How credit works, Aprs, mortgages, insurance, Stamp duty, tax and pensions.

Which should be in place well before further education level, as the maths complexity required is actually fairly low and perfectly understandable at pre GCSE level.

Sunak’s announcement is nothing more than a distraction that won’t actually happen, but allows right wing commentators to blather on about it for a while instead of focussing on some really existential Tory nastiness currently going on. See also; the Harry and Meghan non story.

You can lean to the left and still prefer a system with fewer unions

that’s not what I was basing my throwaway 10 second opinion on though; it was where you readily placed the blame for the destruction of British industry in the 80s. It’s a complex and multifaceted subject for sure, but you seemed to be quick to blame unions wholeheartedly, rather than recognise the greed of the owners of the means of production and the ideologically driven Tory government who were prepared to use MILITARY INTELLIGENCE to undermine working class people daring to want to be recognised fairly for their part in wealth creation.

Multiple unions fighting their own little corner in a confrontational manner to the detriment of the general workforce.

I’ve come across this sort of behaviour from time to time. Disappointing when a union rep can’t seem to understand the concept of ‘United we stand’, but failing to see the big picture is not a uniquely unionist trait.

I have far more frequently come across the adversarial approach TO unions being demonstrated by management though. It’s like they see them as the enemy automatically, rather than representing the work force that they espouse to value so highly (in words if not in actions).

@Edukator I don’t doubt your educational credentials; but your resulting opinions seem to have swayed somewhat to the right. Other opinions are available; see @sandwich ‘s excellent post above.

I’m not a big fan of the EU, for what it’s worth. I’m just even less of a fan of the Tory government. So when asked to ‘take back control’, I looked long and hard about who would then gain said ‘control’ and thought, ‘nope’, give me Brussels any day.

(I know that we (Whitehall, rather) still actually had plenty of control…)

10%/10% employee/employer or is it different now?

I pay 12.5%, for a pension that is half a version that penalises me for taking it before 67, and half that penalises me for taking it after 60. I have literally no idea whether this ridiculous situation can be fixed. Probably not. Thriving bar stewards.

I have no idea about the ‘employer contribution’ but as it’s just the government basically shuffling made up numbers around, it’s irrelevant. There’s no pot anyway, my contributions just go to the treasury, and the treasury pays out the pensions. It’s all smoke and mirror bullshit.

5 minutes on Twitter reminds me what a wonderful place STW is.

a massive amen to this. Twitter is bloody horrible.

developing the life skills of analysis, debate, etc. will equip kids far more

there is NO WAY that Tories will ever support giving the proles the tools to even start to recognise and counter their corrupt, mendacious, immoral behaviour. Just not gonna happen.

An ill educated population is essential for their world view of the vast majority of us as cattle to be milked and then slaughtered to keep them in their finery.

Red Robbo and his mob weren’t into collaborating and contributing to efforts to produce cars to compete with imports and other brands, they were intent on sabotaging the company that paid their wages

a bit of convenient rewriting of history there. Robinson understood that the company needed to be successful in order to be able to share its success with its workers; it was the bosses, backed by the government that failed to recognise this.

“If we make Leyland successful, it will be a political victory. It will prove that ordinary working people have got the intelligence and determination to run industry”.

-Derek Robinson

What chance did the bloke have when bloody MI5 were deployed to discredit and disrupt him? FFS.

I also won’t take lessons on condescension from you, tj….

you probably should though.

Yours, impartial observer.

Can’t see why there’s so much enthusiasm about him on here personally.

Re. his Brexit views; nobody is perfect, but at least he articulates an opinion that is based in his and his members honest experience, that isn’t obviously rooted in underlying fear of brown people. So he’s worth listening to, even if only to understand where we are now.

Other than that, his sublime ring running around reporters, interviewers and MPs time after time are just golden to watch. I don’t think he’s destined for politics, he’s too straight forward. But he’s a likeable, obviously dedicated individual who knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. More power to his elbow.

