I’m a Beaver Scout Leader and camps always leave me buzzing. We always have some who are spending their first night away from home so combine that with the adventurous activities and it is great. Don’t sleep, but that’s a small price to pay!

The “Occasional Helper” role seemed like the best fit for me. Basically DBS-checked, registered and available to help out on activities, camps and weekly meetings when needed.

Though it’s really just a gateway drug to Section Assistant..

Main difference is that Section Assistants are covered by Scout Association insurance and Occasionaly Helpers aren’t. You have to do a basic bit of training, but the committment is the same. I have one SA that helps once a month and one that helps every week.

I dislike this one, because all athletes at that level have some sort of genetic abnormality. If they were normal, they wouldn’t be world class. It’s just because this abnormality aligns a little with gender that it gets so much attention.

Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt were freaks (IMHO). Why were they allowed to compete? Surely there was plenty of genetic deviation in their case. Plenty others.

That the IAAF vary their criteria based on event makes it even more daft. She can be a female 200 runner but a male 400 runner. It seems rather too targeted a rule.

I can see how an individual may see that this ruling is unfair, but excluding people with xy chromosomes and testes from female competition seems reasonable, and this ruling doesn’t even go that far.

Except XY chromosomes and testes don’t disqualify you from female sport. The sole discriminator seems to be hormone levels. See Rachel McKinnon. I’d love to see the science behind it, but the pro-trans-athlete groups don’t seem minded towards evidence-bsed advocacy.

For the Olypmics self-declaration of gender for four years, plus 12 months testosterone below the threshold defines you as female.

Ianal either but what difference will the extended probation actually make given employers can bin your off quite easily in the first year?

Depending on your contract and Ts and Cs, ending probation can trigger contractual rights that are stronger than your statutory rights.

I’ve paid in about 6 cheques this year, through the BoS app, and they’ve all worked fine.

Dark background, phone has to be pretty level and it all seems to just work.

Just as well. The buggers closed all the branches!

No, Edinburgh is fine so long as you don’t make eye contact or try to talk to anybody.

Slow and socially awkward? Sounds just my sort of ride. Unfortunately I’m away next weekend so will miss out :-(

Replace corp tax (a tax on profits) with a smaller sales tax (a tax on revenues). Perhaps with a small business exemption. Hello dear multinationals whose profits are made offshore :-)

Make one house of parliament PR using Webster method (favours smaller parties). Other one could be FPTP as now or perhaps more like the US Senate (X seats per region).

Make carbon credits cost at least as much as it costs to clean up emissions. Extend to other forms of emissions too and make sure domestic fuel is properly included.Also tax aviation fuel, with EU wide agreement so you can’t just arrive half full and not refuel.

The training package for the new Airbus 320 NEO was an iBook and a quiz.

NEO changed the engines (duh) to reduce noise and increase fuel efficiency, tweaked the wings, but had exactly the same cockpit. In theory, the pilot shouldn’t notice whether they are flying a NEO or not. EASA and FAA fully certified the changes.

737 max changed the cockpit to add an automatic trim adjustment that could crash the plane without building in proper redundant operation or pilot warning as standard (indicator light and AOA display were taken by the lead customer and are likely to become mandatory). They also managed to get the FAA to let Boeing sign it off as being “just another 737”.

Yes. I cycle 4 miles into Edinburgh every day. Apart from ascending several metres to cross one railway bridge, my route is pan flat.
Of course there are hills in Edinburgh, but lots of the principal routes are not hilly at all, and the hills that do exist don’t stop people cycling (however, the cycling infrastructure is piecemeal, doesn’t join up properly and is downright dangerous in places).

I cycle 9 miles into Edinburgh twice a week and there’s a nice big hill in the way. My wife cycled once or twice when we had flat-ish 4-5 mile commutes but won’t do it now and the bus journey is painfully slow so she drives. Council aspirations are mince – the development plan includes acceptance that public transport is mince and has the lofty goal of possibly getting a link into town that can do it in less than an hour door to door.

