers is a matter for study, using firm-level data and actual market prices.
Great start to today, anyway, hearing that Trump's legal problems are doing the opposite of going away. I think him in a jumpsuit doing a stretch is a stretch, but I have reasonable hopes of it being enough to neuter him. Donald Trump being neutered is, for me, a good outcome and a suitable alternative to prison. If he's neutered - and such is properly verified - he can roam free but not do any damage.
You should worry a bit about a properly neutered Trump. A properly neutered Trump clears the way for someone a bit Trumpish but without so many negatives to lead the Republicans in 2024. At the moment, I can't see a way back for Trump. But I can see a way back for the Republicans with such a candidate. Perhaps after 2016-2020 though you'd take that in the same way that I was relieved to see Jeremy Corbyn ousted from the Labour Party, even though it made Labour more electable.
I'd agree with that. Actually it might be quite handy for DeSantis if Trump is convicted criminally. He could kick up a fuss over the extradition of Trump from Florida to New York and, while there is not much he could probably do given federal law, it would burnish his credentials in the eyes of those who support Trump.
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Seemingly Neil Ferguson is surprisingly chipper about the Indian variant - suggesting that it may not be nearly as transmissable as had been worried.
Yes, one learns to translate the words of the Boffin' Boffin: "a glimmer of hope" = "I'm fairly relaxed about this."
He is not given to panglossian outbursts, I think it's fair to say.
There’s a lot of it about. Seems everyone wants to grass on everyone else. Having said that, the Deliveroo riders on the pedestrianised areas of Liverpool city centre deserve a smack. Ignorant fuckers.
The moped riders with the L plates are universally a danger to themselves and others. Near where I live, they regularly cut through a petrol station and across a pavement, at high speed, via a pedestrian access. They've managed to knock down a number of people. It's only a matter of time until someone is killed.
As somebody who is always on the lookout for attack lines that will destroy Boris and the government, even I think the Jenny McGee story is a complete non-story.
Indeed. The rather comical desperation to find The Thing That Will Bring Boris Down This Week is proof of the lamentable political impotence of his opponents; politcal strength means creating your own opportunities if they don't exist already, a talent of which they seem completely devoid. But no, they keep hoping against hope as if they were listening to a 1960s Adam West cliffhanger:
'Is this the zero hour for the Dynamic Duo? Are the sands of time really running out for Batman and Robin? At long last have they met a gritty, granulated, inglorious end?'
'Can it be? The Dynamic Duo crushed to death by an eight ton meteorite??'
'Are our eyes deceiving us?? Has the giant clam really swallowed Robin??'
'Tune in next week – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!'
13/ Exactly how much additional pressure Australian competition will apply on struggling farmers is a matter for study, using firm-level data and actual market prices.
I'm hoping the UK has actually done some.
Hoping... hoping...
As you just know we won't have done that.
And the most likely one is this
8/ First and most obviously, performative divergence from the EU is a stupid basis on which to make any kind of policy.
Offer Australia tariff and quota free access if you want to, but only if it makes sense for the UK, not to prove you're nothing like your father.
"A member of Independent Sage who berated the Government on Tuesday for not delaying the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Britain is a social scientist turned race adviser who has no medical qualifications.
Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group, specialises in racial equality and has been involved with various government-commissioned reports on welfare issues."
Should the government cut funding to businesses that have been impacted, like VAT cuts, furlough, grants, loans, rates relief and much more - put VAT on hospitality back up and give that money to the NHS? 🤔
yes
So devastate even more the businesses like pubs and restaurants etc that are on their knees in order to give more money to those in secure jobs? 🤔
Pubs and restaurants will start making their usual vast amounts of profits etc as everyone rushes back to them, desperate for their alcoholic meals. Meanwhile NHS workers will continue to eek out their salaries between their vast childcare costs and their full tax and NI contributions Class 1. There will always be Pubs and restaurants, but will there always be nurses and doctors now that we are jailing EU visitors at the border.
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
Blair won 2005 (post Iraq) so whatever you're trying to spin here is null and void.
Both Thatcher and Blair continued on after their respective "mortal wounds" - but the trajectory was clear. Blair was smart enough to do another election (the Conservative opposition was still shambolic) and then exit stage left.
Brown only got a couple (or 3?) years and there's never been a Labour government since. How many 16 year-olds care about Iraq.
Quite few - my daughter and her friends refer to Blair as "The War Criminal". They get their world view online and mostly from people like AOC.
