The Politics Thread 2019

[RamNut]

9 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

That's where I find Labour's position quite satisfying in many ways. I don't think it's reasonable to just cancel it without evidence there's been a shift in public opinion (for what it's worth I think there's a good chance a second vote would be still to leave). If you don't want to basically ride roughshod over a lot of people's views, you have to have a basis for changing direction. A second referendum could still give everyone a chance to make an informed decision if the choice from 3 years ago still is the option we feel is best. 

Leadership. You either believe in something or you don’t.

flip flopping to follow the populist vote is weak minded. And bear in mind that there is no consensus. Hard Brexit ? Soft Brexit? Cheese and onion Brexit? Which flavour Brexit should we pander to.

 

[Sith Happens]

On the subject of rail travel/car usage.

It amazes me in todays world with mobiles, skype, internet etc that so few companies promote working from home.

I appreciate it cannot happen for lots of people, but there are many office based people who are not customer facing where it could happen.

I am not suggesting all employees should work at home all the time, but if companies tried to implement a 1 or 2 day a week wfh per person then surely that would have a positive effect on both the environment, and the traffic on our roads.

Getting employees to the office is one issue to resolve, alternative ways of them doing work, which are easily achievable today should be another.

[Rev]

11 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

On the subject of rail travel/car usage.

It amazes me in todays world with mobiles, skype, internet etc that so few companies promote working from home.

I appreciate it cannot happen for lots of people, but there are many office based people who are not customer facing where it could happen.

I am not suggesting all employees should work at home all the time, but if companies tried to implement a 1 or 2 day a week wfh per person then surely that would have a positive effect on both the environment, and the traffic on our roads.

Getting employees to the office is one issue to resolve, alternative ways of them doing work, which are easily achievable today should be another.

One drawback to working from home is the lack of social contact with your fellow employees.

Or bonus, depending on your colleagues!

[Stive Pesley]

11 hours ago, maxjam said:

I'm really not meaning to troll with this link, but its trending atm and some of you will find it funny. 

If there is a similar one for other papers/parties post them for balance and laughs, its waaaay to despressing to take anything seriously anymore ?

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TrollingTheGuardian&src=trend_click

FWIW I found this very funny 

[Sith Happens]

11 minutes ago, reverendo de duivel said:

One drawback to working from home is the lack of social contact with your fellow employees.

Or bonus, depending on your colleagues!

Thats why i would only do it 1 or 2 days.

I actually think it can be more productive working at home.

[Stive Pesley]

4 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

Thats why i would only do it 1 or 2 days.

I actually think it can be more productive working at home.

Agreed - we've had the ability to work from home for years now. At first it was seen as an emergency type thing, and everyone was cyncial that when someone was working at home they were skiving, but these days now it's a generally accepted working method and people are trusted  -no one bats an eyelid. Obviously management have to keep an eye on things, but when people work from home as a regular thing - you can't skive because you still have to do your job in full

As for the social aspect - we spend all day on skype calls to team mates spread geographically between various UK locations, Germany, USA, Singapore, Phillipines, Bulgaria, Poland, France...I actually only have 4 team mates left in Derby now anyway thanks to "off-shoring" and the global economy

 

[1of4]

21 minutes ago, RamNut said:

Leadership. You either believe in something or you don’t.

flip flopping to follow the populist vote is weak minded. And bear in mind that there is no consensus. Hard Brexit ? Soft Brexit? Cheese and onion Brexit? Which flavour Brexit should we pander to

Surely you must have heard the mantra, leave means leave and get brexit done. Don't start mentioning different types of brexit, Asking questions like that, is tantamount to being treasonous and  downright undemocratic.

[WhiteHorseRam]

20 hours ago, maxjam said:

Nope, you lot can go ahead I'm not trying to stop you - just not interested in getting dragged into the pettiness myself.

With respect, pettiness is the Isambard Brunel Victorian concrete that this thread is built on. ?

[Stive Pesley]

1 hour ago, RamNut said:

flip flopping to follow the populist vote is weak minded.

