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One persons "fattening up" is anothers crucial service
Only if Mr Another genuinely believes that 100% of public expenditure is crucial service.*
* Hint, can you guess that I probably dont think it is? 🙂
TJ you make an interesting point about the role of unions in Germany. If the unions in this country would only take the same role then I think I might even join one.
The problem is that Germany has a very different model of capitalism to us (Alliance model versus the eponymous Anglo Saxon model). The German system is no better or worse than ours, it's just different, but it does give rise to competitive advantages in certain areas, such as manufacturing/process refinement, whereas our model is better for things radical innovation.
It would be difficult for the unions in this country to take a more collaborative approach, as they do in Germany, without also having the same level of legal commitment between Germans employees have from their employer. Thing is that level of legal commitment would stiffle a highly mobile and flexible work force which is one of the things that supports radical innovation.
I drew up a chair a while back but am getting a sore bum, anyone want to swap ?
Shall i put the kettle on ?
Japans national debt has seriously held back its GDP growth for the last 15 years.
France and Germany share a currency with other economies so that they have the monetary scale to act as a proxy for a reserve currency - like the US.
The US can get away with printing their way out of debt because the Dollar is the world's reserve currency.
Stirling isnt.
Running a high deficit is certainly not a problem as such. But redemption and interest have to be served from current income, or be inflated away. During the victorian era the public sector was a fraction of what it is now, so could serve the cost of debt from revenue. Nowadays, if we are to continue to enjoy the scale of services we have from a 40% GDP tax take into the future, we have to reduce that part of the revenue that is directed at interest and amortisation.
Who's up for buying some GILTs as protection for the next 10 years of inflation? 🙂
SO was it the porn in the toilet ?
I reckon he works for the treasury and is the guy leaking stuff to the conservatives.
Alistair Darling has him in shackles as we speak...
who would have dreamed HR issues could be so dull ?
He never did say what time the meeting was, any ideas anyone ?
I feel a bond with the OP after plouging through his thread but i am also wondering what the silence means
On the other hand does anyone fancy a pint?
well its been a more enjoyable way of spending the day than it could have been. I think Im ready for that pint too.
Hope bushwacked comes back soon. Getting worried for him...
jeezarse Bandit.
Do you never read anything?
Only when its interesting and/or pertinent, which I hate to say your theory on tax for the better off just isn't. The real issue here is your original point that a freemarket ethos does not exclude you from centre or left of centre politics. As far as I can see you have been busily avoiding that issue and trying to fill the resultant hole that you dug ever since. C'mon how about coughing that you may have been a bit previous with that one?? 🙄
bushwhacked can't get a word in edgeways!
Berm Bandit - is in the room of looking good.
Interesting thread folks. How is our man doing, do you reckon that he only has a PC at work and can no longer use it, hope not.
do you reckon that he only has a PC at work and can no longer use it, hope not.
I really do hope that's not the case...
*sends positive waves....*
maybe it's the otherway round and only got stw access from home (after all first post was about 6.30 yesterday).
so no news is good news (i hope)
Look at these two definitions of the centre/moderate right/left:
In general, right-wing implies a commitment to conservative Christian values, support for social policies that favor the upper class, and belief in a single traditional culture for national unity. The contemporary Right usually defines itself as [u]promoting deregulation of business, commerce and industry.[/u]
The contemporary Left usually defines itself as promoting government regulation of business, commerce and industry; [u]protection of fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and separation of church and state; and government intervention on behalf of racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities[/u] and the working class.
I have underlined those bits that coincide with my personal political ideology.
if you insist that [i]"a freemarket ethos is does not exclude [me] from centre or left of centre politics[/i]" then I would insist that my political views do not exclude me from the left either. Or is it a political no-mans land? As I said right at the begninning, an individuals political philosophy neednt be wholly aligned with one manifesto or another. If people are going to go around labelling other's politics, perhaps they should consider not being be quite so narrow-minded first.
So it's back on at about 6:30, like the positive vibe thing. Lets stop the bitching give out those good Karma waves Hommmmmm....
I see we are back on the correct topic, the man in possible need.
Looks like it was a shallow grave for Bushwhacked - I suggest a minutes silence.
Ok I've eaten all my biscuits now and am on to the chocolate. Bushwacked, please what happened....?
if you insist that "a freemarket ethos is does not exclude [me] from centre or left of centre politics" then I would insist that my political views do not exclude me from the left either
Do you know I have absolutely no idea what that was about...
Besides my entire being is now focussed on positive vibes for bushwacked. So regret that my attention has temporarily wavered from tickling your political testicles
SO what happened????
Well,either it was a promotion,and he's out on the lash,celebrating,or the big heave-ho,and he's out on the lash,drowning his sorrows.This could be a long evening,especially if we have to discuss each others faith systems at length.
