MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Anything to do with imigration,as when we fail to look after our own people why should we subsidise foreigners coming here.
Sports centres,should be provided by the private sector,if theirs a need they will fill that need,and charge,
Libraries,outdated,with all the internet access available now.
Nurseries,same reason as for sports centres.
Social services,paid by results in the private sector,
Mayors and half of the councillors,
Council publications in welsh and swahili.
I worked in local government for 6 years - the amount of wastage is amazing. Money is wasted on all sorts so that budgets arent lost the following year,
Also staff sickness - there is a big sickness mentality especially for depression/stress with some staff (i have seen this) going of for sick for 6 months, coming back when there sick pay is reduced - taking holiday they are entitled for normally 2 weeks then coming back to work for a week and off again with stress.
They also pay consultants thousands for bollocks like marketing and PR. My local and the one I worked for actually spent 500k producing a magazine about their good work but then shut down all elderly persons day care centers due to a 500k budget deficit.
pensioners' bus passes - get unemployed people to push them round in wheelbarrows
roads - let people pay for their own helicopters
police - just pay the local mafia to kill anyone who bothers you
bins - sell your valuable waste to the highest bidder
schools - kids could be out selling their bodies to sex tourists
etc
Surely you forgot:
Art galleries - who needs them?
Care homes - much better to leave them at home
Parks and recreation - build shopping centres on them
Planning departments - total freedom to build what and how you want
Trading standards - caveat emptor
Road maintenance - nope, don't need that either
Must be some more.....
First point agree, somebody will call me a racist now
2nd point agree
Third point, books are for keeps so semi agree
Fourth point, more accountability for sure and get rid of the managers, well most of them.
Final point a definate yes.
They could stop turning stony bridleways into 8 foot wide smooth pedestrian motorways round here, that would save a few quid...
Councillors mostly a bunch of sponging good for nothing wasters who never get anything done and full of their own self importance.
Had one round here, the local council sent out a load of mug-coasters promoting their recycling scheme. Not very green for a start, making all them. Anyway, much writing to the local paper about what a waste of money. Man from the council was interviewed and said
"It won't cost council-tax payers a penny. The funding came from DEFRA." 😯
Who does he think pays for DEFRA?!
project - MemberAnything to do with imigration,as when we fail to look after our own people why should we subsidise foreigners coming here.
Sports centres,should be provided by the private sector,if theirs a need they will fill that need,and charge,
Libraries,outdated,with all the internet access available now.
Nurseries,same reason as for sports centres.
Social services,paid by results in the private sector,
Mayors and half of the councillors,
I would cut the education budget, and look forward to more threads like this.
Art galleries and museums could be sponsored by various big companies,Tate modern,sponsored by some refuse removal company etc.
Road maintenance - nope, don't need that either
I think they've been implementing that for quite some time.
Most the managers, all who seem to have a culture of waste.
Anyone who wears a cardigan.
Cut the cushy holiday/time in lieu deal and get them back in the real world.
Sack the bin-man who drove over my fence.
I also think most the job cuts will be natural wastage over the next couple of years and it will be business as usual.
Anyone who wears a cardigan.
I belive this obscene practice is not restricted to council workers ?
Well said Barry.
Its really rather laughable - I think its a poor attempt at a troll but it might just be project and his petty prejudices and ignorance.
Final salary pensions
Planning; let people build what they want where they want. Would certainly make our town more interesting!
Planning; let people build what they want where they want
my first project shall be a 7 foot speed bump outside my house, I'm fed up with buses and cars speeding past 🙁 The machine gun emplacements will be purely advisory
Pensions would be the first to go. Crystalise everyones and put them on a career average. Perhaps too big a risk to manpower, but where else will they work? No where else offers the benefits of working at 'the council'. Ie 9-5 with an hour lunch, flexiskive and a laissez-faire attitude towards performance management
Pensions would be the first to go
IMO this will happen to everyone
So TJ, you dont want cuts in public spending ? how do we pay for all these services without getting further into debt, apart from taxing those who have worked hard 50% of their earnings or risked personal failure by investing private money into busness.
