Those Frenchies certainly think up ingenious ways to stage a protest.
PARIS (Reuters) - Almost half of French people believe it is acceptable for workers facing layoffs to lock up their bosses, according to an opinion poll published Tuesday.
Staff at French plants run by Sony, 3M and Caterpillar have held managers inside the factories overnight, in three separate incidents, to demand better layoff terms -- a new form of labour action dubbed "bossnapping" by the media.
Perhaps we could try this to ram some fucking morals into our MPs. The question is, which of the slimy troughers would be first for the hood and the rope?
Following receipt of a steaming pile of lying horseshit over a previous Number 10 e-petition, it seemed worth vainly trying to submit one myself. It went a bit like this:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to:
cease the practice of e-petitions on the Number 10 web-site as they are wasteful of taxpayers' resources which provide no added value to the democratic process and raise vain hope of a solution.
Having received yet another number 10 response which ignores the valid grievance contained in the petition, it is quite clear that number 10 e-petitions are not fit for purpose, and that the entire futile exercise should be scrapped.
The e-petitions site wastes taxpayers' funds in two ways. 1) by the allocation of government money to those who administer them, which is exacerbated by 2) only agreeing with petitions which correspond with the government's own policy, thereby adding no value whatsoever to the democratic process.
Additionally, they are a drag on the productivity of the country as many man hours are spent vainly petitioning where there is no realistic chance of a positive response, whilst there are simultaneously many more productive ways of engaging with politicians which should be encouraged instead.
The petitions are censorial (requiring government approval first), and are certain not to influence government policy. The undersigned call on the government to either take these petitions seriously, or cease pretending that there is any possible meaningful result to be aspired to by becoming a signatory.
As expected, the rejection arrived today.
Hi,
How very chatty.
I'm sorry to inform you that your petition has been rejected. Your petition was classed as being in the following categories:
* Issues for which an e-petition is not the appropriate channel
Which begs the question. Which is the appropriate channel? The rejected petition did touch on such with "there are simultaneously many more productive ways of engaging with politicians which should be encouraged instead."
Is this subtle confirmation that, as I espoused, if one wishes to influence the way Labour engage with the electorate, the Number 10 petitions site is not the place to do it?
One can only surmise that my original headline was entirely correct. "Time to consign Number 10 e-petitions to the nearest sewer".
They are, quite simply, donkey cock. A pointless use of your time. An exercise in futility. A waste of public money in order to fulfil one simple purpose, the furtherance of government propaganda.
Don't be taken in, the Number 10 e-petitions site is a con job.
UPDATE: I can't wait to read the rejection message for this petition on the National Speed Limit reduction. Over 20,000 sigs so far. Reckon Number 10 will listen? Pffft.
Some of the hectoring bully boys/girls in the NHS will be a trifle worried today after the DoH published its latest drive for aryan-like purity. Hunters are becoming the hunted.
Ministers tell fat NHS staff to lose weight
Overweight NHS staff are being urged to adopt healthier lifestyles and lose excess pounds to help set an example to their patients.
Ministers want overweight staff who are delivering key public health messages to enrol in weight loss programmes to shed excess pounds.
'Of the 1.2 million staff in the NHS, it is likely that around 300,000 would be classified as obese and a further 400,000 as overweight.'
The advice is being targeted initially at nurses, midwives and health visitors, but it would be hypocritical not to extend that further in the health system, wouldn't it?
But then again, how can that be possible seeing as the Chief Medical Dictator, that odious cockmonger Liam Donaldson, is severely overweight? Some insensitive types might even term him 'clinically obese'.
One would assume that, in clinically obese Liam's position, he would have had some input into the Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: One Year On guidelines.
The report said it was these health leaders who set an example to patients through their behaviour and lifestyles.
Programmes will be developed over the next year to support NHS staff in maintaining and achieving a healthy weight.
Fucking hell, Liam! You'd better get on the phone to Ryvita sharpish, a couple of industrial pallets should be enough to satisfy your weekly gluttony. If that doesn't work, drop me a line, perhaps I could help by cutting out your oesophagus with a rusty hacksaw so you can only ingest your five a day as smoothies through a C-diff infected tube.
It's OK, I'm only joking. It's not going to happen really ... lardy Liam won't be advocating health advice which he has to follow himself any time soon, the hideous cunt.
You must surely have seen the HSE 'Shattered Lives' campaign adverts. In the current financial climate, it's only the public sector who have the money to pepper the media with any ads at all. Don't worry though, fellow taxpayers, the upside is that supply and demand have dictated that such ads are a lot cheaper than they were in the boom years. Not that our money is being saved, of course, it just means the hectoring is increased as government spending power increasingly dwarfs that of the more responsible private sector (government budgets must be spent after all, or else they aren't replaced next year).
