U.K. rail strike

[tamada]

I'm generalizing but....

Nanny state started years ago and the unions had a part in it. Parents and peers learn how to skive and scrounge. Passed down to subsequent generations. Its osmosis and spreads, perpetuating the issue.

If you're able to get a doctor to sign you off then you can sit on your backside at home for as long as you want. If you can find a way of claiming benefit for a bad back then, do it. If you can sue your employer because they didnt give you an eye examination for your computer then, wing it. Dont get me started on spurious insurance claims for employee injuries or whiplash in car accidents.

I could give hundreds of direct and personal examples but, why bother. Every one of them has a victim which in most cases was their own subjective perception of victimhood.

The issue is worse by many multiples than it was 20 years ago. With Covid and the recent highlighting of mental health issues (Oh dear, somebody is worried. Pathetic). Did you know that those awful banks (Stats?) are writing off huge amounts because if someone runs up debts on their credit card, they can play the stress card and have it written off.

This is why you cant talk to someone at a call centre in the UK. That's why airports are struggling. It ain't rocket science.

Employers are constantly getting stuffed but, it ain't politic to highlight it.

I live in Thailand because I'm disgusted on a daily basis by what I see happening. It's starting here now but, I'll be long dead before it gets as bad as the UK.

Rant over

Appreciate the tip on the "stress" debt write off.

Ta
tam

[stattointhailand]

Mate of mine had to fight the company for over 3 years before they would pay for the glasses he had to have after the introduction of computer screens. When it was proved without any doubt the damage being done they finally agreed to fund his glasses and had to introduce a 20 min break from the screens every 2 hours for everyone using the same screens. Without Union backing I and everyone else would have had damaged eyesight for life , and the bosses wouldn't have cared one iota so long as their share price kept going up

[Khun Paul]

Everyone can tell stories about people being disadvantaged in work places even myself working asa a Police officer, it is NOT just in the so-called workplace which one used to call manual workers, there are more problems in the " New " environmentally clean workplaces used by many these days .
I used to have empathy with those who worked hard in conditions and doing a job I would not do, nowadays everyone can do what they like and have choices. BUt when I was young near to where I lived was a Private Hospital p;aid for by the UNIONS where the bosses of those UNIONS went with their families, paid for BY UNIONS , but many workers knew nothing about, ever seen Union Bosses exist on the strike Pay. Ever seen those same Union Bosses scrimping and slaving just to feed the kids at home . Some of the ideas they champion are good but generally they are trying to keep the status quo.
In a village not far from where I lived, there was just one shop and this story can be told about many places, where the Strikers and theri familes werre refused service , that internal family pressure changed the way it ended.
This strike is similar, they are all jumping on the bandwagon , after the pandemic and rising costs everyone wants more. First you have to earn it , not the way they are doing it.

[BillaRickaDickay]

IMO the UK is shot to bits and not a pleasant place to live anymore, I put it down to greed. The Banks, Insurance companies, Power companies have been taking the piss for years. I blame the MP's for allowing it all to happen, Laws could be changed, updated to stop them but it will never happen as they've all got their fingers in the Pie.
Together with the excessive immigration, the media's obsession (obviously under Government direction) with portraying us as a happy bunch of mixed race, mixed religion simpletons has just about done it for me.

[Khun Paul]

IMO the UK is shot to bits and not a pleasant place to live anymore, I put it down to greed. The Banks, Insurance companies, Power companies have been taking the piss for years. I blame the MP's for allowing it all to happen, Laws could be changed, updated to stop them but it will never happen as they've all got their fingers in the Pie.
Together with the excessive immigration, the media's obsession (obviously under Government direction) with portraying us as a happy bunch of mixed race, mixed religion simpletons has just about done it for me.

