Festival food is usually c$*p! I know there is a a really nasty lot who extort money from vendors wanting pitches at such events. This is why, as a festival goer, one pays an arm and a leg for utter rot!

What about doing a round of the local industrial parks? There’s no pitch fees there, but take a baseball bat to defend yourself in case thugs come to move you off their turf 😉

Alternatively, you could supply delicatessen and cafe’s.

It’s true what SBZ says; people take on the status of the job that they do.
Consultants charging money to career coach you make convincing arguments for their service, but paying £3500 is way too much. The cheapest i’ve found was £400 and I don’t think you would get too much help for this sum of money. The most expensive one was nearly £8k.

I thought long and hard about the cheaper one, but as there were no guarantees, so I abstained. Had I used them, I pictured myself £3500 lighter, but still without a job and imagining getting the cold shoulder from the these people i’d paid a load of money to help me.

When you aren’t earning a bean, £3500 is kinda important to hang onto!

The only way I would employ the services of a company like this was if they deferred all fees until they delivered, I.E. you get employed. No chance of that!!

I have been looking for work for a long long time now. I’ve got savings, low outgoings and a wife who has a good job, so i have not been forced to seek and take any old job where they will have me. It’s been incredibly tough, but just lately, the finance sector is in good shape. This means they are now starting hiring and spending money again. This has a kncok n effect to service providers and they are hiring more too. I am getting more hits on my profiles on various job board sites, more jobs advertised and even one or two agents contacting me.

LinkedIn hasn’t yielded anything much so far, but i wouldn’t overlook the importance of this. Those hiring prefer to get people without having to pay agency fees!

I think the best way to secure your job is through your old contacts. People who know you are far more likely to give you a chance at something than a total stranger.

The hardest thing for me are the successive ingored applications. I’d say most carefully worded applications I make don’t even get read. I never ever hear back and chasing recruiters up by phone usually results in a range of brush offs. Very disheartening! This affects your confidence over time. I believe the problem is that every Tom Dick and Harry are spamming for jobs with a blanket letter of application. Imagine being a recruiter and having to sift through that lot every day?

My number one bit of advice is never give up. Keep applying, keep calling your contacts. Don’t expect a quick result, it might take more than a year, but keep applying every day (even weekends).

You WILL get there eventually.

Good luck!

The stats shown earlier in this thread by miketually were from 2004!?

The statistics don’t take into consideration the density of population, number of vehicles, accidents per capita, or tell you at what speed the vehicles that did the killing were travelling at. Neither do they show which type of streets the accidents happened on, or whether the pedestrian was behaving recklessly. So the stats are a bit useless.

I think narrow residential streets, streets with high numbers of pedestrians, or any streets with parked cars should have a default 20mph limit, but on condition that all forms of traffic calming in these places are removed.

Urban freeways and main routes should have limits set according to risk to pedestrians and other road users. If main arterial roads were restricted to 20 mph, people would just ignore the limits.

These days, the sheer amount of traffic lights, traffic calming and other things that impede a driver’s progress is cumulatively enough wind them up over the course of their journey. I find people are more inclinded to jump red lights, not give way, accelerate towards people crossing roads etc. I believe this behaviour is due to sheer frustration with the “safer” road schemes created by the numpties in council highways departments. These people overzealously interfere with our roads in the interests of “road safety”, citing how their intervention saves lives! I reckon that most schemes are implemented because of a few complaining residents, not because of actual accidents.

I could quote several alterations near me that have been created lately, which are just dangerous and have caused delays and frayed tempers. There was no issue before the council came along and wasted our ever scarce public money!

One type of traffic calming is particularly dangerous in my opinion. Namely where tables are installed on road where pedestrian trafic islands have always existed, but where there is no pedestiran crossing. This feature clouds who’s right of way it is, giving pedestrians the feeling they are using a proper pedestrian crossing when they aren’t. There was a fatality on one near me last year. Both driver and pedestrian were in their 70’s and the driver thought he had right of way. Clearly, the deceased pedestrian did too. Tragic!

I hate Gaypal! Had similar troubles. Their service falls well short and this smarts given their exorbitant fees!

Can’t believe you had a stag night on the eve of your wedding. That’s just nuts!

Of course! Why shouldn’t the English get the right to determine laws which affect them?

