Anyone looking for a distraction to Will vs. Chris should consider watching an incredible film that is 100% guaranteed never to be at the Oscars – “Boiling Point” on Netflix.

It stars Stephen Graham (Line of Duty etc) and aside from the incredible acting the thing that sets it apart from everything else “out” at the moment is that it was filmed in one take. All 90 minutes of it.

From the reports the Oscars were a pretty missable event:

– against the backdrop of a major conflict in which millions have been made homeless and tens of thousands killed…
– virtue signalling audience who have told us they are taking a stand against hate and violence take their seats to congratulate themselves for their amazing achievements
– “celebrity” host makes tasteless joke about someone else’s wife
– wife’s husband laughs at joke
– husband then punches the celebrity host presumably to avoid having to have a word with himself at laughing at it in heh first place or apologising to his wife
– audience “takes a stand” by giving a standing ovation to man who just assaulted someone else right in front of them
– lots of jibes at “republicans” and virtue signalling
– little or nothing said about evil communists or the tragedy unfolding in Europe
– Guests leave with their $140k “gift” bags

Well, would you believe it… the original changes to regulations to allow the fire and rehire ferry workers on cheaper contracts came from the nasty Tories Labour:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jun/14/uk.tradeunions

“ ‘The issue has even touched Cherie Blair, who 18 months ago launched the £90m luxury cruise ferry, the Pride of Hull, for P & O North Sea Ferries Hull-Rotterdam run.

The boat replaced an all-British crew ferry, the Norsea, with one employing Filipino labour in the engine room at little more than £2 an hour for a 192 hour month.’”

All things considered, motoring is not really much more expensive now than 10 or even 20 years ago:

– Petrol and Diesel were both 135-145p / litre in 2012, so should be £1.82p / litre now to keep pace with inflation – so prices have actually fallen in real terms (see link below)
– many cars are a good 10-20% more efficient now – so the fuel cost is £1.46 / litre now using the £1.82p and adjusting for efficiency gains
– Car insurance has fallen in real terms
– Car Purchase costs (pre pandemic) have fallen in real terms – with the “trickle down” effect of high end gadgets now being “standard” fit at lower price points

For all the noise about the cost of running a car, most of the people I know are still doing stupidly short journeys. When I walk to pick the kids up from school I see people who live close to us who’ve driven there (intert head-slap emoji) and are sitting their with the engine running. In cities the number of chelsea tractors being used is quite noticeable – even though they only do 25-35mpg.

We’ll know when fuel prices are “really” expensive because there will be:

– less cars on the road and more bikes
– more cars doing 60 instead of 80 on the motorways
– reductions in congestion
– fewer drivers making short journeys
– more people sharing cars with colleagues to get to work
– more public transport use
– improved air quality
– etc etc.

There’s little or no sign of any of this happening so it’s a shame the government reduced fuel duty – they should be putting it up dynamically until fuel is constantly £2-£2.50 a litre in urban areas – enough to make people think twice. Obviously in rural areas / areas with poor public transport / low paid occupations we would need to give some relief but more fuel duty generated could be ring fenced and used to transform public transport / active travel.

Pump prices over time

as a test to rule out other things try using the Wahoo app for an hour or so and constantly change the resistance of the Kickr.

If that works ok the bluetooth to phone will be proven ok and likewise any issues with resistance on the kickr e.g. overheating – which can cause sudden drops.

“If they’re failing, let them fail, and let someone else run the routes.”

Like Irish Ferries? Who fired their own staff 17 years ago? They would love that I’m sure.

“If some routes have to be state run (whether that’s the UK state of those of other countries on the routes) so be it”

Because the state has a great record on running complex operations?

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dvla-hits-back-claims-staff-23436649

A myriad of other examples are also available…

“Breaking P&O into a series of smaller operators wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

Apart from the fact that it’s a (very) capital intensive business and doing so would massively ramp up capital finance costs – which then ramps up operating costs – and and as we know, the business is already loss making….

We spent a long time returfing / reseeding our tiny garden before we admitted defeat and went for artificial grass.

