The Night Mail

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I feel particularly sorry for the front line counter staff who have to bear the brunt of the frustration and can do little to solve the problems they are presented with; they are victims of the system every bit as much as the claimants.  I've had to deal with the Department far too much and far too often in the ups and down of my life, and have always been treated sympathetically and courteously (can't say same for Cardiff City Council).  The point raised earlier about being polite to police officers applies here; it can be frustrating beyond belief, that's how the system is deliberately set up, but there's no point in alienating the counter staff who are the only people that can help you!

I once car shared with a lady who was counter staff for the DHSS as it was then. She told me that average staff turnover for the counter staff was two weeks.

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The VED part was originally called Road Fund licence and was paid into a fund that was ring fenced for road maintenance and improvement but in 1936 it became Vehicle Excise Duty and goes into the general taxation pot.

 

Dave

 

Winston Churchill, then Minister of Transport, was responsible for this, 'informed' by his sense of history that the King's Highway, in the form of public roads, was guaranteed to be open to all as a right of way for general use, and had been since the time of Alfred of Wessex.  He objected to the idea that paying into a Road Fund would  enable those who had paid to claim that they had in some way paid for the road and were therefore more entitled to use it than others, who had to give way to them...

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

And, incidentally, a damn fine musician.

 

Dave

 

In several genres and on several instruments, though he's best known as a Jazz pianist.

[skipepsi]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Two decades ago I sued to spend a lot of days on RN ships, occasionally being fed (never expected it) and it seemed pretty good.  One young Lieutenant told of how there had been word of a plan from the Ministry to replace a lot of onboard catering with cook-chill food (a.k.a airline meals), which would mean a lot of space used for catering could be replaced with other things, similarly the members of the galley crew.  I completely respected his view that had such a scheme been implemented on ships, the RN might have seen its first mutiny for about 200 years.

 

It is a simple management practice that a great deal of quite senior management, in all sizes and types of organisations, fail to grasp: if you get the small stuff right, people will tolerate a great deal that is wrong with the big stuff.

A lot less than that invergordon mutiny

[br2975]

56 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

.................................... the miscreants were in a Reliant van a la Del Boy's.

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I once nicked two characters syphoning petrol from the cars on the expansive driveway of a huge house in the Llandaff area of Cardiff.

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Their getaway vehicle was parked out of sight, and was a three-wheeled  Reliant Regal.

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The petrol was in buckets and bowls in the back of the 'getaway car'

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The owner of the cars that were attacked (one being a Rolls) was a very well known (almost notorious) Cardiff second hand car dealer, with a premises near Canton depot.

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When the two thieves found out who their victim was, their  world fell out of their backsides !

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Returning the petrol to the 'victim' was another of my hilarious interludes.

[br2975]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

 

Winston Churchill, then Minister of Transport, was responsible for this, 'informed' by his sense of history that the King's Highway, in the form of public roads, was guaranteed to be open to all as a right of way for general use, and had been since the time of Alfred of Wessex.  He objected to the idea that paying into a Road Fund would  enable those who had paid to claim that they had in some way paid for the road and were therefore more entitled to use it than others, who had to give way to them...

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Are you sure ?

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The 'Road Fund Licence' amongst its other names, was introduced in 1921.

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I don't recall Churchill being Minister for Transport since  1921

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[AndyID]

I did get pulled over in Brussels some years ago. Fergus (one of my software guys) and I were working late at our agent's office and he told us to take his BMW to get back to the hotel. The police were very polite and pointed out that one of the tail lights was not working. I gave it a good thump and it came back on. I think I flashed my UK license and that was about it.

 

Just as well because I had no idea what our agent's address was or anything about his insurance 😀

 

On another occasion I set up an exhibition for him in Paris at the big exhibition center there. I offered to buy him dinner but he declined due to "other plans". In Paris? Surely not.

[petethemole]

I used to live in Southend in the late '60s, when I heard a story about four Met CID officers who'd been in Southend for a court case and were heading home up the Southend Arterial Road in a plain car.  They were pulled over for speeding by an Essex motorcycle officer.  The Met driver showed his warrant card and said "There are four professional liars in this car who will testify that we were within the limit".

