Weston Super Saint

FFS! Squirrel, not rat!

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Portsmythmatics

Half?

I've always assumed that this was their 'modus operandi'.

Not sure why they'd need to bother. Top is top, so they can't get any higher anyway. Leave that sport science piffle to those teams that aren't top.

I read somewhere today - I forget where - that working 1 Saturday in 4 is considered as 'unreasonable' for junior doctors and thus triggers a 30% pay rise. To me - having worked in hospitality for 18 years and working nigh on every weekend [Friday, Sat & Sun] except for holidays - it seems incredible that this would apply! Ask any of the people you meet who are working at the weekend, from the person who sells you some milk on a Saturday morning to the bar person who pulls you a pint on Saturday night or Sunday lunch and every single one of them would LOVE a 30% increase for working at the weekend! The issue is, they won't get it. The reason they won't get it is because they knew what they were getting in to before they took the job! Just like the doctors do. They know that evening and weekend work will be required. I'm not complaining that they get the 30% pay rise. I am complaining that they are not happy about it! To me, having given up 18 years of weekends - which was my choice to do so! - they are an awful lot luckier than pretty much everyone else that works at the weekend. Most of those will be on little more than minimum wage...

It certainly seems like a sensible decision to have enough doctors on duty when there is a higher chance of people dying. The big question for me though, is why should that be junior doctors? I'm assuming that if patients are much 'worse' when admitted at the weekends then surely it would make sense to have the most senior / experienced doctors - and other care staff - on duty? I'm not really sure where I stand on this issue. Of course I agree that Junior doctors shouldn't be 'mugged off' and shouldn't be made to work excessive hours. We have laws in place to stop lorry drivers from driving when they are tired as the tiredness is likely to cause accidents and kill people, yet we don't have similar laws in place to stop junior doctors from working when they are tired [i still think 70 odd hours per week is too much!]. On the issue of evening / weekend / unsocial hours, I don't have a great deal of sympathy. All doctors know the hours before they even sign on for medical school so this should come as no surprise to them that they will be working these hours. I also think that junior doctors get paid pretty well for the work they do. There's also the fact that junior doctors will eventually become 'senior' doctors where the pay and benefits get a lot better..... One thing's for sure, the picket lines are way more civilised when the Junior doctors are on them!! I've never heard such eloquent 'chanting'!

Certainly makes you wonder where the circa £3m per home game generated in the local area is going. Doesn't look like it's being invested locally

So more : Than :

Switched to Android about 2 years ago and glad I did now. Even as an 'apple fan' even I knew I wasn't using all the functions to their full extent - and quite frankly didn't need to! Android phones have caught up in terms of functionality and available apps and do pretty much the same as Apple if not more due to the 'open' nature of the OS. The price difference is also a big factor. Current phone is a Samsung Galaxy J5 which I picked up last September for £150 and it does pretty much the same thing as an iPhone 5 but costs about £300 less!!

I'm not sure why their away attendance is a surprise to anyone. If I lived there, I'd also take every opportunity I could find to get out of the sh!thole!

For the sake of posterity : http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35483723

To be fair to them, I'm now a believer! They've spent so long in League 2 now, that I, four one, believe they should still be there I love the way they've gone from losing on Saturday but being 'championship' standard to losing on Tuesday and being mid table League 2 standard. They have more highs and lows than a crack addict in a pharmacy.

Can you let me know the date - and post a reminder closer to the event - Burnham is about 6 or 7 miles from my house In Weston so I may bimble on down to say hi

AFC Bournemouth RESERVES! If you make a full ELEVEN changes to your side before the game, then it is a RESERVE team. But well done to the phew for securing such a magnificent loss. There truly is no other team that can lose betterer.

A zero you say? Have you produced any accounts to back that up

To be fair, keeping 'Arry on is a very wise move indeed. After all, who has more experience than him of being involved with clubs who have spunked all their money

I was given a Garmin Vivofit last year for my birthday - I was also on a 'fitness drive' at the time after several years of not doing a great deal and turning into a fat bastad - and have found it to be a little bit limited. Great for tracking steps and sleep and calculating calories burned to some extent, but I've always found it a little bit lacking and have had to use separate apps for tracking bike rides and another app combined with a chest strap for heart rate monitoring. I've just - literally, just! - ordered a Garmin Forerunner 225 as that has pretty much everything I need in one neat little package, and not to mention it is less than £170 falling from it's launch price last summer of close to £250. It has built in GPS and built in HR monitor so now I don't need the separate apps on the phone, plus it has all the functionality of the activity tracker as it will count steps, calculate calories used etc etc. So far, the activity tracker has helped to keep me motivated and lose 2 stone last year with another 2 stone planned for this year....

The burning question is whether you got to eat your sandwich yesterday - alongside the question as to what type of sandwich it was....

Hi Benji. Many thanks for your reply. As you have mentioned, I will 'win' in respect of having the redundancy declared an unfair dismissal. However, my question around Polkey was concerning the amount of the compensation that will be paid - the basic award would be exactly the same as the statutory redundancy that they have said they will pay - so the compensation element is the bit I am more concerned about. So, the question around that is that they would have to 'prove' that the redundancy would still have happened even if they followed the correct procedure. However, they have now given TWO reasons for the redundancy which are polar opposites - one refers to putting money in to the business, the other to taking it out! - so would they have to 'prove' the first reason that they gave or can they just pick and choose between the two they have given.... My suspicion is that they would have to prove the first but I can't find anything to substantiate that....