The combination of kids and dogs just meant we were living with a permanent mud bath in the garden and through the house a lot of the time as well.

Anyone going for artificial grass needs to plan on doing a bit more prep if dogs will be using it – failure to install it properly can quite quickly result in a stinking mess – particularly in summer.

There’s good advice online but the basics of construction are:

– dig out soil to 15-20cm
– install weed net layer
– lay granite* chippings (12 cm+) and compact with a compactor
– lay weed net layer – don’t use absorbant types though
– lay granite* dust / granite layer (5 cm+) and compact with a compactor
– dust the grano dust with zeofill* 20kg per m2 or something like that
– lay, join and fix the artificial grass
– spinkle zeofill* over the artificial grass instead of sand to weigh it down (5-10kg per m2)

* these steps are critical. If you use limestone and / or don’t use zeofill, dog wee basically stinks to high heaven and you’ll be throwing the “grass” out in a year or two.

Doing it properly adds a good bit to the cost and I found it really hard getting a supply of granite chippings – a lot of the blended aggregates has limestone it it which basically soaks up the dog wee and enables the stink to happen.

For the grass, we went with neograss and it’s been great. It’s not hot in summer and very few visitors even notice it’s not real grass. We clean it with hot water and a grass cleaning solution after any dog poo just to ensure there are no issues with kids and faecal matter.

One thing I would also say is that doing it yourself is seriously hard work.

I dug the existing garden out and then brought all of the materials in through the house (no rear access) in a wheelbarrow. I think it amounted to around 400 barrow loads of soil out / aggregate in.

The result has been great. A couple of summers of really enjoying the garden. No “stink” from dog wee and although we were gutted we couldn’t get a lawn to last it’s probably going to do us for the next 10 years at least.

Without wanting to come across as condescending it’s, yet again, a simplistic solution to a very complex problem that raises far, far more questions than it answers.

Squirrelking – I agree – politicians offering “simple” (and unworkable) solutions to complex problems.

When they knowingly do this they are just taking voters for fools – putting more emphasis on promising platitudes and winning votes than providing an honest appraisal of the situation even if that means admitting that there’s very little the law can do to restrict international employment norms. Leadership means being honest and not giving false hope – in this case to the hundreds of poor workers who’ve lost their jobs without any warning.

“The one thing that all the speakers emphasised was the fact that P&O is very far from being skint. Greed is the motivation, not struggling in a difficult economic situation, whatever downturn might have occurred.”

I’m sure the speakers did emphasise this but it doesn’t make it true. Company Directors are legally required to operate trading companies as a going concern – if they have any doubts about their ability to do that they are required to register for insolvency.

“Greed” is not really provable in this situation because the facts suggest the opposite:

– P&O continued to operate the trading subsidiary and fund significant losses (now close to or exceeding £200m).
– The scope for running the business profitably is significantly impacted by an EU based competitor running with 25-35% lower operating costs – which are only possible because that competitor fired their own staff, rehired international crews and pays them through Cyprus in order to avoid tax
– P&O will pay substantially more in redundancy (tens of £000’s to each crew member) than they are legally required to

“If you can’t run ferries without paying properly, and with workers rights in place, don’t run ferries”

Is a nice soundbite but how exactly can they run their business “paying properly” when international maritime employment contracts don’t require their competitors to do so and when there are no legal restrictions available to bar those ferries from the same routes that P&O serve?

Chucking some decent gravel tyres on an xc bike makes it feel a lot faster and only costs £70-£80. I’d start with that – especially if the xc bike has 29″ wheels.

Labour can demand whatever they like but will have more luck campaigning for the tide not to come in.

