The general populous has some very misguided or ill-informed views on doctors

The general populous has some very misguided or ill-informed views on many junior professions in the public sector, whether they are doctors, teachers, paramedics, lawyers etc. They seem to think they are all on MPs salaries and perks.

There is that. We work with lots of docs & consultants and they are not afraid of splashing the cash around very liberally and mostly have very lavish lifestyles/cars/houses etc.

I would guess that there are always many more junior doctors than high paid GPs/consultants. So as a junior doctor there is no guarantee you’ll ever be able to move into a more lucrative posts and chances are you stay poorly paid all your career. (i may be wrong though)

From that NHS link

For a doctor in specialist training the basic salary is between £30,002 and £47,175.

If this is like most government pay scales, no doctor would ever reach the £47 max (no such thing as annual increments). They would more likely bump along the bottom until they moved on to a more lucrative post.

First year out of uni (still training?) £20-25K

Do doctors get paid while training?

35k when fully qualified at a guess.

I’ve got a £400 metal shed that I could break into with my bare hands, and a £1200 assguard that seems slightly more secure than my house. You pays yer money etc..

Did he catch many fish?

Every middle aged gent ought to have at least one cravat in his wardrobe.

Taking in, feeding, housing and clothing those fleeing from war, politics and famine is laudable and of course should be done.

But its throwing money at a symptom while ignoring the cause, which seems to be that the whole middle east has descended into new levels of barbarity and anarchy.

Leaving aside whose fault it is, what can be done to turn back into an area where one can live, work and bring up families in peace and moderate prosperity?

Presumably the drink driving laws would still apply to an autonomous vehicle, as the human inside would still be in charge.

Or can we all get bladdered and tell the car to take us home?

The “but it’s a tourer innit” comment kinda irks me as my (and most other) gnarmac/bridleslayer is about 20lb lighter than the average tourer.

So its a “lightweight tourer innit”?

It’s going to be an excellent adaption just like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie

I assume this is sarcasm!

Didn’t they used to be called “rough stuff bikes” or “rough stuff tourers”?

Far too evocative of wool plus twos and cotton duck saddle bags for toady’s marketing departments though.

I saw some white dog poo the other day. I was tempted to take a photograph.

At 1% interest, you’d double the money in 300 years but, as you say, it will be worth less than what you put in.

70 actually

ISA at 1.5% compound and it would take about 45. 2.5% (assume interest rates will rise) and it’ll take about 30.

I always think it quite sad that a degree is only ever linked to future employment/earning potential, rather than a good education being a thing worth having in itself.

People seem to understand why you might blow 30k on a swanky new car but not why you might blow 30k because you would like to acquire a greater appreciation of medieval art.

I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke, it often actually makes me physically ill. However the smell of pipe tobacco and pipe smoke is wonderful.

I put this down to the fact that my dad smoked a pipe when I was a kid.

Same here. And cigars can smell quite nice as well

What is the difference between pipe tobacco, cigar tobacco and cigarette tobacco that makes them smell so different?

Actually, I quite like the smell of pipe tobacco.

Can we make an exception for pipe smokers?

Cigarette smoke is pretty unpleasant stuff if you have to breath it in and I’m glad I no longer have to suffer it in office spaces, but I’ve never got the whole “smoking is disgusting” thing. Unpleasant and unhealthy, yes.

The farmer looked quite concerned and shouted ‘Quick, look aggressive or he will knock you to the ground and try and mount you’

He would probably have charged you extra for that!

It might take balls, but turning up on Monday as if nothing happened might be a good idea.

No need to make up crap about a stolen phone, if asked just say you didn’t receive the text.

Your boss will then have to sack you face to face and, as everyone on STW knows, people are a lot braver when they aren’t sat in the same room as each other.

He might just offer you some better terms to avoid a scene.

Sister once had all her family’s washing stolen off her line. A couple of days later she found it on her doorstep, all neatly folded.

They were willing to risk being rear ended at high speed.

Thing is, if something runs out in front of you, you hit the brakes before thinking about it.

