What made you 'Shake your Head' today?

[Escape]

The only way a nationalised railway system can survive, is if vast amounts of money are poured into it. And with no competition and no real need to be concerned about customers (as they rarely take the train by choice anyway, many studies in fact labeling rail passengers as 'captives' due to lack of alternatives), the chances of that money being used wisely are slim to none. I see this first hand in bhellgium... Sure, there are those in the railways that actually try and make a difference and to things right. But then there are all the layers of management, caring only about their own and/or political agendas. 😞 

At least a private company has to do something right to survive, without the certainty of seemingly endless government funds.

[exeterjeep]

Too much reliance on IT systems, Crowdstrike AV, and Microsoft 365..... seems to cause worldwide problems.... seems to be dominating the news this am.

Can we blame Brexit or the old Tory government or the new one.

Even Sky TV is dead....

Our reliance on some  systems is shocking.

[eeyoreish]

I'm old enough to remember British Rail and the move to privatisation, Railtrack etc. Whilst I don't use the trains very often I'm not sure that, in my limited experience, they are much better than they were in the '70s in terms of reliability. My odd trips to London are often delayed or victim to some breakdown, overcrowding, signalling problem, slow train ahead or other random issue. Plus it's often cheaper to drive...

Hard to see how an organisation with no competition would have much incentive to provide excellent service? Whilst I'm not knocking the NHS or it's frontline staff at all, isn't the NHS an example of how inefficient things can get when a big 'business' is run by government?

[C8RKH]

I'm old enough to remember it too @Chillidoggy, and have fond memories of day trips on the train as as a kid with a can of pepsi and the infamous egg and cress sandwich (which I still enjoy today).

Trains are not just used to take people to work.

I think we should see how nationalisation works. With the announced intentions on workers rights, and more power for the unions, it seems that this Labour Government might have more in common with Callaghan's than Blair's.

49 minutes ago, exeterjeep said:

Even Sky TV is dead....

Every cloud...

37 minutes ago, eeyoreish said:

isn't the NHS an example of how inefficient things can get when a big 'business' is run by government?

Yes!  This was exactly the conversation a Senior Nurse and I had in the tea tent at Glamis Transport show at the weekend.

[march]

1 hour ago, exeterjeep said:

Too much reliance on IT systems, Crowdstrike AV, and Microsoft 365..... seems to cause worldwide problems.... seems to be dominating the news this am.

There should be a bunch of ITSec Managers and IT Directors looking for a new job after this - this is completely avoidable. Looks like DR ( or Business Continuity - which ever name is flavour of the month at the moment) policies may have been left wanting as well.

Edited July 19 by march

[exeterjeep]

This has been changed back, but made me smile.

[Chillidoggy]

1 hour ago, C8RKH said:

I'm old enough to remember it too @Chillidoggy, and have fond memories of day trips on the train as as a kid with a can of pepsi and the infamous egg and cress sandwich (which I still enjoy today).

Trains are not just used to take people to work.

I think we should see how nationalisation works. With the announced intentions on workers rights, and more power for the unions, it seems that this Labour Government might have more in common with Callaghan's than Blair's.

Every cloud...

Yes!  This was exactly the conversation a Senior Nurse and I had in the tea tent at Glamis Transport show at the weekend.

Well, we won’t have any choice in the matter of railway re-nationalisation as the dinosaur thinking is still prevalent in this Government. I also hope it will be successful, but it needs to wipe its own face.

The last time I was on a train was 6 years ago, and that was for business, so the company picked up the tab. I checked a Margate to London return 9am out, 9pm return for tomorrow, it’s £30 a head, so £120 for four people. I can comfortably fit 4 people in my car for a lot less, including paying to park. And I can actually arrive on time. And I don’t go on strike, either.

It’s fair to say I’m not hopeful.

 

[ChrisJ]

Firms skip security reviews of updates about half the time • The Register

And these figures come from ...... Crowdstrike

 

[oneshot]

One of the reasons I don't use any technology that is cloud based. I used to have Hive but have removed it as it was a cloud based system.

I run my own servers and am only reliant on electricity (although I do have UPS's) and the network connection (fibre to the house with 4G backup).

[pete]

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/woman-who-quit-123000-job-29571887

Didn't know ADHD , depression and anxiety were a disability.

 

[Chillidoggy]

Have been so for a while, Pete. Depressing, isn’t it?

[pete]

Was that on her cv .how could she do her job..

[Chillidoggy]

Most employers wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole. Or maybe she forgot to mention it on her CV?

[Sparky]

I had one on my team in BA that the GM forced me to take despite my protestations.  He arrived via the graduate programme and proved himself to be as ignorant and lazy as I'd expected after nearly a year, and after a ludicrously resource-intensive disciplinary process he announced he was being treated for ADHD and BA settled out of court to get rid of him.  It was never announced on his CV.

[mayevora]

Equally, over the years I have become unemployable as the older I get the more I hate authority and being told what to do so I would make a crap employee.
Also I could not be an Employer in this day and age as I’d just want to sack anyone who didn’t do what they should do, to do their actual job. In this day and age of workers rights for this and that,  I’d most likely spend my whole life in tribunals. 

[DDubya]

On 19/07/2024 at 08:25, Chillidoggy said:

Well, I’m one of those who fail to see why my taxes should be used to get other people to work.

We only win if we don’t have to pay for it. I’m old enough to remember the dire British Railways. Filthy trains, crap food if you could get it, cancellations, and industrial unrest.

By far my favourite piece of graffiti from back then was a poster on Folkestone Central station platform celebrating the introduction of the new Inter City 125 trains. Some disillusioned passenger had written, “Now you can be late, quicker.” Summed it up nicely.

“Filthy trains, crap food if you could get it, cancellations, and industrial unrest.” You have travelled by Cross Country?

[Bibs]

While we're talking of trains, get the 'Seatfrog' app. I had a return trip to Sheffield recently for some BMW filming and upgraded to first class for £14 each way! 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Plenty of BMWs around where I live. No need to go all the way to Sheffield to film them.

[Chillidoggy]

18 hours ago, mayevora said:

Equally, over the years I have become unemployable as the older I get the more I hate authority and being told what to do so I would make a crap employee.
Also I could not be an Employer in this day and age as I’d just want to sack anyone who didn’t do what they should do, to do their actual job. In this day and age of workers rights for this and that,  I’d most likely spend my whole life in tribunals. 

My alter ego.

[C8RKH]

18 hours ago, mayevora said:

Equally, over the years I have become unemployable as the older I get the more I hate authority and being told what to do so I would make a crap employee.
Also I could not be an Employer in this day and age as I’d just want to sack anyone who didn’t do what they should do, to do their actual job. In this day and age of workers rights for this and that,  I’d most likely spend my whole life in tribunals. 

I had not realised that we had that much in common. It was spooky reading the post knowing someone else had written it

[pete]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/25/progressive-parents-have-brought-up-a-generation-of-entitle/

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Telegraph paywall, again.

[pete]

[ChrisJ]

15 hours ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

Telegraph paywall, again.

 

[pete]

https://inews.co.uk/news/car-spying-police-data-security-3187756