But the journeys we most need to target aren’t the 9 mile commutes or arguably even the 4 mile flat ones. If you could get all of the 1 mile car journeys on foot or two wheels then that would take 6% of traffic off the roads. Probably a meaningful difference. If you can get 5 mile journeys done by foot/bike/whatever then that’s potentially 50% of journeys in cars got rid of. Put in decent infrastructure and it takes care of itself, because it becomes a pleasant way to move around.

We holiday in the Netherlands reasonably often and I have absolutely no problem doing rides of several miles with the kids to go places. Couple of miles along Lanark Road? No thanks.

And they could add decent sustainable provision for pretty much free at this point.

There is probably a balance to be found somewhere in terms of automation vs making sure that humans are capable of and have the tools available on hand to correct automatic systems when they go wrong.

The anti stall does have an off switch, pilots need to use it to override, stick pulling won’t work. It may not be to blame in this crash, but it sounds a right crappy system. A third sensor for proper redundancy would be a start…

if AF447 had been left to autopilot, it wouldn’t have crashed. They were confused by the info conflicts (which put it into alternate law

AF447, being a bus, has a proper fly by wire system. It behaves quite differently to the Boeing version. When AF447 got confusing data, it switched to alterate law which switches off the autopilot. Basically if the autopilot gets conflicting inputs it goes “WTF – I’m outta here, you have the plane”. The pilots then reacted improperly, and alternate law does not protect the flight envelope in the way normal law does so they crashed.

Not guilty does not mean not his fault. The AAIB are experts and their conclusion seems pretty clear. The verdict just means that the lay jury have decided (based on what they heard & were told in court) that the criminal threshold was not met.

It isn’t inconceivable that the families will pursue a civil claim and that could well find against him due to the different thresholds.

Bail out once the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.

But does Dez’s juice have memory of everyone that has ever squeezed?

He’s only met her for five minutes but she now thinks she’s in a long term relationship

5 minutes in a lifetime is a pretty strong concentration in homeopathy terms.

As for the “hypothetical situation”, I’d suggest the number of people who will undergo the upheaval of gender reassignment in order to win races will be very, very small, so that’s probably a very poor way to start a debate about an important issue.

Except if you read the full article, she explicitly distinguished between those that underwent gender reassignment (she referred to them as trans-sexuals) and those who did not (who she called trans-gender). Her argument is against “women with penises” where the requirement to compete as a woman is to take drugs to manage hormone levels and have them below certain thresholds for 12 months.

Athlete Ally apparently complained that she could have used them as a scientific source and not wherever she did go to research, but they didn’t put forward any science as rebuttal nor do they seem to have any on their website.

McKinnon’s “defence” seems to be mostly that her FTW is nothing special as an elite woman therefore she gains no advantage. I think a better comparison is whether her FTW as a male would be comparatively the same as her FTW as a female. If an athletes “class” is preserved then that would be fair. If a sporty-but-not-elite male can, through drugs alone, compete as an elite female then that seems wrong to me. Or a middle-of-the-pack elite male can become a leading female athlete.

If anyone has any links to the science of it I’d be really interested in reading, it’s a bit of a shame Navratilova didn’t cite her references but then the pro-trans-athlete group aren’t backing up their arguments either and just start shouting “transphobe”

Follow that pensions regulator link above and there is a form for exactly this.

Giving up employment rights, sick pay, holidays, flexible working, etc for only 10k more and double the commute? No thanks.

Commute alone would kill this for me, perm or contract aside.

It has somewhat different needs to the UK as a whole and attempts to address those needs can too easily be over ruled by UK government

UK government has little power to overrule. Matters are mostly either devolved or reserved which quite clearly allocated them to the devolved administrations or UK government. In some cases, legislation is mixed but that is a lot less common.

grow the economy and sort out the aging population

What specific policies would that entail and what are the costs/funding of them? Bear in mind the Growth Commission concluded that Scotland would start independent life with a large deficit and could not find any alternative to a few decades of austerity to sort it out. The SNP

What powers does Scot Gov need that it doesn’t currently have and how would they be used?

Why does growing the economy require independence?

Besides the Growth Commission, I’ve not yet seen anyone propose a Scottish Budget and a costed set of policies that show how we could be different and that also requires independence to make it so. It’s easy to wave hands and say “we need to grow the economy.” It is a lot harder to say how but the how is the key bit. Even the Growth Commission said that some of its objectives could be met with devolved powers but unfortunately it didn’t separate what would be done under existing frameworks from what could be done under independence.