Public services are a waste of money in the curent guise and should be made more accountable and not just a byword for easy life, big holidays and easy pension.
TandemJeremy - Member
Well said Barry.Its really rather laughable - I think its a poor attempt at a troll but it might just be project and his petty prejudices and ignorance.
Posted 5 minutes ago # Report-Post
Sorry no troll just trying to save us council tax payers some cash,all the departments listed could be abolished or sold off,and run by the private sector,if theirs a demand for the service,if not it doesnt go ahead,easy.
As the recipient of a final salary pension, am I allowed to say:
1. Final salary pensions.
?
2. I would also bring the working week back up to 40 hours and fire 10% of the staff.
3. I support extra funding for councils with a new Socialism tax - anyone who votes Labour gets to pay 33% more council tax than they would otherwise have to - can't see any true socialist complaining about being given the opportunity to contribute more to society.
Cranberry - That works for me,
The 85 rule is a good one - over 55 and 30 years paying into pension you can walk out 10 years early on full pension IIRC. Think this may have recently been abolished for new staff but I may be wrong.
Whilst I'm not agreeing with him, I cannot see any prejudices in his post.
For Simon F Barnes,and his road,
Project - running services in the private sector always costs more. Save money elsewhere if really needed - outside consultants, vanity projects such as council magazines and target waste. The amount of money spent saving the banks is far more than anything that could be saved off council tax.
However it is clear that cuts on the scale people are wanting cannot be done without significant cuts in essential services. There simply is not the waste that people suggest
Don't think I'd like to see Social Services go as I think they do an invaluable job.
As a nurse who works alongside Social Workers employed by Social Services I see lots of wastage mainly in management and consultancy. The mojority of Social Workers I see do a brilliant job, and yes it is stressful. I have worked in the private sector and not many of my ex colleagues from there would work as hard or with as much dedication for so little money.
Big part of our spend is funding health or social care for people who can afford it but would rather Social Services or the Trust pay. Personally I think that if you have a big house, expensive car and an affluent lifestyle then really other tax payers should not be paying for your loved ones, you should. Also, no loophholes to allow people to not fund their own care so they can leave a big nestegg for their family.
Dangerousbeans - "if you have a big house, expensive car and an affluent lifestyle" then they have already, and are currently contributing more than average to society.
It's like the councils now bitching and whining that they are having to find places in schools for pupils that have up till now been educated privately - there's no mention of all the years that the parents have paid twice for education ( both times out of taxed income ).
Personally I think that if you have a big house, expensive car and an affluent lifestyle then really other tax payers should not be paying for your loved ones, you should.
But surely they are paying for their loved ones, through the extra tax they pay on the earnings that allow them to have a big house, expensive car and an affluent lifestyle?
Why should they pay twice?
So dangerousbeans you expect people who have paid into the system all their lives to dip into their pockets to pay for their care while others who could not be arsed to lift a finger go straight to the front of the line or even worse someone who gets off a plane at Heathrow with an illness wanders straight into the nearest hospital and receives care in front of a local tax payer or council tax payer. FFS no wonder there is no Great in Britain now, lets all sit on our backsides and wait for the State to feed, cloth and look after us.
Just pointing out where a majority of our budget gets spent.
[b]Barry Bethel - Member[/b]project - Member
Anything to do with imigration,as when we fail to look after our own people why should we subsidise foreigners coming here.
Sports centres,should be provided by the private sector,if theirs a need they will fill that need,and charge,
Libraries,outdated,with all the internet access available now.
Nurseries,same reason as for sports centres.
Social services,paid by results in the private sector,
Mayors and half of the councillors,
[b]I would cut the education budget, and look forward to more threads like this.[/b]
Post of the year, that! 😀
I dont mind paying tax, i dont mind paying VAT, i dont mind paying road tax, i dont mind paying airport tax, i dont mind paying tax on everything the Labour Tax inventors think up but FFS give me the services i am paying for dont continue to carry out the equivalent of pi@@ing up the wall the budget you receive and above all dont spend my money on non contributors and above all stop giving it away to Third World Governments who pass it straight on to Mercedes dealerships and Swiss bank accounts. Look after Britain first.