When Dave Mison first moved to Horseman Court in Martlesham two years ago, it was a lonely, soulless place, so together with a few other residents, he decided to set up the Horseman Court Tenants Association.
Since then neighbours have gathered together to enjoy parties on special occasions, coffee mornings and fundraising events.
One of the residents, known as Bling to his friends, saved his pension and bought a patio set and sunshade to put outside his window so that all the residents could get together for tea or coffee in the afternoon.
Mr Mison, chairman of the tenants association, said: “When I moved to here, the neighbourhood was a very lonely place. Myself and two other neighbours put about changing this by forming a tenants association. Our little community has grown and real friendships have been made. It is a very nice place to live now.
“As everyone's flat is too small, we like to conjugate outside. There is nowhere else to sit and chat with each other. We all feel it would be sad to lose our sense of community.”
Asha Baldwin, area housing manager from Sanctuary Hereward Housing, said: “The safety of our residents is paramount which is why we have asked some of them to remove personal property from communal areas in Horseman Court as they pose a potential hazard to other residents."
One cannot blame the housing association here. They are stymied by an overbearing authority who are backing up their advisory 'carrot' adverts with the big stick of a ramping up of inspections.
What else can be done by a business except tick the boxes to avoid a potentially devastating financial penalty?
Much of the day to day running of businesses is taken up with this type of bullshit. Red tape has never been more crimson. Government and local authorities have never been so impenetrable to common sense.
What is routinely forgotten is the people whose lives are affected by it all. The Horseman Court experience is just one of many. Their community is being destroyed by petty nannyism on the pretext that someone might be saved from tripping over a plastic chair.
Shattering lives? There is none so guilty as the HSE.
Labour Home is getting all hot under the collar today about Dan Hannan's rising popularity. Since his YouTube assassination of Brown at the EU Parliament, Hannan is now a Labour attack dog target, it seems.
NHS a 60 year mistake says top Tory
Dan Hannan MEP (remember him?), has been on Fox News this week (with the ever repugnant extreme right-winger Sean Hannity no less) espousing his belief that America shouldn't follow British-style "socialised medicine" as it's such a 'failure' over here:
Recess Monkey links with a damning commentary too ...
He follows it up with a series of outright lies.
... but doesn't, unfortunately, attempt to point out where, exactly, the lies in Hannan's comments are, or to attempt to provide proof.
“We’ve lived through this mistake; we’ve lived through this mistake for 60 years now… the reality is it hasn’t worked. It’s made people iller. We spend a lot of money and we get very bad results, you look at survival rates for cancer or for heart disease we are well down on all the leagues. We have very few Doctors. We disincentivise people from practising medicine in this country. A lot of our best and brightest Doctors emigrate. A lot of them go to North America because there’s no market.”
It's quite amusing that, despite all this bluster, a few Labour Home commenters opine that they think Hannan has a point, and as such there is some helpful debate on what could be made better. Which sort of confirms that Hannan was right to raise the issue.
The opposing views merely centre on the fact that the NHS is great and to back away, there is nothing to see here, the debate is over, evidence is overwhelming etc.
One commenter thinks this is a way of finally gaining revenge on the treacherous Hannan.
I think we should try to ensure this video gets as many hits as the other one :-) What say you, comrades?
Although not a 'comrade' myself, I say let it rip. The delusion of Labour supporters in believing that Hannan's words will not find resonance amongst a populace who read of daily NHS fuck ups says a lot. Spread the vid around and it could increase his stock even further.
In fact, I'll do it for them. Here you go.
Everything Hannan said about the G20 made sense too, by the way.
Credit where credit's due. The above wise man has struck a rare blow for common sense in dismissing a compensation claim against a 13 year old playing tag in a playground.
Boisterous school playground games have been given the all-clear by senior judges who threw out a claim by a dinner lady badly injured by a boy playing tag. Lord Justice Waller, one of three judges who heard the case at the Court of Appeal, said: 'Thirteen-year-old boys will be 13-year-old boys who will play tag.'
... dismissing Mrs Orchard's appeal, [he] said he felt sympathy for her but the boys playing tag were not breaking any rules and should not be held liable for the accident. 'Parents and schools are there to control children and it would be a retrograde step to visit liability on a 13-year-old for simply playing a game in the area where he was allowed to do so.'
Your honour, we salute you. Could you also now explain this sage outlook on life to others in your profession, please?
