Special K

Who gives a toss if he named Glenn Cockerill in his all time 11? Who give a toss if he doesn't have a ST? Who gives a toss if he gave another nipper a blowey? He called someone from Southsea a scummer on air, so he's alright by me.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8939126.Southampton_Vixens_are_tops/?ref=mr

I say, tip top! Well done girls.

http://www.freewebs.com/southamptonvixencheerleaders/

Splendid stuff. I think the Club need to celebrate this award by letting them loose on the pitch at the last game of the season. Hopefully it'll be a hot day

I remember playing Eastleigh & District tyro football almost 30 years ago. There was the odd handbags between parents when there was a cup game or decent league fixture, but mainly it was all good natured banter. Don't know what it is like now though as my nipper wants to play cricket instead of football, but a mate manages a Winchester under 11's team and he says the main problem is the "coaching" from the sidelines from parents who think they know the game inside out after watching MOTD. Suprisingly though all are reluctant to actually get involved in the running of the team. It frustrates my mate no end.

I gave up posting on the main board. Too many precious, fickle types who get upset when the TV coverage doesn't include the pass in the build up to the goal, so they actually write in to complain or who get upset because Andy Townsend doesn't mention the fact he used to play for saints every time he's on the TV, booo hoooo. I dislike that too many of our fans are so bloody petty. Some threads on there are informative, but the better craic is found in teh Lounge.

What are the chances that Verbal's grandad and Turkish's grandad were thrown out of The Dell for scrapping each other under the east stand?

Fait points. Perhaps the word I was looking for was 'gullible' rather than 'stupid'.

 

Edit: and if it was all so obvious, why did successive governments (Tory and Labour) do nothing to stop it?

Because they put the responsibility for financial regulation and control with the toothless FSA which saw/sees it's job as trying to get financial institutions to comply with the rules rather than coming down on hard on them when they try and con the consumer (endowment mortgages, etc). Successive governments are/were happy to have a loose regulatory body - something they could use in hushed tones to encourage more and more to move to the City.

What the Coalition has proved is that no government has the ability to stand up to the City as it depends on it so much. So after a period of (barely) false contrition and lip service the City will be back to what it does best - conning the consumer to pay for it's short term bonuses.

No, because it was all true (and in fact they offered me a better job later). She'd had time off with stress before I'd joined (they found her on a window ledge once) so they knew she wasn't suited to the job and staff turnover in her team was much higher than it should have been - she really was the reason everyone was leaving. When the signs came back that she was struggling again we told her bosses and they just shrugged it off. Once things came to a head they had to act but it was a shame it had to come to it. Thing is she was actually good at her job but couldn't handle the pressure at all - I've heard since that she got another job with no staff responsibility which was the best thing for everyone.

Window cleaning??

But you are also hamstrung as to that input, as it is strictly controlled by the Exchequer. The public sector lack the commercial flexibility of private companies, who can put on a penny here or there if they can accept the risk that the consumer will bear it, or can decide to up sticks and transfer production to Thailand or China. The point being debated is the relative merit and level of salaries in both sectors, and that fact is that for my specific job, a technical and professional role with the necessary qualifications and experience, the private sector pays more, and this is the case for most roles where a direct comparison can be made.

I'd say this is not strictly true. Whilst it is not wholesale, i know, for instance, HCC Architects department actively pursue work outside of the council contracts they get and LA building control can now operate in the marketplace alongside private BC operators. However, i take your point about commercial flexibility, but would question as to whether they would be able too anyway? If they were streamlined and efficient enough to compete, why are so many LA functions outsourced to the private sector in the first place? Presumably because it is cheaper and more efficient than perfoming the task in house. But by virtue of outsourcing, LA's are taking advantage of the flexibility of the private sector for their own benefit.

You say they are hamstrung, but my guess would be that a lot of private sector organisations would be very happy to have a guaranteed turnover for the next year sown up already!

And you may well be paid more outside the public body you work for, but i'd hazard a guess and say that you'd get less holiday and work more hours if you did. You also risk losing your job more often. And recent times have meant a large reduction in salary for some in he private sector. In my field, tradesmen have dropped their hourly rates by between 30 and 40% over the last 3 years.

My current boss is fantastic. She knows her stuff, gets things done and is supportive. My last two were f*cking nightmares. One of them was doped up to the eyeballs on prozac and constantly on the verge of a breakdown. She had us filling out timesheets with any tasks and how long they took correct to the minute. I put up with it for about 9 months and snapped. I told her she was a mental case, that everyone hated her and she was the reason everyone wanted to leave - they sent her home crying and on the plus side abandoned the timesheets. She later asked me how she could help and I replied that short of getting me another job there wasn't much she could do. I was a bloody hero for a while and I don't regret it at all, granted she was mentally ill but we'd gone to management repeatedly saying she was struggling and taking it out on us and got nowhere - at least that forced them to act.

Did you get disciplined for that?

On the A31 as you approach the intersection lights for Farnham. For anyone that doesn't know the road, it's (briefly) a single lane after plenty of dual carriageway and then divvies into 3 lanes before the lights. One bloke in a silver beamer (why is it always them!) took exception to someone in a Focus who was observing the merge in turn at on the approach to the single lane and at the lights jumped out of his car. He went over to the Focus and started shouting and balling, waving his arms about as the lights went green. He's still there acting like a demented **** as cars want to move, when some fellas in a scaffold van got out, grabbed him and threw him back over his car telling him to get going. Loads of people drove passed him giving him the ****** sign, etc and he looked really ****ed off. Serves him right, the ****.

But what private company is anywhere near as complex, or open to public scrutiny, as Birmingham City Council ? Also, Councils don't have the ability to pick and choose their markets or customers.

