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Post by alec on Aug 18, 2023 17:30:37 GMT
Ukraine: Interesting take from the ISW, who suggest that progress by Ukr in Robotyne and Urozhaine (now retaken) probably shows significant degradation of Russian forces, as they had devoted a lot of effort in holding these, yet are being pushed back.
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Post by graham on Aug 18, 2023 17:32:51 GMT
Grandparents certainly did not look after me or my siblings in the 60s and 70s - and that appeared to be true of most others. My mother stopped work in early 1954 before I was born and never returned to the workplace. Running a household with five kids prevented that and the state certainly did not provide Child Care support beyond the Family Allowance. Only when children were well into secondary school - ie in their midteens- did some take up part time work . I was one of six children, my mother worked full time from when I went into infants school (May have been before, but can't be sure) When mum wasn't there we would looked after by a mixture of older sister, aunts and neighbours, most of which lived on the same council estate A lot of mothers worked full time on the estate. Sometimes working on the land and in school holidays they took us kids with them (Sometimes in term time as well!) I was the oldest of five children. I suppose we were pretty 'hard up ' though other families were worse off than ourselves. No holidays really , no car and no telephone. Until the 1970s my mother had no washing machine or fridge. Such appliances etc are now expected even by those we still label as being 'poor'. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 17:34:29 GMT
Grandparenting is wonderful, and brings great benefits for all three generations. Social policy should allow for and encourage this. But having all three generations needing to live in the same accommodation is completely wrong; arrangements must surely permit different and appropriate patterns to be negotiated, otherwise the aforementioned benefits are undermined. I speak with great authority on this matter, as my UKPR2 display name demonstrates (derived as it Is from the eldest’s first efforts to say “granddad”) I trust the child was disciplined as that was a very weedy attempt.  |
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Post by Rafwan on Aug 18, 2023 17:36:45 GMT
grahamThat is progress, and it is a very good thing. It stopped about thirteen years ago.
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Post by Rafwan on Aug 18, 2023 17:37:37 GMT
Grandparenting is wonderful, and brings great benefits for all three generations. Social policy should allow for and encourage this. But having all three generations needing to live in the same accommodation is completely wrong; arrangements must surely permit different and appropriate patterns to be negotiated, otherwise the aforementioned benefits are undermined. I speak with great authority on this matter, as my UKPR2 display name demonstrates (derived as it Is from the eldest’s first efforts to say “granddad”) I trust the child was disciplined as that was a very weedy attempt. Uh come on! She was only seventeen!!! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 17:39:56 GMT
Amusing:
“ New York Republican representative George Santos continues to defend his resume despite being charged 13 counts of frauds, money laundering and theft of public funds.
Santos, whose resume has been shown to be mostly fabricated, doubled down on his resume on Fox 5, saying:
“A lot of people have those insecurities. Actually, studies point that most people lie on their resumes ...”
In response, Fox 5’s Rosanna Scotto said, “Yeah, but you lied about everything.”
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 17:41:18 GMT
I trust the child was disciplined as that was a very weedy attempt. Uh come on! She was only seventeen!!! Rafwan sounds like it it just could be Grandad in Welsh. Was that offered as an excuse? |
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 18, 2023 17:42:28 GMT
Reports of a ten year old Sara Sharif being found dead in a house, and the post mortem revealing injuries sustained over a long period, are utterly sickening. Three people police want to speak to are now in Pakistan. Must say, deaths of children in circumstances like these do make me tend towards mercian’s limited death penalty idea. What do people like these have to offer the world? Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure |
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Post by johntel on Aug 18, 2023 17:42:59 GMT
Ukraine: Interesting take from the ISW, who suggest that progress by Ukr in Robotyne and Urozhaine (now retaken) probably shows significant degradation of Russian forces, as they had devoted a lot of effort in holding these, yet are being pushed back. Unfortunately time is running out for the counter-offensive and it's hard to see major gains being made before winter. There seems to be increasing talk from the Russians of consolidating the current front line - if they hold out until the bad weather comes they'll have months over the winter to prepare more and better defensive barriers which it will be nigh on impossible for Ukraine to breach even with F-16 support. I think we can expect a long period of stalemate and then negotiations along the lines of recognition for Crimea in exchange for NATO membership. It'll probably take years though. |
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Post by Rafwan on Aug 18, 2023 17:45:49 GMT
Uh come on! She was only seventeen!!! Rafwan sounds like it it just could be Grandad in Welsh. Was that offered as an excuse? It is not an excuse. I was born in Towyn. |
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Post by johntel on Aug 18, 2023 17:47:26 GMT
Reports of a ten year old Sara Sharif being found dead in a house, and the post mortem revealing injuries sustained over a long period, are utterly sickening. Three people police want to speak to are now in Pakistan. Must say, deaths of children in circumstances like these do make me tend towards mercian ’s limited death penalty idea. What do people like these have to offer the world? Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure And incompetence beyond measure by the hospital management. |
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Post by laszlo4new on Aug 18, 2023 17:48:09 GMT
As the childcare came up.