[AndyID]

We owned a 1/3rd acre lot across the street from us. A neighbor with a house next to it wanted to buy it so he could erect a fugly shed shop on it but we sold it to someone else in the community who only wanted it as a place where their family could visit with their trailers during the Summer.

 

We quite like what they did with it.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flying Fox 34F]

Mr Holland is a nice chap.  I once sat with him eating Fish and Chips outside a certain chippy in my old home town.  We were discussing railways and music.  It might have helped that I was in my NR uniform at the time!

 

Paul

[Happy Hippo]

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

Winston Churchill, then Minister of Transport, was responsible for this, 'informed' by his sense of history that the King's Highway, in the form of public roads, was guaranteed to be open to all as a right of way for general use, and had been since the time of Alfred of Wessex.  He objected to the idea that paying into a Road Fund would  enable those who had paid to claim that they had in some way paid for the road and were therefore more entitled to use it than others, who had to give way to them...

Despite this, it would appear there are still a lot of adherents to this idiotic view that some drivers have of thinking cyclists and other road users should not be on the road at all because they 'don't pay road tax'.  Which as we all know, none of us on this forum, and are driving today, have ever paid.

 

After another day working outside on a number of tasks. Most of which were under supervision and involved the removal or movement of items, many of which were quite heavy, I succumbed to an early night.

 

Surprisingly, it is something I have always been prone to on a Friday, so the prospect of going out  late on a Friday night does not fill me with much joy.  but, I do find that the following day, I'm up before the lark.  Possibly years of having to be ready for an early start at an exhibition/sailing event/range day.

 

We have a skip arriving today, ready for the great garden rebuild.  I do wonder how much space will be left in it by the time they turn up on Monday to start work.  (Fortunately, it will not be roadside, but out of sight in the field behind our neighbour's house.

 

Which begs the question  why I found it necessary to go to the recycling centre yesterday with yet another car load of stuff!

 

 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I once car shared with a lady who was counter staff for the DHSS as it was then. She told me that average staff turnover for the counter staff was two weeks.

 

Bear's longest serving Buddy (who lives over the road) has a badly smashed up right arm after a Guy riding a Beemer in Paris jumped the lights and hit him - as a result the arm is pretty much permanently Fu'barred, meaning work (and many other things) are either extremely difficult or impossible; fortunately he's learnt to manage on a day-to-day basis pretty well.

He got so p1ssed off with all the hoops that the DHSS were endlessly making him jump thru' that in the end he just walked away from anything he was entitled to and lives off his Compo (which took many years to secure).  And when he did get his Compo his Solicitor had to hold back something like £30K and repay it to the DHSS (something to do with Disability Benefit I think, and means-testing; when he was injured he had no savings and his income disappeared, but as soon as he got the Compo that was deemed to have been awarded at the time of the accident rather than something like 5 years later - so he did have "savings" after all).

It really does P1ss me off that there are those that fiddle the system for years - and those that are caught never seem to be punished appropriately in my book (I'd disqualify them from EVER receiving benefits, housing etc. for life - along with repaying what they stole).

That could quite possibly be a rant.

 

 

 

[SM42]

I believe, based on reading for report many many years ago, it is a similar situation  for those convicted of crimes that it is later found they did not commit.

 

Any compemsation granted is reduced by the state claiming bed and board. 

 

Andy

 

[iL Dottore]

From reading various accounts (from politicians’ memoirs to in-depth investigative articles in magazines and newspapers) it would seem that the Treasury is definitely part of the problem not part of the solution. The whole idea of ring-fenced taxation is to ensure that X (whatever X may be) is adequately funded. Sticking everything into a pot and relying on (or hoping for) the largesse of the Treasury has not proved to improve the services the public receive.

 

Thos who ran (and who now run) the DHSS/DWP who: dump their front line staff into the **** and letting them sink or swim, devise ever more arcane and Byzantine ways to avoid paying out, exhibit a pathological vindictive meanness and spend ££££ to clawback pennies deserve and merit our opprobrium and contempt.

 

To improve things, the whole thing should be scrapped and a new government department be created from scratch.

