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Westie1889

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Everything posted by Westie1889

  1. You can park in the carpark opposite the market for £2 I think if you have a cinema ticket. We live in south-west Sheffield so the Light is popular for us and our friends as it’s easier to get to and is better than any of the older cinemas out of town. Also love the Curzon. Footfall in town has moved massively to the Moor and will continue too, Fargate and the area around John Lewis is 50% down recently. The units on Fargate are simply too small for most retailers of note so the Moor will be the location of choice and over time will improve in terms of the retail offer. That’s why the likes of Next have now moved. Ive not seen what the councils plans are for Fargate but I think it’s a tough thing to solve. It’s well suited for boutique retailers and restaurants but Sheffield can’t sustain that level of spend. Maybe Fargate should be re-zoned as office space?
  2. For me this whole issue is the most disgraceful episode in our countries recent history. Hundreds if not thousands of innocent children first abused, and then ignored by the authorities who were then complicit in some cases of enabling further abuse. The issue is still further compounded by apologists who in their efforts to appear PC and ‘right on’ use the fact that all ethnicities are capable of CSE to defend or excuse these evil crimes. It’s the worst case of Two wrongs don’t make a right that I have ever seen and shows a total lack of compassion and intelligence. The facts are that 94% of grooming cases investigated in the last few years involve Pakistani men, and if you want to get really specific it’s Pakistani men from particular tribal regions. it’s obvious there is a cultural issue, these are areas where it’s acceptable to marry 12 year old girls and so on so what is seen as normal there is illegal and immoral here. It needs calling out to stop it, and the cover-up by the authorities and the media perpetuates the problem and creates more victims. Compare the media coverage to that of a similar scale disaster - Grenfell. It just doesn’t compare and I just don’t understand why this lack of coverage is continuing once the facts are known. I know people involved in these cases on both the prosecution and the victim-support side and this isn’t going away anytime soon, in fact it could be said that what we have seen so far is the tip of the iceberg. There must be a public enquiry backed by legal status or the authority figures simply won’t give evidence when asked (as most of Rotherham council did). Also otherwise decent people need to stop being apologists for the perpetrators in some misguided attempt to fight racism, this only makes you part of the problem rather than the solution.
  3. There will be issues with this policy no doubt, but hopefully the authorities will have the sense to be flexible where required when problems become apparent - especially around Social care. However, there is also a bigger longer-term economic change that this is part of. European migrant workers have given a lot to this country, but the opportunity to use this cheaper labour has been massively exploited by business. In the relevant sectors it has driven down wages, job security (zero hours contracts, gig economy etc) and necessitates tax and benefit support from the government for those struggling as a result. it (along with the financial crisis) has led to a collapse in training budgets and businesses investing in people for the long-term. It also drives down the productivity of our economy as it’s cheaper to throw labour at a problem rather than invest and develop long-term efficient solution through automation or new systems and processes. The more productive the economy is the higher wages and taxes will grow. The more automation in an economy the higher the level of skilled jobs and wages (Germany is the most highly automated economy in the world). If we want a higher wage, higher skilled economy with job security this process has to be gone through unfortunately. Sorry for the boring economics on this, I get all the concerns about xenophobia etc and I too have many Polish friends who are great people and hard workers but for the long-term benefit of the country we need to go through this (painful) process. If we take the Brexit issue away from this and just think about what type of economy we want in the future it makes sense, not just for people born here but also migrants who want to build their lives here and not struggle on low wages. Just a bit of real world context from a national business I used to work in that employed over 20,000 staff, many thousands of these not too far from here. 15 years ago a full time warehouse operative earned £22,000 plus benefits, overtime etc. That job now is only guaranteed 12 hours per week and even if they get full hours it’s just £18k per year. A huge decrease when you take into account inflation, the impact on the surrounding area has been dire as the business is a major employer. I used to sit in meetings with the logistics director about annual pay awards and their stance was always why do we need to increase wages when we can get more migrant workers in on less money? A terrible attitude to have with no concern for their people and the job they were doing but unfortunately one repeated across the country. Also just for further context I am not a union person or supporter and still have a Senior role in a major business today, I am pro-business but from an insider perspective people are being exploited and freedom of movement has been a huge part of this.
