Whitey Grandad

When you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.

The smart move would have been to let the French have it.

Went from the Isle of Man to Dublin and back when we were on our honeymoon. Beautiful settled sunny weather on the way over but a raging storm on the way back. There's a message there somewhere.

At last! A sensible use of time.

'tis murder, nothing less.

In some trades it's seven years.

If only... I use a local paint company who are very good. There used to be one in Gosport who were cheap but useless. There is one on the Isle of Wight who are quite good. I thought about using them but it turned out that my regular people were using them for the stuff they couldn't handle. Oh well, perhaps I could move somewhere with a better business environment and lower overheads, France for instance?

I'm with you. I'm almost hoping for torrential rain, if only it didn't ruin my plans for the day.

I speak to many small companies who are having problems meeting my production demands and I ask them why they don't expand. They all say that they don't want the hastle, they don't trust the future, and who are we to tell them they are wrong? It's their business.

It depends entirely on the type of business, of course. Shelf-stacking at Tescos might not take long, paint-spraying, panel-beating, welding, electronic assembly, printed-circuit board design, all have longer periods of training even for those who claim to be experienced.

Everybody I speak to has at least one example to quote. It takes several months to get a new employee trained up to speed and during that time they are taking away the time of an existing experienced employee. That only leaves a very short period to make a decision and getting rid means throwing away all the time invested so far. Remember that you can't make people redundant, only jobs.

More likely not wanting to take on an extra overhead at a time of failing demand.

There's a big difference between large companies and small ones.

You're right, no-one is forced to employ people. The whole point of the proposals is to make small businesses more likely to employ people and everyone should have the right to employ whoever they choose.

That's not the problem, it's the fear of unfair dismissal if you get the slightest detail of the procedure wrong, which would make the dismissal automatically unfair. Don't forget that small businesses don't have a personnel department and access to advice is time-consuming and not cheap.

Now that I would pay to watch. Have you thought of suggesting it to the Olympic Committee? On second thoughts, I suppose that 'ealth 'n Safety would worry that something might get singed.

Going from, say three, employees to four is a big increase in overheads and fraught with difficulties. And what do you do when the economic climate turns sour? Try looking at it from the employer's point of view. Some staff can be nothing but hassle.

As I alwas say, you can't generalise.

No it isn't. It really isn't. (Is this the 10 minute argument or the 30 minute one?)

Thereby hangs the crux of the matter. As a small business owner who might be considering taking on an extra member of staff, in the current economic climate, as the Mafia boss says in that film (Goodfellas?) 'Why take a risk?.

The eleven months is because of the notice period. The danger is that someone could play goody-goody for 11 months and then start swinging the lead once the initial period is up. It happens all the time, talk to any small employer.

Whatever it is, it certainly isn't history. I don't think Posterity will regard some bloke running past your office as significant. Not unless he torched the whole city or something.

It is there in the Laws in several places. http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2011_12_en.pdf Law 5: Powers & Duties of the referee Law 5: Page 68 especially and others.

Temporary cover?

No you don't. Who do you blame for the break? If you hadn't been playing footy it might not have happened.