The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

14 minutes ago, polybear said:

Would that be grounded in Civvy Life as well?  Just wondering if he was looking for a quick and easy way out of the RAF so he could go and fly for the Airlines on a lot more money.

 

I believe that he did get into an airline but never got a captaincy.

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

4 hours ago, DenysW said:

Of course you can't. The answer is clearly more concrete. Or more transformers on poles. These answers learned from civil and electrical engineers, respectively.

 

Er sorry no it's more parks and open spaces if you don't mind. Says the ex parks man.

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 I was once told that more than 400 MP's out of 650 are legally qualified.  Nuff said. 

 

Jamie

 

And in 2019 I believe that nearly 200 of them had been convicted of crimes.

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

6 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

And in 2019 I believe that nearly 200 of them had been convicted of crimes.

 

Dave

 

But got off on a technicality.

[br2975]

38 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear is just wondering if the collection of Robertson's Golliw*gs Figurines in the China Cabinet means I'm a Police Raid just waiting to happen.....

 

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I doub it, they'll be raiding us first.................Mrs. br2975 collects Robertsons Jam Golliw*g badges, and has them all displayed in glazed frames on our dining room wall.

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Afterwards, 'The Sweeney' will move onto our back bedroom, to recover a whole family of soft Golliw*gs on the spare bed - purchased in Spain, at a shop run by an ex-pat from Yorkshire who described them as 'Oriental Gentlemen'

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We'll be guilty of 'importing hate crimes'

[Dave Hunt]

I'm currently relaxing with a small measure of Talisker as granddaughter has ceased wearing me out and is in bed whilst her parents have gone out for the evening. Shuteye time soon as it will probably be 0 double silly when the tornado comes in to the bedroom to remind me that it is morning.

 

Dave

[br2975]

41 minutes ago, bbishop said:

Catching up after spending most of the last three days in church.

 

Pertaining to the ambulance service, Brian, many of the problems are caused by the failure of the NHS as an organisation.  I must steer clear of politics on this forum but the queues of ambulances waiting a 12 hour shift outside an A&E with a very sick patient are not the fault of the paramedics.  One solution has been the ambulance services setting up triage rooms in A&E departments, with a paramedic, to release the "walking wounded" from the back of an ambulance.  This gets the ambulance back on the road although doing nothing to speed up treatment for the patient.  Actually a noticeable spinoff has been a reduction in the number of "taxi" calls for the likes of cut fingers; instead of ringing 999 for hubbys cut finger, wifey now loads the kiddies into the car and delivers him to A&E herself.

 

I have spent shifts, listening to the radio, with the dispatcher desperately asking for ambulances for a dozen Dorises who have fallen over and can't get up.  I'm not trained in trauma so am kept back for the Category 1 calls (cardiac arrest, heart attacks, etc).   These aren't enjoyable evenings:  I have asked whether I could go to Doris, but the answer is that all I could do is hold her hand and that there would be one less resource available.

 

If my treatment of a patient were deemed negligent, LAS and SJA would dispense with my services before my feet touched the ground.  And attendance at a Coroner's Court would be a very likely outcome, and that is somewhere one does not want to go.....  Bill

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I, and my former colleagues are well  aware as to the cause / reasons why ambulances are queuing up outside A&E and yes it is political...... and, knowing this  I have never heard former colleagues criticising ambulance staff and paramedics.

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The same 'political' issues arise for the police when dealing with mental health matters, and standing in for social workers who only appear to work 9-5 Monday to Friday.

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In all my service, and I am well aware it continues - there has been a very good relationship between the police and the ambulance staff - a far far better relationship than ever existed between the police and the fire service.

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My point was to highlight the after effects of a patient dying following 'police contact' and how the officers are subjected to the most rigourous and probing investigation that can last for months, even years and can cause untold worry on the officers involved...................... whereas, a patient dies in an ambulance an same police officers will attend and conduct the basic 'sudden death' procedures on behalf of the coroner; no intrusion by the IOPC, no months and months of worries for the paramedics.

[SM42]

I think the difference is paramedics et al are medically trained and thus any death in their care is a death in the best place possible for medical intervention to avoid such  and thus any incidence is seen as unavoidable despite best efforts and all the technical gubbins  they have

 

The average police officer I would say is not medically trained to the same standard and thus any death may need further investigation to avoid any nasty accusations. 

 

The fact that it has developed, it seems, into a system of allegations and accusations may have more to do with public perceptions.

 

I appreciate that this is unfair and puts officers who find themselves in such an unfortunate situation under such stress but I can't help feeling that it is product of many years of dodgy police practices around the world ( not necessarily in the UK) and the para militaraisation ( is that a word?) of police forces in other countries ( widely seen on the news etc) and the fear that the public will perceive  the UK's forces as being unaccountable, oppressive tools of government if nothing is investigated to the nth degree and no- one is held to account.

