Wednesday 22 August 2012

Sheffield mum says son is ‘virtually imprisoned’ in Qatar - Local - The Star

Sheffield mum says son is ‘virtually imprisoned’ in Qatar - Local - The Star

How can this be resolved in the interests of the boy.

Strike back on at Sheffield ‘dump it’ sites - Green Scene - The Star

Strike back on at Sheffield ‘dump it’ sites - Green Scene - The Star

In all my 40 years in employment I have never been in a union or felt the need to go on strike.  I do however, fully support the men employed by SOVA  at the recycling sites.  Under the conditions there work they do an excellent job.

My beef is with Sheffield City Council, Veolia and SOVA, where there is too much management involvement, which reduces the amount of money in the budget for the front line workforce.

To have 3 management structures is ridiculous, SCC should take back in house, they could not do a worse job and more money would be available for the front line.  Also SCC would not be looking to make a profit for shareholders, as is the case for Veolia and SOVA, which again reduces the pot of money.

Do not go on a brewery trip organised by any of the 3 organisations.

Sunday 15 July 2012

Football Family Sport or not?

The case of racism in football or any sport for that matter needs to be addressed by all parties involved.

Is sport to be enjoyed by all the family, if so the actions of all participants need to be appropriate for the family. Abuse in any form is unacceptable.

The organisations policing each sport need to be proactive in dealing with abuse, otherwise if gutter abuse is tolerated, then the sport in question should be regulated to the gutter.

People often argue that the questionable behaviour has been taking place for years and this may be so.  This can not make it acceptable today.  Standards do not stand still, if this was the case we would still be living caves.  While at the time, that would not have been wrong, are the people harping back to the past be willing to still live in caves.

Society and countries change, unfortunately not always for the better.  This is why the judicial system as to ready to deal with all aspects and laws and judgements have to be for the betterment of the greater community while be in keeping with the ethics of the country.

The laws and customs of this country are based on Christianity and while not all persons in the country are Christians, everyone should abide by the laws of the land. As should all persons who travel to other countries.

The laws of the country in which a person is in at any particular time have to be observed.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Teachers

Teachers in Sheffield have been holding a demonstration to show their feeling with regards to their future pension benefits and their current workload.

Personally, when I was leaving school and considering going to university, I had a wish to start my career in teaching, the pay was good, holidays excellent and my wish to educate the next generation.  This was in the late 60's.  Even then, I could see the beginnings of the current trend in pupil behaviour. Then it was only a small minority of pupils who showed a complete lack of respect for their teachers, but the trend has started.

With the liberalisation of the 60's and 70's, the modern thinking of allowing the young some freedom had started.  This trend followed, by some, into adulthood and formulated their views on bring up their own children.  Over the passing years, this liberal trend has continued, with many young adults and their children not only not respecting their teachers, but have a total lack of respect for any form of authority.

I therefore agree, that a teachers job these days is not easy, due to many reasons, the lack of respect for authority by many of the children they are trying to educate being only one.

Teachers are, however, in a fairly well paid profession and have more holidays than most other persons in employment have.  Teaching is also one of the few professions were employment is pretty much secure, you do not often hear of teachers being made redundant and an Education Authority will not go bankrupt.

Redundancy and your employer going bankrupt is an ever increasing thought going though the minds of many persons in the private sector.

Now, with regards to their pension benefits.

As with all public employees, the pension benefits are excellent, with many still enjoying a final salary scheme or if not, an average salary scheme and these are far greater than anyone in the private sector could expect to receive.  For many in the private sector they are extremely lucky if their employers are offering a pension arrangement at all, let alone the schemes available in the public sector.  Yes, the public sector workers will, most likely, have a high rate of contribution to make towards it.  But they will reap the rewards of a good pension once they reach retirement age, when ever that will be.

What all employees have to bear in mind, that currently it is not compulsory to join your employers pension arrangement.  If you do not like or care for the arrangement, do not join it and if you so wish try to obtain a pension arrangement yourself from those offered by the pensions industry.

As you will gather, it is my view that while the teaching profession may not be as good as it was in pre 60's, it still as a lot to offer any person wishing to enter.

The pension and other benefits may not be as good as they were previously, but especially the pension benefits are far greater then persons employed outside the pubic sector can obtain.

In the current climate, most persons are having to suffer for the actions of the few.  Yes, I am referring to the BANKERS, especially those in senior positions, who dictate to their under managers and so on down the employees ladder, how they wish the business to be run.

Nobody wants or wishes for their lifestyle to change, but unfortunately, damage has been caused to our economy and unless you win the lottery or are a senior bank employee, MP or equivalent there is currently no alternative.


Saturday 30 June 2012

Bankers

So we are hearing again about problems with Bankers, why do we find this so unusual?

As with most areas in the world economy, all actions are required to produce a profit and banking is no different, if not even more so.

Bankers are employed by the banks to create profits for the banks and their shareholders.  To ensure this is achieved the bankers earn large bonuses for producing this profit.  While they should also abide by the ethics of the banking industry, if you are paying bonuses to someone to sell XYZ, then unless they have very strong principles, they are going to sell XYZ.  If the industry is still like it was some 20 years ago, when I was employed within the financial sector, which I believe it is, if not more so, then if you do not meet all your targets, you will not only, not receive your bonus, but would be sent for further training and may see your normal remuneration reduced or possibly the loss of your job.

By saying the above, I do not condone the worldwide banking practices and strongly feel the bonus culture needs to be withdrawn.  However, no one bank or country can or will do this in isolation.  Banks will need to work together for this to occur.

You may say that banks do work together and so they do, but only in their own interests, as can be seen from the current interest rate scandal, where Barclays Bank have just been given a record fine and other banks may follow.

The conduct of their employees should be of no surprise to the Senior Managers and the employees will most likely be following senior management directives.  While the buck should stop with their most senior executives, Bob Diamond of Barclays, who will the replacement be.  Currently, which bank is wanting a Chief Executive who puts principles before profit.

I have no answers, but it is evident that banks can not self regulate and any appointed body that is there to regulate need to be constantly vigilant.  The FSA in the UK, based on past experience, can not be trusted to oversee the required regulation, as if they could why have all these problems been allowed to occur.

I wait to see what more will be forthcoming, before the end is in sight.

Monday 11 June 2012

I am a person who has strong views and is prepared to work towards  eradicating causes of concern and in doing so create a better standard of life for my own family and others, not only within my immediate community, but to the widest possible community.

Within my family I have a 40+ year old daughter, who has multiple physical and learning disabilities, who currently uses some of the services in Sheffield which are available for persons with disabilities.  My main aim is for these services to be maintained and where ever possible for each and every services to be improved for the betterment of the persons using the services.

I do this by keeping a watchful eye on the services used by my daughter and also attend, every 2 months the Joint Learning Disabilities Service - Provider Services- Customer Forum meetings, which are held at Howden House, Union Street, Sheffield.  While my main areas are the services used by my daughter, it also gives me a way to makes comments on the other services, which are available.

In this meeting the people attending air their views and comments on all the services undertaken by Sheffield Social Services.  It is 1 of the few ways the persons using the services and their carers can gain face to face meetings with some of the senior managers running the services in Sheffield.

My view is that, if you do not raise your concerns, especially to the persons, who if they do not make the decisions, they will certainly have some input to them, then they may not be aware that the users and their carers have these concerns.

For help, information and advice for Learning Disability Services in Sheffield use website 
www.signpostsheffield.org.uk