Lord Duckhunter

So you would rather useless teachers teach my children, than claim benefits? In any profession there is a % of people who are not up to the job, that's just a fact of life. Teaching's not for me, so I dont pretend that it's easy. I would love to be able to inspire and shape children, I can think of no more rewarding job. However, I would not be capable of doing it.There's no shame in being a poor teacher, it's a very special job, that need very special people ,and some teachers are just not capable.I would love to know the figures for teachers sacked through capability, rather than conduct. If I was a betting man I would put my money on the figure being a lot lower than other professions. Is this because we train them up to such a high standard that every teacher is competant, or is it because it's damn near impossible to get rid of them? Let's reward the good and get rid of the bad.

There has not been the political will to get rid of useless teachers and I dont understand why. Surley these useless people are letting down the rest of their profession and leaving them open to stupid comments about holidays and working hours.Are other public services the same, do we sack useless coppers, or useless nurses? you would hope so. Somebody has to make a decision on teachers competance and that decison should be made by the Headmaster. He/she is at the school day in day out, they will know which teachers are not performing, will hear whispers from collagues and pupils alike. There needs to be a clear and precise disipinary system to deal with capability issues, and surely it's as much in the unions interest to get rid of the deadwood, as it is the parents. The best teachers should be paid more, and the worst drummed out. Unfortunatly the unions are happy for useless teachers to stay in the profession, rather than better pay for their more able members. My Uncle was a Headteacher for many years, he was a decent hard working man, although a bit boring. Trendy new teaching methods that change all the time and poor teachers are bringing down education in this Country, according to him.

Tell me about it.I'm ok with the longer one's but the short ones kill me. My old Man is an ok golfer he plays off about 14 and that's not bad for a bloke in his 70's. He goes mad with me over my putting. Tells me it's the cheapest and easist thing to practise, just practise on the carpet at home (provided you dont have wood flooring). I just find it so boring, just want to get up the range or on the course and smash the crap out of the ball. Problem is all my mates know I'm hopeless at putting, so thers a lack of gimme's when we play. I remember winning a charity day with 41 points (which is far from bandit country) and 3 putting on about 9 greens. In the bar after I was getting stick from the other 3 in my 4 ball, for being a bandit because I should have ended up with about 50 points had I putted like everyone else. My Brother in law shut them up by saying "putting is as much part of the game as driving, had he driven badly and got 41 points, nobody would have said a thing, what the difference?"

Correct. Look at Gerrard, he has all the tools to be our own Schweinsteiger,but he's ill disiplined in defence and chases about all over the place. He then gets shifted out to the left or played "in the hole" behind the strikers. Rafa didn't trust him to hold his position and break at the right moment and neither did Capello.He's a far better player than Fat Frank and could be better than most of Europes centre mids. However he lacks the intelligence to play the position. He doesn't seem to make the right judgements, when to pass quickly, when to play it short or when to burst forward. Far too many "Glenn Hoddle" passes which end up giving the ball away.He gets away with it in the Premiership, but wont at international level. How many years have we been talking about Lampard and Gerrard playing together. If you took 2 German players who were exactly the same, they'd have sorted it out years ago.

He didn't "pretend" to cry, he thought they were going out of the World Cup, as a result of his handball, there were also Ghana players celebrating the award of the Peno, isn't that against your fine spirit of sportsmenship?. I don't believe for one minute that he "laughed hysterically" because of the miss, it was a mixture of relief and joy. I also saw the Ghana players cheering and celebrating when a Uruguay player skyed his peno, and they were still in it. It's human nature. Do you consider jack Charlton one of the hero's of '66 a complete ******, do you think he should give his medal back? This has been blown out of all Proportion, because it was an African nation in Africa. It's a bit condescending to them if you ask me, with a hint of political correctness. If it was against England, the world would be celebrating. The mistake Suarez seems to have made is doing it against Africans, as opposed to say Ireland, and the fact that they missed the peno and then went onto lose the shootout. Had they scored the Peno, or won the shootout, he would get a 1 match ban. He now may get two for the sole reason the African's can't take Peno's.

He wasn't booked because those were the rules at the time. It was situations like this that led to a change in the rules. The rules now are a 1 match ban, if FIFA want to change them, then fair play. However, you can not backdate them on the basis that an African missed a peno in Africa.

