I am someone now into their 40th year, and feel we are losing it in this country. 1 Million reasons why. But i think our no1 failure is for some of us (not all, some are brilliant) have lost the ability to work hard and work properly, to many excuses.

Did anyone hear the very sad story on radio 5 live on J. Derbershire show this morning on the events that followed his son being killed in the Eygption bombings at sharm el shiek last year. The foriegn office and government ministers should hang their heads in shame.

An elederly relevative has at to sell her home for full time care due to alzheimer's. The first 2 homes wanted her out within 2 days because they could not cope even though they were being paid 500 quid a week. This could be absolutely any of us reading this now in the future. Is this the way we treat our own in Great Britain??? What do these homes want to do for 500 quid a week.

If we are great please explain why!! Would love to hear your stories why you think/know, like me, we are going down the pan.

kivver (ref #33).

Just another symptom of how one is judged and treated by one's wealth rather than how that wealth was obtained and what one does.

55011, not outlived but suffering from neglect and damaged by mission-creep.

axdpc - 14 Mar 2006 13:57 - 26 of 35
zscrooge, not sure about "city types with big fat bonuses" but IMHO independent day traders, risking their own money, make a far more honest living than some who draws a steady salary with very little risk and little work!


It's a tough life risking one's own money! Day traders are little more than upmarket gamblers, a sort of middle class bingo, with little interest or care in the companies they deal with and no interest in wealth creation other than their own. It's tough reading those charts, shuffling money around electronically...etc etc

If Labour want to sort out the mess with MRSA in hospitals why don't they just stop the tendoring out and have it done in house. They've got the majority. Are they scared of the reaction by the right wing press, being labelled anti-business, and would the hospital staff need more money, less time spent doing something else to have the time to do the cleaning?

zscrooge, by a broader definition, some people can argue that all finanical institutions and financial related activities (accountancy, lotteries, insurance etc) are not welath creatiing ... Financial trading is probably fairly closely ranked to gambling along side
horse racing and buying lottery tickets. All of which, IMHO ranked about average/mid-point in honesty and honourability. Look around one's own working environment and I am sure you can spot a few people, some may sit in plush offices by themselves and others otherwise, who are going for an easy and very profitable ride at the expense and sweat of others. Or people knowingly selling shoddy goods and services?? How about hose conning people out of their savings?? It is far more honourable to win on the lottery.

It is unpleasant, unproductively and dangerous to work with, work for or employ those who wants a fair day's pay but does not want to do a fair day's work.

Sinttserf, last week, Herald reported on some extra 200+M for NHS consultants but none for the patients. The House of Parlianebts cleaners had to fight for a year(?) to get an extra 1 or so an hour increase.

OK, it is on the front page of The Herald for Thursday March 9.
"Extra cost of consultants' pay: 235m. Extra benefit to patients: nil" (for Scotland)
"Auditor reveals total bill is nearly four times the orignal estimate."
...

So perhaps cleaners didn't get a rise, or ot a rise at the expense of patient care???
A bit of complicated issue.

Been reading a book on corporate frauds and it is funny how, by comparison, some CEOs and directors felt they need million dollar salary AND multi-million (sometimes hundreds of millions) in incentives, options, performance bonuses and rewards to be motivated.
If it is true, then I don't think many cleaner can be motivated by the minimum wage or an extra or two per hour.

I wonder whether executives and politicians will find it easy and stress-free if they have to clean other people's toilets for several hours a day, 5 days a week ...

59% of new money for the NHS went on wages, 15% on medicine, Hmm.

... and then there is the future cost of pensions. 26% on running costs and operations.
59% may be OK if, through prevention, the population is getting healthier and need less medications. The total pharma turnover might be an interesting guide.

I am pessimistic about my optimism ...

Dunno what you lot are on about. We've never had it so good!!

