trousers

Swansea 0 Everton 1

I agree, large private companies often suffer from the same 'kingdom making' syndrome as public sector organisations. So, if large companies and public sector organisations both suffer from the same malaise, what's the solution? Maybe the public sector should only outsource to 'leaner' private companies that are under a certain size and who can demonstrate that they haven't succumbed to the pitfalls of large company mentality? That said, there will always come a point where these leaner/smaller companies drift into large company bad practices as they become more successful and inevitably bigger. (victims of their own success etc) Despite the 'raving capitalist' persona I often paint on here, I'm not blind to the failings of certain parts of the private sector. I simply believe that both sectors have a part to play in all aspects of life and its about finding the right balance rather than being dogmatically for or against one or the other.

It was only a matter of time before the Tories started mimicing the other parties when it comes to being vague about funding.... That said, given £8bn is only a measly 0.27% of UK GDP I'm sure they can find it from somewhere....

Nail on head right there. I ended up having to quit my role as an IT project manager for a bank because it's almost impossible to manage people that don't challenge what you're asking them to do. Whilst I was able to 'self-challenge', due to coming from a technical background, you still need people that have a natural tendancy to question what's being proposed for projects to be successful. There's no place for blind compliance in the IT industry (as well as elsewhere no doubt). I'm currently in the software testing sector and almost without exception, the offshore/onshore resources we deal with have zero problem-solving/trouble-shooting instinct or skills which means whenever they hit a testing error they either bat it straight back over the fence without any preliminary diagnostics or mask the problem altogether by removing the validation checks that are failing so that the test(s) pass. Aaaarrrghhhh...... Yep, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, etc. I've sat in on conference calls where I've put the phone down afterwards and have no idea what was discussed. It's not for the want of trying or putting in the effort to understand, its simply impossible in a lot of cases. That thought has often crossed my mind. Now I'm on the supplier side of the industry, I'm torn between tearing my hair out at how much 'our' industry has gone down the pan versus rubbing my hands together with glee at how much more work is out there, for software suppliers such as my company, due to the lack of depth of knowledge that now exists on our clients' shop-floor!

Fair point

Boris waiting in the wings is precisely why the outcome of this election is a win-win for Tory supporters

I suspect he was referring to people in 'developed' countries when he came up with the quote. (He was actually quoting someone else as it happens). As with all sound bites, there can be elements of truth and elements of flawed logic sitting side by side. What he's really saying is that if you don't ever try to better yourself then you will never succeed in doing so. Which is stating the obvious somewhat, of course.

Totally agree with the saturation of off-shoring/on-shoring in the IT industry. Its a completely false economy. Where we used to deal with one or two experts we now find ourselves dealing with half a dozen (or more) resources that haven't got a clue, ergo projects end up taking much longer with more people. But, hey, the charge-out rate for each resource is c.75% cheaper than the old fashioned rate for people that knew what they were doing, so that's OK....

I agree. Giving 95% of your wealth to help others is dreadful behaviour. Doesn't he realise that governments are much more efficient at wealth distribution than individuals FFS?!

In most cases, 'Not dying poor' doesn't equate to 'Dying rich'...

Bournemouth go 4 points clear at the top of the Championship this evening

Not sure if I agree with this or not...

Most GPs don't receive a public sector salary though; they're effectively self employed. So how would that work? Maybe we should 'privatise' MPs too...?

IPSA's been disbanded? When did that happen?

#whataboutery klaxon# Would you be using that same line of defence if it had been a nasty Tory at the helm at the time and with the same outcome?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/09/carlsberg-poster-free-beer-billboard

The most amusing aspect of that is John Prescott, the master of car crash interviews, gleefully tweeting about the story without a hint of irony John Prescott @johnprescott If yesterday's Michael Fallon interview was a car crash, Eric Pickles just caused a motorway pile-up #r4today

Maybe they should start playing the ladies in League 2.... http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/article/portsmouth-ladies-4-southampton-1-in-hampshire-cup-final-2387349.aspx

I have "no problem" with whatever the best policy is for the country's finances, rather than what is the best election point scoring policy. The jury is out for me as there appears to be supporting (and conflicting) evidence on both sides of the coin on this one.

The nasty Tories are talking about adjusting existing rail fare regulation whereas Labour were talking about a whole new tier of regulation for the energy industry. The main political point scoring against Labour's energy freeze policy was that it didn't take into account fluctuating prices - i.e. prices go down as well as up - but, of course, labour backtracked on that one and decided retrospectively that it was a cap not a freeze. P.s. the "big society" is in reference to the volunteering initiative, not the train fare policy.

http://www.adamsmith.org/news/press-release-political-move-to-scrap-non-doms-ignores-all-the-evidence-new-paper-argues/

I tend to agree with pap on this one....rioters are more likely to riot when a Tory government is in power than a Labour government. Pap and I probably disagree on the reasons why that is though... In a similar vein, its no coincidence that the SNP engineered a referendum whilst the nasty Tories were in power...

The point is, that whoever wasn't in power at the time was always bound to 'bang on about it' when they got into power. The nasty Tories and their supporters don't have a monopoly on blaming other parties for all the country's woes.