WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Sounds cheap to me. I wonder how much a firm will add for admin and costs when pricing a job.

[Big Kev]

Sounds cheap to me. I wonder how much a firm will add for admin and costs when pricing a job.

Doesn't sound a lot to me either...
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/la ... KO0,14.htm

I would imagine the overheads involved (premises, machinery energy etc) along with the costs involved actually employing someone will add a considerable amount to that figure.

[Tizer]

Average wage, for a lathe 'operator', in the UK is around £13 an hour.

They should call themselves something like metalliferous technology executives and then they'd get £130 an hour!

[Whyperion]

I watch modern prices, think about the saga Mick had with his Toyota and the astronomical costs of that, and wonder how much an hour I am worth on Mrs Harrison.

Average wage, for a lathe 'operator', in the UK is around £13 an hour.

Is that the one that hits the CNC buttons and lets the machinery do its thing ?

[Big Kev]

I watch modern prices, think about the saga Mick had with his Toyota and the astronomical costs of that, and wonder how much an hour I am worth on Mrs Harrison.

Average wage, for a lathe 'operator', in the UK is around £13 an hour.

Is that the one that hits the CNC buttons and lets the machinery do its thing ?

No idea, outside my sphere of knowledge

[Big Kev]

Colne Blues is cancelled permanently by 'the council'
Details here https://www.burnleyexpress.net/whats-on ... ed-3392599

Hopefully the venues will get together and organise something without council involvement.

There's a petition to keep it
https://chng.it/2MTSjFzSqy

[Stanley]

I have some sympathy with a council declining non essential services when you look at the state of their funding and the demands on them. The proper target is a government who starves them of cash. Funny thing is the constituency voted for Conservatives. Complicated isn't it.

[Wendyf]

Colne Council are planning to replace it with a Food and Music Festival on the usual August Bank Holiday date. I think it's about more than just the budget.

[Stanley]

What has grabbed me this morning is the shocking story about the young woman who had her baby unassisted in her cell and it died. Why was a young pregnant woman in a cell in prison? It's a dreadful story and shameful.

[Tizer]

I agree and they said pregnant women are often in prison for 6 months or less anyway so why subject them to the risk?

[Stanley]

I'm afraid the answer is that they come from what is regarded by the people who are governing us as an under class. There is still a Victorian view about crime and punishment. Most women are in gaol for debt. This is antediluvian and should be abolished immediately. Too much attentions is paid to vanity projects and not enough to basic governance and justice. This results in events like this on a regular basis.
Don't forget the deaths in custody amongst prisoners who shouldn't be in a cell but in a secure mental hospital. The police should not be used as an extension of the Health Service. It is unfair as they are not trained or equipped for the task.

[Big Kev]

News stories of queues as the stupid are out panic buying petrol or diesel after being told there's no need to panic buy...

20210924_125934.jpg

Skipton Morrisons this morning.

[Stanley]

Par for the course Kev. Not necessarily all stupidity, just the natural urge to make sure you aren't left short on the grounds that when Grant Shapps says there is no shortage just some garages being short of fuel.
The back story is that the government is doing everything it can to divert attention from what many see as the natural consequence of Brexit. I even heard a minister saying that their aim was to prevent HGV drivers being undercut by foreign drivers. Really? Why this sudden concern? Quite simply because they are desperate to divert attention from the immediate effects of Brexit and the natural consequences of bad conditions and historically bad wage rates and conditions.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Or, a bit more down to earth, we've plaited sawdust for years and now the pigeons have come home to roost.

[Big Kev]

The 'shortage' is apparently affecting a 'handful' of BP and Tesco forecourts across the country. There are reports of drivers filling Jerry cans as well as their cars.

I'm sure I heard a Grant Shapps quote asking for 'retired' drivers to come back into the industry to make up the shortage, they couldn't pay me enough.

[Stanley]

Yes you did, he suggested there were 30,000 lapsed qualified drivers out there. One could ask why they stopped doing the job.....

[Big Kev]

One could ask why they stopped doing the job.....