Ian
I think he probably fell asleep reading the rest of this thread.
Private medical companies competing to sell services to the NHS that the NHS then administers to the user, if done correctly*, should provide the best value for money to the state...To date it hasnt particularly.
Therein lies the rub. If we want a resonable degree of [i]comprehensive[/i] cover, then - frankly - "competition" is fairly meaningless in the context of, say, major trauma or neonatal intensive care. [b]Somebody[/b] (with the necessary, hard-won experience) has to do the dirty work... usually above and beyond any specified job description. That's not NHS sentimentalism on my part - just simple fact. Continental healthcare makes more use of mixed provision, certainly, but it ain't the "market" (or even competing private interests) which picks up the slack, so much as charitable/NfPFT/educational institutions. Indeed, NuLab gave [url= http://www.hc2d.co.uk/content.php?contentId=2432 ][i]preferential[/url][/i] treatment to the private sector during procurement, with frequently piss-poor results - but that didn't stop well run in-house assets such as NHS Logistics being spun off to the likes of DHL...
Just adding some more padding - hope the OP is ok. 😐
Please......please tell me what happened to Bushwacked, I can't stand it any longer..... 😥
HR - relief is at hand!
I'm beginning to feel a bit tense about it myself now. COME ON!!!
well bushwacked what's occurring mate ??
Just saw the thread (and skipped pages of political stuff, sorry to those of you who put effort into that) and it seemed very like when I was given a "compromise agreement". Or to put it another way "here is some money, now **** off, that should be enough to get you off our backs". Similar cost to redundancy (if you haven't been there too long) and in my case, gave me some cash and a kick up the arse to go back to Uni, so worked out for me.
Hope OP is out celebrating his good news though...
p.s. I was removed as unions were being mooted at work and getting close to a reality, and I was a little vocal, often. May have had no bearing on the matter but makes me smile to think about it 🙂
Bushwacked has been spotted in B&Q, wearing a suit, cackling maniacally, sweating and buying an electric saw, garden waste bags, patio slabs and a spade. 🙂
all of which are protected in law.
Aha! I'd got to the point where I'd forgotten what I'd copied and was ready to paste for three pages or so.
I'd like to think that employment legislation was sufficiently well applied to obviate the need for unions. I'm afraid I don't think your average medium size+ employer will necessarily be particularly concerned about the law. If we could trust employers to act as progressive and employee-centred organisations then I'd accept that argument as it is, faced with a pack of ravenous hyenas, I can fully appreciate why the average employee might want to take a pitbull to the 'discussion'.
But anyone, hats off to stoner for having the decency to come out politically. It's okay to call yourself centre-right these days - it's nothing to be ashamed of. Some of the more liberal members of the Conservative party and the newer factions in New Labour have openly displayed these tendencies without much scandal. And by supporting a mixed economy like 90% of the population you've successfully distanced yourself from swivel-eyed right wing idealogues like the good Captain F. 😉
But anways, bushwacked...what's happening man?
if you insist that "a freemarket ethos is does not exclude [me] from centre or left of centre politics" then I would insist that my political views do not exclude me from the left either. Or is it a political no-mans land?
The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?
On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
eg
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I'm afraid I don't think your average medium size+ employer will necessarily be particularly concerned about the law.
I might be wrong about this but I don't think not being unconcerned about the law means the law doesn't apply to you.
If it's the same as happened to "a friend" then it'll be a compromise agreement. Bastards caught "my friend" when "he" got back off holiday, complete and utter shock it was. Three months on jobseekers now. Private sector and no union. If they want you out then you're out.
Get legal advice.
Bushwacked where are you.......
skidartist - does the fact that Lagavulin 16 is my favourite whisky mean I am a right-wing fascist then? 🙂
...and no Bladnoch in the chart!
skidartist - does the fact that Lagavulin 16 is my favourite whisky mean I am a right-wing fascist then?
It means we both are! But thats because I'm a facist, I had to learn to like Lagavulin to look the part.
...and no Bladnoch in the chart!
Bladnoch is so far off the chart! Its the sort of tipple usually enjoyed by the tyranical bad guys on science fictions. The Mekon likes Bladnoch. Just like Kim Jong Il buys most of the worlds Hennesey.
beginning to think this might have been one of the most successful trolls yet (not counting conveyor belts)
I don't think not being unconcerned about the law means the law doesn't apply to you.
Oh yeah, cos there's such a great history of corporate accountability and embracing the law in, um, everywhere.
Any news yet.
fascinated by whats about to/has happened to bushwhacker...
HeathenWoods is right. The big thing that "my friend" has learned is that company loyalty is strictly a one-way process. They will pay scant regard to due process if they can get away with it.
He, has been nominated for Im a celebrity get me out of here,in the jungle with Xfactor dancing on broken glass etc.