I like the commentry "and Jackie Charlton blunders". A South American cheats, but an Englishman "blunders".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIfd3SBZdTY&feature=related

What do you think of Jack Charlton's delebrate hand ball in '66.

Jack Charlton gave away a peno after a delebrate handball in the 1966 semi final, so before people get too carried away with attacking "cheating South Americans", we should remember that. Jack's punishment? A pen, not even a booking, see those were the rules at the time. They were applied consistantly and were the same whether Eusebio scored from the spot or missed.

Harry Kewell did the same thing and got a 1 match ban. Are we now deciding punishments on the basis of who it was against, and whether the peno was converted? Had this been the other way round, there would have been none of this nonsense, it's only because it went against an African nation. Surely every handball that prevents a goal would come under the banner of "unsporting behaviour", because by it's nature the hand ball has to be delebrate. What about a foul, is that not "unsporting behaviour", appealling for a corner, when you know it's a goal kick, where does it end. If they couldn't do anything about Henry's handball or Maradona's it seems a bit strange that despite have clear and consistant rules in place, they're going to change them because an African couldn't score a Peno.

100% correct, I thought Ghana got more than their fair share of the decisions yesterday. I also couldn't believe the ITV panel, it was as if England had been beaten (I understand Marcel Desailly, but the others were gutted, I thought Brinkley had dumped Chiles again, he was so close to tears). If he gets more than a 1 match ban it will be a disgrace. You can't start changing punishments during a competition and you certainly can not increase them because of the time the offense was committed or because the peno was missed. Must say there were two bits of bravery (in a sporting context) that you rarely see. For the guy to step up and take the first peno, takes mental toughness that not many people are capable of.And how big were the blokes ******** that ran up and dinked it over the Keeper? I thought it was a great days football yesterday, the cynical Brazillians getting their just reward and a fantastic end to the other game. I hope that Holland go on to win the whole thing, to lose in '74 & '78 was heartbreaking with such great sides, but if they dont would love to see the fairytale of Uruguay do it.

We went into the banking crisis in a worst state than most countries, because of Browns policies. The British people obviously didn't believe he was capable of clearing up the mess as Labour suffered its worse election result for decades. He now appears to be after Ted Heath's record for the longest sulk after an election defeat.

The only web site that can be acessed during work is The BBC, so I post in my own time. The staff do have a coffee break, it's part of their terms and conditions. I even allow them a lunch break, but it's unpaid. I do whatever hours I need to, sometimes it's 45 others it's up in the 70's. I can assure you that my staff work pretty much flat out, they do not "grind along at 70-80% capacity". If they did, I would be out. If I was told to cut 20% of my staff, they would still expect the same work. I would just have to rearrange things, prioritise, find smarter ways of working. The line I will hear is "you're paid to manage whatever we want, and if you can't, we'll get someone in who can". You still haven't explained to me how my postie mate can finish early when it suits him, and the dustmen work quicker on a Bank Holiday. Just 2 examples, I'm sure there are thousends more.This is not a rant against Public sector workers, my wife is a midwife and works damn hard. However there are thousends of public sector workers taking the mick. If they stopped doing so, we may be able to pay off Labours Credit card bills, without too much pain.

So people need an incentive to work at 100%? it defies belief. We have to work at 100%, not through any incentive but because that's our job, and we're dealt with if we dont. I'm paid to ensure my guys work 100%, not "grind along at 70-80% capacity". If they did that, I'd soon find myself out on my ear. Anyway, thanks for backing up my point that savings can be made without affecting front line services. If everyone worked at full capacity, that would be a great start.