  4. I looked at buying electric for private use but need something that can do 300miles round trip (my commute twice a week). Nothing apart from the Tesla can do that comfortably. The issue I had was that the battery and therefore performance deteriorates overtime and the resale value will plummet. The cost for a new battery - an eye watering £16k! I get electric cars for popping around town for private users but for most commercial uses the technology just isn’t there yet. If the council really wanted to sort things out they should firstly ensure all their own vehicles are electric (hypocrisy if not), and secondly encourage those who can switch to electric as private drivers to do so. It seems really unfair to try to kill people trying to make a living who are already facing massive challenges through Uber etc. As for the City Centre it’s not a destination, many people tend to pop in for a specific shop or cafe etc You cant really go for a days shopping as there simply isn’t the choice. Taking this into account if the council decide to charge drivers say £10 it will kill footfall in the City Centre. £10 to park in mediocre Sheffield or £21 on the train to Manchester? I know where I would go. A difficult problem for the Council to solve but they need to show some creativity and common-sense on this.
  5. I think one the dangers of smart motorways is that people ignore the lane closure signs until the absolute last minute, in bad weather or at night this can lead to collisions. At least with a hard shoulder people know they should never drive in that lane. I also doubt the benefits of the smart system in terms of speeding up journeys. I commute from Sheffield to Watford, 6 years ago when I started pre-smart motorways it took 2.5-3 hours in the morning. Post-smart motorways it’s now 3.5-4 hours and the more stretches of the M1 they convert they longer it gets. A huge white elephant in my opinion.
  6. We would catch the bus from the bottom on Dore road along Abbeydale road. There’s meant to be one every 20 mins but quite often you can be waiting upto an hour - not really practical for anyone with any sort of responsibilities is it? Also you don’t calculate waiting time at the bus stop in your point above or getting from the nearest bus stop to her office so no need to doubt my claims it takes longer by bus because it does. As for pumping fumes she’s got a Tesla so that points not really relevant either is it . By the way it’s ‘those’ fumes not ‘them’. I’m all for a discussion about how to make things better but I usually find those preaching to others about what to do ref: transport into town are usually (but not always) the people for whom it is easy to do, either because of where they live, proximity to a transport network, lack of a job or have one with flexibility in working hours (usually public sector). Once you ask them to put themselves in others positions, i.e what if they had to move house, change jobs or spend more money they usually go quiet.
  7. He probably had to get water from a well too but not sure we want to regress like that😂
  8. Not ironic just a fact, the real issue which you neglect to recognise is that it would take longer by public transport. That’s the real issue to sort before having a go at people trying to earn a living.
  9. I’m guessing some of them have to get to work hence the rush, but granted not all will. My wife drops our kids at a breakfast club in Dore around 7.30 then drives to work on West Barr. She doesn’t get there until 8.20ish so around 50mins for a 4 mile journey. Kids health needs to be the priority but can appreciate it’s tough for some people to juggle kids and work when the traffic is so bad.
  10. Due to bad scheduling from the Premier league there were no trains back to London after the match so around 400 West Ham ‘fans’ were staying in Sheffield. They were not happy with the controversial end to the game (their late equaliser disallowed by VAR) so proceeded to fight all the way back into town. The cells will be full this morning with cockneys as lots of arrests.
  11. The US forbid the Saudis developing a bomb way back. The Saudis still wanted the Islamic world to have the capability so they funded the Pakistani’s nuclear program.
  12. P.S they are not used for heat as there is an under-pitch heating system for that.
  13. The UV lights are used on the new ‘Desso’ pitches that both the Blades and the Owls has installed a couple of seasons ago. I think the blades ended up spending circa £1.4m on the new pitch! As someone stated earlier the lights encourage growth throughout winter, hence the reason the pitches look like they do all year round now. They are wheeled onto the pitch so the lights are near the surface.
  14. I don’t think that’s a fair comment, XXTickerXX’s post is factually correct and shows a balanced view of the events leading upto the current situation. He is also correct that Sunni Muslims will be celebrating the assassination as Soleimani was responsible for many thousands of Sunni deaths. I personally still think it’s a dangerous move to take him out but also appreciate the carnage this guy was causing across the Middle East. Certainly there will be some form of revenge from Iran with more deaths, but it’s naive to think that those deaths wouldn’t have occurred anyway as they were happening on a daily basis due to Soleimani. Also let’s not pretend he was some kind of freedom fighter railing against Western intervention in the Middle East, he was purely pushing Iran’s personal agenda against Sunni Muslims spreading hate and death all over the region.
  15. I watched a documentary on Soleimani last year, a very powerful figure and integral to many of the issues in the Middle East including Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has been fighting proxy sectarian wars throughout the region and this guy was the central figure in terms of planning, arming and training the various insurgencies and militia groups. Certainly no loss to humanity but the wider implications could be serious depending on Iran’s next move. The irony is that he and the US worked together against ISIS and met several times as a result but obviously there was no love lost on either side. He was also responsible in terms of funding, arms and strategy for the insurgency in Basra against British troops. Hopefully both sides show restraint or this could easily escalate, Iran’s response will be interesting as they are very vocal in their threats but this takes things to a different level.
