Regarding awful contracts that the public sector enters into with the private sector, here are a couple of little anecdotes from my little corner of it…

I work for the National Probation Service (as was), more accurately my local Probation Trust indeed I’m sitting bored to tears in one of our 24/7 outposts right now. We used to have our own maintenance division who would handle all manner of facilities management. In the interests of ‘efficiency’ the Home Office decided to put facilities management out to tender some years ago. Various companies bid for it and an outfit called Interserve won. The contract is worth many millions of pounds per annum (far more than the cost of X number of counties/municipalities arranging their own).

Last August we had a minor issue with the roofing on one of our offices, we phoned it in to Interserve HQ as we were bound to do. Some days later three men arrived with a sophisticated hydraulic lift and proceeded to remove and replace precisely 5 roof tiles. Noticing their accents we enquired as to where they had travelled from, their answer was Gateshead. Well, we’re a major conurbation that couldn’t be any further from Gateshead without being in France! 😯

Everytime one of our striplights burns out we are duty bound to follow the same procedure. Two recent instances of this resulted in electricians travelling here from Exeter and Milton Keynes respectively. One of them stayed in a hotel overnight, all paid for by ‘us’ and by logical extension you, the tax payer.

This process is repeated many times over across our organisation and the public sector at large. It’s utterly laughable. In the past we would have simply replaced the striplights ourselves with the only expense being the cost of the new bulb. Additionally, as with the minor roofing problem and everything else we would have used local tradesmen and/or local businesses to supply our needs, thereby benefitting the local economy. Not any more.

The fact that 6 still isn’t broadcast over the airwaves is unquestionably the greatest injustice facing mankind today. I’m not even joking.

The scottish regiment ( I think its all amalgamated into one now) would be a defence force for the defence of Scotland and UN peackeeping.

What on earth makes you think that all of those Fijians in the Royal Regiment of Scotland would want to join this Scottish Army of yours?

So, we’re agreed then…

Drink driving is banned except in either of these two scenarios:

1) Child hurt in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo style abandoned mineshaft style survivalist shocker.

2) Phone call from Angelina Jolie informing you that she can’t resist her fetish for middle aged cake munching dandy horse straddlers one minute more, and that she’s waiting outside your place wearing nothing but an extra tight yellow jersey and a strategically placed honey sandwich.

Job done.

Has anybody considered the possibility that Abbott may just be into Minor Threat?

I agree with elfin, internet explodes.

Mr Woppit – Member

If I may digress a little…

bravohotel8er – Member
Mr Woppit – Member
Where’s Effin, that’s what I want to know.

He’s been blacklisted.

Seriously? For what?

There’s been some sort of whitewash

So you can’t even mention ‘enemies of the rockers’ on here now? 😯

Mr Woppit – Member

Where’s Effin, that’s what I want to know.

He’s been blacklisted.

If TJ was shipwrecked on an uninhabited desert island he’d form two political parties….

then one of them would establish a splinter group.

Ahhh…step-in bindings, they would have been great if it wasn’t for all that pesky snow!

Anyone remember Switch step-ins?

I know, I’ve owned all three of them.

‘A little’ or ‘a lot’ are relative terms. Additionally, for most people bindings are a once every 4/5 years purchase.

big_n_daft – Member
company car or van, what happens?

Driver loses job, new employee drives it.

Thoroughly approve.

I’d introduce a lifetime ban on the occasion of a second conviction too.

Freestyle should be fine to be honest, if you’re willing to stretch to a little extra I’d go with Cartel though.

Diamond, but they’ll only insure bitches.

I’ve owned all three and used Freestyle and Mission respectively during seasons in France and Canada.

Freestyle are great (and cheap) and will do anything, Mission are more biased towards freeriding whilst Cartel are the choice of the park and pipe fraternity. It depends on what style of riding you enjoy the most, but to be honest any of them would be a good all round choice.

S4 Snowboarding seem to have Cartels for around £140 at the moment, just do a search on Google Shopping.

Some will disagree strongly, but long after many people have ditched every single other Burton product in favour of another brand, Burton bindings seem to endure.

