(16 Oct 2022, 4:32 pm)F114TML wrote Nevertheless here's something for Starscream to enjoy themselves at; Truss seems to have written an article in The Sun in which she says she's going to mega clamp down on protesting and strike action.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/20119764/l...si-growth/

And where does Unite stand on the right of Greens and Yellows to take food from the mouths of Reds as part of an (already unlawful, just not explicitly so) campaign of direct action drawn up to destroy Blue in the name of all our unborn children?

Keeping schtum about that are they? As they do quite often on matters of morality and democracy. A losing strategy.

Being on the side of law and order will never lose the Tories an election.

Painting Reds and Yellows and Greens as many different sides of the same anti-democratic occasionally violent forces of insurrection, will never lose the Tories an election.

As a way to start rescuing a Premiership that was basically DOA, it's surprisingly impressive.

I'd be worried if I was Starmer.

Oh, crikey. 

Though you do realise that some parts of the country still have a grammar school system. They are not fee paying schools, though Starmer's did become one, while he was there. He's hardly going to have become a lawyer with just a smattering of CSEs under his belt, though.

(16 Oct 2022, 6:31 pm)BusLoverMum wrote Oh, crikey. 

Though you do realise that some parts of the country still have a grammar school system. They are not fee paying schools, though Starmer's did become one, while he was there. He's hardly going to have become a lawyer with just a smattering of CSEs under his belt, though.

I only mention it because it is Labour Party orthodoxy that Grammar schools are evil.

In a televised debate, by the time he has explained why the privelage he gained from it should be denied to the children of bus drivers today, and has mumbled his non-answer about what his background as a union organiser tells him is the right way to go in the current wave of bus strikes (I'm guessing he doesn't expect to have a spare TWO BILLION pounds to renationalise them all, much less the HALF A BILLION needed to sustain their 10% pay rises through his five year term), he will have run out of time to tell the voters why he should be our next PM.

Some (many) will vote for him for no other reason than he is Labour.

Some others, such as fellow grammar school alumni like me, will be well aware that Kier's fine education means that he can do maths just fine, so his failure to speak his mind about an ongoing industrial dispute that, if his union paymasters had their way, will add £2.5b to the defecit before he has even chosen his new wallpaper, means only one thing.

He is leaving himself the option of adding £2.5b to the defecit to ensure he doesn't have to show a single ounce of backbone in holding the office he covets in the first few weeks he holds it, in the hopes nobody notices.

The Daily Mail will notice.

The Metro therefore will duly carry it.

And so drivers will spend the next five years feeling eyeballs burning holes in the backs of their heads, as people like me are conveyed to their <£10ph jobs working for world famous Newcastle companies, weighed down by the knowledge that our pay rises depend on the health of the local, national and global economy. Which won't have recovered because how could it, with such irresponsible people in charge of the public finances?

Here's hoping that's a feeling of shame that far eclipses anything a scab feels late at night. And if not, I guess we will have our reminder yet again, that in the field of unionised labour, some animals are better than others.

Support the drivers!

Lol

(16 Oct 2022, 7:31 pm)Starscream wrote I only mention it because it is Labour Party orthodoxy that Grammar schools are evil.

In a televised debate, by the time he has explained why the privelage he gained from it should be denied to the children of bus drivers today, and has mumbled his non-answer about what his background as a union organiser tells him is the right way to go in the current wave of bus strikes (I'm guessing he doesn't expect to have a spare TWO BILLION pounds to renationalise them all, much less the HALF A BILLION needed to sustain their 10% pay rises through his five year term), he will have run out of time to tell the voters why he should be our next PM.

Some (many) will vote for him for no other reason than he is Labour.

Some others, such as fellow grammar school alumni like me, will be well aware that Kier's fine education means that he can do maths just fine, so his failure to speak his mind about an ongoing industrial dispute that, if his union paymasters had their way, will add £2.5b to the defecit before he has even chosen his new wallpaper, means only one thing.

