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Or whatever your new fangled recording device is, for Thursday at 8pm, ch4. Confessions of a Traffic Warden with secret filming by wardens and its all Westminsters wardens.

Wonder if we'll see any of our friends or indeed ourselves at Soho.

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it's actually scheduled for 9pm, it's supposed to be about how new emigrants take on the job and are introduced to the worse face of britain.

Cheers Mark.

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Is that you confirming that we WILL be on it ?

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I believe the saying is "if the cap fits....."

;)

Cheers Mark.

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Yeah, Ive seen this advertised. The advert makes you feel sorry for the traffic ward's :(

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But I'm at a classical music spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall so I'll miss it and I don't have a new fangled 'video recorder'. (Yes I know classical music is for old people in tweed suits - but I am going to see Alice In Chains tonight to make up for it.)

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And there was me thinking it would be because you were eating pizza... :smt022

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oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh! They were my very very favourite band for a long time. Hope you enjoy the gig!

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D'OH! #-o

Looks like it could be interesting and perhaps might shed some light on the question i'm forever asking...Why the hell would anyone want that job??

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Only reason I can tell is 'because it's a job'.

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Some might be in it for the uniform... :smt112

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Or possibly the power trip :smt102

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Hmmm....

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Man, even when i've been desperate for a job its not something thats ever crossed my mind. Its something that even desperation doesnt justify.

Uniforms, mmmm. But seriously, there are far better uniforms you could wear if that was your thing. Even the community support uniforms are better than those.

This is the only one that seems possible to me tbh.

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I bet in the role of traffic warden you don't have to spend the day looking after American boy band 'The Jonas Brothers' - which is what I will be doing on Friday! I've been invited to the sold out show at Wembley afterwards. Alice in Chains last night - classical tomorrow, Jonas Brothers on Friday. Weird week.

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Ha ha.

I know someone who'll be VERY jealous of you! One of our patients at the hospital... been stuck in here for months, very poorly, and she's only 18.

She's totally nuts about Nick Jonas!!!

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What's her name?

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PMd.

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that sounds like people being nice there! hurrah!

whats wrong with classical?

and they are parking attendants, not traffic wardens...and should be treated with distain

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They'd be able to do a better job if they weren't paid by the ticket. What percentage of Westminster tickets get thrown out?

Can remember my brother getting ticketed for parking on private property in front of his work garage while he went inside to get the garage keys. took about 4 Months of threatening letters before it got tossed.

Bound to annoy.

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This used to be the case till there was a public outcry about it. Apparently there is a law that states you cannot make money off the back of fines, so all boroghs had to stop paying by the ticket or paying bonuses for the most tickets issued etc. Camden even had a car as a first prize for their wardens a few years back would you believe.

So now they just set them minimun targets to prove they were working that day, otherwise they know it would be all to easy for them to simply skive off all day and say they encountered no illegal parking at all that day on their particular route. Hence the plethora of stupid tickets issued sometimes :roll:

Yet they are paid bonuses on the number of tickets given vs the number challenged etc so its still not in their benefit to do it....but they do :roll:

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Reminder. This is on now.

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OMG!!!! a £1 parking fee and you get a £80 fine for a motorbike

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I am incensed!

The idiot that's the subject of the programme thinks British people are 'decadent' and his certain implication is that we are dishonest too.

'It's not how I wanted to serve the public.'

You're not serving the public you fool! You're a stooge for a greedy and irresponsible council who only see your function in monetary terms, there is absolutely no manner at all in which you're serving anyone other than Westminster, they'll put you on the front line and take the money you raise, and they clearly don't give a monkeys about how that's done.

'I empathise.'

Well all that empathising soon wore off didn't it? He now feels ashamed, oh dear, poor man. You have a job where you 'scold' people, is this for real? You want respect for that? You ought to feel ashamed. Your business is taking people's hard earned for nothing in return 'cos you can, that's it, no more, no higher purpose. And it feels worse than being pickpocketed, as we're being 'legally' mugged in a cynical exploitation of a circumstance engineered very carefully in order to raise money, however Westminster dress it up, this business exists, and only exists, to make money and there is no currency in bleating about legality or otherwise.

Derga, you're a fool.

But worse; you're an exploited fool.

