Cost of living squeeze in 2022

[bitchstewie]

Aha!

I'd read that analogy before but didn't know where and who and couldn't remember the specifics but that will stick with me now

I have (or had) a little ritual where once a year or so I'd pop to Northampton and go round some of the factory outlets.

I could buy a "cheap" pair of Cheaney's for £100 or so and I'll still have them in 20 years assuming they still fit.

Life's pretty easy when you can afford good boots.

[valiant]

Welshbeef said:

DVLA should be totally outsourced with glide path savings to the govt and increased productivity KPIs.

This work should be moved to areas of high unemployment. With the requirement that the private sector employs those on benefits to deliver.

It could be great.

You know the dvla is based in Wales right? You know, an area of already high unemployment and scarcity of decent secure jobs?

So you want to close down the dvla and create more unemployment in an area that is already suffering from high unemployment and force some experienced ex-staff onto benefits to move it to another area with high unemployment to take on unskilled people already on benefits?

You sure you’re a finance director?

The dvla has a LOT of problems but don’t think that the private sector is the answer to every ‘lets improve government’ question.

[Sway]

bhstewie said:

Aha!

I'd read that analogy before but didn't know where and who and couldn't remember the specifics but that will stick with me now

I have (or had) a little ritual where once a year or so I'd pop to Northampton and go round some of the factory outlets.

I could buy a "cheap" pair of Cheaney's for £100 or so and I'll still have them in 20 years assuming they still fit.

Life's pretty easy when you can afford good boots.

My old man (I was raised by my grandparents) was raised in a children's home in Camden in the 20s. To suggest his early years were 'tough' is an understatement. Kicked out on his 13th birthday straight after the one decent breakfast they'd ever served him, in the clothes he stood in.

Yet, for my 18th we went on a trip up to Northampton, and he bought me the first birthday present that was from 'him'. A pair of Jeffry Wests that caught my eye.

"Two things to spend money on Sway" he'd say. "Shoes and mattresses. Cause if you're not in one, you're in the other."

22 years later, I still have those boots.

[pquinn]

valiant said:

You know the dvla is based in Wales right? You know, an area of already high unemployment and scarcity of decent secure jobs?

So you want to close down the dvla and create more unemployment in an area that is already suffering from high unemployment and force some experienced ex-staff onto benefits to move it to another area with high unemployment to take on unskilled people already on benefits?

You sure you’re a finance director?

The dvla has a LOT of problems but don’t think that the private sector is the answer to every ‘lets improve government’ question.

That's all very nice but the DVLA exists to provide a service to the people who need to use it, not to keep Welsh unemployment numbers down. If they're incapable let someone else do it.

[pquinn]

bhstewie said:

pquinn said:

Jack Monroe writing about Jack Monroe?

Lots of 'woe is me, I have it so hard' and political vitriol in there too.

Perhaps yes but I suspect she knows a little more about how to survive on a budget that the likes of Eustice and many other politicians lecturing people ever will.

I'd also trust her intentions over theirs any day of the week.

I used to have lots of time for (and interaction with) Jack, but for all her good points she just gets into too much drama for the sake of it and it gets tiring.

Especially all the problems she thinks she has, which she then creates extra for the sake of it. And indirectly makes everything about her.

Her central point is fine but she managed to pull so much into it that it got lost.

[bitchstewie]

Sway said:

My old man (I was raised by my grandparents) was raised in a children's home in Camden in the 20s. To suggest his early years were 'tough' is an understatement. Kicked out on his 13th birthday straight after the one decent breakfast they'd ever served him, in the clothes he stood in.

Yet, for my 18th we went on a trip up to Northampton, and he bought me the first birthday present that was from 'him'. A pair of Jeffry Wests that caught my eye.

"Two things to spend money on Sway" he'd say. "Shoes and mattresses. Cause if you're not in one, you're in the other."

22 years later, I still have those boots.

And having that mentality will serve anyone well provided they're in a position to be able to implement it (though I'd also add toilet paper to that list).

I saw a charity mentioned on the TV a few months ago called Zarach and I did a double take as they provide beds for families who don't have beds.

If you'd have asked me up until that point I wouldn't have given it a moments thought because you just assume everyone has a bed.

Different world for some people.

[Murph7355]

pquinn said:

valiant said:

You know the dvla is based in Wales right? You know, an area of already high unemployment and scarcity of decent secure jobs?

So you want to close down the dvla and create more unemployment in an area that is already suffering from high unemployment and force some experienced ex-staff onto benefits to move it to another area with high unemployment to take on unskilled people already on benefits?

You sure you’re a finance director?

The dvla has a LOT of problems but don’t think that the private sector is the answer to every ‘lets improve government’ question.

That's all very nice but the DVLA exists to provide a service to the people who need to use it, not to keep Welsh unemployment numbers down. If they're incapable let someone else do it.