Mr. B, interesting, I did note Leclerc had slightly shorter odds than Perez when I checked.
I think their problem is they're still likely to be behind the top two and McLaren might get in the way too.
Passing's nigh on impossible so good luck with a safety car or rain (last I checked it's forecast to be dry) would almost certainly be necessary. What odds did you get on Leclerc?
McLaren's car doesn't suit Monaco, looking at the sector 3 times from Catalunya (though the car setup won't be the same, obvs.). The drivers have said as much.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
The Dom is reputed to be a genius campaigner.
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
Because he destroyed his own reputation last year and made himself a punchline.
Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair used to be genius campaigners. Campbell has been pissing into the wind for years now on Brexit and Blair's exortations on it were ignored too.
Although you probably find CampbellClaret's Tweets to be the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why he's not being listened to.
The *only* thing that will give Dom any credibility on this is when he produces the evidence. I am uninterested in his opinion. I am interested in his facts.
Even then, with proof on the table that the PM ignored the science and was happy to let the bodies pile high, the Cult will just shrug. Yeah ok he killed granny but he's a lad isn't he and I'd still have a pint with him.
Alternatively thanks to Boris's government granny has been vaccinated.
My grandparents have had both vaccines and I'll be going to see them (having had one myself already too) this weekend. 👍
Unlike others my second Astra vaccination has made my arm rather sore .. and still is 4 days later...
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
"at best mediocre" 😂
The UK got a revised exit deal you lot said was impossible to get. The UK got a trade deal in eleven months you lot said was impossible to get. The UK exited the EU transition on schedule and without any of the disruption you lot were screaming about. The UK has gone through a global pandemic and come out the other side before any other major developed nation. The UK has a better vaccine procurement and rollout than any other major developed nation in the entire planet.
"at best mediocre" 🥳
You do have a bad case of Cult of Boris. The only reason that we haven't had the disruption that *industry* and *ports* and *customs* were screaming about is because we largely binned off the plan and didn't bother to implement the inbound checks. We're still planning to do so so its only pain deferred.
Great start to today, anyway, hearing that Trump's legal problems are doing the opposite of going away. I think him in a jumpsuit doing a stretch is a stretch, but I have reasonable hopes of it being enough to neuter him. Donald Trump being neutered is, for me, a good outcome and a suitable alternative to prison. If he's neutered - and such is properly verified - he can roam free but not do any damage.
You should worry a bit about a properly neutered Trump. A properly neutered Trump clears the way for someone a bit Trumpish but without so many negatives to lead the Republicans in 2024. At the moment, I can't see a way back for Trump. But I can see a way back for the Republicans with such a candidate. Perhaps after 2016-2020 though you'd take that in the same way that I was relieved to see Jeremy Corbyn ousted from the Labour Party, even though it made Labour more electable.
Berlusconi and Sarkozy of course have faced criminal convictions so Trump would not be alone.
Certainly for the next decade at least Trumpism, with or without Trump, will still dominate the GOP and the next presidential candidate for the party will be a Trump loyalist like DeSantis or Cruz most likely even if Trump himself ended up in jail he would just be a martyr for the cause of the party hardcore
As somebody who is always on the lookout for attack lines that will destroy Boris and the government, even I think the Jenny McGee story is a complete non-story.
Indeed. The rather comical desperation to find The Thing That Will Bring Boris Down This Week is proof of the lamentable political impotence of his opponents; politcal strength means creating your own opportunities if they don't exist already, a talent of which they seem completely devoid. But no, they keep hoping against hope as if they were listening to a 1960s Adam West cliffhanger:
'Is this the zero hour for the Dynamic Duo? Are the sands of time really running out for Batman and Robin? At long last have they met a gritty, granulated, inglorious end?'
'Can it be? The Dynamic Duo crushed to death by an eight ton meteorite??'
'Are our eyes deceiving us?? Has the giant clam really swallowed Robin??'
'Tune in next week – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!'
Straw man, as has been pointed out. It's just another dent in the shiny fat carapace.
Should the government cut funding to businesses that have been impacted, like VAT cuts, furlough, grants, loans, rates relief and much more - put VAT on hospitality back up and give that money to the NHS? 🤔
yes
So devastate even more the businesses like pubs and restaurants etc that are on their knees in order to give more money to those in secure jobs? 🤔
Pubs and restaurants will start making their usual vast amounts of profits etc as everyone rushes back to them, desperate for their alcoholic meals. Meanwhile NHS workers will continue to eek out their salaries between their vast childcare costs and their full tax and NI contributions Class 1. There will always be Pubs and restaurants, but will there always be nurses and doctors now that we are jailing EU visitors at the border.