He is leaving himself the option of adding £2.5b to the defecit to ensure he doesn't have to show a single ounce of backbone in holding the office he covets in the first few weeks he holds it, in the hopes nobody notices.

The Daily Mail will notice.

The Metro therefore will duly carry it.

And so drivers will spend the next five years feeling eyeballs burning holes in the backs of their heads, as people like me are conveyed to their <£10ph jobs working for world famous Newcastle companies, weighed down by the knowledge that our pay rises depend on the health of the local, national and global economy. Which won't have recovered because how could it, with such irresponsible people in charge of the public finances?

Here's hoping that's a feeling of shame that far eclipses anything a scab feels late at night. And if not, I guess we will have our reminder yet again, that in the field of unionised labour, some animals are better than others.

Support the drivers!

Lol

You may believe this race to the bottom rubbish, but it's a nonsense. It's funny how when we're told the economy is struggling, it's never the wealthiest people in our society that suffer, but it's always the least-well off or those who are in receipt of in-work benefits who are expected to make up the 'shortfall'

The economy will never grow at the rate any Government would want, unless people have disposable income to spend. It's basic economics. If, and by your expectation, workers were to continue accepting nil pay awards or real-terms pay cuts, then disposable income will continue to fall even further than it is now.

Quite rightly people are fed up of this, especially in the public sector, which has faced almost 14 years of pay restraint now. Referring to them/unionised labour as animals is disgraceful tbh, and has no place on this forum, along with some of the other language used in this thread.

If you're happy earning less than £10ph for a 'world famous' Newcastle company, then that's up to you and your colleagues. Just as others have a right to form a Union, you have the right not to. But don't then try and hold everyone else down with you.

(16 Oct 2022, 8:38 pm)Adrian wrote You may believe this race to the bottom rubbish, but it's a nonsense. It's funny how when we're told the economy is struggling, it's never the wealthiest people in our society that suffer, but it's always the least-well off or those who are in receipt of in-work benefits who are expected to make up the 'shortfall'

The economy will never grow at the rate any Government would want, unless people have disposable income to spend. It's basic economics. If, and by your expectation, workers were to continue accepting nil pay awards or real-terms pay cuts, then disposable income will continue to fall even further than it is now.

Quite rightly people are fed up of this, especially in the public sector, which has faced almost 14 years of pay restraint now. Referring to them/unionised labour as animals is disgraceful tbh, and has no place on this forum, along with some of the other language used in this thread.

If you're happy earning less than £10ph for a 'world famous' Newcastle company, then that's up to you and your colleagues. Just as others have a right to form a Union, you have the right not to. But don't then try and hold everyone else down with you.

The price of you no longer being fed up, for the next five years at least, is apparently £2.5bn. And that's just bus drivers, not nurses, not teachers, not ambulance drivers.

The only choice you made, evidently, was to join a reality denying cult.

I choose the real world. I choose the world where, for complete context, the much maligned NHS budget is £8bn, the global profit of Amazon is £200m, and the stock market has a complete fit over a government policy expected to raise only £2bn.

You really can't even claim this is a mere opening offer in a good faith negotiation, given the stupendous level of greed it represents, your wild claim it somehow doesn't effect anyone else who pays UK tax or has a mortgage etc, and the fact it was merely a hot minute between the time it was announced inflation was FORECAST to top 10%, and you deciding to strike.

In the real world, inflation is currently 8.6%, mainly due to energy prices, with the Tory price cap and payments clearly set to bring that down again.

Even if you come to your senses and accept a realistic offer, people will remember what you tried to pull here, given the sheer greed of it, and the spectacularly flawed ways you tried to justify it, and so it will no doubt be added to the growing list of reasons quite a few of us has to never join a union ever again.

For the record, since it is the way evolution works, humans remember truly shocking stuff like this very well. It's always going to stay with me, the time a few months back, when I heard the spokesperson justifying a train strike claim, quite specifically (he was given a chance to elaborate and reflect) that his members needed a 10% rise to cover the rise in energy bills.

