The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

I've just been told that yet another ex-RAF mate has died. He was a great bloke and one of the best pilots I ever knew. He was also a couple of years younger than me, which isn't a comforting thought.

 

Dave

[pH]

5 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Believe me that the last thing the RAF will want is twelve months national servicemen in its ranks.

There’s a novel, based (somewhat, I would think!) on personal experience as a national serviceman in the RAF in the 1950s:

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13818602-the-camp

[New Haven Neil]

One way to spend a morning.  

 

DCC - Driver Complete Control. Car 16, 'toastrack'.

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

The first full day of the grandchildren is just about over.

 

Unload the dishwasher

Make breakfast

Load the dishwasher

Get out the swing seats for the swing frame.

Pump up the Space Hoppers(remember them?)

Get the tractor and trailer out.

Get the buckets of sand out of the shed and make a sandpit.

Empty the dishwasher.

Load the Dishwasher

Empty the dishwasher

Make some Pimms

Sharpen the carving knife

Clear the Playdough off the table

Lay the table

Did you wipe the table before you laid it?

Carve the ham

Clear the table

Load the dishwasher

Make the coffee

 

And I managed to do some painting.

 

[pH]

14 hours ago, AndyID said:

That's an interesting point. Can I vote in the UK elections?

 

12 hours ago, polybear said:

There's also the question of should you be allowed to vote in UK elections as the vast majority of decisions made in the UK won't affect you anyway?

Yes, the vast majority of political decisions made in the UK do not affect UK citizens and ex-residents living outside the UK (with the obvious exception of those affected by Brexit). However, there are some which do affect those groups living outside the UK.

 

Every year, a motion is put forward in the House of Commons to raise all UK government pensions by a given percentage (I. e. to index them). This is immediately followed by a motion to except certain UK government pensions from this general indexing. The majority of these excepted pensions are those being paid to pensioners resident in certain Commonwealth countries. This means that these pensions are “frozen” at the level they were when pensioners started to receive them.

 

This situation has been appealed by overseas UK pensioner organizations as far as the European Court of Human Rights. It was decided that this non-indexing was a political decision, and so could be subject to change by political action. 
 

Government to government discussions have not resulted in any change to the situation. Hence the call by the Canadian Association of British Pensioners (CABP), that I posted in response to AndyID, for its members to take advantage of the ability to vote in UK elections and to raise this question with candidates. I believe similar organizations in other Commonwealth countries are encouraging their members to do the same.
 

[AndyID]

14 minutes ago, pH said:

 

Yes, the vast majority of political decisions made in the UK do not affect UK citizens and ex-residents living outside the UK (with the obvious exception of those affected by Brexit). However, there are some which do affect those groups living outside the UK.

 

Every year, a motion is put forward in the House of Commons to raise all UK government pensions by a given percentage (I. e. to index them). This is immediately followed by a motion to except certain UK government pensions from this general indexing. The majority of these excepted pensions are those being paid to pensioners resident in certain Commonwealth countries. This means that these pensions are “frozen” at the level they were when pensioners started to receive them.

 

This situation has been appealed by overseas UK pensioner organizations as far as the European Court of Human Rights. It was decided that this non-indexing was a political decision, and so could be subject to change by political action. 
 

Government to government discussions have not resulted in any change to the situation. Hence the call by the Canadian Association of British Pensioners (CABP), that I posted in response to AndyID, for its members to take advantage of the ability to vote in UK elections and to raise this question with candidates. I believe similar organizations in other Commonwealth countries are encouraging their members to do the same.
 

 

It's completely bonkers. Our UK pensions are index linked but yours are not.

[AndyID]

48 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

One way to spend a morning.  

 

DCC - Driver Complete Control. Car 16, 'toastrack'.

 

 

 

HI Neil,

 

How do you make the 500V DC?

 

As it's the IOM I'm slightly surprised its not three-phase. I mean, two on the rails and one on the overhead 😆

 

 

 

Edited May 27 by AndyID

[AndyID]

36 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

The first full day of the grandchildren is just about over.

 

Unload the dishwasher

Make breakfast

Load the dishwasher

Get out the swing seats for the swing frame.

Pump up the Space Hoppers(remember them?)

Get the tractor and trailer out.

Get the buckets of sand out of the shed and make a sandpit.

Empty the dishwasher.

