Excess spending in the NHS

The UK National Health Service is one of the largest employers in the world in terms of number of employees. It has an enormous wages bill. It is also quite inefficient, part of the reason for that is that it is almost impossible to fire someone from the NHS. The process of industrial tribunals is unfairly and heavily biased toward the employee. Decisions are made by the tribunal panel with no responsibility for the additional cost to the public purse (i.e. you and me; the tax payers). I've come across the case where a candidate lied at the recruitment interview about his availability to work shift hours. The specific question was asked at the job interview by the the recruitment interviewers "Do you understand the hours of employment? Is there any reason why you cannot work those hours?"

When the new employee arrived he announced, within two days, that he could not work the shift pattern. He requested that the shifts should be changed to meet his personal family needs.The hours changes could not be met without imposing additional burden on the existing team. After consultation with the local HR department it was decided the man should be dismissed because he could not meet the contractual conditions (which he'd agreed to at the interview). 

The man called in the union and the case was taken to Industrial Tribunal. The tribunal chairman ruled that because the hours had not been explicitly laid out in the job advertisement (it had stated "shift work"), even though they'd been explained in interview, that they found in favour of the employee. So the local Primary Care Trust is landed with a bill for a "compensation payment", plus expenses from both sides and the cost of agency staff to cover the gap created by this liar. Subsequent off the record enquiries revealed that the person concerned had an appalling reputation in his previous job, but of course that was not reflected by the references provided by his previous NHS employer.

It is small wonder the NHS administration is over-cautious about removing failing or dishonest employees.

Where has the student money gone?

I've just been reading the latest news on university fees for students in the UK. The present government is to allow university fees to rise to £9000 a year per student. The government will then allow students to borrow money (interest paying loan) to pay this education tax. 

When I was of university age the situation  in the UK was an absence of course fees and a grant for living expenses. Students from non-rich families could go to university without incurring a mountain of debt for themselves or their parents. In the near future students will now accumulate a debt of close to £70,000 to attend university for a degree if living costs are taken into account. Surely in my day the would be student would have to study hard to gain good qualifications (which I didn't, my own fault) in order to gain entry to university, but at least everyone had the opportunity to go to university if they were academically up to scratch.

My big question is: "What has happened to the money?" Why are University fees so high and why has government funding of university students dried up? Have the government reduced the proportion on GDP once dedicated to educating our students?  Are the University professors and establishment paying themselves so much that they pricing themselves out of the market?

I foresee students taking advantage of Internet distance learning University Degrees from places like India, where academic standards are high and costs are much lower. Why should students direct their tax payments to the costly inefficient UK Universities?

I'm really surprised that students are not out on the streets in revolt. Can they trust the politicians anyway?

Alaric

Tragic foresight in the Dangerous Donkey book

I’m feeling a bit sad today. I was reading the Sunday Times article about Linda Norgrove. She was the aid worker in Afghanistan who was kidnapped by the Taliban or other locals. Linda died during a rescue attempt by USA Special Forces. There were reports that a suicide bomb had been detonated during the rescue attempt.

She was a British national, working for USAID, helping to improve water availability in North East Afghanistan.

There are some eerie parallels to the plot in my book “Dangerous Donkey” where one of the heroines is taken hostage in Afghanistan while she is performing private aid work for the local farmers. It is not the main plot, but it did send a shiver down my back. I feel sympathy for the Norgrove family.

Alaric

Mr Bean at the Bank of England

When I heard that Mr Bean worked at the Bank of England I naturally assumed that he would not be the bungling fool played by the actor Rowan Atkinson. Sadly I fear I was mistaken. This afternoon I read in the London Evening Standard and also on the Press Association that Mr Charlie Bean (Deputy Governor) was urging savers to spend their savings to help the economy.

This stupid fool deserves to be shown the door! Fired! Thrown out!

It used to be prudent to save for one's retirement, to put money aside for a rainy day. A responsible citizen would ensure they have enough money to tide them over economic problems. No, the Bank of  England proposes fiscal irresponsibility by the savers. Go on a spending spree and buy more imported goods? How on earth will that help the UK economy? Is he not content with punishing savers with artificially low interest rates? This man favours the people who spend spend spend with money saved from their ultra-low mortgage rates.

The printing of money (quantitative easing) by the Bank of England will effectively devalue our savings by devaluing the pound, now the absolute buffoon wants us to fritter away the money put aside for our futures.

The man is a Brownian Dinosaur and should be removed from post.

I'm so glad I moved my money into gold when the Bank of England was selling our reserves. Now it is "worth" four times what I paid for it. More realistically it is a glaring measure of how much the pound has fallen and how poorly the idiots at the Bank of England and the previous Labour Government  managed the economy.

Alaric

Some common sense over children at last

The UK coalition government are showing some common sense over the vetting of adults who make contact with children other than their own. The BBC reports on it's web site there is going to be a proper review of the overbearing draconian rules developed by the previous Labour government and its Vetting and Barring Scheme.

The clue is in the title of the scheme, it assumes all adults are guilty until proven innocent. It would have been an expensive and ineffective scheme that would help destroy the trust between adults and children. Predictably the boss of the children's charity Barnardo's, Martin Narey says the scheme is needed. That self appointed guardian organisation does more harm than good. Instead of being a well paid lobby organisation it should go back to its roots and actually provide care for orphans.

In my Teen Valour series of books I take care to show how children can develop without the need for government interference. The officialdom of the previous Labour government has help prevent good honest people from volunteering to help lead children to their development. Hopefully some balance will be restored.

Alaric

The consequences of Terry Jones

Pastor Terry Jones in Florida announces the planned burning of the Koran. The cost of his ignorant blind intolerant irresponsible actions:

Bad feeling against hundred of thousands of Christians;
Recruiting Sergeant for Al Qaeda;

Shot & Wounded in Afghanistan - 3 people
Shot & killed in Badakhshan - 1 person

How much blood does this stupid man want on his hands?

Connecting the NotSpots

The welsh village of Erbistock had been quoted a price of £550,000 by British Telecom to connect them to the Internet. Rutland Telecom will deliver the same for £50,000 according to a report on the BBC website. It seems that BT is not the super-efficient public guardian of the Internet that it claims to be. From my viewpoint it is still a bloated monopoly charging high fees for poor service, its latest price increases are a clear example. They chose a Chinese manufacturer of network equipment over a British one to supply the network equipment for the upgrade of their whole network. It seems it is a massive corporation which feeds off our nation rather than investing in it.

I well remember in the early days of the Internet when two BT Account Executives came to my office in the City of London and offered a dialup 16K internet connection at a special price of £150 a month. It was such a special bargain I laughed in their face! I already had in my home the same service (via Demon) for £10 a month.

It seems like history repeats itself.

Alaric