Teej, I share your dislike of the rhetoric that comes from Streetings mouth, but I heard an interview with him the other day where he was allowed to clarify his position; he wants to lean on private providers in the short term, but then reduce the reliance on them massively as NHS provision is improved. I think it’s a simplistic idea, fraught with pitfalls and obvious issues, but it’s not the ‘private healthcare is the only answer’ position that he’s been painted as saying.

wouldn’t trust FullFact as far as I can throw them. An organisation with dubious funding and motivations.

Hmmm.

I dunno, but that sounds like extreme tinfoiledhattery to me. Mediabiasfactcheck.com provides referenced facts that suggest that Fullfact is as close to unbiased as you can get and the funding is pretty transparent, it has to be to be granted charitable status, after all.

From that site;
‘ Full Fact is a very well-sourced, thorough fact-checker. We consider them to be a top fact-checker in the genre, with the likes of Politifact and Factcheck.org. MBFC endorses Full Fact as a highly credible fact-checker. (D. Van Zandt 11/29/2016) Updated (11/18/2022)’
And;
‘ In review, Full Fact is a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). They do not use loaded words in their fact checks and always source properly. A factual search reveals they have not failed a fact check and are, in fact, a certified fact-checker.’

If there’re bending the truth to influence your thinking, then they are exceedingly good at it. More likely that your thinking has already been influenced to such a point that things like ‘truth’ and ‘facts’ don’t line up with your world view.

That’s way better than just buggering off…

legally, I’m sure you’re right.
Ethically, I’m with Ernie all the way on this. Why should being honest and decent cost him potentially thousands in additional premiums over the next six years or so, when there was no actual cost to the insurance company? They always get their money in the end, anyway.

Christ, this thread has the best and worst aspects of human nature manifest.

And also insurance companies, which are just legalised and compulsory participation scams.

how to identify and manage drug-seeking behaviour,

We have no such guidance in our field, perhaps because of being prehospital and largely not doctor led. I’d be really curious to read any info you could link to in order to help me figure out a plan for this individual. Appreciate it.

I can’t go into specifics for obvious reasons but this individual is IMO cynically exploiting treatment protocols and the fact that they never get the same ambo clinicians twice in order to be given pain relieving medication; they claim certain injuries that are hard to rule out in the prehospital setting and this often leads to the administration of some fairly heavy duty medication. They repeatedly get conveyed to hospital, yet never get admitted following investigations in ED. Indeed on some occasions due to offloading delays they have taken there own discharge from the ambulance before making it through the doors. This behaviour is taking ambulances away from people who really need them for hours at a time, which in normal times is bad, but right now is absolutely criminal (literally IMO).

I’m aware that the police won’t be interested, but I’m hoping that the NHS counterfraud authority can be persuaded to get involved. There’s an not inconsiderable financial implication to the NHS because of the individuals behaviour, and NHS resources are kind of at a premium right now.

Thank you, appreciated.

Rear wheel drive, remember. Presumably they’d have to slam the brakes on hard as soon as the driven wheels were on the ramps (or knock it into neutral and coast up I suppose). The speed differential between the car and truck is low.

The last sentence is crucial. Like you say, rear wheel drive, and an auto box make this manoeuvre a (relative) piece of cake; the mass of the car hardly changes velocity at all, only the drive train, which is engineered to do exactly that with ease (imagine a four wheel lock up at speed; similar sudden drive train velocity change). A little chirp of the tyres as they rapidly change rotation speed and you’re done. Probably doesn’t even need much throttle adjustment; rolling resistance suddenly reduces but a gradient is introduced.

What is much more impressive is getting those front wheel drive, manual minis up into the coach on a winding Italian mountain road! Some clever clutch and gear work there.

But then I read the following and decided to remove the word “sadly” 🙂

Ouch! That stung, lol. It’s not that bad, honestly. The kids actually enjoy doing the chores, and a bit of healthy competition never hurt anyone. It’s a good system.