Anyone wonder why Westminster are now charging for parking bikes? You have your answer; Kevin says 'we don't make any money from parking enforcement'. Yeah, right. Or maybe it should be: Damn! We raped our Golden Goose so hard it died, what will our boys do now?

On top of this the wally that's making the programme thinks WE ought to be ashamed about Derga & co's treatment. I'm speechless! This clearly is a great vantage point from which to gain a realistic picture of the British people.

OK I admit it, I'm not speechless. Not really.

But I am angry, even more now.

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Glad I reminded you now Ian..! ;)

I also wonder how many of those fools will have a job tomorrow after that programme.

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I actually thought it was interesting to see how someone who was relatively intelligent, wanted to help people and had some degree of morals coped with being a Westminster traffic warden.

It showed up very clearly the disparity between the role, and in particular how it is being implemented, and the rest of humanity!

And that Derga really is a poor naive fool....

What really go me though was the bloke who hid round the corner and claimed he was being pushed into it. Noone is forcing you to do that job or shaft people even more than you usually do!! No sympathy here if he does lose his job for that...

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I was shocked at the language used against the traffic wardens. Granted they are being exploited by Westminster council and others around the country. But is this really a fair way to treat any human being? The worst part was the asian shouting verbal abuse at the african warden and the warden being told by the police that nothing can be done if you are verbally abused! so get punched or stabbed and you can call for help otherwise don't bother. Don't they pay there taxes as well?

Why can't disputes be dealt with in a manner where no party is abused verbally, Mentally or physically?

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I note my argument didn't seem to make it onto the final cut. I'm relatively sure I ended up in discussions with the thinner black guy who was doing his soho rounds at the start of the piece.

But as I didn't call him a ***** ***** ****ing ***** it clearly didn't serve their purposes to show the discussion.

I felt for Derga, I really did, he is, as Ian says an exploited fool. He came to the country with truly naive and utopian ideas about what he would find here and picked a job that would expose him to the very worst hostility of the British public. However, he failed to realise that what he was doing did not help the community, and look for another job.

I do think people have the right to work without being treated like this, but it's a relatively recent attitude, borne entirely of frustration at the situation created by the councils for their own gain.

Jambo

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Derga Derga Derga

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The same could be said for said " Saftey camera's" ( Expanded over the last few years like the numbers of Traffic Wardens) at the side of roads which have an earning potential worth 20 Traffic wardens. But you don't see many people mouthing off to the police.

I'm not defending the work of traffic wardens I personally don't like the way they are not seen as somone's dad/Brother/Mother etc. Just because they wear a uniform does that give any one the right to shout them down and make them feel like the scum of the earth?

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I have removed my previous post having realised it was a rant at the establishment in it's entirety, and didn't address Saeed's point :rolleyes:

Short answer: I would have to say respect for all corners of the target driven police and traffic services has dropped considerably in the last 10 years. PCSOs, Highways Agency Traffic Officers, Traffic Wardens, City Guardians and volunteer police officers all fill roles once held by dedicated, public servants.

Yes they're people and should be treated as such, but there's an understandable resentment from the population.

It's also worth pointing out plenty of people were reasonable to the traffic wardens and hence didn't make the cut;)

Jambo

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Isn't that off team America?

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Hindeed :D

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I was out last night so haven't see this yet and only skimmed the comments very briefly so i cant wait to watch it when i get a chance.

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Interesting programme to me.

I'm still amazed by some people idea of what this country is really like as opposed to the out their ideal they create of it in their heads.

Its not just Derga but all who come to this country, the poles and other eastern europeans as the most recent influx of migrants with this same ideal.

Anyway i agree with all the comments above tbh to a degree, yes the are fools pickpocketing us for a faceless employer who dont give a hoot about them. TBH i'd rather each individual warden pick-pocketed me as at least the cash would go to them and then i could understand their desire but collecting it for govts and getting paid just above minimum wage???? Just goes back to my constant question of why the hell these people do it. OK not the Dergas who have a conscience about the job but all the others who do it long term.

