Parking tickets on Public Holidays

[thebesh]

Slightly back on-topic I decided to come home to Aberdeen today (as I refuse to pay 9quid for parking at my mates tomorrow). Having a look at the parking meter there is a bit where they say they recognise Xmas day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and Easter Monday as public holidays - although this text hardly jumps out at you. I reckon I've got no chance of appealing the penalty, but I will try. Total revenue generation - thanks Edinburgh council.

 

Back off topic - I have a friend who is a male nurse (no pay rise for past 3 years) and works in a ward with children that have cancer. I'm guessing if your child was in his ward you would deem his job to be pretty important. I also have another friend who is a teacher and tells me the modern day education system is very flawed and not the best way to teach children. I won't go on and on - but all your primary school testing is rigged in such a way that children and schools are the real losers in this scenario.

 

Now I believe health care and education to be REALLY high on a list of public sector jobs that shouldn't be cut - along with police and other emergency services. However I'm not sure how many people watched Channel 4's "Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story" - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/brit ... rror-story - I don't remember the exact figure but there is something like 7 million public sector empoyees - - out of which 2 million are teachers, emergency services, etc - which leaves about 5 million leftover?? Hmmm who are these people and what do they do?

 

The programme was VERY pro capitalist, but it had a lot of top economists and suggests the way to get out of the myre we're in is to cut public sector wastage and lower VAT and taxes to encourage entrepreneurship (as the rewards are worthwhile if we have better taxation laws). People are of the belief that ALL public sector employees provide essential services - I'm afraid I think this is the wool that's pulled over our eyes.

[rtbiscuit]

so very true; sad but true;

[Ebized]

Bottom line is the bigger the empire/budget they manage, the fatter the top cats salaries will be and nowhere is this more rife nowadays than in public services.

 

It gets my goat when you hear "they earn £250k a year" or whatever. When you think of what little nurses (for example) "earn" doing shift work and dealing with the traumas they have to face most days can you imagine the fat cats doing that - certainly not for a tenth of what they get given for number crunching

Climbs off soapbox

[thebesh]

I would have no problem with them earning their fat cat salaries IF they produced results - I would have top brass within the public sector on performance related pay. My problem with public sector is accountability - nobody is ever held accountable for wasting taxpayers money - if a private profit making company had a manager that lost millions as he/she was a idiot they would be sacked and quite likely not be able to work in the industry again. But at public sector level it's all just pushed under the carpet as there are no shareholders that expect a return.

 

Without a private secotr (profit driven) there would be no public sector.

[rtbiscuit]

thebesh; prime example of that is in education; i have seen crap heads who are incompetant be promted to advisory roles in the LEA instead of firing them as its easier and gets them out of the role.

 

so basically you get promoted if your crap and then tell everyopne else how to be crap.

 

(i have to add this was one incident i saw of in a school in the midlands about 9 years ago; if the same policy is still in place or similiar decisions are being made i don't know)

 

we do in this country seem to reward failure - if your a pain in the arse kid you get special trips out, independent funding; one to one help, in some cases a laptop. if your a good student you pretty much get left to your own devises. go figure that one

[mpkayeuk]

Funny thing is, with public sector chief execs, etc. The whole argument about needing to get the best people from the private sector to manage and so pay the going rate is a load of cobblers! There's one very simple reason why it's cobblers. In the private sector, the chief exec has two principle roles. 1. To bring the money in, and; 2. To make sure they don't spend it all running the operation and hence generate profits and a dividend for shareholders.

 

The public sector only does half a job. They don't have to worry about bringing the money in at all, there's no selling to be done, they just demand tax from us. All they are really managing is the spending side of the business. So why then, do they need to pay top whack for someone to do roughly half the job!?

[Vik54]

The public sector only does half a job. They don't have to worry about bringing the money in at all, there's no selling to be done, they just demand tax from us. All they are really managing is the spending side of the business. So why then, do they need to pay top whack for someone to do roughly half the job!?

 

You obviously have no comprehension of how Local Govt funding works You don't honestly believe that taxes pay for everything that is provided by local govt do you?

[mpkayeuk]

Yep, fraid so. Council Tax, Business Rates, Housing Rent and the central government grants make up the vast majority of council funding - with the exception of rent this is all taxation. Council Tax actually only makes up about a quarter of it, so most if it comes from central government through general taxation and business rates. Sure, there are other minor incomes from parking and parking charges but a lot of these "services" are outsourced anyway - the council doesn't do too much of the collection. Even rent these days is largely outsourced through managing agents. The fundamental principle remains that the vast majority of the cash councils spend comes from taxation and it's bloomin easy to collect compared to having to actually sell something to make your money. It's not like you have a choice whether you pay taxes or not is it?