when I renew my children’s passports next week they will be British ones with all the status and privilege that that confers.

You are joking, right?

I doubt you’d get away with it at the gyle, but you could easily park on redheughs avenue and take the 35 bus, which incidentally didn’t cost taxpayers a billon pounds. I’ve parked there for 4-5 days when away on business, can’t see why 12 would be a problem.

I read the book that the documentary is based on a couple of weeks ago, it’s a fantastic piece of sports writing. You know the outcome but it still feels like you’re reading a thriller, and it still feels like it’s a kid who’s just a huge cycling fan telling the story. Much more detail than the film too.

I have a lenovo z575, so fairly budget, must be about 2 and half years old now. It does everything we need it to (just the usual office and web browsing/netflix etc.), given us no problems, it’s well built and is lasting fine. It’s not looked after that well, my wife drops it after falling asleep watching netflix most nights but it still looks pretty much like new.

Edit to add – trackpad works fine for me.

There’s a guy in my office who is an utter douchebag when it comes to cars (actually he’s an utter douchebag when it comes to most other things too). He drives a 3 series and loudly gives the whole office daily clarkson-esque reviews of its power delivery and road-holding prowess. It’s not unusual to hear him use the phrase “the drive of your life”. Anyway, he’s the kind of guy who thinks a car is a status symbol. I think he’s a dying breed and comes across as increasingly knobish even to other people who like cars. I think a car is a tool, and I quite like the fact that my £200 banger does the same job as his beemer.

Edit to add that my various bangers get far more comments in the office than the douchebag’s beemer, which clearly annoys him. Probably because a 1991 Peugeot 309 tends to stand out parked in a sea of BMWs and Range Rovers.

I’m going out to take my campervan for a drive

Never heard it called that before.

Use the search function?

My current car is full of clever gadgets: windows that go up and down (manually) a (manual) sunroof, windscreen wipers with two(!) speeds, a radio/cassette player, seats, a heater, the list goes on.

I’ve not got much to add except a warning for anyone in Scotland not to use McEwan Fraser under any circumstances. I paid them a lot of money to not really bother their arses to sell my flat and they ended up being one of the most lazy and dishonest (in my opinion of course) companies I’ve ever experienced.

When it came to renting out the flat instead I did it myself and it was reasonably straightforward. It wouldn’t be an option if I didn’t live pretty close to the flat though.

Hodgson – House on the Borderland.

Looks good, thanks. Never would have found that myself.

Geoffj, I’ve worked for a couple of “gloabl player” organisations, which is what the OP is talking about here, and before I moved in-house I worked with dozens of companies from start-ups to huge multi-nationals, so I do have a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about.

What people often forget is that roles and bandings have been evaluated for a reason – so that the positions and salaries match up and people with the same skills are paid broadly equally. If I’ve got a team of 5 engineers on band 6 and I hire 1 more on band 7, it’s only a matter of time before the original 5 want a bump to band 7 as well. If the new guy doesn’t have any more skills than the rest of the team I don’t have a leg to stand on – if he’s a specialist in a niche area I might be able to justify it. Not all companies are top payers, some prioritise benefits over base salary, as an external candidate you have little to no influence over what banding your role sits in: other than making an exception to the banding, which is fairly unlikely, you might get a committment to re-evaluate the role and banding in 6 months or so.

As I said the best thing you can do is have an honest conversation and make a decision on the merits of the offer you receive.

I’d try and keep the post manager involved if possible. To HR, it’s a desk exercise of following the guidelines, the post manager will (should) have more interest in getting a happy candidate.

Not true. For one thing, it’s HR who have to deal with unhappy candidates when they become unhappy employees. For another, HR will be speaking to the line manager anyway and if there are exceptions to be made it will be HR who control that process. If the point of contact you’ve been given for the offer is HR then you should respect that.

As a recruiter I don’t often negotiate after the point where I’ve made an offer, especially when it would mean breaking a banding structure. It is possible though, depending on how hard it is to find someone with your skills there may be an internal process they need to go through to make an exception to the banding.

Honesty is the best policy here – just explain where you are and ask them if there’s anything they can do. If they’re a company worth working for they’ll be honest in their response.

I know exactly how you feel. My cat’s been suffering from heart failure, up and down over the past month. We were at the vet on Thursday night and he was optimistic but he started to go downhill on Saturday. I tried to give him his medication (which he always hated) and I think the stress of it was just too much. He had a couple of big coughs and a small seizure then he was gone. Miss him already.

Ninfan seek help. Seek professional help. I’m done with you, like I said I hope one day you get the perspective you so badly need.

Actually, no I didn’t vote for Blair and I think the illegal war he led us unto is abhorrant. Difference is I never once said the innocent civilians of Iraq or Afghanistan can ‘get f*cked’.

At least accept some responsibility for your views, your whataboutery is pathetic.

