The grumpy thread

[cort1977]

That's what is needed. For something that is required by law it shouldn't be in the hands of money grabbers who set the rules as they go.

Yes, this.  Works pretty well in NZ and no real reason why something similar couldn't be made to work in UK except the entrenched power of the insurance industry.

[meggersdog]

So I'm just leaving work when a  white van rocks up.I'm just getting in the car when man from Yodel says "there's no one at number 7 can you take a parcel for them".Firstly he didn't try the door as he just got out of his van but the place looked locked up.Secondly my unit along with the one next door is locked up and I could have been a random anybody.Most of us in the industrial estate are a friendly bunch and help eachother so I took the parcel , put it in the car and drove off.Thirdly, when I got home I had a quick look to see which one it was  addressed to as there are two in that unit.It's only for some woman two roads away not the industrial estate. Well done Yodel.

[Datsuncog]

That's what is needed. For something that is required by law it shouldn't be in the hands of money grabbers who set the rules as they go.

Yep, I found the compulsory insurance system in Australia surprisingly easy to navigate. And you do get to choose insurer, too (I was with RACQ).

 

Can't remember exactly how much a year's rego (combined VED and third party insurance) cost for my Corona, but it was a fair whack less than it would have cost in the UK. Think it was under £200 anyway. None of this pissing about because Doris round the corner pranged her Fiesta and claimed, so now the entire postcode's been blacklisted as high risk... gaaah.

[Pillock]

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Plus the fact that a government website is the baseline of usability and most insurers can't even get that high.

 

I'm sure there are other examples of needing something by law that's only available from a commercial entity. But firstly I can't think of any, and secondly they're probably a ripoff as well.

[mercrocker]

Crash helmets, for one thing, are mandatory.   Yet the commercial availability of these does not seem governed by greed and bureaucracy.   Nah, its just the insurance companies - ultimately of course driven by underwriters, re-insurance, risk sharing and all the other trappings of a financial service industry which is after all what it is.   No different to blood-sucking estate agents, useless plodding solicitors, pension fund managers etc etc.

[SierraMikeHotel]

This government can't implement it. They're far too devoted to the idea that the private sector always everything better, despite any evidence to the contrary.

 

Sound idea though.

[New POD]

EFA.

cunning linguists

brilliant

 

laughed my arse right off

[New POD]

So I'm just leaving work when a white van rocks up.I'm just getting in the car when man from Yodel says "there's no one at number 7 can you take a parcel for them".Firstly he didn't try the door as he just got out of his van but the place looked locked up.Secondly my unit along with the one next door is locked up and I could have been a random anybody.Most of us in the industrial estate are a friendly bunch and help eachother so I took the parcel , put it in the car and drove off.Thirdly, when I got home I had a quick look to see which one it was addressed to as there are two in that unit.It's only for some woman two roads away not the industrial estate. Well done Yodel.

They delivered my personalized party napkins with my mother in laws picture on it all the way from somewhere in the USA no problem.

I even got a text telling me what time i had signed for it.

 

At a time when I was 100 miles away.

Wife received it but denies signing for it.

[chaseracer]

Well something is wrong because both my speedo and satnav clearly said I was doing 95.

 

You won't break the JOG-LE record at that pathetic velocity, you AMATEUR.

[Cavcraft]

You won't break the JOG-LE record at that pathetic velocity, you AMATEUR.

 

I reckon Hairnet and I should do Le Jog on our mopeds, just for shits and giggles. 

[New POD]

Having just driven 1500 plus miles in 10 days to the North West of Scotchland. of which 300 miles were on B roads with passing places. I can tell you that 95% Of road users in That part of the world are capable polite and safe. And yet they know how to make progress.

The other 5% are French or Dutch.

[MikeR]

having just sat in a tin wagon on a site for 2 days with no fuckwits or bone heads around , they were all waiting for me at switch island , twat in micra nearly rear ended a landrover trying to block me off ...  I smiled at the cunt ....

 

what he did not know was my right turn was a mile down the road and I could of pissed around with him for ages !!

[Eddie Honda]

Even a government run agency set up for centrally issued mandatory insurance would be less stressful than buying from most insurers.

That's what is needed. For something that is required by law it shouldn't be in the hands of money grabbers who set the rules as they go.

 

I think the last thing that is needed is a government run "agency". They'd probably get Crapita involved...

[GrumpiusMaximus]

 

I think the last thing that is needed is a government run "agency". They'd probably get Crapita involved...

 

 

That's outsourcing again.

 

Outsourcing is the beginning of the slide to shit.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Necessary background: I do a public sector job, started in 2008 in Surrey and transferred to the same job in Sussex in 2014. I get a Local Government Pension Scheme pension.

A minor detail that should have happened didn't happen when I transferred.  I recently noticed and asked them to fix it.

 

Today I had a letter apologising for the oversight, saying that they'd fixed it... plus a little aside saying oh by the way we need you to confirm your date of birth so can you send us your ORIGINAL birth certificate or passport in the post?

 

Out of the last TEN YEARS I've worked for a really quite important government agency with really quite good security is this really the first time you've felt that you need to see some original documents?  Even though you've been willing to bank my money off payroll for ten years?

 

I'm not posting my irreplaceable birth certificate anywhere.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...I'm not posting my irreplaceable birth certificate anywhere.

Just send 'em a certified copy long-form certificate.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Necessary background: I do a public sector job, started in 2008 in Surrey and transferred to the same job in Sussex in 2014. I get a Local Government Pension Scheme pension.

 

A minor detail that should have happened didn't happen when I transferred.  I recently noticed and asked them to fix it.