I could give you a list which would probably be the same as the other 29,999 'lapsed qualified drivers'

[Stanley]

[plaques]

We have a shortage of lorry drivers but its nothing to do with Brexit and anyhow there's a shortage across Europe which proves its nothing to do with Brexit.
Remembering that the UK has made it difficult if not impossible to obtain work permits for foreign drivers work in the UK with possible delays at customs where the driver gets paid for kilometres driven not time stood still. Why should anybody choose to drive in the UK when there is a shortage of drivers nearer home. Even if Priti Horrible changes her mind and allows temporary permits the die is cast and they will be working nearer home within border free countries and less paperwork hassle.

[Stanley]

Exactly right Ken. Can you remember us saying that there would undoubtedly be unforeseen consequences? We are starting to find out what they are and the HGV driver situation is only one of them.
What intrigues me is the fact that the contract for providing vets for inspections at ALL border points was given to one firm, Eville & Jones of Leeds who, according to Private Eye reports have failed to find the guaranteed number of veterinary staff but have been given an extended contract. Why?
Later at 05:00. Lawyers acting for Prince Andrew have confirmed that a subpoena has been properly served demanding his appearance in court to answer charges of sexual impropriety against him. Cue some negotiations with the alleged victim to avoid his appearance in court. One imagines that the Palace will not want him in court.

[Big Kev]

This story in the Lancashire Telegraph, drivers queuing at Asda petrol station https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/n ... vers-fuel/
Two of my offspring struggled to get fuel yesterday due to the 'madness'. It's the toilet roll fiasco all over again.

Update, youngest offspring has to wait for the tanker to get access to the garage to unload so he can fuel up. The queue of cars waiting to get in is stopping it, he's gone back home for second breakfast and will hopefully go to work later. It's definitely stupidity...

The BBC have a story relating to the 'HGV Driver Shortage' with a picture showing cars queuing at an Esso petrol station, further into the story it says

Sainsbury's said it was experiencing "high demand" for fuel, with a "tiny proportion of sites" temporarily closed.

BP said about 20 of its 1,200 petrol forecourts were closed, with between 50 and 100 sites affected by the loss of at least one grade of fuel.

A "small number" of Tesco refilling stations have also been impacted, said Esso owner ExxonMobil, which runs the sites.

EG Group, which has 341 petrol stations in the UK, is introducing a limit of £30 per customer on all grades of fuel due to "unprecedented customer demand".

One petrol station in Stockport sold 5,280 gallons (24,000 litres) of fuel on Friday, the same garage sold 8000 litres last Friday, 24000 litres is one tanker.
There are reports of drivers filling jerry cans as well as their fuel tanks,

[PanBiker]

I was going to fill up at the Sainsbury garage on North Valley on our way to Boundary Mill yesterday. I go there because the fuel is 5p a litre less than in Barlick. I was filling up because I have less than 100 miles in the tank, 86 I think. It was queued back to just short of the road, about 5 waiting for each pump so I drove past. I will wait till the madness passes and the brain dead have had their fill. Some folk are so stupid they can't recognise that they are causing their own problem.

[Big Kev]

Unconfirmed reports that Skipton Road is jammed up, by Aldi, with cars queueng for the garage. This won't be helped by the gas main repairs and traffic lights at the bottom of Coates bridge.

[Tizer]

I will wait till the madness passes and the brain dead have had their fill. Some folk are so stupid they can't recognise that they are causing their own problem.

Ian, hearing that comment from a socialist surprises me because when I worked in a publishing company most of the employees were socialists. If I referred to people as being brain dead or stupid or in similar terms the office would go quiet and then I'd be gently reminded by the socialist majority that that sort of language was not appropriate. I'd be what we might now call temporarily `cancelled'. I put up with it so that I could learn more about publishing before starting my own small business and the people around me were otherwise fine and good mates. Is this due to there being different species in the socialist genus?

[plaques]

I will wait till the madness passes and the brain dead have had their fill. Some folk are so stupid they can't recognise that they are causing their own problem.

This goes farther back than petrol. Pendle have a Conservative MP and a Conservative Council. In an area that is topping the league for every measure of poverty that you can imagine how much more brain dead can you get??

[PanBiker]

Of course and between the Tories and Liberals on Colne Town Council they have also killed the goose that lays the golden eggs by their short sighted cancellation of the Blues Festival. Total madness.