Loz

He made one error - confusing 'date rape' and 'statutory rape' which, admittedly, is not good from the justice minister but is hardly to call for his resignation. He got suckered in a bit which, for a politician of his experience, was a bit silly of him. It's interesting that - reading the press - you'd think this was for rape charges only. It's actually being proposed across the board. The irony is that this proposal would save a number of rape victims the trauma of a trial but people do like to let their political whims get in the way of what is a good thing.

kellygirl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > poor woman. she's got a big bush and a sore head > now. She's just not feeling herself, is she?

I think I've seen that DVD, MP. Is that the one where the privet is so overgrown the handyman has to go in really hard with a big chopper?

I'm not the biggest fan of trade unions (understatement...) but a) that doesn't seem like a lot, given the number of people Southwark employ and b) was that amount deducted from salaries anyway?

By the way, don't clear your privet hedge away completely. It's just not a good look at all.

katie1997 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There are so many Guardians left piled up in any > given shop towards the end of the day, I sometimes > wonder if that many people in ED do actually read > it? Seriously. :-S Not so many years ago you couldn't get a Guardian in ED after midday. Daily Telegraphs, on the other hand, were in plentiful supply. All of a sudden, the Gruin was everywhere. I think it is shonky distribution rather than lack of readers.

* falls off chair laughing *

But PR, I'm sure there are lots of people living in Essex who aren't completely vapid, orange tinted types. But they won't be in TOWIE either.

Just let it grow uncontrolled. If anyone wants to get in they can nip in through the rear entrance.

Unless you invested in Northern Rock...

I can see the "Lords and Ladies of Lordship Lane" being a huge hit.

I was surprised the Icelandic song didn't fare a little better. A nice jolly number even though the back-story was rather tragic. Mind you, Iceland winning Eurovision might just finish their economy off completely. I think they dodged a bullet there.

Aw, katienumbers... *blush* :-$

Marmora Man Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I find Loz's argument way more persuavive than > yours on the BA strike. That's because my arguments generally involve putting forward my opinions backed by my view of the facts, with source indicated where I can. TT3's arguments involve lots of Class War 101 type sloganeering with a few very poor attempts at trying to goad people by calling them names, whilst ignoring any attempt at countering any actual arguments, all in a slightly over-excited, hard-to-read writing style. BTW, TT3 - I am in no way connected with BA. Hell, I rarely even fly with them. So, TT3: Are you admitting now the pay deal is not backdated two year, just a few months? And pretty much the same deal was on the table two years ago? And that the BA staff lost nearly a month's pay whilst on strike for absolutely nothing in return?

Gosh TT3 - your writing style has improved! Except the last paragraph, where you seem to have suddenly lurched back to your normal style. Or are you just cutting and pasting BASSA press releases...? Also, why are you continuing to claim the pay rise is backdated 2 years? According to an industry website the deal is: And I never said the deal was 'shoddy' - I actually said you could have had that deal (or even a better one) TWO YEARS AGO! After two years of strikes the union has ended up with the same (or worse) pay deal and all of its demands about the New Fleet and the Mixed Fleet ignored. Not a good result. And a result that may yet still be rejected by the membership. Doubtful, as most CC are sick of the dispute, but possible. If BASSA are in such good health, why was the deal announced (and negotiated) by Unite? Where has BASSA gone? Where has Duncan Holley gone?

I suspect he's probably just doling out 'parking tickets', ojg5000.

thomastillingthe3rd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As for the rest of it There will also be a pay > increase totaling 7.5 percent over two years?4 > percent this year, backdated, and 3.5 percent next > year.....so backdated cancels out the pay freeze. Backdated to 1 Feb 2011... so no, it doesn't cancel out the 2 year pay freeze. In fact, all non-BASSA staff got the same deal last year, so the union has had to do a massive climbdown and it lost the strikers money.

