Steve_

Friend of mine got fined for not having a TV licence when he was in uni. They don't use detector vans, they don't need to, they just assume everyone has a TV until proven otherwise.

I remember once I bought a TV for use at the office, it was only being used for video playback of H&S videos as I recall. Anyway, no licence required but they did send many letters - when you buy a TV they report the address of the purchaser to TV licensing. What happened later on was that the law was changed so you have to have a TV licence to operate a TV, not actually receive signals, so then a licence had to be acquired.

Steve_

Did I say it wasn't? What I said was that the financial industry and oil and gas keeps them going, or at least past tense it did. The UK is overwhelmingly a service economy and financial services are a sizable chunk of that.

Financial services alone employ over a million people, or they did at least, not sure about now.

Oil and gas has been declining for awhile.

Steve_

On a per capita basis Canada is higher, iirc.

Steve_

It was more about not being dependent on foreign energy, like the Japanese are.

Alan2005

Does this rhetorical sleight of hand mean you accept that Canada is great for protected teachers who are in the system, but shit for those on welfare or min wage? (which was the only reason I mentioned it in the first place)

And, no government has ever cut spending. It's a simple truth that the state will always gets bigger every year - doesn't matter who's in power.

FirstRatofftheShipUK

Just to clarify - what I meant was i) active BBC Agent 'visit' ii) active prosecution iii) active Enforcement of said prosecution.

I am guessing that your friend at some point held his hand up to his deviancy and accepted to pay a fine offered (by post one would think).

Re "assumptions" - presumptions cut both ways, do they not

Edit: Fixed that for you.

FROTSUK

JonboyE

Two less as of today.

Alan2005

I don't think oil has been that significant for a while. Yes, financials are a big deal - and they will continue to be so given London's international standing.

There is no doubt that the UK is in for some tough times for a few more years while it's reliance on a financials adjusts; however the UK will be better for it and there is scope for growth in the other things that the UK excels at. That's what supposed to happen in a recessions.

Of course, the main problem with all this is that eventually a eurozone country is going to default - and that will affect all countries negatively; even resource rich countries like Canada where people think they are insulated from all that. The sooner this happens the better really - deferred pain is almost always worse than pain now.

douglasgrant

Well, actually yes. Because a few people lied.
- the gov. brain washed high school kids 10 years ago that there will be a huge demand for teachers because lots of new neighbourhoods and schools will be built and lots of teachers will retire
- well, not as many schools as they though got built. so now, depending where you live, some classrooms resemble university lecture halls in sheer number of kids packed into them.
- then, every single higher ed. institution jumped onto the same "lets make lots of teachers for the government" bandwagon so they could get more funding -- without much regard for filtering..
- and then, the amount of teachers anticipated to retire was nowhere near what they predicted, because teachers aren't stupid. if you are a teacher at the top of the salary grid and at the top of a seniority list in a unionized environment, why the hell would you retire at 55 when you can keep showing up to work and collecting the top of the salary grade?


So what you have now is a lot of unemployed teachers trying t figure out how to get a job as a teacher.

(I am sorry to be such a party pooper. I am not normally like this.)

Alan2005

Why is that CEO's just get sacked for fraud when you or I would go to prison?

And that story is going to get bigger - there's no way that it was just barclays up to that sort of shenanigans.

Alan2005

Yes, there's an over supply of teachers. The solution is simple - pay them less until such time as the demand for teaching jobs matches the supply of teachers willing to do it. No teacher is going to accept that though.

didikai

Yawn.....
Do you know what is happening in the real world?

ExKiwilass

+1

ExKiwilass

the whole teacher issue does my head in. grah.

Almost Canadian

When I was living with my now wife, she didn't have a licence and the van detector man turned up at our door. He told her what she had just been watching and told her to get a licence pronto. Maybe he was just guessing