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mikel

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Posts posted by mikel

  1. 20 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

    not caused by Brexit, but a shortage of lorry drivers according to this anyway, which is affecting all EU countries last time I heard

    https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/driver-shortage-statement/#:~:text=There is no shortage of,is solely one of distribution.”&text=What's the current situation%3F,small number of water companies

    That is simply propaganda. There was no shortage of drivers or chemicals to treat sewage before Brexit. 

  2. 10 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

    It's a shame they didn't send a replacement so you could just use that packaging to send the dodgy one back. Would have saved you £15. I understand why they don't though,  because a lot of buyers would just keep both.

    Glad to hear they got you sorted. They will most likely put out the one you returned on the B stock list.

    Agreed. If its not fit for purpose its their problem as the contract is between you and the seller. They should have apologised and replaced it at no cost to you. 

  3. 1 minute ago, SteveXFR said:

     

    Investment by water companies is quite high. There's a huge industry built up around building and maintaining process plants as well as infrastructure construction. I've been working in process plant construction for the last decade and a bit. One of the big things at the moment is waste to power, creating electricity from sewage. 

    The industry regulators set the budgets for new assets for each water company and if they don't spend the full budget within the 5 years then its cut for the next 5 year cycle. What they always do is give the entire budget of billions to investment bankers who then buy and sell shares with it for a year. They then tell us that we have 4 years to do 5 years work, or this time we only have 3 years because of covid for some reason. 

    It sounds to me like the investment is tax payer money if its given to the water companies, and there is still no excuse for dumping raw sewage in our waterways and beaches. 

  4. 1 hour ago, Ralf1e said:

    You forgot BT Before they were sold for next to nothing to those in the know who could get the shares they were the biggest asset owning company in the world because all the profit was constantly reinvested.

    After the asset stripping they still have to find profit for the shareholders with sod all reinvestment.

    Just like the water companies. Little investment, high bills, dumping tons or raw sewage into our waterways, while paying millions to investors. Its a sick joke. 

    • Like 3
  5. 1 hour ago, tegs07 said:

    Well we all have the chance to turn it around shortly. I don’t think the NHS should or will be privatised and any political party that tries in the UK will be consigned to the back benches indefinitely. 

    Sadly not. If the usual suspects in the gutter press dont report it the majority of the population assume it hasnt happened. It worked with the rest of our services that have been sold off to have "Competition" in the markets, Gas, Water Electricity, public transport, etc, so dont assume they wont do it with the NHS. 

    • Like 1
  6. 1 hour ago, tegs07 said:

    It’s worth remembering that the people who have the most power at the polls tend to be the older demographic. They also tend to use the NHS more than most. No government with a stated mandate to privatise the NHS would ever get elected.

    They did get elected. Its not a stated mandate, but its well documented and fairly obvious. Run a service into the ground, the public complain about it, so they dont complain when its privatised. 

    • Like 3
  7. 17 hours ago, SH73 said:

    It's mostly, electronic, and since this morons decided to ruin customer relations, even NHS would call you in advance knowing that important medical appointments are not missed due to undelivered letters.

    Yep. I have have had phone calls from the NHS over the last month or so regarding apointments for treatment. They are well aware of the situstion. Workers are in a fight for our services, not simply their jobs. 

    • Like 1
  8. 6 hours ago, SH73 said:

    Are you a postie? If you are I had no intention to offend you. I  pretty much know how things work. Royal Mail delivering junk mail makes extra income. Still nuisance, bad for environment. I may just keep my recycling bin outside my front door with a sign on.

     

    I thought staff enjoyed carrying extra weigh in their bags, good for posture, keeps them fit. Of course I don't think that. Who would like to.

     

    Should my argument be directed elsewhere? I don't argue. And I think my point was reasonable. All my important appointment letters were delivered after the actual appointment dates, but for good measure RM loads their staff with unnecessary junk mail rather than filter through mail and deliver important mail.

     

    Our new postie is she, the previous was she too. Diligence, I had a chat with her the other day as I happened to be outside. But don't worry matey. I didn't bring up the strikes as I have respect for people, and I understand their needs. 

     

    Poor you? Well I won't go into a conversation on this one.

    I hope this satisfies your fiery answers.

    The whole point of a strike is the inconvenience it causes, without that its a waste of time. Contact RM senior management and tell them to stop delivering junk mail. That may have some small effect. 

  9. On 23/12/2022 at 09:38, PaulWarning said:

    classic conundrum, Royal Mail under pressure from cheaper competitors (capitalism at work), understandable the workers want an pay rise, which the management thinks will make them uncompetitive.

    Not all workers are feckless layabouts, not all management are incompetent idiots, but some are

    If they didnt pay huge salaries and bonusus to senior management, and give big payouts to investors they may have had an argument. But its not just about pay, they want to change working practices and pensions to workers. The media fails to give the full story. 

