Scottish Politics / Independence - Vol 12
Discussion
irc said:
Another Sturgeon take down in the Speccy. Where were all these journos when she had her hands in the controls destroying Scotland though?
"Most of us learn to get what we want by engaging with the rest of the world. Despite her bizarre reputation as a good politician – or at least good at winning elections for a while, which is the most a politician can hope for – Sturgeon remains arrogant and contemptuous."
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-sad-truth-...
Re the bold, this is as much of a piss boiler for me as what the SNP have done up here. They could have shone a spotlight on numerous issues over the years that would have highlighted just what a shambles we had (not) running the country, but no, they were happy to ride on the coat tails of this shower as we had a diddy parliament that required an expansion in diddy political journalism departments to cover it, back slaps all round ,wahay !"Most of us learn to get what we want by engaging with the rest of the world. Despite her bizarre reputation as a good politician – or at least good at winning elections for a while, which is the most a politician can hope for – Sturgeon remains arrogant and contemptuous."
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-sad-truth-...
" so he knew the difference between the bullss
tters"
My son works in IT. Now senior enough he is involved in the recruitment. They were recently recruiting senior programmers. All had passed the CV sift. My son's job was basically to assess their competence with a couple of basic tasks solved live before they went for a full interview. He could watch on his screen if and how they solved them. Now I am not at all techy but he assured me he has to reject a large number who couldn't do basic stuff in the field they were applying for a job in. Makes me wonder how many people get through interviews when there is no way of checking competence as easily as that.
My sister worked as an in-house trainer a Canadian govt dept. Also involved in recruitment. She told similar stories. Also mentioned a dept head who asked her if she could do a 1 day course to give an employee tuition is basic grammar and punctuation. My sister replied "what do you expect me to do in 1 day that the education system didn't do in 13 years?". As a follow up - "How long has she worked for us?".
Answer 20 years!
tters"My son works in IT. Now senior enough he is involved in the recruitment. They were recently recruiting senior programmers. All had passed the CV sift. My son's job was basically to assess their competence with a couple of basic tasks solved live before they went for a full interview. He could watch on his screen if and how they solved them. Now I am not at all techy but he assured me he has to reject a large number who couldn't do basic stuff in the field they were applying for a job in. Makes me wonder how many people get through interviews when there is no way of checking competence as easily as that.
My sister worked as an in-house trainer a Canadian govt dept. Also involved in recruitment. She told similar stories. Also mentioned a dept head who asked her if she could do a 1 day course to give an employee tuition is basic grammar and punctuation. My sister replied "what do you expect me to do in 1 day that the education system didn't do in 13 years?". As a follow up - "How long has she worked for us?".
Answer 20 years!
Good to see there’s plenty of slack in Glasgow City Council’s education budget - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c722dewd93vo
Oh hang on! They’re making 172 teaching posts redundant.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd181v2078xo
At least we now know what Forbes position is on this, more of the same, despite their badly fudged census showing that even in the Western Isles it’s now a minority language. I don’t think it’s even got to that status in Calton, but GCC have found the money to rebuild a school for it.
Oh hang on! They’re making 172 teaching posts redundant.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd181v2078xo
At least we now know what Forbes position is on this, more of the same, despite their badly fudged census showing that even in the Western Isles it’s now a minority language. I don’t think it’s even got to that status in Calton, but GCC have found the money to rebuild a school for it.
The loud flapping as chickens come home to roost.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
irc said:
" so he knew the difference between the bullsstters"
My son works in IT. Now senior enough he is involved in the recruitment. They were recently recruiting senior programmers. All had passed the CV sift. My son's job was basically to assess their competence with a couple of basic tasks solved live before they went for a full interview. He could watch on his screen if and how they solved them. Now I am not at all techy but he assured me he has to reject a large number who couldn't do basic stuff in the field they were applying for a job in. Makes me wonder how many people get through interviews when there is no way of checking competence as easily as that.
My sister worked as an in-house trainer a Canadian govt dept. Also involved in recruitment. She told similar stories. Also mentioned a dept head who asked her if she could do a 1 day course to give an employee tuition is basic grammar and punctuation. My sister replied "what do you expect me to do in 1 day that the education system didn't do in 13 years?". As a follow up - "How long has she worked for us?".
Answer 20 years!
tters"My son works in IT. Now senior enough he is involved in the recruitment. They were recently recruiting senior programmers. All had passed the CV sift. My son's job was basically to assess their competence with a couple of basic tasks solved live before they went for a full interview. He could watch on his screen if and how they solved them. Now I am not at all techy but he assured me he has to reject a large number who couldn't do basic stuff in the field they were applying for a job in. Makes me wonder how many people get through interviews when there is no way of checking competence as easily as that.