The reality of this very distressing dispute based on the press reports seems to be:

– The trading subsidiary has made 3 years of (substantial) losses – reportedly now running at c£1m a day due to the latest change in fuel costs
– Irish Ferries can undercut P&O’s operating costs by 25-35% because they have used low paid maritime contracts since 2005
– The rate of P&O’s losses will accelerate further as Irish Ferries increase their number of boats / compete on more like for like routes
– Irish Ferries sacked their own workers and rehired maritime workers whilst their trading company was registered in an EU member state AND that member state had a minimum wage
– Current P&O employment contracts are under Jersey employment law so there’s no scope for individual claims under UK employment law / tribunals
– This is a genuine redundancy. The work will not be done by new employees, it will be delivered as a service from a company headquartered in Switzerland and fulfilled by international workers on maritime contracts entered into outside UK law
– P&O have offered up to 9 months salary based on length of service – substantially above the legal minimum
– Based on the above it would seem to be a legal yet risible change and P&O will pay the redundant workers a lot more than they legally have to.

Demanding that P&O rehire the workers on unaffordable contracts and continue to lose money because their costs are significantly higher than one of their main competitors will just result in the company being forced into bankruptcy.

Labour either know this and are just going through the motions for political point scoring or they don’t know it in which case they are wasting everyones time and giving false hope to the workers.

The Sunday Times has a good article on the financial pressure faced by P&O.

It attributes much of the pressure to competition on more routes by Irish Ferries – who did the same fire / rehire foreign crew in 2005:

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/30/transport.uk

On comparable routes, the wage bill savings from Irish Ferries use of staff on low wage maritime contracts ($2-3 an hour) means they can undercut P&O’s operating costs by around 25-35%.

So for all the “if we had been in the EU this wouldn’t have happened” the reality is that it’s competition from an EU ferry firm that sacked its workers some years ago that has resulted in the collapse in P&O’s profitability – with the company making three years of increasing losses starting in 2019 before Brexit negotiations were even concluded.

Other articles also confirm:

– the employment contracts are registered in Jersey
– the trading entity can legally contract with a Swiss registered firm for the supply of maritime staff

Ergo, P&O have acted in a brutal manner but likely legal manner to save business in the face of “unfair” competition from an EU registered competitor that pays its own crew $2-3 an hour.

The news reports suggest that most of the staff made redundant were earning £20-£30 an hour plus on costs – with the more senior roles obviously earning much more – in the range of £100-£150 an hour plus on costs.

The new crew – employed on maritime contracts will be paid £2-3 an hour – which is a pittance but unfortunately in line with other roles that are vessel based.

P&O seem to have reduced the wage bill by > 90% and are probably saving 40% on top of that in on costs as well. All of which probably gives them close to the £100m saving they need to achieve in order to avoid making further losses on that business unit.

And before we get too exercised about this – pretty much all cruise ship workers are employed the same way and there will be a fair few singletrackers who’ve travelled that way with little or no thought for the crew.

In other news – POC sell waterproof trousers for £450 that they haven’t even test ridden to check the product lasts more than 3 months.

“This is going to make a chapter in every business handbook titled “How to handle 800 redundancies really badly, while at the same time trash any reputation your business may have had”

+1. The chapter conclusion is likely to end with a group action from former employees because you can’t make 800 roles redundant and then hire 800 new people to do exactly the same roles. It’s not a genuine redundancy and P&O will learn that the hard / expensive way*

One other point here is that for the 800 people who’ve lost their jobs with literally no notice the experience for many will be devastating. Anyone who has been through redundancy / loss of employment will know that it’s something that never really leaves you – more so if you experience it more than once. Even if they “win” in court many of those impacted will now spend the rest of their careers with the constant background worry of “will it happen again?”.

* caveat: if the crew are on employment contracts entered into under the law of Jersey this may not be correct. Likewise if they are on Maritime contracts, or maritime contracts entered into under Jersey Law, or maritime contracts tied to the Vessel – which is flagged to an EU member state.

“ Pre-Brexshit, they couldn’t have done this, no. All employment laws were meant to be a copy and paste job from EU to UK statute. Only somewhere along the line, some workers rights legislation mysteriously went missing.”

But there’s not a shred of evidence that this is the case – employment laws remain the same.