Ummmmmm I'm not sure your county council gives money to dictators mate. Oh wait, they pay headmasters don't they?
Look after Britain first.
OMG you are right! If only we just did what you said and we wouldn't be in this mess....INTERNET GENIUS! 🙄
Britain does not exist in a microcosm - it is part of a much larger jigsaw.
Your attitude to immigrants is deplorable.
Opera - it's just subsidised shouting.
It all goes in the same pot to run the country and how much local money has been spent on organisations linked to or frequented by individuals linked to International Terrorism or with ideals that threaten the UKs security, Culture, Tradition which would have better served a local hospital, school or care home. ? The services now that face cutbacks.
Mustn't bite!!
There was an article on BBC Scotland news the other day about the efficiency savings that councils up here have had to make for the last few years. The report concluded that councils have managed to save more than the target they were set:
[url] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8376046.stm [/url]
The council I work for won't even give us stationary, we have to buy it all ourselves (aside from pens and paper!) 🙄
i wonder how to motivate those who don't work to work. There are jobs, always have been always will be. Some are obvious some less so. Look at the state of the roads, full of holes that need to be filled, look at the litter in the hedges, etc. Tidying this would make the place a nicer place to be. But to do the job would need alot of manpower.
To pay these workers would be expensive, i wonder if there would be a way of encouraging people to care about their environment?
I have no issue with paying people to be on the dole while they look for work or can't work, but the current system where benefits, rent, council tax benefit and childcare costs mean that working doesn't pay doesn't make sense.
Another saving i can think of is scrapping tax credits, why take peoples money and then give it back, if they can be bothered to fill out forms? why not just raise the thresholds, if it means bringing in negative tax rates to get money to those at the bottom fine, but tax credits just don't make sense.
markd - I have worked for the last 27 years abroad mainly in HMG Forces and for the last 5 years in the oil and gas industry. I have seen the best and worse in individuals, most of the worst come from the UK.
Britain is seen as an easy touch, somewhare to get sorted, somewhere to go as a student and "get a job and they will let you stay" if you as a British Citizen attempt to gain assistance from a country while abroad the first thing they say is your British you have everything go home.
Think about the 70 year old plus people in this country who started work at the same time the National Insurance payments began, they were promised it was there for their later years, we have let them down and we should be ashamed of that fact. It will soon be our turn as well.
fire anyone who has a retarded job title that makes you think really hard to work out WTF they actually do each day
Art centres could bve sold to the private sector as could all those so called enterprise or starter units,why should council tax payers support other people,we could save a load.
[url= http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/horrible-dragon-threatens-council-worker-fantasy-land-201003012514/ ]The 'Mash has the measure of it[/url]
A department in my local council decided that they needed someone from the private sector to sort out a projects that had gone tits-up. I was one of five interviewed.
Found out that none of us got the role, as the managers decided that we'd take too long to come up to 'speed', and so re-advertised for those with local government experience...
To put it in perspective the project was sub-£1m, and at least two of us had experience of multi-million projects and managing 50+ staff...
Anokdale
[i]So dangerousbeans you expect people who have paid into the system all their lives to dip into their pockets to pay for their care while others who could not be arsed to lift a finger go straight to the front of the line or even worse someone who gets off a plane at Heathrow with an illness wanders straight into the nearest hospital and receives care in front of a local tax payer or council tax payer. FFS no wonder there is no Great in Britain now, lets all sit on our backsides and wait for the State to feed, cloth and look after us. [/i]
No, I didn't say that.
uplink - Member
The 'Mash has the measure of it
+1
I'm all right Jack 🙂
mrmo - I always think what you could have the people do, i mean if you are fit to work and not incapable then there should be a minimum amount of service you complete in return for your handout, i appreciate effort, i hate to hear of folk just turning up to get their handout.
