Railways, Underground and Unions

[Tashyboy]

Take the NHS. For a generation the recruitment agenda has been to hire from Overseas. Ask Homer. Bottom Line is because it is cheaper. However said Filipino nurse brings over her family. They need a house, school etc etc etc. multiply that by thousands and thousands. How does that work out cheaper? Why have we stopped investing in our kids. The mantra spilled out that we have a rich diverse multicultural workforce in the NHS sticks in my throat. We have that at the expense of not investing in our own kids. But it is the cheapest?
Energy we sit on coal, gas, oil, wind, wave, solar etc etc. yet we are in a massive mess as we now rely on others. But it’s the cheapest? If you think it’s bad with Russia, wait til we fall out with China. Good job we don’t rely on them for owt like PPE. Oh hang on.
I keep hearing about growth growth growth. What I would like is stability.
The coal Mines shut coz they were costing the taxpayer money. How much is it costing the taxpayer now.
Unfortunately we are now reaping what others have sown.

 

[PNWokingham]

Strikes on the railway will continue “indefinitely” unless ministers back down on key demands, union boss Mick Lynch has threatened. Mick Lynch, the head of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT), said industrial action on the railway would continue unless ministers dropped calls to remove guards from trains. “[Strikes] will be indefinite if that is their position,” he said, adding the union “would go down on this issue”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...kes-could-last-indefinitely-warns-mick-lynch/

 

[hovis]

Will a big wage increase fix the staffing problems you mention. When Firefighter jobs are advertised is there a problem with low applications. Could most Firefighters get a job with better pay if they left the service.

That's not the problem. To fix the staffing issues the service need more government funding to pay for the staff. The service are cutting staff back to save money. Apparently 75% of our budget goes on salary

 

[SteveW86]

Saw this and thought it was quite thought provoking on this whole situation.

 

[IanM]

Ay up @Tashyboy , dust off your old gear! Didnt a new coalmine open this week?

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Take the NHS. For a generation the recruitment agenda has been to hire from Overseas. Ask Homer. Bottom Line is because it is cheaper. However said Filipino nurse brings over her family. They need a house, school etc etc etc. multiply that by thousands and thousands. How does that work out cheaper? Why have we stopped investing in our kids. The mantra spilled out that we have a rich diverse multicultural workforce in the NHS sticks in my throat. We have that at the expense of not investing in our own kids. But it is the cheapest?
Energy we sit on coal, gas, oil, wind, wave, solar etc etc. yet we are in a massive mess as we now rely on others. But it’s the cheapest? If you think it’s bad with Russia, wait til we fall out with China. Good job we don’t rely on them for owt like PPE. Oh hang on.
I keep hearing about growth growth growth. What I would like is stability.
The coal Mines shut coz they were costing the taxpayer money. How much is it costing the taxpayer now.
Unfortunately we are now reaping what others have sown.

Excellent post! Yes, shortsighted gains above everything else. Investing in people isn’t the thing ,is it??. Where’s my short term gain to enhance my wealth if I do that?
That’s all we’ve had for Decades.

As you say, we haven’t invested in our kids, trained them properly to want and attain skills like nursing etc ( Somehow we have allowed them to think that such aspirations are beneath them , or too hard to attain, so we now have no ambition amongst a lot of our kids)
And all this importing has now come home to roost. We have allowed ourselves to become reliant on people we want to call our “potential enemies “. How the hell is that sensible? Plus we have imported people and keep doing it, and now the system cannot cope because there are too many of us.
RESULT…NHS nearing collapse, ambulances not there when needed. Sick children sent home, not because they don’t need to be in hospital, but because there’s no room!!
Unbelievable!

Strikes looming all over the place. Because a group of greedy people massively ramped up prices on products we have all got no choice but to purchase. Others had to follow on and so the “I” word came out the woodwork.
But it will be the Unions fault.