    • Like 3
  10. 2 hours ago, PigBass said:

     

    In my last band I also wrote the set list on a piece of paper and pinned it up ...... 🙂 

     

    However I have just joined three new bands, each has about 15 -20 songs in their set list, I am not that familiar with most of them. Essentially 40 new songs to learn and I'm a slow learner so I don't have enough time to devote to it. For rehearsals I have a folder with printed sheets for these songs containing maybe chords or simply the structure with stops and starts etc. That works for me, but I guess if you're in a situation where you have 100 or so songs to play or you're depping and you need anything from a quick reminder of the structure to a full score/tab/chord chart it gets cumbersome using paper. These apps put it all on a tablet so you open the song and you have the relevant prompts on screen. Some have features so you can enter the song duration or BPM and the material scrolls at the right speed as you play. 

     

    In the right situation they are really useful.

    I think the confusion is "Set list". To me thats simply the order in which you are playing your songs, not how to play a song you havnt learned to your satisfaction. 

    • Like 2
  11. 1 hour ago, PigBass said:

     

    In my last band I also wrote the set list on a piece of paper and pinned it up ...... 🙂 

     

    However I have just joined three new bands, each has about 15 -20 songs in their set list, I am not that familiar with most of them. Essentially 40 new songs to learn and I'm a slow learner so I don't have enough time to devote to it. For rehearsals I have a folder with printed sheets for these songs containing maybe chords or simply the structure with stops and starts etc. That works for me, but I guess if you're in a situation where you have 100 or so songs to play or you're depping and you need anything from a quick reminder of the structure to a full score/tab/chord chart it gets cumbersome using paper. These apps put it all on a tablet so you open the song and you have the relevant prompts on screen. Some have features so you can enter the song duration or BPM and the material scrolls at the right speed as you play. 

     

    In the right situation they are really useful.

    So they play the songs in the same order every gig? 

    • Like 1
  12. 6 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

    I think Putin’s war and Xi’s zero covid policy may have something to do with things alongside the billions created via QE during Covid (much of which flowed into assets and equities). A strong labour market and the actions of central banks are not governed by political parties and neither are yield spikes or sovereign debt crises. There are a host of issues that fall way outside of party politics that will threaten the livelihoods of your average worker during the next few years. It’s a time to be debt free, not beholden to rising debt repayment and with a positive balance of payments and sadly the UK is not in great shape. I’m not convinced that in the short to medium term any government can avoid a similar course of action. Longer term there is much that can and should be done.

    So you deny energy companies are making record profits, as they themselves have admitted? I was not surprised in the least it was you who jumped in to defend the establishment. I mentioned nothing about politics, but carry on. 

  13. 1 hour ago, tegs07 said:

    Did the global corporations wait until 2022 to decide to be greedy? Wage price spiral is potentially inflationary but it’s not a major causal factor. The restriction of cheap credit*, geopolitical factors (war and sanctions) and supply constraints are far more important.

    In terms of the workforce a strong labour market is a major factor in central bank’s decisions around interest rate rises. It is something a heavily indebted population needs to consider. I don’t think the average person could take interest rates at 5% in the current economic climate.
     

    * The unwinding of Quantitative Easing, The start of Quantitative Tightening, the unwinding of the carry trade, increased yields on bonds, currency weakening etc etc 

    The cause is a combination of sky high fuel prices, that impact almost everything that needs transporting, and sky high energy prices. The fact energy companies are making record profits means the price they are charging the public is simply profiteering. Nothing to do with wages. How can any country can claim to be first World when ordinary people have to use "Warm spaces" because they cant afford to heat their homes, and working people have to rely on charity, food banks, to eat. Its a disgrace. A change is needed. 

    • Like 3
  14. I am with the posties, and the rest of the current striking workers. There is plenty of money in the system but most of It is in the hands of a few obscenely wealthy people, and their friends. We have raging inflation but it is caused by corporate greed, not inflationary wages. Most people are worse off in real terms than they were in 2008, and it looks like they have finally decided to fight back. 

    • Like 6
  15. Just now, Old Horse Murphy said:

    I'm sure I'm not the only one....
     

     

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    True, financially, but spiritually rich beyond belief. I read somewhere recently about a guy complaining to his mentor or mate that he  wasn't very good at his hobbies/pastimes. Playing an instrument, art, sport etc. His mate countered "You dont need to be great at something you love, the fact you do these things, and the experiences they have given you, make you rounder as a human and make you more interesting." I will settle for that. 

    • Like 12
  16. For me music is and always has been about playing live. The buzz from a live gig takes hours for me to process, before I can sleep. I was in a startup band for 8 months, and because it ended up as a Tuesday night social event, with no sign of a gig in the forseeable future, I left. 

    • Like 1
  17. 1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

     The production and engineering on Sgt Pepper was brilliant for its time and IMO hides the fact that most of the actual songs are mediocre at best bar Lucy ITSWD and She's Leaving Home.  Like The Who and The Stones (in the 60s anyway) I'd say The Beatles were a great singles band but none of their albums are packed with quality tunes throughout. Then again, there have been relatively few albums made which most people would agree are bona fide 10/10 classics.

    I would argue Rubber Soul and Revolver are packed with great songs, and a lot of Beatles singles were not on albums as they wrote so many. Also they gave away a number of songs to other artists. But we are getting into semantics. Oh, and Close to the Edge is for me 11 out of 10. So there.

    • Like 1
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