You make it sound as if working in the hospitality industry is a risk-free route to big bucks. Which is not my understanding.
You do have a bad case of Cult of Boris. The only reason that we haven't had the disruption that *industry* and *ports* and *customs* were screaming about is because we largely binned off the plan and didn't bother to implement the inbound checks. We're still planning to do so so its only pain deferred.
Only for those businesses that don't cease trading in the meantime...
Sad as it is, I can't see how this story damages the PM. If the revelation was that she was quitting because he'd been shagging her then even then I doubt it would do him much damage.
People know he lies, betrays, cocks up and cocks about. They don't care. If he was ANY other politician they would care. But Brand Boris is the political sensation of this century so far - an entirely fictional concoction that seems to mesmerise by the million.
Yep. And when it ends - as it will - the number of folk saying they never did buy into it will vastly exceed the number who never bought into it.
I don't think Boris is as wildly popular as you think. He doesn't have to have fans. He just has to have more people who prefer him to the alternative than the other way around. Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
Yes, we've had other PMs who seemed impregnably popular until the moment they weren't - Thatcher and Blair. But policy decisions made them mortal: the Poll Tax and Iraq. Boris seems imbued with a different kind of magic entirely. His policy decisions have been - at the very best - mediocre, yet the man himself and what he does appear to exist in different dimensions. Neither has any effect on the other.
Blair won 2005 (post Iraq) so whatever you're trying to spin here is null and void.
Both Thatcher and Blair continued on after their respective "mortal wounds" - but the trajectory was clear. Blair was smart enough to do another election (the Conservative opposition was still shambolic) and then exit stage left.
Brown only got a couple (or 3?) years and there's never been a Labour government since. How many 16 year-olds care about Iraq.
Quite few - my daughter and her friends refer to Blair as "The War Criminal". They get their world view online and mostly from people like AOC.
Fair enough, you'll know more about it than me.
Apologies for being a bit bland today team - I've got shit to do today.
Mr. B, interesting, I did note Leclerc had slightly shorter odds than Perez when I checked.
I think their problem is they're still likely to be behind the top two and McLaren might get in the way too.
Passing's nigh on impossible so good luck with a safety car or rain (last I checked it's forecast to be dry) would almost certainly be necessary. What odds did you get on Leclerc?
I beg to differ about passing. The Formula E race proved that you absolutely can pass at Monaco. OK there are only a couple of real passing places but the same was true about Barcelona, and I know where I'd rather be...
It didn't show anything about how easy that might be in one of the fatter and faster F1 cars.
Should the government cut funding to businesses that have been impacted, like VAT cuts, furlough, grants, loans, rates relief and much more - put VAT on hospitality back up and give that money to the NHS? 🤔
yes
So devastate even more the businesses like pubs and restaurants etc that are on their knees in order to give more money to those in secure jobs? 🤔
Pubs and restaurants will start making their usual vast amounts of profits etc as everyone rushes back to them, desperate for their alcoholic meals. Meanwhile NHS workers will continue to eek out their salaries between their vast childcare costs and their full tax and NI contributions Class 1. There will always be Pubs and restaurants, but will there always be nurses and doctors now that we are jailing EU visitors at the border.
Ah right pubs and restaurnats all make "vast amounts of profits" etc - that's why 15% of them close down every year. 🤦♂️
I wonder who earns more, an NHS worker paying childcare costs, or a hospitality worker paying childcare costs?
"A member of Independent Sage who berated the Government on Tuesday for not delaying the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Britain is a social scientist turned race adviser who has no medical qualifications.
Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group, specialises in racial equality and has been involved with various government-commissioned reports on welfare issues."
Because the media hear Dr or Prof and instantly think they must be experts in whatever they are wittering on about.
It's quite astonishing. She knows know more about the spread of disease than I do. And there is no way I'd have the chutzpah to go on national television posing as an expert on the subject. Presumably she also believes the title Dr gives her expertise in everything.
Worthwhile thread 1/ Since no one asked, here's a thread on the UK-Australia FTA.
