CUNNING WHEEZES

[Tripps]

Kev - yes, that's the one I usually use,and on it Ihad noticed that my speed had gonedown. I was surfing around to get an update on the opposition to Plusnet, and that site asked for my details of postcode and phone number to assess available speed. Being naive, I gave it to them. Now Plusnet have said that Iam connected to 'old fashioned' equipment at the exchange, but this is due to be upgraded some time this month, and it should then get faster. I will probably stay with them if they get back to 6Mbs from the current 1.8Mbs. Their customer service is good - they respond to email within a few hours, and the assistants who deal with it, give their full names.

Stanley - " the model used in the advert was a sylph-like 14 at the most!" . Have you also noticed that the Stannah stairlift ads seem to be aimed at people who don't seem to need them..

[Pluggy]

The update to the 'old fashioned equipment' has been put back (again) its now standing at the end of May. For much of last year it was October 2011, then moved back to end of March 2012 and recently moved back again.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LCBAN - 21CN WBC Status

[Tripps]

Thanks for the link. It shows my exchange has been 21CN enabled, so I guess I just wait for them to connect me onto it. They also said it would take a couple of weeks to "settle down".

[Pluggy]

Apologies, I thought you were in Barlick. Its pretty clear we're not a priority here.

[Stanley]

Is it any coincidence that since Orang re-rated Barlick speeds I have been bombarded by BT and Talk-Talk with tempting offers of fast broadband? Needless to say, straight in the bin, I wait to see what Orange does at the end of May....

[Stanley]

Did anyone hear Paul Lewis and the piece about a man's insurance being cancelled immediately the company found he had flitted to one of their 'no-go' postcodes? It menat he was automatically a law-breaker as his car was parked on the rod outside.

[Stanley]

Picked the phone up yesterday and it was a helpful young man telling me I may be in for a draw from my mis-sold PPI insurance. He got short shrift of course. I wonder how many people are still falling for this one? I also wondered how many 'jobs' like this have been created by the private sector. Is this the Coalitions route to reducing unemployment? If so that's another cunning wheeze!

[Tizer]

Did anyone hear Paul Lewis and the piece about a man's insurance being cancelled immediately the company found he had flitted to one of their 'no-go' postcodes? It menat he was automatically a law-breaker as his car was parked on the rod outside.

Yes, typical of the cynical way the insurance companies treat their customers these days - sadly, it was Co-op Insurance if I remember correctly. Unfortunately we had a bad experience with the online Co-op Legal Services recently. We thought we were dealing with Co-op - the web site was the Co-op Legal Services site - but they had sub-contracted us to a big legal services company who were very slow, messed us about, and we had to ditch them and go elsewhere. We've been told since that people in the business that the big company has a bad reputation.

[Pluggy]

Picked the phone up yesterday and it was a helpful young man telling me I may be in for a draw from my mis-sold PPI insurance. He got short shrift of course. I wonder how many people are still falling for this one? I also wondered how many 'jobs' like this have been created by the private sector. Is this the Coalitions route to reducing unemployment? If so that's another cunning wheeze!

The TV adverts make a change from the 'ambulance chasers'......

[Stanley]

Have you seen the US research 'proving' that when a message is delivered orally, like a politician making a speech or a voice-over on an advert, the depth and timbre of the voice affect the effectiveness of the message? Remember Maggie going to a voice coach to deepen her voice? Be prepared for a lot of Morgan Freeman type voices! Definitely a cunning wheeze.
Remember the curious 'arms akimbo' stance of Blair and Bush? Someone told them it made them look bigger and more assertive. Same syndrome.

[Tizer]

Another cunning wheeze is running courses to teach people the very methods you are describing!

[Stanley]

You've got to hand it to these 'motivational' and 'presentation' gurus. They are very inventive! I once read a book devoted entirely to methods of delivering subliminal messages by handshake techniques!

[Tizer]

When I worked for large companies I was sent, as a routine, on various courses. We all had to go on them and they were usually beneficial and often helped with day to day life as well as work (e.g. communicating effectively, managing change etc). But one of the courses I didn't like and it offended my principles. The tutor instructed us on how to get away with doing things we weren't supposed to do, how to cover up for mistakes, methods of persuasion and the like. It all seemed very cynical and unethical to me, and a step too far. It's probably no coincidence that this was at the end of the 1980s just as the recession was about to begin, rather like the mid-2000s just before our latest recession. I soon left the company.

[Whyperion]

Funny how employers want you to do one thing for them when representing to clients , yet will take a dim view if you do the same as individual toward the company.

[Stanley]

One fertile area for CW is in the area of issuing complicated H&S policies and instructions but turning a blind eye to breaches where it aids production. When an accident happens it is blamed on the operative because they breached the rules.
Lancashire County Council once did a course for Further Education teachers and it included a lot of esoteric exercises I had met years earlier in some of the dodgier cults in California. It got so bad I blew the whistle on it and stopped teaching in FE. They tell me the courses were given a complete overhaul but I wasn't around to see it. I knew at least one woman who was convinced it caused her divorce. They were meddling with mind-bending techniques that were dangerous and making matters worse by adding their own variations.
The ConDem government is in CW mode at the moment. Privatising bobbies on the beat is one. The latest is to go further in allowing private firms to run the M-way network.

[Tizer]

Stanley, you know I'm non-political, so this question is purely for interest and not mean to be stirring up politics. Why didn't the recent Labour governments put an end to the stamp duty dodge used by rich toffs that cost the UK so much? Surely a Labour government should have ended it and not left it to the Lib-Con gang?

[Stanley]

That would be true if a 'Labour' government had been adhering to 'old-fashioned' socialist principles but I am sad to say those days seem to have gone. That's the reason I am not a member of the Party any longer. They call it progress.

[PanBiker]

Ditto here Stanley. I know one thing when I was involved at Branch, General, Exec and Constituency level. Barlick had a very healthy branch in the scheme of things, we regularly had 30 or more members at monthly meetings at the Weavers on Frank Street. And could turn a decent canvassing and leafleting team out at election time.

I always picture how the room was when I am waiting in the que at the post office. Had some good debates in there, thrashing out resolutions to conference. Past life now but a roller coaster at the time, heady days, younger and still with a spark to change the world.

[Tizer]

People don't seem so fired up about debate these days, possibly because most of them have more food and drink than they need and all the gadgets and electronic gizmos they could ever want. It's the 1984 scenario but it's not the government that sedates us but the food, drink and TV companies!

[Stanley]

The use of a UK company to channel political donations which launders the money. Donations from a non-UK source are illegal of course. Widely used, always denied, a nasty cunning wheeze open only to the most wealthy.

[Tizer]

What's the name of that development agency that's been committing fraud? A name made up of letters if I remember rightly. Must be a Private Eye favourite!

[catgate]

A name made up of letters if I remember rightly.

Well there's a novel approach to lexicography. I hope it catches on.

[Tizer]

I got it wrong anyway Catty - I should have said "made up of letters and numbers" - something like A4U. I'd have thought you would know it, aren't you a Private Eye reader?

[catgate]

I got it wrong anyway Catty - I should have said "made up of letters and numbers" - something like A4U. I'd have thought you would know it, aren't you a Private Eye reader?

I am a P.E. reader, Tizer, but there are so many outfits that fit your description, and they are all up to their armpits in fraud, that picking out just one is fraught with difficulty.

[Tripps]

It's A4e.