RIP Sir Patrick Moore

point of water is 100C, I bet most don;t know that in F or K

complete the word ;-)

If you take the standard abbreviations for several of the recorded temperature scales, add a few letters (AIO), you can re-arrange to get: infrared cooker

Reply to
polygonum
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The principle is the same.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I like it!

Reply to
Martin Bonner

Alternatively: They are all being devalued, some more than others. You could argue that the US$ has not been devalued as it is worth far more pounds than it was 50 years ago. It's also worth far less stuff.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

No, but there's not much point in putting someone through the syllabus when they have no chance.

Did you see "That'll teach them" on the idiot box a few years back? On the 2ary modern one they taught this kid bricklaying. He was brilliant at it, over the moon that he'd finally found something he could do, and even had a job offer from the instructor.

Not much point in him doing Latin.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

The militant unions, but the issue was always the number of jobs. Investment in manufacturing in the UK was always strangled by the unions who resisted any attempts at modernisation. The reason they did this was because they saw modernisation as reducing jobs because fewer people were needed to make the same components.

They also resisted multi-skilling, which led to the closure of the ship building industry because each job was complicated by requiring a number of trades to do a job that one man could do easily. Hence costs were raised by comparison with their overseas competitors.

Where the union dinosaurs were pushed to the sidelines British industry prospered and is a world leader. Examples are diverse - the British printing industry was, and still is, a world leader in the adoption of new technology. Resisted by the unions, who could not see that the choice was between fewer jobs and no jobs. The British motor car industry is now producing more cars and of far better quality than in the militant union days and that has been achieved by multi-skilling and by allowing shop floor workers to have degrees of autonomy and understanding of the job that the unions resisted.

Ultimately it was the unions that reduced jobs to drudgery and that resulted in the "don't give a damn" culture of the 1970s that destroyed British industry. Nowadays people have started to take pride in their work and in consequence get better paid and have a rewarding job to go to.

The reason that the unions resisted change is built into their power structure. The people at the top really don't care for the workers, what they care for is money coming into the union. More workers = more subs.

The shame is that organisations that did much good, the unions, were diverted into being edifices to support the egos of a small number of union officials with no interest in the welfare and jobs of their members. In the process those idiots made the unions a laughing stock and achieved the opposite of their intentions. They brought the unions into disrepute and ensured that a new generation want nothing to do with them.

Of course the Scargills of this world can't admit that they were the architects of their own destruction, so instead they ramble on about Thatcher.

Reply to
Steve Firth

If they were smart enough then they would "know their place" without having to be told where to stand.

Reply to
ARWadsworth

The purpose of the 11 plus exam was to determine which was which.

Reply to
harry

Yes, all true. Unions went far beyond their remit back then.

Reply to
harry

There is a balance. No-one wants to go back to Victorian days of capitalism.

Reply to
harry

I didn't say that. Nothing like that.

You really must be hallucinating as whisky-dave suggested. You seem intent on misrepresenting what is posted just to provoke an argument/disagreement.

Sad really.

Reply to
F

Well theres degrees and err .. degrees. And as you say some are off to study the History of Newsgroups postings and the like, but some are still doing hard subjects like Physics and Chemistry and engineering even tho thats still not thought of in the same way as Accounting as a profession.

Seems totally mad that the man who makes the beans gets paid less then the man who counts them!...

Its made possible higher education for the many. OK there are still soft subjects and some would be better off taking up a trowel but where I grew up going to Unit was the privilege of the "toffs" and Not for the likes of us!...

Reply to
tony sayer

Agreed. Anything that is in "higher" education can call itself a University these days. WTF was wrong with polytechnics or colleges?

That's because the box tickers and bean counters have a problem with NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training). They have to shove the youngsters into one of those three pigeon holes or they are considered not to be doing their job.

I don't think that the value of say a Physics degree from Cambridge has fallen but just saying one has a degree has become valueless as everyone with half a brain cell can get one.

But isn't she now working in the family business, flipping burgers? B-)

Calling it "university education" is the wrong bit that and "degrees" in The Evolution of pre Raphaelite Woodwind Musical Instruments.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

So how did you know exactly what was going on here then?..

Reply to
tony sayer

No such thing at my Grammar School which I left in '62. I'd guess because it was no big deal for 6th formers to carry on to uni. But this was Scotland and a university city.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Care to explain what you think the 'remit' of a union is?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

You're having a laugh?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Sounds like the Germans have the balance right. You don't crush the unions, you try and work together. Something in the British psyche prevents that.

Reply to
stuart noble

Ok then, lets try a different tack. Which is better - putting 50% of the population through further education with a 30% (of the population) pass rate, or 20% where all those pass? And given the high unemployment among the young, better for them to be in further education or the dole?

What is truly sad is how so many here want to restrict opportunities for so many.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Didn't know you supported the Mail's view about such things.

Of course unions protected jobs - that's why people join them. But there are ways of introducing new technology. Sadly this was all too often attempted by management bragging about how many would lose their jobs. Investment in an industry is hopefully designed to make it grow - not stand still with reduced costs. A decent employer will re-train his workforce so all get the benefits.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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