March in London on the 26th?

I am wondering...as the "anarchists" like to turn up when there are big crowds and promptly go around just smashing stuff up because they know bugger all is going to happen to them, I wonder if they will turn up on Williams wedding day given that its only weeks away, as there will be big crowds around and what would occur.
 
Goberpiles316 said:
Have to wonder why some of these shops have not employed private security for days like these, Fortnum and Mason will be wrecked inside.
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Actually the footage being shown on the news and the pictures on Twitter coming from inside Fortnum & Mason show that it's actually not being trashed at all. If you look at the protestors inside, they are supposed to actually be making a point and aren't the anarchist types. There are also Police inside the building too... they are just occupying it.

The ones who were on the roof outside were anarchist types.



At the end of the day, how is a business to predict where protestors are going to end up? There is also the fact that the Police are supposed to be used to protect such buildings. I would imagine private security would also cause all kinds of issues due to being too heavy handed.

A lot of the early feedback from today is saying that the Police have possibly been too slow to react, most likely because they were Policing the main march. Also, I think they have taken a slightly hands-off approach this time after all these cries that the Police are using kettling and being too heavy handed with horses and such.
 
From my point of view within the ambulance service, it's not the fact we've all having to take cuts, it's the fact what isn't being done to save money before taking it from us.

As an example, a couple of years ago we had one ops manager in charge of our three stations, and it worked fine, all her work was done and she had the respect of the staff.

She left for pastures new, and she was replace by a member of staff who had originally started working for the service in HR HQ and had fallen in favour with the powers that be, he was then duly given the job. The man in question had no idea how anything worked on the front line, he had never been out on the road and had no medial background. Obviously he failed badly, but instead of sending him packing they promoted a member of road staff who's face fitted, she knew all about the road side, but had never had a day of management training and of course also failed miserably. We now have THREE ops managers all on £50k a year due to another taking on duties to help the other too. That £100k could either be saved or redirected into the dire front line situation.

The rant could go on.

* We have a rota/wages member of staff off on the long term sick for stress, as she lied about her experience, they won't sack her until she resumes just in case of being sued, so we have a £35k Paramedic doing her job as they wont pay the £17k for another person more suitable for a job.

* In one of our HQ buildings, managers have meetings 1-2 days a week, yet the whole of the catering staff are paid for the 5 days as they never know what day they will have the meetings, so they have them there on stand by for all possible days.

* The amount of weird and wonderfully titled jobs there are in the service is beyond belief, I'll try and find some of the better ones once the intranet is backup and running. These are all paid for by the ambulance service, but you have to ask how important are they for the core purpose of the service?

* One of the top dogs has a secretary who has her own PA.

* We recently spent hundred of thousands on new equipment, all of which need specialist training. Six months later there all still un removed from storage as they don't have the resources to allow training to be had. They banked ( sic ) on the fact they could slip it in as O/T at an end of a 12hr shift, which all staff have refused ( it's 2hrs training on every device ).


These managers seem to be increasing not decreasing, all the while they make our job harder, less paid and seem to introduce the strangest policies.
 
Randell Floyd said:
From my point of view within the ambulance service, it's not the fact we've all having to take cuts, it's the fact what isn't being done to save money before taking it from us.

As an example, a couple of years ago we had one ops manager in charge of our three stations, and it worked fine, all her work was done and she had the respect of the staff.

She left for pastures new, and she was replace by a member of staff who had originally started working for the service in HR HQ and had fallen in favour with the powers that be, he was then duly given the job. The man in question had no idea how anything worked on the front line, he had never been out on the road and had no medial background. Obviously he failed badly, but instead of sending him packing they promoted a member of road staff who's face fitted, she knew all about the road side, but had never had a day of management training and of course also failed miserably. We now have THREE ops managers all on £50k a year due to another taking on duties to help the other too. That £100k could either be saved or redirected into the dire front line situation.

The rant could go on.

* We have a rota/wages member of staff off on the long term sick for stress, as she lied about her experience, they won't sack her until she resumes just in case of being sued, so we have a £35k Paramedic doing her job as they wont pay the £17k for another person more suitable for a job.

* In one of our HQ buildings, managers have meetings 1-2 days a week, yet the whole of the catering staff are paid for the 5 days as they never know what day they will have the meetings, so they have them there on stand by for all possible days.

* The amount of weird and wonderfully titled jobs there are in the service is beyond belief, I'll try and find some of the better ones once the intranet is backup and running. These are all paid for by the ambulance service, but you have to ask how important are they for the core purpose of the service?

* One of the top dogs has a secretary who has her own PA.

* We recently spent hundred of thousands on new equipment, all of which need specialist training. Six months later there all still un removed from storage as they don't have the resources to allow training to be had. They banked ( sic ) on the fact they could slip it in as O/T at an end of a 12hr shift, which all staff have refused ( it's 2hrs training on every device ).


