bridge too far

Oh hello! Michael Gove seems so dead set against the idea of strikes that he doesn’t admit he went on strike himself. On graduating from university, Gove took on a job as a trainee journalist at The Press and Journal in Aberdeen. There he went on a strike for as long as four months, after his employers de-recognised the National Union of Journalists and made scapegoats of union leaders. Most of his colleagues too were opposed to the newspaper’s actions. The New Statesman reported a few years ago that Michael Gove was, “an active striker, willingly taking his turn on picket duty and going on a small delegation to Strasbourg to press the union’s case”. From here: http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/06/27/michael-gove-warns-teachers-but-he-also-went-on-strike/ but reported on the BBC News just now too

Recently I read that Norway has one of the largest public sectors. The same Norway that is reportedly the best country in the world to live in. The same Norway that continues to show growth in GDP beyond the European average. The same Norway that has a much smaller divide between rich and poor. OK it has a lot of natural resources, but sensibly the Norwegian government has kept it in state control instead of selling it off.

Those of you in the private sector with p*ss poor pensions to come will have to rely on the state to provide you with a pension. pension credits and other state benefits so that you have a barely comfortable retirement. Now who will pay for that? Your children, my children etc. etc. in the form of tax. If public sector workers decide they can't afford to contribute to their pension schemes, they, too, will rely on pension credits and other state benefits when they retire. With the current rates at which they contribute, some of them will be able to retire without state support. As the Guardian article pointed out, the government's proposals are, in effect, a 3.2% tax rise for public sector workers. How many of you would be happy to pay another 3.2p in the pound in tax? And instead of moaning about the public sector workers, why aren't you organising and demanding that your employers offer you decent pension plans. The good ones do. Why does it have to be a race to the bottom?

I've edited it! It didn't seem to cut and paste first time, so I pressed Ctrl V again (and again)

This bit is particularly worrying The government is trying to make most pay more and work longer for less, even after this month's modest concessions. That isn't to fund pensions because people are living longer, but to help pay off the deficit run up to bail out the banks and the crisis they triggered. The 3.2% contributions hike is a tax on a workforce whose living standards have already been heavily squeezed by repeated pay freezes. Pensions aren't a perk, but deferred pay. Protecting pay and conditions is what unions are for. Someone has already pointed out that the government refuses to carry out / divulge the results of an audit into the actual costs of these pensions. Some of the public sector pension funds are actually in credit. I'm an NHS pensioner with a gold-plated pension of £4K a year (in spite of having held a senior management position) and I shall be marching with my fellow union members on Wednesday. Not in London, because my gold-plated pension won't stretch to the train fare, but certainly locally.

But that's not Gove's agenda, is it. He constantly harks back to the values of the 50s and seems unable to recognise that most of us in this country have moved on. But it serves to pander to the blue rinse brigade that he purports to represent.

I reckon ALL schools / education would be much, much better if they were entirely secular. Let the churches teach the religions and the schools the facts.

I think that's a little unfair. Sure, Savage got stuck for words briefly and then recovered. Then, when the interviewer asked him another question, Savage just couldn't answer because he was so obviously upset. At that point the interviewer ended the interview and I thought did so quite sensitively. Quite something to see a hard guy like Savage so upset - it moved me to tears.

A very insightful (and prescient, as it turns out) article in the Guardian last Friday http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/nov/25/the-secret-footballer

I just got this [h=1]Sorry...[/h]The page you have requested does not exist or is no longer available.

Wasn't he on Football Focus yesterday?

Not all of them, it seems http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/26/one-hyde-park-apartments-tax-avoidance

Phil, no I didn't. You have a PM

very very good

I did CPR on a very old lady who had passed out after she saw some bloke get his todger out on the bus.

Along with many of you I bet, I've 'saved' this for future reference

b i t c h

So you don't know what a Mazda looks like, then

Just got this: Thanks ********, I will hope to write about this, so keep in touch best wishes David Maybe, just maybe this will eventually receive some serious press attention. Although I still reckon journalists are on a news blackout until a) the tax evasion case comes to court and b) Antonov is ACTUALLY extradited. Edit Oh and he REALLY likes the rumafia link

No, he's a tree hugging member of the liberal elite, trying to save the environment don't you know

Yes, I've given him a lot of links but, from his reply to me, it seems that he's looking for information on the actual administration process and the CVA. I don't have either the memory or the time to recall all that information but I'm sure that one of you is far more on the ball than me and could summarise what happened all those months ago (CVA rigged to exclude HMRC etc).

I don't think he'd have time to read nearly 900 pages!

Forgive me for bumping this - I didn't want it to get buried at the foot of the previous page: Just had another reply from David Conn, as follows Actually I am a bit behind on some of this, can you summarise or point me to articles regarding the concerns over the CVA and the administration? I will try to do something on this There are many of you much more able to do this for him than am I. Any offers of help? If so, PM me and I'll send you my email address. Or if any of you want to contact David directly, his email address is david.conn@guardian.co.uk

Just had another reply from David Conn, as follows Actually I am a bit behind on some of this, can you summarise or point me to articles regarding the concerns over the CVA and the administration? I will try to do something on this There are many of you much more able to do this for him than am I. Any offers of help? If so, PM me and I'll send you my email address. Or if any of you want to contact David directly, his email address is david.conn@guardian.co.uk

I've just sent Phil's stuff and the Echo article to David Conn too and had this reply In fact you could please send me an update about where concerns about Mr Antonov have got to.