Re UK gone Mad Worst than I thought! (1 Viewer)

[chaser]

Chaser, beg to differ.
It is a slow day here (heavy night yesterday) so I looked at this lot
https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers.
Not particularly impressed with many of them but that wasn't my point. We could all do it if we could be bothered.

I don't want to get started about this but looked at the first 6 on your list and give up all done nowt but government or "consultery" jobs whatever that means when they havnt done anything to consult on.
But do take your other point , anyone could do it but you've got to get past this clique first and you have got to find a lot of money and time, which is very hard when you are up against this lot that just swan in on family money and not what you know but who

 

[chaser]

Look at this one now I thought this bloke looked as if he had done something else, Eric pickles

Quote
He worked as a consultant in employment practice and as Local Government Editor for Conservative Newsline before becoming an MP in 1992. He is a trustee of 2 local charities - Brentwood Foyer and Brentwood Theatre.

 

[chaser]

Can't believe it, it's worse than I ever thought looking at your link, I have found one that worked in agriculture and in the mines in Cannock, can't think of his name , think he's transport minister, the rest mostly consultants and managers , how do they get to be managers when they've done nowt else

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[New Dawn]

But as said earlier, it's us the public, who vote these idiots in. Once in, they are a law to themselves. They don't listen. Claim Expenses. Pay Rises. Second Homes. They don't give a shit. Fair game. "The sick." "The disabled." " Pensioners." Taxes. "To many to write". What would happen if No-One voted ??? Oh sod it. Going for a beer (if it hasn't gone up).

 

[phase3begins]

This is fun

 

[chaser]

It is Not going to comment anymore, it's one of the things that really make me mad, and it's to nice a day to worry, cause we are never going to change it and at my age it's not going to make a lot of difference to me but you have to wonder where it's all going to end

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[JJ]

Well... the world is so full of disasters these days.

A passenger plane is shot down killing all the passengers and crew.

Bombs rain down on children on each side in the Israel/Gaza conflict.

Ebola spreads through West Africa.

Over 650 people are arrested in connection with child abuse.

Parcels fail to get delivered in the way they used to.

Would a doorbell that could be heard in the garden help the parcel delivery problem?

I suspect the rest might be a tad more difficult to solve.

JJ

 

[buttons]

Look at this one now I thought this bloke looked as if he had done something else, Eric pickles

Quote
He worked as a consultant in employment practice and as Local Government Editor for Conservative Newsline before becoming an MP in 1992. He is a trustee of 2 local charities - Brentwood Foyer and Brentwood Theatre.

Great little theatre I used to see a lady from Brentwood a real Essex girl, the Theatre was a regular night out. I think the last show we went to before we parted was Chas and Dave........dont knock it until you have tried it.

 

[Viennese]

We should take Peter Finch's line out of 'Network' -

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore"

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[pendy]

You need to take a leaf from our book!!
the council decided (without consultation or consideration) that they would (in their infinite wisdom) stop collecting our garden waste??
If you want it collected you need to buy a wheelie bin and pay to have it emptied every 2 weeks! alternatively you can take it to your local council tip and queue to dump it in the required receptacle, get stuffed we said and as a whole street bagged it and put it out on the grass verge for the usual collection.
Guess what the council did next?
They paid for an extra crew (with an empty 7.5 ton lorry) to put a nice Yellow sticker on each bag explaining why they could not take it away!!
The answer was LEAVE IT WHERE IT WAS eventually there was so many bags they had no choice but to clear it , the process is now under review.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!

 

[magicsurfbus]

I am just surprised that the Royal Mail can still provide the Universal Service at all.

Email, instant messaging, fax, online billing, online banking, file swapping services etc etc etc have pretty much killed the daily income the Royal Mail received. Parcel Farce struggled with the competition.

The bloke at my local Post Office told me the other day that Parcel Force is still Post Office owned - it's Royal Mail that were privatised for peanuts by Vince Cable. They're two separate organisations. Parcel Force can still leave parcels at the local PO branch for collection, whereas Royal Mail take it to their nearest sorting office. Trouble is, Parcel Force only come into their own with packages of 5kgs or above - below that Royal Mail are cheaper. What would be interesting is if Parcel Force started handling smaller packages.

I would imagine the huge expansion of online shopping, especially Amazon and eBay have been a major boost for Royal Mail in recent years. The fact that their pricing structure for 1-2Kg parcels has been tweaked so often would suggest they're responding to the online seller market. Did you know for example that Royal Mail's price for a 1-2kg parcel has actually dropped by £1.80 this year to fend off competition from other couriers? All the other prices increased or remained the same.

