ECCOnoob

Add on the fact that if someone did sit with her and there was flexibility of the rules - half of the media and a good majority of people on here would be screaming about privileged elitist rich people being able to to skirt around the covid rules blah blah blah....

I see JLP can dig out money from the back of the sofa when it suits them. I mean, god forbid the Chelsea set has suffer their favourite corner shop looking a bit worn and dated... https://www.standard.co.uk/business/leisure-retail/john-lewis-peter-jones-renovation-b930459.html Its quite an extraordinary message putting out to loyal customers elsewhere. For those within the comfortable bubble of the M25 they have the choice and convenience of 8 different stores all within the Greater London boundaries but seemingly for those in the regions you can just about go and kiss their never knowingly undersold backside. You want to be worthy of using their stores... put the effort in, travel some distance and make a special trip. Be interesting to see how this plays out.

I completely agree. It's just tribal mentality.

No you haven't. As usual you keep referring to the same tired old generic responses. You constantly use words like "the rich", "the powerful", "the influential", "the Bankers", "the corporations", but you never seem to give any actual descriptors of what falls under such categories. You never seem to give any actual context to why these terms are always so negative to the so-called "ordinary" working people. To somebody ill or infirm receiving nothing but state benefits anyone with a full-time stable job would be deemed rich and powerful in comparison.... To somebody in a minimum wage unskilled level job, a qualified white collar professional working for some city practice earning £40k, £50k, £70k a year is deemed very rich and powerful in comparison. But they can hardly be falling into the definition of some elitist 1% could they?? There are plenty of so called blue-collar working-class tradesman, mechanics, fitters or engineers who are self-employed, small businesses or contractors who earn salary levels approaching the same white-collar qualified professional levels. What about the waves of civil servants, management positions, heads of department, consultants, NHS Directors who are comfortably within the higher rate tax bracket. What about all those waves of middle to upper-class homeowners. The ones who have have worked all their lives or may even still be working after a long and successful career. They may have the nice house at the right side of town, a couple of cars, several holidays a year and maybe for some even a little weekend place or holiday cottage abroad.. Do they fall into that elitist rich powerful 1% you keep speaking of? What about our comparator on the global stage. Let's face it, for some poor Indian factory worker doing 12-hour shifts for pennies a day making goods to be sold in our stores which our population queues around the block to lap up at sale time.... our so-called poverty level 'disgrace'of a minimum wage will be seen as an absolute fortune. Applying that comparator at least half of this population would fall within that elitist 1%. The world has moved on from this boring and completely inaccurate political classification system. This whole desperate attempt by politicians, particularly Labour, to appeal to this completely fabricated vote group fails every single time. Reason: it doesn't exist. The world has moved far beyond some simplistic black and white classification of the toffs vs everyone else.

Absolutely. Same old story every time. For most average people they simply don't care. Oh yes they will fill in some online form or some clickbait petition or maybe even go to the effort of chucking their ill informed opinions around the twitterati echo chamber but that's it. People are more than happy to spend weeks obsessing over some reality television guff or pouring over intimate details about the latest z list celebrities copping off. But when it comes to anything about the real issues of the world and real government decisions you can barely get people to read so much as a leaflet. The fact is politics is complicated. Politics is boring. Politics doesn't have the bright lights and glitter balls of showbiz. BBC Parliament channel, the abundance of Hansard transcripts and live feeds from the Chamber are never ever going to win over the draw of ITV2 and live feed from a love Island house. At best it's a casual glance and forming snap judgements based upon whichever side of the press one has a leaning towards. Press coverage which of course our advertiser influenced and ego filled journalists are only too happy to provide with their own slants and distorted reporting. Even in local elections such as this I look around at the debate and not a jot mentions about how good an individual candidate would be for the community or what they can do for our city or what roots, knowledge and connections are to the area or what skills and attributes they bring to take us forward. Nope - as always it boils down to the simplistic tribal mentality of whether they are more likely to be on the red side or blue side. That's all people care about these days. People need to go back to basics and remember what they are actually voting for. They need to learn what our chosen representative in Parliament is supposed to be about and actually engage with them and the system they are part of. UK politics 101 we vote for a person not a party.

Absolutely agree. Sheffield Star and all similar regional rags are notorious for creating stories out of thin air just to drive their advertising traction.

Good find. I'm happy to be stood corrected. Although, its certinly not quite a simple as the position the electrician was claiming to BassetOne in the OP. "potential to earn..... .....with bonus scheme" is certainly not the same as simply boasting "they pay £8k more..." After all, I have seen lots of multi-level marketing type jobs, sales jobs, contractor jobs, agency work which scream in big letters "Potential" earnings of £30k, £50k, £100k with bonus - but that means nothing. Would still be curious to see what Chesterfield Borough Council base pay is, the comparator with Sheffield CC and how many of those qualified electricians reguarly and comfortably reach their bonus target to get maximum pay.

Which protests?