Load the Dishwasher

Empty the dishwasher

Make some Pimms

Sharpen the carving knife

Clear the Playdough off the table

Lay the table

Did you wipe the table before you laid it?

Carve the ham

Clear the table

Load the dishwasher

Make the coffee

 

And I managed to do some painting.

 

 

I imagine you are approaching the "getting sh1t-faced" and crawling off to bed stage.

[Dave Hunt]

30 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

I imagine you are approaching the "getting sh1t-faced" and crawling off to bed stage.

A normal evening at the Hippodrome then?

 

Dave

[SM42]

Just back from the cinema and a night time, make it up as we go along and guess where we might end up, drive home.  

 

It's bad enough having to turn left and go round in a circle to get to turn left towards where you came from  only to find you can't turn left,  but have to go straight on, turn right, second right and then right to pass back through the junction you couldn't turn left at. 

 

Add to that at Ronda Kaponiera, all the traffic lights are on flashing amber, so steady as she goes, look out for traffic approaching from left and right, turn left but mind the trams and pick the right lane to get you out at your exit. .  Luckily I had someone to follow otherwise I may have to have pretended to be a tram. 

 

A medicinal beer is being consumed by way of therapy. 

 

Andy

Edited May 28 by SM42

[pH]

42 minutes ago, AndyID said:

It's completely bonkers. Our UK pensions are index linked but yours are not.

Eh, we are heading towards political politics here! However - no it’s not at all bonkers, it’s completely calculated.
 

How many Brits, in total, emigrate/retire to Commonwealth countries compared to the numbers that emigrate/retire to the US? 

 

Which group would it cost less to give indexed pensions to?

 

What can the aggrieved group do politically, at both the individual and national level, to protest this treatment?

 

(Which is why I’m amazed that ex-pats are being given a lifetime vote in the UK. Somebody would appear to have calculated that the advantages of having the particular demographic group that’s involved being on your side outweigh the disadvantages.)

 

 

[AndyID]

3 minutes ago, pH said:

Eh, we are heading towards political politics here! However - no it’s not at all bonkers, it’s completely calculated.
 

How many Brits, in total, emigrate/retire to Commonwealth countries compared to the numbers that emigrate/retire to the US? 

 

Which group would it cost less to give indexed pensions to?

 

What can the aggrieved group do politically, at both the individual and national level, to protest this treatment?

 

(Which is why I’m amazed that ex-pats are being given a lifetime vote in the UK. Somebody would appear to have calculated that the advantages of having the particular demographic group that’s involved being on your side outweigh the disadvantages.)

 

 

 

Don't worry. I don't thinks it's terribly political. But I think you are correct. Most likely the decision was based on the numbers. Emigrating to the USA is a very serious PITA. I was fortunate to get a Green Card (permanent resident) because I only have an HNC(S) rather than a degree but the company I worked for had some very good lawyers and we were able to prove degree equivalence based on work experience.

 

Ironically I soon discovered I knew far more than my colleagues who had US degrees 😆

[AndyID]

For my sins I'm trying to file a patent (US). Producing the drawings, description and the claims is relatively straight-forward. What is not so simple is dealing with all the bureaucracy. They keep telling me I should hire a lawyer but I've been down that road before and it's a money pit. I just want to get to the point where I can legally say "Patent Applied For".

 

The good news the initial filing costs are not that great because I'm a "micro-entity" and I can claim accelerated review due to my age.

[jjb1970]

On national service I don't have any doubt that the army could drill teenagers and turn them into soldiers. One year may be tight, certainly in two years. However the armed forces are increasingly technical (not just the RN and RAF) and more and more roles need serious technical training that is very time consuming and expensive. 

 

Many countries have NS/conscription, some of which rely on a cadre of long service professionals and a mass of reserves which do a couple of weeks a year and can be mobilized in a crisis. British teenagers are no different to others and would do just fine if it came to it.

 

Unfortunately to do it properly isn't cheap, and the idea floated in Britain seems to be little more than a bright idea dreamt up by a focus group and which is being made up as it goes along.

 

My objection isn't that NS has no value for young people or that it couldn't work. I do think there are positives for young people and with enough effort and resource it would work as well as it does in other countries. My objection is compelling young people to do it (especially when those pushing the idea didn't do it, I can't remember my generation begging for NS to be introduced) and a lack of trust in the government.