As that is unlikely to ever happen, a good move would be scrap all the byzantine regulations and replace them with clear instructions that total no more than 10 - 20 A4 pages and (this could be quite contentious) have the names, positions and work contact details of everyone in the department who makes decisions publicly available. Not being able to hide behind anonymity would certainly affect officials’ ability to be callously and contemptuously indifferent to the people they supposedly serve.

 

Here in Switzerland, if I so wish, I can find the name, position and work contact details of everyone working in my local Gemeinde (although it does take a little digging). Additionally - from what I understand - there’s zero tolerance for abusing/threatening Gemeinde staff. Do it and you will get nicked and punished (mind you, Switzerland in general has a pretty low “scrote-tolerance” as a number of foreigners [often tourists] have found out to their cost)

[Happy Hippo]

I am currently examining signal box kit No 3!

 

The first one was too small. (Even smaller since I cut the base off it!)

The second was too big. (And seemed to get bigger every time I looked at it!)

Goldihippo now seems to have found one that is just right🤣.

 

The instructions say to paint a number of parts prior to construction.  This would make much sense as the main shell is one colour, and somewhat conveniently, the overlays are another. (Istr a Churchward Models brass signal box kit with similar instructions.)

 

I will NOT be attempting any construction until the retaining wall, which is currently sitting in sections has been finished and glued in place. 

 

The question is what to do with the other signal boxes?

 

I suspect they might end up in the bin!

 

I now await the delivery of the skip:  But not for the signal boxes🤣.

[br2975]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Thos who ran (and who now run) the DHSS/DWP who: dump their front line staff into the **** and letting them sink or swim, devise ever more arcane and Byzantine ways to avoid paying out, exhibit a pathological vindictive meanness and spend ££££ to clawback pennies deserve and merit our opprobrium and contempt.

 

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Very similar to "UK Police plc"

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Following years of cut backs, budgetary restraint and the loss of tens of thousands of officers, Senior Management Teams (SMT) continue to dream up new policing strategies, policies and operations which they then sell to a gullible public as the panacea for all the community's criminal and anti-social problems.

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These new fangled projects and policies are expected to be staffed from the ever diminishing pool of resources to fund the 'next great project' - with officers being drafted in from, or diverted from either basic day to day policing duties, or from the previous 'next great project'

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Meanwhile, the 999 calls continue to come in, missing persons continue to go missing, bullies continue to beat their partners, and vulnerable children are still being groomed, or used as drug mules.

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When the 'great new project' fails to deliver, due to abstractions, lack of funding and other implications, it is the front line that gets the grief, the officers most closely in contact with the community they  (try to) serve, NOT the SMY safely ensconced in an ivory tower many miles away.

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Something that always amuses me is a common headline in regional newspapers...............

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"TOP COP SLAMS GOVERMENT CUTS AND POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN POLICING"

"A Chief Constable has slammed the last ten years ongoing government funding cuts and continued Home Office interference and blames these issues for his force being unable to provide the service they expect of his force"

"Harold Hippo QPM, Chief Constable of the Mid-Wales Constabulary,  who retires today after thirty years service, the last five years of which he has served as head of Wales second largest force......."

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So Chief Constable, you have known about these 'issues' for the last ten years, and for the last five years you have been in a position to challenge the budgetary constraints and political interference - BUT - you only chose to speak out publicly on the day you retire.

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Such stories tell you all you need to know about many of today's senior police officers.

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Edited June 3, 2023 by br2975

[Willie Whizz]

9 hours ago, br2975 said:

.

Are you sure ?

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The 'Road Fund Licence' amongst its other names, was introduced in 1921.

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I don't recall Churchill being Minister for Transport since  1921

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He was, though, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the mid-1920s and would therefore have had a far greater influence on Tax than any Minister of Transport. 
 

History judges he wasn’t a great success in that role; in particular he kept Britain on the Gold Standard and at an inappropriate rate of exchange when it would have made better sense to come off; and thereby exacerbated the difficulties of an economy that was already struggling. ‘National  prestige’ and all that, really, though the error is probably more visible with hindsight than it would have been at the time. It certainly contributed to the image of him as a “failed politician” that kept him out of office for most of the 1930s. 