Maybe there's still some hope for salvation from the rising tide of collective non-delivery insanity that is threatening to engulf us all.

 

[mariner]

The OP complained that each different post person could not find his property.

One question, does he have the house number clearly visible from the road?

Number not name!

Many villages stretch along a road sometimes for miles with nothing visible from the road t0 indicate the house number.

Millions of man hours are lost each year with people looking for the right house, simply because the owner can't be arsed to ensure their number is clearly visible from the road.

Just because you know where you live doesn't mean that everyone else does.

In some countries every house has to have a clearly visible number and to not have one is an offence. (So emergency services can quickly find your property)

Many countries postal services do not do rural deliveries and the post has to be collected from the local post office, which can be many miles away.

So maybe the OP could be partly responsible for the poor postal service.

Just an observation.

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[Wildman]

It is the attitude of public servants that get to me. Yesterday a police car came into my site, I spotted them from the other side of the field so drove across and followed them up the road to ask what they wanted. They were so indignant that I had the temerity to ask. It eventually came out that they were attending an accident and had pulled in to put an accident sign outside of the campsite. (I missed it on my way out as they had placed it on the blind side of my camping sign) Post turns up for princess rather than queens Avenue, my own post sent to Princess Ave never gets returned, post arrives soaking wet or chucked on the path outside of the house. Damn near every day the postman use the communal entrances to transverse the adjacent buildings and leave doors open. They also drop their red rubber bands on the path for dogs to eat and thence suffer stomach strangulation problems despite being told repeatedly. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[callumwa]

The OP complained that each different post person could not find his property.

One question, does he have the house number clearly visible from the road?

Number not name!

Many villages stretch along a road sometimes for miles with nothing visible from the road t0 indicate the house number.

Millions of man hours are lost each year with people looking for the right house, simply because the owner can't be arsed to ensure their number is clearly visible from the road.

Just because you know where you live doesn't mean that everyone else does.

In some countries every house has to have a clearly visible number and to not have one is an offence. (So emergency services can quickly find your property)

Many countries postal services do not do rural deliveries and the post has to be collected from the local post office, which can be many miles away.

So maybe the OP could be partly responsible for the poor postal service.

Just an observation.

Some houses do not have numbers.

When I lived in a little village in South Glos, the cottage only had a name, no number, in fact it never ever had a number which was confirmed at Land registry. However it had the same name for over 200 years. It was the same for almost all the properties around the village green.
We had a clear name plaque at the end of the drive. never had a problem with Post or other deliveries.

We did put an outdoor bell at the back of the house which was linked to the front door bell, so you could hear if you were in the back garden, or the garage which was also at the back of the cottage.

 

[buttons]

Some houses do not have numbers.

When I lived in a little village in South Glos, the cottage only had a name, no number, in fact it never ever had a number which was confirmed at Land registry. However it had the same name for over 200 years. It was the same for almost all the properties around the village green.
We had a clear name plaque at the end of the drive. never had a problem with Post or other deliveries.

We did put an outdoor bell at the back of the house which was linked to the front door bell, so you could hear if you were in the back garden, or the garage which was also at the back of the cottage.

Sorry callumwa couldn't disagree more. I dont know if you have ever visited an address without a number just having a name.. Without a point of reference in a long road where do you start? House name only is just snobbery gone wild. Some named home owners get the hump when asked what number they live at.
The village postal service is not like it used to be where you had the same postie for ten years. Postmen now have to work for their living with weight in their bag rather than roads with or without mail. Have a house name by all means but have a number as well.

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[callumwa]

Sorry callumwa couldn't disagree more. I dont know if you have ever visited an address without a number just having a name.. Without a point of reference in a long road where do you start? House name only is just snobbery gone wild. Some named home owners get the hump when asked what number they live at.
The village postal service is not like it used to be where you had the same postie for ten years. Postmen now have to work for their living with weight in their bag rather than roads with or without mail. Have a house name by all means but have a number as well.

Never mind visited, I bought one....

The road in question is about 150 m long with about 20 houses, none with numbers, but all clearly named. When we went to view this cottage before buying it, having never been there before, we found it in less than 30 seconds and that was pre GPS.

Houses were built around the village Green over centuries without any real planning regulation. That was life in the countryside. If you go to the Land Registry all the properties there are listed by name. There are no numbers, and it's nothing to do with the existing residents.
It's not like a modern estate where they houses were all built at the same time and allocated numbering by the local authorities.