Chores aren’t called chores, they’re somewhat HebdenBridgely called ‘Collective Acts’.

I like that. It’s the same philosophy behind our chores, and our poker chip scheme just formalises it and adds a bit of healthy competition between the kids. The chores are all equivalent to your CAs, they are also expected to do the personal responsibility activities.

I appreciate that some parents don’t want the hassle and just do it all themselves, it definitely would be. But bigger picture, it’s a good habit to get them into and the idea of working together for a common good can’t be a bad one. We are raising good kids who aren’t afraid of a bit of housework and don’t see it as beneath them, which is a worrying trend I see amongst some of the younger generation.

Much easier to just put out the bins

as a manager of (mostly) young (mostly) fairly intelligent and independently spirited people, I’m not quite sure whether parenthood has informed my work or work has informed my parenting. Either way, putting the bins out yourself may be easier once, but you’ve made a rod for your own back there… there’s ways and means of motivating kids and professionals alike.

However, in hindsight it was bizarre that the show did not have 1 black character.

actually, there were nineteen, including a few intermittently recurring characters. (Not a DoH nerd, I came across the fact whilst googling) A sheriff of a neighbouring county was black, and portrayed as somewhat more competent than Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane (a low bar, admittedly).

This is a higher black character/episode average than friends and Seinfeld, set in New York, interestingly.

Says a lot about American culture, that.

Ooh, I can contribute. Our system is ace (designed by my other half).

We have a variety of chores written on coloured lollipop sticks in a pot. Every afternoon, between 9 and 12 chores are issued, (three kids, 11, 11, 12) and they pick between them which they are doing. Some are single value chores, some double. Chores include load dishwasher, lay table, fetch wood in, wipe down the bathroom sink, take out recycling, hoover stairs and landing, feed the pets, clear and wipe table… etc. you get the idea. Once the chore has been completed, the kid pops the stick in a pot, and so long as the chore is completed successfully, an adult will exchange the stick for its value in tokens (we use poker chips). About once a month, these get cashed in at the agreed rate. We have agreed 20p per poker chip, which means each kid earns about £15 quid a month. They get some days off, and some days they are given the option to decide whether or not they want to do any chores; the fact that they often do is a good sign that the system is motivating them. They understand that they are contributing to the family, and the earnings recognise their effort.

I wholeheartedly recommend a structured approach like this, although the earlier in the kids lives it’s brought in, the easier it will be, I expect.

Good luck!

I’m gutted that my favourite childhood show was so damn racist, when viewed with 2022 hindsight.

I loved dem Duke boys and their wacky adventures in a car that may as well have had a swastika on the roof and 88 on the doors…

We elect people pledging £3600 pa to our health insurance.

They only give us £3300 (or don’t get elected).

We top up the £3300 to £3600 if we want and can.

Nobody worse off, plenty of people better off.

this is incredibly simplistic thinking. That £300 is only going to fund the NHS properly if it’s multiplied by the number of taxpayers in the country. We all contribute, so that the relatively tiny amount of people compared to the total population per year who are unfortunate enough to need access to healthcare can benefit. It’s socialism 101, and it’s morally and ethically A GOOD THING. (And why Tories fundamentally despise it). If you wanted to top up that amount of care on a pay as you go basis, not helped out by the many, it’s gonna cost you 100x or more as a one off payment. Or if you insure for it, maybe 10-15x more yearly, depending on how big a pool of contributors that the insurance companies can gather. Because people that are unlikely to need or can’t afford the cover won’t be contributing, so the cost burden falls on a smaller pool of people, not to mention the fact that insurance companies, unlike sovereign states, like to turn a profit.

Highly skilled paramedics surely

Of varying skill levels and grades, but all drive ambulances, soooo… <\devilsadvocatemode>

I remember being called a first aider with a driving license by Jeremy Clarkson 15 years ago, and Tory government ministers regularly call us drivers when they want to belittle the profession.

