Off Topic Politics Thread

Very odd how Russian media carried a report of him in IC at lunchtime. Vlad got a spy or a lucky shot?

 

My comment was tongue in cheek and was supposed to illustrate how short on intellect the Cabinet is. Thicky Patel is the last person on earth you would want to put in charge of running a bath let alone the country.

As for Johnson I can hear my mother saying "....and that's what you get for telling lies my boy and don't you forget it". Swiftly followed by a hard smack round the ear for good measure. Who is it that perpetuates the myth that mothers are good and kind? That book needs rewriting.

 

Oops, my bad. Right you are on that one.

 

Mind you, remember Dominic Raab was surprised when he became Brexit Secretary at how reliant our trade with the EU is on the Channel crossing.

The country is in safe hands tonight. Probably.

 

That’s bad

 

Why do you say that mate?

Like you, I personally am for publically running essential services, as long as they are run well.

I love the NHS, and believe that socially funded healthcare is absolutely the right way to run a country - I just wish there were more checks, balances and people with good intentions making decisions at the higher levels.

 

Mainly because of all the massive profits that could have gone back into investing in the network , believe me some of it is ****e !

But part of me thinks that telecommunications should be run by the government, security and all that .

Must admit I have made a bit over the years in shares , but I think on balance I would trade that for it to never have been privatised .

 

Absolutely. I'm an engineer too, so my opinions are probably similar to yours!

Capitalism works if the market is truly free, but I think we lean too much toward monopolised markets from what I've seen.

It has never felt right to me that profits are being creamed off of key services.

 

Another problem that I think is business wide , is it used to be a job for life and some made a career out of it . Start as an engineer end up in management . Now though it is just a stepping stone .

Some youngster gets a job high up , tries to re-invent the wheel , they are doing the right thing in their minds , by the time it’s all gone the shape of the pear , they have moved on to the gas board or wherever .

Then along comes another newbie with ideas how to fix it and so it goes on .
Not a clue what the answer is though . Anyway , time to try and get some sleep . Stay safe everyone .

 

Not.

 

Some youngster gets a job high up , tries to re-invent the wheel , they are doing the right thing in their minds , by the time it’s all gone the shape of the pear , they have moved on to the gas board or wherever .

Then along comes another newbie with ideas how to fix it and so it goes on .

NHS middle management structure for the last 15yrs. Most relevant when it comes to short term cost cutting without regard to sustainability or longer term consequences.

 

I worked for the other half of the old GPO. And I will never forgive Vince Cable for privatising my beloved Royal Mail.

I see Postmen and women are being recognised as key workers again; shame no one though of that when Vince was selling off the Royal Mail 8 years ago.

 

Ffs mate, not even in jest.


I've been reading up on Dominic Raab, who is in effect next in line should Boris kark it (hope he doesn't). Grammar school boy, Oxford and Cambridge, The Law. Can't be completely useless, surely?

 

Must admit a big part of why I don't agree in privatising Communications is national security .

Mrs J's job used to be software stuff in Telephone exchanges . They sent all her work off shore then someone said " Oh . Do you know we have now given offshore the power to actually switch of Telephone Exchanges " .

It soon all came back then they vetted what was sent off shore .

Now though a few years later any major technical difficulties are sent to the In life team .

3 guesses where they are based

 

The portents are not good for Pfeffel. Whenever he has done one of those PR jogs he looks like the fat kid in class who finished the cross country half an hour after the rest . Guto Harry said on Newsnight that he doesn't eat well and he has gained weight noticeably. He has something of The Wetherspoon Pallor about him and I think he may carry the effects of this for a long time, maybe permanently.

 

Don’t forget it was massively sold under value as well.

 

I might be opening a can of worms here, and I might risk offending some, but taking the comments “some youngster” and “another newbie” re-inventing the wheel etc makes me think of the infatuation that big business has with “graduate entry” schemes.
I have seen so many of these, very academically, intelligent people struggle with the basics of a business, with very many not having the necessary people skills, to gain respect and support.
I would sooner work for/with a senior who has worked their way up from the ground floor, than someone parachuted into the middle of the management structure, simply because they went to university.

 

And this in a nutshell is one of my gripes about the NHS. As a professional manager (by which I mean I managed people in my healthcare profession), I had to deal constantly with Trust (hospital) management regarding recruitment, finance, disciplinary issues etc. The middle ranks of Trust management were always packed with graduates, who had no experience of the realities of NHS life, and who almost always only stayed 6 months or a year before moving to the next assignment in their quest for an MBA. The ones I worked with knew the rules of the game, without having any of the necessary skills or experience in how to play, to use a sporting metaphor. When it came to making a choice between following the rules or following common sense, the rule book always came first. Understandable, but extremely frustrating!

 

Mostly that's my experience. However we always need to be open to change, good managers will listen before trashing previous practice or trying out bright ideas.

During one of the NHS periodic ̶p̶u̶r̶g̶e̶s̶ re-grading episodes I was promoted way beyond my expectations, and possibly abilities. I survived and eventually thrived by listening to experienced staff and engaging them in how we changed practices. It's not always possible, one member of staff refused point blank to adapt in anyway, I'm sure for his own good reasons. After months of this I'm afraid he was moved elsewhere as 22 other staff and 30 patients could not be slaves to his personal choice of shift patterns.

It's the petty details that wind me up.
I'm currently being subjected for ? the 3rd time to a community team manger introducing a "Status Board". This is a huge wall mounted board which staff fill in to show their location and plans for that day/week. They are bloody useless. Even in a modest sized team human error, changes of plan while out and bad handwriting mean it's mostly guesswork or your personal interpretation.

Worse of all staff are fogetting to use the Trust wide, very good, personal alarm fobs as all the focus is on his pretty wall chart. The fobs are brilliant, basically mini mobile phones with location and voice abilities. It'll end in tears.

On the plus side I was given a quickly cobbled together training yesterday so I can return to the wards. It was excellent. The two nurse trainers must 've spent the weekend recording video material and producing a concise delivery so idiots like me can be made safe. They even managed to make it fun

 

I see it to a lesser extent in IT. I have over 25 years experience in various aspects in IT, but if we ever recruit a fresh graduate at say 23 years old they want to be paid as much as me and think they know it all. Experience cant be learnt and only comes with, er, experience!