As an example: The Welsh and N. Irish get free prescriptions and the Scots will be getting them free very soon.

Meanwhile in England, our’s are going up to £7.40 and item!

WOW, that’s fair! Who’s going to pay for the free prescriptions the Scots, the Welsh and the N. Irish get?

It’s a real shocker (not) that the 35% of Welsh people who bothered to show up for their referendum voted to grant the Welsh assmbly more powers to set their own laws. A no brainer!

The UK is a place of great inequality and things are just getting worse.

Devolution is highly divisive and not good for the country as a whole.

We spend far too much on politicians as it is, so having separate parliaments for each country is wasteful, but it’s patently unfair that the English have no representation!

I’d go for the one a month idea, but then again I quite like the cluster of Spring Bank Hollidays as they give me an excuse to get out on the bike in daylight on fairly dry trails after suffering through the winter mud in the dark for 4 months.

Easily resolved by moving British Summertime in line with Europe and the same in winter.

Those in Scotland don’t like this idea, so they can have their own time zone, job done!

I don’t know why they make such a fuss up there because it actually gets lighter earlier and gets darker later in this time of year and this effect becomes more pronounced as we move towards the summer solstice. The effect declines gradually after the summer solstice and even by late autumn, it’s still dark in the south well before Scotland is.

Only problem with syncing up with the rest of Europe is that UK time would be permanently out of kilter with GMT (or UTC). Short of moving the meridian line, we would just have to accept the British astronomers were 15 degrees of latitude out from where they needed to be! 😉

My advice is: Either, answer all the same column/number/letter question, or answer the opposite to what you would answer.

I’ve done lots of these tests and the results are usually either generalised/vague, or wrong.

If they are using these tests to generate interview questions, you will probably be answering a question they think they already have the answer to. There’s a good chance you will mess up on this.

These tests are written by clever people who think they have all human traits nailed down, but human psychology just isn’t that easy to measure. So these crude tests are at best vague, at worst, totally misleading! Individuals are much more complex and these tests can’t pick up on this.

How you react to each situation depends on the individual situation and a raft of other things. You may be very compassionate in one predicament and a heartless monster in others etc etc.

In light of this, psychometric testing is only a little more useful than a horoscope! They are not much more than a bit of entertainment.

Anyone using these as a serious point of reference clearly has no confidence in their ability size people up, or are automatons in a big organisation. It’s ridiculous to think that someone in that company believed the bullshit other “experts” fed them!

HR departments are more of a hindrance to business than and aid. What you need is to meet the person you will be working for. What HE/SHE thinks is the only thing which matters! They will principally want to know you have the right experience and expertise for their department and that you will fit in with their team. They will be the judge of your character, not a dumb test!

Regrettably, HR frequently come inbetween applicants and their potential boss. I once had an all day interview which involved these tests and a list of interview questions in the morning. There was a medical and lunch followed by exactly the same interview questions in the afternoon. It was a weird day, they were just weird! I felt as if they didn’t trust anyone and were particularly intrusive insisting on a medical at this stage. I didn’t get the job, nor did i want it, because I got another offer – much better pay and condidtions and the boss seemed relatively normal!

My feeling is that a potential employer should be able to get the measure of you over a couple of interviews. If they can’t do this wothout the support of psychobable tests, they probably aren’t going to be good people to work for.

We have a twofold problem as I see it.

1) Each low paid, low skilled British born worker, when they loose their job stop paying a few thousand in tax each year end up costing many many more times that in benefits. I’d guess it costs the tax payer around £30k a year in lost tax revenue and benefits paid when a British born person gets the push. Once in this situation, it’s very difficult to find a job with a worthwhile wage.

2) Slack immigration rules and EU law enables an influx of cheaper more willing labour to fill those jobs that British born unemployed workers can’t afford to take. These workers tend to share properties to minimise living costs and send any surplus money back to their families in their country of origin. 1st generation immigrants in Slough went through a phase of coverting outbuildings to house these new people. So council tax receipts are down. The only way the council can monitor who lives in each dwelling is by the amount of rubbish which has to be collected. More school places are required for the offspring, more services allround are needed which presents those people who don’t overpopulate their homes with a disproportionate and unfair financial burden. Like local authorities have spare cash to burn!!