My sister worked as an in-house trainer a Canadian govt dept. Also involved in recruitment. She told similar stories. Also mentioned a dept head who asked her if she could do a 1 day course to give an employee tuition is basic grammar and punctuation. My sister replied "what do you expect me to do in 1 day that the education system didn't do in 13 years?". As a follow up - "How long has she worked for us?".
Answer 20 years!
It's frightening how many guisers are out there in every industry. My father has some eye opening stories from his days as an aircraft engineer, including pilots that had bogus credentials ! I had a stint away from VZS and my replacement they hired from down south had an identical CV to mine. He did 30 grands worth of tooling damage in 6 months. Turned out the (big) company he came from used nearly all steel tooling (madness in that industry where the difference between steel and carbide tooling is thousands vs millions of components in terms of tool life, but often done, particularly in China due to lack of skills/ability. Setting carbide tooling successfully is an art in itself and in a small company can be the difference between profit and going down the tubes) only using carbide for core rods and dies. When i went back he had moved cams on cranks 180 degrees to their standard positions and a few other things that showed he had little understanding of the actual process and he wasn't alone in those that i met over the years.
Apologies for the off topic, i will get back on track now.
irc said:
The loud flapping as chickens come home to roost.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
How many will stand up and admit to their waste or will it all be the toareees fault again. We will be paying the price of this shambles for a generation or more at least.https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
wc98 said:
irc said:
The loud flapping as chickens come home to roost.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
How many will stand up and admit to their waste or will it all be the toareees fault again. We will be paying the price of this shambles for a generation or more at least.https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
https://www.snp.org/record/
irc said:
The loud flapping as chickens come home to roost.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24335328.signi...
Article said:
He said high inflation, backlogs caused by the pandemic and a real terms fall in the capital block grant, meant the “right choices” had to be taken to balance the budget.
And that, right there, will be the entire anchor on which the nationalists hang their grievance. It'll be all "Westminster bad" from a perceived reduction in the block grant.Article said:
The announcement that the first fiscal event of Mr Swinney’s administration will take place just over a week before the summer recess drew the ire of committee convener Kenneth Gibson.
He said it would have been understandable had there had been a change of Finance Secretary, but Ms Robison is staying in post.
I think this amply demonstrates the confidence the SNP have in the abilities of Shona Robison MSP, bezzie mate of the dearly departed former First Minister Foghorn Dreghorn - she's hilariously, comically inept at any role she's placed in. So why, then, did the former First Minister place such credence in her competence? Or was it a case of 'those who know most, are kept closest?'He said it would have been understandable had there had been a change of Finance Secretary, but Ms Robison is staying in post.
If you know, you know.
wc98 said:
Yep, that's the one though it used to be two separate companies. VZS was the technical ceramics company and Coorstek was the substrate business (my wife ran the laser department until it closed a couple of years back). From what i hear the inspector i knew retired then they gave someone that worked there the job and once they had completed their training they left for a better paid inspection role elsewhere so they had obviously cut the salary. Coors bought VZS and it was going fine until the crash in 2008. We had just done a ton of monolithic pressure sensors for customer samples and had them approved and were doing good numbers of them for one customer already.
They had a choice of investing in some new equipment to up capacity (i had already been to Germany to speak to equipment manufacturers) that would have seen us as the market leader with big volumes as no one else could make them at the time (all the big technical ceramic manufacturers had said they couldn't be made, worst thing ever to tell us something couldn't be done, the motto the bloke that i trained under and myself had was "often stuck, never beat") and we had it down to a fine art. Reason being pre Coorstek we were a small company with no restraints on what we could and couldn't try and unlike say the Germans we didn't have technical colleges/university training so had no idea ourselves of what the theory constraints were so just kept pushing on stuff others wouldn't even try. I got to play around with material blends as we milled the raw material to our own specs, learnt a load from our ceramicist that helped me tweak blends for individual jobs, got to design tools/rigs and modify machines to suit and did all the maintenance up to full rebuilds. Best job i ever had and the Directors at VZS that owned the company after a management buyout were the best i have ever worked under.
Instead they st the bed, shut down all expenditure and laid people off. The new manager they sent from the States was a clueless manage by numbers type with no knowledge of the business and was pissing me off to the degree that i had to leave or end up in big trouble. A few years after i left my old department was back down to the same numbers it was doing when i started, an order of magnitude less. Sad to see and i felt for my old colleagues as it was a great place to work prior to that.
