Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Another silly strike today. At least my son's school is open for ledons.

People should know that only 27% of NUT members voted in the strike ballot. Even more surprising is that the strike vote for today's strike was taken in 2012.

Well thats a bigger percentage than David Cameron recieved of the population vote and hes the PM. (Only by default.) Not only that but Union leaders are complying to TU laws.

Camoron should keep out of Union affairs especially when hes rubbing shoulders with cash for questions/policy corupt donors.

Support the Striking teachers 10th July 2014
QUOTEPosted on July 9, 2014 by syzygysue

We are told that Michael Gove’s reforms to education are a real success story.

In spite of lacking a formal mandate from the electorate, Gove has launched headlong into massive funding of ‘free schools’ and attempting to turn all schools into academies, outside council control. Many recognise this to be preparing for the next step of profit-making and privatisation of education.

However, this ‘success’ can hardly be said to be reflected in the polls. According to a Guardian/ICM poll last April, there is strong public opposition to major planks of Michael Gove’s education reforms. For example, 68% of Labour supporters, 58% of Lib Dems and 58% of Ukip supporters voted for councils retaining their responsibilities towards schools. Overall, a majority of 57% agreed that councils should have an important role in over-seeing education.

Furthermore, in 2012:

‘Gove gave all academies the right to hire teachers who had not undergone formal training, arguing that this mimicked the freedom enjoyed by private schools to bring linguists, engineers and other specialists into the classroom, and there is evidence that the new free schools have made especially extensive use of this facility.’

This policy was even less popular. 63% of voters said that “teaching is a profession which requires dedicated training”.

The last few days (doubtless in response to the strike) there have been a spate of articles/quotes from Michael Gove referring to the ‘vested interests’ of ‘the Blob’ – by which he means the teachers, academic experts and the teaching unions. However, YouGov found in February 2014 that:

When it comes to educational reforms, Britons tend to give the benefit of the doubt to ‘the Blob’: by 46%-19%, people hold the view that teaching unions and the educational establishment are “right in most of their concerns about education policy and school reforms” rather than believing these groups pose “an obstacle to necessary reforms”.

When it comes to teachers themselves, over 92% oppose Gove’s reforms (the wonder is not the overwhelming opposition, but that there are 8% of teachers to support them).

But in addition to the reforms in the classroom, schools, the total lack of consultation and the centralised control from Whitehall – not to mention the scandals (financial and organisational) – teachers have also had their pay and pensions cut drastically. Not only are they suffering from a pay freeze less than inflation but they are also having to find increased pension contributions, and are expected to work to 68y.

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:

“The Government is still failing to make progress on our trade dispute over teachers’ pay, pensions and workload. The talks are still only about the implementation of Government policies, not about the fundamental issues we believe to be detrimental to education and the profession.

“For teachers, performance related pay, working until 68 for a full pension and heavy workload for 60 hours a week, is unsustainable.

“This action is the responsibility of a Government and Education Secretary who are refusing point blank to accept the damage their reforms are doing to the teaching profession. The consequences of turning teaching into a totally unattractive career choice will most certainly lead to teacher shortages.

“Strike action is a last resort for teachers and we deeply regret the disruption it causes parents and pupils. This date has been chosen to cause minimum disruption to examinations.

“Teaching is one of the best jobs in the world but is being made one of the worst under Michael Gove and the Coalition. It is time they listened. Michael Gove can still avoid the strike by engaging in serious negotiations on substantive issues.”

gf
The 27% wasn't the number who voted for strike. It was the percentage who voted. The number who voted for strike was quite a bit lower than that. The difference is that Cameron was voted in in an election where more than 65% voted.

Cameron is going to add a requirement of more than 50% having to take part in a union vote to be valid. It will be in the next Conservative manifesto.

Their will be a manifesto but theyl never get to put it to use Hays......smile. .......smirk.

And anyway its nothing to do with anybody outside the Unions.

Their as always been a right to strike.

Just as the professional unions eg, Accountants, solicitors etc etc have the right to use RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES and dont say they dont use them, because they do.

Not only artificial manipulation of competition and prices, but restrictions to labour entry.

Far far worse than the unions but do we here Camoron complaining.......NO. Not a bleat.

Now sling your hook (this is an official TUC picket line) and meet up with your Moll.... Hilary. Take her for an ice cream in the park.

ps, thats if the buses are running....he he.

pps, and the park is open.

Anybody know about 770 account's [ American ]

At the end of the video he does a u turn and want's you to invest in his stockmarket tips

http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1487917&msgid=38294&act=9EHD&c=1444719&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thealternativedaily.com%2F%3Futm_source%3Dinternal%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3DAdv

Id give it a wide berth alders.

Theirs a lot similar to this in the US all after their own cut one way or another.

Wait for my new System coming out october........its a beut.

It has everything to do with the wider public due to the disruption that strikes cause. It is important to see that a strike is a representative view of the members of a union. That is why union legislation has been introduced of a number of years. It prevents the crazy activists from causing trouble and highjacking unions for their political purposes. The professions are not closed shops in the sense of unions. They do have qualifications though. I would generally be happier if my accountant, doctor, solicitor were qualified. Perhaps you would not mind being operated on by a shop assistant.

