In the "News" today.

Also a lot of the money promised is earmarked already after last years floods.

are you accusing the tory scum of spin? they dont do spin apparently

From the Herald web-site

"9pm: On the A38 westbound between Deep Lane and Marsh Mills there has been a land slip.

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Penzance earlier today   ...............filmed by Steve Cock.   

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Saturdays Daily Mirror.

98 year old has to freeze because green grant won't cover cost of new boiler.

24 hours later in same area a £150.000 a week Premier Footballer gets £10.000 of FREE insulation from taxpayers.

A distgusted insulation firm boss called to work for the lady and then the football star 24hrs later ....yesterday explained, ECO is an umbrella scheme based on different pots of money paid out for homes which are in low-income areas and judged fuel poor.

It was deemed more efficient to insulate the footballers mansion than the 98 yr olds three bedroom house.

The old story ain't it.....some are more equal than others.

I suspect the story behind that awful headline is that her home was one of the hard to insulate homes due to its construction.

What's more unacceptable is that the footballer claimed for the free work.

knecht wrote:

I suspect the story behind that awful headline is that her home was one of the hard to insulate homes due to its construction.

What's more unacceptable is that the footballer claimed for the free work.

I think the reason was that there was a greater saving made from insulating the mansion than supply a boiler for the three bed-room house.

You can't allow a little old lady to blur the environmental saving by insulating a big mansion opposed to the savings in an average 3-bed.

No room for sentimentality to get in the way....what allow compassion to rear it's ugly head.....tut.tut.

Private wealth, public squalour. It's the new black, the way forward, the fourth way.

This is all the "GREEN TAXES" put on your fuel and Gas, the energy companies have a huge pot of money that they are now carrying out these works with. Plymouth community homes are having all the old Cornish units insulated outside, then covered with K rend together with new windows. I'm pretty sure that we will yet again see massive amounts of money, via govt. and local govt. quangos profit massively from the taxpayer yet again, feck all those cold old people, skivers? The cash cows have been milked again in a profit sharing exercise amoungst the rich.

Absolutely, Zyph. Those "free" installations aren't done out of the goodness of heart of the energy companies (or the government). The grants are there to meet the targets of reducing energy consumption/carbon emissions. If those targets aren't hit, the energy companies get fined. The government set the targets after the Kyoto agreement and these are legally binding on the government. No room for sentimentality there....

I worked in the industry for a few years before I semi-retired. The sort of story you quote happened all the time. Some of the "little old ladies" I spoke with were heartbreaking. And some of the rich people were intensely infuriating!!!!!

Iggy wrote:

This is all the "GREEN TAXES" put on your fuel and Gas, the energy companies have a huge pot of money that they are now carrying out these works with. Plymouth community homes are having all the old Cornish units insulated outside, then covered with K rend together with new windows. I'm pretty sure that we will yet again see massive amounts of money, via govt. and local govt. quangos profit massively from the taxpayer yet again, feck all those cold old people, skivers? The cash cows have been milked again in a profit sharing exercise amoungst the rich.

Not sure I agree with all that (or understand it   ) but one of the realities of the system (though I am about 5 years out of date) was that initially the grants were only available to privately owned houses or to private landlords. Councils & housing corporations had to find the money themselves. Then housing associations managed to get in on the act. But many's the time I had to explain to people asking for help that, unless the council or housing association would do it, there was nothing available. As you say poor v rich again. I could tell many stories ........

Nice to see that private enterprise is doing well in the Thames flood corridor.

You can get up to £80 for a sandbag that you have stolen from a neighbour....just don't knock on some little old ladies door offering her one sandbag (when she needs a hundred) she just won't have the cash at hand.

knecht wrote:

Iggy wrote:

This is all the "GREEN TAXES" put on your fuel and Gas, the energy companies have a huge pot of money that they are now carrying out these works with. Plymouth community homes are having all the old Cornish units insulated outside, then covered with K rend together with new windows. I'm pretty sure that we will yet again see massive amounts of money, via govt. and local govt. quangos profit massively from the taxpayer yet again, feck all those cold old people, skivers? The cash cows have been milked again in a profit sharing exercise amoungst the rich.

Not sure I agree with all that (or understand it   ) but one of the realities of the system (though I am about 5 years out of date) was that initially the grants were only available to privately owned houses or to private landlords. Councils & housing corporations had to find the money themselves. Then housing associations managed to get in on the act. But many's the time I had to explain to people asking for help that, unless the council or housing association would do it, there was nothing available. As you say poor v rich again. I could tell many stories ........

I'm rambling as usual but all the works I am describing (amounting to 4500 properties) is being funded indirectly by British gas. The money comes from taxes or levies placed by the government. The recent cut (lol) in energy prices was funded by a cut in these so called green taxes. Yes the works are providing jobs locally with my son being one of those working on it but it also indirectly funds the running of the council officers and employees. They then distribute quite large contracts amoungst their friends contacts. It's the convoluted way that works are paid for these days that can and will cause a problem. We pay council tax, that is then siphoned, diverted by Westminster via quangos and councils, we then pay these green taxes which then go through he same process. It's no wonder that people who need the help are missed out and when they do the people that are really needed (to make simple common sense decisions) are no where to be seen.