As usual the big company thought they knew best, despite us proving on numerous occasions that they didn't. Everything we made we did better than them, out the kiln our stuff usually had millimetres less grind stock which for anyone that has ever ground ceramic will know is hours less work and thousands of pounds less spent on diamond grinding tools every year.
The first manager we had from the States we had was a great bloke that had worked himself up from the shop floor so he knew the difference between the bullstters and people that could actually do stuff. He asked me to look at a project they had been running in the States for over a year. They had made a million components with a 60% out of spec rate and were storing what was essentially scrap in the hope that in the future they could be used in an application with a slacker tolerance ! That blew my mind. He asked if we could make them so we took it on.
Designed a tool to go in one of our machines in an afternoon, tool got made in 8 weeks by the best manufacturer of carbide tooling there has ever been in the UK ,Parkside Tool and Die, also sadly gone (no one will argue they weren't , we went to other companies that were doing stuff for aerospace, F1 etc and NONE of them could touch Parkside ability wise, neither could any of the powdered metal tooling lot, that's a piece of piss in comparison to ceramics as the tooling is generally steel, though much bigger bangs if you screw up) and had samples to spec to the customer the same week the tool came. Think out of the first half million we made we had maybe 250 scrap parts at grinding. The manager was delighted but on a subsequent visit from people that appeared to be involved with the project on the American side it was clear a few noses had been put out of joint.
With the cost of energy these days it would be a struggle for any UK company to compete globally i think. I have been out of the Industry for a while (tried to stay in it by getting a job overseas but hated being away from my family) and i have lost touch with my old boss that went on to work for a capital equipment manufacturer so ended up in most of the significant plants around the world, so no longer get up to date news on what's happening where.
Sorry for the long reply, went of a bit or a rambling reminisce there
That is an absolute sin...when I heard it had closed down I couldn't believe it, I could have happily worked there.They had a choice of investing in some new equipment to up capacity (i had already been to Germany to speak to equipment manufacturers) that would have seen us as the market leader with big volumes as no one else could make them at the time (all the big technical ceramic manufacturers had said they couldn't be made, worst thing ever to tell us something couldn't be done, the motto the bloke that i trained under and myself had was "often stuck, never beat") and we had it down to a fine art. Reason being pre Coorstek we were a small company with no restraints on what we could and couldn't try and unlike say the Germans we didn't have technical colleges/university training so had no idea ourselves of what the theory constraints were so just kept pushing on stuff others wouldn't even try. I got to play around with material blends as we milled the raw material to our own specs, learnt a load from our ceramicist that helped me tweak blends for individual jobs, got to design tools/rigs and modify machines to suit and did all the maintenance up to full rebuilds. Best job i ever had and the Directors at VZS that owned the company after a management buyout were the best i have ever worked under.
Instead they s
t the bed, shut down all expenditure and laid people off. The new manager they sent from the States was a clueless manage by numbers type with no knowledge of the business and was pissing me off to the degree that i had to leave or end up in big trouble. A few years after i left my old department was back down to the same numbers it was doing when i started, an order of magnitude less. Sad to see and i felt for my old colleagues as it was a great place to work prior to that.As usual the big company thought they knew best, despite us proving on numerous occasions that they didn't. Everything we made we did better than them, out the kiln our stuff usually had millimetres less grind stock which for anyone that has ever ground ceramic will know is hours less work and thousands of pounds less spent on diamond grinding tools every year.
The first manager we had from the States we had was a great bloke that had worked himself up from the shop floor so he knew the difference between the bulls
tters and people that could actually do stuff. He asked me to look at a project they had been running in the States for over a year. They had made a million components with a 60% out of spec rate and were storing what was essentially scrap in the hope that in the future they could be used in an application with a slacker tolerance ! That blew my mind. He asked if we could make them so we took it on. Designed a tool to go in one of our machines in an afternoon, tool got made in 8 weeks by the best manufacturer of carbide tooling there has ever been in the UK ,Parkside Tool and Die, also sadly gone (no one will argue they weren't , we went to other companies that were doing stuff for aerospace, F1 etc and NONE of them could touch Parkside ability wise, neither could any of the powdered metal tooling lot, that's a piece of piss in comparison to ceramics as the tooling is generally steel, though much bigger bangs if you screw up) and had samples to spec to the customer the same week the tool came. Think out of the first half million we made we had maybe 250 scrap parts at grinding. The manager was delighted but on a subsequent visit from people that appeared to be involved with the project on the American side it was clear a few noses had been put out of joint.
With the cost of energy these days it would be a struggle for any UK company to compete globally i think. I have been out of the Industry for a while (tried to stay in it by getting a job overseas but hated being away from my family) and i have lost touch with my old boss that went on to work for a capital equipment manufacturer so ended up in most of the significant plants around the world, so no longer get up to date news on what's happening where.