In Hungary adults were in work when I was a child (the 3-year childcare for mothers came in in the beginning of the 1970s, but most couldn't afford it). There was a two week break at Christmas, a one week at Easter and 2.5 months in the summer. My two grandparent families lived about 30 minutes from us. In the summer I spent 1 month on with one, the other month with the other (and then the 2-week holiday). My parents visited me/them once or twice during the week, and I was with them from Saturday afternoon till Sunday evening (Saturday was still a half-day working day).
My step daughter is a single mother with one child (of the two), and he is 5.5 years old. Originally he would have been in the summer holiday club, but it is a nursery (so he was with toddlers), and it cost 1,000 quid a month. So, I made the Hungarian proposition, and the grandchild has so far spent 3 weeks with us (but sleeps at home - only 1.5 miles from us). Quite fascinating as I try to connect it to my vague memories. But it is a massive help to the step daughter.
Along the line - a young friend (in consultancy business) decided to postpone her having a child, because of the 60-hour workload (it is actually more, but she gets a week off after every three weeks), so, she wants to accumulate enough money with her husband to take a 3-year break. As a result, they will likely have only one child (although they wanted two). The parents of both live far, far away, so they cannot help.
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Post by johntel on Aug 18, 2023 17:49:47 GMT
Rafwan sounds like it it just could be Grandad in Welsh. Was that offered as an excuse? It is not an excuse. I was born in Towyn. Oh, I had thought Rafwan was a character from Lord of the Rings. Mercian and Crossbat should know, they're both hobbits from what I have gleaned. |
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Post by graham on Aug 18, 2023 17:50:21 GMT
Reports of a ten year old Sara Sharif being found dead in a house, and the post mortem revealing injuries sustained over a long period, are utterly sickening. Three people police want to speak to are now in Pakistan. Must say, deaths of children in circumstances like these do make me tend towards mercian ’s limited death penalty idea. What do people like these have to offer the world? Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure Absolutely. At some level she must surely be mentally ill.Perhaps a case for Broadmoor. |
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Post by Rafwan on Aug 18, 2023 18:06:02 GMT
It is not an excuse. I was born in Towyn. Oh, I had thought Rafwan was a character from Lord of the Rings. Mercian and Crossbat should know, they're both hobbits from what I have gleaned. Could be, but I doubt it. She is still only on Enid Blyton. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 18:09:10 GMT
Reports of a ten year old Sara Sharif being found dead in a house, and the post mortem revealing injuries sustained over a long period, are utterly sickening. Three people police want to speak to are now in Pakistan. Must say, deaths of children in circumstances like these do make me tend towards mercian ’s limited death penalty idea. What do people like these have to offer the world? Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure Strangely four of my family members have lost children: my Mum and Dad lost their daughter, Josephine aged seven, before I was born. Mum had her photo in every mantelpiece of every home she ever lived in for the next sixty plus years. My brother lost his son, aged thirteen and our other brother, Jon and I were with him in hospital when life support was turned off, so we witnessed and shared first hand Malcolm’s dreadful grief. More recently my wife lost her eldest son. She was just saying, regarding the case you mention, that the pain is dreadful enough without spending the rest of your life knowing it shouldn’t have happened. There can never be forgiveness or understanding. |
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 18, 2023 18:09:58 GMT
Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure And incompetence beyond measure by the hospital management. I always start with condemning the perpetrator who carried out the crimes but, yes you're right, there appears to have been some appalling hospital management failures that allowed Letby to both evade prosecution and, quite possibly, to carry on murdering infants when she could have been stopped at some stage. It seems that consultant paediatricians were raising concerns that were routinely ignored.. The government are quite right to initiate an Inquiry and I suspect this will reveal much more. It wouldn't surprise me if people face criminal negligence charges at the end of it too. |
