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.

Taken from the citylink site: good job eh c?



What can you expect to earn?


Our national average is around £170 a day which equates to circa £43,000 a year before costs and tax.*

*This is dependent on where your delivery round is in the country.



City Link Vehicles

City Link can provide its Owner Drivers with a range of ready to go fully liveried vehicles with no up front deposit

Lease and drive a fully liveried and equipped 3.5 LWB van

Van lease deals start from £120 (+VAT) per week (based on an agreement of 25,000 miles a year with a 62 plate van). This cost doesn’t include the deposit taken out during the course of the first year of lease.

Please note, before you can be considered for a van you must fill out and complete the van application leasing forms. These forms include an application for a credit scoring check which is required to progress any application.

To assist you in sourcing motor and commercial insurance please speak to our company approved insurance brokers Giles Insurance.


Key Features

No up front deposit


Regular maintenance and fleet management by one of the UK’s biggest vehicle suppliers Lex Autolease


Free replacement vehicles where the vehicle breaks down for a warranty issue


Fully liveried vehicle that complies with the owner driver agreement





http://www.city-link.co.uk/ownerdrivers/

Problem is cynic you also fall for Fred's bait, he is a lost cause, just ignore the pillock. Everyone else does, stop feeding him. Goldfinger (or whoever he is calling himself this week) along with Fred know exactly which buttons to press. Scotland, Scotland :0)

Revealed: 'Out of touch' Ed Miliband was barred from appearing at final rally against Scottish independence
Labour leader was blocked from speaking in major event because pro-UK campaign feared his 'north London intellectual' image would put off voters, The Telegraph learns


By Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent10:00PM GMT 27 Dec 2014
The full extent of the divisions in the Labour Party over Scotland can be disclosed after it emerged that Ed Miliband was barred from appearing at the final rally on the eve of the independence referendum.
The Telegraph has learnt that the Labour leader wanted to speak at the event but was blocked amid concerns that he was “out of touch” and had a “north London intellectual image”.
He was forced to stand aside as Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, Alistair Darling, the former Labour chancellor, and Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, who has since stepped down, represented the party.
Labour is facing electoral oblivion north of the border amid growing concerns about Mr Miliband’s appeal in the party’s traditional heartlands.
A poll published on Saturday forecast that Labour would face a bloodbath at the next general election at the hands of the SNP, which is expected to take 45 of Scotland’s 59 seats. The collapse of Labour in Scotland would offset any gains that the party makes in England and Wales and could put Downing Street beyond Mr Miliband’s reach.



Three senior figures from the campaign to save the Union have told this newspaper that the Labour leader wanted to speak at the major eve-of-poll event but was blocked.
Ms Lamont was so concerned that she is understood to have told him: “Why are you here? You are not winning any votes.”
According to one source the Labour leader had a “hugely negative” impact on the fight to save the Union, adding: “He was just a total liability. He didn’t win us one vote. Without question he hurt the cause.”
The disclosure highlights the depth of his unpopularity north of the border.
The Telegraph has conducted exclusive interviews with more than 15 central figures in the pro-Union campaign to understand what was really going on in the final 100 days.
Other findings include:
• Mr Brown made changes to David Cameron’s final pro-UK speech and talked regularly with the Prime Minister, who later complained the conversations dragged on
• Mr Darling threatened to resign in a secret meeting with Better Together’s board during a period of intense backroom briefing against his leadership in spring
• Unionist politicians appearing on television were briefed on what lines to take if Scotland went independent
• Philip Hammond, then defence secretary, and Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, were on a list of senior Tories not allowed to campaign in Scotland.
• Andy Murray was repeatedly approached by the pro-UK camp to endorse the campaign before he eventually backed the Yes campaign.
• Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications chief, drafted Mr Darling’s victory speech after the referendum and was secretly one of his most trusted advisers during the independence campaign.
The criticism of Mr Miliband intensified after a YouGov poll put the Yes camp ahead just 11 days before September’s vote.
“Miliband and his people were desperate for him to be involved … but there was a lack of self awareness about how unpopular he was,” said one pro-UK source, who witnessed the tensions.
Divisions came to a head when the Labour leader insisted on appearing in the final rally in Glasgow the night before the polls opened.
“We were determined that he wouldn’t appear in the final rally,” one senior pro-UK strategist recalled. “I thought he embodied a completely out-off-touch Westminster. He was not popular on the doorsteps.”
A second campaign chief separately told this newspaper: “There was a suggestion he take part but we wanted the focus to be more on the punters and Gordon [Brown].”
A third senior strategist said: “Miliband felt it was his right as Labour leader to offer the closing slot and was p------ off that Brown should be the man.” Mr Miliband’s team eventually backed down after heated conversations.
Mr Brown’s passionate speech was widely hailed as helping convince wavering Labour voters to reject independence.
However, a Labour spokesman insisted the claims were nonsense, adding: “Everybody wanted Scottish campaigners like Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling at the forefront on the last day of the campaign.”
The spokesman added that Mr Miliband had led the campaign to raise the Saltire across the UK in support of the No campaign and “played a leading role in keeping the UK together”.
A government source also disclosed that Mr Cameron’s conversations with Mr Brown about the vote dragged on.
The source added: “There was always the inclination just to hang up at the point when Brown had given a positive contribution and not be on the phone for another hour hearing Gordon’s view on every other crisis in the world.”
Those around Mr Cameron have also admitted that he knew he would have to resign if Scots voted to leave the UK.
“Everybody always understood that it wouldn’t be possible to survive something of that magnitude,” said one of Mr Cameron’s confidantes on Scotland.