Hi All. Apologies in advance for the long winded post, but it's probably important to get enough info here as possible to elicit the correct advice!!! So, I was employed [full time] by a company for 3 yrs and 2mths up until December 2nd 2015. On that date, I was told to go to the meeting room and meet with the head of HR - I was given no notice of this meeting before the 2nd and on that date I was given about 15 minutes notice that she was turning up!! During that meeting - which I recorded on my phone - I was told that the company I worked for was 'no longer financially viable' [as the parent company was no longer willing to fund the company's activities which it had been doing for the past 12 months]. The company situation : I worked for a small company - let's call it company A - which was a part of a larger company - let's call it company B [over 150 employees]. Company A was 76% owned [by way of ordinary shares] by Company B. The two directors of company A each owned 12% of the remaining shares. They were also employees of the company and the only two other employees of the company at the time of my redundancy. Company A was subject to the same terms and conditions as Company B and all handbooks, policies etc were company B's. The Head of HR that carried out my dismissal was the Head of HR for company B. The handbook for company B states that company A is a part of the 'group' of companies. I have appealed against my dismissal for the following reasons : 1. There was no consultation period. 2. There was no procedure followed for the dismissal - I was summarily dismissed that day with an effective end date of the 2nd December. I was told to leave the office there and then. I was given no advance warning that the meeting would be taking place, nor was I offered the chance to have a witness present at the meeting. The dismissal was confirmed in a letter which was handed to me at the meeting and was on company B headed paper. 3. The reason for redundancy - the company is clearly not 'no longer financially viable' and continues to trade! The appeal was heard - by the two company directors that I had previously worked with and who had made the decision to make me redundant. They upheld their original decision to make me redundant! However, they acknowledged that the process was not carried out in the 'best way'. As a result they sent me an email asking me to check on company B's website for any roles they are advertising that I felt may be of interest and they would put me in touch with the relevant person. I did not respond to this email as it was sent about 12 days after I had been dismissed by the company. They then stated in the appeal outcome letter that they felt by sending me the email in the first place that they were satisfied that they had carried out a full and thorough consultation. They then stated that they would be changing my effective date of termination to the 22nd December as they believed it would have taken about 3 weeks to consult had they done so. I acknowledged receipt of the appeal outcome letter and stated that I did not agree to the change of date! They also stated in the appeal outcome letter that they had spoken to the Head of HR and she has stated that she did not in any way shape or form state that the company was no longer financially viable. They have now changed the reason for the redundancy and have stated that there are a number of costs associated with the business that company B are currently paying. They have stated that 'if these were to be applied, the company would be breaking even at best'. I had previously asked for evidence of the financial situation of the company and had received the P&L statement for the 12 months until July 2015 and the four months from August 2015 to October 2015. The annual P&L shows a net profit for the year of £110k and the four month P&L shows a current net profit for the period to date of £25k. Neither of these P&L's include the costs which they refer to and there has been no evidence supplied to show they will be applied!! We are currently at ACAS early conciliation stage and I have today been told that the company is not willing to negotiate further as they are relying on the 'Polkey' argument and therefore compensation will not be paid! So, one question I have is, in order for them to successfully defend using the Polkey Argument, they will have to prove the redundancy would have happened anyway had they followed the correct procedure and will they therefore have to prove the initial reason given for the redundancy - i.e. no longer financially viable! Or can they now rely on the second reason they have given - can they change their minds on the reason when one argument relies on the parent company withdrawing funding [which incidentally it has never actually given!] and the other relies on the parent company adding in costs to the business that it has never [in the past four trading years] applied! Bear in mind I still have the original reason recorded which they have subsequently stated was never said! Secondly, I believe I would be entitled to a 'protective award' due to the fact that they did not follow a consultation process. However, the ACAS expert has today informed me that this would not be an entitlement because there were not 20 or more people made redundant. She told me to look at their website for more info and all I could find was this : Protective awards for failure by an employer to consult In cases where employers have failed to consult with employee representatives over proposed redundancies, an employment tribunal can make a ‘protective award’. The employer is required to pay employees covered by a protective award their normal week’s pay for each week of a specified period, known as the protected period, regardless of whether or not they are still working. To be covered by an award, employees must: • belong to a group specified in the award • be employees whom the employer plans to dismiss or has already dismissed as redundant, and • be employees in whose case the employer has failed to comply with the information and consultation requirements. My own research has found that protective awards are covered by s188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations act but this only mentions it in the context of 20 or more people being made redundant. I have tried to find the relevant law relating to less than 20 people but the best I can come up with is this - again from ACAS : When you are making fewer than 20 employees redundant you are legally required to have meaningful individual consultation. I cannot find the law which they are referring to as consultation only seems to be covered by s188 of the TU&LR Act. If that is the legislation they are referring to then it would stand to reason that the protective award would also apply! If anyone has the definitive answer for this it would be much appreciated... Apologies again for the long winded post, so far I have gone through this whole process and have not bothered with the expense of Legal Counsel - of to experience the delights of the Citizen's Advice bureau on Friday and I'm sure that will be delightful!

I'm mixing it up between the turbo in the garage and out on the roads. Since being made redundant a month ago it's a lot easier to go out on the road during the week - and thus waiting for a window of drier weather! If anyone has any suggestions for a 'winter' bike, then I'm all ears - budget will depend on how much compo I get once the redundancy is confirmed as an unfair dismissal [a matter of time but nothing moves quickly in the world of employment tribunals] but probably around the £700 mark. Already have a full carbon bike for the summer and will probably upgrade the components on that after Easter so looking for an aluminium frame for the winter bike with a decent set of components and mud guards - feel free to post links to anything you can think of

Any pictures of their pitch after this weekend's game? How is the new pitch 2.0 holding up to the weather?

Is Liam back?

I love the fact that the club are 'teasing' them with the refreshments