Johnny Bognor

Hmm, but when cuts have to be made, larger organisations will get rid. If there are to be public sector cuts, I would rather that they start with incompetents.

...in the education system! I knew there were some, but didn't realise there were so many. Only 18 have been sacked for incompetence in the last 40 years as apparently, they just get moved around in the hope that no-one will notice. This is to be featured in a new panorama investigation called "can I sack the teacher?" showing tomorrow night. As we have so many teachers on here, I would be interested to hear their thoughts. I might make an effort to watch this one. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s8kpv

But there is a cost in organising such a sheme. The business has to pay for the full cost of the bike and takes ownership of the bike which the employee uses. The employer can sell the bike to the employee at the end of the 'hire' period after 12 months. What if the employee doesn't want the bike? The employer or cyclescheme is left with a load of 2nd hand bikes. If you hadn't noticed, there is a bit of bother with the economy and such schemes are a distraction to actually trying to turn a profit / stay afloat. If 10 people want a bike each, £10k needs to be paid over at a time when credit is tight / cashflow is tight. The bike is supposed to be used 50% for commuting to work. My friend never cycles to work, but in a hospital employing 1000+ staff, no one notices. Another hair brained scheme which is a drain on the public purse (through lost revenue take) which in the case of my friend has made no difference to traffic congestion / pollution whatsover.

I forgot about that one. An NHS friend has just bought a fancy new mountain bike on this scheme, except he still drives to work and uses it on his weekend rides. Just another one of the hidden perks that your average taxpayer doesn't enjoy. I suppose you don't get the time to use it for pleasure during term time, so I hope you make up for it over the summer. I really hope it doesn't rain too much.

Normally you can take your custom elsewhere.... in this case I can't. Whenever there is a monopoly supplier (public or private) the service is usually ****, but at the end of the day, public servants should serve. Still, the whether is nice, the festival of speed is on locally, so I guess they've got more important things to do. With a private company I also have re-course where I can complain / receive a refund / sue / jump up and down if necessary. These ****s in local government don't give a toss, don't do refunds and make your life difficult if you kick up a fuss. Perhaps if they worked as hard as our teacher friend, things might improve.

pound

I'm having some building work done at the moment. My builder called Building Control at 10.30am this morning and wanted to speak to the person assigned to the case. My builder was told that he was out and won't be back until 3pm. My builder called at 3pm (because they obviously weren't going to call back) and was subsequently told he had been off all week. My builder asked to speak to someone else, but there was no one available as they had all gone home. I thought that the idea of public servants was that they are supposed to serve the public. (especially when you pay building regs fees on top of your council tax.....I am a customer, am I not?) Silly me, I should have known, it is about having a cushy little number and screwing the public. No sense of customer first / customer service. If my business offered service like that, I wouldn't have a business. Planning & Building Control = complete ****ing tossers Add that to the 12 non-marketing people at a marketing exhibition which has nothing to do with Local Government on wednesday and I am starting to wonder whether I really am getting value for money from my council tax when WSCC are clearly taking the ****ing ****. I reckon I could save 20% off their budget, without an impact on frontline services whatsoever and manage to do that in a 37 hour week. If I worked a 50 hour week, I reckon I could save 20% and improve the service.

Because they don't want to, simple really.

I wouldn't pretend that all jobs in the private sector are more than 37 hours a week and at the same time I wouldn't pretend that all jobs in the public sector are less than 50 hours a week (see all of my examples from both public and private sectors above). However, if you take into account teachers holidays and pro-rata the working week across the year, the "hard working" teacher would still not work much more than you do, which at 37 hours, is not that hard.....