Look - just because Boris wrote a string of articles in the 1990s for the Daily Telegraph where he made fun of EU regulations, and then in his 2001 book said he was in favour of remaining a member and that leaving would lead to a huge loss of influence, and then in 2003 said in Parliament that he was "was a big fan of the EU", and then in 2011 said that under no circumstances would he advocate leaving the single market, yet then in 2012 started talking about a referendum to look at a Norway-style relationship instead, and then in 2013 changed his mind back and reiterated that we should stay in the EU and the single market - and then in the run up to the EU referendum famously wrote two articles for the Telegraph (one saying we should remain and one saying we should leave) and waited to see how the wind was blowing before deciding which one to publish, and then after the referendum result saying that no matter what we should still have access to the single market, and then when Theresa May was drafting the withdrawal agreement changed his mind again and said he was worried that she might take us into a Norway-style agreement. Then when she published her deal he called it a "suicide vest" and said he could never vote for it - except having voted against it twice he then did vote for it, and then when she was ousted he negotiated a "new deal" that was almost identical bar a couple of paragraphs...

Apart from that - I think you're wrong to slate Boris for flip-flopping to follow the populist vote...

[Wolfie]

1 hour ago, Paul71 said:

Thats why i would only do it 1 or 2 days.

I actually think it can be more productive working at home.

 

1 hour ago, SchtivePesley said:

Agreed - we've had the ability to work from home for years now. At first it was seen as an emergency type thing, and everyone was cyncial that when someone was working at home they were skiving, but these days now it's a generally accepted working method and people are trusted  -no one bats an eyelid. Obviously management have to keep an eye on things, but when people work from home as a regular thing - you can't skive because you still have to do your job in full

It is becoming more popular. I only currently live 10 mins away from work but there is a good chance that I'll be changing jobs soon -  40 odd miles away (and over an hour commute - on a good day), I was told that the expectation would be that I'd be required on site no more than 2 days a week

[SSD]

1 hour ago, Paul71 said:

On the subject of rail travel/car usage.

It amazes me in todays world with mobiles, skype, internet etc that so few companies promote working from home.

I appreciate it cannot happen for lots of people, but there are many office based people who are not customer facing where it could happen.

I am not suggesting all employees should work at home all the time, but if companies tried to implement a 1 or 2 day a week wfh per person then surely that would have a positive effect on both the environment, and the traffic on our roads.

Getting employees to the office is one issue to resolve, alternative ways of them doing work, which are easily achievable today should be another.

If I had an office area at home, I would happily work from home on a Friday. My company does allow it if employees have to stay at home for whatever reason. I don't have any face to face meetings on a Friday, the majority of the time you can call into the meetings away. I do agree, working from home once a week is a good idea. I think companies also need to promote flexible working hours, gratefully mine does. I understand for certain jobs it's never going to be possible, however for folks like me who are office based, there's no reason why I can't start at 7:30 or 9:30. As long as you do your work and contactable via phone or email, I can't see an issue?

Flexible hours has been the best effect on my worklife. I don't feel as stressed, there's no panic if I'm late, I can go to more family/friend events. I can't promote it enough, it makes employees feel so much better at work.

 

 

[Sith Happens]

5 minutes ago, SouthStandDan said:

If I had an office area at home, I would happily work from home on a Friday. My company does allow it if employees have to stay at home for whatever reason. I don't have any face to face meetings on a Friday, the majority of the time you can call into the meetings away. I do agree, working from home once a week is a good idea. I think companies also need to promote flexible working hours, gratefully mine does. I understand for certain jobs it's never going to be possible, however for folks like me who are office based, there's no reason why I can't start at 7:30 or 9:30. As long as you do your work and contactable via phone or email, I can't see an issue?

Flexible hours has been the best effect on my worklife. I don't feel as stressed, there's no panic if I'm late, I can go to more family/friend events. I can't promote it enough, it makes employees feel so much better at work.

 

 

Agree with the flexibile hours. Its madness so many people battle to get to work for the same time to do jobs that could start at 7/8 and so on.

