tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post907791959948588704..comments2024-03-28T20:12:43.003+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Pick of the Week 30Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-29752007502749454192017-11-12T18:13:31.100+00:002017-11-12T18:13:31.100+00:00Was about to say something similar about Gove and ...Was about to say something similar about Gove and Bo-Jo but you beat me to it! If I did such a crap job I would expect to get the sack, but up in the dizzy political hights we expect these bumbling air-heads to carry on bumbling through life and leaving a mess behind them. It would be funny if they weren't doing so much real harm. I cannot believe that anyone would actually vote for these morons unless they were getting something out of it. Seems the old boys club with Eton ties will stick together whatever in order to preserve their social order. We are just the serfs reaching out for a crust. Time to overthrow them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-1177152510148123362017-11-12T17:58:01.269+00:002017-11-12T17:58:01.269+00:00Just listened to Paradise Papers being discussed &...Just listened to Paradise Papers being discussed & dissected on BBCR4 FileonFour. Its amazing to hear the convoluted efforts & legal possibilities available to those wanting to reduce their tax commitments & keep financial benefits for themselves.<br /><br />No doubt in my mind that the TR owners are members of the Paradise Papers club. It seems that straining public money through government contracts is a popular means of ending up with lots of legally clean lolly in your bank account.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Gove (on Marr Show today) has exacerbated the Johnson gaffe and given the Iranian Imperialists further reason to be suspicious Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Why would he do that?<br /><br />The UK government is very, very sick at the moment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-63997785872795074732017-11-12T15:57:04.445+00:002017-11-12T15:57:04.445+00:00£37bn paid to shareholders in privatised companies...£37bn paid to shareholders in privatised companies since 2010.<br />The public sector during the same period subjected to a freeze on pay and redundancies.<br />Austerity is a scam. <br />Wonder what the difference would be if the amount (saved) from the public sector by freezing pay was compared to the money paid to privateer shareholders? <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-59221024582500828062017-11-12T15:41:39.547+00:002017-11-12T15:41:39.547+00:00great idea, i mean, it's not like IT ever lets...great idea, i mean, it's not like IT ever lets us down - 100% reliable and mega fast - no freezing no siree!! <br /><br />btw it is 100% guaranteed 20 jobs have been lost at Fareham (Interserve) we've had the email from Ian Mulholland himself, let's see what the redundancy package will look like. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-67352185726586544062017-11-12T13:36:34.220+00:002017-11-12T13:36:34.220+00:00So Big Electric has reduced costs, allegedly, by 3...So Big Electric has reduced costs, allegedly, by 30%. As we know from private prisons, costs are driven down at the expense of the workforce, same with services that have been privatised. And we all know why capitalists close factories in the West and relocate to poorer countries with weaker legislation. We could also cuts costs if we outsourced the House of Commons to, say, India.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-90356569706190129532017-11-12T12:41:29.831+00:002017-11-12T12:41:29.831+00:00Penny pinching maybe. But more seriously electroni...Penny pinching maybe. But more seriously electronic diaries that anyone can access is abbouyt others having access to the disposal of your time at work. This is about control and scrutiny to the nth degree and about removing any self determination of staff in the way we handle the time we are given to juggle the impossible workload we have. It is also about lack of trust in staff's ability to judge the best way of managing time. And this from people who don't have much idea about what is really involved in what we do. And in addition the phones we have by which presumably we would be accessing this on line electronic diary are so user unfriendly with their long and complicated passwords requiring changing all the time and their minuscule buttons I always miss. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35792121345022493572017-11-12T12:12:14.071+00:002017-11-12T12:12:14.071+00:00This little snippet about Serco sums it up very we...This little snippet about Serco sums it up very well. Serco themselves with huge earnings from government contracts funded by the taxpayer and named in the Paradise Papers think that those that have the least should be the ones that give something back.<br /><br />Multinational outsourcing giant Serco has asked inmates at one of its private prisons to donate money for national poverty week, a move critics have labelled “tone deaf”.<br /><br />Serco, which posted a global £82.1m ($139m) profit in 2016, is hosting a movie night at Acacia prison in Western Australia, as its sole contribution to national poverty week next week.