Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

For me how somebody sounds isn't an issue but what they actually say and do is. Charisma isn't always the best and to give the biggest example of that I put forward Boris Johnson. Yes he has charisma and is the boy for you if you like the buffoon act and one liner funny with no substance. He has proved he hasn't got a clue about anything important and his private life shows he has no morals whatsoever. How many kids does he have with how many women is the example. He would win the Olympic gold hands down for lying through his teeth but because he is seen as the funny boy on the tele he wins votes. That says more about the British Electorate than it dows about people wanting somebody to do the job properly. I am not advocating that people should vote for Keir or Rushi particularly but they should not be dismissed simply on the grounds of them sounding a tad on the boring side. It is after all a serious job.

I always listen to the radio when chomping breakfast and normally that is the phone in stuff on 5Live. This morning one caller said they didn't know who to vote for but would vote for Boris if he made a comeback. Do people never learn. Overwhelmingly though a lot of the calls were along the same track. People were just fed up with the Tories and would rather vote for a stick of rock as a choice than them. Another wanting Nigel to stand.........god forbid. He though has other fish to fry in America apparently. I would guess making a shed load of money for turning up. Personally I won't forgive the Tories for Brexit so whoever I do end up voting for, and I will vote despite everything, it will not be blue.

 

Got to add this about my hols. I went into Old Town Rhodes on day 2 wearing my colours. I had no sooner walkied through the gate into one of the streets when a cry of "GREEN ARMY" rang out. That's fame for you. On Sunday last we all went to a sports bar so we could watch the final games whilst eating diner.(and me drinking wine). Again I worn my colours and the Owner (Greek) didn't know who Argyle were. He was quite a jovial bloke and he cracked a joke to another watcher on the next table about my shirt and asked him if he knew who we were. Turned out that one was from Hull and that was his team. I shook his hand vigorously and thanked him for the 3 points that kept us up. I also added that I looked forward to 6 more next season. Being on his hols as well he took it all quite well even if my Grandson expected me to get a smack. I am also now the proud owner of the next season ticket having got my son to do the honours online. COYG.

 

I’ve been watching bits and pieces of Paula Vennells’ testimony to the Horizon inquiry.

I’m not supporting the Post Office in this but she’s done an awful job defending herself and her employer.

I’ve just seen a snippet in which she’s taken to task by the inquiry’s barrister about an email she wrote asking for confirmation that anonymous transactions could not be entered into the system and saying “I must be able to say that this cannot have happened “.

The barrister put to her she was first asking a question and then giving the answer she required them to give. She fumbled and flustered but did deny what he’d said.

Anyone knowing anything about any computer system would know that unauthorised transactions should NEVER be possible. It’s like asking a car manufacturer if all four wheels are properly fixed to the vehicle. It’s inconceivable that the answer is “No”.

She’s asking for confirmation that the system has been properly designed and coded and anyone reading it would understand that.

All I can say is if she can’t find that perfectly reasonable answer, albeit under huge pressure, she was never fit to hold the job in the first place.

 

She is trying to defend the undefenceable.....in the gallery are those whose lives she has helped to ruin.......financially destroyed....made jobless....homeless....sent to prison (even when pregnant)....those whose partners have committed suicide....those who they have paid peanut compensation to (hush money) and put a gagging order on.

On the otherhand I do feel the great pressure she is under and in a way sorry for her....but only for a moment....there are many eyes on her on live telly and the guilt is nearly unbearable....she needs to take as many P O and Fijitsu personnel down with her.....and not only the Government but Fujitsu as well should pay £millions in compendsation to every subpostmaster whose lives where changed forever....how you calculate compensation for a suicide I have no idea.

 

A general defence of what happened is not the point I’m making.

The barrister is badgering her (as barristers do) about having seemed to have asked a question of her staff and then told them what to answer.

That’s not what she was saying in the email, as anyone with business experience would know. She’s saying that it’s inconceivable that any reputable IT system allows tampering with records. Don’t forget this software was written by Fujitsu, a name known around the world. She needs to be able to say that publicly and before she does so, now is the time for anyone who knows different to speak up.