 

There's a lot to criticise about Britain, you don't have to look very far to find examples of government incompetence and shoddy services etc. However the great redeeming feature for me is it's a reasonably tolerant country where we are largely left alone to live our lives. That's been eroded over my lifetime but overall, compared to many alternatives we have less intrusion in our lives compared to many other countries. Despite all the negatives that still counts for a lot to me. If government is to have the power to compell people to do national service then we may as well be Singapore or even China. At least their governments are competent and in return for government intrusions in life people get a country where stuff works and they have confidence at least that their government isn't a clownshow.

 

The second is a trust issue.  People here do NS but they're doing it to defend the country. From time to time they deploy some as their professionals to international efforts but it tends to be a token deployment and usually a  non-combatant one like a field hospital. I just don't have the confidence that the British government wouldn't either send conscripts to foreign wars, or alternatively use a home force of conscripts to be even more enthusiastic about sending long service troops overseas to fight.

Edited May 28 by jjb1970

[skipepsi]

16 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Sounds like the teachings of an old-school RSM would do them the power of good....

Drill instructor HMS  Fisgard 1976 I'm going to rip your arms and legs off and beat you to death with the soggy bits...

Edited May 28 by skipepsi
predictive text

[skipepsi]

5 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

We had one of those at work.  He referred to himself as a Young Teenage Slave.

 

Adrian

Young Tory Slave locally 

[jjb1970]

YTS was like most things, there were good opportunities, bad opportunities and opportunities that weren't really anything. I had friends who went into the YTS system which did well and were kept on to do proper training, were sent to college etc, I know others that were basically treat like brown stuff and most of them weren't treated badly but did the scheme and moved on without having learned much or gotten much benefit from it.

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, pH said:

Eh, we are heading towards political politics here! However - no it’s not at all bonkers, it’s completely calculated.
 

How many Brits, in total, emigrate/retire to Commonwealth countries compared to the numbers that emigrate/retire to the US? 

 

Which group would it cost less to give indexed pensions to?

 

What can the aggrieved group do politically, at both the individual and national level, to protest this treatment?

 

(Which is why I’m amazed that ex-pats are being given a lifetime vote in the UK. Somebody would appear to have calculated that the advantages of having the particular demographic group that’s involved being on your side outweigh the disadvantages.)

 

 

As a resident of the EU now I had the right to vote in the UK for the first 15 years whuch would have taken me to my 81st year. However I think that the push for lifetime voting mmsy have been influenced by the numbers of UK pensioners in countries such as France and Spain.  I think that the combined total is over 400,000.  Maybe someone thought that woe would probably vote for their party. 

 

Jamie

[jjb1970]

I tend to think 15 years was probably a decent compromise. It allowed for those on overseas postings to have a voice in the affairs of a country they will one day return to. If they're still out after 15 years then they've emigrated for the long term at which point there is a legitimate issue over whether they should still be influencing affairs at home. That said there are issues, such as pensions, or where people have family in Britain, where there is a legitimate argument that they are affected by decisions made in Westminster and as UK nationals should have a right to vote.

[Compound2632]

Being myself our household dishwasher with a tendency to Ludditeism, I am sceptical as to whether loading and uploading the dishwasher appliance three times is a saving in time and effort over letting it all pile up and doing it all by hand in one go. All that bending over can't be good for one either.

[SM42]

11 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Being myself our household dishwasher with a tendency to Ludditeism, I am sceptical as to whether loading and uploading the dishwasher appliance three times is a saving in time and effort over letting it all pile up and doing it all by hand in one go. All that bending over can't be good for one either.

 

But you can sit down while loading  and un loading the dishwasher. 

 

The half bent position for manual washing up I find is harder my back and thus painful. 

 

There is something nice about spending a couple of minutes loading the machine and then pressing a button as opposed to filling a sink  and scrubbing.

 

The only downside is the machine sometimes needs a second go on some things ( oh and they break sometimes)

 

Andy

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The first full day of the grandchildren is just about over.

 

Pump up the Space Hoppers(remember them?)

 

 

 

I'm trying my very hardest not to.....

 

 

 

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On national service I don't have any doubt that the army could drill teenagers and turn them into soldiers. One year may be tight, certainly in two years. However the armed forces are increasingly technical (not just the RN and RAF) and more and more roles need serious technical training that is very time consuming and expensive. 