 

[Stive Pesley]

44 minutes ago, Van Wolfie said:

 40 odd miles away (and over an hour commute - on a good day)

I assume that's each way - in which case 2 hours in a car each day. If you were expected to be onsite 5 days a week, that'd be 10 hours a week lost to commuting. More than a whole working day. 250ish working days in a year, minus say 25 for holidays - that's 225 x 2 hours = 450 hours. Nearly 19 full days of your life per year. Spent driving a car to an office. To do something you could do from home? Madness

Ignoring the environmental impacts - the impact on your mental health to just get some of those hours back to spend with loved ones, relaxing, doing something meaningful, whatever - can't be under-estimated

[Gritstone Ram]

2 hours ago, Paul71 said:

Thats why i would only do it 1 or 2 days.

I actually think it can be more productive working at home.

It depends if you have to meet people and discuss problems with people inspect things etc... 

I work in Nottinghamshire but live 20 miles away. I once moved closer to work but my missus moved further away. We also spent more time travelling to pick up grand kids and take them for tea and drop them here and there that we ended up moving back. I need my car during the day at work to make site visits. I don’t feel I should be penalised for living closer to family for a life outside work. 

 

[Sith Happens]

9 minutes ago, Van Gritters said:

It depends if you have to meet people and discuss problems with people inspect things etc... 

I work in Nottinghamshire but live 20 miles away. I once moved closer to work but my missus moved further away. We also spent more time travelling to pick up grand kids and take them for tea and drop them here and there that we ended up moving back. I need my car during the day at work to make site visits. I don’t feel I should be penalised for living closer to family for a life outside work. 

 

Yes it does depend. There are always going to be those that cannot work at home.

I could do my job sat on a beach somewhere....something i might suggest ?

 

[Wolfie]

29 minutes ago, SchtivePesley said:

I assume that's each way - in which case 2 hours in a car each day. If you were expected to be onsite 5 days a week, that'd be 10 hours a week lost to commuting. More than a whole working day. 250ish working days in a year, minus say 25 for holidays - that's 225 x 2 hours = 450 hours. Nearly 19 full days of your life per year. Spent driving a car to an office. To do something you could do from home? Madness

Ignoring the environmental impacts - the impact on your mental health to just get some of those hours back to spend with loved ones, relaxing, doing something meaningful, whatever - can't be under-estimated

Absolutely and until I had the home-working thing clarified to me, it was unlikely that I would accept the job for that reason....plus Mrs Wolfie is semi-disabled, so it would have been both unfair and (on bad days) very difficult to shift the daily school drop off burden 100% onto her.

[AdamRam]

5 hours ago, GboroRam said:

That's where I find Labour's position quite satisfying in many ways. I don't think it's reasonable to just cancel it without evidence there's been a shift in public opinion (for what it's worth I think there's a good chance a second vote would be still to leave). If you don't want to basically ride roughshod over a lot of people's views, you have to have a basis for changing direction. A second referendum could still give everyone a chance to make an informed decision if the choice from 3 years ago still is the option we feel is best. 

Do we have another vote in 3 years to see if the opinion has changed again ?

Also labours vote is leaving with a deal or to remain in the EU, the leave option is aligned to having such things as customs union etc and therefore for me the option of leaving the EU and being in charge of our own rules and regs is not on the table.

I voted remain however the majority won, why should we vote again is beyond me.

 

[Uptherams]

19 hours ago, Bound 2 tease said:

That's the beauty of the internet, it's easily manipulated, just ask Dominic Cummings

Unbelievable. 

[Uptherams]

2 hours ago, SchtivePesley said:

I assume that's each way - in which case 2 hours in a car each day. If you were expected to be onsite 5 days a week, that'd be 10 hours a week lost to commuting. More than a whole working day. 250ish working days in a year, minus say 25 for holidays - that's 225 x 2 hours = 450 hours. Nearly 19 full days of your life per year. Spent driving a car to an office. To do something you could do from home? Madness

Ignoring the environmental impacts - the impact on your mental health to just get some of those hours back to spend with loved ones, relaxing, doing something meaningful, whatever - can't be under-estimated

It should be up to people to decide if they want to work 4 or 5 or 6 days a week. 

[GboroRam]

5 minutes ago, Uptherams said:

Unbelievable. 

I don't believe a word he comes out with either.