max - of course that City Link advert is a total load of crap .... not only that, but assuredly CL will make a nice slice out of the van hire and all the other bits and pieces ..... add to that the pitiful amount they will pay the driver for deliveries and so on and so on

our little local company (Deadline) is a rare exception as many of their drivers remain the same and reports from them are that they are treated fairly .... all that can be asked

the company that does the collections and deliveries to our doctors' surgery also seem to fall into the same bracket, but that may be a slightly different and specialised category

A courier knocked the door a day before Christmas with 200+ parcels on board. He gets 45p per parcel delivered. Certainly got to go some to get that lot delivered in a day. You can stick being a white van man.

200 x 45p = £90

There must be a petrol/diesel allowance and wear and tear, but even so still slave labour.

Manuel.

Get back in your kennel and chew a different bone.

As expected you are at your ignorant best after your "anniversary"!

I wonder how many said "Christ" when you were born?


"the malaise of the NHS goes back many many years and in honesty, is not the fault of any particular gov't,"



The point is that the present mob of tory incompetents have been in charge of the NHS for 4 and half years and wasted over £3 billion on ideological based policies, which disrupted a service, which was only just bedding down after previous "reorganisations".

The Lansley reforms were blatantly "politically based" and expensive "failures" disrupted and have lowered moral of medical and nursing staff even more and creating an indifference in "care".

The Confidence Trickster's PR system informed the public that they could walk on water, now they are drowning, unfortunately taking much of the UK with them.

================

I think, amongst other things, the NHS will lose the tories the next election.

If so they will be in the wilderness of 20 or more years.

That sounds like a MyHermes effort/rates dc.

They don't usually have vans, preferring to go down the housewife/private car route, trying to make some pin money.

They don't last, a new face turns up every few months.


The going rate for the "professionals", 3.5 ton liveried van, is between £0.80 - £1.00 per drop. I'm not sure how they make that pay either...a lot of debt for not a lot of return.

It looks like Citilink have a lot of their staff as employees as they and the administrator are talking about 2,000 plus redundancies. That wouldn't be the case with self employed.

Yes Max, there's a very nice looking :-)) housewife that delivers for next and the likes in her 'y' reg ford car. I suppose they get to know the routes/ address locations to make things quicker. Also noticed a lot more signed for deliveries are being hidden somewhere ie over the back gate, to save a double visit if the person is out.

The country is short of drivers especially hgv drivers,. so all is not lost. Mind you, they will have to take a test.

Low wage rip off Britain set up by the "Con" Party Government of the 80's maintained by Tory Blair and now pushing earnings further down and hours up with this mob.

You lot make me laugh, If you Right Wingers don't like it...then stop persistently voting for it.

stan - how do you arbitrarily raise wage levels particularly for those at the lower end of the qualification scale without additional productivity and/or a smaller workforce if you are to remain competitive?

Yes, but we have to get away from the "in work" benefits lark.

Companies need to pay a realistic wage, it's no good having record employment if it's actually costing the taxpayer money.

