blandy Posted April 3, 2022 Author Moderator Share Posted April 3, 2022 43 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: The measure of a functioning democracy should be the satisfaction its citizens feel when paying their taxes. In a really well functioning democracy we should be proud to pay the taxes that pay for the things we voted for. Never going to happen in the UK. Probably never anywhere. On the London thing, I don't necessarily see it as a problem that they spend a ton of money on a new undertube line for their metal worms - I mean 9 or 10 million people crammed into a place 13 times smaller than Wales, with a creaking pubic transport system and heavy air pollution - by all means give the lager-shandy drinkers better public transport. The difficulty is that the Government largely ignores the needs of the rest of the UK for stuff specific to the needs in all the rest of the UK. Whether that's electrifying rail links in the north, or better roads in Wales, or whatever. But they don't, London gets way too much of everything, because that's where all the pollies live and work most of the time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 26 minutes ago, blandy said: The difficulty is that the Government largely ignores the needs of the rest of the UK for stuff specific to the needs in all the rest of the UK. Whether that's electrifying rail links in the north, or better roads in Wales, or whatever. But they don't, London gets way too much of everything, because that's where all the pollies live and work most of the time. They were actually looking to move funds to the blue areas of the electoral map, ie not London. We'll see how that goes? The opportunity that Covid represented to lose billions to the likes of Dido, Deloitte and the chosen few proved too good to miss. Then there's that HS2 money pit and the Chinese (I mean really?) reactor, which are haemorrhaging taxpayers money. Quote The Hinkley Point C project may be delayed after defects were found at a similar reactor in China. According to The Times, safety components at Hinkley may need to be redesigned following the discovery. An investigation is ongoing into the cause of the problems with the plant in Taishan, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, which was shut down in August after reports of damage to fuel rods. These hold nuclear materials used to fuel the reactor. It was first revealed in June that the US government had been assessing reports of a leak at the power station, with gas escaping after the coating on some of the fuel rods deteriorated. The Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity, a French association created in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, has now said that a whistleblower reported that a design flaw in the reactor pressure vessel could be the cause of the Taishan problem. New Civil Engineer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted April 3, 2022 Moderator Share Posted April 3, 2022 I'm a big fan of the £12.5bn in subsidies to energy companies that my tax paid for - that's money well spent ensuring that those guys look after us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted April 3, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted April 3, 2022 (edited) Turns out it’s open season for sexual assault and cocaine abuse for us middle aged lads. Have at it boys - worst case scenario is women will just feel sorry for us. Edited April 3, 2022 by choffer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted April 3, 2022 Moderator Share Posted April 3, 2022 33 minutes ago, choffer said: Turns out it’s open season for sexual assault and cocaine abuse for us middle aged lads. Have at it boys - worst case scenario is women will just feel sorry for us. She's actually getting worse and worse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted April 3, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted April 3, 2022 36 minutes ago, choffer said: Turns out it’s open season for sexual assault and cocaine abuse for us middle aged lads. Have at it boys - worst case scenario is women will just feel sorry for us. I watched some of that, had to turn over. Such horrible opinions. Can't believe she wasn't challenged over some of the things she was saying. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 The Warburton, Joukovski and Mogg story is interesting. Warburton being Brexity and everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 16 hours ago, choffer said: Turns out it’s open season for sexual assault and cocaine abuse for us middle aged lads. Have at it boys - worst case scenario is women will just feel sorry for us. She’s probably thinking about her ex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desensitized43 Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 18 hours ago, Xann said: Then there's that HS2 money pit and the Chinese (I mean really?) reactor, which are haemorrhaging taxpayers money. New Civil Engineer The way we do massive infrastructure projects in this country is truly broken. We seem to pick the cheapest design pitched the the dodgiest people you've ever seen. Then we bemoan the fact they lied about the cost, time it would take to deliver in order to win the tender, and that it's substandard quality. I don't understand why they don't include punishment clauses in these contracts that say that if it's overbudget the construcution company should pay the extra and fines for every month it's over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 8 minutes ago, desensitized43 said: The way we do massive infrastructure projects in this country is truly broken. We seem to pick the cheapest design pitched the the dodgiest people you've ever seen. Then we bemoan the fact they lied about the cost, time it would take to deliver in order to win the tender, and that it's substandard quality. I don't understand why they don't include punishment clauses in these contracts that say that if it's overbudget the construcution company should pay the extra and fines for every month it's over time. Then the construction company goes bust and everybody loses. The solution is to cost and time it properly at the start, which is too much hassle and might mean the wrong firm wins the business. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted April 4, 2022 Author Moderator Share Posted April 4, 2022 8 minutes ago, desensitized43 said: I don't understand why they don't include punishment clauses in these contracts that say that if it's overbudget the construcution company should pay the extra and fines for every month it's over time. I suspect there are multiple reasons, some valid, some less so. For example, whether a rail line, a power station, roads, computer systems...whatever - there might be dependencies - e.g acquiring land - which means that delays due to legal challenges, purchase orders, discovery of burial sites, wildlife, protected trees and a zillion other things are outside the control of the contractor, and subject to the law. Or there might be issues around (as currently) importing microchips, shipping, sanctions, government banning using Chinese or Russian tech... There might be delays at ports due to Brexit... Then there are the less clear reasons, which may or may not include relationships between MPs and family members and contracted companies. And there may also be a case around "well, if we are required to take on more risk, as a company, then we have to pitch at a higher cost" which them makes politicians look bad, because stuff has a more expensive headline cost when its announced, rather then what usually happens, which is costs increase over time, gradually and mostly no one notices. Another reason, and this one happens with stuff like Military kit contracts, is the government changing it's mind over how many it wants, and what capabilities it wants the kit to have - as an analogy "I want you to design and build me 10,000 TVs for use in the UK" - design costs are 1 million pounds, and production costs for 10,000 TVs are £100 each. Then the Gov't says, actually, we only want 5000 now, and we want them to work overseas as well, because we forgot about using them in our embassies and consulates. So now, the design costs go up, because they have to be able to receive foreign telly channels, and also those costs only get spread over 5000, instead of 10,000 units. And then the gov't says, those 5000 TVs - we want them delivered over 5 years, instead of one year, so the factory build line has to stay open for an extra 4 years, while operating at reduced throughput, which again increases cost per unit, and then over those 5 years, raw material costs increase (inflation).... Daft example, maybe, but the short answer is "it's complicated". That said I don't disagree that a lot more ought to be done to prevent spiralling costs, though as much of it is with the Government and Ministries as with suppliers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 11 minutes ago, desensitized43 said: The way we do massive infrastructure projects in this country is truly broken. We seem to pick the cheapest design pitched the the dodgiest people you've ever seen. Then we bemoan the fact they lied about the cost, time it would take to deliver in order to win the tender, and that it's substandard quality. I don't understand why they don't include punishment clauses in these contracts that say that if it's overbudget the construcution company should pay the extra and fines for every month it's over time. From my own limited experience of government projects on a fairly modest scale, they will have a budget and a programme of milestone dates as part of the original day 1 tender package. To be able to bid you have to agree the proposition is viable. It often isn’t. To the point a number of them will have historic dates you have to say you can achieve. The brief will have been written several years ago and then sat on some shelf somewhere. Then, for whatever reason its dusted down and sent out. So it would not be massively unusual to receive an initial approach asking if we are interested, something like this: 04.04.2022 - Govt Tendering Message: we have a project to acquire a brand new Ford Escort by July 2021, would you be interested? 04.04.2022 - Chrisp65ExecutiveSolutionsLtd - yeah, great. You say you can’t achieve an historic deadline, they don’t re write it, they send it to the companies that said they could. Then at some point in the future it will emerge that Ford don’t make Escorts anymore, but you can have the current Focus. Government Dept will stick to their guns and insist they have special circumstances where they must have a brand new Ford Escort. So a one off is built, at 10 times the cost of a Focus. it then turns out, a perfect replica of the 1981 Ford Escort is not as good as the current Ford Focus for what the Govt Dept wanted to do with it. Then there is an enquiry in to what went wrong, and lessons will be learned… 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 JRM saying on LBC that Boris was given wrong information about parties during lockdown and therefore didn’t knowingly mislead parliament. Is that the worst attempt at gaslighting given that we know for a fact he was either at several of these parties or hosting them? If you take it was said by JRM then isn’t it complete incompetence on the part of the PM for not verifying what he was being told before saying it in parliament? What a disgrace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 The defence of "we're not cruel or malicious, we're just stupid" has worked rather well for this bunch of charlatans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 'Levelling Up' means choosing between heating and eating then. Who knew? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 ffs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted April 4, 2022 Moderator Share Posted April 4, 2022 12 minutes ago, KentVillan said: ffs It's exactly what cancers do, fits in perfectly with everything else they do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 24 minutes ago, KentVillan said: ffs It's our chance to unleash the digital potential of the UK and position ourselves at the forefront of the international scam industry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meregreen Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 Snake oil Chancellor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted April 4, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted April 4, 2022 Channel 4 being sold because it wasn't nailed d- to enhance its creative endeavours. The proceeds are to be used to line the poc-reinvested in independent production companies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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