 

Today I had a letter apologising for the oversight, saying that they'd fixed it... plus a little aside saying oh by the way we need you to confirm your date of birth so can you send us your ORIGINAL birth certificate or passport in the post?

 

Out of the last TEN YEARS I've worked for a really quite important government agency with really quite good security is this really the first time you've felt that you need to see some original documents?  Even though you've been willing to bank my money off payroll for ten years?

 

I'm not posting my irreplaceable birth certificate anywhere.

 

 

Send the original?

 

You're having a fucking laugh!  That's brilliant.  Best one I've heard in ages.

 

I'll be the first to admit that the Public Sector is baggy and this sort of thing isn't unusual.  The main difference is that if this were the Private Sector, they'd try to charge you for changing anything because of shareholders...

 

I'm only half kidding.  The best jobs I've worked have been Voluntary Sector and Public Sector.  The Private Sector jobs were full of sharks, charlatans and criminals.

[mercrocker]

I recently sent my ORIGINAL licence off to my pension administrator, as requested  demanded by them in order that they, too, would know who I am.   Didn't bother them who I was when I was paying in for the last 24 years, but still....  

 

Despite mailing it Special D. AND receiving a query back from them unrelated to my identity (proving they got the forms that went with the licence) they still tried to say they never had it when I rang them 2 weeks later.  They PROMISED to return it upon sight - just logging its existence was apparently enough, then after a fortnight they claim they haven't seen it!  

 

I imagine the conversations when deciding which fund to invest our pension contributions in - "Did you put 6 mill on the emerging Chinese - NK rejuvenation entry-level hedge, Tarquin?"    "Er, no, the line was busy so I chucked it in the Nationwide for a couple of weeks....."

[beko1987]

I've broken a hoover... Anyone make bowden cables with little round ends on on here?

[STUNO]

I've broken a hoover... Anyone make bowden cables with little round ends on on here?

 

This statement has to go down in history. Beko loses his lifetime reputation in one hoover 

[rainagain]

I find that the higher the population density the greater the number of idiots on the road. Its primarily reason number one I'm extremely tempted to move out of Bristol suburbs and back to the countryside. I'd love to live in west wales, but unfortunately there isn't work for me over there. More annoyingly, the industry I'm in (software + hardware development) I need to be either along the M4/M5 corridor, Cambridge or London. Of which everywhere is very busy, overcrowded and expensive.

 

I was discussing the same thing with my OH, where we stay has become a commuter town and it now jammed packed with asshats driving various VAG products aggressively for no justifiable reason. I have family that stay near Inverness and the pace of everything there including driving seems far more relaxed, we're getting more and more tempted to join them if only we could find employment up there.

[New POD]

I have family that stay near Inverness and ...........we're getting more and more tempted to join them if only we could find employment up there.

And there is the problem. What's the cosy of a Monday Morning flight to say Brum? I could commute by plane to the Midlands or London weekly?

[Lacquer Peel]

Having just driven 1500 plus miles in 10 days to the North West of Scotchland. of which 300 miles were on B roads with passing places. I can tell you that 95% Of road users in That part of the world are capable polite and safe. And yet they know how to make progress.

The other 5% are French or Dutch.

Some of those single track roads are actually 'A' roads.

[Eddie Honda]

I've broken a hoover... Anyone make bowden cables with little round ends on on here?

 

Make your own. Either with soldered or solderless nipples. A visit to the local bicycle shop might prove fruitful.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...... I'd love to live in west wales, but unfortunately there isn't work for me over there. ....

 

Probably realistically to be considered if you're in farming, or are going into retirement. I have a couple of friends who will be retiring next month, and have found themselves a house with land in Carmarthenshire as they find Hertfordshire too expensive to live in.

[Guest Hooli]

Having just driven 1500 plus miles in 10 days to the North West of Scotchland. of which 300 miles were on B roads with passing places. I can tell you that 95% Of road users in That part of the world are capable polite and safe. And yet they know how to make progress.

The other 5% are French or Dutch.

 

Best place in Britain for driving, as you say anyone semi-local is actually capable of driving.

[MikeR]

Make your own. Either with soldered or solderless nipples. A visit to the local bicycle shop might prove fruitful.

the metal bit out of a 5amp "choccy" block makes a good cable nipple in an emergency  , or to even join a new end onto the cable 

[SiC]

Probably realistically to be considered if you're in farming, or are going into retirement. I have a couple of friends who will be retiring next month, and have found themselves a house with land in Carmarthenshire as they find Hertfordshire too expensive to live in.

Another 38 years for me to wait before then. I went on holiday around Carmarthenshire earlier this year and it brought back my enjoyment of driving. The amount you get for your money (compared to Bristol area) is staggering. £400k will get you around 10 acres of land with a decent house. The holiday cottage we stopped in was owned by a couple who had moved out of Bristol a couple of years ago and making a go of holiday cottages + glamping as a business.

 

To say I was tempted was an understatement.

 

Really my only way of doing such a thing would be to set my own business up. Unfortunately my good ideas pool is utterly dry at the moment.

[Cavcraft]

[Tadhg Tiogar]

.....I went on holiday around Carmarthenshire earlier this year and it brought back my enjoyment of driving. The amount you get for your money (compared to Bristol area) is staggering. £400k will get you around 10 acres of land with a decent house. ....

 

That's pretty much what my friends are buying. Selling the Herts. house for about £700k, paying off the mortgage, and then moving to Carmarthenshire with the remainder, lock stock and horses. About four hours'-plus drive from London.