I’ve had Custom, Freestyle, Mission and Cartel over the years, all have been brilliant. I tried Drake for a while and they were pretty decent, but I’ve always gone back to Burton for bindings. I have no idea whether it’s still true today, but in the 90’s the majority of pro-snowboarders who lacked a binding sponsor (or rode for a firm that didn’t manufacture bindings) chose Burton.

ETA: You will NEVER have trouble sourcing spares for Burton bindings (with the possible exception of the super high-end stuff). I’m on my second pair of Cartels now, you can get them for around £140 if you shop around online…obviously, if you’re going back out to North America get them there instead.

Leaving prison in a box would be an audacious escape 😉

don simon – Member
Surely our super professional prison staff wouldn’t let that happen, would they?

Internet snarkiness aside, prison officers are like any other profession. Some are exceptional, some are woeful and the majority somewhere inbetween. However, 2 prison officers to 80 prisoners is not uncommon and if someone wants to deliver a bashing, it can be pretty difficult to prevent it.

esselgruntfuttock – Member
These two are in for a shitty time inside.

Really. Hows that then?

Well, they’ll be put ‘on the numbers’, Rule 45 (or Rule 43, I forget which, but they’re both the same, one replaced the other) and housed on a segregation wing with ‘vulnerable’ prisoners…ex-criminal justice types, sex offenders etc

skywalker – Member
So you kill someone when you are a minor, get away with it for a few years, then when you get caught get a minors sentence. Seems a bit wrong if you ask me.

Why?

They have to take the youth and immaturity of the defendants into account.

Regarding maccruiskeen’s post, I agree.

This country seems to be divided beyween those that imagine they’re living in some sort of totalitarian police state and those that think it’s an ultra-permissive liberal playground.

In reality, we’re somewhere slap bang in the middle of those.

That’s just how the system works, those were just about the maximum sentences available to the judge.

I was involved in a fairly recent case where a bunch of teenagers kicked a homeless man to death, they were back on the streets a little over two years after incarceration. It doesn’t seem right, but that’s how it is.

Yes, I’ve bought decks and some other gear from Blue Tomato in the past. These days you may not save very much at all (if anything) due to the exchange rate, but you have better odds of getting exactly what you want.

A better plan would be to buy your gear out there (but…and this is crucial, not in the resort itself), so take a trip to somewhere like Innsbruck if you’re at an Austrian resort within some proximity for example. I’ve bought gear from the US/Canada too, although some retailers won’t ship here. That opens up the customs lottery though, sometimes you get lucky, other times not.

Irritating the hell out of TJ and Elfin.

They didn’t need to arrest them, just to search their respective homes.

They were clearly stupid for not destroying every item they were wearing at the time, this is dumber still when you consider the fact that they came from criminal families.

Still, in a pre-CSI age with cruder forensic science capabilities, I guess some people didn’t think about this type of thing. If they’d burnt everything after the attack they’d still be free.

SIX SIX SIX THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST!

Bugger, 667…here’s Maiden anyway:

No.

/ thread

fishing without a licence

He made a rod for his own back.

Rather him than Moyles x 1,000,000,000

I hate that stale old breakfast show formula of a self-declared ‘funnyman’ supported by a gang of ‘zany’ sycophants. If I wanted to subject myself to that sort of thing I’d post on online MTB forums…

Bugger inland waterways…you can get to Dorset in around 90 minutes if you cane it on the motorway. Check out the Jurassic Coast, Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove, Kimmeridge Bay etc etc

http://www.jurassic-kayaking.com/

Duck Hunt, Operation Wolf and Moon Patrol…ahh, them were the days.

It were all fields round here back then of course and Wagon Wheels were as big as dinner plates etc etc

😉

Labour politicians and trade union leaders have to live somewhere.

organdonor – Member

I’m not racist, some of my best groupies are black…

I know it’s easy to get confused sometimes, but this isn’t CIF.
However, if you want to accuse people of racism AND participate in the Godwin’s Law World Cup, it’s the only game in town.

That must have been an offal experience

*cry cry cry*

Single to CIF please!

I imagine there will be similar scenes here when Thatcher dies and several STW ‘big hitters’ realise they’ll have to get a new hobby 😉

DFS seem to have some amazing offers at the moment, everything is HALF PRICE!!!!!11ONE!!!1111ONE!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please be aware that this offer is strictly limited and will expire at the end of time itself.