The coverage in the HR press (including by employment law solicitors) this morning seems to conclude:

– employment law hasn’t changed since Brexit
– unless the workers were on maritime contracts (which is an unknown), DPW have likely crossed employment law and will have a substantial number of cases arising as a result.
– In that eventuality, action against the the parent company can be pursued even if the trading subsidiary no longer exists
– if the workers were on maritime contracts there’s basically no comeback – no least because the ships are flagged from Cyprus

Just about everyone is in agreement that the way this action has been progressed is completely unacceptable – with Starmer and Johnson both saying the same DPW will now be in a very difficult position – and if the workers are not on Maritime contracts DPW should be moving on some of their leaders in short order.

“Expect to see the vessels sold (to another DP company) in order to raise capital, then leased back at sale price +big % over ten years etc etc.“

Like the ones for the Hull route that have been up for sale for the last 2 months?

The tweets from David Prescott demonstrate his complete lack of understanding of how businesses work.

Another way of writing it would be:

– Loss making ferry bailed out by the state and taxpayers. Continues to make losses. Parent company decide there’s a better use for the c£100m a year required to keep it running.

“The Labour MP for Hull is on Five Live now saying that they couldn’t have done this under EU law, but amazingly those EU employment laws never made it on to the statute books in the UK“

This sounds like a fairly unlikely (read: knowingly untrue) political comment to me.

All EU law was written into UK law when Brexit happened – in many cases Uk employment law / rights are better than would have been required as an EU member.

So which “laws” are we talking about specifically?

In any event, a £100m annual loss isn’t sustainable but I’d be very surprised if the redundancy route was being used it the intention is to rehire to the same roles as that would almost certainly be illegal.

The one caveat is that maritime employment is different – specifically where the crew live on board and don’t disembark to shore so perhaps that’s the route DPW are going down in order to keep the business going.

* What has changed for you?

– I haven’t been into an office once in more than two years
– I haven’t met in person anyone I work with for 18 months and even then that was just a one off. I haven’t met anyone from my current job – even though it’s well over a year now.
– I get a bit more time with my kids but I seem to be permanently fatigued due to lack of sleep (kids waking up all the time) and the fact every day is the same
– It’s the first time in my career I’ve spent c460 working days in the same tiny room
– my “world” feels incredibly small. In the week I don’t go further than 0.75 from home / no time for bike riding to or from work

* What hasn’t changed?

– Job insecurity / constant financial pressure
– a very challenging home / family set up – which probably feels a lot more challenging from a mental health perspective due to lack of face to face interactions with adults e.g. at work, travelling etc.

* Do you miss anything from the lockdowns?

– The reduced noise levels due to lack of flights / traffic – hearing things like woodpeckers and owls in the local park that I hadn’t ever heard before

* Is there anything you’ve learned from all of this and will take forward with you?

– Yes. I need space, variety and face to face interactions with other adults. Without cycling to work / going somewhere else to work every day I hate working.

TiRed
Full Member

We have a Victorian house so insulating the walls is out. We replaced the sash windows with double glazed ones, but really it’s stopping draughts that really made a difference. Particularly to the 1887 nonsquare front door with its gaps.

hold on – that’s MY house!

“You cant work for them full time, or you would be called as ’employed’ by them”

It’s not as clear cut as that.

If the work is deliverable based e.g. a project, or a specific set of time bound deliverables this can still be “outside” even when the time period is a year or more.

Likewise, having one client or multiple clients doesn’t in itself mean it’s “inside” or “outside” IR35 – working on a big project for over a year for the same client is not unusual and providing the same service for multiple clients could still mean you’re effectively “employed”.

For most organisations (over the turnover threshold), IR35 determination is now for the hirer to determine. If they want to deem it outside when they know it’s not, they take on the future liability for any claims by HMRC for backdated employer’s NI etc.

One red flag to note is that if the employer is having difficulty hiring to an existing role, it’s then very difficult to make a case that the assignment is “outside” IR35 i.e. it would be usual practice to employ someone to do it.

One other thing to note – the combined effect of the huge increase in corporation tax next year (the fractional rate goes up to 26.5%) and the NI social care levy will significantly impact potential earnings. For contracts with a day rate below £600-700 ish it’s probably worth looking for a perm role or FTC and not taking the substantial risk that goes with being self employed.