Many immigrant workers qualify for UK Child benefit who’s offspring don’t even live in this country, but money is legitimately being sent out of the UK. This is clearly wrong and a disaster for UK public services! (not to mention us poor council tax payers).

It’s all EU loony left socialist ideals that has brought this about and most Britons are angered by such injustices? Are we Brits mugs or what?

So the UK economy looses a lot of discretionary spending. The tax man and the councils get less revenue – everyone suffers!

The issue as I see it is all about people paying their fare share and the UK making employment of British born workers a priority over all others in the interests of the public purse, the interests of British people and preserving the quality of public services.

You don’t get nowt for nowt in this world and as the UK is in general decline in the global scheme of things, we need to stop throwing away money on unworthy causes and look after the long term interests of the UK – PERIOD!

We also need to start to bring back production from the Far East and increase our exports. When we have solved the benefits issue, then we should open our doors to unskilled foreign labour

It is clear that many more people are concerned about this matter than a minority of far right wing boneheads! We should reject this taboo around debating immigration fostered by the socialist thought police.
The subkect needs to be discussed openly by people and with impunity, whatever their politics!

PS, I don’t read the Mail, or the Guardian, they are comics!

LMFAO!

I really must keep off this site. Up until tonight, i’ve been doing quite well lately!

I think a lot of people are in the wrong job (I know I was).

Companies have a habit of turning the thumbscrews, but hoping nobody will pipe up and complain when they squeeze that bit more out of you for nothing in return. A few years of this equates to a real drop in income. We all thrive on a healthy balance of work pressure, but when the line is overstepped, then people start to feel the strain. Perhaps not straight away, but at some point down the line.

This sort of treatment kills loyalty and goodwill. An unhappy worker is damaging for business in many ways.

Competition is fierce and so it’s par for the course for workers to be expected to make sacrifices to keep the operation viable. It’s such a shame that there isn’t a more equal pay structure and the minions were treated with more respect – terrible man management is commonplace here.

Business owners and managers take on a greater responsibility and their worries extend well outside 9-5. We have to bear this in mind, but when your years of mediocre pay and unwavering loyalty culminates in you being drop kicked out the door, it’s difficult to get you head round the fact that all that effort and commitment was in vain. It’s a deep insult!

Going forward, you adopt a “what’s in it for me” attitude, which just isn’t going to set your new employer on fire at the thought of retaining you in hard times. All rather unhealthy!

Then, years after the job has gone and you haven’t been able to find any worthwhile job, you do wonder if you should have adopted a different approach to hang on to that high pressure thankless occupation.

Some people are just unlucky, in work, or without work. It can’t be a bed of roses for us all, there’s always a crock of sxxt to deal with and some get far more than their fair share.

It’s symptomatic of an economy which presents too much red tape to business, too much taxation and when it is almost impossible for us to compete with the diminutive wages paid to people making things in the developing world.

We are in a proper mess caused by profligate public spending over a protracted period and reckless lending. Before that we were exposed to a big sell off and washing of hands of the responsibility of sorting out complex issues with our industry and utility companies. There was an obsession with the ideology that market forces would always prevail, but then we let any Tom Dick or Harry put in their bid and with no checks and balances regarding the longterm impact.

The coallition need to lower taxes, but they simply can’t afford to. The UK is part way into a very long period of austerity and negligible economic growth. If you do have a job, you ARE in a better place than the unemployed millions who are suffering terribly. They are suffering feelings of no hope and desperation and face loosing their homes, marriages and worse! Life certainly isn’t easy these days!

Hate autos! They disconnect you from the driving experience and waste fuel.

The only time they have worked for me is when I was driving in and out and around central London in massive jams day in day out.

Yeah, I saw the film in the cinema this evening, then came home and watched the documentary.

One of the best films i’ve seen in years!

First class acting and such an unusual storyline for a blockbuster movie.

Sounds like she’s now doing at home what she used to do at work

Harsh, but probably true, otherwise she probably wouldn’t have been laid off.

Being unemployed is very tough though.

A wasp the size of a small bird?

It would be pretty satisfying to whack it with a rolled up paper!

Not if you failed and it came and stung you. Probably has enough venom to give you a heart attack/

Superb series!!

Totally agree with the last post, especially

The only people that win if house prices stay high are the banks who tie you into a lifetime of debt.