These managers seem to be increasing not decreasing, all the while they make our job harder, less paid and seem to introduce the strangest policies.
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You agree then that the public sector is out of control and needs serious reform. This is not withstanding that there are many bloody good workers in the public sector who we need and value.
 
Bleek said:
They smash up our capital - we smash them.

Simple politics.
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I must have 200 photos of the anarchists - I'm sure someone will be able to identify them. Handed over a copy of the memory card to Police 20 mins ago.

If peaceful protests are to succeed, the events around Oxford Road/Regent street/Picadilly CAN'T happen again.
 
Rotty said:
These people need to get real, public sector workers have lived in their own bubble isolated from the real world for far too long, the rest of us are suffering and we can't continue to subsidise innefficient practices and workers, I feel for those who may lose thir jobs but this is not close to what the private sector is going through
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Easy there, everyone deserves to get exactly the same from life regardless of effort and work ethic. It seems completely lost on people that if you don't work or you have never applied yourself fully and you still own a car, have a couple of kids and a house then you are getting more than you deserve.

Eventually though, those years of getting more than you should will have to turn into years of getting less than you deserve. Therein exists the issue. People don't want to take any cut in lifestyle and will stubbornly bury their heads in the sand shouting "don't make any cuts because I dont want you to".

It was at least refreshing to see some of the elderly members of the protesters that were interviewed having some sense. Saying things like "we need to cut spending a lot but I think we should do it at a slower rate".

Is there another country in the world that has as large a culture of entitlement as our own. We sit in a ridiculous place in-between american style capitalism and a more socialist view of society.
 
dirtydog said:
Yes.


Yes. But the expense of unemployment benefits is much less than paying their wages.
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But isn't that unfair on those people who've done nothing wrong? And, i know it sounds stupid but what are the disadvantages of the actual country being in debt and the government having a deficit?
 
JamesU2005 said:
Agree with a reduction in red tape, but I'm very wary of these deep cuts.

Only time will tell about the true impact.
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They aren't deep. It is just that spending was so MASSIVELY out of control under Labour that any reduction seems harsh. It is easy to spend money on your (the country's) credit card and win popularity, and then bleat when the next government tries to rein in this madness. I totally understand why many people are opposed to the cuts and think they are deep, harsh and politically driven. But the truth is, the cuts are very modest, they probably aren't nearly enough, and we are in a hole like you wouldn't believe. You think things are bad now? Wait until your sterling paper money isn't worth the paper it's printed on. That is the path we are on, unless we get a bloody grip of our borrowing and spending.
 
explicit4u said:
But isn't that unfair on those people who've done nothing wrong? And, i know it sounds stupid but what are the disadvantages of the actual country being in debt and the government having a deficit?
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The disadvantages today are that we are spending circa £100 million PER DAY on interest payments on our debt. That is a bloody hell of a lot of money which could otherwise be spent on productive things such as schools, hospitals, roads, cutting taxes, what have you.

Longer term, if we stay on this path? The pound sterling will collapse, our money will be worthless, people's pensions will be destroyed, millions of ordinary people will suffer extraordinary hardships. The elite won't. Ordinary people will.
 
dirtydog said:
They aren't deep. It is just that spending was so MASSIVELY out of control under Labour that any reduction seems harsh. It is easy to spend money on your (the country's) credit card and win popularity, and then bleat when the next government tries to rein in this madness. I totally understand why many people are opposed to the cuts and think they are deep, harsh and politically driven. But the truth is, the cuts are very modest, they probably aren't nearly enough, and we are in a hole like you wouldn't believe. You think things are bad now? Wait until your sterling paper money isn't worth the paper it's printed on. That is the path we are on, unless we get a bloody grip of our borrowing and spending.
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Shockingly good post from dd :D.
 
dirtydog said:
The disadvantages today are that we are spending circa £100 million PER DAY on interest payments on our debt. That is a bloody hell of a lot of money which could otherwise be spent on productive things such as schools, hospitals, roads, cutting taxes, what have you.

Longer term, if we stay on this path? The pound sterling will collapse, our money will be worthless, people's pensions will be destroyed, millions of ordinary people will suffer extraordinary hardships. The elite won't. Ordinary people will.
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Quite true, interest is already becoming a major issue, and more worrying, the current cuts, which people thinks are terrible and harsh, will only reduce our decifit in half.
That isn't repaying half the debt people, that halving the amount we borrow per day. Interest will still increase as overall debt is still increasing.
What needs to happen is this road we are going down, we need to stick to it, for the next 15-20 years to actually remove the deficit entirely, and repay the flipping debt.
Were we not debt free at some point in the last 15 years? Do i not recall a time when we had actually cleared the imbalance and were only spending what we owned? I might be wrong but I am sure this was the case, and now we're a trillion pounds in debt. Thats £1,000,000,000,000. We need to fix it, fixing it doesn't involve borrowing more money.
 
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