OldNick

thank heavens Im not the old git on this thread

51 and a half

I agree a teacher could be counted as low to average paid, but as they go up the scale they soon get to a decent wage. if they make deputy head etc i think the payscales then do get pretty good.

Steady Wade, you think I don't know that, I haven't seen the report on that incident but there is no way they should have been expected to go in if there was a chance of them being harmed. Something went seriously wrong that night and I don't believe they went recklessly in.

No Im not cut out for that route. I have been happy to make my own way in life. It has its plusses and minuses. I believe in fairness and what I see from where I sit is that the Public Sector has to take its part of the pain. I have always wished for the higher end of the public sector to take the major strain, and the working staff ie bin men and the lower paid staff to be unaffected by all this. I listen in bemusement how people take early retirement or redundancy and then brag that the council then reemploy them at higher rates as consultants. I applauded the Gov when they raised the tax threshold for the very low paid, that is how it should be. Those people deserve the pension as they will be less able to save for later life.

I think you will find a large proportion of the high earners already do. In a strange way they pay twice, as they use private schools and hospitals and then pay a high percentage of their earnings in tax to contribute to the public heath service and schools.

health and safety public servants would not let anyone run into a burning building. As for your last sentence that is quite the same argument that the Gov is saying to the public sector. You can have your pension but have to pay a proper contribution to do so. Not expect the taxpayer to subsidise it.

I dont bang on about the costs to me, but just wished to point out that we all are making sacrifices and so get on with it. You took a noble choice,I respect that but your decision was with the thought of a lovely pension in your later years, others are trying to make the funds now to provide for themselves in later life. Neither at present are fireproof choices. My spelling and grammar would not be enough up to scratch to retrain as a teacher, and frankly now too old to get on the public sector pension route.

is that what the PC is about?

in other words, he thinks the squad in general is good enough and doesnt need much strengthening. Perhaps we will have to wait until jan to see if we really want to go up again or try and save our spot in this league.

It is hard to say anything negative to such noble jestures, but the private pensions were raped by the previous government and all the people who also had staked their life's work in those also were hurt. They didn't /couldnt try and bring the country to a halt but got on with it. I do understand your frustration, but the nation as a whole is hurting and having to take some pain. The bankers have cost me personally a 6 figure sum, do you think Iam happy?

I suspect he will made chief reviewer of the FPPT and is the benchmark of how a football chairman should be. In fact the PL may well parachute Brum back into their league as a reward of being such a top ambassador of their brand

we have stepped up another level. The clubs in our new league already have the players who are used to the level , add to that the clubs like WHU willing to spend to go up and I believe we should be rightly concerned about our progress. As for winning 5-0 every week, i can only recall us winning 1 game by a margin of that kind. If you went to many of the games the results in the main were ground out, not by superb flowing football. The arrogance of our supporters, in the foolish belief, that the all conquering team who after a long struggle eventually finished 2nd are now ready to make a challenge ,seems a tad optimistic. There is not a fan on here who does not want us to do well, but I do believe there are a lot who do worry that we do not have the resources to hand to really go for it. For your information , i also have heard we are for sale. it may be a load of bull but as the time goes by and no new faces, it will make the rumours get worse. I feel that the club may well un-veil a couple of signings just as the S/T's are released. It would seem good marketing to do so. As Pompey get more and more useful players to bulk up their squad i'm sure the frustrations will get worse on here.

the CVA if i recall correctly, was cleverly worded and was left that it could be bypassed or put back without any trouble.

I agree that we would indirectly be paying for some of these things as customers, but have a choice whether to support that company. Paying through taxation for waste does irk and we have no choice in what it is spent on.

well you said you added on extra to pay for holidays and sick pay , when you just adsorbed it. You say you didn't know how many customers you were likely to have so it was impossible to add on extra charges to cover for the days you would be on holiday or sick. You just made provisions to set aside some money for a rainy day, budgeting. That is not the same as getting the market rate and then adding on the extra for days when you were not working. If you were salaried you get 70k including holiday pay, if you are self employed you earn what you earn and then when not working you get SFA. (of course if you have many staff the business should still make its way) I didnt notice if you answered my other question, whether you would have still gone to work in plaster if you had been working in the Public sector and were still going to get paid.

But you charged the going rate, not adding on a premium to cover the holidays. If you had added 20% you may have struggled. In the world of S/E you cannot add on holiday /sickness pay if your competitors do not. If the going rate is 50 , unless you offer a better product nobody will pay 60 if they can get the same for 50. You were just absorbing the quiet periods , not adding it on.

Interestingly would you have gone to work had you been on the public services payroll? You come across yet again as patronising, Im amazed you managed to have any customers Lol You seem not to want to understand that you cannot charge more than the going rate just to cover your holidays /sick pay. Your product was worth the rate you were charging and had you not taken any holidays or sick days you would have earned those extra weeks money at that full rate. If your factoring of holiday pay etc made you too expensive, you would not have had full classes and would have had to lower prices to compete. I do not need to be reminded about saving for a rainy day, that is something I always am aware of. I have been S/E for 36 years and so know it feels not to have the security of a guaranteed salary and pension.

They are being linked /buying some very useful players. Frustrating that I can see them making a real fist of it this season. having bought 2 good players already and searching for more.

Well you were lucky to have set amounts of guarenteed pupils to your lessons to be able to plan that way. I earn over a year what i earn and can't plan and add on for holidays. If you were charging £50 a lesson and had full classes that was the going rate, not with an extra added on. Your pupils would not have paid over the going rate against your competition. So you were not really adding on, you just had not read the market price correctly and so got lucky to have the premium. If a dance class was open next door and was charging £30 you would not have been able to charge £50 as market forces would dictate.

the squad hardly crushed all that came was put in front of it last season. How can we expect RL to score 20 goals again at a level he has not played at? He is a great player for us but AL will not be such a threat also as the defenders are another grade higher. Jaidi struggled in games and looked shot a lot of the time, he will be another year older, Seabourne was made to look slow at times and our midfield rarelty outshone the opposition. Letrs hope the club dip into the funds and strengthen, it was hard getting up , lets not throw it away.

It is a tad amusing that when it suits , its up to Gove but when things are to be changed that are not so palatable its lets walk out on strike. I have been self employed all my working life and so have a different slant on perks and holidays. I get no paid leave, I dont get paid if i dont work or go on holiday.So forgive me if i dont seem to have any sympathy. I have a rubbish pension as I did not contribute a large slice of my income into one, no index linked final salalry stuff for us

Teachers training days, why are they not taken during the many school holidays? I wish they were around when I was they didn't even close when it was snowing. It seems a nonsense to me. Surely you are either trained or you are not.

I find it sad that so many are not worried that our high streets independents are going to the wall. In the next few years every high street will be the same with the same goods and retailers. how sad is that? The charity shops get low cost staff and rates, and can compete against independent retailers,and can easily take on the best prime small retail units. Southampton used to have lots of secondhand shops but now some down to the large charity shop in Shirley have closed. I try to go to independents and as long as they are within 15% of the internet I will buy from them for the personal service alone. I recently purchased a digital camera that way. When the high street is a monopoly to a few major players watch the prices then, as the not only will dominate the high street their muscle will get them to the top of the web and be able to afford the miore expensive key words on Google Adwords. Some of the keywords I have to use cost £1.89 a click.

and you voted for Michael Foot Lol