This Royal Mail strike is really something....

[SamIAm]

14 minutes ago, Paul S said:

Unbelievably I had a first class signed for delivered today that was posted yetserday.

Black magic!!! 

[Paul S]

13 minutes ago, Smanth said:

Black magic!!! 

 

Must have been some sort of voodoo.  Some nice bits for my '51 P bitsa from Retrovibe.

[Ralf1e]

On 20/12/2022 at 12:38, Grimalkin said:

"That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital."

 

Noam Chomsky.

 

British Rail

The Royal Mail

Now the NHS.

You forgot BT Before they were sold for next to nothing to those in the know who could get the shares they were the biggest asset owning company in the world because all the profit was constantly reinvested.

After the asset stripping they still have to find profit for the shareholders with sod all reinvestment.

[mikel]

1 hour ago, Ralf1e said:

You forgot BT Before they were sold for next to nothing to those in the know who could get the shares they were the biggest asset owning company in the world because all the profit was constantly reinvested.

After the asset stripping they still have to find profit for the shareholders with sod all reinvestment.

Just like the water companies. Little investment, high bills, dumping tons or raw sewage into our waterways, while paying millions to investors. Its a sick joke. 

[SteveXFR]

16 minutes ago, mikel said:

Just like the water companies. Little investment, high bills, dumping tons or raw sewage into our waterways, while paying millions to investors. Its a sick joke. 

 

Investment by water companies is quite high. There's a huge industry built up around building and maintaining process plants as well as infrastructure construction. I've been working in process plant construction for the last decade and a bit. One of the big things at the moment is waste to power, creating electricity from sewage. 

The industry regulators set the budgets for new assets for each water company and if they don't spend the full budget within the 5 years then its cut for the next 5 year cycle. What they always do is give the entire budget of billions to investment bankers who then buy and sell shares with it for a year. They then tell us that we have 4 years to do 5 years work, or this time we only have 3 years because of covid for some reason. 

One of the major reasons for discharge of less treated sewage at the moment is that brexit has interrupted the supplies of ferric sulphate which is critical for sludge removal processes.

Edited December 29, 2022 by SteveXFR

[mikel]

1 minute ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Investment by water companies is quite high. There's a huge industry built up around building and maintaining process plants as well as infrastructure construction. I've been working in process plant construction for the last decade and a bit. One of the big things at the moment is waste to power, creating electricity from sewage. 

The industry regulators set the budgets for new assets for each water company and if they don't spend the full budget within the 5 years then its cut for the next 5 year cycle. What they always do is give the entire budget of billions to investment bankers who then buy and sell shares with it for a year. They then tell us that we have 4 years to do 5 years work, or this time we only have 3 years because of covid for some reason. 

It sounds to me like the investment is tax payer money if its given to the water companies, and there is still no excuse for dumping raw sewage in our waterways and beaches. 

[PaulWarning]

Northern Ireland water is still in public ownership, doesn't seem to work that well
https://www.niwater.com/news-detail/11859/going-down-the-drain-lack-of-investment-is-sinking-ni-water/#:~:text=Chronic underfunding of NI Water,damage to the natural environment.

[lemmywinks]

On 28/12/2022 at 13:36, SteveXFR said:

I'm convinced the government are trying to make the NHS so bad that they can force privatisation and a US style system because obviously if you're going to copy any system you go for the one rated as 34th best 

 

That's been the plan and a tiered healtchcare system is already here. We just convinced my mum to go private for her operation after witnessing the state of our local NHS hospital first hand. It's collapsed completely, can't offer assessment/treatment even for an hemorrhaging 81yr old woman rushed to A&E. People who can afford it will receive a good standard of healthcare, everybody else had better just hope they don't get ill.

 

Saw this earlier today and it reminded me of this thread.

[SteveXFR]

11 minutes ago, mikel said:

It sounds to me like the investment is tax payer money if its given to the water companies, and there is still no excuse for dumping raw sewage in our waterways and beaches. 

 

No, it's not tax payer money. The regulator controls how they spend their own money. 

They aren't discharging raw sewage, it's less clean than it could or should be. The chemicals they cannot source are flocculants, they bind microscopic solids together so they can be filtered out. Without the chemicals the process cannot work so it kind of is an excuse. There is currently a lot of work going in to finding another chemical to do the job which doesn't kill biological processes. 

