Seen in the News

[Tizer]

`DVLA staff off work on full pay amid application backlog crisis: A Times investigation finds a system on its knees while millions of drivers are affected' The Times
`Hundreds of civil servants at the DVLA have done no work on full pay for significant periods of the pandemic as managers boast of watching Netflix at the public’s expense, a Times investigation can reveal. Most of the government agency’s 6,200 staff were sent home during the first lockdown but 3,400 of them were put on paid special leave without having to work at all, figures show. There were still almost 2,000 staff on paid special leave months later, with no expectation that they would do any work even from home. In nine of the past 24 months there have been more than 500 staff officially not working, either on paid special leave or on strike....

[PanBiker]

OfCom have revoked the UK broadcasting licence for RT (Russia Today), about time even though they have to go through due process.

[Big Kev]

OfCom have revoked the UK broadcasting licence for RT (Russia Today), about time even though they have to go through due process.

It's been 'currently unavailable' for quite a while on Freesat.

[Stanley]

I heard that report about the DVLA. Incredible, it sounds like really bad management and heads should roll. I suspect a similar situation might exist in other departments, particularly HMRC and the Home Office.

[Tizer]

`Heineken launches virtual beer in self-mocking metaverse 'joke'' LINK

[PanBiker]

I heard that report about the DVLA. Incredible, it sounds like really bad management and heads should roll.

DVLA have been a joke for quite a while. They revoked my licence when I asked for advice about returning it. Upshot of this although their mistake is that it takes longer to get it back. six months break by law for my condition turned into nearly 12 months even though I had no seizures or on any medication post surgery before I got it back. Their medical panel is useless as well although when I was poorly it numbered over 1000 members of staff. They took over 12 weeks to process my case. On the contrary, when I went back to blood donors it took their medical panel ten days to pass me as fit to donate.

On the Brain Tumour Facebook site I frequent there are numerous horror stories of six months suspensions turning into twelve months and twelve months into two or even three years to get a licence back. Some folk have even had their licences lost and have to apply to have them reissued. No longer fit for purpose.

[Stanley]

I thank God I chucked all my licences back at them when I sold me last car.
I said at the time I had never realised how many areas of stress were down to driving and car ownership. Even simple news items like the price of fuel going up.....

[Stanley]

Later in the morning I found THIS BBC account of clown Johnson's latest gaff. Comparing being invaded by Russia to voting for Brexit. The man is a disgrace to the office and an insensitive buffoon.

[Tizer]

Unfortunately that's typical Johnson - he doesn't think what he's saying, he's a big bag of bluster.

[Tizer]

The widespread access to satellite images might help to spread the truth about war....
`How access to satellite images shifts the view of war' LINK

[Stanley]

Meanwhile Ukrainians are dying or being displaced and we just sit on our arses 'discussing' what to do.

[plaques]

Under the new trade deal with Chile, pig farmers can now export their pork to Chile that is if they can find someone to butcher them. Sold as a world breaking deal where in actual fact when the UK was in the Common Market we could always trade with Chile. Now pig farmers are faced with a 7,500 mile supply chain plus a 6% tariff. The EU have a free trade deal with Chile and 0% tariff. The farmers will be laughing all the way to bank(ruptcy).

On Ukraine our Cabinet will be asking " what did we do yesterday?" .... "Nothing". " Good, we'll do the same again today". The UK government has become a laughing stock throughout Europe. Nobody believing one word Boris Johnson says and shaking their heads in disbelief.

Priti Patel trying to introduce the most draconian asylum laws almost equivalent to Guantanamo Bay detention camp. It won't be long before the Conservatives will be claiming that if we sell the rubber boats it will be an export Brexit benefit.

[Stanley]

As usual Ken you hit all the buttons for me. I can't think of a single benefit from Brexit and plenty of disadvantages. The picture is different of course if you have a hedge fund and as Boris isn't wealthy he will be looking to massage the UK oligarchs (Yes, we have them as well!) in the hopes they will magic him into a lucrative sinecure when he loses power.
I heard a story yesterday via Margaret of an example of what is happening under our new freedoms. A Farmer near Clitheroe has reared his own replacements for his 200 strong milk herd for years. The firm that takes his milk came to him and said they want to buy all his calves. When he demurred because he has a good private trade for them based on his reputation , the firm said in that case they would stop picking up his milk. In other words he is now tied to that firm and has no alternative except to stop milking and plant trees. That's how farming is being looked after....... Total madness.
In less than a decade we will be short of food in the UK. This will happen with some home grown vegetables later this year because UK farmers aren't planting because of fuel costs rocketing and fertilizer hitting £1000 a ton. Useless Eustise doesn't recognise this and said that the war in Ukraine wouldn't affect us. Which bloody planet is he living on?

[Tizer]

A Farmer near Clitheroe has reared his own replacements for his 200 strong milk herd for years. The firm that takes his milk came to him and said they want to buy all his calves. When he demurred because he has a good private trade for them based on his reputation , the firm said in that case they would stop picking up his milk. In other words he is now tied to that firm and has no alternative except to stop milking and plant trees.

That farmer should contact BBC's Open Country or Costing the Earth, they'd get good mileage out of a story like that. Same for the newspapers. We Brits don't stand up for ourselves enough.

