bridge too far

BB is so clever. His latest DVD (Part Troll) is a blast

Well, I'm not so dumb as to compare a Store Manager's wage (at, say Aldi) with a cashier's wage at Tesco. I was looking specifically at cashiers' wages. Pay peanuts..........

Oh dear, Nicko - you're being economical with the truth again, aren't you 1. I have never ever claimed to be 'aquainted' with GB. I have met him. That is all. 2. Deregulation of the finance industry occurred on M Thatcher's watch. FACT. Have a read of this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-thatchers-baleful-influence-lives-on-760508.html or this excerpt: During the end of the 1970’s into the 1980’s British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the City of London financial interests who backed her, introduced wholesale measures of privatization, state budget cuts, moves against labor and deregulation of the financial markets. She did so in parallel with similar moves in the USA initiated by advisers around President Ronald Reagan. The claim was that hard medicine was needed to curb inflation and that the bloated state bureaucracy was a central problem. For almost three decades, Anglo-American university economic faculties have turned to Thatcherite deregulation of financial markets as ‘the efficient way,’ in the process, undoing many of the hard-fought gains secured for personal social security, public health care and pension security of the population. Now the ‘poster child’ economy of the Thatcher Revolution, Great Britain, is sinking like the proverbial Titanic, a testimony to the incompetence of what is generally called Neo-liberalism or free market ideology. from: "Death Agony of Thatcher Deregulated Finance Model" by F. William Engdahl 3. Nobody is 'hiding behind' an enquiry. The enquiry has been instigated by the Commons Standards Committee which is an independent body. This is the same Committee that recently issued a judgement about Caroline Spellman for claiming her nanny's expenses from the taxpayer (not allowed) and about that MP from Kent who paid his sons for doing nothing. It may well adjudge that McNulty (and Jackie Smith for that matter) have claimed inappropriately and if that is the finding, then they will be censured too. The Committee has also been asked to revisit the whole expenses thing because there is so much fog about what is and isn't allowable. 4. I do happen to think that MP's claims to expenses for having two residences is justifiable to some extent. They really do have two places of work; the House of Commons and their constituencies. You would be up in arms if your MP (whatever party he represents) wasn't available to hold constituency surgeries - I know I would. Whilst it's true that wealthy MPs (those who hold directorships, do part-time work outside Parliament, have inherited wealth) can probably afford to run two houses, the run-of-the mill MP can't. Unless, of course, you ONLY want to represented by wealthy MPs :smt102

Stanley's good at waffling, isn't he Bless 'im

I can find no independent data on comparitive pay rates but I've just trawled a load of message boards and the concensus view is that they pay on a par with Sainsbury's. Apparently Aldi pays more and the best rates are to be found at M & S and Waitrose. Paid / unpaid breaks and entitlements to discount vary as do holiday and sick pay entitlements. I don't shop with them.

Isn't it called an 'Invitation to Treat' or something like that?

Insurance Banking Estate agencies Petrol stations etc. etc. etc.

IF Tesco didn't (allegedly) avoid paying taxes ... IF Tesco didn't pay its staff such awful wages ... IF Tesco didn't control something like £8 out of every £10 spent in this country ... IF Tesco hadn't taken over our local little shop and closed down the Post Office counter within (didn't affect me but a lot of older people without cars were affected) ... I'd look more favourably on them. Their morality (or lack of - allegedly) is what puts me off shopping there.

The moral of this tale is: DON'T SHOP AT TESCO! HTH

Nay - never works.

You might want to correct that sentence - you have a double negative there. It negates your argument. Please show me where I have said that it was not a stupid decision? In fact most of the powers were de-regulated in the Regan / Thatcher era as well you know. At the time that Labour formed the government, there was hue and cry the land over about over regulation. Those leading that clarion call must be wishing now they'd kept their mouths shut. OF COURSE I'm in favour of regulation - I'm an auditor FFS Why should I have to explain? I'm not an apologist for Tony McNulty! The enquiry will establish the facts. Prima facie it would seem that he sought advice and was told it was OK to have a residence in his constituency and to have one nearer to the HofC. Remember, he has two jobs - one as a constituency MP and one as a Minister. David Cameron has a house near me (as a constituency MP) and a residence in London (as Leader of the Opposition). No doubt he claims expenses for this too. Sleaze has not been established yet. Maybe it will, let's see. But it's a bit different to rooking the taxpayer by paying two of your sons salaries for actually doing nothing.

I am somewhat puzzled that people seem to think that it's only the UK that's taking these steps to try to clear up the mess made by the finance world. IIRC every wealthy nation in the West is doing exactly the same thing and they are finding themselves in the same predicament that we are. In fact, the only opposition to these measures comes from DC and his ilk. I guess they're looking after their buddies - you know, the super-rich, the bankers etc. etc. Chr*st on a bike, even Ken Clarke admits that the Tories' 'inheritance tax plans for millionaires' isn't feasible.

I was actually talking about the Co-op in this instance (that bastion of capitalism) and also thinking about Waitrose (whose workers have profit dividend). ;)

I don't know about Sainsbury's, but some supermarkets have a system that causes a 'beep' when the item is being scanned, prompting the check-out operative to ask you if you realise you can get one free. In fact, it sometimes annoys me because I'm forced to explain that I DON'T want a second one free if it is a perishable item.

Cox - naturally

Hey, long time no see PL!

Damn

more likely

I agree with you Weston. The point I was trying to make was that perhaps a 'new' company that bought some of the assets in a pre-pack - wouldn't give a jot about getting the Golden share. - wouldn't give a flying **** about whether the football club survived. - would only care about getting their hands on realisable assets.

Do they still allow donkeys in circuses these days, then?

It has been widely rumoured that a Premiership club is likely to go into receivership soon. (I'm not sure how soon 'soon' is, mind).

Top marks Hatch! I could love you, you know

So will he have to pay back some of the wedge he got for his (non) story?

According to some, this won't happen because we won't get the CVA and that means we won't be able to play football in the League. Unless, of course, the buyers of the pre-pack are ONLY interested in the club's assets and not the continuation of the club itself :shock: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=11467&page=2

On reflection - I'm not sure about the one with the darker hair. I think 'she' might be a ladyboy.