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Post by laszlo4new on Aug 18, 2023 18:10:19 GMT
As the childcare came up. In Hungary adults were in work when I was a child (the 3-year childcare for mothers came in in the beginning of the 1970s, but most couldn't afford it). There was a two week break at Christmas, a one week at Easter and 2.5 months in the summer. My two grandparent families lived about 30 minutes from us. In the summer I spent 1 month on with one, the other month with the other (and then the 2-week holiday). My parents visited me/them once or twice during the week, and I was with them from Saturday afternoon till Sunday evening (Saturday was still a half-day working day). My step daughter is a single mother with one child (of the two), and he is 5.5 years old. Originally he would have been in the summer holiday club, but it is a nursery (so he was with toddlers), and it cost 1,000 quid a month. So, I made the Hungarian proposition, and the grandchild has so far spent 3 weeks with us (but sleeps at home - only 1.5 miles from us). Quite fascinating as I try to connect it to my vague memories. But it is a massive help to the step daughter. Along the line - a young friend (in consultancy business) decided to postpone her having a child, because of the 60-hour workload (it is actually more, but she gets a week off after every three weeks), so, she wants to accumulate enough money with her husband to take a 3-year break. As a result, they will likely have only one child (although they wanted two). The parents of both live far, far away, so they cannot help. Just some further brief explanations. Women could retire at 55 and men at 60 in Hungary until the late 1980s. On one side of the family both of my grandparents worked, but p both part-time, and when they both worked, my great grandfather looked after me (they lived next door). On the other side my grandfather worked, but my grandmother didn't (she gave birth at 43 years of age in 1954 (!). Furthermore, the factory shift started at 6 am and finished at 2 pm, while office shifts started at 8 am and finished at 4 pm. Schools opened at 7 am (teaching started at 8 am) and with the club, they closed at 5 pm. Only the food had to be paid for, and the price depended on the earning of the parents. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 18:10:39 GMT
Oh, I had thought Rafwan was a character from Lord of the Rings. Mercian and Crossbat should know, they're both hobbits from what I have gleaned. Could be, but I doubt it. She is still only on Enid Blyton. So’s Batty. He was telling me some of the plots when we met and they sounded pretty good. |
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pjw1961
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Post by pjw1961 on Aug 18, 2023 18:11:44 GMT
The rather bogus story about a non-existent Labour u-turn on employee rights in the FT is interesting. Given the FT is a generally a respectable newspaper not given to making things up in Daily Mail style, the question is who spun them this yarn. I have my suspicions on what is going on here which I will return to at the end of these musings, but first to establish that it is a non-story.
(a) the following reforms are on the table for potential inclusion in the manifesto: a ban on zero-hours contracts, tackling bogus self-employment, employment rights from day one, ending fire and rehire, strengthening protections for pregnant women and a review of parental leave. This is an impressive set of reforms, if they all make it into the manifesto.
(b) the TUC and the great majority of Trade Unions signed off on this agenda at the policy forum last month - i.e. this is not new. I posted about it at the time. Furthermore many of those unions were very positive about these changes. The major exception, inevitably, was Unite - a large and important trade union for sure, but still just one.
(c) the allegation is of two supposed 'changes'. The first was a clarification that day one employment rights won't prevent employers having properly organised and fair probationary periods (and quite right too, they are necessary). To be clear THIS WAS NOT A CHANGE! No one had ever suggested that removing probationary periods was a good idea and it was certainly not policy. It was, as I say, a clarification of what the policy meant.
