This week we "endured", according the media, the hardships of a one day strike by Nanny's council workers.Nanny's council staff are upset about their final salary pension schemes not being treated in the same way as their "brothers" in Whitehall.
It is a fair point for Nanny's employees to ask for equal treatment between themselves. However, what Nanny's workers are conveniently ignoring is that many of us in the private sector, who do not work for Nanny, no longer have the luxury of final salary pension schemes; they have been deemed to be prohibitively expensive, and as such are being fazed out.
Nanny's staff should take note of the above!
As to the effects of this one day strike, well maybe I lead a very blinkered and sheltered life, I noticed not one iota of difference.
Food supplies, power, water, phones, TV were still all readily available; I could work unimpeded. The hospitals and police functioned, and people still went about their daily business.
Croydon functioned as normal!
Therefore I have to ask this, if we do not notice Nanny's council workers going on strike, what exactly do they do?
I can answer my own question, here is a fine example of the added value of Nanny and her lackeys (who are paid for out of our taxes).
Motorists in Sheepcote Street Birmingham were issued with parking tickets when yellow lines were painted around their cars, having parked on the street which had no yellow lines.
The £60 fines were put on windscreens of parked cars last week, after Nanny's council workmen painted the lines on either side of the wheels and occasionally on the vehicles themselves!
Eamu Begum, a victim of the Yellow Peril, said:
"I park here every day and have had no problems before.
The yellow line goes around some of the cars and they've even got paint on one of the vehicles."
Eventually Nanny's chums in Birmingham City Council, having received a number of complaints, agreed to waive the fines.
Jobsworth wankers!
Seven million people now work directly for Nanny (note this figure excludes those working for Nanny's favoured suppliers such as Crapita); excluding those in the front line value added services, such as health care and the police, what the hell do these people do and why are we paying them?The high level of public sector employment, paid for by the private sector, is unsustainable.
I am highly displeased with the situation!
I'm off to my house in Spain for a couple of weeks in the sun, pool and tapas bars, relaxing and enjoying the ambience.
ReplyDeleteIn Spain my council tax is about 20% of the level here in the UK. And what do we get for it? Our dustbins emptied every day (note here the words every day). The state employees, who seem far fewer than in the UK, are polite. Their health system is far better, their police are visible and don't seem to spend all day sitting behind desks. They are not so tied up with rules, regulations and jobsworths as we are here in the UK.
So Ken, I stand with you also displeased when it comes to the UK. But just think, Brown prides himself in his "low levels of unemployment". Just think what record levels there would be if he were to get the size of the state to sustainable levels!!
We are headed for bankruptcy, and the fault lies purely at the feet of this present shower of politicians. The cracks are already showing in the health service financial situation. It is, however, all of their own making.
Oh, and Ken, on an aside, in your picture, is that a squashed hedgehog the council jobsworths have painted lines over?? Ahhh.. the quality of our council services leaves me breathless.
Spiv
ReplyDeleteI agree.
The "low" levels of unemployment are due to the following factors:
1 7 million people work for Nanny (ie the private sector supports them)
2 Unemployment is regularly being redefined as "sickness"
3 Large numbers of under 25's are now in full time "educashun", learning fuck all at crappy "pretend" universities. They will not be able to find work when they leave, but will be saddled with a lifetime of debt.
It is a dead animal...well spotted.
Enjoy your hols.
Ken
If people pay the parking fines they are idiots as the lines will be broken, making them a non-standard marking and any punishment is unenforcable (this also applies if the lines have worn at any point.)
ReplyDeleteRe the main point my bins weren't emptied yesterday, they only get done fortnightly now so if they aren't empty today I'll be off to the town hall. I also intend to withhold 1 day of council tax.
I can only assume that my local council outsources all work, assuming there is any, since strike day seemed no different to any other.
ReplyDeletespiv's observation of the yellow lines in your photo missed the point that the lines have been painted in the middle of the (very wide) road. Suggests to me that the source is the USA where roadkill may not be rare enough, due to the nature and variety of their wildlife, to justify cleansing before the automated line painters move in. In any case it looks like far to good a job for a UK council.
On the other hand there was near me a short stretch of road, used as access to two supermarkets and a recycling area, that until a few months ago had some intermittent double yellow lines painted on one side for a short distance. As it was a wider section of the short road, almost like a layby really, people who presumably worked locally would park there in the unpainted gaps.
Shades of the Birmingham fiasco.
Quite some time after I first noticed this the four or five gaps disappeared one by one over a few days.
The small town has some parking problems though interestingly the car parks for both the small and very large supermarkets the roads serves are never, in my experience, full. However both businesses have policies of restricted parking for their customer's only. Not unreasonable but does not solve any problems.
In fact if you take the available but not council owned spaces into consideration there would be no problem at all.
In recent weeks the very large supermarket has initiated a build of a petrol station nearby. I can't recall what was on the site but I think probably a derelict building and some parking space. This new development is interesting since so many petrol stations are being closed when their licences expire. This is due to the lack of renewal of planning consent or the prohibitive cost of refurbishment related to a facility in the middle of areas of 'high street' commerce and housing - just where they are most efficiently positioned I would have thought. It's the risks apparently. And the potential for benzene pollution of the water supplies.
Anyway, this new development, right in the middle of the town, in a commercial area, not far from housing and on a road which is already working beyond capacity, seems to have involved the major supermarket chain taking over one of the last remaining council car parks which was originally not included in their superstore development scheme. I'm not sure why.
It is on the side of the road opposite the petrol station, so no part of that development. It was already directly adjacent to the new superstore's carparking. But why did the council retain it originally and then decide to hand it over now, about 2 years later?
It wasn't a big area but would take maybe 20 or 30 vehicles. If the people who used it now try to use the never-full superstore car park they will run the risk of clashing with the Eurocarparks outfit that runs it on behalf of the superstore. The store does not seem to need the extra spaces - I have never seen the existing facilities more than 50% full even at the busier shopping times.
I can't help but feel there is some dodgy dealing going on somewhere. But I don't pay council tax to them so will leave it to the locals to ask why the lines were painted, the car park was, presumably, sold off, a petrol station has been allowed (not that I will complain about that if the prices are right) and that the council is, when all things considered, probably a bunch of shysters.
We do live in strange times.
All parking charges are NOT fines otherwise they would be in direct contravention of the "Bill of Rights" & any local authority who describes them as such is doing so illegally. To call them such is to give them & the issuer a creadence they dont deserve. They are however charges or excess charges & so forth.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that many are unenforceable for various reason but usually the markings or signs do not comply with the legal requirement. So don’t pay until you have checked
Also some supermarkets are now charging customers who overstay. If one of these parking companies sends you ticket claiming its a fine write back & ask under which statute they are empowered to issue “fines”. Don’t forget to send a copy to the store manager.