It’s such a glaring point to be making that I’m amazed she just let the barrister walk all over her on that specific point which is easily defensible. The fact she didn’t says to me that she was never fit to be in such a senior position.

 

I expect most watched the FA Cup final. See what I mean about Onana?

He made a couple of good saves but also flaps at several high balls he could have caught. Then with a few minutes to play, he pushes a fairly routine shot into the corner of his own net.

£45m? Really?

 

Think your being a tad hard on Onana.
Took him 6 months to settle in.
Saved a certain goal in the first half.....and he looked as lf he nearly saved.....rather than pushing it into the corner .
Pleased City didn't win with all that Arab money....plus them not being docked any pts yet for their financial shenanigans.

 

Onana is too hit or miss for me. Does something really well and then does something stupid. I have seen him a few times this season on the box and he is always the same which means he doesn't learn. Not £45m in my book either.

 

Weak wrists. He got both hands to the ball and as a £45m Premier League keeper, he’s got to stop that from there, even if he pushes it back. Into play rather than around the post. Being erratic was my point : world class one minute: throws one in next minute.

Still, I’m delighted Utd. won it with a lionhearted performance. Anybody rather than City. Can you imagine England with Bellingham, Foden. Saka and Mainoo?

 

The Governments....."gimmick"....of bringing back national service....isn't a bad idea......I did it....and although at the start I hated it....in the end and in years later in hindsight I'm glad it happened......the only problem for my generation was we where the last....so going back to my firm afterwards meant two years of younger apprentice's had jumped in front of you in the careers stakes.

With what is happening in the world at present....having younger people with military/or other trades as visualised by the scheme they want to bring in....having been given basic training isn't a bad idea.....and of course being an oldie I think some of them would benefit from it in their pointless lives.....and teach them a trade.

This time it's only for a year......we did two years......and I do know some (mainly in the Army) who had to do two and a half years because of shortages in certain areas.

I say bring it on....Putin and others are a threat to world peace and we need to show them that we are taking their threat seriously.

 

National Service is the worst idea this lot have had yet. I say yet becuase they do make the effort to outdo themselves often. What you will have is total resistance to it from a majority of young people and probably a shed load of parents as well. If you were a regualr today would you want to be in charge of half a unit who did not want to be there? I know I wouldn't. It is not the job of the Forces to put right what is perceived as wrong in society. They are a professional outfit who are there for a purpose and one purpose only which is the defence of the Realm. I am not even sure who this is supposed to appeal to. Is it the grey vote who think on your ideals plymborn where you say you did it so why not and it did me good? I can't see anyone else being in favour. The doing this bit I just cannot see working. What do you do with somebody who says I am not going and you can't make me? Do you round them up and put them in prison even if you had enough space for the thousands that will refuse. National Service had it's place once upon a time but sorry it is no longer an option unless in times of declared war. Like most gimmicks this will fall on it's arse.

 

Lets just hope we don't get into WW3... if that's the attitude in the country....we can't expect the Ghurka's to defend us this time after the way we've treated them in recent years.

 

It's not primarily service in the Armed Forces: individuals can volunteer (if that's the right word) for one weekend a month in the NHS, care sector, environmental projects, or the emergency services etc etc. Only the "brightest and best" would be taken into the Armed Forces but even then, would be deployed in cyber security, logistics, procurement, or civil response operations. They wouldn't need to know how to fix a bayonet.

Having said that, it does look like something put out there just so Labour have to say they wouldn't do it. Has it really been thought through? How would it be policed? You can't hold parents responsible for the over-18's and as someone said this morning, serving your National Service in prison is likely to teach youngsters a lot of things we don't really want them to know.

Something has to be done to force people out of bed and into work. This isn't it. I'd kill two birds with one stone: cut benefits for those who can work but won't and use the proceeds to cut taxes for those who are working.

 

i didn't watch this but heard utd played well and some saying where has this team been. i feel for their manager as it seems he will be on his way..

Yep im looking forward to the euros especially with those you mentioned and Kane smashing them in

 

I have to say United were brilliant. They defended in depth, drew City onto them and then hit them fast on the break. The better side, believe it or not.

 

Just had a knock on the door.....Courier delivery....my order from Scottish Woollen Mills (EWM).