With hindsight it may have been safer to run over the bunny and avoid being rear ended by a tail-gater, but humans are slow. We don’t have the thought speed and reaction times of a Cray computer.

I thought it was rather earlier than that – hardly a modern thing anyway.

Whether it is “modern” depends on your point of view. I suppose it depends on how long your memory is.

It is part of the trend in upping the level of general education required before you can take on a professional qualification. In both teaching and nursing the entry requirement used to be A-levels plus professional qualification. Now it is degree plus professional qualification.

In the context of this thread that means three more years study. Factor in the lost earnings as well as the 40k plus debt. Is that necessary? Are you really doing your job 40k+ betterer because of it?

Still, if it upsets you, delete “teaching” and subsitute a profession of your choice. Banking perhaps?

Would it be preferable for teachers to be less educated?.

Of course not. But you are confusing what is preferable to what is necessary and affordable.

And I think you are confusing being well educated (which i am all in favour of) with having a degree. 😀

Since when has teaching not been a graduate profession?

Early/mid 80s?

Now those who do well repay something, it’s a better system if you just ignore the numbers.

I’m not so sure. Because of the huge expansion in tertiary education a degree is now becoming an entry level qualification. Teaching and nursing being the obvious but not only examples of this. So you are creating a lot of needless debt with the only obvious beneficiary being the university “industry”.

I believe under the latest rules the debt is written off after 30 years.

I also believe the debt has been sold to a private company. Or is that just the administration of the debt?

Sounds like the government is just deferring the cost of funding university and they’ll have to swallow the debt in the end. (a bit like PFI?)

I don’t think anyone had anything bad to say about Terry Pratchett when he died?

Quite often when passing a dog and his walker, I find I say hello to the dog not the human.

I do this as well. Probably because my attention is on the dog, not its owner (who can normally be relied on not to jump in front of me).

Rule of thumb used to be that hoods should be at roughly saddle height for touring.

Yup, stupid rule.

Not really. Use proper deep drops and start off with hoods or bars at saddle height. Adjust up and down to suit your riding.

Deeply unfashionable and no longer easy with modern frame and fork design. But I reckon that’s why shallow drop bars seem so popular now – people are forced to have their bars set too low to start with.

TBH the speeds for stages 10 and 18 don’t seem that high. I’m sure there are a few 1st and 2nd cats that could manage that at the end of a criterium (but not during a three week tour!) Were those stages into the the wind or uphill?

See seat post height. It’s how all bikes were once!

I think Wicki is referring to the height of the handlebars. It looks like a real “head down arse up” TT machine!

Rule of thumb used to be that hoods should be at roughly saddle height for touring.

If the quote was in writing and set out in such a way that a reasonable person would believe that the total quoted would be the total amount to pay then I reckon you might be justified in telling him that is all you will pay.

If the quote was verbal or there was anything on the quote that might lead a reasonable person to think tax would be added to that total, then I think you need to chalk it up to experience.

You also might want to check that the accountant IS actually VAT registered.

Did he give you a written quote? If so does it mention tax anywhere, or include his VAT number?

Ask him if he’ll give a discount for cash.

I’m thinking of replacing my ancient 705 as the software keeps playing up.

Do you have to buy new OS maps for the Edge Touring or would it run my old Memory Map OS maps?

If it were the other way up, the “GIVE” would have to be written quite small.

Anybody seen a weather report?

A bit of rain could cause havoc on those descents.

You would have though Froome and co would have learn’t from the cheating Texan who was”on another planet”.

If I was a world class athlete, and on the juice, I would make sure my performances were only just better than my rivals.

For example, If I had already put a couple of minutes into a top climber, I would have finished on his wheel, looking knackered, rather then storming past him.

I would imagine that pay is not the primary motivating factor for anyone interested in becoming an MP.

Make it National Minimum Wage (+expenses) and you’d still get the same lot running for parliament.

Back in the day when Cipollini was king of the sprinters, all through July a guy used to turn up at our local 4th cats races in full Saeco team kit and matching Cannondale. Once the Tour was over he reverted to his Reading Road club kit.

Completely against the rules, but the judges all turned a blind eye and it raised a few laughs. Which was the intention.