Sorry for the long reply, went of a bit or a rambling reminisce there
Funny thing was the MD did my interview and we seemed to get on very well...I actually laughed when he said the salary
Again a Quality Inspector job at a place in Cupar called Contract Solutions, I had never seen machining done to this fine a standard, it was amazing what they were doing, the machine tools must have cost a bloody fortune, I'am not easlily impressed by most things but that place was a different level i.e de-burring under microscopes.
Unfortunatley they wanted me to work nightshift so that was a non starter.
I don't know how many on here watch The Silver Fox on Youtube, he is running a story about a nurse that's being prevented from attending the Covid inquiry, now I take everything on Youtube with a pinch of salt but if even a tiny fraction of this is true then holy fk there are people up to no good trying to silence her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUsjcyqo5hA&ab...
k there are people up to no good trying to silence her.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUsjcyqo5hA&ab...
irc said:
No! No! My liver couldn't take it.
With those numbers electoral calculus has the SNP on 8 seats.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll_scot....
Obviously with many close seats a few hundred votes here or there can swing it several seats either way.
Down to 8 MPs they could share a campervan down to Westminster.
The real benefit is that it will decimate their income stream in the run up to the next Hollyrood election.With those numbers electoral calculus has the SNP on 8 seats.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll_scot....
Obviously with many close seats a few hundred votes here or there can swing it several seats either way.
Down to 8 MPs they could share a campervan down to Westminster.
Edited by irc on Monday 20th May 20:37
hutchst said:
irc said:
With those numbers electoral calculus has the SNP on 8 seats.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll_scot....
Obviously with many close seats a few hundred votes here or there can swing it several seats either way.
Down to 8 MPs they could share a campervan down to Westminster.
The real benefit is that it will decimate their income stream in the run up to the next Hollyrood election.https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll_scot....
Obviously with many close seats a few hundred votes here or there can swing it several seats either way.
Down to 8 MPs they could share a campervan down to Westminster.
No big donors on the horizon and no time to replenish the coffers to run a second election campaign so soon. The gravy bus is about to stall for the SNats.
sherman said:
irc said:
I can't understand why nobody wants to donate to a party who are about to lose power and have had their Chief Exec charged with embezzlement.
Especially not when a large donation to Labour just now could probably set you up for a nice peerage come election time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_s...
(Btw, I’m pretty sure your right and a variety of “high profile Labour supporters” will either acquire ermine cloaks or have a meeting with His Majesty in the course of 2025 & 2026)
alangla said:
It’s just like Blair all over again! Ironically it was the SNP & Plaid that reported that one to the Met apparently
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_s...
(Btw, I’m pretty sure your right and a variety of “high profile Labour supporters” will either acquire ermine cloaks or have a meeting with His Majesty in the course of 2025 & 2026)
Blackford Denies Lobbying Starmer for a Peeragehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_s...
(Btw, I’m pretty sure your right and a variety of “high profile Labour supporters” will either acquire ermine cloaks or have a meeting with His Majesty in the course of 2025 & 2026)
Maybe the humble crofter could bung some of the profits from his
Evercross said:
Blackford Denies Lobbying Starmer for a Peerage
Maybe the humble crofter could bung some of the profits from hisarms sheep sales Labour's way...
What odds on former MP Blackford leaving the SNP before accepting a peerage Has he not got form for abandoning partnerships of many years when it suits him?Maybe the humble crofter could bung some of the profits from his
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/11901907/ian...
Klippie said:
I don't know how many on here watch The Silver Fox on Youtube, he is running a story about a nurse that's being prevented from attending the Covid inquiry, now I take everything on Youtube with a pinch of salt but if even a tiny fraction of this is true then holy fk there are people up to no good trying to silence her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUsjcyqo5hA&ab...
Craig Houston recorded a similar podcast with her. As you say if even 5% of what she alleges has any basis in fact then that is a scandal of monumental proportions. Corporate manslaughter charges lodged against those in positions of authority could see Sturgeon, Fags Freeman and others taking to the dock. Add to that the allegations & charges against Narnia Pete, ongoing investigations and potential charges against Sturgeon & the former party Treasurer Colin Beattie, the ignominious deposing of recent FM and party leader Yousless, and the upcoming predicted loss of dozens of MPs & resulting Short Money - the SNP are a party in enormous trouble.k there are people up to no good trying to silence her.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUsjcyqo5hA&ab...
I've contacted an artisan producer of popcorn for a bulk order. Good to support local businesses.
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