 

Andy

Edited April 9, 2023 by SM42

[br2975]

26 minutes ago, SM42 said:

The fact that it has developed, it seems, into a system of allegations and accusations may have more to do with public perceptions.

 

I appreciate that this is unfair and puts officers who find themselves in such an unfortunate situation under such stress but I can't help feeling that it is product of many years of dodgy police practices around the world ( not necessarily in the UK) and the para militaraisation ( is that a word?) of police forces in other countries ( widely seen on the news etc) and the fear that the public will perceive  the UK's forces as being unaccountable, oppressive tools of government if nothing is investigated to the nth degree and no- one is held to account.

 

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Man collapses in street - passers by carry out CPR.

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Police arrive, and continue CPR.

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Paramedics arrive, remove patient to A&E where sadly he is pronounced DOA / BID

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Only the police officers would, in theory, be 'investigated' by the IOPC - the members of the public, paramedics and A&E staff would be considered 'witnesses' in the IOPC investigation.

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Hence the reluctance of police officers to be 'used' as stand-in paramedics during any NHS strike action 

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And in the last sentence, Andy hits the nail on the head....."someone is ALWAYS to blame, and someone must ALWAYS be held accountable - regardless of the reality of the outcome"

Edited April 9, 2023 by br2975

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, br2975 said:

.

I doub it, they'll be raiding us first.................Mrs. br2975 collects Robertsons Jam Golliw*g badges, and has them all displayed in glazed frames on our dining room wall.

.

Afterwards, 'The Sweeney' will move onto our back bedroom, to recover a whole family of soft Golliw*gs on the spare bed - purchased in Spain, at a shop run by an ex-pat from Yorkshire who described them as 'Oriental Gentlemen'

.

We'll be guilty of 'importing hate crimes'

Can't you just call them Gollies!

 

On second thoughts, back in the day that's what we used to call certain C*priots

[The Johnster]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

"Gosc w dom, bug w dom"

 

Guest in the house, God in the house. 

 

 

Yes, Kasia says this as well.  And in a deeply Catholic country and culture, it is taken seriously, even by those who are not particularly devout; it's just part of being Polish.  She's in an odd position with regard to religion in some ways, in that she is 'of faith', a believer in the Holy Trinity and the Catechism, but has a deep and abiding hatred of the Catholic Church in general and priests in particular.  My old dad would have been pleased, he was virulently anti-Vatican, and would have regarded Titus Oates as a bit soft on the matter.  Strangely, he had a health hatred for the Rev'd Ian Paisley as well!

[AndyID]

Evidently Elon Musk is considering receiving a charisma transplant.

[newbryford]

After last week's golf success, I followed it up with another win on the Thursday 9 hole comp.

First time playing off the "summer" yellow tees since October, I was quite happy to post a score equivalent to my handicap and it appears that I was the only one to do so!

 

Saturday's round was back to the summer white competition tees and although only 16 holes as two are still a bit soggy underfoot (but should open this coming week), I managed a 1 over handicap score to finish second on a card play off (the winner had a slightly better score on the back-9 than me).

 

So that's a 3rd/1st/1st/2nd (and a 2 in the sweep) for the 2023 golf campaign so far, which means I'm well on the way to accumulating more than enough prize vouchers to buy some new golf shoes sooner than intended.

 

Grass seems to have been a feature of my weekend so far, having walked 25 holes of golf, scarified the front jungle (and cut it), scarified the rear slightly less jungle (for the second time) and cut it again.

And also spent a few hours on one of my favourite machines over 7 fairways. 

 

 

Much of this greenery activity was prompted by the forecast of "rain stops grass cutting". Which is now confirmed by a gentle tapping sound on the conservatory roof.

 

Cream crackered now - Monday *should* be a lie-in.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by newbryford

[skipepsi]

13 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Evidently Elon Musk is considering receiving a charisma transplant.

Has he got a receptacle for it?

[PMP]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Would that be grounded in Civvy Life as well?  Just wondering if he was looking for a quick and easy way out of the RAF so he could go and fly for the Airlines on a lot more money.

The pilot would have needed to do civilian licenses, as part of that he’d require a civilian medical too. The Mil/Civil medical are unconnected so if a license were suspended for a medical issue in mil, if they subsequently passed the required medical standard in civvy then they would be able to fly professionally. Almost certainly the same in reverse too for pilots, and other (aviation) medically licensed skills  like observers, flight engineers etc.

Having achieved civilian licenses and been employed by an airline he would very quickly have been dismissed in one  form or another if the night flying fear, and failing to operate reoccurred.

The penguin type trait is also known as a ‘seagull’ as you have to throw rocks at them to make them fly.

[skipepsi]

It always amused me that I was too short sighted to join West Yorkshire police but the Royal Navy were quite happy to give me a range of firearms to play with and I didn't have to clean them after either! 

