Sunday Times article on UK economy

[Gibbon]

And don't forget that £300 was given to your missus by the taxpayer as well, so it's all a big money-go-round anyway.

Actually she just sits at home laughing at all you lot paying tax so she can watch Trisha and spend her retirement cruising the world. MUGS

[Gunnery Sergeant Highway]

Exactly. Don't forget that even public sector workers' taxes are paid for by the taxpayer.

Bastards.

[DodgyAgent]

public sector

There seems to be a misunderstanding that the Public Service pensions are free and taht every one gets a huge salary as well. Not True.

My other half works for leeds social services and has to manage 400 + staff and deal daily with problems with learning and physically disabled vunerable people. Adult protection and violent incidents are a daily occurence. All for 34K. She pays £300 a month towards her pension which after 40 years service mounts up to a lot of money.

Whilst I accept that there are a lot of perfectly good, honest and dedicated workers in the public sector, most of the problems the public service are dealing with are those caused directly by... yep the services. If you think about it the people who are the problems are those that have been educatedm trained, housed and fed by the state. Because the concept of state provision is so deeply flawed vast amounts of money are then spent on patching up the very problems caused by the state.

[DodgyAgent]

Maybe you should read this

To help you all understand where this economy is going take a look at the leader editorial in Sunday's business

http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Sto...8-E1AC85BF7FDF

And you wonder why Scotland is desperatly short of medical staff, bus and truck drivers and construction workers

[expat]

To help you all understand where this economy is going take a look at the leader editorial in Sunday's business

http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Sto...8-E1AC85BF7FDF

And you wonder why Scotland is desperatly short of medical staff, bus and truck drivers and construction workers

The article is generally interesting, but it does perpetrate a howler on the subject of "life expectancy":

Consider this: a boy born in Calton today can barely expect to live to middle age. He will shuffle off his mortal coil after 53.9 years, to be exact

Wrong! Calculated life expectancy is not the average lifespan of someone born today, but of those who have died to date.

So the 3rd world life expectancy of Caltonites owes more, for example, to the early deaths during the Thatcher administration than to those during the Blair administration.

Not that I'm suggesting a connection.

[DodgyAgent]

The article is generally interesting, but it does perpetrate a howler on the subject of "life expectancy":

Wrong! Calculated life expectancy is not the average lifespan of someone born today, but of those who have died to date.

So the 3rd world life expectancy of Caltonites owes more, for example, to the early deaths during the Thatcher administration than to those during the Blair administration.

Not that I'm suggesting a connection.

I've always said that she went too soon

[Gibbon]

She went too late. Her first two terms of office were full of fight and did turn the country round with tough medicine. She ran out of demons to fight in the third. The Poll Tax and CSA were good in theory but not thought out enough and brought misery to lots of people.

[DodgyAgent]

She went too late. Her first two terms of office were full of fight and did turn the country round with tough medicine. She ran out of demons to fight in the third. The Poll Tax and CSA were good in theory but not thought out enough and brought misery to lots of people.

You do have a point, but there are still too many jocks left alive.

[Fungus]

You do have a point, but there are still too many jocks left alive.

I can't argue with such impeccable logic.

[DodgyAgent]

You do have a point, but there are still too many jocks left alive.

Of course I dont include my eminent jocko friends on this site