dangerous, thats a huge range 11 to 17 K …I want details to understand the pay scales of these folk. That way I can make my own twisted assessment of whats fair.

Folks (XT, CC) can we stop this. Captain Crashs post an hour ago was a perfectly reasonable explanation of where he's coming from. We bit his head off earlier this morning, and he responded with an explanation/clarification rather than a rant.

Further bitchin is to no ones interest, I want to talk lumens instead.

In all seriousnes, I really would like to understand the detail of this issue.
Does anyone have links to the salary details, current and proposed, and any details on the proposed bonus scheme offered?

I would like my arguments to be based on accurate information.

[admits to mild trolling in that last sentance].

oh bugger….I know your reply already!

Tolerated….aha thats the management to blame!

Yes it is. Sack them too (overpaid council idiots on ridiculous pensions) and get some private proper company in.

Deadly serious, no trolling at all.
OK every company has people on long term sick. These bump up the average of any company.
But I know of no private company that would accept 30 days AVERAGE accross the workforce. Most companies acheive way under 10 days.

Now before you say …ah but this is a manual job. Well if people are loosing days from work due to injuries then thats a RIDDOR and is a very serious matter.

Far more likely that 30 days has been tolerated and the staff take the pi$$.

blown turbos if it hasn't been looked after (ie driven hard and then turned off without waiting for turbo to cool).
VW/AUDI TDis are good engines generally.

Obviously with A3 you will need to make sure that the previous owner has removed all sharp object from glovebox (such as hair dressers scissors) before purchase.

;-)

I have an A2 (other drivers assume I am on a shopping trip and make it their duty to overtake me) and do like Audi interiors.

Ernie, wasn't being ironic on purpose.
What started as a thread about binmen turned into a mini episode of communist worker, so I thought since rational discussion was lacking I would engage in a bit of extremist baiting.

Just read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8278512.stm

Now the 20% inefficiency could be for a good reason, as to be fair the bin men of leeds do pick up stuff next to the bins and don't fine you if your lid is open 10mm.

BUT….

30 days sick per year on average!!!
That is ridiculous by any standards. Surely there is no private sector company that would tolerate that (or even be in business?).

Oh that provocation had a bigger effect than I expected. :twisted:

Actually, its all academic now, my bins were emptied this morning.
At least this will have increased recycling rates accross leeds. My green bins have never been used so much.

Guys, lovely to read all the Socialist Worker Bollox. If you have time to post this shite, do you think one of you could pop round and empty my bins please?

It is a mess what is being done to the bin men. Should have been fixed over a decade using natural wastage and staff turnover to equalise the salaries. Instead we hit a brick wall where it "needs" to be done sooner.

For what its worth, its well known that being a bin man (certainly compared with equivalent manual jobs) is a cushy number. The salary, pension and hours worked are better than any equivalent private sector job.

Do I agree with cutting their pay? No. Freezing it maybe? Or even restructuring it so that they don't lose out and get the balance in bonuses.

The situtation is a mess. But left wing shyte nearly killed our car industry, knackered our mining industry and is about to do the same to postal and bin men.

cxi: You mean Bridlington?

Captain Crash, you are wrong. I understand where you are coming from, but you are still wrong.
Trout has invested a lot of effort and time into this, yes it's snowballed and I wish him every success if he make a little business out of it. Having met the bloke, I don't believe that money is what drives him. He is a tinkerer who enjoys makeing stuff (I can empathise with that), he makes a light that is brighter than anything from Hope or Lupine, gives good back up to his light when needed and sells them for a sensible price. Whats not to like?
If this country had more folks passionate about making stuff and people who wanted to buy locally made stuff (lets ignore the american controller and far eastern LEDS) then we would not have the **** huge trade deficit that we do.

I have a cheap canon laser printer. Still on original cartridge. For black and white its a no brainer. Laser everytime.

Which bit of Leeds?
Might need to be more vigilant.

Do you want beans to grind yourself or pre-ground espresso coffee?
Whitards is not especially good as they don't sell enough to keep the coffee really fresh. Hasbean is reputedly very good, though I have never bought from them.
Key thing with coffee is to keep oxygen away from it after its roasted. Oxygen causes the coffee to go stale in a few days.