There should have been a big correction in the housing market when the crisis struck 3 years ago. It didn’t happen then because the governments around the world lead by Gordon Brown (so he claims) pumped money into them by quantative easing. There still hasn’t really been a correction yet. We have seen falls in some areas, but prices are still too high.

Banks created the bubble by lending money they didn’t have and governments made it easier for them to lend recklessly.

It’s been a disaster allowing houses to become so expensive because you can’t afford to move if you own a home and you can’t afford to buy one if you haven’t got one. The cost of ownership is far higher than the property’s true worth.

The irony is that the 4% inflation figure announced today doesn’t even include the cost of housing! It was the Conservatives that removed this many years ago. This makes the headline inflation figure almost completely meaningless. Inflation figures today are just a tool for deceiving people.

Young people have no chance these days, unless their parents earn a mountain of cash, or they are one of the fortunate few who get very well paid jobs. The rest will suffer a lifetime of debt and misery. My guess is that they will all rebal on day. It will be ugly!!

Only if they all agree that our current inflation is a structural one and not a commodities/currency anomaly.

If the latter, buggering around with interest rates wont achieve a great deal.

I think this is largely the case, but with one exception: Bankers’ pay!

Barclay’s profits are up 32% and I know of one Barcap employee who got a substantial raise last year in compensation for reduced bonus payouts. I believe he said the increases were in the region of 50%. I hear today that the average salary for a Barcap employee is £236,000!?

You may think one bank in the city is insignificant, but as there are many of these and they all pay stupidly large wages, they are sure to be having an impact.

There is a trickle down effect with these high salaries and areas where these people live create property inflation hotspots. There is a knock on effect for all – everything costs more, even the comparative prices in your local supermarket. It’s tough luck if you don’t earn mountains of cash!

Increasing interest rates when the wider economy is suffering would be perpetuating the stagnation, making it extremely protracted. A japanese style slump.

Much of the inflation is caused by burgeoning global demand for raw materials and fuel. The rest of the world is not suffering a big downturn, it’s well and truly booming in many places! (China, Brazil etc).

The other cause of our pain are the results of quantative easing. If you devalue your own currency by printing money, expect to pay more for imports! What galls me is that the last government handed all this printed money to the banks, but without any conditions. Of course the banks have screwed us and have continued to do so with great vigour. The surplus money was supposed to be lent to small business, but the banks kept it to rebuild their margins, increase fees, charges and reduced savings rates. They’ve never had it so good!

It’s easy to say we should clobber the banks, but as they drive the economy, we are helpless and will continue to get screwed

Our economy needs the 20 or so foreign banks that are based here. The chancellor also need the tax receipts. Banking and finance makes up a substantial percentage of GDP, (It was over 30% at one stage).

We are deadlocked thanks to the wastefulness of politicians over the past 30-40 years, who used our money and things such as the proceeds of North sea oil to bribe the electorate. We could have built nuclear power stations and held on to our utility companies. We could have done all sorts of things to put us in a strong position, but successive governments have sold off the family silver and sold you and me down the river. UK democracy doesn’t work!

If I go to an instructor, is there any means/liklihood that I could be reported in some fashion as needing to re-sit my driving test?

NO!

A flat torque curve (a la diesel) gives you a linear power curve form 0rpm to the redline.

Actually, this is wrong too. A diesel’s power curve tails off well before the red line.

The power is more linear than a petrol, but not linear per say. The band therefore covers a much wider rev range and commences at much lower revs.

Sighs…………..

More torque (in isolation) does not make a car quicker accelerating.

It just does though!

A flat torque curve (a la diesel) gives you a linear power curve form 0rpm to the redline.

A peaked torque curve (a la petrol) gives a progressively steeper curve that flattens out towards the readline.

Which is why a petrol engine has to be “on the boil” to get optimum performance. You need to be driving in this narrow slither of peak operating power the whole time if you want top acceleration/performance. This is why motor racing starts involve engines run almost to bursting point. It’s noisy, wasteful and tiresome driving this way.

So to everyone who keeps blabbering on about the low down grunt of a diesel, please remember that at the end of the day the petrol has a flatter power band which is the point at which you get peak acceleration.

The petrol is not flatter, the diesel is! (supported even by your own admission above so you are contradicting yourself)!