In old Villages such as where I used to live, numbers could certainly be issued, and I would not be averse to that, but that would have to be done by the local authority, who probably have neither the resources or the inclination.
(all the houses I lived in whilst in Watford and Bushey did have numbers by the way)

Numbers though are not always the be all and end all. I have a friend who lives on a street called Mardsen Lane, she regularly gets mail for the house with the same number on Marsden Road which is a quarter of a mile away, and they regularly get hers.

 

[mariner]

Sorry callumwa couldn't disagree more. I dont know if you have ever visited an address without a number just having a name.. Without a point of reference in a long road where do you start? House name only is just snobbery gone wild. Some named home owners get the hump when asked what number they live at.
The village postal service is not like it used to be where you had the same postie for ten years. Postmen now have to work for their living with weight in their bag rather than roads with or without mail. Have a house name by all means but have a number as well.

Having spent a lot of extremely annoying and wasted time, in past jobs, looking for houses in rural areas I couldn't agree more.

 

[Forestboy]

Sorry callumwa couldn't disagree more . House name only is just snobbery gone wild. Some named home owners get the hump when asked what number

Well I've read some rubbish on here over the years but that statement is up there at the top.

Lived in rural countryside all my life in about 6 different homes and only one has ever had a number. The rest were all named not because I'm a snob but had always been named. My new house I built last year is also named as are all the houses in the road .
Thank God I'm off too Brighton for the weekend in a few more hours, hopefully no wifi so I won't be tempted to read anymore.

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[buttons]

Well I've read some rubbish on here over the years but that statement is up there at the top.

Lived in rural countryside all my life in about 6 different homes and only one has ever had a number. The rest were all named not because I'm a snob but had always been named. My new house I built last year is also named as are all the houses in the road .
Thank God I'm off too Brighton for the weekend in a few more hours, hopefully no wifi so I won't be tempted to read anymore.

Sounds just a tad snobish to me FB what other reason could anyone have not to have a number on their gate. Call your house whatever you like but put a number on your gate as a point of referance for others.

 

[chaser]

So what number shall I use , will I have to count all the houses between me and uttoxeter as that is the nearest place with numbers, about 4 mile, then put that number above the name on the wall, what will that mean to postie

 

[daisy mae]

My house has a name plaque no number, it was the first cottage on this lane ,

I do not have a gate, snobbish , what others think is not relevant to me.

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[callumwa]

Sounds just a tad snobish to me FB what other reason could anyone have not to have a number on their gate. Call your house whatever you like but put a number on your gate as a point of referance for others.

No reason not to add a number, if one actually existed.
However how would you decide which number to use if none exist? Could you just pick your favourite number?

The Land Registry have no numbers recorded for these properties, as they have never ever had one, some go back centuries.
The Electoral Roll has no numbers either for these properties, only names.
Sat Navs do not use numbers as there aren't any.

At which end of the 5 mile country lane should the numbers start, would the numbers be consecutive, or alternating in odds and evens depending on the side of the lane, and who has the power to decide?

Sound like this has the potential for the creation of a new Labour style non-job...
Let's make a Commissioner for the numbering of properties in Rural UK and waste lots of tax payers money for a job that does not need doing.

 

[oldun]

We have become a country where service to the public, for example our utilities, are sold off, in the case of "Royal Mail" far too cheaply.
My Postman/woman changes all the time a different person almost daily, often my mail isn't delivered because they can't find my house, a total of 35 houses in the village. The post comes at a different time daily from 10.30am until (I kid you not) 3.30pm, this morning it was 12.45pm according to the card that was left.
A package wasn't delivered because it has to be signed for, my neighbour would have signed but wasn't asked, I was round the back in my garden!

The local Post Office has closed and there is an "office" in Costcutter.
The Package will not be delivered again, however after 6 hours it can be collected from the post office in my nearest town a return trip 0f 32 miles, the buses stopped running 15 years ago. I can pay a 75p handling charge to have it redelivered next Thursday 24th July or 75p to have it sent to the local office in costcutter again on 24th July.

We pay a fortune in Government Taxes, directly and indirect in VAT for example, and we pay a fortune in local taxes, yet the services shrink further every year. The bins, parks, buses, road maintenance, water, gas, electricity to name a few, the list seems endless, are all privatised. The giant power companies are being investigated cos they are suspected of running a price fixing cartel, like doh, what did you expect them to do?

I'll end the rant here cos I could go on and on with example after example, but I have to say I'm so bloody sick of it. We the public have become the fat cow that can be milked till there's nothing left.

But is it the fault of privatisation or just modern business practices? Have experienced local government services that you expect to receive when (say) moving house? In my case the service we received was absolutely abysmal.