Not bitter at all. If you notice, I only respond to whinging public servants / union types when they bang on about their hard done by lives or when they bang on about how great they are. I like to point out the realities by which the majority of people have to live by. I get riled by those in a cushy position complaining, when they clearly have nothing to complain about. It's called perspective you see. Unfortunately, most teachers have an intellectual superiority complex and look down on those who are less educated. For them, academic achievement is the measure of greatness. For me, a career in teaching would have been a waste of my talents, so was not really a career option. I am educated to degree level, but at the same time, I see where SRS comes from in that I view/have viewed students as complete ****s. Anyway, back to BTF's hard working son in law. Holding up someone who works 50 hours a week as "hard-working" is a complete **** take if you ask me. At best it is marginally above average. The fact that the EU set a limit of a maximum 48 hour working week suggests that a significant number of people work far in excess of this, so the "hard working" teacher is not really that hard working afterall. Many small business owners and self employed people work far in excess of this, so why is the teacher a ****ing hero? Most Junior Doctors work in excess of 80 hours per week and have to go through far more training than your average teacher (and is better educated BTW). As for fulfilment, do you run your part time business on the side, because teaching is not as fulfilling as you make out? Or is it because the nasty tory/capitalist part of your brain is more prevalent than Thorpie's?

Not at all. I relish the opportunity to educate people about the real world.

Nope, just can't stand this public sector (particularly teachers) hard done by ******** One of my business areas is organising events/conferences, some of which are for the Public Sector. If you think that many public sector events are not just about having a **** up (sorry, networking with industry colleagues), then I am afraid you are deluding yourself in the public-sector-can-do-no-wrong-cloud-cuckoo-land. I see Tory From The Top even posted a picture of his favourite tipple (because he knows deep down I am right) I was exhibiting at the Data Marketing Show this week in Olympia. About 12 delegates from West Sussex County Council came on stand. The fact that none of them worked in marketing, or the fact the the main focus of the show has absolutely nothing to do with Local Government whatsoever, just confirms my belief that a good day out of the office at the tax payers expense is one of the 'perks' of the job. What has anything I said have to do with unfounded accusations? If you are representative of the average teacher, then I fear they may be overpaid afterall. I was merely stating the fact that many self-employed / small business owners work many hours in excess of BTF's "Hard Working" Son in Law. Those hours may be deemed 'hard' in the teaching profession, but it doesn't even come close to many in the private sector (or the NHS for that matter). Even the 7-11 shop keeper works 16 hours a day, 7 days a week (with no sick pay, very little holiday, no final salary pension etc etc) - do they complain? Nope, they just get on with it. 50 hours a week (plus the odd saturday or sunday) doesn't even come close to the hardest working people I know - both in the Public & Private sectors. I have no problem with teachers pay and in my own personal experience, the teachers at my two 5 year olds primary are fantastic and do a sterling job. However, don't play the hard-done-by card with me as I will bite....... The only area of the Public Sector that has any right to complain IMO are those working in Social Services. This is the lowest paid area of the Public Sector and is comparable in terms of pay to the lowest paid private sectors (Retail, Hospitality, Cleaning, etc). They do a thankless job that most people wouldn't do, for pay that most people wouldn't want to do it for. The education profession, however, is an entirely different matter.

There are millions of self employed and small business owners that work far in excess of this. ...and so he should. Wouldn't want him sitting on his arse at home at the taxpayers expense. You can't beat a taxpayer funded jolly on the **** with like minded people Maybe he is hard working for a Public Servant, but his hours are part time compared to hundreds of thousands of people in the private sector.

Apparently you sign an insurance disclaimer to accept any liability. If you do not have your own insurance for motorsport events, you're not covered. Apparently, the guy is claiming he blacked out. Yeah right.

Today is the moving motor show at the Goodwood Festival of speed. This morning, some punter took out a Honda Civic Mugan Type R on the indoor circuit. He floored it, crashed through a wall, went through the Jaguar stand and into a crowd of people. He also managed to destroy the oldest surviving Jag E Type. What a ****! UPDATE: No fatalities, but four people injured

The level of abuse you receive very much depends on whether you are doing B2C (Business-to-Consumer) or B2B (Business-to-Business) campaigns. B2C will inevitably lead to more abuse, especially if you are calling people within a 'lower' demographic profile. With B2B, you won't get any abuse, the odd rude response maybe, but people in business tend to be professional. The challenge with B2B however, will be to get past the gatekeepers. If you crack this, then you will do well. You will either love it or hate it - no middle ground. Go for it I say as it is good character building stuff and is a good grounding for a career in sales (if that is what you want to do). It is amazing how many sales people are too scared to pick up the phone and call people these days. Outbound telemarketing on your CV will at least demonstrate you have a pair of ********.