And its not just diesels that have the ability to overtake without changeing gear, stick your foot into the axminster in a big petrol engine and it has just the same effect as it does in the big diesel, only if you keep your foot there you reach the peak power a little earlier in the petrol (rev wise) and a lot earlier (time wise).

Wrong again! The big diesel has vastly more torque than the big petrol (it’s to do with compression ratios). Peak power covers a wider band in a diesel and at lower RPM’s, so you get to peak power much sooner (almost immediately). A big petrol engine has the equivalent torque of a modest turbo diesel – fact! The modest diesel uses a third of the fuel of the big petrol, or less.

I can drive the midget arround in 4th on B-roads, just like i could a diesel, only its not fun, having the option to rev the tits off it through the power band ocasionaly, now thats fun!

Each to his own! I personally like smooth power delivery, a smooth swift drive with minimal noise, using whatever gear is required for that experience. I don’t need a horrible row from a petrol engine to reassure me i’m going fast, besides, all others think you’re an anti-social cock when you make such a disturbance to the peace of the countryside!

Another poster said that a diesel, when thrashed, uses negligibly less fuel than a petrol. This isn’t true either! Sure, a diesel when caned has poor economy, bit it’s still very much better than a petrol on consumption. Seeing as normal people only drive like this for 2-3% of the time they are at the wheel, the issue is irrelevant.

Suit and tie!

Nada!

Just enjoy it.

It won’t last if you don’t make a fuss.

Get the missus to try and get the wain in a routine during the day so the child sleeping is more likely when you need to sleep.

Having said all that, some babies just won’t sleep whatever you do.

It will pass.

You will have other hassles to look forward to. Best try and enjoy these. None of them last.

My generation managed to swerve most of the appalling cheap American cartoons. We had quality stuff like this…..

It ain’t never gonna be cool

Did the poster mean to type “ever”? That’s a double negative mate, or were you trying to sound cool?

People who worry about being cool: Flufy wuffies who get wet pants if they think they will impress all the other fluffy wuffies around them! The sort of closed thinking people who follow the crowd.

Forget cool, when selecting a handset. Aside from having a slick practial UI, ask the questions: “is this right for me“. “is it flexible and open to multiple providers”, “is it good value”, “will it take a memory upgrade”.

Android is obliterating Apple because it ticks all these boxes.

Apple stole a march with it’s top performing UI, but fails miserably in key areas. What discerning customers want it the UI of an iPhone and the flexibility of Android.

iSheep will always love Apple as they know no better, but meanwhile, the value conscious discerning smart phone user will buy Android handsets.

These people are the product of a permissive society.

There is no legal way of getting them to behave and the Police won’t do anything unless they catch them red handed. Even then, the soft CPS will let the offenders off half the time. It’s not surprizing that these offenders have no fear of the law!

You can’t use violence or break the law yourself, so you have two options:

1) Move house.

2) Put up with it, fit very high security and involve you neighbours in some sort of patrol system.

I totally support the idea of charging drunks to get A and E treatment and have advocated this in the past!

Drunks should also have to wait ina dryon out room until they are sober before getting treatment(if their condition isn’t life threatening). They should be charged for this too.

Also, the people who are under the influence, but not drunk should go to the back of the queue until all the sober people have been treated.

You think that’s harsh? Nonsense! Becoming blind drunk and then getting injured is a clear case of irresponsibe behaviour that society should not have to tolerate or bear the cost of!!

A sober, but seriously ill woman was featured on the news recently. She died waiting patiently for 10 hours because of the number of drunks in her A&E.

I sometimes listen to paramedics who are sick and tired of clearing up the carnage caused by thoughtless idiots who waste everybodies time and public money, week after week. The Police would concur as would the A&E staff who are routinely abused.

I say make the drunks pay!! People who can’t temper their behaviour should have to suffer the consequences and no support staff should have to put up with the abuse.

I thought the oylpic committee had given the legacy of the stadium due diligence to get best value for the tax payer and that all was in hand.

Rather than have an expensive white elephant that has no commercial function after the few weeks of use during the olympics, they decided to build an expensive white elephant that is intended to be torn down, to be replaced with another structure!?!?

At one stage the olympic committee were telling potential buyers that the stadium had to remain as an athletics venue. How would that ever work commercially?

What a massive waste of public money!! Good old left wingers and their unfathomable profligacy and commercial naivety!