[Willie Whizz]

9 hours ago, skipepsi said:

A lot less than that invergordon mutiny

Those who took part in that in 1931 viewed themselves as being “on strike” about unfair pay cuts rather than as mutineers, but there was apparent nothing in the Naval Discipline Acts to cover such a situation and ‘Mutiny’ was as near as the Powers That Be could get. Of course, when they heard that word the Press went wild, and the economic consequences of the publicity about it for the country became serious. 

[Mike Bellamy]

3 hours ago, Flying Fox 34F said:

Mr Holland is a nice chap.  I once sat with him eating Fish and Chips outside a certain chippy in my old home town.  

 

Best chippy in town was Cecil Street just around the corner when we lived on Harrowby Road (1960 to 1976 for me and to 2017 for Mum and Dad). If you met JH when he was passing through town, I guess it would have been the Windsor on London Road.

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[Dave Hunt]

br2975’s post above rings more than a few bells with anyone who ha served in the armed forces in the last 40 years or so. I won’t bore you with details (for a start they are quite depressing) but more than a few very senior officers fall into the same category as the chief constable he quoted. It’s called “How big a pension can I get and when will my name appear in the New Year honours list?”

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Winston Churchill? For a long time I’ve thought that he was a good wartime leader but apart from that he wasn’t much good as a politician.

 

Dave

 

PS - the auto spell checker decided that for Winston I should have put Windy on 😄

[Flying Fox 34F]

47 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

Best chippy in town was Cecil Street just around the corner when we lived on Harrowby Road (1960 to 1976 for me and to 2017 for Mum and Dad). If you met JH when he was passing through town, I guess it would have been the Windsor on London Road.

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Hello Mike,

 

You are quite correct, Cecil Street was the best chippy in town.

On the occasion of my meeting Mr Holland, you are on the right road, but it was the Neptune, next door.  The Windsor was closed for some reason?  If I remember correctly, he’d been player at Belvoir Castle.

 

Paul

 

[Dave Hunt]

8 hours ago, AndyID said:

I did get pulled over in Brussels some years ago. Fergus (one of my software guys) and I were working late at our agent's office and he told us to take his BMW to get back to the hotel. The police were very polite and pointed out that one of the tail lights was not working. I gave it a good thump and it came back on. I think I flashed my UK license and that was about it.

 

Back in the 80s I bought a 12 month old BMW525i and the following day was staying at my in-laws when my BiL asked if I could give him a lift home to Southport. I did so then on the way back was stopped at a routine road block (it was late at night). The policeman asked whether it was my car and when I replied in the affirmative asked what the number was. “Errrr,” I replied, “Not sure, I only bought it yesterday, “ I told him, “But it ends in a D.” He looked a bit askance at that and asked if I therefore had any paperwork to prove it was mine. “Sorry, it’s in my jacket at my in-laws house in Formby, “ I said thinking that this wasn’t going at all well. The outcome was that he came with me in my car to the in-laws followed by a colleague in a police car so that I could present him with the proof that the car was mine. They were really nice about it, especially as MiL gave them a cup of tea and a biscuit each. After they’d gone, Jill said that since I hadn’t shaved for several days and was wearing an old pair of jeans and a stained sweatshirt she wasn’t surprised they’d been suspicious.

 

Dave

[Flying Fox 34F]

52 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

br2975’s post above rings more than a few bells with anyone who ha served in the armed forces in the last 40 years or so. I won’t bore you with details (for a start they are quite depressing) but more than a few very senior officers fall into the same category as the chief constable he quoted. It’s called “How big a pension can I get and when will my name appear in the New Year honours list?”

 

Dave

Many of the issues highlighted upon, I believe, are due to employment contracts with Performance Related Pay.  Managers, Officers, etc; get given their individual targets by those upon high, who manipulate the situation to meet political expectations.

 

All parties have done it, in the last 40 years.  
It suits the Sub-Contractor mentality of business.  All public services and servants are going through this.  They then Publicly wonder?, why staff are leaving or falling seriously ill!

 

Paul

[Oldddudders]

18 minutes ago, Flying Fox 34F said:

Belvoir Castle.

If I have correctly understood the pronunciation of the name, it sounds really interesting to a lot of men!