social policy through grassing

I've just watched an interview with some bloke from the Care Quality
Commission. He said, "I think we can rely on whistleblowers. We need to
encourage them and we need to show them that if they report and whistleblow
to us then we will act quickly and responsibly."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11709811

So, just like New Labour, we are going to lurch from one exposé in the
media to another and only those with the loudest voice will get heard i.e.
the white, middle class.

I have the same feelings about the announcement last week, putting loads of
statistics in the public domain to be picked over by journalists and single
agenda nutters. Nothing like a series of moral panics to keep the public's
attention away from the economic & employment situation. Thatcher got away
with it for a decade and here we go again...

 

Excuse me but England IS the white middle class and if you don't like it
**** off to whichever 3rd world hellhole you like, perhaps Wal^h^h^h^oh as
you were.

FWIW here is my tuppence worth about the current MasterPlan. Seems to me
CamClegg may be about to make the same mistake as Thatcher. She culled a
shedload of dead duck industries. Fair enough, it had to be done. Now we
are trimming the public sector right back. Fair enough, I'm sure as **** not
prepared to pay for unnecessary government and welfare. Thatcher then
failed completely to seed new industrial sectors to provide employment. The
current lot seem (to me) to be making the same mistake. Talking nicely to
the CBI isn't "development". It requires the CBI and Government to work in
partnership, ideally with the Unions and banks, to identify new/expanding
sectors then formulate/fund a national strategy to make it happen. An
example might be South Korea in the past. It isn't easy or cheap but it
works and in a 6 year time frame a lot could be achieved.

China is the added dimension, they certainly have such strategies and we
need to compete head on. I accept that may mean trampling on certain
niceties of EU legislation but frankly WGAF. Germany of old seemed to find
ways to do exactly this anyway.

If they don't buck up they will be warehousing another million of permanent
unemployed in god forsaken corners, and their children and generations to
come.

 

... who will all be forced to act as slave labour in order to receive
their gruel rations which will be slopped into their bowls in the new
series of workhouses - converted from the prisons Ken Clarke is going to
close.

The ministers in this government don't give a damn for anyone except
themselves and their paymasters. What is being proposed on all sorts of
fronts is an utter affront to decent society. We will pay bitterly for
all this is about 20 years time when the country is a fucking disaster
area with no skilled labour, no educational facilities, no
entrepreneurship, no culture other than Sky telly and no sense of
national pride or identity. We'll have been sold off to the Chinese -
Dave was just having a chat with the new owners over in Beijing.

 

As discussed in another thread, over the next decade there will be a
significant rise in the number of teenagers. Unless we come up with a way
to provide these people with some skills to earn a living then the rise in
unemployment will be fuelled by these kids. There will be jobs as baby
boomers begin to retire but no skilled people to replace them (ref.
Bonwick, various, passim).

 

Decent Society requires that everyone takes responsibility for themselves.
But also that there employment opportunities available at all levels. Which
is what I was getting to. It requires a national industrial strategy.
AFAICT it is completely absent.

Individual companies, no matter how large or nationalistic, cannot hope to
make any impression. People keep blaming "industry", Multinationals and
China, which completely misses the point.

 

Had a chat with a mate from my old 'white hat' place of employment the
other day. One of 8.5 EHO equivalent jobs on Environmental Protection
(that's everything from fly tipping, defective sewers and rats, through
noisy neighbours to contaminated land, air quality and issuing permits
and checking compliance for some potentially pretty polluting
industries) in an inner city Metropolitan Borough. Three posts will be
deleted and the holders made redundant by Xmas. Now I know a lot of what
LAs do is a waste of time, but some of these areas of work involve
statutory duties which *must* be discharged. I suspect the ratio of jobs
deciding policy in the 'corporate core' to be axed won't be the same.

Still WGAF if your neighbour's drain floods your cellar with shite, the
landfill under your new house explodes, the drop forge at the bottom of
the garden starts a night shift for the first time ever, or the foundry
next door showers your car with iron particles?


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I went through this twice with my last employer: once as a result of
"doing the honourable thing" and refusing to collect from Poll Tax
defaulters which cost them a few million up front and rather more as
HMG cut them short; the second time as enforced cuts due to large debts
(as a result of the first, really).

When I joined the complement was 35 - when I left it was 22 and
scheduled to shrink by a further 3 posts. Bearing in mind the
expansion of responsibilities and the extra workload produced by the
"six-pack" and producing certifiable paper trails, this meant that the
workload had effectively doubled. That was ten years ago, and it
hasn't got any better. There's still a full lineup in the Chief Exec's
section and HR has expanded, of course.