A couple of other tips if you go ahead:
– set up a proper company name (not your own name), website and email address
– don’t accept a contract that dictates restrictions on your ability to work elsewhere, or stipulates working hours etc. Clients can’t do that to suppliers..
– be very careful about managing employees – things like performance reviews should always be done by the perm staff
– don’t be part of a “management team” or similar that manages the day to day business
– look for an accountancy firm that includes the relevant insurances as part of their service.

Convert: have a play around with this:

https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=234&MNC=15&type=LTE&latitude=57.47336908986384&longitude=-4.250717093533626&zoom=11.465549134634855&showTowers=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=true&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=Last&showHex=false&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap

What you’re looking for is the masts that have Band 1,3, 7, 32 or 38. Masts with Band 8 will be slow as there’s typically limited bandwidth on that frequency.

When you’ve found your local masts have a play around with the router location – even getting it in your loft (if you have one) may help because modern double glazing impacts radio signal reception.

Also have a think about an external antenna or better still an external router – something attached to a TV arial / Chimney will make a big difference.

“ The only real political aspect at play here is the dead cat thrown on the table to appease tory voters”

For this to be true the Public servants involved would need to be Tory stooges / supporters.

Most public servants are decent people and go to considerable effort to discharge their duties as necessitated by the role they hold and it’s reasonable to expect those working on the fringes of politics are probably aware of the need to maintain the highest standards in order to avoid the perception of bias consistently levied at Bercow when he was the Speaker.

In this case it would also require orchestration across a significant number of people involved – upwards of 50 to throw a “dead cat”. So not at all likely.

Convert – you’ll have more luck just relocating the router and / or adding an external antenna.

Speed tests can also be a bit misleading – for example the Fast.com speed test app can massively over read upload and download speed. Testing on a laptop connected by Ethernet to the router is the most reliable way of determining the router connection speed.

It’s also worth having a look at resources like cellmapper or searching local planning applications to see where the local masts are – masts often have different services (backhaul and frequencies) so it could be that by moving the router you’ll get a mast with a faster speed even if that’s further away.

When searching planning applications look for Vodafone applications or joint ones submitted on behalf of Cornerstone / CTIL. Most of them can be found doing an advanced search for “telecoms applications 28 day / 56 day – prior approval” or “mobile networks” depending what software your local authority is running.

You can also search for “network status” on the Vodafone website and by selecting the 2g / 3G / 4g / 5G filters work out where the masts are from that – often if there’s planned maintenance the map shows the locations of the masts.

If you add the first couple of characters from your postcode to this thread I’ll see what I can dig up for you.

“ TBH this just seems like a little scrap of “Red Meat” being tossed to the Tory back benchers to try and help keep the (increasingly forgotten) heat off Bozza.”

Is complete nonsense.

We’re getting to a point where there’s a conspiracy theory in everything even when the facts of the matter couldn’t be clearer.

In the case at hand:

– the allegations were made by public servants
– the allegations were formally submitted to another public servant
– the review, review of the review and appeal
Process and the timings thereof were all led by public servants
– the timing of the report’s release was ultimately dictated by the need to complete the appeal process first
– the final date for the release of the report was chosen by a public servant

In each of these steps the decision rights were held by public servants – not MPs.

The only real political aspect at play here (not sure what the Labour equivalent of “red meat” is) is the decision by Sir Kier to allow Bercow to join the Labour Party whilst the investigation was already underway and in full sight of the 10+ years of consistent allegations that were already in the public domain e.g. Private Eye.

“ Political bullying of the anti brexiter… Absolute filth…[Edited-MODS]”

Read the report.

I did this morning – the allegations are detailed and go back to 2009.

Furthermore, the findings were reviewed by a second panel including a QC.

The conclusions are evidence based and pretty strong – the report states that:

“The respondent has been a serial bully… His evidence in the investigations, the findings of the Commissioner, and his submissions to us, show also that the respondent has been a serial liar”.

Suggesting that the public servants who undertook the investigation are political stooges and the victims are liars is shameful.

It’s all very well calling for visa free entry to anyone who says they are from Ukraine but this creates a huge problem for Social Services and other government functions who have statutory duties e.g. child safeguarding / care of minors that do not have family etc etc.

