saintfully

What is your argument Johnny? Are you saying that you want the public sector to have less employment protection? Or do you want the private sector to have more? Are you just neutrally observing that members of one sector often have more employment rights than the other? In which case, yes thats true - in other news, the Earth is a sphere. Re. teachers - like other public sector workers they have good employment rights protected by the strength of their unions. But, at least 40% of teachers leave the profession within 5 years - why?This is most often because they are poor teachers and their headmasters make it quite clear that they are not wanted at their school any longer. This relates to the question of whether A&E consultants are wrapped in cotton wool or not - IMHO, where you score poorly is your inability to measure value beyond economics. A great many in the public sector could earn more money elsewhere in the private sector, but choose not to. This empathic approach means they care about their jobs in a way beyond how much they are earning. So, for someone working in a hospital or a school, the price of failure isn't just getting the sack or losing money, its someone dying or a child not reaching his/her potential. If you have a soul/conscience, that carries a cost way beyond what you take home in your paypacket. This is why I think describing them as being wrapped in cotton wool is so misguided and, frankly, weird. Your avatar is a man being grateful that at least his god likes him - perhaps if you were able to think with a little more social intelligence these sort of doubts wouldn't plague you. PS. I don't know a single 'leftie' that ignores the common working man - what you're mistaking is the ability to talk about one issue with an inability to talk about more than one. Sticking up for your own interests doesn't mean you don't care about others - 2/10 I'm afraid. Anyway - lets talk about the forces shall we. How about submariners - wrapped in cotton wool?

Tell you what, lets swap. I'll start - A&E consultant... altruistic public servant or cossetted namby-pamby public sector wastrel? Your turn - name the profession of public sector workers that are wrapped in cotton wool.

"We're all in this together"

Sounds like nursing is the job for you then. Just think you could increase your pay by ~£5000 pa. just by working bank holidays. Go for it - you'd be directly helping people too!!

Which public sector professions did you have in mind? Name the shirkers!!

I understand the point you're making. I would simply say: i) Impartiality boils down to a judgement made by other people on your behaviour. Modification of our own behaviour henceforth should be done with this in mind, and the only role we should be seen to be taking is humanitarian - but that should be an active and very public role. ii) The fact that the chances of success are negligible at present should not prevent us from foccussing our diplomatic efforts toward negotiated rather than military solutions.

T.i.t.s. Big and bouncy!!!

Alps is correct to say that doing nothing is not an option. We should respond by making a large (and very well publicised - if Eric Pickles can get TV time talking about wheelie bins, then coverage of this should be a doddle) aid donation to our allies Jordan to help them deal with their enormous refugee crisis - whilst redoubling our efforts to help negotiate a political solution via the UN. The first stage in the country regaining its self-respect is to recognise that it's no longer a world power and to act accordingly with dignity - not lash out pointlessly coz it doesn't like the nasty things on the telly.

Excellent work Sir. I too am looking forward to the moments of madness, excitement and soccerball genius our new signings will inevitably bring. I'm also thinking any interaction between Boruc and Osvaldo has eye-watering comedy potential. All this and we might well have some pwoper legends in the making too!! Europa cup, here we come! :badger:

Cheers - I'll have rum & coke

Thought it was very noticeable the difference Clyne made when he came on - just gave us another dimension. I look forward to matches when both our full-backs are pepared to bomb forward. Chambers and Shaw will get better/more consistent at this, but I thought today both looked a little toothless against some canny and frustrating opponents. Bah, would have taken a point before hand (after WBA win), but we could so easily have won that. Also, Di Canio is a tw.at.

People who can't help but exclaim about themselves. Whether its an inappropriately large car (why can these people never park either), an inappropriately loud voice (hearing tedious chat about school fees whilst I was on holiday was particularly grating) or ludicrously old-or-young fashioned clothing choices - (mid 40's man in skinny jeans/mid 20's man in loose fit cords) - it gets on my ti.ts. Eventually it will dawn on them that people aren't impressed - just bored and depressed that so many of these pri.cks exist, with such little diginty/self-repect. Also, the fact that the idiots are winning.

I regularly have contact with teachers across the south-east of England. If kids want drugs they know who to speak to and how to get them, just like adults do. Not surprisingly, more often than not it's children from difficult backgrounds that find themselves engaging in these kinds of activities and often these kids have greater access. In my experience, the vast majority of folk will end up having access to illegal drugs at some point in their life (and maybe most will have a little dabble?). This tends to be in late teenage/early 20's and from what I've observed, most grow out of it. It seems to me that the present policy does little to help those most vulnerable to this problem.

Whilst full legalisation may not be answer, neither is prohibition. Currently many teenagers can source any drug they want in comfortably less than 24 hrs - along with all the risks associated with its illegality. IMHO, maintaining the 'war on drugs' in its current form puts vulnerable members of our society at increased risk.

Ok... lots of words there. 1. Abandon civil service structure. Replace it with what as regards its administrative base? Is your argument that it is too bureaucratic - if so, what is the evidence. 2. Adopt commissioning model of C4 and have BBC productions as separate entity. Expand please - do you mean 'separate' as in 'separated by management structure' (it is already), or as in 'private/not-for-profit/co-op/public organisation not in the BBC but called BBC productions'??? 3. End dominance of journalists? Greg Dyke began life as a journalist, then became a director etc. At what point in their career do you propose banning someone from moving from journalism into management? 4. (and finally coz I can't be ars.ed to go on...) Savile as a flagship for the BBC. Wasn't he a flagship for the nation, hence his close ties to the Tory party, monarchy etc. Wouldn't the BBC have looked like a load of leftie weirdos if they'd pushed against the establishment in the way you suggest? The point being, Savile wasn't just the BBC's fault it was everybody's who stood back and knighted him, supported him and paid him etc. Yawn.

How would you reform it?

French economy grew by 0.5% in second quarter. UK economy grew by 0.6%. Compare and contrast.

Can't justify total expense more than once or twice per season now.

Possibly the most pathetic thread for a while - against some stiff competition.

I very much doubt you got an MA in employment law! You might have got an LLM though... Hmm.

Must be a particularly sh.ite company if they don't know what their labour costs/requirements are going to be (broadly) from day to day. Mickey-mouse outfit.

It only becomes a disasterous waste of money if we sell him now or he fails to deliver in the future. Presently he is our asset and one that we may be able to sell on - possibly even for a profit, even now. Ergo, he is not a disasterous waste of money.

Oh sorry, I didn't notice the expertly attached 'I'm not really trying to be clever, I'm trying to be ironically not quite clever enough to be amusing, amused' emoticon'. I'll try and pay attention next time. Thankfully, now you've pointed out your hilarious, astute and insightful miesterwork I'm LOL-ing off the ground. Top stuff - keep 'em coming!!

Probably right - like those stories about families that have 12 kids on the social, live like kings in mansions and have never worked a day in their lives. I just don't know which newspapers to base my world view on and trust these days! It's as if they've all got an agenda or something - next you'll be telling me they aren't interested in fairly representing a story, but would rather sell lots of copies.

Not really. Its a bit embarrassing what you can do with words. The comparison is pathetic.