excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Sept 30, 2017 21:30:00 GMT
You'd obviously like to think so, but I have to disappoint you.
Try as you might and you would have difficulty reaching the 'mildly annoying' level.
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Post by aqua on Sept 30, 2017 22:53:17 GMT
In the internal market that has been the civil service for the last 30-odd years, I once put myself forward for a PFI-policy post, for somewhat selfish reasons.
On the way down from Darlington to Euston, my heart kept sinking, till I realised I couldn't possibly do the job.
The interview went as well as could be expected, as the interviewers, as well as I, didn't have the heart for it.
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excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Oct 1, 2017 11:24:21 GMT
I note that the bluarses have plucked £10 billion from their money tree to 'help homebuyers' (well, actually its to keep up property prices).
Contrast this with the £2 billion a year that PFI cost the NHS (about 1.5% of its budget) and you realise that the reason for NHS underfunding is very little to do with its PFI contracts and everything to do with a government that has chosen to starve it of cash.
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Post by aubrey on Oct 23, 2017 19:15:12 GMT
More PFI shenanigans (a Labour Council with a secret deal): Calvin Payne, Sheffield trees campaigner
Two months have passed since Sheffield's Labour council won a High Court injunction against peaceful protesters fighting the felling of thousands of street trees in the city. The injunction prevents people from entering or remaining within work areas on the street but also attempts to restrict online posting on the subject. Since then a growing number of campaigners have been protesting around the terms of the injunction, including breaking the court order. Many protesters have disguised themselves and continued peacefully preventing the felling programme from being carried out. This period has also seen an escalation of oppressive measures against the campaign. Sheffield council has spent thousands of pounds on 'evidence gatherers' who attend protests filming and recording but also following people home from protests, filming people arriving and leaving and monitoring Facebook and Twitter accounts. Recently one of these evidence gatherers made an unfounded accusation of assault which saw a pensioner held in police custody until video footage showed that no such incident occurred. A campaign of direct action has been going on for over two years and, despite 14 arrests and charges, no-one has been convicted of anything as a result. On 27 October myself and others will attend Sheffield Combined Court to hear the latest allegations of injunction breaking against us and have a trial date fixed. Contempt of court carries a prison sentence and our Labour council is requesting this course of action from the court. All of this stems from a secret 25-year £2.2 billion PFI contract between Sheffield council and Amey which has only been seen by a small number of senior officials. We fight on to prevent the ecological destruction but also to end the imposing of such secretive contracts for multinational firms to run public services in Sheffield and across the country.
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jean
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Post by jean on Oct 23, 2017 22:12:49 GMT
Thanks for the update, aubrey.
Exco still thinks there's good PFI and bad PFI - but that's just naive.
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excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Oct 24, 2017 0:07:55 GMT
I shall be attending a PFI built hospital later this week. It was a cramped, crumbling dismal converted workhouse. It is now a superb, stylish building and excellently equipped.
I will enjoy my visit all the more for your disapproval.
According to the Torygraph, PFI - in total - is costing the NHS a massive ...er 1.5% of its annual budget. By all means join the bluarses in talking this up into a problem rather than their underfunding, even though a lower estimate puts it at 0.75%. You should have spent more time studying arithmetic than obsessing over dead languages. Its a huge aid to seeing things in their proper perspective.
Not my fault if the Sheffield council have stuck their heads into a noose either. If they hadn't had PFI to do it with, they'd probably have found something else.
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jean
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Post by jean on Oct 24, 2017 8:34:12 GMT
Not my fault if the Sheffield council have stuck their heads into a noose either. If they hadn't had PFI to do it with, they'd probably have found something else. Not your fault. But you might reflect on your complacency in the face of the sort of municipal hegemony FPTP hands to Labour in cities like Sheffield, and Liverpool. In both cities, as in other Labour strongholds, it's only the presence of a few Green councillors like Calvin Payne (see above) and Alison Teal that offers any check at all to their behaviour. (Though after yesterday's news, the protesters may not be quite so delighted that their MP, Jared O'Mara, decided to join them.)
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excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Oct 24, 2017 8:52:23 GMT
The green councillors - or would be councillors - are not noticeably any more intelligent than any other councillors, sadly.
Just like the rest, they are just great at pointing out other councillors' foolishness. Less good at pointing out their own.
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jean
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Post by jean on Oct 24, 2017 9:11:45 GMT
Which foolishness on their part would you like to draw our attention to, exco?
But you're missing the point - which is that FPTP delivers huge majorities that enable the winners to prosecute any foolishness they may have a mind to without let or hindrance.
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excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Oct 24, 2017 9:27:59 GMT
None.
I am very happy to let them continue to entertain us!
You may, by the by, be interested - regarding the party's commitment to "Giving a voice to animals" - that in chatting to our postman, he thinks that as 90% of his daily load is junk mail, the days of the postman are limited. This will be a huge relief to the canine community which seems to have powerful aversion to these people. Perhaps you might like to point this out at the next party conference?
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excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Oct 24, 2017 9:29:09 GMT
I think PR or whatever it is you favour, would probably let even more nutters in.
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Post by aubrey on Oct 24, 2017 10:20:17 GMT
You think the present Tory Govt are not "nutters"? That's what FPTP has got us, with little or no brake on their rush to disaster.
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jean
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Post by jean on Oct 25, 2017 7:44:49 GMT
I shall be attending a PFI built hospital later this week...It is now a superb, stylish building and excellently equipped. I'm sure it looks lovely. They will have found less visible ways of reducing their costs, like the company that built schools in Knowsley.I expect you heard on this morning's news how the requirement to fit sprinkler systems in new schools has been quietly dropped altogether. In whose interest was such a change, do you suppose?
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excoriator
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Post by excoriator on Oct 25, 2017 8:32:18 GMT
The PFI companies of course. The less expensive a building is the less they can charge ...
No that doesn't work does it! You'll have to tell us.
Actually, I can't see it saving anyone a lot of money in a new build. The cost of adding it at that stage would be negligible. Retrofitting it in an old school would probably be a lot trickier, more expensive and disruptive.
By a coincidence, I have a friend who is planning to refit a flat for his daughter. What they want to do has run into problems regarding fire regulations, and implementing the necessary fire breaks would have ruined the plan. I suggested a sprinkler system which up to then had not been discussed, and this allowed them the freedom to stick to their original design. As fairly major work was to be done anyway, adding the sprinkler system is not at all expensive, and will cost little more than the pint he bought me for suggesting it. I think he had to get an expert - I think he came from the local Fire Brigade - to tell him where to put the sprinklers, although that seemed to be more or less common sense.
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Post by aubrey on Oct 25, 2017 9:57:30 GMT
You don't think cutting costs mean they charge less, do you?
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