Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

About time water was re-nationalised followed by the trains and all utility services

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Absolutely!

IMHO, that'd be 'right problem, wrong solution'. Whilst I don't believe in artificial competition being imposed on things that are natural monopolies, and I agree that major reform of some industries is essential and overdue, I'm not convinced that ownership is the root cause of [all] the problems, or that 'nationalisation' is definitely the solution.

Arguably the problem affecting many of the privatised utilities has been the lack of sensible, effective oversight and stable, properly-funded policy. And who's responsible for that - a Regulator or a Government Department, i.e. the bit that's always been in public ownership.

Or compare with Local Councils responsible for local road networks - always been publicly owned, but are we really happy with how they've been managed over the years? Similarly the NHS situation ...

In my experience, Party Politics in our Government system means that long term planning and commitment (of the sort that sets us up for decades of reliable, predictable, quality service) is, frankly, impossible for the most part. Investment and operational funding needs to be stable, sufficient and long term for whoever builds, maintains and operates the type of assets that these networks need, but the reality is it's rarely allowed to be like that.

The worry for me is that I think there's been substantial fault with the approaches of both Blue and Red-led administrations over my lifetime, and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon. But what do I know?

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Our water bill has gone up 38%. Thanks Thames Water.

Ouch! That's properly outrageous. Almost makes my rant seem misplaced

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by embee

The biggest worry with nationalised industries is that the worst possible organisation to actually run anything is the government (of any colour). Politicians aren't interested in running anything, they are only interested in changing things, unfortunately change is just an illusion of progress.

Quote from Gaius Petronius Arbiter, circa AD60 (alleged)
“We trained hard—but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we were reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”

Gaius Petronius Arbiter actually said “Durum exercui—sed omne tempus in iunctos formare incipiebamus visum est. Postea in vita discerem quod ad quamlibet novam condicionem ordinando tendimus, et quam mirum in modum illusio progressionis effici potest, dum confusionem, inefficientiam et corruptionem actu gignendo.

[garynortheast]

GRRRRRR!!!! Peugot 207 headlight bulbs fitment. Designed by some sort of a sadist.

[Craig380]

If they're as bad as on a 2015 Vauxhall Corsa, I feel your pain ....

[svenrico]

reply 11513 was meant to be a joke by the way��

[Bibio]

Transit custom mk8. To replace the headlight bulbs you take the headlights off the van. 2 screws and it comes straight off, well thats if the screws aren't rusted solid and snap... Dlr and high been are bloody h15 bulbs so £20 upwards.

[admin]

M54 closed eastbound all weekend so traffic is diverted into the A5. And guess what? There are roadworks on the A5 too. When we finally get to the A5 roadworks, guess what? There's no sign of any work being done, no holes in the road, and no indication as to what is being done just the temporary traffic lights.

[embee]

Last year I went through the process of getting daytime Attendance Allowance for a family member. The level of detail required in the questions is absurd (what tablets are they on, how big are the tablets, how any minutes a day do they spend wiping their a*** etc).
They've had to go into a care home due to deterioration and now needing 24hr care availability.
It took 3 tries to get DWP to send me the forms to apply to upgrade the Att All to 24hr rate. When the forms eventually arrived the level of detail is again absurd.
I know the benefits system is costing us a fortune, but do they really need to know whether the tablets are 2.5mg four times a day or 5mg two times a day, and how often and how long in minutes does it take to turn over or change position in bed (I kid you not, it actually asks that).

[admin]

Originally Posted by embee

Last year I went through the process of getting daytime Attendance Allowance for a family member. The level of detail required in the questions is absurd (what tablets are they on, how big are the tablets, how any minutes a day do they spend wiping their a*** etc).
They've had to go into a care home due to deterioration and now needing 24hr care availability.
It took 3 tries to get DWP to send me the forms to apply to upgrade the Att All to 24hr rate. When the forms eventually arrived the level of detail is again absurd.
I know the benefits system is costing us a fortune, but do they really need to know whether the tablets are 2.5mg four times a day or 5mg two times a day, and how often and how long in minutes does it take to turn over or change position in bed (I kid you not, it actually asks that).

And you wonder about who much time and effort it takes to administer the returns and what that costs.
My wife is on the higher level of PIP and has to renew that every three years. She had that renewal last August even though she still had nine months to go. Last week she chased up that renewal as she's heard nothing since. She was told that the processing team were 12 months behind. Now consider that she had a lifetime award when she was on DLA as she has MS and never had to be reassessed. So her PIP is likely to just be renewed but someone at the DWP has to check and approve that . How many cases are like that in the system? How much time and money is wasted on PIP claiments that have health issues that are never likely to improve?