Biases on the table: - I was an Australian trade negotiator - I have trained many of DIT's negotiators, likely including some of the ones working on this FTA - I'm neoliberal scum who generally thinks tariffs = bad https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1394942626424623104
This bit's interesting
14/ Eustice and Gove are correct to flag the potential precedent here.
Australia holds very few cards in this negotiation. The UK can barely even articulate what it wants from Australia, and so giving it full market access does not bode well for future negotiations with others.
The Truss makes me nervous. She's an Ayn Rand-ite zealot with one eye on the Tory membership approval ratings. That's a recipe for trouble.
Should the government cut funding to businesses that have been impacted, like VAT cuts, furlough, grants, loans, rates relief and much more - put VAT on hospitality back up and give that money to the NHS? 🤔
yes
So devastate even more the businesses like pubs and restaurants etc that are on their knees in order to give more money to those in secure jobs? 🤔
Pubs and restaurants will start making their usual vast amounts of profits etc as everyone rushes back to them, desperate for their alcoholic meals. Meanwhile NHS workers will continue to eek out their salaries between their vast childcare costs and their full tax and NI contributions Class 1. There will always be Pubs and restaurants, but will there always be nurses and doctors now that we are jailing EU visitors at the border.
You make it sound as if working in the hospitality industry is a risk-free route to big bucks. Which is not my understanding.
Fastest way to become a millionaire in the hospitality sector, start with £2 million and buy a pub / restaurant...
"A member of Independent Sage who berated the Government on Tuesday for not delaying the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Britain is a social scientist turned race adviser who has no medical qualifications.
Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group, specialises in racial equality and has been involved with various government-commissioned reports on welfare issues."
Because the media hear Dr or Prof and instantly think they must be experts in whatever they are wittering on about.
Many years ago, we needed to get an IT expert to Saudi.
The Saudis were on a "No unskilled workers" thing at the time. So not having a degree was a problem - the guy in question was an ex-BT engineer who'd gone into IT contracting.
Some bright spark came up with the idea of buying a degree from an online degree mill. So we did. I spent a couple of minutes arguing with my manager that we should pay the extra 50 quid or whatever and get him a PhD while we were at it.
Bigger danger for government than the NHS nurse story, if the big opening up gets canned...border open too long and people will be screaming blue murder.
Seemingly Neil Ferguson is surprisingly chipper about the Indian variant - suggesting that it may not be nearly as transmissable as had been worried.
Yes, one learns to translate the words of the Boffin' Boffin: "a glimmer of hope" = "I'm fairly relaxed about this."
He is not given to panglossian outbursts, I think it's fair to say.
They'll have to find another reason to keep us kettled. The search goes on.
Comments
It may well vary in other areas of the public sector. What's yours, if you don't mind me asking?
Should they get a bigger pay rise? Personally I think the government should pay what it needs to retain the staff of sufficient quality. Right now, a public sector job is quite a nice place to be. So I'd suggest that the pressure to increase pay to keep staff is not that high.
I didn't clap for what it's worth.
Simon Birmingham, the country’s trade minister, will stand by the “safety and quality” of Australian produce during trade talks, which could begin within weeks of Britain’s departure from the European Union on Friday.
Theresa Villiers, the environment secretary, has stated categorically that Britain will maintain the EU’s ban on meat from cattle treated with growth hormones.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/australia-to-fight-uk-beef-hormone-ban-in-post-brexit-trade-talks-nd2h2ql2h
The UK has imported meat from NZ and Australia since the 19th century. What makes you think in the 21st we're incapable of exporting?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9594615/Covid-UK-110-direct-flights-India-landed-UK-red-list.html
Flights from India have continued to land in Britain at a rate of 4.5 per day in the three and a half weeks since the Asian country was added to the UK's red list of destinations, according to an analysis of flight data by LBC.
Though the UK has banned direct flights from 11 other red list nations including Brazil and South Africa, it did not adopt a similar policy when India was placed on the list. Direct flights into the UK are also allowed from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, both red list countries.
Reminds me of the competition to create the headline for a UK tabloid that hits all the buzz words....
I wonder if @Cyclefree agrees with you?
We were spoilt for political drama in 2015-20. There were multiple dramatic events that really did bring Prime Ministers down. Mostly it's not like that; it's a scratch here, a dent there, or very occasionally a significant bit falls off.
Even Domski is going to struggle to actually destroy Boris, though I imagine he's relentless in support of a cause (geniuses like Domski directing the ant colony).
Dripping water eventually wears a mountain down. And enough erosion in the right place can trigger a spectacular collapse.