Cost implications, PPE, Lecture on H AND S and job safety analysis with description of task. No more than a private employee would have to carry out legally. I think road surface repairs are a priority after this winters ravages.
If we want an equitable pay in pay out system which many seem to advocate on here then we need a system more like America but more so.
Stop taxation used for health and social care - develop a 'you get what you can afford' system.
This would allow us to do away with Social Services and allied agencies and allow private companies to tender for the best provision/best cost option.
I reckon I could do fine under that system except for major illnesses or incapacity for me and my family.
For higher earners they could likely cope whatever was thrown at them.
It would also stop massive waste in health and social care where money is, at the moment, thrown at patients with ridiculously poor prognosis for treatment via the health system, and with follow up paid for currently by social/health combined.
Older people with serious illness are a waste of money as they are not going to live much longer anyway.
Serious cancers with poor prognosis, we spend £1000's to keep them alive a little longer and even more to support them and their families during recovery phases.
Trauma victims from serious car crashes, for example, cost a fortune to bring to a level of recovery nowhere near previous functioning, then waste health and social services budgets being cared for for the rest of their lives.
Babies kept alive in special care that end up disabled, yet, due to improved health provision, live an almost normal lifespan, costing health and social care an absolute fortune yet they never contribute to society.
Plenty of places to make cuts if society deems it acceptable.
So dangerousbeans you expect people who have paid into the system all their lives to dip into their pockets to pay for their care while others who could not be arsed to lift a finger go straight to the front of the line or even worse someone who gets off a plane at Heathrow with an illness wanders straight into the nearest hospital and receives care in front of a local tax payer or council tax payer
I'm quite proud of that - and I'm damn sure it's far cheaper to just fix everyone than try to work out how much to charge those not strictly entitled...
Plenty of places to make cuts if society deems it acceptable
luckily most people have more than only their own narrow interests at heart.
[i] clubber - Member
Plenty of places to make cuts if society deems it acceptable
luckily most people have more than only their own narrow interests at heart. [/i]
Not many on here though
Wasn't advocating it, just pointing out where we need to go if people think that you should only get what you put in.
😆
Cuts Cuts and more cuts i say.
Dangerousbeans, the level of care, treatment you receive now is linked to postcode, if it was all same across the board now i would not be so disgusted in the system, Herefordshire does not have regional SCBU facility now, all long term cases are transferred to Warwickshire.
Streetlights - just make it easier to burgle cars
Roadsweepers - make criminals do it
Fire men- bring in private companies, just like the old days. Might have to get the fire badge from my great-great grandfathers house in Warwick up and on display
Traffic wardens - after all estate agents need to park where ever the feel like it
Subsidised public transport - if they can't afford a car, who cares?
I'm quite proud of that - and I'm damn sure it's far cheaper to just fix everyone than try to work out how much to charge those not strictly entitled...
Anokdale didn't say that everyone shouldn't get fixed, what he said was that people on a reasonable income shouldn't be expected to pay again for treatment just because they can afford it, when they've already contributed though taxes.
Free bus passes for oap's
Costing councils a bloody fortune, take up all the seats when they insist on travelling during the rush hour and because they are all mutt and jeff make a terrible racket
But should we run Scoobys at all Anokdale, churning out a high proportion of disabled kids (compared to normal full term deliveries) which cost health/social care a fortune for the rest of their lives?
what he said was that people on a reasonable income shouldn't be expected to pay again for treatment
here's a tip - get money from people who have lots 🙂 I struggle to spend everything I earn - is that a lack of patriotism ?
Of course we should, thats my point at Herefordshire not having a regional unit, it was closed, why was it closed ? if it was at the cost of funding some Third World African hospital, say the one in Nigeria in Eket which the terminal there sucks up 750 mill barrels a day plus the LPG to go with it i get miffed, Nigeria is the 5th largest exporter of Hydrocarbons but we still insist on funding health projects and prisons there when the Nigerian government for example will not support its own people. Many more examples than Nigeria.
Look up how much is spent on DFID, absolutely disgusting.
