coldel

Its not bashing the public sector just because they have better pensions. Is bashing them because they, or at least the unions can't see that if they don't change the schemes, the whole thong will fall like a house of cards. And they hold the country to ransom to retain schemes which are mathematically impossible to sustain. Key point here, a lot of the comments that are anti-public sector are actually reflecting the views of trade unionists, not actual public sector workers. For most strikes, if you look at the numbers, they usually only get a turn out of circa 35% of which about 75% want to strike which in the grand scheme of things isnt a big number.

Unfortunately if everyone followed that mantra, there would be no nurses, no teachers and the like. Whenever I speak to teachers about their profession, they are so enthusiastic, they genuinely feel they make a difference and find it a really rewarding career personally, certainly moreso than in the private sector. What is sad, is that to date there has been a reliance on this behaviour to ensure that these careers are and stay filled vs actually rewarding people financially through a salary equivalent to the private sector. Its true, in the private sector you can move around due to the vast number of employers, you can leave one company and join another in the same industry and get yourself a pay rise or take a sideways step into an entirely different role - but in the public sector, say teaching for instance, the salaries are generally identical from one school to the next across the industry.

I used Halfords plate tape, holds my plate on the bumper although it does look like it is hanging on rather than properly stuck on - I considered these also glad someone has taken the plunge - are they reflective? I saw similar on ebay which claimed to be reflective?

...as I said, I want to move from Private to Public, and the salaries ARE worse in comparison. Its all good and well having an attractive pension, but I will have to live on a lower salary for the next 35 years than I could achieve in Private which will affect my ability to get a higher mortgage, support my baby as he grows and hell, even replace my ageing Zed! I am going to try and make the switch over because I have made that decision to do something better with my life - I don't intend to strike ever as its against my principles. If you look at the numbers of people voting to strike, its always pretty low, the majority of the Public sector dont want to strike (usually about a 30% turnout). As for the comment 'public sector pay on average is higher than private' unfortunately this is somewhat misguided and like a lot of the comments on here just lumping people together to come to a single conclusion. For instance, in the public sector there are a much higher percentage of jobs which are skilled (ie degree required) vs private sector, in fact if you look at those as a subset on average the public sector skilled jobs salaries are behind the private sector skilled jobs salaries. Also, the shifting make up of the jobs are completely different within each sector too, with a lot of the less skilled public jobs becoming privatised thus shifting lower salaried jobs from public to private to create the fact mentioned. The important fact is that public sector, skilled, degree level roles are paid at a lower rate than private sector - this is what I mean by equalising pay based on Skills, Experience and Education - it is not simply a straight uplift applied across the board therefore the average pay of private vs public is irrelevant.

OK so everyone works in the private sector and then there is a substandard education, health etc etc service as no one of any decent standard works public - which in turn no doubt everyone would in a heart beat complain about. I spent a year in the civil service years ago and have seen gross wastage of people and money, in the same way I saw it in private also. But, when you look at careers like teaching, policing, health, actually it is something people want to do as a career which you cant really get in private sector - I am thinking of switching from private to public sector because in all honesty, I find my career in the private sector quite soulless and unfulfilling - the salary drop is going to be enormous and I will NEVER earn in public sector what I have earn't in the private sector. The only way to solve the whole debate is that public sector pay comes into line with private sector pay for peoples experience, education and skill sets and then equalise pensions then there is no argument. Personally, I still struggle with the whole pension thing, on the one hand you have to accept market conditions and its unaffordable but on the other it doesn't bode well for the country that we make careers like teaching are made less attractive, therefore less talented teachers, therefore poorer people coming through the system - the dangers of over reliance on simply talking numbers all the time is that you miss out the more subtle things.

This has been done a number of times...do a search - was a good thread called something like 'songs to lose your licence to'

Am looking at it, and Germany look so good. Better than Spain. Although great the Greeks got another goal!

Will avoid the boring answer... ...I dont have a set artist - have various songs mostly eighties/nineties!

But the decision are made when the ball is out of play...of which it often is. Got to say, that Greek goalkeeper is SHOCKING

Actually, football is anything but non-stop. There are stats kicking around (scuse the pun) that show that for around 35-40 minutes of a 90 minute match the ball is actually dead and not in play.

Why get a jetpack when you got a Zed

Bizarre game so far - Germany should be 8-0 up but you get the feeling Greece will score first! Getting annoyed with all the camera shutter noises in the background though

Have a quick search, this has come up a few times I remember

It could be worse guys...when I was in Japan a colleague developed pneumonia and had to take a week off, which of course came out of his leave entitlement as per the rules. He only had three days leave left so he had to come into the office for two days whilst he had pneumonia...

...is it central? ;-)

The worst Graham mate! Not wanting to spend any more silly money so looking for small cheap mods at the moment!

Yes the issue of pensions is getting daft, wanting to keep to terms (which in fairness was agreed) but are completely unrealistic in this new financial environment. If you look at the voting on all these issues though its usually about 25% of the public workforce voting for strikes etc but the unions are bullies, Rich for example might have some views on striking, or not as the case may be. But the point is, one does need the other.

It could be made a little easier to get into I think though that fundamentally the public sectors goals are not the same as the private sector. The public sector are a 'hygiene factor' for a country to grow, you must have healthy and educated people in a country for it to grow. Private sector makes money of course, but thats its role. There are some very clever, very efficient and very important people working in the public sector - its just unfortunate the inefficient ones are the ones that always make the headlines.

I am one step ahead of you steve! I wanted to wrap the two silver inserts but it does mean taking the steering wheel off to get at bolts on the back. You will need to disconnect the battery and pump the brake to clear the power completely to stop any air bag action!

...and if there was no public sector say, health or education, there would be no educated and no healthy people to work in the private sector I would argue that the public sector if done correctly saves the country money - for example on my year out from uni I wrote recruitment models for the Royal Navy, my models are still used today to predict the drop out rates for training courses for many Navy career routes - without this the recruitment would be much more hap-hazard and cost the country more money.

...more red, although the iPhone tends to show the red carbon wrap looking a bit orange! ...and wheel nuts, just calipers to do and some new centre caps, when I have the cash

I think most people don't take the pi$$, when I got my leave back I had been working 6 years without a day off sick. Those that do are pretty obvious and can be dealt with.

I didnt ask for the time back, the employer gave it back to me. Like I said, the paid hours are 37.5 per week - most people do around 45-50 at least and get paid for 37.5. I guess if you work on a production line you leave on time, in a service industry with global clients employers recognise the flexibility of employees to go on conference calls at 2am and the like so when it comes to giving some back, its usually done. Still, in a job with a clock in clock out approach I can see the issues.

I have had a situation where I had annual leave and fell ill halfway through and came back early (glandular fever), my employers gave me the days back at their discretion. Then again, in my industry, employees do probably 3 or 4 full days extra work a month unpaid anyway so its the least they can do.