The Labour party would love to restrict the unions but are scared of them. You can see that in the way that no Labour government has ever repealed union legislation.

Its only for US tax payers 770 tax law , can't seem to paste the video

ohhhhh stop being silly Hays Im a member of 4 pro bodies and have to pay the large annual fee or my chances of obtaining work are almost nil. (even though I hardly practice these days)

You forget the Politicians and Management of British companys cause far more disruption to the public than the Unions.

Look at the passport office, look at the Banking sector. Far more disruption than todays 1 day strike. Thats just the tip of the ice berg i could go on and on.

You seem to go through life blinkered in a sleep walk.

Alders yep I couldnt get it to work i thought it was one of them usual scams.
cheers.

The workers! United! Will never be defeated! All eight of them…

http://order-order.com/2014/07/10/6-photos-of-the-mass-strikes-crippling-britain/?shared=email&msg=fail

Don't think QT 2nite will be much its from Inverness , am not interested in the Scotland in/out debate. It depends who is on the pannel and what else they will be disscussing

ELM house.

They say that Cliff Richard is on the guest list
How do they know he signed it , or did someone else thought it funny to sign his name like people calling themselves Micky Mouse do.

Ohhhhhhh QT is wasted..... when in scotland and Wales. Usualy turns out to be a regional discussion. (no disrepect to wales or scotland)

Tthe panel features campaigners for both sides from a range of occupations: singer-songwriter Ricky Ross, Daily Record columnist and agony aunt Joan Burnie, businessman and chairman of Orion Group Alan Savage, and the Scotland and British Lions rugby player Scott Hastings.

Oh dear! What about the implications for us all of these at the airport security check in?



Taken from an article with more of this sort of stuff at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/instagram-of-us-airport-security-chiefs-lipstick-knives-and-ied-training-kits-among-items-seized-9597766.html

Click on the link and you'll see why you need to have 'a charged up and ready to go mobile phone' when you check in to airport security

It looks like the day of strikes has been a damp squib as expected. All public services still running almost normal. As we don't have a Labour government we can ignore the strikes, especially as they do not represent most people.

Sounds like QT will be a damp squib

From: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4b0ce5ce-0815-11e4-9afc-00144feab7de.html#ixzz375z8JYWw

Fears over Banco Espírito Santo trigger stocks sell-off
By Ralph Atkins and Martin Arnold in London and Peter Wise in Lisbon

Fears about one of Portugal’s biggest banks led to a sharp sell off across European financial markets on Thursday, forcing bankers to pull bond and equity issues and testing the resilience of this year’s rally in eurozone shares.

Greece had to scale back its ambitions for an issue of government debt after shares in Banco Espírito Santo plunged more than 17 per cent to the lowest price in a year, before Portugal’s stock market regulator suspended trading pending a statement from the bank.

Portugal’s PSI 20 share index closed down 4.2 per cent – its biggest daily drop in more than a year – while the jitters spread across Europe, with Italian and Spanish shares also tumbling. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 share index ended down 1 per cent.

Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank, said problems at BES meant that questions about the health of banks in weaker eurozone countries were “back in the spotlight”, as were the still-evolving mechanisms for dealing with struggling institutions.
The turbulence followed an extended period of exceptional low volatility in global markets – which may have encouraged profit-taking. “Given the levels everything had reached, it is not surprising to have a day when everyone reappraises their exposures,” said Matt King, strategist at Citigroup.

A banker who has worked closely with BES said the Portuguese bank had a €2bn-€3bn capital shortfall and the most likely solution was some kind of state-brokered rescue deal, as a private sector solution would take too long. “There are rumours of an M&A solution, but no one has the speed to do the necessary due diligence and move fast enough to do a deal,” the banker said. “This needs a solution now – in the next couple of weeks – and that means a state intervention.”

The Bank of Portugal reiterated on Thursday that “the solvency of Banco Espírito Santo is solid”.

Intervention by the Portuguese government, however, could reignite fears about the potential exposure of weaker eurozone governments to bank sector problems.

Cristiano Ronaldo does not sing particularly well. Portugal had a revolution in 1974. These are two discrete facts. They are also ineluctably associated with Espirito Santo, the Portuguese finance house.

Dire industrial production numbers for France, where output dropped 1.7 per cent for May compared with a month earlier, and Italy, where it fell 1.2 per cent, added to nervousness about the strength of the eurozone recovery.

Amid the sell-off, Banco Popular Español, a Spanish bank, aborted plans to issue a “contingent convertible” bond, or coco, to raise at least €500m. Separately, ACS, the Spanish construction company headed by Real Madrid boss Florentino Pérez, shelved its inaugural euro bond sale.

In Italy, Rottapharm, a pharmaceuticals group, pulled its initial public offering after failing to achieve its target price. Trading was halted in several Italian banks.

Athens had expected strong demand for a Greek bond issue after a debt sale in April attracted €20bn in orders, more than six times the amount sold. But after investors placed orders of €3bn the bond raised €1.5bn.

Yields on Portugal’s 10-year bond rose 21 basis points to close at 3.99 per cent.
German Bunds – often a haven during periods of volatility – rallied with yields falling to a low of 1.17 per cent, the lowest level since early 2013.