I really don’t think you get it Ernie – my position is simple, until the Gazans stop firing rockets, they can get F**ked!

You’ve lost it , totally lost the plot. Assuming you’re not just some immature troll and you actually believe this stuff your attitude is staggering and you should be ashamed of yourself. I hope one day you can look back at your views today and see how ugly they are. I actually pity you a bit.

How many rockets did the 414 dead Palestinian children fire before Israel killed them? 115 of them were under 5 years old. You just supported the murder of 115 preschool children.

No answers at all from Darling. No answer to the bigger risk of being in bed with the Tories and EU ref.

Was pleased with 36mpg out of my 23 year old Peugeot 309 when I calculated it today. For an engine largely in the late 1960s I think that’s pretty good.

Yep, higher rate tax payer. The small print says I don’t get to choose the first company car, I get whatever they have spare with time left on the lease, until its lease is up. That’s OK if it’s a few weeks or couple of months, don’t fancy someone else’s choice for a couple of years!

I’ll see what’s on the list but my thinking just now is to take the car, I’m unlikely to get much decent with the cash left after tax so feels like company car would be worth it for less hassle, so long as the tax isn’t excessive.

Polish – yes. Touch up paint – maybe, diy if you can be bothered. Replace wiper – yes.

When I was at uni, before the chain poundlands and the like, the local pound shop sold non dolphin friendly tuna, think it was 6 or 8 tins for a pound. It definitely didn’t taste like normal tuna, bit there were probably a number of factors at play there.

Isn’t the whole raison d’etre of STW to say ‘I told you so’?

Fair enough, I saw “UK combined average” but I guess the original statement might have been about comparing the countries.

So different to the county of England then?

Just referencing the thread title/OP – don’t think it’s much use to view a single Scottish average vs. a rest of UK average as there’s too much variation within the “region”. Same would be true of comparing England to UK average. Might be more value in comparing say Strathclyde or Mersyside to the UK average, although means are crap anyway.

There’s a massive variation within Scotland on wages and cost of living, Aberdeen vs Edinburgh vs Highlands vs Lanarkshire for example. It’s almost as if Scotland is a country not a region…

I’m absolutely on the Israelis side.

You’re on the side that’s just attacked a UN school full of refugees, killing 15. A school that they’d been warned about and given the precise location of 17(!) times. The side that’s been condemned by the UN, that ignores international law, that’s committing genocide, and that’s just the past 24 hours.

I saw a wounded 5 year old Palestinian girl on the news tonight ask why and what she had to do with all this.You’re on the side that knowingly bombed the UN school she was sheltering in. Sleep well tonight, won’t you.

I’ve driven that road countless times and I’ve stayed at that hotel – but had no idea this existed!

I think a picture of a Skoda yeti towing a caravan and taking up 3 parking spaces captioned ‘practical and fun’ may just be the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen! :D

I presume you were happy enough to move in knowing he didn’t have an HMO? He’s in the wrong about that clearly but it would be massively dickish to make a fuss about that at this stage. So in answer to the first of your questions I fear that ship has already sailed…

I’ve no intention of letting him suffer, I think if the higher does age doesn’t work it wouldn’t be fair to put him through the draining again. He’s been so good to us I want to balance what’s right with not giving up on him.

Israel is a terrorist state, no doubt about it. I’m genuinely ashamed of our government, past and current, for standing idly by and allowing this to happen.

Chrome browser, hola plugin, fill your boots.

For goodness sake don’t do anything until you’ve logged on to at least one cycling forum and asked strangers on the internet what they’d do. Under no circumstances should you seek actual medical advice, from professionals, and definitely don’t read the label on the fluid bottle either.

Life is dreadfully hard sometimes.

I always thought the people who said they’d celebrate when Thatcher died were out of order. However, with Blair I understand exactly how they feel, I’ll be setting off fireworks and dishing out jelly and ice cream. I hope they televise his last moments so we can all see the precise second he realises there is no god. That might seem harsh but I remember watching the bombing of Baghdad live on TV, and doesn’t the bible say an eye for an eye?

A deeply evil, dangerous lunatic and a stain on humanity.

I once advised my insurance company that my car had been stolen – despite making it clear that I had no interest in making a claim (cheap car, high excess, just not worth it), they increased my premiums anyway. Thanks very much – I’ve just demonstrated to you that I won’t make a claim even when I’m entitled to and that makes me more of a risk. I would never inform them now, unless I was certain I was going to make a claim or if I was at fault.

I’ve not gone to my own leaving do before. Colleagues said I need to have one. Told them I don’t like any of them and if they arranged it I wouldn’t go. They thought I was joking, arranged a night out. I wasn’t, didn’t go. Never spoken to any of them since – result.

Buying a caravan is a sure sign that a person has given up on life. If I ever buy one it will be at that moment that I realise life really hasn’t turned out how I planned and I’ll pause to reflect on where I went so terribly wrong.