Ken Clark in 1989 called paramedics ’glorified taxi drivers’. Classy.

Can i drive an ambulance?

nope.

You are technically incorrect.

oh, I know, but we are veering into complex economic theory which is not readily accepted by the public, who prefer the ‘economy as a household budget’ analogy, because they can get their head around it. Taxation as the means to control free capital, rather than as a means to pay for stuff blows the mind of most people; it’s just too abstract.

That is the only reason.

Ideology. Absolute, evil, pathological hatred of people that are socioeconomically beneath them, and a deep rooted belief that they are fundamentally better and more deserving than the people they serve.

and is $100k really that high anyway? What does (say) a nurse practitioner get? Back when the dollar was worth 50p that feels a little over the average for many nurses but not extreme. Amd since they get around the problems of pay banding with temps those staff must be costing *way* over $100k.

are you on drugs? The dollar hasn’t been worth 50p for 15 or more years. At the same time as arguing against a 4% plus inflation pay rise for nurses you say “is $100k really that high for a nurse salary?” If the NHS had to pay US salaries it would be broke. National banding of salaries works massively in the favour of national employers, but only if you don’t spank the arse out of it, like we are seeing now. Tories need to see that they have a good thing in national pay bandings because the alternative would be unaffordable, unsafe for the areas that couldn’t afford to compete and unfair on the taxpayers.

It’s funny, isn’t it, how the very people advocating free market economics baulk at the idea of daring to allow free market economics loose on the labour markets. If NHS clinicians were allowed to negotiate their salaries at a local level, and simply leave and work at a neighbouring provider who was offering a few grand more if they didn’t like their current terms and conditions, salaries would escalate significantly. Those who advocate for the removal of national pay bands and privatisation, be careful what you wish for. You think healthcare is expensive now? Nurses in the US get $100k+ salaries, and we are in the midst of an unprecedented clinical labour shortage right now in the UK.

19% (not that I think we’ll get that) actually represents remarkably value for money if we were in a free labour market.

Ernie, your assertions are all true, of course. But they are not common knowledge to the average Joe with a private health care plan; the amount of times that I’ve been told “err, I have private health insurance, don’tcha know” is comical, along with the crestfallen look when it’s explained that there isn’t an ED at the priory, and they are going to have to wait with the plebs like you and I. However, the distasteful truth is that the real value of a fat wallet is you can buy your way to the front of the queue for life changing treatments utilising NHS services, via a private consultation.

I think that the well meaning error of your argument is that you think that the current crop of Tories are even trying to compete in the next election. I think they’ve already privately ceded 2024, and are scheming to be back, stronger, with a mega populist far right mandate in 2028. That’s why I think they are on a wrecking spree this winter.

I fear that they’ve succeeded.

£300mil is actually fairly insignificant, when spread across the service IF it’s even an accurate number. It would cost a significant amount in admin and enforcement to try to collect, it’s likely that many either can’t or won’t pay, hence why they are willing to travel across the globe for frankly, average care (if they could afford to pay there’s much better options) and refusing to treat people would be inhumane. So there are much better uses of resources. Stop trying to incite jingoistic hatred, please; it’s a distasteful, divisive and transparent dog whistle tactic.

As an NHS clinician I’m happy to treat humans in need wherever they hail from originally, it’s the humane thing to do.

Ernie, I largely agree with your analysis, except in the assertion that this isn’t going Sunak’s way. I can’t help but think that Sunak et al, knowing full that they are outta here in 18-24months, are hell bent on the ideological destruction of everything that Tories hate. Socialised health care, unions, the spirit and rights of the working (including the working middle) classes. All whilst lining their own pockets and lining up their positions of influence and power in various directorships. They have NO political incentive whatsoever to bring the current widespread industrial unrest to a mutually satisfactory solution, as evidenced by their constant union baiting behaviour. In fact I believe that they think that the worse condition that they leave the country in the better, because the incoming Labour government can then be sniped and attacked and blamed constantly by the puppet media, and most of the population will suck it up, and return a rejuvenated Tory majority in six years time. It’s all so **** depressing. Money always wins over humanity.