NHS

There are no shortage of Filipino fully trained Nurses and other medical staff who want to work in the NHS who speak english, but the new immigration and red tape to get a visa is stopping or delaying them working here, also coming from a country with a lot of poverty the cost to get the document's to come here are very high.

i am reliably informed that the best nurses are no longer uk-trained, so it is certainly no surprise that most now come from overseas
that they may well cost less is also no disadvantage in one way, especially where NHS and its trusts are already strapped for cash

doctors present a completely different set of conundra, one of which being, that for better or for worse, hours are restricted ..... this has a variety of benefits, but also brings a goodly number of problems in its wake

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2888820/Labour-poll-crisis-Miliband-clashes-Election-chief-Insults-fly-Ed-labelled-indecisive-Douglas-Alexander-accused-sulking.html

Labour poll 'crisis' as Miliband clashes with his own Election chief: Insults fly with Ed labelled 'indecisive' and Douglas Alexander accused of 'sulking'

Insiders say Ed Miliband and Douglas Alexander are barely speaking
Shadow Cabinet Ministers fear fallout could rob them of victory in Election
Mr Miliband's allies accuse Mr Alexander of 'sulking' since Lucy Powell was put in charge of day-to-day campaigning in the General Election
Mr Alexander's friends say he is frustrated by Mr Miliband's indecisiveness

A growing rift between Ed Miliband and his Election chief has sparked new fears that the Labour campaign is in crisis.

Labour insiders say relations between Mr Miliband and chief strategist Douglas Alexander are so bad, they are barely on speaking terms.

Miliband's allies have accused Mr Alexander of 'sulking' after Miliband put Lucy Powell in charge of day-to-day campaigning in the Election. Alexander's friends have hit back, claiming he is 'frustrated' by Miliband's 'inability to act decisively'.

max - you're not entirely wrong, but if the company has to pay more at the base, then that increases their overheads as well as all the other bits like extra employers' NIC and holiday pay etc

what then should be done to ensure that that company can stay in business at all?

Sell it back to "Royal Mail" and raise charges or subsidise.

They are going to be bailed out by the public purse in unemployment "benefits" anyway.

Again..."You lot make me laugh, If you Right Wingers don't like it...then stop persistently voting for it."

Referendum would turn UK’s presidency of EU into a ‘farce’
MPs and Foreign Office officials alarmed over possible clash of in/out vote with Britain’s turn to lead member states

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/27/referendum-uk-presidency-eu-vote



Haze and Manuel's icon leading them into the wilderness.

Perhaps, where they belong.


Senior MPs and Foreign Office officials have raised concerns about the UK’s ability to conduct its next six-month presidency of the EU – scheduled for the second half of 2017 – because it is likely to coincide with an in/out referendum if the Tories win the next general election.

The UK is next due to take the chair of EU meetings and business from 1 July 2017 until the end of that year, with UK ministers chairing meetings and taking responsibility for forging agreements among the 28 member nations, as well as setting a British agenda during its period at the helm.

But MPs and senior mandarins believe it could prove unworkable, and that the UK might well have to apply to have the presidency shelved, because David Cameron has promised to hold an in/out referendum by the end of 2017. EU member states take turns to hold the presidency. The last time the UK held the reins was in the second half of 2005.

The Observer has learned that the issue is already causing headaches within the Foreign Office, which is in the initial stages of planning the next UK term as president, amid growing uncertainty about whether the country will even be in the EU after 2017.

A senior Foreign Office source said that, if Cameron were still prime minister and called a 2017 referendum, the ability of UK ministers to serve as neutral chairpersons of EU meetings would be in serious question. “It will be very difficult, and if the prime minister finds himself recommending a British exit it will be unworkable,” said the source.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader and a member of the foreign affairs select committee, said that, if the Tories were still in power and had called a referendum, a British presidency would be chaotic. “It would not be so much a paradox as a parody, with Tory ministers in charge of the EU while trying to leave it,” he said.

Cameron has made clear in recent months that, if he cannot renegotiate the UK’s membership, including changes to the EU’s founding principle of “freedom of movement”, then he may be prepared to recommend an exit in a referendum. In the event that the Tories win the next election, a so-called “Brexit” has become more likely, after the German and French set their faces against fundamental changes to the EU treaties, including freedom of movement.

Conservative Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash, chairman of the Commons European scrutiny committee, who wants the referendum brought forward to 2016, said: “It would be chaos. You could have some ministers in charge of EU meetings who were known to be in favour of the UK leaving and some who were in favour of staying in.”