Our wise and generous government has given nurses a 4% pay rise.
What’s that you say, it’s only 1%, it’s actually the Scottish government that has given 4%?
Typical, bloody profligate Nats using my hard earned to bribe their rubbish health workers, anything to be different, why can’t they just do the same as us, etc etc
If his next campaign is the downfall of King BoZo, why would you bet against that?
@DPJHodges
·
4m
One thing we need at 5.00 pm. Hard facts on projected hospitalisation rates if people in remaining unvaccinated groups fail to take the vaccine. We need actual figures, not abstractions about "pressure on the NHS".
The pay travesty I remember was that some jobs were misgraded which led to huge salary differences largely inexplicable by the level of responsibility/skills/whatever required.
Of course, most of the arguments here are nothing to do with the merits of Australian food, but a revisiting of the old Brexit arguments. A comprehensive UK-Aus trade deal is a huge barrier to re-entry to the EU, and it’s from that angle that it’s being argued against.
We will be certain, either way, after todays data, I think.
I guess that is my "vaccine passport"
You can already see a bit of anger building on social media.
my tip for the Eurovision song contest is Serbia Top 10 at 10/1 (Unibet - others have it as a less attractive 7/1 or so).
The Balkans was decimated in the Semi final 1 with four Balkan nations being knocked out and although Serbia have to get through semi final 2 tomorrow (they are 75% to make it on that market ) then they will be about the only Balkan left standing (aside from Bulgaria) . Will concentrate the infamous Balkan block vote to them no doubt , enough imho to get a top 10 finish
Who found the idea that specialists could be paid more than their managers.... EVILLLLLL
Which led to the introduction of contracting in a big way - for the SAP boom, for example.
Hartlepool man (as an archetype) doesn't believe Boris is on his side. Not really. Hartlepool man votes for Boris because Boris doesn't appear to be actively hostile to him.
https://twitter.com/mpsrtpc/status/1394638311919128576?s=21
At the moment, I can't see a way back for Trump. But I can see a way back for the Republicans with such a candidate.
Perhaps after 2016-2020 though you'd take that in the same way that I was relieved to see Jeremy Corbyn ousted from the Labour Party, even though it made Labour more electable.
Good car for the slow corners, and aero efficiency doesn't matter so much. Probably their best chance this season.
I put a few quid on Leclerc at long odds.
Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair used to be genius campaigners. Campbell has been pissing into the wind for years now on Brexit and Blair's exortations on it were ignored too.
Although you probably find CampbellClaret's Tweets to be the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why he's not being listened to.
Humans are weird.
I think their problem is they're still likely to be behind the top two and McLaren might get in the way too.
Passing's nigh on impossible so good luck with a safety car or rain (last I checked it's forecast to be dry) would almost certainly be necessary. What odds did you get on Leclerc?
He, and everyone else on his flight, will likely have been spending hours in a queue at the border with people arriving into Heathrow who aren't required to go into hotel quarantine, perhaps some from green list countries who aren't even asked to self-isolate at home.
It's a complete shambles.
https://www.ft.com/content/13d33a08-ce83-4f8a-8d93-a60a5e097ed8
Track these fkers down and drone em wherever they are.
I can’t believe how unseriously the threat is being taken. It’s national security ffs
Does injecting them with synthetic growth hormome count as "welfare" ?
In universities, each point on the pay scale [1] is actually (just checked) ~3% higher than the point before (lower down the scale, sub £20k, it's less than that, but above £20k it's pretty consistent). Each year, within band, you go up one point (sometimes two, due to universities sharing a pay scale but mapping roles on to that differently - this year I go up two points, yay!). That goes on until you reach the top of band (after ~6 years) at which point you have to get promoted to get a pay rise. Each year, the national pay award adds X% to each of those points. So my pay next year is approximately paynow * 1.03 * (1+risenat/100) where risenat is the national pay award in %. So next year, if the national pay award is 1% I'll earn ~4% more than this year. I do, though that process, also at least in theory take on more responsibility and I'm expected to be already doing the next grade job at the point at which I get promoted, so for those of us wanting to progress, it effectively means that it smooths out what would be a bigger pay rise between roles. However, I could decide I'm happy at my grade and just take the pay rises for 5-6 years until reaching top of grade without actually having to do more as per job description. Although if I did I might find my job disappeared as there would be cheaper people (lower points in the grade) offering the same as me.