The Guardian said it, so it must be so! 🙄

Find me an unbiased source of news.

I wouldn’t touch Nissan with a bargepole after the experiences we’ve had with the Qashqai we bought new in 2007.

There have been a catalogue of faults, some which Nissan haven’t been able to rectify.

It’s been a highly regrettable move buying this car and the dearship experience has been painful and/or expensive.

Going on my experience of this vehicle and comparing it to the numerous cars i’ve had, the quality of Nissan cars is distinctly sub-par.

Actually, come to think of it, I had another Nissan for a while back in the 90’s. It was someone else’s cast off in the company car fleet and that was rubbish too.

high calible

What’s that then? 😆

Personally, I wouldn’t use recruiters at all.

Specialist head hunters might be a good route, but word of mouth and networking is king.

If you believe what your read in such a hugely left wing biased rag, you must need your head seeing to!

Did the Guardian have much to say about Margaret Hodge slating the way Labour wasted a billion pounds on the M25 widening scheme? I doubt it, but sure enough, we tax payers will have to foot the bill.

I can’t believe an intelligent person can take socialism seriously after the last government’s 13 year charade! WAKE UP GUYS!

Easing corporation tax will make UK businesses more competitive and will attract investment. Global companies will choose to base themselves here too.

Financial institutions will be more successful and so in turn will be the investors. Investors such as local authorities, pension providers etc etc.

Increased business for these firms will generate opportunities for the legion of companies that provide services right down the foodchain.

Increased business will mean higher tax receipts too.

I guess a muppet with their judgement on the economy clouded by a fog of left wing ideology would just not get that!

Is that scone as in ‘gone’?
Or scone as in ‘cone’?

It’s the former. Ask a chef if you don’t believe me.

Another often mispronounced word which comes to mind is “speccies”.

Incorrectly pronounced “spee-shees” when the correct way is “spee-sees”.

It’s amazing how many get that wrong, but hey, language evolves over time and so there is in the end no right or wrong. If enough people get it wrong, it becomes right!

Take “tenter hooks” for example, often replaced with the word “tender hooks”. No such thing as tender hooks, but tenter hooks were attached to wooden frames to help dry out fabrics etc to prevent shrinkage. Eventually this word got used as a way of conveying a sense of dicomfort, or anxiety.

Use a Garmin Foretrex.

Hahaha, so funny – The passion people have about something of no significance whatsoever!

5.0l V8 Supercharged, 510 horses, 625 torques, 0-60 4.6 seconds.

the sort of information that appeals to cocks!

£70k new, £25k in a couple of years (or less).

May just as well just Sellotape a bunch of £50 notes together and use it as bog roll.

Cars – boring!

Me thinks that a lot of “plastic” American metal bands in the 80’s have given the public a jaundiced view of the genre of heavy rock.

The 70’s was the era for heavy rock and there were some total gems produced in that decade. The genre was pretty diverse too.

This was before the days of fans’ moronic air guitaring and headbanging.

Watching the superbowl is like watching rugby; a bunch of big blokes thumping the crxp out of each other. Skill level:1 Brawn level:5

Most types of football are pretty boring to watch IMO. If your team are winning, it’s all good. If they are loosing, the whole event is depressing.

I witnessed this and people watched at a large gathering when England were playing someone or other last summer. Everyone was really stressed then pixxed off after the final whistle blew. Why bother? It’s just a game! Why pick a passtime that has only two, or perhaps three outcomes? Chances are you will have a bad experience week after week. And that’s supposed to be fun?

Spectating is a passtime of little complexity, or one where you can have any interaction. If you enjoy being part of a rowdy rabble and get some sense of “belonging” when in a group who have whipped themselves up into a frenzy, good luck to you.

I really don’t understand the widespread fascination with these sports. It’s a complete and utter mystery to me!

They are useless!

The situation needs legislation to protect consumers!

They are worse than a bunch of two bit seconhand car salesmen in the way they trick and con customers.

1st bit of legislattion should be, before any new provider takes over your supply, that they take a meter reading.

I can think of lots of other conditions, such as contracts signed by both parties BEFORE any new supply is initiated.

We were supposed to have a regulator set up to protect our interests when utilities were privatized, but it appears they are toothless and do little for our cause. They are just an expensive bureaucracy it would seem.

Can someone please explain why there are only two teams that play the Supebowl?