I am now on my 3rd 5 series, which now has 54k miles on it. The previous two had over 180k miles on them when I sold them. Over 410k miles between all three and one ignition coil failed, which cost me £200. Maybe you were unlucky? Every other car I owned prior to the 1st BM fell apart after 100k miles. I believe there is an E34 with 1 million miles on it with the original engine and gearbox. Stick that in your jap pipe and smoke it.

These guys literally take the **** http://www.redstripeuk.com/

I agree with you on that. Those that aren't genuinely sick actually make life harder for those that are.

No names, but I know of a similar situation with a private company and a trade union. In the un-named organisation, anyone having less than 10 days sick a year would not be investigated. The Union actively encouraged people to take their full "entitlement" of 10 days, on the basis that if everyone continually took less than the 10 days, the 10 day limit would be reduced. The comments were also made to the effect that those who didn't take all of their sick, made those who did take more than 10 days look bad. WTF? In my book, this is tantamount to theft and those involved should have been prosecuted. As far as I am aware, this practice still happens today. A lot of companies in the private sector no longer pay sick pay, with exception for the statutory amount and this seems to 'solve' the problem, but unfortunately it is those who are genuinely ill that suffer. One thing I have never understood is why are people more likely to be sick in the summer (when there are more colds and flu in the winter) and why more people are sick when the sun is shining. I am sure if you measured it, the most popular days to be sick are on a friday or on a monday. I think I must be super-human as I have had one day off sick in the last 20+ years.

I went cycling with a mate who works in operating theatres. Although there is a pay freeze, he goes up a pay band for every year's service completed. So although there won't be a percentage increase in the pay bands, people will move up the pay scales. They essentially get two pay rises a year and it is only the percentage increase that is being frozen. There are many in the NHS that will earn more next year, for doing the exact same amount of work as they did this year/last year...... Meanwhile, back in the real world (the private sector), a pay freeze means no extra money, zero, zilch. In fact many are having their salaries reduced. Unfortunately, those in cloud cuckoo land have no concept of this.

We were carrying a £60 billion structural deficit before the credit crunch / recession. Racking up a deficit of this magnitude during a boom is totally irresponsible. I suppose Gordon did it because he thought he had eliminated boom and bust.

There may have been some rationalisation, but some big companies have gone to the wall. This may have escaped you in your cosy little world http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7874026.stm Take the retail sector, for example, which is reknowned as one of the lowest paid industry sectors. Big names have gone to the wall. Companies like Woolworths have dissapeared from the high street. When Woolworths went, I thought "****, 27,000 people have just lost their jobs in one foul swoop". I bet you thought, "****, where can I buy my pick and mix?" So we have 27,000 from one company. Next time you go to SMS, look around you and visualise the stadium being filled with woolworths employees. This is just one company in one industry......... Actually, I am astonished that the intellectual left on here don't seem to give a flying **** about the 1 million people, many of whom are innocent "victims" (the majority of whom will be those from lower incomes, although you can't get lower than no income at all) of this recession and you can't even empathise / sympathise with them. I didn't realise socialism was so selective......

OK, there may be some redundancies, but I don't see anywhere near the scale of job losses that have been witnessed in the private sector over the last few years. Unemployment has gone up by 1 MILLION and it is still rising - 99% of these have not come from the public sector.

But BTF, borrowing billions of pounds to spend in the private sector is not the creation of wealth, it is the borrowing of wealth. Borrowing that has to be paid back.