This is already a massive issue with a significant number of Local Authorities already unable to take new arrivals due to the constant flow from Calais.

There is also the issue that Putin has already inferred punishment will be forthcoming for Britain – so the last thing we want having limited travel for Russian citizens e.g. by bans on flights, is to allow Russian agents to blend into thousands of innocent refugees from Ukraine. And this isn’t a ridiculous conspiracy theory on several counts:

1. Russia installed hundreds of Wagner group mercenaries in Ukraine up to a year before the conflict started
2. Russia has conducted assassinations in the Uk with radioactive substances and biological weapons
3. There’s no reason to think Putin wouldn’t be willing to assassinate our leading politicians in order to create a sense of panic in the Uk / destabilise law and order if he thought that would strengthen his hand.

We’ve also seen through recent terrorist offences that people will seek to claim they are from one country in order to gain entry to the UK only for it to turn out they are actually from somewhere else.

A completely new system to register applications from 200,000+ people will always have a lead time – it doesn’t stop Ukranians reaching the safety of Poland, France or anywhere else on the continent and also doesn’t mean we won’t give the sanctuary already promised.

On that front, I’ve been talking to neighbours about how we can organise to give visibility of spare rooms etc for Ukrainian families that need a home until their home is freed from Russian occupation. In our home we’ve agreed that we’ll move out of the main bedroom into a loft room if there’s a Ukrainian family that needs somewhere to stay – for as long as they need it.

If anyone knows of any groups that are registering places where Ukranians can stay when they arrive in the UK please add the information to this thread.

I paid around £450 just for varifocal zeiss lenses at Boots opticians 2 years ago.

This time round I paid £310 including Oakley frames and Oakley clear varifocal lenses from an online optician.

The Oakley lenses are as good as the zeiss ones from Boots and less than half the price given the cost of the frames – I just have my PD distance and the standard prescription and it was all spot on. Same for varifocal Oakley iridium lenses.

I suspect that not for the first time Carole Cadwalladr may find herself in court with that tweet above.

Unless she’s got proof it’s straight forward defamation – and given her track record of getting quite basic facts wrong it could get expensive. You’d think that a competent journalist would have the nouse to differentiate actual facts from allegations…

See: https://order-order.com/people/carole-cadwalladr/

I’ve been triggered 🤯🤯

“They are not borrowing, and the West London site they leave is worth a mint.”

Their Greenford site is owned / leased to them by Segro – the current lease commenced last year.

And they must be borrowing – for the simple reason that they don’t have £100m in free cash sitting on their balance sheet. Unless someone is building / financing the factory and leasing it to them per the current arrangement.

https://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk is usually a good place to start

I really hope it works out for them but depending how they finance it, it’s a very big “bet” for the company and will consume all of their profit for about 8-12 years of sales at current volumes.

If there are cost overruns on the construction or a downturn in sales it could put them in a very difficult position.

One thing to watch for on plusnet mobile is that not all shortcode sms numbers work – including some used by the NHS. Anyone choosing to use EE as their network would be best off using a plan from BT or EE rather than plusnet – speeds / coverage will be the same.

“Anyone else get the feeling somewhat that either the Russian army is 70s old stock or the new stuff is being hidden.“

Russia is just testing their enemy’s guns – by sending in the less well trained soldiers and old equipment they can get a good sense of the Ukraine’s real capabilities and the location of troops / soldiers. What will unfortunately likely follow is the elite soldiers and latest equipment.

Get a pencil and draw jagged lines over the whole wall and tell people it’s a trendy wallpaper.

That combined urinal / toilet in the post above is a great idea. Where does the sink go?

If the OP can post a link to the masts on Google streeview we can work out from that which networks they relate to.

Pretty limited – o2 is refarming 3G frequencies to be used on 4g and 5G – with a view to turning it off completely as Vodafone has already announced.

Ee and Voda have already announced plans to decommission their home / office 3G boost boxes.

It’s probably easier to get a handset that supports 4g / Wi-Fi calling – albeit all 3G handsets will work on 2g anyway.