User Profile

[malvolio]

See, you all miss the point. Nationalised industries weren't run by HMG, they were run by unions, using rules that dated back to the 1900s and were only neutralised by the Tories in the 1980s. Until then, the big nationalised companies were run for their workers, not their customers, and there was no...

[malvolio]

No, but the perspective of experience is sometimes useful.

One trivial example from the mid-70s. My better half moved to 24 hour on-call work for her hospital - blood matching, urgent bio assays, that kind of trivial life-saving, time critical exercise. It took four weeks as an urgent requirement...

[malvolio]

You clearly never lived in a world where the utilities were nationalised......

[malvolio]

...big snip...

I don't, actually. CUK is a shadow of its former self. Perhaps its userbase is much smaller these days so the loudmouths stand out more.

This isn't a workplace though; that 20-odd years was mostly a mix of senior manager and Interim consutancy so I know how...

[malvolio]

Hmmm...

Look at this way. If you can't take criticism or blunt comments on a question that several of us have experienced, seen, answered and defended many times over the years, then that's not our problem, it's yours. We work in a tough environment (in my case for well over 20 years),...

[malvolio]

Good way to get elected. "We're putting income tax up to a starting point of 38%..."...

[malvolio]

Don't forget that some EU rules around investment of things like pension funds are still in place in the UK. If they are removed, there is a lot more available funding that can be used for infrastructure investment than HMG can access on the open market, and at better rates.

WE know the...

[malvolio]

I tend to agree. Labour have yet to come up with a single policy on anything; Starmer and Reeves seem to have separate policies in mind, for example. also the left wing are still there and the continuing union-led (and utterly meaningless) strikes are damaging Labour's position. Nor will people be all...

[malvolio]

Actually, NICs do not fall on to everyone. Once you are eligible for state pension, you don't pay them. And the tax free band is to help the lowest paid, including an awful lot of pensioners, as a sort of minimum wage assistance....

[malvolio]

So why are Brussels proposing a joint foreign policy and combining member states' military resources to support it?...

[malvolio]

Don't worry about it. NLUK is a mere shadow of my original presence on here. Even the forum name was carefully chosen. And I did get banned for a short while (I claim extreme provocation...)

But it doesn't mean we aren't right in most of what we say (and Eek will soon correct us...

[malvolio]

WHS. Of course...



No, we are back to 2001. Chapter 8 has never been changed and was still applicable in quite a lot of contracts. Only chapter 10 provisions have been reversed.

The only thing to be careful of is trying to swap an inside-determined role to an...

[malvolio]

It was never possible to achieve 80% take home. At least, not without building up a rolling taxation debt that would come back to bite you at some point.. It's that kind of screwed up thinking that got us IR35 in the first place, when HMT persuaded Labour that people were not paying taxes that were...

[malvolio]

And make sure you understand the basics of IR35 so you can make an informed assessment of the reality of your contract.

Although we've been saying that for 21 years now......

[malvolio]

Why does that make a difference. I've spent a lot of architecture time on access routes IP structures, ecure data management and the like. It's not all about what's stored but also a bout how......

[malvolio]

Not about wealth or lack of it, more about why should someone else have more privileges than me. And yes, I know a lot of republicans.



No, they aren't "working". Quite the opoosite. They still hang on to their "Senior Royal" titles and privileges though....

[malvolio]

IDI as well. Such people aren't actually anti-Monarchist, on the whole, more "Why them and not me"...

As for leaving the system, most of the younger royals never joined and get on with their own lives already; the only real exceptions are Andrew's ninnies, who cling to...

[malvolio]

Oh, that. OK. Another pointless chimera....

[malvolio]

Nonsense. Ever heard of invisible earnings? The Monarchy generate around £1.9bn a year, one way or another.

Or are you yet another who can't distinguish between the institution and its members?...

[malvolio]

Given we are already in NATO, as are many other EU countries, an EU army seems just a little redundant. And why does an economic union want an army anyway?...