(d) the second claimed change has a bit more substance but is again at heart a sensible refinement of a rather broad-brush policy. The original proposal was to create a single “worker” status for all but the genuinely self-employed, ensuring the same rights regardless of sector, wage or type of contract. After some of the practical complexities of this were pointed out, the policy forum agreed to hold further consultation on how “a simpler framework” can be created "that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed in a way that would 'properly capture the breadth of employment relationships in the UK' as well as ensuring workers can still 'benefit from flexible working where they choose to do so'".That to me looks like perfectly normal policy making, given that the reality is that there are employees as well as employers who like and benefit from certain non-standard working arrangements. Others may disagree of course (Unite obviously do, but then they rejected the whole package at the policy forum, so nothing new there).
So who started this story and who spun it as a Labour u-turn when it plainly isn't. The answer to the first question is likely someone on the left, given the source is said to be a leak to the FT (albeit a leak of something that was pretty clear in broad terms anyway). But as to the spin about u-turns, I can't help but detect the cold, dead hand of Tory Central Office whether directly or indirectly. They seem to be investing a lot of effort into the "Starmer flip-flop" line of attack, and with nothing positive to say about the Tory record, the tactic seems to be to try to depress the opposition vote, while bolstering their own core vote with culture war stuff. It is not a strategy that I can see working, but I think we will see more non-stories of this kind over the coming months. My personal view remains to wait to see what is adopted into the manifesto.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 18:11:48 GMT
Rafwan sounds like it it just could be Grandad in Welsh. Was that offered as an excuse? It is not an excuse. I was born in Towyn. D’you mean Town? Sounds like your granddaughter takes after you. |
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Post by johntel on Aug 18, 2023 18:12:10 GMT
Oh, I had thought Rafwan was a character from Lord of the Rings. Mercian and Crossbat should know, they're both hobbits from what I have gleaned. Could be, but I doubt it. She is still only on Enid Blyton. What do you mean - 'only' ? I reckon I derived my moral and social education from Ms Blyton! |
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Post by mercian on Aug 18, 2023 18:12:21 GMT
Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure And incompetence beyond measure by the hospital management. I understand there's to be an inquiry. I wonder where those responsible are now? I gather they've moved on. If they are still in the NHS they should at least be sacked and possibly charged with being accessories to murder by the police? Perhaps our legal/police experts could give an opinion. |
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Post by mercian on Aug 18, 2023 18:15:05 GMT
It is not an excuse. I was born in Towyn. Oh, I had thought Rafwan was a character from Lord of the Rings. Mercian and Crossbat should know, they're both hobbits from what I have gleaned. Is that because Tolkien is supposed to have based The Shire on Worcestershire? |
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pjw1961
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Post by pjw1961 on Aug 18, 2023 18:19:54 GMT
Just been listening to this Letby case on the news. Wickedness on an utterly incomprehensible scale. Cruelty beyond measure And incompetence beyond measure by the hospital management. Particularly given the recommendations and procedures that followed from various previous scandals. There is a human bias against believing that sort of thing can be true which written procedures telling people they should work on the assumption it is until disproved, seem unable to overcome. This is seen in all walks of life, but obviously the consequences in healthcare can be particularity devastating. P.s. - As to an inquiry, they could save time and just reprint the recommendations from all the other ones. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 18:24:42 GMT
Not at all. I like numbers and research. Its not compulsory to engage with the critical thoughts of others. I leave you to your ideas of millions of gender critical, Mail reading misers with the social conscience of Genghis Khan. You are a card. Too kind. |
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Post by johntel on Aug 18, 2023 18:24:54 GMT
Oh, I had thought Rafwan was a character from Lord of the Rings. Mercian and Crossbat should know, they're both hobbits from what I have gleaned. Is that because Tolkien is supposed to have based The Shire on Worcestershire? No. Well....maybe. |
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 18, 2023 18:29:45 GMT
Do you think autotext saved isa some embarrassment here? |
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 18, 2023 18:32:08 GMT
When Mercian and I met up and realised how vertically challenged we both were, we consoled ourselves with the thought that you can't change the hobbits of a life time.
We then bought each other a half pint
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2023 18:32:22 GMT
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