  16. Exceedingly naive😂 really? The thing that is really naive is to assume all business is bad and all state enterprises good. There is a mix needed as with all the pressures on the NHS and the demographic time bomb there will never be sufficient funding so it has to use what is gets efficiently. And unfortunately efficient use of resources it not something that is common within state enterprises, especially in the UK. As I said in my post we have several friends within local hospitals and they say the waste is huge and avoidable, but sadly that culture is embedded deeply. Ultimately it’s business that pays for the NHS through direct taxation and job creation so it can’t be all bad can it?
  17. I don’t disagree with staff moral being an issue and both sides of the political debate are partly responsible for this as both main parties use the NHS as a political football. Saying that I would hope if I were in that position knowing my actions could and would endanger someone’s life (as in our experience) that I would try my best and that plainly didn’t happen with us. i think there is a dilemma in the business v care mindset as I mentioned in my post, my main thought on the business side of things is that with a limited budget it’s the only way I feel they can try to make the money go further. I work in procurement and know of organisations selling to the NHS who got 6 times the price for their product than they would off a commercial customer, as things were not run as professionally as they would be in a business. we also have friends at various levels in local hospitals and they all say the waste is horrendous due to there not being the correct mindset and they find trying to change that culture an uphill battle. Thats what I mean by saying it needs a mix of both cultures within the organisation, generate more money through savings and professional management to allow the front line more resources to do get on and do their job.
  18. I agree with some of the posts that something radical needs to change with the NHS to make it fit for the challenges ahead. i don’t claim to have the answers but think there is a huge conflict culturally in that it needs a more business orientated mindset in one way to improve efficiency and lower costs, yet on the other side the duty of care and personal touch must remain. having spent far too much time in 6 different hospitals in the last 2 years with elderly parents I have seen the good, the bad and the plain ugly. The thing that has stuck me the most is not the facilities as most have been ok to good but the difference in the quality and attitude of staff from one hospital or even one ward within the same hospital to others. We’ve had amazing care where staff were attentive, professional and kept the patients spirits up to others who were lazy and neglectful to the point where we were given the opportunity to launch a negligence claim by the hospital manager (we didn’t as it would have been substantial and in our view just drags more money out of the system). There needs to be an honest national debate that’s cross-party to determine its future without any ideological influences, the current level of debate whitewashes many of the real issues in my opinion as it’s either all bad or all amazing when in truth it’s a much more nuanced argument. Most people don’t care whether it’s 100% privatised or 100% state controlled, they just want the best possible service.
  19. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/22/girl-repeatedly-abused-in-care-in-sheffield-visited-childrens-commissioner-anne-longfield Heartbreaking read, poor poor girl. I hope Sheffield Councils ‘no comment’ is due to legal reasons and not self-preservation as per Rotherham Councillors refusal to give evidence to the enquiry.
  20. I think Sturgeons personal motivation is more political than anti-English, she was a lawyer working in poor areas and believes socialism is the answer to cure all ills. Alex Salmond was different, there is the famous story about when he was at university and had an English girlfriend at the time. He was constantly criticising the English so she said to him ‘if you hate them that much why don’t you join the SNP’ and the rest is history.
  21. I read recently that Sturgeon was at loggerheads with some in her party over Faslane as she was now in favour of allowing it to stay post-independence. She wants to remain part of NATO and is unlikely to be able to if she makes the subs to move to the South coast which is the only viable place for a new base. All my family are Scottish and a large part of the independence movement is purely about being anti-English, racism pure and simple. They think they are a special case and that everything bad is ‘done’ to them by the English, when in fact they are no different to any other ex-industrial area in the wider UK. In some ways I hope they go and suffer the consequences which will be dire economically. Their budget deficit currently 7% and needs to be 3% or below to join the E.U - more austerity anyone? Big oil profits are finished - £243m the year after the last vote against their estimate at the time of the vote of £16 billion. This difference in percentage terms would have required a bigger reduction in government spending than Greece suffered in the Euro crisis. The numbers just don’t stack-up, yes they would survive but as a much poorer country. My dad once said something I think could come true, he felt the Scottish would never actually vote for independence but the SNP are trying to p**s the rest of the UK off that much that they tell them to get lost - I think he may have a point. Getting bored of hearing Sturgeon bleat on all the time, it’s the same population as Yorkshire ffs!
  22. I see our elected MP has neglected to vote again last night, what a surprise but at least we will be rid of him in a matter of weeks.
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