Yet we must worry about trivia in the media. That’s what makes the headlines.
That’s what matters.
Wealthy families falling out, Celebrities doing outlandish stupid things in front of TV cameras, etc
The modern version of the Coliseum Games. Keep the mob happy!

We need to change…..fast!

 

[Deleted member 29109]

Take the NHS. For a generation the recruitment agenda has been to hire from Overseas. Ask Homer. Bottom Line is because it is cheaper. However said Filipino nurse brings over her family. They need a house, school etc etc etc. multiply that by thousands and thousands. How does that work out cheaper? Why have we stopped investing in our kids. The mantra spilled out that we have a rich diverse multicultural workforce in the NHS sticks in my throat. We have that at the expense of not investing in our own kids. But it is the cheapest?
Energy we sit on coal, gas, oil, wind, wave, solar etc etc. yet we are in a massive mess as we now rely on others. But it’s the cheapest? If you think it’s bad with Russia, wait til we fall out with China. Good job we don’t rely on them for owt like PPE. Oh hang on.
I keep hearing about growth growth growth. What I would like is stability.
The coal Mines shut coz they were costing the taxpayer money. How much is it costing the taxpayer now.
Unfortunately we are now reaping what others have sown.

Did we employ people from overseas to save money, or because there aren’t enough people here to do the work?

How many brought a family with them?

My old office had 35 people working in it. 20 we’re not from the UK. Even if we wanted to only employ people from the UK we couldn’t as there aren’t the people with the skills.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

Excellent post! Yes, shortsighted gains above everything else. Investing in people isn’t the thing ,is it??. Where’s my short term gain to enhance my wealth if I do that?
That’s all we’ve had for Decades.

As you say, we haven’t invested in our kids, trained them properly to want and attain skills like nursing etc ( Somehow we have allowed them to think that such aspirations are beneath them , or too hard to attain, so we now have no ambition amongst a lot of our kids)
And all this importing has now come home to roost. We have allowed ourselves to become reliant on people we want to call our “potential enemies “. How the hell is that sensible? Plus we have imported people and keep doing it, and now the system cannot cope because there are too many of us.
RESULT…NHS nearing collapse, ambulances not there when needed. Sick children sent home, not because they don’t need to be in hospital, but because there’s no room!!
Unbelievable!

Strikes looming all over the place. Because a group of greedy people massively ramped up prices on products we have all got no choice but to purchase. Others had to follow on and so the “I” word came out the woodwork.
But it will be the Unions fault.


Yet we must worry about trivia in the media. That’s what makes the headlines.
That’s what matters.
Wealthy families falling out, Celebrities doing outlandish stupid things in front of TV cameras, etc
The modern version of the Coliseum Games. Keep the mob happy!

We need to change…..fast!

But remember unions "bankrupted" the country, caused all this and are entirely to blame.

Nothing to do with greed from both sides

We had a director at tfl back in the day when I started called Tim o tool

American guy, he used to say we don't own the track (we do again now we had to bail out tubelines and metronet) we don't own the trains (lease them) but the people are ours

They are what's important to making this network great for customers to use

He was not wrong

 

[Voyager EMH]

£1.5b would cover NHS running costs for less than 3 days. It’s a drop in to ocean.

You can’t simply keep taxing those who are already paying the largest share more. Look at how many adults are net contributors to the treasury, and how many people pay no income tax at all.

Personally, I think we need a radical overhaul of all public services. What does the country actually need to be a heathy and prosperous place to live? Stating with the NHS. But that will never happen.

As well as making sure big business pays what it should. There needs to be a serious look into the black economy.

I think that everyone should pay into the system in some way. Surely feeling like you are making a contribution to society will make people respect that society more.

Anyone claiming unemployment benefits that is able to work should be given work to do. The equivalent hours at minimum wage to what their benefits are.

It’s a complex issue.