 

You've just listed all the things we lost over the last 13 years, and
we can add a shedload of civil liberties to the list as well. Do you
seriously expect this government to be able to repair all the damage
done by 13 years of Nu-Labour in just one term? I didn't think you or
anyone else was that naive.

Yes it's going to be tough for a few years while this country attempts
to put its own house in order, but don't blame this government, blame
the inept thieving bunch of lying cunts who were in power beforehand -
this country has never seen a bigger shower of shit in control.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

The real question is "Do they want to repair it or some tinkering at the
edges aside does it suit them?"

 

I think we're in for a nasty surprise - except this lot aren't inept,
just a shower of shit.

 

Far from it but I'm still not sure they got the message. We are not a
country rich in natural resources, like Canada and Russia, so we need to
trade. By which I mean we need to import raw materials and manufacture goods
then go out and sell them. In parallel with that we need to be strong in
R&D and technology and production evolution.

We do probably need to make steel again. Build ships. Build nuclear plants
and so on. But grow again in semi-conductor industries, IT & Telecoms
manufacturing. Aerospace. Automotive. Alternative energy generation.
Chemical industries. Medical Science. Genetic Science. Agricultural
machinery. Production machinery.

That means government, banks, business leaders and Trade Unions working
together in a coherent strategy. It means stating to the EU that the UK will
state back strategic plans. Providing tax and training incentives. Securing
and underwriting lending. Regardless of any EU legislation that's in the
way.

UK PLC is also missing a trick in University/College funding. Engineering,
Science, Medical and Tech Training subjects should be fully funded. Fees
*and* support grants. **** the Arts, Law and Accountancy, dump the tuition
fees and student loans onto them.

If it doesn't happen then Thatcher and Blair's legacy of failure to address
industrial regrowth strategy will be increased by another magnitude. Not a
pretty sight.

 

Again?

Tata are making shitloads of steel in Port Talbot. Demand is exceeding
supply and they have just commissioned a new blast furnace.

 

We make some still of course, but there are lots of grades and products we
do not manufacture internally.

 

We should be generating power from your hot air

 

We do.
The new Citibank offices in the Belfast Science Park use a borehole and heat
pump. The feed is always at 12c. I think it's quite a common feature.

 

[steel]

and it will remain that way - many products only require 1 or 2 factories
in the world to satisfy global demand. In a global market, the people who
get to add value in the 1 0r 2 factories, are those that control the raw
materials. The Chinese are promising not to hold onto their stocks of rare
metals so they can be the only ones that can make certain electronics. I
don't believe them, do you?

One significant reason we make steel in Port Talbot is to supply the
Japanese owned car factories. EU restrictions mean that a certain
proportion of materials must be made in the EU to avoid import tariffs.
Without those restrictions the steel would be made in India and the cars
assembled in Malaysia. Rather than EU legislation being in the way, it is a
principle reason why we still have a big chunk of European car
manufacturing here.

 

British Steel (or what ever the big player is called these days) only
supply the more specialist spec. stuff for edge tools in *huge thick*
rolls, so the place my old dad worked at built their own state of the
art ("widely regarded as one of the most modern and technologically
advanced in Europe") re-rolling mill to roll it down to their
requirements for making machettes. They supply hot rolled steel sections
and bars all over the place now. Still rely on someone to refine the
steel in the first place though.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Every time we have a change in government we end up with the incoming
party wasting billions on 'putting right' their predecessors mistakes.
It's always been that way and it always will be so until we turn into
a one party state we just need to deal with it and get on with our
lives.

It's always been the case that if you vote for a new government and
they bring in unpopular policies you blame it on the previous
administration.

I wonder how many people who decided they didn't like the Labour
government will be crying themselves to sleep at night when their jobs
have gone and they find that they're being told to go and pick rubbish
up off the street if they want any financial assistance?

This bunch of lying bastards (1) will shit on anyone that they feel
won't fight back so we'd better get ready for some tough times.

(1) Especially the cunts who toadied up to the Tories so they cloud
get a taste of power they'd never have been seen on their own. Cunts.

 

I take it that you've sent the above to "dave n' nick" and the dear old
Gideon and the ginger twat at the Treasury? Please tell me what their
response was.

Your usual biased and narrow minded view. You may think the arts add
nothing to our economy but you would, of course, be hugely wrong. Even
dear old Law and Accountancy create huge sums of money for the economy
even if they are pains to deal with (the reason I assume you want them
relegated) on a personal basis.

We be prepared for "not a pretty sight" then. This lot have not got a
clue but more worryingly they simply do not care. I expect it of the
Tories but the Lib Dems deserve to be chucked into political oblivion
for giving Cameron and his gang some sort of electoral legitimacy.

 

Rare _earths_. They're not particularly rare, but a sod to extract.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".