That's not the point. All large organisations are complex, be they public bodies or multinationals, by virtue of their size. Your point was of comparison, which, imho, was not a fair one to make. If your input is already secured, you don't have to worry about a significant element of your business.

My boss is great, i really really like my boss. Really good bloke, chilled out, (even in civillian terms) very approachable and has got the very best man management skills you can imagine.

 

Really makes going to work so enjoyable.

Yeah, i'm my own boss too!

We've done this to death previously - on a 'like for like' basis public sector workers doing similar jobs to the private sector, generally earn less. Certainly I would be paid quite a bit more doing exactly the same job for a private company, as can easily be evidenced by perusing job adverts. ( The fact that I choose not to is my decision ). The 'average' figure for the public sector is swollen by including such people as teachers.

Even at the top this probably holds true, despite the hysteria over Local Authority Ch Execs' pay - in the private sector, if you ran a company with a turnover of £300 million+ and employed 10,000 staff, what would you expect to get paid ?

More than someone who "runs a company" whose finance is already secured. It's not a case of running a business, just determining how to spend what has been allocated in the best way possible - not a fair comparison.

The vast majority of council staff work a minimum 37 hour week, get at most 31 days leave, and most earn less than £20k pa. And of course, there aren't any unions in the private sector, are there ?

I won't quibble over a couple of hours :-)

Thats true if the public sector jobs are pointless.

 

However, better to employ people in the public sector doing marginal jobs than to have them sitting on the dole.

 

Unfortunately there is little sign of the private sector creating sufficient jobs for redundant public sector workers to move to (even though there appears to be plenty of space/capacity for it to do so). My view is that cutting the public sector so 'loudly' and so quickly has shrunk consumer confidence as well as spending power - and in a consumer-led economy that's bad.

It will be interesting to see if there are the number of jobs created in the private sector over the next 2 years to cover those lost in the public sector. I suspect not as there will be too many external influences on a Co's ability for job creation along with the fact that spending cuts in the public sector will also mean private sector jobs are shed in certain areas. Also you have to question the suitability of some potential employees from the Public sector. It won't be the same union protected, 35 hour week, flexitime, 35 days leave a year job that some council staff may be familiar with.

The Sound Stylistics - Play Deep Funk - it's getting me moving at work today.

I can think of a few on here who would be good as a fluffer.

Great news on Corporation Tax - Well done that man.

Thanks for all your tips. I was going to ask about the "handshake".

 

Should I take the inicitive and extend my hand or shall I wait untill they offer theirs. Im usually a person who takes the lead and am quite assertive (sp?) and would normally offer my hand to people im meeting.

Offer your hand, just make sure you haven't picked your nose or scratched your arse immediately beforehand.

I have had to deal with 2 deaths this year, one was a very close friend of ours who had a heart attack at 49. The other was my cousins baby who was still born at 41 and a half weeks. The second was definately alot harder to deal with. Both deaths were a reminder of how precious life really is.

Interesting. An elderly relative of mine passed away last year and i wasn't upset by it. The way i looked at it was that she was a good old girl, had a good life, lived it well and had a bloody good innings to get to her early 90's. A year or so earlier, a couple who i am close to lost their baby at 4 days and i was quite distraught by this. I guess there were a few more emotions going on, but i know where you are coming from.

What a bunch of miserable ****s some are. If you don't like it, turn the ****ing TV off, morons. You are not forced to give money. You can, if you choose, completely ignore Comic Relief or any other televised charity event, unless of course you feel the need to watch it only because you want to whinge and whine and bore people senseless with your inane diatribes on "washed up celebrities" or "fackin' starvin' fackin' africans, not while i'm eatin me fackin' curry on a friday night, for facks sake!"

It must be difficult for the news channels that provide 24 hour coverage to fill the time, but this does tend to lead to repetition and inane reporting. It's the same on any big news story, however, i agree with Phils point about numerous news crews from all over the globe decending on the place as soon as they can, when really all the available supply routes should be kept open for aid and helpers. Perhaps if they dropped the cameras and picked up some shovels they would be able to help a bit better.

The presenters do ask some awfully embarrassing questions though. I'd love it if someone gave them a load of verbal to the "how are you feeling right now?" type questions.

Some of you will be aware that this is the field of work that I am involved in although I am not working on this particular proposal being put forward by Helius for a biomass plant burning wood chips/pellets in Millbrook on land owned by ABP on the edge of the docks.

 

I'd be interested in hearing views after the Echo coverage of the proposal last week.

 

Basic details include:

 

• 100MW output capable of providing low carbon renewable electricity to equivalent of approx 180,000 - 190,000 homes (all of Southampton and more)
  
• Renewable heat in form of steam or hot water to local industry or district heating schemes
  
• 800,000 tonnes of wood fuel burned each year
• Most of wood fuel delivered to plant by ships and sourced from Scotland and Scandinavia
  
• Expected minimum life of 25 years
  
• Planning application will be decided by national Infrastructure Planning Commission (or successor) because of size (bigger than 50MW), not Southampton Council
  
• Southampton Council will be a consultee
  

 

I see a protest group has already formed and it will probably campaign on the following issues which are usual:

 

• Visual detriment - size of buildings and 100m high stack
  
• Air quality - stack emissions
  
• Noise
  
• Possible reduction in local house prices (although not an issue that is currently covered in planning decisions)
  
• Extra possible traffic
  

 

What views do you hold?

How can it be low carbon if it burns this amount of fuel? I understand it may be more desireable than burning fossil fuels, but surely this is still a high carbon producing method. However, i know very little about it, so any advice would be appreciated.

I have one along with the 16K ram pack that plugs into the back

Cracking idea fella. We often donate clothes that the nippers have grown out of to various charity shops, although i'm not in charge of it myself, like (Mrs K's role). But i'll have a gander at home and see if there is anything i can muster.