[1] https://www.ucu.org.uk/he_singlepayspine
(2020 is still proposed, as it's still in dispute, as every other year in living memory. Normally the universities just impose and backdate the pay rise a few months later. 2019-2020 was frozen pay, but I still moved up a point and so got ~3%)
The UK got a revised exit deal you lot said was impossible to get.
The UK got a trade deal in eleven months you lot said was impossible to get.
The UK exited the EU transition on schedule and without any of the disruption you lot were screaming about.
The UK has gone through a global pandemic and come out the other side before any other major developed nation.
The UK has a better vaccine procurement and rollout than any other major developed nation in the entire planet.
"at best mediocre" 🥳
But he's a very unusual politician. He's a brand rather than a real person to an extent that's quite rare in politics. And what a powerful brand it is. People cut him slack. They are indulgent of him because they feel like they know him. Just observe how he's talked about if you doubt this.
So when you add to that brand power him being the man who (for real) Got Brexit Done, and the man who (for real) Saw Us Through The Pandemic, regardless of Brexit not making anybody's life better, and regardless of our Covid response other than vaccines being objectively pisspoor, you get something that is pretty formidable and will take a lot of shifting.
Even then, with proof on the table that the PM ignored the science and was happy to let the bodies pile high, the Cult will just shrug. Yeah ok he killed granny but he's a lad isn't he and I'd still have a pint with him.
But, to this day, if you suggested the Civil Service hire programmers at £90,000... that would be Fascism or something.
1/ Since no one asked, here's a thread on the UK-Australia FTA.
Biases on the table:
- I was an Australian trade negotiator
- I have trained many of DIT's negotiators, likely including some of the ones working on this FTA
- I'm neoliberal scum who generally thinks tariffs = bad
https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1394942626424623104
The only problem with Monaco this year is that the Eurovision Song Contest is the night before so I am likely to be nursing a slight* hangover.
Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group, specialises in racial equality and has been involved with various government-commissioned reports on welfare issues."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/18/expert-warned-reopening-should-halted-race-adviser-no-medical/
Why are these people given airtime?
My grandparents have had both vaccines and I'll be going to see them (having had one myself already too) this weekend. 👍
13/ Exactly how much additional pressure Australian competition will apply on struggling farmers is a matter for study, using firm-level data and actual market prices.
I'm hoping the UK has actually done some.
Hoping... hoping...
As you just know we won't have done that.
He is not given to panglossian outbursts, I think it's fair to say.
'Is this the zero hour for the Dynamic Duo? Are the sands of time really running out for Batman and Robin? At long last have they met a gritty, granulated, inglorious end?'
'Can it be? The Dynamic Duo crushed to death by an eight ton meteorite??'
'Are our eyes deceiving us?? Has the giant clam really swallowed Robin??'
'Tune in next week – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!'
8/ First and most obviously, performative divergence from the EU is a stupid basis on which to make any kind of policy.
Offer Australia tariff and quota free access if you want to, but only if it makes sense for the UK, not to prove you're nothing like your father.
Certainly for the next decade at least Trumpism, with or without Trump, will still dominate the GOP and the next presidential candidate for the party will be a Trump loyalist like DeSantis or Cruz most likely even if Trump himself ended up in jail he would just be a martyr for the cause of the party hardcore
It's just another dent in the shiny fat carapace.
Apologies for being a bit bland today team - I've got shit to do today.
Hopefully catch up later.
Just how much shit will the fanbois eat?
Does BoZo literally have to shoot someone on the Mall?
Would they still vote for him?
I wonder who earns more, an NHS worker paying childcare costs, or a hospitality worker paying childcare costs?
Presumably she also believes the title Dr gives her expertise in everything.
14/ Eustice and Gove are correct to flag the potential precedent here.
Australia holds very few cards in this negotiation. The UK can barely even articulate what it wants from Australia, and so giving it full market access does not bode well for future negotiations with others.
The Truss makes me nervous. She's an Ayn Rand-ite zealot with one eye on the Tory membership approval ratings. That's a recipe for trouble.
The Saudis were on a "No unskilled workers" thing at the time. So not having a degree was a problem - the guy in question was an ex-BT engineer who'd gone into IT contracting.
Some bright spark came up with the idea of buying a degree from an online degree mill. So we did. I spent a couple of minutes arguing with my manager that we should pay the extra 50 quid or whatever and get him a PhD while we were at it.
Then he could have joined Independent Sage.