Be Excellent To Each Other

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I might write to my MP because of his stance against the smoking ban, he cannot be for the 'sugar tax' that was being mooted this morning.

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Alistair Carmichael should go, shouldn't he, for telling porkies?

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The SNP demonstrating how clued up they are on day 1 of the new parliament by not realising they're not supposed to clap each other. Fucking morons. A delightfully severe correction by the speaker.

Reading about a mob surrounding Douglas Carswell yesterday.

Utterly pathetic and disgraceful. Also, for the left and those protesting peacefully, utterly counter-productive.

I agree with his view that MPs should take public transport and not shut themselves away. Might not agree with im, but he always comes across as civil and thoughtful in Parliament and on radio/tv.

Yeah, expect to see more of this over the next few years as people get increasingly desperate, frustrated and angry and perhaps don't always conduct themselves in a manner befitting a fucking university debating society.

Assaults on public servants should be frowned upon, no matter what level of frustration.

I thought they were shouting at him and he then decided that they were actually attempting to murder him.

To be honest, given the alternative is just braying loudly, I think applauding might be more civilised.

While braying is... generally uncivilised, it does have an advantage over clapping of being marginally easier to shout over.

I would imagine it was fucking terrifying. Much as I dislike the things the guy stands for, that's a shitty thing to happen, and the cunts involved should feel properly ashamed.

Time expires soon. I am not sure if anything has been lodged.

Looks like he's decided to run for London mayor instead. I hope London isn't that stupid.

Can't see him winning. Can however see him taking enough labour votes to give a Tory win in a labour city though. Dick.

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Tax on DLA is almost certain. Which is a bummer.

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Err... Any gas that doesn't contain oxygen is potentially lethal if you do it wrong. What with needing oxygen to live and all.

Crossing the road is also lethal if you do it wrong so you're not disagreeing with him here.

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Helium is more dangerous than Nitrous. In fact it's a known painless suicide technique, a friends brother did it that way.

Nitrous is getting banned more for its anti social aspect than medical as far as I can see. Glastonbury last year removed two tons of metal canisters from a single field afterwards.

This is magnificent:

Also this massive fucking bellend did this withdrawal of support for Miliband - http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015 ... r-comedian - I missed this originally. Who still thinks this derping shitbag has anything of worth to say? It goes from being fundamentally critical that we elect Miliband to change the world, and then it was all a mistake because he was caught up in the sense that he might be able to influence the election by talking bollocks on youtube. Thank fuck dickheads like him can't, and thrice the fool of anyone who listened or listens to him still.

Yeah, I know some people like him on here but I just cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would give a fig what he's got to say about political stuff, in much the same way I wouldn't put too much emphasis on my 5 year old grandson's views on that score?

He seems to have reinvented himself as Ali G, or something. Probably a fun bloke to be around socially, but (ahem), not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, it seems fair to say. Just another multimillionaire luvvie type espousing stuff about things they cannot hope to comprehend or understand, let alone rectify. Next...

Having frozen public sector pay, the government relied more than ever on agency nurses in the NHS in the wake of higher than normal staff loss. Now the government seems surprised that the companies that supply agency nurses are profit-seeking and are raising prices as demand increases: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32961240

This certainly gives me confidence that the government can do a good job of managing private companies into our healthcare system! Also I feel great that the party of fiscal responsibility was caught flatfooted by the law of supply and demand.

Heh. Fair comment, Doc, it's certainly not great, agreed.

I'm not sure if the situation is the same now, but ten years ago agencies were a rip off perpetrated be the nurses themselves.

Ward sister draws up the rota for the ward, asks all staff for their preferred hours. Staff all ask for (non unsocial hours pay) hours, so generally 9-5 Monday to Friday. Sister then requests cover for nights and weekends. By agreement a few of them come forward but by no means enough, everyone claiming unavailability. Ward is left fully staffed at daytimes and a few odd shifts. Sister goes to Agency for bank staff.

The bank staff are selected by the sister from available pool, which just so happens to be the same staff on the ward which claimed not to be available for the normal rota. The agency rate to staff is c25% higher than the normal unsocial rate, and about 50% higher cost to the hospital.

I know this as about 12 years ago the ward in question was used as a trial to break this cheating apart with forced hours. To help her make balanced decisions I wrote the rota for my then gfs ward using anonymised data. It did work but coincidentally I had a client that wrote software that did the same thing on a hospitalwide basis. The NHS wouldn't buy it or enforce use due to 'cost' - said cost for the trust in question was something like 5% of the estimated excess agency fees paid (some bank staff will always be required but not as much)

If my memory serves from a radio program, the NHS would pay an A&E doctor c£75k. They can earn 3x that being a locum and pick their hours. No contest really.

That sounds very unusual to say the least. Are you talking about bank staff or agency staff? You seem to be using the terms interchangeably. The nurse bank is run internally and pays the usual rates. Staff can make themselves available to work extra hours or some staff work exclusively on the bank on a sort of zero hours arrangement. Trust employees don't moonlight for their own employers via agencies. This has been the situation for as long as I can remember.

That interchanging is unintentional as I'm mixing terms. However at the trust in question the bank was operated by an external agency, which also operated the agency staff. No-one volunteered for the bank and went straight to the agency, who used the same office and the same phone line for the first c5 years that I knew my girlfriend. (this changed with the changes the trust tried to, partially successfully enforce). *

The situation was so ridiculous that my girlfriend, who hated Christmas, booked Christmas day off every year then did a long Christmas day shift, as agency, on the same ward. Even if she was put on as a staff nurse and paid as such she made double the money.

*Incidentally, they situation at that trust is now better but only slightly. I trained with the FD for the same hospital and she tears her hair out on a monthly basis at salary overshoots on understaffed units

That's absolutely crazy.

^ Yeah, it is. And guess who's paying for it all...

I've just remembered what prompted the change - when Labour brought Matrons back. For the first time (at the trust in question at least) there was a level of nursing management at a 'local' rather than finance office level. The matron in that unit (he was also a bully and a ballbreaker but it worked at the start) would vet every external staff request for the wards under his control and phone staff up to call them in as ward staff, before going to external request only as a last resort. He also tried to enforce no moonlighting on the same ward. I doubt that was allowed under employment law (and their contracts) but it worked to a degree, until they started losing staff (including my girlfriend) to other trusts

He enforced moonlighting?

Corrected. However there is a care delivery aspect which says moonlighting should be positively encouraged (familiarity etc) if it isn't abused.

Charles Kennedy dead at 55.

As I said in the other thread, terrible shame for him to die so young and I'm personally gutted, even though his politics didn't especially chime with my own. He'll be very sorely missed.

Yeah I think the discussion is more apt in this thread than a generic one about celebrity deaths.

The bit of CK that I'll always remember is when someone asked him, I think it must have been just before the 2001 GE, who he'd like to see as Prime Minister. Without skipping a beat he said 'Charles Kennedy'. I always liked that, he seemed credible as a party leader and I remember being surprised when he resigned, drink or not.

A 'generic' thread specifically dedicated to high-profile and notable deaths in a given year versus a single-topic thread about the 2015 general election?

Really?

Really?

I don't know, what's the question?

[edit]Meh

There aren't any other active political threads at the moment, so yes, it is. Although not much to be said as the news has garnered only a couple of comments in either thread.

You really should follow through if you have something grumpy to say Grim...

What's the fucking point? He's fucking immune to any kind of criticism and 1,000 other people will jump in trying to hold his hand while mine are firmly in my fucking pocket.

Hint: Grim... is not having a good day.

Jesus Christ. Use the Nay thread for its intended purpose.