The only time untreated sewage is discharged is during extreme storm events when the plant cannot keep up with incoming flows and storm storage tanks (millions of litres) are full. Those events are rare but becoming more common. 

[Dad3353]

44 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

...One of the major reasons for discharge of less treated sewage at the moment is that brexit has interrupted the supplies of ferric sulphate which is critical for sludge removal processes.

 

But... But... But... Shirley this was foreseeable and foreseen, and stockpiles built up to last until alternative supplies or techniques cut in..? Shirley..? Isn't that what everyone was told and promised..? Were untruths being bandied about..? Shirley not..! 

[Leonard Smalls]

Just now, Dad3353 said:

what everyone was told and promised

 

 

[Dad3353]

Just now, Leonard Smalls said:

 

 

 

And that's Jerusalem over that hill there, I suppose..! 

[PaulWarning]

52 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

 

One of the major reasons for discharge of less treated sewage at the moment is that brexit has interrupted the supplies of ferric sulphate which is critical for sludge removal processes.

not caused by Brexit, but a shortage of lorry drivers according to this anyway, which is affecting all EU countries last time I heard

https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/driver-shortage-statement/#:~:text=There is no shortage of,is solely one of distribution.”&text=What's the current situation%3F,small number of water companies

[SteveXFR]

6 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

not caused by Brexit, but a shortage of lorry drivers according to this anyway, which is affecting all EU countries last time I heard

https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/driver-shortage-statement/#:~:text=There is no shortage of,is solely one of distribution.”&text=What's the current situation%3F,small number of water companies

 

It used to be delivered by European drivers employed by the chemical manufacturers but now they don't want to deliver and British haulage companies don't want to collect because getting through Dover is now incredibly slow.

[Dad3353]

12 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

not caused by Brexit...

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Dad3353

[Yan_Huriey]

Running a government isn't easy, but it doesent endear you to them when they've  kissing the backside of big business who have been, (and are continuing) getting away with everything they can do to avoid paying tax, making massive profits and their rich tory pals have their hands in the till creaming off public money (ppe scandal).  There's a lot of people in government and business who should be im jail IMHO.  We need to seriously rethink how this country is run because its corrupt as fck, with theTories and Labour both mastubating over the horrific financial model that the USA has. Make a small amount of people super rich, and fck the plebs.  Its almost like they want you to be poor. Thanks Brexit wenkerrrssss 🙃

Edited December 29, 2022 by Yan_Huriey

[PaulWarning]

1 hour ago, Dad3353 said:

 

IBTL, I know shocking isn't it? that not all of the UK's many ills are down to Brexit

[SteveXFR]

1 minute ago, PaulWarning said:

IBTL, I know shocking isn't it? that not all of the UK's many ills are down to Brexit

 

According to quite a few people none of this countries problems are due to brexit. None at all, not one, not even a minor inconvenience. 

Maybe brexit could have been a success but due to being implemented by clowns, it's a car crash.

[T-Bay]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

 

According to quite a few people none of this countries problems are due to brexit. None at all, not one, not even a minor inconvenience. 

Maybe brexit could have been a success but due to being implemented by clowns, it's a car crash.

Brexit has been a massive success - for those who planned and orchestrated it, they have made billions and don’t give a damn about ordinary people.

[SteveXFR]

This is in danger of becoming political. 

Best of luck to both sides and may the best side win.

[Lozz196]

There will be problems that have taken place solely due to the b word.

 

There will be problems that were already there that it has made worse.

 

There will be problems that were there already that it has had no effect on.

 

And there will be new problems on which it has no bearing or involvement or cause.

[Machines]

Something was posted to me 1st class last week, not here. I sent a 1st class parcel yesterday and it turned up today. I am confuse.

[mikel]

25 minutes ago, Machines said:

Something was posted to me 1st class last week, not here. I sent a 1st class parcel yesterday and it turned up today. I am confuse.

Probaby depends on the depot it is or was at, and how how much backlog they have. 

[mikel]

51 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

Brexit has been a massive success - for those who planned and orchestrated it, they have made billions and don’t give a damn about ordinary people.

This. 100%. 

[WalMan]

Currently hoping that a smallish parcel of replacement parts from Zon make it to my friend who is in the US at the mo to bring back with him in the New Year rather than trust the vagaries of International post. Then I need to find funds to get them installed.