[Stanley]

Peter, that sort of treatment of dairy farmers by the large milk processors is so common that it's no longer news. We pay more for bottled water than farmers get for their milk. The government says it's the market at work....... Yeah, right!
For more in the fantasy world of politics and big business see THIS and wonder what a firm has to do to be prosecuted with the full force of the law.

[plaques]

For more in the fantasy world of politics and big business see THIS and wonder what a firm has to do to be prosecuted with the full force of the law.

I hope everyone listened to Boris Johnson ranting on to Keir Starmer that if we had remained in the common market we would have still been tied to their restrictive Labour Laws. Partial true, the EU set a minimum standard of protection but each country had the option of INCREASING this level to suit their own conditions. We of course chose to remove them altogether.

We still hear the Tories banging on about P&O breaking the law. True again. but not a word about Chris Grayling amending the parts that would lay them open to really big fines. ie; Secretary of State notification. The best the workers can hope for is something out of the Employment Act. This isn't going to end well for the workers.

[Stanley]

Ken, I shame to say I had forgotten about Grayling's meddling with the terms.
The bottom line is that the Tories will always back the employers because they are the ones with the money and the power to finance a government that plays their tune. It was ever thus and this is the sort of erosion of labour law, and hence cheaper wage slaves, that is a major part of the project to take us back to totally laisser faire conditions giving the capital owners maximum return on their investment. This is the whole point of Chicago School economics and de-regulation, maximum freedom for the employers.
Remember Thatcher using the bonanza of North Sea Oil to finance a war on the unions and a massive pool of unemployed? Norway ensured that a large part of their windfall went into a Sovereign Wealth Fund which is now one of the largest in the world and pays a healthy dividend annually into the national budget. Then ask yourself what the best use of the money was.
Sunak is using the bonus tax income due to inflation to promise tax cuts in 2025 instead of giving it to the poor sods who are paying for inflation and have had benefits cut. Tory economics....

[Big Kev]

Probably an unpopular perspective but, if P&O Ferries had tried to continue as it was it would have ceased trading with even larger debts. Yes, unethical decisions were made but following the 2018 changes, made by Grayling, they've potentially not done anything illegal by not notifying the UK Secretary of State, prior to the 'sackings', as the ferries aren't UK registered. There could potentially be a case for individual recourse under UK employment law but this would need to be tested.
The current situation is that the ferries are starting to run again which will be easing delays across the Channel and the North Sea. How different would things be if they had just ceased trading, with a lot more than 800 losing their jobs, and the subsequent knock on effect of the logistical delays?

[Tripps]

Steady Kev - that's radical thinking for this place.

Were all the crew on your recent cruise employed on UK terms and conditions? I doubt it - but there'd be no shortage of applicants for the jobs. I think they call it 'globalisation'. I read that these new crew will have to live ashore between voyages. The Government seems to be using the tactic of 'working to rule' in N. Ireland now and they have prevented a vessel from sailing. They could do the same in that situation and cause P&O lots of problems.

[Big Kev]

Steady Kev - that's radical thinking for this place.

Were all the crew on your recent cruise employed on UK terms and conditions?

Possibly a bit radical but possibly a way of saving a business from going under. I don't agree with it from an ethical point of view but can see the 'business' side of it.

Difficult to say. We spoke to English, Dutch, Indian and Philippino crew. Carnival Group, who own the P&O Cruises brand, are a US registered company and the ship is registered in Southampton.

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[Stanley]

I get your point Kev but for me the real problem is the fact that we have allowed an ethos to develop where the option of throwing 800 employees and their families overboard was even an option. An economist would say that this is the 'market' at work and in the long run it all levels out. The same argument that is used to pay farmers less than production costs for their produce or Councils less than is needed to finance social care.
David, the inspection of the ship on the Irish Sea route was working to rule but surely the same rule that should be followed at all times, if only for safety.
In my ideal world the government would have the power to control how such a business was run. Not necessarily nationalisation but certainly responsibility and regulation to ensure that passengers paid an economic price and employees had security and a living wage. I'd argue that if that couldn't be achieved, the business model is unviable and should be changed.
I used to work for a man who made his living using his skill to buy good cattle and sell them on at a profit. I once asked him what the secret was and he said that after a deal you should always leave the customer with a working margin so you could go back and sell to him again. That was not the principle being followed by the P&O Ferries directors in there relations with employees.

[Big Kev]

In my ideal world the government would have the power to control how such a business was run.

Personally I wouldn't trust the current government to run anything.

[Stanley]

Ah, but even in these times the rail franchises that are taken back in house function better and more efficiently before being franchised again. It isn't the government that runs such an enterprise but part of our Civil Service infrastructure which isn't all bad and with better legislation could be even better.

[Big Kev]

It would have the advantage of being propped up by the taxpayer though and, as you say, the railways are franchised. With regard to P&O Ferries, it's a Dubai based private company that has a very diverse 'globalized' workforce. Other than making an offer to buy the business I'm not sure how the British government could intervene. It's a difficult one.

[Stanley]

By never allowing such an essential service to pass into foreign ownership. Nye Bevan and the commanding heights of the economy!
I'm old fashioned and don't agree with foreign ownership of essential utilities like gas and water. Same applies to transport, how can we guarantee continuity of operation or adequate standards without control? P&O ferries is a perfect example of what can happen.
Question, who is going to own our new atomic power stations?