thomastillingthe3rd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A big promotion !!! u don't half make things > up.....he said "travel perks would be re-instated > over his dead body" ....the shareholders made the > call, and Willies dead body got shifted out. When you go from leading BA to leading the company that owns and runs BA and Iberia then that is a big promotion. What else you you call it? Put it this way - I bet he got a payrise. A big one. You can bet Willie Walsh had to sign off this deal as well, since he still effectively runs BA. And whilst the 'dead body' quote is true, I suspect he was playing politics. He wanted to take BASSA down and effectively punishing anyone involved with the union meant that support did not build for strike action. As the strikes continued, less and less CC got involved, leaving only the core troublemakers. I see you've avoided the point about the state BASSA (and to an extent Unite) have ended up in. CC membership through the floor and gone from being the big CC union to a bit-player. Walsh has pretty much destroyed them as a force for cabin crew. > as for reasonable debate, are you seriously asking > us to discuss the line about ....."spending 30% > above your income? " now that belongs in the > lounge son, its a red top catch all with no real > meaning or depth. Erm - you have the wrong poster, TT3. I didn't say that at all.

"What do we want?" "What we've got!" "When do we want it?" "Um - we've got it already." A bit pointless really.

thomastillingthe3rd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 2009 > > Oct 6: BA announces 1,700 cabin crew job cuts and > pay freeze > > Never happened Eh? Cabin Crew have had a pay freeze for the past two years. And cabin crew per flights have been reduced by 1 person from 15 to 14 - the main issue the union fought in the courts and lost. > What did happen was Walsh wanted to break the > union, and then get on with some really deep > cutting, he failed. The offers at the beginning > were never offers just antagonisms i reckon. If that is failure, I'd hate to see him succeed. BASSA is virtually dead - it was notable that the announcement of the agreement was from Unite, not BASSA. And the 'antagonistic' offers two years ago were accepted this week. Walsh has made BASSA look like chumps. He's broken them. Their membership has halved in the last year. Even the much vaunted restoration of travel perks is conditional on successful implementation of new procedures. And your previous post claimed Willie Walsh was 'gone'. Well, he's now running IAG - the parent company of BA. A big promotion.

thomastillingthe3rd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > as for BA > > staff will get a 7.5% payrise over 2years > top up payments for low salary workers > all travel benifits re-instated (backdated) > fmaily and friends still get -10% on travel > > bbc not me. ... which is pretty much what was on the table two years ago. In the meantime, the striking staff have lost a lot of wages, Unite has had its cabin crew membership drop by nearly half, a struggling employer has lost ?150M (which will no doubt mean more layoffs) and the BA cabin crew are at war with each other. BA now have a whole load of trained standby cabin crew, so they are in a much better position to handle any future strike action taking away a lot of union muscle. Also, the original deal included share options - this has been withdraw, so it's arguably a worse offer accepted. Meanwhile, the issue that triggered all this - the Mixed Fleet - will still go ahead as BA planned. The cabin crew numbers on each plane are dropping, as planned. I think when the cabin crew tot up what was gained vs what was lost they will find that they are very much in the red.

StraferJack Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > say what you like about Crow and posturing, but I > would argue his unions members are well served by > him How about the BA cabin crew then? Two years of strikes only to accept pretty much what was offered at the start.

Only on Saturdays

Puppet on a String is one the first songs I can remember due to Dad buying the family a record player for Christmas and one of the album he picked up feature a bunch of British female singers of the time. The other one I remember was Mary Hopkin's "Knock Konck, Who's There", mainly because I thought she sang 'Take off your clothes and come inside" which I found hilarious, as any five year old would. (She actually sang 'coat', which isn't funny at all. My version was much better.)

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think Brotherhood of Man and Bucks Fizz would > disagree there Loz, and Sandie Shaw won it with a > classic (er, didn't she?) You're showing your age, Quids. And, erm, mine... (it was Puppet on a String) Eurovision is a rather different beastie these days. Cheesy, camp Europop is the formula and though the UK excels in cheese and camp is just about every other facet of culture, they just can't get it into their Eurovision songs.