Volumous amounts of atmospheric movement, vast stocks of
skywater, vestiges of lack of cold and very little solar activity at the Castle
this morn, orf out to find somewhere that actually has any shops left with free
parking and covered walkways-I may be gorn some time....
First class stamps could be a thing of the past, “they” want
to axe the two-tier system of first and second-class postage and put an end to
next-day mail.
Instead a single stamp would cost 53p with letters taking two days to arrive.
At present a first-class stamp, which should mean post arrives the next day, costs 60p while second-class, which takes up to three days, is 50p.
Ofcom is thinking of making the change after surveying customers.
The poll revealed that six out of 10 users want Royal Mail to drop the two classes of stamp.
Allegedly given a choice, 58 per cent of firms questioned preferred a single two-day service.
Instead a single stamp would cost 53p with letters taking two days to arrive.
At present a first-class stamp, which should mean post arrives the next day, costs 60p while second-class, which takes up to three days, is 50p.
Ofcom is thinking of making the change after surveying customers.
The poll revealed that six out of 10 users want Royal Mail to drop the two classes of stamp.
Allegedly given a choice, 58 per cent of firms questioned preferred a single two-day service.
Researchers found that the public relies less on post in
favour of the internet, email, phone and text.
The number of postal items sent by customers each week has more than halved from an average of 3.5 items to 1.5 items over the past six years. And nearly a quarter of consumers expect to send even less mail in three years' time.
The proposal is subject to a public consultation, which closes on December 18.
The number of postal items sent by customers each week has more than halved from an average of 3.5 items to 1.5 items over the past six years. And nearly a quarter of consumers expect to send even less mail in three years' time.
The proposal is subject to a public consultation, which closes on December 18.
Wouldn’t make a difference, I don’t think I have ever got a
letter the next day after posting even with a ‘first class stamp’.
During the last month of this year the UK's 220,000 doctors
will have annual appraisals, with a decision taken every five years on whether
they are fit to continue working.
But it will be April 2016 before the vast majority of the
first round of checks has been done.
Elf secretary Jeremy CHunt said it was about addressing
"deficiencies" in skills and reckons that if doctors failed to satisfy the standards of the General Medical
Council (GMC) they would be prevented from practising.
But he said the new
system was about identifying where there were "gaps" in knowledge or
skills and giving doctors a "chance to put it right".
He said the vast
majority of doctors "do a brilliant job" but when the government
carried out a survey last year of 300 health bodies, there were "serious
concerns" with 0.7% of doctors - a figure Mr Hunt described as
"significant".
"At the end of
the day if the GMC is not satisfied that someone is up to speed then, yes, they
will be prevented from practising," he told BBC Breakfast.
According to
Niall Dickson the top knob at the
General Medical Council "This is an historic moment. It is the biggest
change in medical regulation for 150 years [since the creation of the
GMC]."
He said the system
should help improve quality, but he admitted the health industry had been
"slow to recognise" the importance of such checks.
The introduction of
regular checks - dubbed a medical MOT - has been talked about for more than 30
years.
Serious
consideration started being given to the issue in the mid-1990s.
Each NHS
organisation from hospitals to local networks of GP practices will have a
responsible officer, such as a medical director, in charge of revalidation.
They will assess
the annual appraisals along with feedback from patients and colleagues to make
a recommendation about revalidation to the GMC every five years.
Minor issues that
do not constitute a risk to safety may lead to revalidation being deferred for
a short period, but major problems will result in the doctor not having their
licence to practise revalidated.
Waste of time and money...if your medic tries to kill you
forget about the complaints procedure (it doesn’t work) just sue the bugger and
refer him/her to the Piss Poor GMC.
But it seems that the Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club
Coalition do not have the same strength of will.