The difference is that the SNP has been considering this and planning for it for decades. They have a reasonable idea of what they want to do.

It would be nice if they could share that with us then! There is no plan, no helpful vision of how things would be set up after independence. Their white paper was nothing more than an unworkable pipe dream which made throwaway statements about some really complex stuff.

It could be done, but it would be more complex than Brexit (and require a more collaborative approach). The current mob appear to have no idea about how to actually do it.

Like it or not, Salmond will have an impact too. He turned the “broad church” into an electoral force and to a fair degree it will wither without a figurehead like him. I don’t like him, but he acheived a lot.

Seosamh – I’d pretty much agree with all of that (I would vote the other way, but not at all costs). Your first two criteria are unlikely to happen any time soon IMHO. The growth commission report has as good as finished the financial argument in the short-medium term. The problem with a second vote is that it encourages hard play by the other side (EU or rUK) to get a really bad deal to swing a second remain vote. I still want one though!

Epicyclo – you need to read a but more about that right to self-determination. Under international law, as it currently stands, territorial integrity take precendence and it doesn’t allow secession by self-determination. Quite a lot has been written on the topic with a few very pointed papers/opinions on Quebec. Internaional law is simply what states agree it is and in some areas the mood is changing, but it hasn’t yet. Crimea’s dodgy vote is a fairly good example of what might happen globally if you recognise secession by self-determination.

Although it’s in the manifesto they stood on last time

It was in a sidebar, buried in the full text. It wasn’t in the summary, short, large print, etc versions. If they really want this, it needs to be front and center as it was previously.

The hill is better than the Bailey for colleges, although as a tourist a walk around the centre is always nice.

Collingwood 1998-2002

A big factor for me would be “how easy would it be to get there if my flights are cancelled?”, because as above you’re taking that risk.

Mostly this risk can be covered by travel insurance. There will be a few exclusions that ATOL probably cover and a lot of insurers won’t, at least on cheaper policies. More of a PITA doing it yourself than just leaving it to ATOL.

Transfers.

ATOL gives you “get me home” cover if something goes really wrong, while with separates it is down to you and your insurer.

ATOL will also cover the whole package for some risks that insurers might avoid (volcanos, etc).

Personally, for £200 I’d buy separately. My only niggling doubt right now is the impact of Brexit and ATOL would be safer.

All tories and DUP will, I think, vote confidence. All other parties will vote no confidence. Giving a slim win for May.

No MP in government is really likely to vote against their own party. She does have 177 who voted against her at the party leadership vote, but they aren’t likely to favour Corbyn/Labour.

Some of her more outspoken critics (within her own party) are speaking in her favour. So still a Conservative government, safe for 12 months but completely unable to get anything through the House. They probably couldn’t even pass wind, let alone legislation, at the moment.

Yep, the government screwed up and so the previous investigation is binned. I don’t think the mistake really aligns with his previously reported arguments around involving him, mediation, etc. Embarassing and wasteful nonetheless and you would think special attention would be paid around this sort of investigation.

The government have said that they will consider re-opening it (and hopefully getting the process right), but can’t do anything until the police investigation has finished.

Doesn’t really seem like a lot has materially changed as a result of this verdict, although I’m sure some will try to present it otherwise. The actual process, which Salmond was trying to subject to a judicial review, still stands and hasn’t been overturned. Same for the allegations and associated police investigation.

But why focus on Gaelic? If this was an effort to show off Gaelic in areas where it is active, or was more prevalent recently, or that has a lot of gaelic history then that would be something I’d probably support.

Police cars in Edinburgh with Poileas is getting a bit silly though. Edinburgh (and its original name) predates the Gaelic language being spoken here and, if memory serves, the Gaelic name for Edinburgh is a translation from another old language.

Scotland has a rich and diverse history, including our languages. Gaelic has been singled out to the exclusion of other aspects of this and turned into something it is not.

How dare they support a native language of their own country? Don’t they know everyone should be speaking English in the colonies?

Gaelic was never the native language for much of Scotland, as much as the SNP now try to pretend it is in an attempt to make us “different”. Broadly, it covered the highlands while the central belt and lowlands spoke Scots (although history is never quite that simple).