But don't worry you doomsters. With the arrival of peak oil and the world soon to go ex-growth, you will be able to wallow in your self pity.

rgrds
gk

Tony Blair & co should be charged with treason for the way they have swarmed this country with people coming hear with no checks on their backgrounds, we have how own scum here without importing more . we have been invaded by rapists and gangsters, just read the newspapers ect: convicted murders & rapists let into our [ thats a joke ] country to rape and kill.

i wondered how long it would be before all the illigal immigrants got the blame? but if you feel the need to feel superior to someone then fair play to you. Suprised to hear to that no british people ever do anything wrong. Peter Sutcliffe, the black panther, football supporters (not all), millions of beer swilling people scraping, fighting, stabbing and shooting when the pubs close, british polititians, british soldiers (one sas bloke has just resiegned on principle) the foriegn office cant do no wrong.

I said ,we have how own scum here without importing more, yes iam superior to rapists and murders are you. the SAS bloke was talking about the Americans. try reading my post again .

so you do think all people coming into this country are rapsits and murders then.???No the sas bloke was british and resiegned because he didnt agree with yanks AND brits actions in iraq. But due to the great dignity of this bloke he didnt really want to say all the things in public. He keeps his thoughts and views for his superiors.

Do some research on how the brits were treated in collecting their dead relatives after the sharma ei sheik bomb. How long did it take, how much did it cost, how much help did they receive, why have they received lots of letters from different members of the cabinet etc etc.

Did i say all ? are you saying there is not a very large percentage filling how prisons ? The SAS man was talking about the American troops not the british and also said the war was not legal. Why you have bought up the subject of sharma ei sheik i don't know.

used it in my opening statement, sad after hearing it on the radio, if that this is the best british people/workers/froeign office can do for british people in such sad circumstances then thats why i fear for the future of this country. read the opening post. nothing to do with foriegners coming into the country.

On that note living in a big city like bham, if i want summat to eat late in the evening uauallly has to be a pizza, curry or a chinese, most chip shops near me now closing early. Asians working late into the nights in shops, garages and having to put with all types of abuse for providing us with a service.

i listened to the sas soldier myself on the radio 5 its not hearsay, i heard him myself.

With regard to the consultants's pay increase. Unfortunately, the government probably thinks cleaners are much more dispensable than consultants. How can it get its beloved waiting times down if it doesn't have enough consultants. Although, a consultant did write to the herald I think last week and say that before they had been working 33% extra hours a week for free and are call, so now all thepay increase is doing is letting them be paid when previously they were unpaid.

I'm very concerned about Essex. There are numerous tales of thick people getting paid a fortune for commuting into the city, more during the eighties perhaps, with opportunities for school leavers. The eighties were good for the south east but they weren't very good for the rest of the countries, but did the people in the south east care? No, they just kept voting selfishly for their own self-interest! If Scotland had been equally selfish and voted SNP Britain would have gone bankrupt, Thatcher wouldn't have been able to carry out her "reforms". Fortunately for Britain we weren't selfish! Scotland would have become one of the richest countries in the world but instead we're the only country to have discovered oil and got poorer. How dare the tories bite the hand that fed them by taking our oil and then shutting down our industries. We've learnt our lesson, it'll never happen again!

Basically, the problem is that during the eighties the government decided to solely reward those jobs which were wealth producing, so the public services were not included, hence a feeling of worthlessness, low self-esteem and consequent low motivation. And then you get all this nonsense about the barnett formula giving too much to Scotland and london subsidising the rest of Britain. As a friend who works in the oil industry said to me, it's distorted nonsense. Labour created devolution because it needed to appease the nationalists and it cannot afford to lose Scotland or else it loses power in Britain for good. The tories on the other hand have the dilemna between breaking up Britain, losing the oil money, against being in power in government in perpetuity.

Where did the oil money go?? Norway managed to create a fund of 180 billion pounds where they earn more on interest each year than they do on current oil reciepts. There was no need to just cut taxes they could have kept school playing fields and increased public sector spending too. They were too ideologically driven. There is also a snobbishness in Britain towards unskilled work, hence cleaners, but these jobs are much harder physically than many "professional" jobs yet looked down upon. In America trades are not looked down upon, and an American recently told me that she's just got a Masters here but she's going back to Hawaii to do bar work because in tips alone she can get 250 $ a week. She said it's not treated like it is in Britain.

England is awful, Scotland is great. End of.

see you at the world cup grajul!

Only IMHO,

Greatness starts to fade when future actions are justified by past results.

Close to my opinion that greatness starts to fade when past actions are viewed by modern standards and apologists are justified.
Alan