The jobs cannot be that hard. They just need managing properly. (Or automating).

I broadly agree that it's a service....but outsourcing to low cost, non-UK locations (as would be the temptation in the private sector) would only be cost beneficial if the costs of making the Welsh incumbents redundant, including their ongoing state sponsorship, are also accounted for.

That's not an excuse for accepting piss poor behaviour/performance. Get proper targets in their for staff, and if they miss them, performance manage them out and get better people in.

[Murph7355]

And as another thought, for things live the DVLA, it's not even as if the costs should be a big problem as there's a definitive and direct payment being made if you need anything (unlike the majority of govt services). So if the dept needs 10% more money to increase its throughput, put the prices up 10% (or whatever fraction is required).

[Welshbeef]

valiant said:

Welshbeef said:

DVLA should be totally outsourced with glide path savings to the govt and increased productivity KPIs.

This work should be moved to areas of high unemployment. With the requirement that the private sector employs those on benefits to deliver.

It could be great.

You know the dvla is based in Wales right? You know, an area of already high unemployment and scarcity of decent secure jobs?

So you want to close down the dvla and create more unemployment in an area that is already suffering from high unemployment and force some experienced ex-staff onto benefits to move it to another area with high unemployment to take on unskilled people already on benefits?

You sure you’re a finance director?

The dvla has a LOT of problems but don’t think that the private sector is the answer to every ‘lets improve government’ question.

Oh no not close it down if in a poor area.

[Throttlebody]

The Govt is now deleveraging after years of debt fuelled growth and consumerism.

The slow burn of reality is gathering pace after years of feeding on the illusion of feeling richer through cheap finance and asset acquisitions.

People that have nice properties, nice cars but own nothing. The illusion of wealth is slowly unwinding. The duration of this correction process hasn’t registered yet, many hope it’s going to be short lived. Wrong, gotta get with the new program.

[crankedup5]

Sway said:

bhstewie said:

Aha!

I'd read that analogy before but didn't know where and who and couldn't remember the specifics but that will stick with me now

I have (or had) a little ritual where once a year or so I'd pop to Northampton and go round some of the factory outlets.

I could buy a "cheap" pair of Cheaney's for £100 or so and I'll still have them in 20 years assuming they still fit.

Life's pretty easy when you can afford good boots.

My old man (I was raised by my grandparents) was raised in a children's home in Camden in the 20s. To suggest his early years were 'tough' is an understatement. Kicked out on his 13th birthday straight after the one decent breakfast they'd ever served him, in the clothes he stood in.

Yet, for my 18th we went on a trip up to Northampton, and he bought me the first birthday present that was from 'him'. A pair of Jeffry Wests that caught my eye.

"Two things to spend money on Sway" he'd say. "Shoes and mattresses. Cause if you're not in one, you're in the other."

22 years later, I still have those boots.

OT/ can I ask which children’s home he was raised in, I spent some of my kids years in Dr Barnardo.

[bitchstewie]

Throttlebody said:

The Govt is now deleveraging after years of debt fuelled growth and consumerism.

The slow burn of reality is gathering pace after years of feeding on the illusion of feeling richer through cheap finance and asset acquisitions.

People that have nice properties, nice cars but own nothing. The illusion of wealth is slowly unwinding. The duration of this correction process hasn’t registered yet, many hope it’s going to be short lived. Wrong, gotta get with the new program.

Tasteless gloating aside what does that even mean?

[number2]

bhstewie said:

Throttlebody said:

The Govt is now deleveraging after years of debt fuelled growth and consumerism.

The slow burn of reality is gathering pace after years of feeding on the illusion of feeling richer through cheap finance and asset acquisitions.

People that have nice properties, nice cars but own nothing. The illusion of wealth is slowly unwinding. The duration of this correction process hasn’t registered yet, many hope it’s going to be short lived. Wrong, gotta get with the new program.

Tasteless gloating aside what does that even mean?

They are a harbinger of doom and misery, spreading their rhetoric across the forum.

[crankedup5]

Throttlebody said:

The Govt is now deleveraging after years of debt fuelled growth and consumerism.

The slow burn of reality is gathering pace after years of feeding on the illusion of feeling richer through cheap finance and asset acquisitions.

People that have nice properties, nice cars but own nothing. The illusion of wealth is slowly unwinding. The duration of this correction process hasn’t registered yet, many hope it’s going to be short lived. Wrong, gotta get with the new program.

Do you have a list of Countries that are to be expected to ‘unwind’? Although it is said that in the U.K. young people are not reaching the high water mark of their parents (broad brush).

[frisbee]

bhstewie said:

Throttlebody said:

The Govt is now deleveraging after years of debt fuelled growth and consumerism.

The slow burn of reality is gathering pace after years of feeding on the illusion of feeling richer through cheap finance and asset acquisitions.