Only thing that is missing is a threat to complain to the FCA that they are breaching their authorisations (and thus may have them revoked).

Remove whatever is attracting them, then kill humanely with back breaker traps. Big cheese or rentokil are the ones I use. We had quite a few at one point (removed old shed, which they lived under so they moved into the house). Now we just get them occasioanally and almost always when cold weather arrives.

Alternatively nuke your house from orbit, just to be sure.

How are Rudolph the red nose reindeer and frosty the snowman polling?

That’s pretty impressive work for the Conservatives!

48% of 2016 non-voters say it is wrong and only 18%, right.

Then they should have got off their effing arses and voted. This pisses me right off.

If the younger generation had turned out as well as the older generation did, all polls suggest we would have ended up with a remain result.

Bunch of effing snowflakes and their “I didn’t vote but boo hoo the result from those that did isn’t the one I wanted”. If there is a second referendum (I really don’t see any way of avoiding it) then they had better get down to their polling station and make their voice heard where it counts at the ballot box and not just on social media.

bloody hell this forum is hard work. Can’t seem to fix that formatting.

Standby time is working time if it places restrictions on what you can do. Being available by phone is (probably) not working time, being only a short distance from a certain place is. Minimum wage laws are almost certainly being broken, back pay up to 6 years can be claimed.

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/on-call-standby-shifts-working-time

http://www.oxcow.co.uk/employment-law-national-minimum-wage-standby-arrangements

https://www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work

What counts as working time
For all types of work, include time spent:

• at work and required to be working, or on standby near the workplace (but don’t include rest breaks that are taken)

Met through a sports club. Pulled in a pub. 14 years together, married for 9, with 3 kids is a pretty poor attempt at a one night stand.

I think what I’m seeing is different rules for each parent

This is the part that leaps out for me. It makes things so much harder.

The fact that you a. Care and b. Are trying makes you a lot better than a lot of parents.

Quoting this again because it is true.

I never recall hearing of cases of ‘airborne anaphylaxis’ in previous decades (in which era no-one would countenance banning nuts from schools/workplaces etc).

How far back do you want to go? 20 years ago at uni I had a friend who would start getting swollen lips and throat if someone in the same pub started eating nuts. It was unusual, but not unheard of.

Just about everyone (including medical professionals and academics) will agree that allergies are on the rise. Nobody, to my knowledge, has proven a cause (not a correlation, not a hypothesis, but a p<0.05 cause). Declining breast feeding rates are another correlating factor nobody has mentioned yet.

Yeah, I’ll give you one.

breach of trust of his manager

Oh that’s a good one. A call to ACAS is probably in order.

Note however that if he’s been there less than 2y he has pretty much no rights anyway.

Not true. He has little protection against unfair dismissal but he is still entitled to things like process, notice periods, and the like. You can’t be summarily dismissed with no notice or PILON just because your manager doesn’t trust you.

If he is leaving anyway, avoiding dismissal probably isn’t a major concern but that doesn’t mean the company can ride roughshod over his other employment rights.

Our Alhambra did something similar – NOx sensor at £700 to replace.

Of course, the garage (Arnold Clark franchised dealer) were **** useless and topped up the adblue (with ab out a litre, they had done it only a couple of months previously at the service), then sent us home, next reset the ECU and sent us home, then finally called Seat UK (took some arguing) who got them to read out the engine status with the proper machine which told them the sensor was knacked.

No region quite topped Scotland, although London was only just behind it in terms of remain support. Oh, but we keep getting told that London is politically a million miles away from Scotland (despite it voting Labour and Remain).

Only one of the top ten council areas voting remain is Scottish (Edinburgh, in 10th place).

To treat England as a homogenous leave voting area, based on somewhat arbitrary political boundaries is a little naive. The same is true of treating Scotland as a single entity. Is Haringey (75% remain) really politically closer to Boston (75% leave) than anywhere in Scotland?

Overpaying your mortgage is hardly ever going to be a better plan unless you are struggling with debt. Investment returns should be greater than the mortgage interest, and the incentives of a pension (especially if a higher rate payer) just make that more so.