But still there is no need to talk to another person that way. As you all know i have plenty of experience with wardens yet you see how i always try and be civil and polite to them even when i'm not in the mood for them and its not just at soho either, in my years doing property all round hampstead and st johns wood i'd have run ins with them on a daily basis, even had an article printed in the Guardian many years ago about my experiences with them in those areas and very rarely have i found the need to get nasty with them. Those of you who know me well know i'm no angel and have witnessed me giving out to them in soho squre in the past perhaps but i dont ever resort to calling them racist names or threatening them with violence...whats the point?

And as for that guy saying the gops told him being verbally abused was ok and its freedom of speech...f**k right off mate, cos if any of us spoke to a cop like that it'd be one warning of a section 5 public order offence and then they'd nick you without hesitation. So why the hell do they allow these guys to get abused?
Easy, cos no matter how right or wrong any of the above is EVERYBODY hates being mugged for trivial parking offences like this and they take it out on those who issue tickets. They are simply seen as the "lowest form of scum" as that guy said and no one gives 2 hoots about them.

Which brings me back to my unanswered question.... why the hell does anyone do that job???

Imagine if EVERYBODY in the country refused to be a traffic warden, just point blank refused and took any other job. The enforcement would stop. Viva la revolution my warden brothers...down your tools of corporate pickpocketing and go get a job in any fast food place. I beg you to do this for all our sakes and for your owns souls.
You know it makes sense!

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I was also really shocked at the racist nature of the insults, I thought the police COULD act on racist abuse??

I actually thought they dealt with the attitude/abuse pretty well a the scene, but that doesn't mean to say that the negativity doesn't grind you down over time

Yeah I was really surprised that they only get £7/hr - no wonder it is mainly new immigrants who do it because, a) they don't realise how hated traffic wardens are and how badly they get treated, and b) many don't have a lot of choice in the job market due to poor English skills.

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I can only be surprised that anyone is surprised, be a thief - get treated like a thief. I'd shout at a hand-bag thief, I'd abuse a burglar - what's the difference?

Racist abuse; hmmmmmm... Is it? Is it really?

I'm not so sure, there are people who say all sorts of ridiculous things when angry, picking on any difference twixt them and the object of their ire, things that they when in a more relaxed frame of mind wouldn't say. I don't think it's so different. Before any idiot reads this and calls me a racist or that I don't think racist behaviour is a problem, think about what I just said, would we have the same attitude to some who called a Westminster cash machine fat? Or four eyed. I suggest we wouldn't have the same attitude to the latter. Are we so sure that the angry people are racists? I'm not, particularly considering that one is himself Asian.

Crashing back to the point:

Saeed: It is demonstration of what a lovely gentleman you are that you possibly think that could concievably be what will occur. There is no 'dispute' here, your money will be removed from you, with steadily increasing threats of legal force until you capitulate and do what the whole shabby business is about and just pay up. Where is there a dispute? There isn't, which is precisely why people get frustrated and annoyed, and expecting behaviour other than that is simply not realistic. Further; considering the public's attitude to the thievery of the parking warden industry, that so many people are reasonable is the true testament to the fantastic attitude of the British populace.

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I totally get you here mate, if i was wanting to get under the skin of a fat, black lesbian woman for whatever reason, i'd have 3 buttons i know i could push immediately. If i chose any of those obvious ones then i could get called a sizeist, racist or homophobic yet i'm none of those things really.

I think Rictus said it well in another thread somewhere...its playground racism, saying anything you know will immeadiately upset someone to get a reaction.
Is it right to treat these guys this way tho? I dont think so personally, hence i dont do it or understand others who do.
Parking, as Derga said, is like a game. A game where we loose our hard earned, hence whenever iget a chance to dispute a ticket or help someone else dispute a ticket i happily will.
If everyone who had a ticket issued contested it, even if there was no point, the the system would just go into meltdown. Sadly there just isnt that spirit amongst the populace to do this so they vent their frustration at the system to the guys on the ground.
So its up to the guys on the ground to stop doing it, problem solved :lol:

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my question is, why the fines have to be so high? after all its only parking, london won't sink if the parking meter is a few minutes over.

if the fines are 80% lower, we all might be happier :rolleyes: it'll be more of a slap on the hand, which it should be, instead of robbing.

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they justify higher fines each and every time this way...clearly our fines are no deterrent cos people continue to park illegally, if they were higher they would be more of a deterrent. :roll:

They talked of making the fines £160 at one point iirc.