wrighty

Not the Nine O'clock News? I'm sure they did something like this.

Operating System 2 - the successor to DOS, I recall. But Windows came in and it never took off.

I don't think EVs are a good choice yet. Aside from the costs (monetary and environmental) of lithium battery production and recycling/disposal, electricity production is not exactly green in itself. A clean, modern, efficient petrol engine is my preference. It can certainly be as green as a hybrid, depending on how you drive it. Top Gear proved that years ago with a Prius vs an M3. Dave has a point, although perhaps could be less on the offensive when making it.

They're probably auto-corrects. But I agree - annoying that people don't check.

I got the hint from the TV show that communication and timings might be the issue. You know what it's like - you're buying some crap online, put your card details in, and the connection drops out halfway through the transaction. Do you try again, and worry you'll get charged twice? And 20-odd years ago when this stuff was going down they were probably on dial-up or ISDN lines that were far less reliable than today's internet. I'm making the next bit up, but it might be plausible. If Horizon got the message that you'd sold a packet of stamps, but missed the message that you'd taken £3.50 on a credit card, at the end of the day you'd be short by £3.50, and Horizon assumed you'd put the cash in your pocket. Perhaps that's how it went wrong? Alternatively, bugs in the software put credits in the debit column - the bit where the debt doubled with a few clicks smacks of something like that. The fundamental issue here is the belief in the infallibility of the system by people that had no idea how it worked. Why they assumed that Fujitsu couldn't have made mistakes but thousands of postmasters were on the take is beyond me.

Or they should have just stuck tyres on the wheels and ditched the rails altogether.

18 years ago I started and was a member for 2-3 years. No idea how long after that it continued.

I certainly don't know about an NSC discount scheme for government workers. I remember the resident discount cards years ago. There used to be a Mount Murray gym membership discount for those of us working at the hospital, don't know if it extended to the whole of government though.

Simplify! Combine tax and NI, and charge it on all income - earned and unearned, pre- and post-retirement.

Tax the electric? We’re meant to be incentivising EV usage, this could be one way of doing so. And then when everyone has one, put the price of the leccy up.

Why should they pay at all? As long as they’re not abandoned in public places, and there are better ways of dealing with that than charging for a license, which doesn’t seem to work in that regard anyway.

Why can't they just stick the tax on fuel? Then there's no avoiding it, and the cars that give out the most emissions pay more (simple chemistry - petrol in equals CO2 out). Or would this just make things too simple and put a whole cadre of vehicle duty collectors out of work, and their supervisors, and their managers, and their directors, and their CEO ? (Am I getting this whole 'down with the CS' thing right?)

18 year old thread revival. Is this a record?

I pay my licence fee because I'm generally a compliant soul regarding these things, but I think it's had its time. When it came in it paid for BBC1, BBC2, and assorted radio stations. You never needed a license to listen to the radio, it was only if you had a TV capable of receiving BBC TV. This was distinct from Independent TV funded by advertising. The distinction is now blurred completely by streaming, recording, multiple devices capable of watching TV, and multiple competing services out there. I think the time has come to scrap the license fee completely, and fund the BBC from general taxation (if we agree that we need a state broadcaster) and/or from other sources such as selling Top Gear to Iran etc.

I wasn’t stalked exactly, but I did have a word with the police over something a deranged one-time patient of mine put on my facebook page. And I think @rachomics might have had some trouble on here that required police involvement. There are definitely one or more strange characters posting on here. There was a succession of posts last night or the night before that rambled on about stuff before getting deleted.

Did you watch the video? He puts forward a convincing argument that the blue fake-wood portacabin style offering is not appropriate. Are you saying it is? And I don’t buy your argument that it would be cheap to build and quick. Whatever they do will inevitably go way over budget and time, so if something has to be done, let’s prioritise doing it right rather than cheap and/or quick.

That bothered me too. From my limited experience of uploading stuff onto the web I know that there’s usually a ‘preview page’ function before it goes live. Even just on ebay and Facebook they have that. Did no one bother to look before hitting ‘publish’?

Manx RNLI volunteer appointed MBE for 50 years of service https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-67840534 BBC link probably better

That should have been signed "sent from my iPhone" like when that eco warrior sent an email dissing Steve Jobs (after he died) and Apple's global domination.

Is an iPhone a sign of wealth now? Everyone seems to have one, apart from ideological Apple haters.

My subscription lapsed for a bit, and the ads were just so annoying. How do you guys cope, or do you all have ad-blockers or something?

Ideally, pay rises should be negotiated and agreed in advance of their implementation date, then none of this would be an issue. In the event that this doesn’t happen, and pay rises are only backdated for people still in post then I think it’s grossly unfair, in many circumstances. In addition, it acts as a perverse incentive for the employer to drag their heels, as the longer they take the more people will have left, saving them money. Not to mention of course lost interest (which is a whole other debate) In my view, back pay should be paid to people who have left for some reasons - retirement, death, moving on at the end of a fixed term attachment (eg some junior doctors) and not for others - resigned to take a better job, sacked for gross misconduct, struck off the medical register etc. To do otherwise could lead to ‘gaming the system’ whereby people who want to retire delay it (perhaps by getting signed off sick) until the back pay is settled etc. It’s not a black/white issue, and should just be about being reasonable, on both employer and employee sides.

I’m not sure what the scam is - probably to get you to give them your bank details to refund something they say is lost, or ask you to pay something to get something delivered. I’ve had a few of these messages and ignore them.

This has been government policy, certainly in the UK, for decades. 30-40 years ago my former father-in-law gave up NHS dentistry because it wasn't worth the hassle for the money (if you did proper dentistry that is) The problem for governments everywhere is taking something away from people who have grown accustomed to getting it for free. If dentistry had never been incorporated into the original NHS plan we wouldn't be having this discussion - everyone would see getting their teeth seen to as another life expense, like paying the gas bill, getting their hair cut, or going on holiday, and budget for it accordingly. Private dentistry doesn't cost that much, providing you look after your teeth and have the odd check up. I spend less on it per year than many people spend on getting their nails done.