If you read my post carefully you would see that I am not proposing £1.5 billion as a solution, merely as an illustration of where the money is, as this is a contribution from only 10 people.
A well worked out wealth tax that has a threshold of say £2 million of personal wealth, but taxes at three-quarters of 1% for anything over that, would be far more than a drop in the ocean.
This could be implemented with much more effectiveness than "looking into" the black economy.
But a wealth tax is simply not going to happen anytime soon.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

If you read my post carefully you would see that I am not proposing £1.5 billion as a solution, merely as an illustration of where the money is, as this is a contribution from only 10 people.
A well worked out wealth tax that has a threshold of say £2 million of personal wealth, but taxes at three-quarters of 1% for anything over that, would be far more than a drop in the ocean.
This could be implemented with much more effectiveness than "looking into" the black economy.
But a wealth tax is simply not going to happen anytime soon.

I understood what you were saying. I’m just not convinced it’s a viable solution on its own.

A wealth tax could be disproportionally biased towards certain parts of the country.

For example. How does a widowed lady who lives in a leafy suburb of London pay tax on her wealth that is made up of a £2 million house, a modest amount of savings and her pension pot? The house which was bought in the 60s for a fraction of today’s value.

 

[SocketRocket]

Did we employ people from overseas to save money, or because there aren’t enough people here to do the work?

How many brought a family with them?

My old office had 35 people working in it. 20 we’re not from the UK. Even if we wanted to only employ people from the UK we couldn’t as there aren’t the people with the skills.

You should re-read Tash's post, he explained the reason we don't have people with the skills is because we are importing them instead of growing them. A net half million people came to live in the UK last year, most in England so why are there not enough people, our population is hugely bigger than ten years ago but with diminishing services and that's due to exactly what he's suggesting.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

You should re-read Tash's post, he explained the reason we don't have people with the skills is because we are importing them instead of growing them. A net half million people came to live in the UK last year, most in England so why are there not enough people, our population is hugely bigger than ten years ago but with diminishing services and that's due to exactly what he's suggesting.

I did read his post. Hence the chicken and egg question. But, just because he said something it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Where is the evidence to show the NHS deliberately employed cheap labour over homegrown nurses. It’s a genuine question.

I suspect the answer is it was a bit of both.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I understood what you were saying. I’m just not convinced it’s a viable solution on its own.

A wealth tax could be disproportionally biased towards certain parts of the country.

For example. How does a widowed lady who lives in a leafy suburb of London pay tax on her wealth that is made up of a £2 million house, a modest amount of savings and her pension pot? The house which was bought in the 60s for a fraction of today’s value.

There would be certain exemptions and reductions for the house resided in, pension income etc.
There is plenty to be learned from how other countries have implemented their wealth tax in order to "get it right", proper, fair and fit for purpose.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

What happened to the big red bus???

 

[Voyager EMH]

In Europe, Norway, Spain and Switzerland have a net-wealth tax. France and Italy have a wealth tax that targets certain financial assets.

 

[Swinglowandslow]

I did read his post. Hence the chicken and egg question. But, just because he said something it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Where is the evidence to show the NHS deliberately employed cheap labour over homegrown nurses. It’s a genuine question.

I suspect the answer is it was a bit of both.

In the archives, no doubt. I remember when there was a big cutback in nurses training.
Once, there were many Nurses training centres/accommodations throughout the Country. ( they were a source of convivial parties, and assignations to us young chaps?), when this Country “grew” its own nurses and trained them in the hospitals .
(None of this nonsense about having to go to University to be a nurse. )

Then that all stopped. They cut back on the numbers and started importing.
No need to spend to train,see.?

Good, short sighted economics.?

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Saw this and thought it was quite thought provoking on this whole situation.

View attachment 45502

Sometimes, less is more.


Excellent, whoever did that.

 

[Voyager EMH]

no thanks - i will pass

Hasty decision on your part.

Thomas Piketty is a French economist who is Professor of Economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial Professor of Economics in the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.

 

[Asian Dawn]

Yes but what is his handicap and does he use pink castle tees?

 

[Voyager EMH]

Bingo