[Northmoor]

All the discussion of people refusing to do what they are paid to do, reminds us of the recent sad story of the head teacher who took her own life, supposedly because of the stress of OFSTED inspection.  We'll set aside the fact that suicide is never the result of a single stressor.

 

I am interested to know if the stress of these inspections is agreed by all teaching staff, to have worsened in recent years.  If not, then she took the role which is very well paid as compensation for the hard work and stresses involved.  Are the teachers who are demanding changes to OFSTED's way of working, after what is obviously an incredible tragedy for her family, friends and colleagues, proposing that Heads sacrifice some compensation if some of the stresses are removed?  My wife works at a school which had not been inspected for many years so it was expected at any time, hence they had as much as possible prepared for when the inspectors did come earlier this year.  The whole thing was over in the day and was easier than expected.

[J. S. Bach]

32 minutes ago, skipepsi said:

Has he got a receptacle for it?

Oh yes, most assuredly!

[Pacific231G]

31 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

All the discussion of people refusing to do what they are paid to do, reminds us of the recent sad story of the head teacher who took her own life, supposedly because of the stress of OFSTED inspection.  We'll set aside the fact that suicide is never the result of a single stressor.

 

I am interested to know if the stress of these inspections is agreed by all teaching staff, to have worsened in recent years.  If not, then she took the role which is very well paid as compensation for the hard work and stresses involved.  Are the teachers who are demanding changes to OFSTED's way of working, after what is obviously an incredible tragedy for her family, friends and colleagues, proposing that Heads sacrifice some compensation if some of the stresses are removed?  My wife works at a school which had not been inspected for many years so it was expected at any time, hence they had as much as possible prepared for when the inspectors did come earlier this year.  The whole thing was over in the day and was easier than expected.

I think your final sentences are very telling. Your wife and her colleagues were spending time and effort preparing for an inspection they knew would be coming sometime soon. It therefore follows that either that time was spent finding evidence of what they were doing rather than actually doing it, or they were having to do extra work on top of teaching their students just to make the inspectors happy.

 

All the teachers I've known in the fairly recent past  say that stress levels have worsened.  Some of them who loved teaching and were very good at it took early retirement because the stress created by the non-teaching things they had to do was becoming unacceptable.

One thing several of them mentioned is that their freedom to be imaginative in their lessons had also been eroded as they were judged in part on how faithfully they'd followed the set curriculum. Think back to your own schooldays and tell me if the teachers who really inspired you weren't the ones who often went off piste if that was engaging their students' enthusiasm.

The teachers I know have also had colleagues who became OFSTED inspectors and say that those weren't exactly the most talented teachers. Teachers who love teaching tend not to become inspectors.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Can't you just call them Gollies!

 

 

No! That's much too close to the goolies.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by AndyID
Oops! too not to

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

49 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

Think back to your own schooldays and tell me if the teachers who really inspired you weren't the ones who often went off piste if that was engaging their students' enthusiasm.

 

Oh yes. "Bilko" our physics teacher was not only a great teacher but he went completely "off script" and sparked a fire in me that I did not even realize existed. On the other hand our chemistry teacher was probably very smart but he was simply going through the motions to stay employed, and on top of that he was a callous jerk.

[jjb1970]

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

Yes, Kasia says this as well.  And in a deeply Catholic country and culture, it is taken seriously, even by those who are not particularly devout; it's just part of being Polish.  She's in an odd position with regard to religion in some ways, in that she is 'of faith', a believer in the Holy Trinity and the Catechism, but has a deep and abiding hatred of the Catholic Church in general and priests in particular.  My old dad would have been pleased, he was virulently anti-Vatican, and would have regarded Titus Oates as a bit soft on the matter.  Strangely, he had a health hatred for the Rev'd Ian Paisley as well!

 

It's very common around the world for religious and cultural traits to become a part of a tribal identity and to assume a significance which is much greater than might be expected. 

 

Ethnic Chinese people in Southeast Asia are often much more Chinese than actual Chinese people. That's partly a result of institutionalised discrimination from the dominant groups leading to an exaggerated sense of identity, and partly because they were spared the convulsions of Mao's assaults on many traditional Chinese cultural traits. 

 

Christian people in Malaysia and Indonesia tend to place a much greater emphasis on their religion than in European countries because they live in societies where being Christian is to be a bit of an outsider. It has the result that many who are only nominally Christian have an exaggerated sense of Christian identity.

[AndyID]

14 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

It has the result that many who are only nominally Christian have an exaggerated sense of Christian identity.

 

Without being excessively political that sounds exactly the same as a certain political organization in the USA (who shall remain nameless).

 

It's a bit like the sewage-farm worker who could not swim and fell into a sewage pond. When his co-workers asked him how he managed to survive he replied:

 

"I just went through the motions."

[AndyID]

But I should point out that I am 100% skeptical of all religions. Seems to me they all offer a guaranteed product with a 0% chance of reimbursement if the product turns out to be defective. I'm probably even more cynical than CC.