There was no other basis to their strike, which stuck in the mind, because it must be the first train strike in a very very long time where they haven't tried to claim it is about pay and conditions and safety and whatever else they think obfuscated the issue is only ever pay. This time they were quite confident the public at least vaguely knew about the looming cost of living crisis, and so would swallow a simple pay claim, without perhaps looking too closely at the figures.

I did a quick calculation and realised the offer that was already on the table which the union was refusing to ballot, for a driver on the widely quoted minimum starting salary, since this is already quite a big sum (responsible job and all that), this offer already covered the widely quoted forecast average bill rises, with a healthy chunk of change left over. And as we know, the way the media reported these energy price rises is deeply flawed (they should be quoting price per unit, not average bills), meaning it is unlikely that a train driver at the start of their career would even be paying that amount.

So even at that initial stage, the grounds for the strike was a lie. And yet he went on TV quietly confident, quite smug in fact, that nobody would even spot his lie. And to his credit, the fuckwit of a BBC interviewer, never even thought to question it. Can't think why.

We can argue the toss about cleaners and platform staff for sure, but I distinctly remember, because I have a particular hatred of these greedy twats, that the man in question was speaking for and behalf of the train drivers, not the other grades, as it was made quite clear that if the train drivers demands were met in full, trains would be rolling again.

For the benefit of those who value our sanity (and morals, it seems!), can you let us know how long you plan to continue posting this spectacular and pretentious twaddle on here?

Putting all of our lefts, rights, middles, tops, bottoms, backs and sides to one side, I doubt people want to see a full on rant about unions, Labour voters, train drivers and the public sector, along with threats of verbal and physical assault, when they're reading through a thread about Lumo or Go North East. Perhaps Twitter is a better place to voice your opinions. Or perhaps call into GB News or Talk Radio.

I'll come back when you're finished.

(17 Oct 2022, 2:01 am)omnicity4659 wrote For the benefit of those who value our sanity (and morals, it seems!), can you let us know how long you plan to continue posting this spectacular and pretentious twaddle on here?

Putting all of our lefts, rights, middles, tops, bottoms, backs and sides to one side, I doubt people want to see a full on rant about unions, Labour voters, train drivers and the public sector, along with threats of verbal and physical assault, when they're reading through a thread about Lumo or Go North East. Perhaps Twitter is a better place to voice your opinions. Or perhaps call into GB News or Talk Radio.

I'll come back when you're finished.

But muh free speech! 

(16 Oct 2022, 9:58 am)BusLoverMum wrote Quite. I find myself politically left of centre. I can be sympathetic to the aims of a genuine one nation tory, even if I don't wholeheartedly agree with them, but they are a very rare breed, particularly among those who proclaim it loudly. I find the current incompetent shit show truly terrifying and understand fully why so many people are exercising their right to strike, in both the public and private sector.

Yeah totally agreed I'm central and can respect where anyone stands but I really don't understand why someone who is proud to be paid under £10 an hour (below the living wage which is bizarre in itself) would be voting Tory. 

Guess it's all Labours fault though, financial crash, trade unions blah blah. Rather ironic since they haven't been in power for 12 year.

(17 Oct 2022, 2:01 am)omnicity4659 wrote For the benefit of those who value our sanity (and morals, it seems!), can you let us know how long you plan to continue posting this spectacular and pretentious twaddle on here?

Putting all of our lefts, rights, middles, tops, bottoms, backs and sides to one side, I doubt people want to see a full on rant about unions, Labour voters, train drivers and the public sector, along with threats of verbal and physical assault, when they're reading through a thread about Lumo or Go North East. Perhaps Twitter is a better place to voice your opinions. Or perhaps call into GB News or Talk Radio.

I'll come back when you're finished.

Here, here!

Looks like they've been banned, wonder if they'll do the same for those on the hard left that were also being rather impolite!

