macroban

The original assertion was that NHS staff take more fraudulent sick days ("sickies") than private sector workers. ????'s new question to help move this discussion forward is "Does the Pub. S take more sickness than the Private?". This is not a neutral question but incorporates a rhetorical device. I could rephrase the question: "Do private sector workers take less days off sick than public sector workers?". I'm with ???? in his call for clarity, but the problem is that we have not yet seen any reliable private sector data from payroll sources.

I hold to my stance that one should watch the Gilts market for future trends in interest rates. This despite it now being a distorted market due to QE and BoE buy-backs. There is an assumption going the rounds that we are on the down-leg of another recessionary cycle. I am scratching my head trying to identify any sort of evidence that this is not a permanent step-change-down in economic activity.

I had spotted that the ?30,000 was an arbitary figure pulled out of the air in the attempt to support an argument. The also arbitary and speculative pension pot of ?500,000 said to be out of reach of all but mega earners anounts to ?143.73 per week after tax-relief over a 40 year working life. I have no objections to the private sector middle management middle class of SE22 making the life-style choice of spending this amount on things such as alcohol and eating out. The details of the current HNS pension scheme are here. To get a 75% pension as quoted by ???? you would need to be in the scheme for 45 years before the age of 75.

Median pay data for NHS staff can be had here. Pulling a pension of ?30k pa out of the air for a comparison is a bit rich. Perhaps ???? could point out how many NHS staff would achieve this level of pension if they had 40 years unbroken service.

Puzzled. Staff were TUPE'd in June 2009 but didn't know about it?

> it does have to be down to one of those three things Not so if the data are non-comparable.

Well called, ????. And it seems like Rebecca Smith is an innumerate and sloppy journalist too.

> Macroban - Why a vested interest? What do CIPD members sell in the way of expensive consultancy?

The private sector statistic of "6.4 days" used to calculate the alleged 55% deviance looks suspect to me. The source is given on page 27 of the NHS Health and Wellbeing Interim Report as "the most recent absence management survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)." So we have the NHS data from real staff absence records and "private sector" data from a vested interest survey of unknown scope and accuracy. Looks like chasing shadows to me.

The Times article does NOT say NHS staff "throw 50% more sickies".

The good thing about PayPal is that you can make anonymous donations.

In these circumstances Ofsted can issue a temporary license pending a registration.

Nowt to do with me.

The Teachers? Pension Scheme: I went through several years of accounts before posting. None of those years showed a surplus. Perhaps I didn't go far enough back. In which year was the Scheme last in surplus? No more than a back of an envelope calculation (and I claim no more): If each not yet retired member of the Scheme had made an additional pension contribution of about ?25k on 31 March 2008 this would have been sufficient to extinguish the deficit. "A very small amount [...]". It will be interesting to see the Scheme surplus at 31 March 2009 when the accounts are published.

Bellpepper's way of managing a single running thread works well.

> near Brixton tube. The Ryanair degree of nearness.

The Government Actuary thinks "The Teachers? Pension Scheme is an unfunded defined benefits scheme." At 31 March 2008 it had a deficit of ?176.5m. Official accounts here.

Not 240.

Thanks for identifying the sites of some of the World War II water-tanks. I believe these water-tanks were lined with bitumen to keep the water in. I wonder if any home-owners of post-war houses built on the water-tank sites have rising damp problems.

LuLu Too, did you click-through and view the masterpieces of modern art that Southwark Council owns on our behalf? The only rational conclusion is that these works of art should be sold off and the funds raised put to something useful like reinstating the children's toilets on Goose Green.

Straight to the Lounge to save Admin the bother. Feast your eyes on this junk owned by Southwark Council.

Was that a deliberate attempt of obfuscation by conflation? I am specifically writing about ~corruption~, that is where one or more parties holds public office. Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 1 (1) Corruption in office a misdemeanor. Every person who shall by himself or by or in conjunction with any other person, corruptly solicit or receive, or agree to receive, for himself, or for any other person, any gift, loan, fee, reward, or advantage whatever as an inducement to, or reward for, or otherwise on account of any member, officer, or servant of a public body as in this Act defined, doing or forbearing to do anything in respect of any matter or transaction whatsoever, actual or proposed, in which the said public body is concerned, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. 1 (2) Every person who shall by himself or by or in conjunction with any other person corruptly give, promise, or offer any gift, loan, fee, reward, or advantage whatsoever to any person, whether for the benefit of that person or of another person, as an inducement to or reward for or otherwise on account of any member, officer, or servant of any public body as in this Act defined, doing or forbearing to do anything in respect of any matter or transaction whatsoever, actual or proposed, in which such public body as aforesaid is concerned, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Bermuda Triangle.

bigbadwolf, Thank you for reminding me of visiting a hospital ward with two regimented rows of iron-lung machines. MacRoban

The clamp down on Turks & Caicos does not surprise me. It's a matter of "leakage" to not our kind of people. Now Huguenot's ex-cathedra pontifications have been demolished by HAL9000 I'd like to reflect on how examples of this pervasive corruption might exist in our local community.