Well you are easy to please then.......hahaha

[stattointhailand]

Most ordinary working/middle class people are easy to please. All they require is fairness and honesty. Being told that for the 3rd year in a row your pay will increase at less than the cost of living index because the company has no money, (even though your boss admits that the CLI has been deliberately scewed so as not to include most of the main inflation causing costs) and then the Shareholders for the third year running take millions out of the company in dividends is neither fair or honest. If theres no money for those that produce the profits then there should be a zero dividend paid to those sitting on their fat ars*s doing b*gger all

[tamada]

I think I my have mentioned it in another thread but I got a message from my UK mobile phone service saying that my bill would increase 9% because the consumer price index (CPI) had just increased by 9% through year end April 2022. I don't have any other bills in the UK but I thought the CPI was something that helped consumers, retailers, businesses and local governments to adjust budgets and trim expenses. I thought they just went with the broad brush of 'due to inflation', etc. so I was a bit surprised to see it stated as the exact reason and the exact same amount for the increase.

[samster]

and then the Shareholders for the third year running take millions out of the company in dividends is neither fair or honest. If theres no money for those that produce the profits then there should be a zero dividend paid to those sitting on their fat ars*s doing b*gger all

Simple answer. Buy some shares

[stattointhailand]

Was given shares when railway privatised ......I refused to accept them .......... caused chaos in HR dept ..........finally they agreed to give them to charity 3 years later

[tamada]

Why does the UK still have such a shameful attitude to poverty and benefits?

"What is the matter with this country? A rising tide of poor families is cast into deeper deprivation because of the meanness of Britain’s benefits system and our punitive public attitudes. We have mislaid what George Orwell thought was our “common decency”, in a culture where politicians and the media have conspired for years to stir up fear of the moral hazards of paying benefits to “scroungers”, damping down public sympathy for misfortune. ..."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... servatives

It references this rather odious bit of 1992 Tory Conference pantomime from then Secretary of State for Social Security.



Probably having never even read the Beveridge Report before failing to tackle "Want… Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness", I'm sure Baron Lilley of Offa is quite happy now with his life peerage.

[samster]

Was given shares when railway privatised ......I refused to accept them .......... caused chaos in HR dept ..........finally they agreed to give them to charity 3 years later

Your choice. So dont criticise shareholders. I assume you took a pension which was partly funded by the vagaries of the stock market.

BTW, the idea that "the common man" makes all the profit for a Company whilst the bosses "sit on their fat a**** is incredibly narrow minded and insulting. I would humbly suggest that those with ambition and drive to become bosses contribute a damn sight more to profitability than the working man. Moreover, "a boss" cannot just take a day off because he feels a bit anxious or his back has a slight twinge.

[stattointhailand]

No he just takes it off to "network" on the golf course that his company has paid membership of and none of his employees can afford to play at due to the company not having the money to pay a decent wage.

Agreed it WAS my choice not to accept shares in a Private railway company. I and everyone else in the country had been a shareholder in a Public service the week before it was stolen from us and given to a Private company to make profit from

[rick]

The privatisation of the water authorities was the most outrageous. The new owners hogged most of the shares to themselves and sold off as many assets as possible to boost their dividends. Companies like Thames water paid out more in Dividends than the company was worth within 10 years.

[samster]

No he just takes it off to "network" on the golf course that his company has paid membership of and none of his employees can afford to play at due to the company not having the money to pay a decent wage.

Agreed it WAS my choice not to accept shares in a Private railway company. I and everyone else in the country had been a shareholder in a Public service the week before it was stolen from us and given to a Private company to make profit from

Ahh well. Your view is as valid as anyone even if it is a little skewed

Did you used to watch Brass? I used to love that programme. The guy who played Don Brennan in Corrie playing a down beaten worker to (I think) Timothy West playing the local mill owner. Comedy gold.

[samster]

Just for you Stats. I found this without too much effort

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0rLpNywUVRI

I am actually on the golf course this afternoon so your argument holds water.

[stattointhailand]

No I didnt get to see brass ......... must have been too busy working my fingers to the bone all hours of day and night so my bosses could sit and watch TV progs with a glass of chardonnay

Remember seeing trailers for it though

[stattointhailand]

Privatised Rail co Boss & RMT member