SFB - You should try harder the Chancellor will be proud of you. Suggest you keep some of it to pay for your later years, the state pension will be worth the square root of 0 and you will need medical care like the rest of it so without our own cash you can join the line.
I would immediately cut any aid to India or China. Not a council cutbakc, I agree, but why the blinking flip are we giving aid to a country which can afford a space program, or is spunking billions on military hardware? WTF is happening there? They have enough money in their own countries to look after their own a lot better, without us needing to spend anything on them.
Hows about we just ban them from using dodgy foreign banks?
Suggest you keep some of it to pay for your later years, the state pension will be worth the square root of 0 and you will need medical care like the rest of it so without our own cash you can join the line
Oh, I know all pensions & savings will become worthless - but I'm extraordinarily healthy and if that fails I'm sure euthaniasia will soon become an option 🙂
SFB -- You deserve yourself and dont let me keep you from your sleazyjet one way to Geneva.
You deserve yourself and dont let me keep you from your sleazyjet one way to Geneva.
I don't use aeroplanes 🙂 And I meant euthanasia here - as the proportion of wrinklies explodes it'll be the only viable solution!
But why are so mony posters on this topic so grumpy and pessimistic? I like this country, and I like the British borderline truculence - after all, if capitalism exists to exploit the masses, their best retaliation is to do just enough to prevent their sacking, and I love the egalitarian ideal of the welfare state 🙂
I don't use aeroplanes And I meant euthanasia here - as the proportion of wrinklies explodes it'll be the only viable solution!
there is another solution, the world has a food production problem. Think of the protein being wasted by burning and burying.
Guys, let's not be quite so blinkered. Old people are a valuable, renewable resource. We just need a focus group to come up with some blue sky thinking to see how best they can be exploited.
Think of the protein being wasted by burning and burying.
think prions 🙁
Coyote, will this be an off site, 48hr, all expenses paid, helicopter approach overview of the situation? If so, count me in! As long as there are biscuits.
Ooooh! Easy one
1. Cross check all the well paid 'managers' with how many consultants they have hired in the past 12 months to make the decisions for them - get rid of said 'managers'! (one twit I currently deal with is on £50k per annum and has hired two rubber necks from Deloitte at £3000k each per day to do his job for him - and guess what? Still no decision.....)
2. Close the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament (IT COSTS TOO MUCH!)
3. Leave N.Ireland Assembly alone - but only pay for 'comedy' value
4. Shut anything that calls itself a Local Authority and go back to local councils with local accountability - STOP DOING BOTH!
5. Cull all Civil Servants over the age of 21
6. Remove all computers from Council offices - make them go back to a system that is less likely to fail and had less paperwork with it - its called P.A.P.E.R.
7. Use council guillotines for what they are really for
8. Stop subsidising car schemes and pay the idiots .40p per mile like the rest of us
CaptainFlasheart - aid usually has a lot of strings attached. Kind of like we'll scratch your back if you scratch ours.
Close the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament (IT COSTS TOO MUCH!)
to be equal surely the same applies to Westminster only more so ?
Simon, I like your thinking
Close them all, and let natural selection be our democratic tool of choice!
Close them all, and let natural selection be our democratic tool of choice!
Nature, brute in tooth and claw ? No thanks, I favour compassion!
Guys, let's not be quite so blinkered. Old people are a valuable, renewable resource. We just need a focus group to come up with some blue sky thinking to see how best they can be exploited.
I think it was set out in the post just above yours.
Its quite clear that cutting back the mental health budget and subsequent "care in the community" has worked marvels.
Where else would some of you have got to learn how to use a computer?
following two pages of bickering and a total failure to make a decision, its now obvious what the councils will actually do, follow the STW model...
they will do naff all,
stop recruiting, allow natural wastage to cut staff numbers, try to fix the pensions hole, cut back full time hours further, stop training (any part of the workforce that can then transfer its skills into the private sector will). By this point anybody remaining in the public sector will be as much use as a choccy fireguard and we can really moan about poor public services.
however i suspect the level of tax i pay will not drop at the same rate.