User Profile

[malvolio]

Always remember you are already being paid to be really good at your job. If you want a raise, it's a commercial issue, basically what value add are you bringing to the deal. That would be wider experience, specialist experience, long experience improvement experience, cost saving experience......

[malvolio]

Except the usual suspects were (a) making uninformed assumptions about my level of competence and (b) offering suggestions that have no basis in reality.

So it's been fun dragging them along for a while and working off some frustrations, but now I'm getting bored trying to make them think....

[malvolio]

We had already paid the money for the villa, flights, car hire and so on for a break before the first lockdown in 2020, when there was no thought of red/amber/green lists. Obviously that got canned, all we've been doing is rolling the bookings forward in the hope of actually being able to go away somewhere...

[malvolio]

No. At the time Portugal was on the green list with HMG saying it was unlikely to change. Why it is changed now, given the real world situation, is a mystery.

Also it's a longer story than booking Madeira for a break on a whim, but let's not let reality intrude too far.

...

[malvolio]

Yes you can, but the cost for a blue badge holder is ridiculous... even if they accept the risk....

[malvolio]

No I wouldn't. (FWIW Portugal still let you in with double vaccination certification, which we both have. It's the ban on travel from the UK that invalidated our insurances that was the nail in the coffin. We could have just about coped with the 10 day isolation and the 2x3 Covid tests we would have...

[malvolio]

That is a very naïve view of the reality....

[malvolio]

Given up on abroad this year, will be using the motorhome instead. Madeira has been rebooked for the same time next year, by which time we should have a clearer idea of what we can and can't do. I was not impressed reading Portugal's response either - they have had a spike but only in Lisbon and it's...

[malvolio]

I don't blindly support the Tories - they have made too many mistakes and most of the cabinet are incompetent amateurs with not a statesman among them - but that's difficult to understand if you think there is any kind of viable alternative out there. I've lived through three disastrous Labour governments,...

[malvolio]

Wrong on all counts, but if it makes you happy.. ...

[malvolio]

Like I said somewhere else, we understand the risks involved both when we booked and what they are now. The money is an irritation, the stress and disruption caused by a last-minute change is the seriously annoying part. SWMBO has barely left the house for 18 months or more, this is not just a jolly...

[malvolio]

Yeah right. Going to a green list island in the middle of the Atlantic did not seem like a particularly bad move when we booked it a while back. Having it cancelled for what are genuinely mystifying reasons (Portugal mainland is no worse than UK, Madeira is actually better) is irritating enough, not...

[malvolio]

Ah, yes, forgot the CIS variations... But I agree about PP accreditation....

[malvolio]

Fixed rate expenses... Interesting thought, but they aren't expenses as far as HMRC are concerned 99% of the time. As a rule of thumb if you make money on expenses you're doing something wrong.

I also don't understand the 40/45 hour option. Why??

I would walk away rather quickly....

[malvolio]

Oh FFS...

Travel Insurance is not valid, so expensive cancellation is the only option.

Seriously in need of a large drink now.

[malvolio]

Oh yes we are....

Still on Green list at the moment, so we can go - more to the point the airline won't cancel our booking. Plus the villa and the car, we would lose a lot of money. So we will go, and suffer isolation when we get back - as well as having to rearrange a heap of things...

[malvolio]

F***ing A... We're flying to Madeira on Monday...

[malvolio]

Yes, I know it's useless. That why HMRC did it. I was merely responding to the OP's question...

[malvolio]

Also, of course, Susan was another in the Geoff Jones mould, who would take on HMG in pursuit of being proven right. We need a lot more like them....

[malvolio]

They folded because otherwise (a) they would have lost and (b) they would have opened the flood gates by setting a usable precedent.

The case was always about settling a point of principle rather than gaining specific benefits. Setting a precedent would have been a useful benefit....