Tracker, you need something proper to worry about. Try global warming or population predictions, I can really reccommend it for keeping you awake with worry.
Anyhow, Porsche drivers have always used unorthodox parking positions, look at James Dean.

Don't see what she did wrong. Sureley we all park in bus stops occaisionally? I subsidise them with my council tax so that the poor can get to the dole office/bookies, why shouldn't I get some use out of them?

Bump again.

my fave from the summer.Taken at Fowey:

Well recognised.
Never done it, though it is relevant to my career.

Just built a cheap (ish) on-one 29er for exactly this reason. Oh and to explore the delights of 29 inches.

bikebreaker – I have a range of embers stuff. I have lightweight merino t-shirts that can be worn exactly as you would wear a normal t-shirt.
I have a long sleave version of the same thing. Then I have a midweight longsleave 1/3 zip top that I wear in cold weather.
I agree that merino with a lightweight shell is the way to go.

I also run hot (and sweaty) and though its hard to describe with merino I rarely feel too hot or too cold. It just sort of manages to keep your temperature constant(ish).

Buy a couple of embers t shirts. buy one long sleave midweight and match it up with a shell of your choice.

Unrelated, but gore-windstopper is also a product I rate highly for leggings. Again I don't get hot or cold wearing them in autumn/winter/spring.

About £150k too much for me.

big fan of embers merino here. washes well and fits well.
I have become a huge fan of merino over the last year.

Proper nana…the leeds liverpool canal goes between its obvious destinations. Though I wouldn't suggest flashing a posh canalphone in liverpool or the scallys will 'ave you.

The Aire and Calder navigation runs parrallel to the aire a few hundred metres from my house on the suburbs of Leeds. We are quite remote here, in fact even the bin men can't find our house. Consequently a good canalphone is vital for dialing up to get the shipping forecast.

oh well ,must be true. Someone who works in Halfords bikehut told him!

;-)

I have a nokia 6310i, it works really well on leeds liverpool canal, though signal drops occaisionally on aire and calder.

Mark and Meg, just given to the bike ride. Its a nice route.
Don't think this is instead of a wedding gift though! Even stingy Yorkshiremen like meself can be more generous than that.

Blue…there was but they axed the scheme 3 or 4 years ago.

I have a ginger scouse/afro wig you could borrow if baldness is a problem?
Mebee then Meg would see the benefit of the Kojak look?

Stag do in Yorkshire! Excellent choice. Will be there to buy you a drink (though if everyone does that, it'll be a fierce hangover…mebee we need to club together for a STW wedding present instead???).

CHB
Leeds.

Did this light arrive?

Never been to a football match.

I have never met Breyten Breytenbach.

I never had a piercing.

Don't do it.
Buy a complete Ultegra carbon bike from Planet X for £999 instead.

stuey, you seen that episode of doctor who where she looks into the heart of the tardis and the power is too much for a human to take (Badwolf)?

Well, I think Trout accidently made one of those in his garage and had a quick look into the beam.

oooh…the included thing works really well on something like a hope tech2 brake. Its really easy to see how much extra you get stung for to recieve a brake that you can use ;-).

I like the prices, and obviously I was being over dramatic in the description of it, but there are a few tweaks to do to make it 100%.

Also…whats with the "included" thing. I get what it does. So in their sale RS forks where you can pay extra to hop up to the next better fork it makes sense. But on most items it has not context.

chapaping, absolutely agree. Though I am sure they will get sent a link to this thread at some point and it's likely to be more useful than a lot of separate disjointed emails.
Just to clarify though, Merlin are still my on-line merchant of choice.

Charlie, judging by the slogans generated this time around I think you are better off gone from their forum. Sorry, don't like any of them.

I have the "I brake for cake" on the back of my Audi A2, that was my fave of last time.

much prefer the old site.
Main bugbears are that if you look at a category with lots of choice (for example front lights) then you have about 7 pages that you have to go between. If you then click on an item to find out more and then click "back" it takes you back to page 1 every time. Please, lets just have one long list with about 100 items on it.

Second, have a look at thompson seat posts. I thought they only had one size, you have to mouse over to see the options…pants as there is no indication that there is anything to mouse over. Especially when the FSA seatposts that I originally went to look at are already pre listed as 27.2 and 31.9.

I liked their old site. Thoe photography is better on the new site, but it looks like a half arsed version of wiggle now.