A functioning NHS is something which effects a huge demographic cross-section of society in a way that not many other issues do.

Less so if you are actively trying to create a two tier health system; a basic, no frills starved of funding NHS and a pay as you go, top up if you’re wealthy enough aspirational private health care system.

It’s the ‘aspire to own your own home’ strategy of this generation.

Ambo bod here. I find this thread heartening, thank you. But it’s too late, I fear. We are seeing system collapse in my area as I type. There are many cases outstanding in my area for over 24hrs right now. It’s invariably old people on the floor because our stupid system prioritises young people who have a variety of relatively minor ailments, for reasons no one seems to be able to fathom, or solve, much to our unending frustration. We have multiple resources unable to offload at hospitals all over our region. As I type, a close friend is still waiting to offload a poorly patient since 1000 this morning. Their shift ended at 1845. My colleagues are broken. They no longer feel valued. Motivation and morale are lower than I’ve ever known. We are losing staff to multiple more lucrative, less stressful vocations both in and outside the NHS, and who can blame them? Paramedics who self fund their qualifications end up in £30k+ of debt for the privilege of earning (relative to the graduate market rate) shit money, on relief shifts, working nights and weekends, treated like an expendable bum on a seat rather than a human being and not finishing on time. Ever.

This is just the Ambo story. Poor nurses, doctors and associates in hospitals are broken. There’s no longer any motivation to work fast or smart. Sickness levels are through the roof.

Sunak threatens legislation to provide ‘minimum staffing levels’ during strikes; you know what, minimum staffing levels when there AREN’T strikes would be a good start mate! FFS.

It’s ****. The Tories have won.

At £1.80 per litre this is about 25p per kWh of heat.

but Kerosene is about 75p/ltr at the moment, and they run beautifully on it. Als red is about £1.10/ltr.

I suspect your efficiency estimates may be a bit off too, although these heaters also need a permanent 12v feed with quite a high initial draw to heat the glow plug, so that needs to be taken into account too.

And people have the cheek to slag off the air-conditionned stadiums at the World Cup.

if you can’t see the difference between making a vast area cool enough to play (and have a huge crowd spectate) a cold weather sport in the desert and a chap trying to warm a work area up enough to be productive in a cold climate, then there’s not a lot of hope for you.

Crikey, Edukator, a man’s gotta stay warm. Yeah, cheap electricity from renewable sources would be the best way to do this, but until global leadership get their shit together, people gonna do what’s affordable.

I’ve got one of those heaters; They kick out some heat and are reasonably economical, especially on kerosene or cherry. Noisy though, best to install them outside (weather protected) and run the hot air vent through the wall. Safer that way too, noxious gasses wise.

I’m sure you’ve done the YouTube trawl already, but in case you’ve missed him, this guy is pretty much the go to resource for everything Chinese diesel heater related.

what we really need

Only if the ‘we’ that you refer to are the 99% of this country.
The 1% who are well and truly steering the ship now think very differently. The 99% are the cash cattle to keep the 1% enjoying the lifestyle, power, and prestige that they are used to, and more. They think that the 99% need to have enough health to work, and die off as quickly as possible once they can’t work. They need to be kept subdued and distracted, and they need to be controlled. Nothing more, because they (we) are cattle. The whole economic system is designed to keep the 99% from being able to accumulate assets of any significance, and to milk them financially to within an inch of their lives.

This is pure strain capitalism.

She’s already dead I reckon. Google ‘operation London Bridge’; they are already several actions into the plan to break it to the public in a controlled fashion. Note the ‘inoffensive music’ on most of the radio stations at the moment. There will be a news flash at some point this evening I would imagine, when Prime Minister twoshortplanks will get to act all stateswomanish and Thatcher like outside No. 10.