And yet the labour party flails around, polling about the same as them.

And yet that’s not true.

Labour has consistently polled higher than the Conservatives within two months of Miliband becoming Labour leader, and under Miliband’s leadership the gap has widen. Check it on the BBC’s interactive tracker poll :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8280050.stm

That in itself is pretty remarkable – new governments nearly always enjoy a “honeymoon period” in which the governing party typically has at least, if not even more support, than it had at the general election, as voters see it as a optimistic “new start”.

Generally by mid-term support for the governing party starts to ebb away and the opposition beings to pull away in front in the polls…..the ol’ mid-term blues.

However with the present government the Tory honeymoon period lasted only a fairly unprecedented three months. And in the case of the LibDems about a week, and then it nosedived – within 2 or 3 months support was half of what it had been, despite the fact that previously it had been said the LibDems biggest disadvantage was that people never saw them as a serious party of government.

There’s nothing wrong with Labour’s standing in the polls under Miliband’s leadership, they’re doing much better than they did during Tony Blair’s final year, and under Gordon Brown’s leadership at one stage the Tories had a 22% lead.

Having said that Miliband is a shitbag who clearly learnt nothing from his father. However he is the best shitbag among a whole multitude of shitbags to choose from.

DP

TP !

So out of everyone who is actually going to strike, how many of you are actualy going to stand on a picket line or demonstrate on a march, very few i bet.

I’m going to strike, will join the demo in town… not sure how many other days I’ll do though.

So out of everyone who is actually going to strike, how many of you are actualy going to stand on a picket line or demonstrate on a march, very few i bet.

We had a good turn out at our place last time.

We didn’t picket, as there were colleagues in NASUWT who were working and it wasn’t fair to students. So, we grouped on the other side of the road, with just one or two on each entrance handing out leaflets.

Then, most of us went through to the rally at Middlebrough.

I won’t be on strike but I will go and show some solidarity

You heard then Woody, had a good long chat with our rep this am saying we need clarification. I’m glad it’s that and not full industrial action.

So out of everyone who is actually going to strike, how many of you are actualy going to stand on a picket line or demonstrate on a march, very few i bet.

Work to rule here but if you like we could withdraw the only medical cover there is for 12 hours in one of the largest counties. I’m sure everything will be fine as people will put off being ill but if not it’ll give some more fuel for your hatred of public sector workers.

Not been following all this, but my two-penneth..

over the last 8 years, the so-called perks of working in the public sector have been stripped away (granted some were silly) but we work on pretty much the same basis as a very large private sector company in our city (in terms of flexi-hours etc).

I have no issues with the loss of the final salary pension. What I do have an issue with is paying an extra 3% into the pot for no gain – this is just a tax. I’ll personally end up paying £100 more a month into my pension, for nothing. That’s a hell of a lot of cash in anyone’s book.

Work to rule here but if you like we could withdraw the only medical cover there is for 12 hours in one of the largest counties. I’m sure everything will be fine as people will put off being ill but if not it’ll give some more fuel for your hatred of public sector workers.

Totaly support the paramedics and firemen, in their work, the last ambulance workers strike in Liverpool quite a while back, an old lady collapsed in the street, and about 30 ambulance staff who where protesting came running to help, they got a very good reception from the locals.

The thing is that this governmnet is going on a divide and conquer assault, staff who keep peeps alive will get basiclly what they want, and the governmnet know its bad publicity/propoganda if health service staff walk out, and peep die and the rest of public sector staff will be either tuped, or just sacked, cheshire council and shropshire are currently threatening to sack staff if they dont agree new contracts, and a lot have signed the new contracts to keep their jobs.

Others on here have stated i hate public sector staff, never have i said so, i like and respect everyone, and just dislike incompetent staff who disrespect the jobs they do

Thanks for the praise. Well we’ll see I’m not sure we will but it could be looked at to see if we need different conditions, I don’t fancy humping people up and down stairs at 68 or resuscitating people for an hour whist being bounce around in the ambulance.

Some of your previous posts about Public Sector workers have been very negative project hence my comment. I have no time for lazy workers but they exist in every role.

resuscitating people for an hour* whist being bounce around in the ambulance.

You need to fix your satnav mate! Lol

*pesky persistent PEA/miraculously returning VF…

I wish I’m up to an hour away from the nearest general hospital.

Pesky VF not freaking changing.

So out of everyone who is actually going to strike, how many of you are actualy going to stand on a picket line or demonstrate on a march, very few i bet

I come from an industrial background, where we picketed on shifts through out the night,where if a strike was called EVERYONE CAME OUT, AND EVERYONE ATTENDED UNION MEETINGS, seems as if a lot of peeps i talk to in the real world who are public sector workers seem to be treating the day off as a shoping /countryside day.

You dont want to read what the north wales ambulance service is planning on doing soon, (linky soon)it makes me so angry.

project – Member
So out of everyone who is actually going to strike, how many of you are actualy going to stand on a picket line or demonstrate on a march, very few i bet.

I’ll be on the line. Ironically i usually get to (just outside) work earlier on strike days than i do normally.