I guess not given the political leanings of the mods 

(17 Oct 2022, 8:32 am)Storx wrote Yeah totally agreed I'm central and can respect where anyone stands but I really don't understand why someone who is proud to be paid under £10 an hour (below the living wage which is bizarre in itself) would be voting Tory. 

Guess it's all Labours fault though, financial crash, trade unions blah blah. Rather ironic since they haven't been in power for 12 year.

The idiot has apparently been banned now. No doubt he'll be prattling on about 'wokeness' and 'cancel culture' on whichever platform he chooses to preach on next. Any ounce of credible discourse went out of the window when he stated he would like to see Jacob Rees-Mogg stand unopposed. I guess some turkeys really do vote for Christmas.

Good riddance.

Back to normality, now, when are we going to discuss suggestions to Coast Road services??

(17 Oct 2022, 8:52 am)MurdnunoC wrote The idiot has apparently been banned now. No doubt he'll be prattling on about 'wokeness' and 'cancel culture' on whichever platform he chooses to preach on next. Any ounce of credible discourse went out of the window when he stated he would like to see Jacob Rees-Mogg stand unopposed. I guess some turkeys really do vote for Christmas.

Good riddance.

Back to normality, now, when are we going to discuss suggestions to Coast Road services??

Thats if he wasn't just a poster on here with another persona!!  Bit like wor clifford!

(17 Oct 2022, 8:52 am)MurdnunoC wrote The idiot has apparently been banned now. No doubt he'll be prattling on about 'wokeness' and 'cancel culture' on whichever platform he chooses to preach on next. Any ounce of credible discourse went out of the window when he stated he would like to see Jacob Rees-Mogg stand unopposed. I guess some turkeys really do vote for Christmas.

Good riddance.

Back to normality, now, when are we going to discuss suggestions to Coast Road services??

Aye totally, it was the fact he said he was overqualified to be a bus driver but now works for less than £10 an hour. Load of absolute bs. 

You must've missed the post yesterday. There's already new timetables up for it :p

(17 Oct 2022, 9:39 am)Rob44 wrote Thats if he wasn't just a poster on here with another persona!!  Bit like wor clifford!

Who's Clifford?

Thank God the wanna be Rees Mogg has been banned. His posts were like a Dickensian horror show.

(17 Oct 2022, 9:41 am)MurdnunoC wrote Who's Clifford?

The Big Red Dog?

(17 Oct 2022, 9:41 am)MurdnunoC wrote Who's Clifford?

Him from " north Korea"

(17 Oct 2022, 10:18 am)Rob44 wrote Him from " north Korea"

I doubt he's really from North Korea. Probably from somewhere like Whickham I reckon.

(17 Oct 2022, 8:32 am)Storx wrote Yeah totally agreed I'm central and can respect where anyone stands but I really don't understand why someone who is proud to be paid under £10 an hour (below the living wage which is bizarre in itself) would be voting Tory. 

Guess it's all Labours fault though, financial crash, trade unions blah blah. Rather ironic since they haven't been in power for 12 year.

I deliberately kept out of it, but the lack of self-awareness made me chuckle.

Whittering on about the economy struggling, complaining about drivers asking for more money, telling the world about his/her/their low wage, then boasting about how they managed to get a weekend in Edinburgh for £90, cos theyre frugal. 
Then praising Rees-Mogg. 


But what about the economy?

It couldn't have been a genuine account. There's nobody out there that lacks that much self-awareness and be that hypocritical at the same time? Surely...

---

(17 Oct 2022, 10:29 am)MurdnunoC wrote I doubt he's really from North Korea. Probably from somewhere like Whickham I reckon.

Whickham? Bit posh for Clifton isn't it? I'd always guessed a bit further west. Up the hill from Rowlands Gill though.

(17 Oct 2022, 10:29 am)MurdnunoC wrote I doubt he's really from North Korea. Probably from somewhere like Whickham I reckon.