Those of us that are old enough to remember wholesale nationalisation are not so keen to return to those appalling days.

It seems to me that service from the private and nationalised sector is often very bad.

 

[mariner]

But is it the fault of privatisation or just modern business practices? Have experienced local government services that you expect to receive when (say) moving house? In my case the service we received was absolutely abysmal.

Those of us that are old enough to remember wholesale nationalisation are not so keen to return to those appalling days.

It seems to me that service from the private and nationalised sector is often very bad.

Strange but true. East coast Rail was Re-nationlised in 2009 when National Express (Private) could not make it pay and withdrew finance.
Apparently, not only has the service improved, it also makes a profit for the tax payer, instead of, I assume, needing the massive government subsidies private rail operators enjoy.
Talk was of keeping in the Public sector, but that is against all Conservative principles and so it is set to be re-franchised at the end of next year.
Who says public sector operations can't make money?
I understand that Royal Mail was in profit before it was sold off for a fraction of it's real value.

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[mariner]

Strange but true. East coast Rail was Re-nationlised in 2009 when National Express (Private) could not make it pay and withdrew finance.
Apparently, not only has the service improved, it also makes a profit for the tax payer, instead of, I assume, needing the massive government subsidies private rail operators enjoy.
Talk was of keeping in the Public sector, but that is against all Conservative principles and so it is set to be re-franchised at the end of next year.
Who says public sector operations can't make money?
I understand that Royal Mail was in profit before it was sold off for a fraction of it's real value.

 

[dryad]

the village where i live has a road, close, court all with the same name, getting mail delivered to the correct one has always been hit and miss, but strange how my bills always find their way here..

 

[kglblue]

Just got some mail that should have been delivered in July, but it went to the wrong house, a holiday let that was unoccupied, hence I got it at ten past two this afternoon!!

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[tonyidle]

You need to take a leaf from our book!!
the council decided (without consultation or consideration) that they would (in their infinite wisdom) stop collecting our garden waste??
If you want it collected you need to buy a wheelie bin and pay to have it emptied every 2 weeks! alternatively you can take it to your local council tip and queue to dump it in the required receptacle, get stuffed we said and as a whole street bagged it and put it out on the grass verge for the usual collection.
Guess what the council did next?
They paid for an extra crew (with an empty 7.5 ton lorry) to put a nice Yellow sticker on each bag explaining why they could not take it away!!
The answer was LEAVE IT WHERE IT WAS eventually there was so many bags they had no choice but to clear it , the process is now under review.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!

Why not simply compost it? Why should anyone else pay for collection of waste that you can't be bothered to recycle?

 

[pappajohn]

I watched or postman, from the landing window, pull into the drive and get out his van with a pre written 'nobody home' card and put it on the porch table.

Quicker than opening the vans rear door, lifting out the parcel, ringing the bell and waiting for an answer.

He didnt know which way to look when i called down to him "oi ! We are in and im coming down now".

 

[dryad]

We have become a country where service to the public, for example our utilities, are sold off, in the case of "Royal Mail" far too cheaply.
My Postman/woman changes all the time a different person almost daily, often my mail isn't delivered because they can't find my house, a total of 35 houses in the village. The post comes at a different time daily from 10.30am until (I kid you not) 3.30pm, this morning it was 12.45pm according to the card that was left.
A package wasn't delivered because it has to be signed for, my neighbour would have signed but wasn't asked, I was round the back in my garden!

The local Post Office has closed and there is an "office" in Costcutter.
The Package will not be delivered again, however after 6 hours it can be collected from the post office in my nearest town a return trip 0f 32 miles, the buses stopped running 15 years ago. I can pay a 75p handling charge to have it redelivered next Thursday 24th July or 75p to have it sent to the local office in costcutter again on 24th July.

.

just remembered an incident a couple of years ago when the postman popped a card through the door for me to collect (or have redelivered) a letter that needed signing for. i was home at the time, heard the knock, but wasn't quite quick enough off my feet to answer the door before he'd buggered off, the card must have been already written out before he arrived and then just dated and timed because although i'm slow, i ain't that blessed slow..

so the following day i popped into the local office to pick it up, 'tis only manned for a couple of hours in the morning although the post office is open all day, and then had to pay £1.50 before they handed it over to me!!

it turned out to be junk mail!!!!!

the next time that it happened i asked to see what it was before i paid, they wouldn't allow that so i walked out and left it, i know that they send mail back to sender anyway (or should) so figured that whoever it was that sent it would contact me again..

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