It’s harder for some Public Sector workers thought project because of the service we provide, it’s not a case of a line not being produced it’s an essential service.

For Drac and any other Paramedic ambulance technician

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10510195
How it was first reported last year.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2011/11/21/plan-to-close-flintshire-ambulance-stations-set-to-go-ahead-55578-29810786/

And now what theyre planned, surely theyre not going to accept that.

Strange how Queensferry and Mold ambulance stations are built right next to and are part of the fully manned fire stations, and are in good positions for easy acces to main roads and towns.

What Wales are going to get is an anmbulance parked up while the staff wait for a blue light job,sitting in basicly a van for long shifts,probaly with the locals just staring at them thinking they have an easy job, which of course they dont.

When i last drove a van for the NHS, i stopped in the same layby every week for 10 minutes half way through the shift, opposite a chaps house on a mjor road in north wales, on the side of the van was the hospital phone nunber, not surprisingly after stopping at the same layby for a few months , i got called in by the boss who said to park somewhere else, as there had been a complaint about me drinking tea fronm a flask while parked there.

We have a (pitifully small) limit of numbers of picketers ‘allowed’ on each site entrance. Also under strict instructions from our eomployer that we are no allowed to pop into work for a pee whilst we are picketing. 😆

They must have known I was the militant type, as they put me on a training day on 30th as additional hours between my night shifts, which has since been cancelled cos they (rightly) think no one will turn up to it, least of all the training staff themselves! (also all on NHS pensions)

Project, The thing they’re talking about doing with closing smaller stations and centralising them is what most services seem to be planning. There’s another service that’s in the process of doing it at the moment, possibly in the Cambridge area?

As for make ready teams, we use them in London and while they can have some advantages, you can’t trust them to equip an ambulance correctly and everything needs to be re-checked before you start working on a vehicle that they’ve done. It’s a false economy but management don’t look at the bigger picture.

As for sitting on street corners waiting for jobs….welcome to the joys of active area cover 👿

you can’t trust them to equip an ambulance correctly and everything needs to be re-checked before you start working on a vehicle that they’ve done

To right as if when you get to a call and something is missing somebody may, not make as good a recovery or live as they may have done if the correct stuff was on board, and i suppose the paramedic gets the blame, as the stock fillers have tickesd all the correct boxes.

Also london town has a lot more hospitals and suppliers it can cll on, north wales has only a few major hospitals, with a and e facilities.

What Wales are going to get is an anmbulance parked up while the staff wait for a blue light job,sitting in basicly a van for long shifts

We have an agreement that the ambos/paramedics can use our station instead of parked up in lay-by or some industrial estate. Works quite well and we do some training together if we’re nae sleeping or playing pool/snooker. 🙄

Yeah it’s not the only service to have roaming crews and will become the norm. It’s fair to say though we’re spending less and less time on stations anyway due to the workload.

I worked in Staffordshire for a year or so where the ‘make ready/central reporting’ thing first came about, and I hate to be controversial, but actually, it kinda worked. Crews never stood by at the side of the road, always at facilitied posts.

As for ‘make ready’ checking my motor, I’d trust my AFAs to do a good job more than a lot of paramedics I know; not knocking them, but paramedics tend to learn just how much they need to do to ‘get away with it’ (enough to bluff, anyone?) whilst for AFAs its literally a full time job. Being slowly rolled out across WMAS now, and having worked both systems, it can’t come soon enough, IMHO.

bruneep

Nice idea and training together on an ad hoc basis would be good.

Unfortunately, it’s a non-starter for my area due to workload and the requirement to be ‘mobile’ within 40 seconds.

EDIT:

not knocking them, but paramedics tend to learn just how much they need to do to ‘get away with it’

What exactly are they ‘getting away with’?

We were looking at increased use of standby points and to be faIr our Prus use them but only during the day.
Think it turned out to be a bit too much hassle and pointless.. We have 4 stations in the city and 2 smaller
ones in the outlying areas so coverage isnt bad although we do sometimes have to go on standby in another area if they’re busy but think it’s only supposed to be for an hour at a time..
I know Edinburgh closed a few stations and opened a large main station- don’t think there’s any plans for this in Glasgow but that might change in a few years when we go down to having only two big a&es from five!! That seems a bit bonkers for such a big city!!

you want to transfer to ardgour – the ambulance is usually parked up at the strontian hotel 🙂 Lovely little village miles from anywhere

Rurals a different kettle of fish altogether TJ.. 7 days of 12 hrs on, 12 hours on call??
Makes me sweat just thinking about that!!

I dunno how thay do it – its a friend of a friend – I think at night they are off duty but I don’t know – I know he works week on week off tho. Don’t tend to get many calls but when tehy do its serious

Nice location tho

Nice location it may be, but have you met the locals!

My neighbour is a paramedic, same NHS trust as your friend, and he often brings the ambulance home after his shift so he can go straight out if there is a call through the night. Don’t know what the shift pattern is though.

If he’s rural and in Scotland ^^ that’s what it’ll be. Makes me glad I’m in the big smoke..