I always thought the stands should have been named after legends, not suites.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why cuts and staff reductions always result in cuts to "front line services" in the Public sector? It is not like this in the Private sector. Take Tesco, whatever you may think of them, for the past 20 years they have become a success story and in a cut throat and low margin business have become the major player in the Country. You can not tell me they have not cut staff numbers or made efficiency savings the past 5 years. I bet there have been recruitment bans and less staff working in stores. Obviously they have opened new stores taking on more people, but whatever their way of measuring efficiency is, whether £'s per hour worked or staff numbers per sq of retail space, I bet they have less staff doing more. Did the senior managers and CEO of Tesco accept the argument that cuts would "effect customer service"? Of course not, Managers would have been told to get on with it, deliver higher sales and still maintain customer service. They would have done this by moving staff about, clearing out the deadwood, cutting down on sickness and working smarter. Can this attitude be transferred to the Public sector? It bloody well should be. Take my dustmen. On a Bank Holiday Monday, they pick up my bins by 07.30pm, they are running down the road, working full on. A normal Monday it's 10am at the earliest and they're dawdling about. What's the reason for this? I suspect that Bank Holidays are "job and finish" (although I don't know). If they can do the job so much quicker on a Bank Holiday, why cant they do it every Monday? My mates a post man, he told me that if there's someone sick or overtime available the first people back from their rounds pick this up, you still get paid your normal day plus the O/T. Therefore he gets round as quick as he can, to snap up the O/T. When there's no O/T he does his round in his paid hours. Why is there not a Manager questioning this, why isn't he being asked, "why does your round take 5 hours (although he's paid for a full day) some days and a full day on other days. Why does he do his round quicker on a Saturday, as well. No Private Company I've ever worked for would put up with these examples. I have yet to work for a Company that, whether it was the 80's, early 90's or now, that have not sometime reduced numbers. Guess what, every single time we have to do the same job, deliver the same results and there are no excuses. If Private Companies can make cuts and deliver the same results, why can't the Public Sector?

I think on the whole the refereeing has been quite a good standard this time. Yes, there have been 1 or 2 mistakes, but overall I would say it's been better than most recent WC's, so far.

Love Shack B-52's,memories of working with some great blokes. Baby I'm-A Want You, Bread- Reminds me of my Mum listening to it whilst making Sunday lunch, when I was a nipper.

I have sent 4 children through the schools system and obviously went to school myself. My Wife also went to uni as a mature student to become a midwife and my Uncle was a Head teacher for many years. In my experience there are some fantastic teachers who inspire and enthuse the children. There are also some hopeless one's completely out of their depth, who do more harm than good. It should be up to the headmaster to get rid of these hopeless cases, just as it is for me to Manage out any hopeless staff I have. It is the useless lazy teachers that are bringing the profession into disrepute and allowing people to make stupid comments that tar all teachers. Does anyone know the % of teachers that are fired, not for misconduct, but for capability in this Country. My gut feeling is that it is not many. We should pay good teachers more, a lot more, but have zero tolerance of bad teachers, with Headmasters given the freedom to decide such issues. The holiday issue is just a very silly tool to hit teachers with. If we want our children to have 6 weeks off in the summer, it makes sense that teachers are off to. Unless you want them going into school with no one to teach.

I was refered to the NHS phsyio for my frozen shoulder. Whilst I was there she asked what medication I was on and I told her I was on a NSAID's for Achilles Tendonitis ( a result of still trying to play football at 45). She said" I have some great excersises that will help that". I said "great what are they"? She then turned round and said my Doc would have to refer me for that, as she was dealing with my shoulder at present. Is that not a waste? I now have to go back to my Doc, get an appointment to go and see the physio that I'm already seeing. Maybe they get paid per referall, maybe it's target driven, but it doesn't make any sense to me. That's just a small example of where common sense could be used to save the tax payer money. There must be millions of similar examples.

Littlejohn's got it spot on. There is massive waste in the Public sector and thankfully we have a Govt prepared to risk short term unpopularity to do so. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1290427/Black-magic-online-poker--just-slow-day-Town-Hall.html

It was the reason that he was hit round the head. Put it like this, the rumours were of the very worst kind someone could face. A friend of mine in the press told me about them, but said they could find no proof of it at all, and they did look into it. I've also seen hints of it on Newcastle Utd 606 message boards. The thread does seem a bit random and I suspect it was being hinted at. Dont know about Lawro though.

80% of my staff are on less than 3 absense's with a large amount on none, including myself and my 3 Supervisors.Because I've stuck strictly to the Company policy, there is no debate, no accusations of favouritism and no grey areas.This seems to work and my absence rates are well below average.My wife is a midwife and obviously stays off with the slightest hint of a bug or cold. However, our staff are expected to come in where ever possible (I dont make the policy I just enforce it). It is remarkable how much healthier people become after warnings are issued. There are people who play the system, our trigger points used to be 1 absence higher and some staff's absence rates came down as the trigger did. It's not a question of me bashing the workers, or of taking a bosses view of this. My basic take on it is I am protecting this benefit for the people who are geniune and ensuring it is not withdrawn because the cost is going through the roof.

There have been nasty unfounded rumours about the baseball bat incident and KK for years.