People that have nice properties, nice cars but own nothing. The illusion of wealth is slowly unwinding. The duration of this correction process hasn’t registered yet, many hope it’s going to be short lived. Wrong, gotta get with the new program.

Tasteless gloating aside what does that even mean?

Someone's been possessed by the spirit of Private Frazer! We're all doomed!

Apart from the people who have been renting a grotty sthole for the last 20 years and driving a 30 year old Datsun who are waiting to pounce and buy up all of our worthless houses and repossessed cars.

[Countdown]

frisbee said:

Someone's been possessed by the spirit of Private Frazer! We're all doomed!

Apart from the people who have been renting a grotty sthole for the last 20 years and driving a 30 year old Datsun who are waiting to pounce and buy up all of our worthless houses and repossessed cars.

You're wrong

if it's 30 years old it'll be a Nissan...not a Datsun .....

[Sway]

crankedup5 said:

OT/ can I ask which children’s home he was raised in, I spent some of my kids years in Dr Barnardo.

I don't I'm afraid. He rarely went into much detail (same as his war exploits) apart from the odd amusing anecdote.

I know he signed up for church service, as he and his mates could duck off through the fields and go shoplifting in Woolworths for stuff to sell to those kids whose parents gave pocket money to (I always assumed they were bd kids of well to do types). There's a story there about the time he got pulled by the old bill, and making use of their only police car not only managed to not get caught but actual o got delivered back to the home with his pockets refilled!

After being kicked out at 13, by the end of that day he'd obtained lodgings and an apprenticeship at a car garage on Camden High Street. Early work mainly being on pre war Bentley and RR that had been left by pilots in the RAF until he turned 18 and was conscripted.

[crankedup5]

Sway said:

crankedup5 said:

OT/ can I ask which children’s home he was raised in, I spent some of my kids years in Dr Barnardo.

I don't I'm afraid. He rarely went into much detail (same as his war exploits) apart from the odd amusing anecdote.

I know he signed up for church service, as he and his mates could duck off through the fields and go shoplifting in Woolworths for stuff to sell to those kids whose parents gave pocket money to (I always assumed they were bd kids of well to do types). There's a story there about the time he got pulled by the old bill, and making use of their only police car not only managed to not get caught but actual o got delivered back to the home with his pockets refilled!

After being kicked out at 13, by the end of that day he'd obtained lodgings and an apprenticeship at a car garage on Camden High Street. Early work mainly being on pre war Bentley and RR that had been left by pilots in the RAF until he turned 18 and was conscripted.

Oh well it was simply curiosity on my part, I’m always interested when a ‘Barnardo Boy’ is mentioned. Sounds like he led an interesting life. We are a dying breed now, I and my Brothers spent time in the home when my Mother was taken seriously ill and Father couldn’t cope with us all. We had two stints in the home, Dr Barnardo usually took in orphans and other special cases.
Appolgies as O/T

[nickfrog]

Throttlebody said:

The Govt is now deleveraging after years of debt fuelled growth and consumerism.

The slow burn of reality is gathering pace after years of feeding on the illusion of feeling richer through cheap finance and asset acquisitions.

People that have nice properties, nice cars but own nothing. The illusion of wealth is slowly unwinding. The duration of this correction process hasn’t registered yet, many hope it’s going to be short lived. Wrong, gotta get with the new program.

I guess those who still live with their parents don't have much to lose in the short term, although their inheritance (illusory or not), if any, will be affected. But given that your predictions are systematically wrong, things might not actually be that bad.

Plenty are doing really well out of this, others will struggle to different degrees. It's mutli faceted. Perspective.

Terminal bitterness clouds judgment.

Edited by nickfrog on Saturday 14th May 16:51

[Carl_Manchester]

pquinn said:

That's all very nice but the DVLA exists to provide a service to the people who need to use it, not to keep Welsh unemployment numbers down. If they're incapable let someone else do it.

At least a third of the DVLA Staff are going be in technology, the problem this time around is that the government have not yet realised that, its quite likely that many of these people now want to work remotely and will do so not from the U.K, if they cant work remote they will leave for someone that will allow it.

Some of them will be taxed at 45-48% of their salary and so, if thats how high the taxes are going to be, you might as well live somewhere other than south wales.

Thats the mistake the british government has made, the tax rises from 2008 were not reversed and they were not expecting that remote working would ever become a factor.

I think this is spooking the governing class and you now see victorian-era messaging in the media from the likes of Jacob Rees Mogg. The responses in the telegraph article are very telling, people don't really understand that the ruling classes outsourced millions of technology jobs overseas and that it was only a matter of time before the remaining tax paying staff, based in the U.K found a way out.

Providing an SLA is fine, if you can pay what is needed to obtain that SLA and keep it there. I don't think that the money being paid in these government departments is anywhere near what it needs to be.

The answer to the cost of living squeeze for many of the technology workers at places like the DVLA will be simply to leave the U.K.