Iggy, I'll go away and read it up again. But my understanding was that the money for these schemes aren't as such 'taxes' imposed by government. They are as a result of measures required by government of the energy sector. These are then passed onto the consumer by those companies in the form of increased prices. Some of that certainly helps less well-off people in the form of free or heavily subsidised measures. But like lots of such broad strokes too many of those who benefit are also the likes of footballers, second home owners & the generally better off. I don't think the 'taxes' are paid to government.

If I'm wrong I'll actually buy you that pint in The Tamar.

When I worked for the old electricity board, there was no tax.
When VAT was introduced, energy bills, like kids clothing and other essentials, was zero rated and so it should have been , it's an essential product people have to have, rich or poor. The "green taxes" where just a back door way of introducing tax to essential services, a massive amount of money and a more regressive tax I can't think of. They're also slowly making inroads into the zero rating on food. £100bn a year spending just waiting to be taxed. Half of supermarket products probably now have VAT, even certain biscuits.

So what a hoot for the Tories, and New Labour for that matter. They get to tax the poor and redistribute to their big business chums who charge a fortune for the process. And then give their directors an income tax cut.  And all under the guise of the "green economy". Couldn't be a more perfect ruse with the "enemy" green lobby taking the blame in many peoples eyes.
I think Cameron putting on his green coat disguise just for the last election was the final insult, and some people must have fallen for it.
Since that election, we can see how much he thinks of the green movement attacking every single icon of the ideal including badgers. And all to no avail. It's just gratuitous. That's what is driving many policies now, with Clogg letting them get away with it.

PS.... that K Rend, or the French version Moncouche I've also used, may give a nice finish over the insulation, but it ain't very pleasant to the lungs, that's for sure. Drastic stuff.

Sunday Telegraph....Doctors on £3,000 per shift.

Doctors are being paid as much as £3,000 per shift by NHS hospitals to fill' 'endemic' staff shortages in A&E units,an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph has found.

On at least 2,300 occasions last year,locum doctors were paid in excess of £1,000 to plug the gap in rotas at crises hit A&E departments,according to official figures.

This includes consultants being paid rates of more than £3,000 per shift,with nurses paid up to £1,000.

All the sums include fees paid to agencies,which usually take around 15% of the bill.

I can remember in the past doctors being flown in from places like Germany to cover one shift.

How do they cope with language problems...plus working different practises than they are generally used to...???

I spent a couple of days in hospital a fortnight ago. I got chatting to one of the nurses & asked her why she had a different uniform from the others. She told me that she was an agency nurse. She also said that she had worked at Derriford for a long time but they wouldn't take her onto the staff as she was too old. Clearly not too old to work there if an agency sent her. What a crazy world.

And all part of the money merry go round that I was talking about yesterday. One of the newest millionaires that I know is an owner of an agency and funnily enough their last job before setting up the agency was sitting on the board of a local trust.

zyph wrote:

Sunday Telegraph....Doctors on £3,000 per shift.

Doctors are being paid as much as £3,000 per shift by NHS hospitals to fill'  'endemic' staff shortages in A&E units,an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph has found.

On at least 2,300 occasions last year,locum doctors were paid in excess of £1,000 to plug the gap in rotas at crises hit A&E departments,according to official figures.

This includes consultants being paid rates of more than £3,000 per shift,with nurses paid up to £1,000.

All the sums include fees paid to agencies,which usually take around 15% of the bill.

I can remember in the past doctors being flown in from places like Germany to cover one shift.

How do they cope with language problems...plus working different practises than they are generally used to...???

Improve the standard of English taught in UK schools?

Daily mail features lady who gave up being scientist to be pole dancer, makes a change from miley cyrus 's hind quarters.

Moist_Von_Lipwig wrote:

zyph wrote:

Sunday Telegraph....Doctors on £3,000 per shift.

Doctors are being paid as much as £3,000 per shift by NHS hospitals to fill'  'endemic' staff shortages in A&E units,an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph has found.

On at least 2,300 occasions last year,locum doctors were paid in excess of £1,000 to plug the gap in rotas at crises hit A&E departments,according to official figures.

This includes consultants being paid rates of more than £3,000 per shift,with nurses paid up to £1,000.

All the sums include fees paid to agencies,which usually take around 15% of the bill.

I can remember in the past doctors being flown in from places like Germany to cover one shift.

How do they cope with language problems...plus working different practises than they are generally used to...???

Improve the standard of English taught in UK schools?

 
 
 
I was referring to foreign doctors who come over for the odd cover shift,who have poor english....are they checked ?

For what? Fleas?

Person Of Interest wrote:

For what? Fleas?

Okay that as well......you were itching to say that weren't you ?

 

As usual The Sun misses all the actual news today in favour of banal celebrity watching it did however come up with Headline of the day whilst reporting that Ant MacPartlin of Ant and Dec had sliced the top of his thumb off, Let's get ready to fumble!