 

Many countries have NS/conscription, some of which rely on a cadre of long service professionals and a mass of reserves which do a couple of weeks a year and can be mobilized in a crisis. British teenagers are no different to others and would do just fine if it came to it.

 

Unfortunately to do it properly isn't cheap, and the idea floated in Britain seems to be little more than a bright idea dreamt up by a focus group and which is being made up as it goes along.

 

My objection isn't that NS has no value for young people or that it couldn't work. I do think there are positives for young people and with enough effort and resource it would work as well as it does in other countries. My objection is compelling young people to do it (especially when those pushing the idea didn't do it, I can't remember my generation begging for NS to be introduced) and a lack of trust in the government.

 

There's a lot to criticise about Britain, you don't have to look very far to find examples of government incompetence and shoddy services etc. However the great redeeming feature for me is it's a reasonably tolerant country where we are largely left alone to live our lives. That's been eroded over my lifetime but overall, compared to many alternatives we have less intrusion in our lives compared to many other countries. Despite all the negatives that still counts for a lot to me. If government is to have the power to compell people to do national service then we may as well be Singapore or even China. At least their governments are competent and in return for government intrusions in life people get a country where stuff works and they have confidence at least that their government isn't a clownshow.

 

The second is a trust issue.  People here do NS but they're doing it to defend the country. From time to time they deploy some as their professionals to international efforts but it tends to be a token deployment and usually a  non-combatant one like a field hospital. I just don't have the confidence that the British government wouldn't either send conscripts to foreign wars, or alternatively use a home force of conscripts to be even more enthusiastic about sending long service troops overseas to fight.

 

As an Employer interviewing a prospective new Employee one of my first questions would be:

 

"What did you do for your National Service?"

 

If they reply with:

 

"Nuffink Mate - dodged it, didn't I? (snigger snigger)"

 

- then they're off to a loser straight away.

[Hroth]

8 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

HI Neil,

 

How do you make the 500V DC?

 

As it's the IOM I'm slightly surprised its not three-phase. I mean, two on the rails and one on the overhead 😆

 

 

 

 

Sounds like Trix Twin..

 

And speaking of Rishi, there was some nonsense on the news this morning about increasing the basic tax allowance for pensioners, now that the triple-locked full state pension is the same....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ggvrp8v28o

 

 

[SM42]

16 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I'm trying my very hardest not to.....

 

 

 

 

As an Employer interviewing a prospective new Employee one of my first questions would be:

 

"What did you do for your National Service?"

 

If they reply with:

 

"Nuffink Mate - dodged it, didn't I? (snigger snigger)"

 

- then they're off to a loser straight away.

 

Then of course there's the question about the gap in their CV for 2020. 

 

" What we're you doing in that year?"

 

"Washing my hands."

 

Andy

 

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The first full day of the grandchildren is just about over.

 

Unload the dishwasher

Make breakfast

Load the dishwasher

Get out the swing seats for the swing frame.

Pump up the Space Hoppers(remember them?)

Get the tractor and trailer out.

Get the buckets of sand out of the shed and make a sandpit.

Empty the dishwasher.

Load the Dishwasher

Empty the dishwasher

Make some Pimms

Sharpen the carving knife

Clear the Playdough off the table

Lay the table

Did you wipe the table before you laid it?

Carve the ham

Clear the table

Load the dishwasher

Make the coffee

 

And I managed to do some painting.

 

Goodness, those grandchildren are spoilt, aren’t they?
 

My Grandparents had a very different approach. Their usual “day with the grandkids” was:

• Turf grandkids off the straw at 05:00
• Distribute old bread and dripping for grandkids breakfast
• Fill thermos flask with cold tea (sweetened if they could be bothered) Put some more old bread and dripping in a tin - give to grandkids
• 06:00 dump grandkids at pithead
• 07:00 Early hot breakfast “for grownups” (sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, fried slice, hot tea etc)
• 08:00 -09:00 read newspapers
• 09:00 -18:00 at leisure
• 18:00 collect grandkids from pithead.
• 18:00 distribute stale bread and hard cheese to grandkids
• 19:00 give grandkids their teddies and pack them off to the barn to sleep
• 19:30 cocktails followed by a modest four course dinner and an evening at leisure (cigars and whisky optional)
• 23:00 to bed

Rinse and repeat!