<br /><br />Inmates are asked to make a gold coin donation to participate, because “it is important for people who have committed crimes against society to have the opportunity to give something back”.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-2934915769986072442017-11-12T11:15:51.191+00:002017-11-12T11:15:51.191+00:00Privatised companies have paid more than £37bn in ...Privatised companies have paid more than £37bn in dividends to shareholders since 2010 according to Labour. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell says in a speech that money could have been invested in public services. Labour says it would renationalise some services, but critics say privatised firms are more efficient.<br /><br />One of the firms, National Grid, said it had invested £14bn in infrastructure since 2007, as well as paying shareholders £10bn since 2010.<br />The research, carried out by Labour in conjunction with the House of Commons Library, found BT (formerly the state-owned British Telecom) has paid out around £6.3bn in dividends since 2010.<br />The owner of British Gas, Centrica, paid out £5.2bn.<br /><br />Speaking at a conference in Lincoln, Mr McDonnell will renew Labour's pledge to renationalise companies, including water and electricity providers and the railways. He will say: "These figures show what could have gone into investment in these public services in order to expand and improve them or keep their charges down. "The last seven years of austerity has seen working families suffer from stagnant wages not being able to keep up with prices of items like energy bills, and underfunded public services - yet billions has gone into the hands of shareholders," he will add.<br /><br />Analysis<br /><br />We've no idea what giant public limited companies such as Centrica (British Gas), BT or even British Airways might look like if they had remained in public hands. Advocates of privatisation say that giant utilities are nearly always more efficient when run by experts in their field and driven by a profit motive than when controlled by civil servants.<br /><br />Critics of selling off the 'state silver' though, say that chasing earnings leads to greed, ill-advised choices and is certainly not in the public interest. Furthermore the state benefitted handsomely when the above companies (and plenty of others) were floated off in the first place - money that was used to build schools, roads and hospitals.<br /><br />Labour says £37bn has been paid out in dividends by privatised firms. Interestingly, that's considerably less than what taxpayers paid to bail out one very private bank in 2008: RBS.<br /><br />A spokeswoman for National Grid said electricity transmission costs were 30% lower since privatisation and that the company had a near-perfect reliability rating on its electricity network. She added that the energy infrastructure provider had invested £14bn in its gas and electricity infrastructure in the last 10 years. The BBC has approached Centrica and BT for comment.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-89120274743097048422017-11-12T11:00:15.529+00:002017-11-12T11:00:15.529+00:00It always seems to be about cost cutting, affordab...It always seems to be about cost cutting, affordability, getting more for less.<br />It's only the big corporations and their investors that that is true for. They give less, and take more.<br />The paradise papers shine a light on that showing how wealth is protected and poverty exploited.<br />Who would have thought the Queen would be a shareholder in Bright House?<br />Privatisation is a rip off where commodities are concerned, trains, utilities, property management.<br />But the privatisation of agencies delivering human services is just plain explanation of those that have little or no voice in the society they live in.<br />The ropes at breaking point between those pulling to take what they can, and those pulling to keep what they need to survive.<br />It can't go on for much longer, or we'll have a total break down of social structure.<br />I'm amazed by these figures quoted on the BBC, and they don't cover what could be lost in tax avoidance either.<br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41954581<br /><br />'Getafix <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-68965767369815596052017-11-12T08:45:52.435+00:002017-11-12T08:45:52.435+00:00A lot of organisations stopped using and giving ou...A lot of organisations stopped using and giving out paper diaries years ago.Such a step should be accompanied by giving staff portable devices at the same time,but sadly the Probation Service has never seemed to get that necessity.When I moved from Probation to a local authority the by-words were "agile working" which meant giving you an ipad and iphone. Had lots of downsides but lots of advantages.It was about knowing when to turn the things off.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-42942270740230539802017-11-12T08:03:51.875+00:002017-11-12T08:03:51.875+00:00MTC Novo is refusing its front line staff diaries ...MTC Novo is refusing its front line staff diaries for 2018 because they want us to enter all our appointments on electronic diaries. Another step taken towards nonsense land. If I hadn't already handed in my notice this would make me want to do so. They will turn my soul to stone. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com