Quite surprised....only ordered Friday evening 9pm and EVRI have delivered 39 hours later.

Order taken...looked out ...parcelled and delivered by EVRI from Waverley Mills in Dumfriesshire Scotland in such a short time.....and over a weekend when Royal Mail don't even empty post boxes anymore let alone deliver parcels.

PS......also no postage charged...because of spending more than £50.

 

Leeds v Southampton...Championship play-off Final today.

The biggest prize in world club football .......worth £140 million to the winner.

 

Southampton hit the big time....with 1-0 win over Leeds.

This will add a few extra miles to our away trips.......no "local".....game against a south coast rival.

Lets hope we don't have to play Leeds more than twice this coming season.....fout times was a tad to many last season.

 

My comment about it appealing to you wasn't intended as a criticism but was just pointing out that anyone under 80 would not have had National Service foisted on them and therefore never had to choose go or not go. But, it is aimed at the grey vote given they were closest to that era and it used to be said that making youngsters do some would harden them up and change their attitudes. This though has nothing to do with world war 3 and if people would sign up or not. It is just a gimmick to try to show the Tories are tough. There is not a chance on Earth that they could enforce this and indeed they are almost admitting that by adding people would not be criminalised for refusing. I don't think this has anything to do with making people work either. It is supposed to be a committment for every 18 year old not just the unemployed. I would not have wanted to babysit a youth when I was in. It simply would not be my job to do that and if they did not want to be there in the first place they would contribute nothing. That is the same with Care, NHS, Road Sweeping and playing Uncle Tom Cobley and all. What would they do for the Fire Brigade for example with one weekend a month in service? Nothing is the answer that is meaningful in any way. The idea is plain barmey and is why there was just an outline suggestion with nothing of any importance of substance on the subject. They have no real plan for this on how and how much and what happens when the thousands tell them to do one. As a parent I would not vote for this either so it isn't just the kids who would mutiny.

 

For my generation National Service was part of life.....male conscription was normal.....you knew no other way.....and when it came to an end in 1960....I found that I was three months to old to avoid it.....even though I had been deferred until I finished my apprenticeship.

Us last few conscrips found we where more of a nuisance than the new regular serviceman who signed up for a minimum of three years.

Trade opportunities' by then where limited to us national servicemen.....If I wanted to do my own trade in the RAF...I would have had to of signed on for three years because the minimum training period was three months......six week training courses was the maximum we were allowed for two year service....so you ended up in clerical jobs.....I ended up as a Stats Clerk.....plotting charts and graphs in a very large Maintainance Unit in Steamerpoint Aden...supplying parts and supplies to all over the middle east.....from a bar of soap to the most sophisticated component for a V-Bomber.

Started work at 7am in the heat...with a ceiling fan whirring away...and me trying to stop 100's of requisition sheets from being blown all over the place or my sweaty arms sticking to the said paperwork. All charts and graphs had to be updated before mid-day....When the Units Commanding Officer came breezing in with his entourage.... to check yesterdays through-put figures of items meeting its deadline time to be out of the Unit.....He would head for the V-Bomber Charts and Graphs that had a maximum time limit of 2 hours...from the order coming in to being off-site......a bar of soap or a tent peg had a ten day turn around.

So I had hundreds of requisition sheets to assimilate into its right categories and right time limits.....If a V-Bomber requisition missed its 2 hour window I would have to have all the facts available so the CO could crucify the people responsible.

Being a non-regular (National Service) I got paid 24 shillings a week (1960/62)....a third of a regulars wages....worked from 0700 hrs until 1300 hrs....6 days a week and had a lot of stress chasing all of yesterdays requisitions from seven different sections in the Maintainance Unit every working day....

.Add to that regular guard duties....some of them. 24 hrs long.....That's when we had our 303 Lee Enfield Rifles and a clip of five bullets between six of us..... One lad came back after his shift with only four bullets in the clip and we couldn't rest until we found where the prat had dropped it....and that was in the dark.

Of course the real guard duties around Aden where done by 45 Marine Commando....and they would come out of the dark and ask you "how you doing son" before you could say... halt who goes there.....made you look like real idiots.