Here is the full list of government u-turns from the
Torygraph:
Destruction
of buzzard nests, Pasty
tax, Caravan
tax, Secret
justice, Euro
veto, Employment
law reform, Joint
strike fighter, Sentencing,
Health
reforms, Forest
sell-off, State
retirement age for women, Anonymity
for rape defendants, Personal
photographer on public payroll, Free
school milk cuts, Bookstart
funding, Financial
Inclusion Fund, Housing
benefit cut for jobless, Immigration
pledge, Coastguard
cuts, Circus
animals ban, World
Service cuts, Mobility
benefit cut, Youth
Justice Board, Chief
coroner, Knife
crime sentencing, Domestic
violence protection orders, Ofsted
snap school inspections, Child
benefit, Video
games tax relief, NHS
targets, Plans
to recall MPs, Charity
Tax, Petrol
duty, Assault
payouts, West
Coast mainline, and Energy
tariffs.
I make that 36 times that the tossers have changed their minds since they
were not elected into power.
Makes you proud-doesn’t it?
A "man" is standing in a garden in just his
swimming trunks next to a frozen pool.
Clearly revelling in his moment in front of the camera, the
confident showman gets down on one knee as he takes a second to admire his own
muscle-bound physique.
After striking a rock star pose followed by a Usian Bolt
lightning strike, the German-speaking man then launches himself at full speed
towards the frozen pool.
Said Numpty fails to break the ice, landing on the slippery
surface with a loud thud.
Bet that hurt, at least I hope it did...
A Zimbabwean man assaulted his wife and dragged her to a
village court last week where she was found guilty of disobeying custom by
failing to give him the juiciest pieces of chicken.
Nomusa Sibanda, 24, gave her husband the gizzard, wings and
one drumstick and ate the chicken breast and second drumstick herself,
according to local newspaper, The Sunday News.
Jabulani Ncube, 40 was incensed and beat up his wife who
fled to her grandmother's house.
The next day, he forced her to attend the village court
where he complained to the traditional leaders in the Nkayi Communal Land, 100
miles north east of Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo, that his wife was
"uncultured and disrespectful".
He warned that he would seek a divorce if she again failed
to give him the drumsticks and breast which in traditional culture are due to
the man of the house.
Mrs Sibanda was unrepentant and told the court: "How
long shall I slaughter chickens and not taste the back portion?"
Till you manage to reach the twenty first century mate....
The Normans and Saxons didn’t manage to re-enact the battle
of Hastings in Sussex on Sunday.
English Heritage said the recreation of the famous 1066
battle, held on what is believed to be the original battlefield, could not go
ahead because- of Elfandsafety: 'Although
the forecast was for fair weather, unexpected torrential rain over several
hours resulted in unacceptably high levels of mud both on the battlefield and
on public areas,' a spokesman said.
'For safety reasons, the event cannot go ahead.’
Nothing worse than rusty armour....
And finally:
A Pillock of a puss managed to get stuck up a tree, then on
a roof and finally ending up in the ventilation system of a block of flats
where she had to be freed by firemen.
Fleck, was first spotted by anxious residents hanging from
the top of the tree, tenants
at the block of flats raised the alarm and called their local fire brigade;
however - by the time her rescuers arrived, the cat had managed to scramble
onto a nearby rooftop.
When firemen tried to free the pet from the roof they discovered Fleck had vanished and assumed she had made her own way to safety.
But a short while later they were called back again when locals realised the cat had got into the ventilation system of the block of flats, in Essen, Germany.
Fire Brigade spokesman Mike Filzen said: "We could hear her calling and getting deeper and deeper into the building all the time.
When firemen tried to free the pet from the roof they discovered Fleck had vanished and assumed she had made her own way to safety.
But a short while later they were called back again when locals realised the cat had got into the ventilation system of the block of flats, in Essen, Germany.
Fire Brigade spokesman Mike Filzen said: "We could hear her calling and getting deeper and deeper into the building all the time.
"Eventually she seemed to get finally stuck in a
bathroom in one of the flats so we resorted to a hammer and chisel to make a
hole in the wall, and then used a linen basket to catch her and bring her to
safety," he added, speaking to the Austrian Times.
Fleck was then reunited with her owner Katarina Schell, 36, who also agreed to pay a builder to fix the hole in the wall of the bathroom.
Fleck was then reunited with her owner Katarina Schell, 36, who also agreed to pay a builder to fix the hole in the wall of the bathroom.
I do like a pussy with character...
That’s it: I’m orf to get
the tape measure out.
And today’s thought:
It comes to us all-eventually
Angus