 

i doubt he's really real

(17 Oct 2022, 10:52 am)Andreos1 wrote Whickham? Bit posh for Clifton isn't it? I'd always guessed a bit further west. Up the hill from Rowlands Gill though.

You might be right. I could be getting confused with his namesake. I'm pretty sure he was from Whickham.

Video footage of what happened to Starscream from the group. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLtzA0A7w90&ab_channel=komiinc

(17 Oct 2022, 10:52 am)Andreos1 wrote I deliberately kept out of it, but the lack of self-awareness made me chuckle.

Whittering on about the economy struggling, complaining about drivers asking for more money, telling the world about his/her/their low wage, then boasting about how they managed to get a weekend in Edinburgh for £90, cos theyre frugal. 
Then praising Rees-Mogg. 


But what about the economy?

It couldn't have been a genuine account. There's nobody out there that lacks that much self-awareness and be that hypocritical at the same time? Surely...

---

Whickham? Bit posh for Clifton isn't it? I'd always guessed a bit further west. Up the hill from Rowlands Gill though.

You should try nextdoor. Which reminds me that our most prolific local right wing windbag is about due a spree...

It it possible for the Mods to perhaps move a few posts from here to somewhere more appropriate - it's been quite a few pages since anyone actually mentioned the issues in Sunderland that this thread is alleged to be about.

Perhaps move the rest of it to "Politics"? Or maybe even bury it all in a new thread titled something like "Utter gibberish from the starTrollscream" .....

More disruption ahead likely now. The strikes will be spread out akin to the railway strikes. Unless agreement is reached

Ell whatever they did to the ticket machines it's mucked up the tracking these past couple days. Seems to be alright today though.

(19 Oct 2022, 2:34 pm)F114TML wrote Ell whatever they did to the ticket machines it's mucked up the tracking these past couple days. Seems to be alright today though.

Assuming this was the blank tracking on BusTimes? Seems to be a new feature for Stagecoach (not just in the NE) on there whenever a bus is not in service or anything that doesn't have data to show (presumably this was why everything was blank during the strike?), noticed it was doing this on two of the three UTC South Durham contracts this afternoon which until recently were generally just showing a random Teesside service number (usually the last service it was allocated to).

(19 Oct 2022, 6:57 pm)Jimmi wrote Assuming this was the blank tracking on BusTimes? Seems to be a new feature for Stagecoach (not just in the NE) on there whenever a bus is not in service or anything that doesn't have data to show (presumably this was why everything was blank during the strike?), noticed it was doing this on two of the three UTC South Durham contracts this afternoon which until recently were generally just showing a random Teesside service number (usually the last service it was allocated to).

No, I'm talking vehicles not tracking at all (either on the Stagecoach app or on Bustimes; see https://bustimes.org/services/3-town-end...2022-10-18 ), or whatever 36970's machine thought it was doing with me on Monday https://bustimes.org/vehicles/scne-36970...2022-10-17

Apparently the training machines were still set up with the strike fares yesterday

(18 Oct 2022, 7:43 am)54APhotography wrote More disruption ahead likely now. The strikes will be spread out akin to the railway strikes. Unless agreement is reached

Unlikely to be a successful strategy.

The rail unions are barely making an impact on the people they need to sway (ministers), and rail workers have the advantage of genuinely being able to ruin the lives of their customers in an effort to get a pay rise.

Stagecoach Sunderland passengers have plenty of alternatives, including quitting their jobs and going on the dole, and the directors of Stagecoach surely don't care if a hotchpotch of strikes merely adds to the existing pile of reasons (sickness, shortages, congestion) that they're not really to blame for the unreliability of their services.

Only an indefinite strike will work, and even then, I don't rate their chances.

Far more likely that Stagecoach is just going to start cutting back until the resources they can reliably call on, can match their timetabled commitments. The directors might even get a boost from that, since on paper, in terms of fleet age and thus reliability/profitabiliity, it will look like Sunderland is one of the better units.