I doubt that Thorntons cafes were ever any sort of threat to the mass market coffee conglomerates. In fact I can only think of one branch off the top of my head and that was in Scarborough. I would say the more realistic competition to the americanized coffee shops is the rising trend and popularity of bespoke, artisan, hipster independent coffee shops. You only have to look around Sheffield to see how many there are. Even at it's peak, Thorntons cafes really didn't get a look in the challenge either of those two extreme ends of the spectrum

Very sad as I am to see JL go, I do wish they would hurry up and make their mind up what is going to happen - if only to stop the Sheffield Star tying itself up in knots desperately trying to throw out the latest rumours. In just a short space of time I have seen stories advising the branch might be closing, stories saying they definitely will be closing, stories saying they may not be closing due to the the high response on the petition campaign, stories saying they are yet to make any final decision until June as they are still consulting and the latest story is saying that they will be leaving barkers pool but reopening a smaller store somewhere else in the city.... The latter of them all seems the most implausible to me as I cannot understand why they would give up their long-standing building with car parking and the obvious heavily discounted rent the council so will offer them to spend money building and fitting out somewhere else new. It really is enough to make your head spin and adds to the agony to the staff who are losing their jobs by this constant speculation and false hopes.

I'm talking about comparative rates. The original post appears to be purporting that Sheffield CC has "low pay" for electricians work when Chesterfield are offering £8,000 more for the same gang level electrician in a local authority setting. Based on that logic, I am arguing that a starting pay for an newish qualified electrician of £34k+, being significantly over and above the national average sparky salary (including those running their own businesses) seems ridiculously high. There are plenty of other qualified trades and even graduate-level white-collar jobs whose salaries, even many years after post qualification, are nowhere near that. For the record by the way, I know plenty of qualified people whose jobs are barely reaching £26k a year including those who have gone through law and medical school which, with respect to the skilled trades, takes a damn sight longer to graduate in than an electricians or carpentry course. The point I am trying to bring to the discussion is to question whether salaries for tradesmen in the civil service have drifted too far outside the realms of any private company comparative or even basic commercial realities. In turn, who is lumbered with paying the price for such drastic differentials. Whilst it likely an average 18-year old choosing the direction of their career will be more drawn into the perceived glamour of Law, teaching or medicine as oppose the toil of a traditional trade, which of course will have an impact on supply and pushes rates up.... what happens when the bubble bursts as it has done in the past. It is certainly not uncommon for people's careers to hit a sudden wall and there is the risk of pricing oneself out the market.

Well if £26k to £34k is criticised as being "low" pay level for the job compared to other counties no wonder local authority service and repair charges are so high compared to private companies. No wonder all our council taxes keep skyrocketing every year. Looks like more evidence of why our local authorities are always in dire straits financially.... Is it really to blame on central government underfunding or is it just complete financial mismanagement, continuouslly overpaying and caving into unreasonble demanded salaries that are totally devoid of any commercial realities??

If that is accurate, it makes me believe that the protagonist referred to in the original post was being disingenuous. Sounds more like he or she was leaving for a full grade promotion at Chesterfield not just simply seeking better pay for the same job. In view of the surveyed national average salary for qualified electricians (inc those working self-employed and running their own businesses coming out at around £33k per annum)..... I find it very hard to believe that any local authority would pay a lower-level gang electrician a standard salary of £34,000 to £42,000 without them at least being some supervisory or managerial level. So, to answer the the original question - no I certainly don't think council wages are a problem. Not unless the problem is certain councils paying far too much.

Awwwww. Yet he is in charge with a huge majority. "Not a politician" according to you despite the fact he has been an MP on and off since 2001, twice elected Mayor of London for 8 years, Foreign Secretary, elected leader of the party and elected Prime Minister. We get it Anna YOU don't like him. But let's not make silly statements. He clearly is a politician. He's also cerainly not the only politician who relies heavily on their teams of advisors and experts. Even your beloved Corbyn had his entourage of yes men and spin doctors. You may well be right, he may not last beyond his 5-year term but the fact he has a term is a far better result than most of his current rivals including the shower on the other side of the house.

What should have been in the lease??? You will sign this, you will commit and you will not go anywhere in any circumstances within the next 20 years? I really don't think it's that simple.

I don't see how they can stop them "walking away". The council were the ones who bought the lease back and offered JL a massive discount to try and tempt them into some longevity and commitment. As long as JL complied with any clauses regarding terminating - the rest of any monetary responsibilities, im afraid, falls back on the council. JL will care little about any argued 'moral' obligations even more so when their own business is in difficult times. I, like many people am gutted by this decision and know full well the impact on the city centre by losing such an anchor. Be interesting to see how the developments such as hsbc, cms and the raddison hotel owners will feel about losing such a prominent retailer in the middle of their supposedly new shining developments. Having said that, I did always have a suspicion at the back of my mind that as soon as the new modern bigger Leeds branch opened, if ever there was a time when it was a choice between one or the other, Sheffield was always going to be the loser. Amazing to think that little old Atkinsons is the only survivor in this department store bloodbath despite facing competition against some national giants. Good luck to them clinging on.

I find this regularly made demand by people for "bringing back more patrols on the streets" to be a complete false sense of security and waste of resource. I suspect this is a quick fix decision to easily appease the shouty brigade and opposition MPs. Even with a costly huge increase in officer numbers the chance of a plod being at the exact time and the exact location to directly observe and intervene in a crime taking place, is extremely slim. In any event, despite some obvious recent events and isolated incidents the ONS statistics for last year shows that 'traditionally crimes' such as sexual assault, mugging, theft, criminal damage and possession of weapons were all in decline with some even dropping significantly. On the flip side, drugs offences, public disorder, monetary fraud and computer misuse offences were all rising if not significantly increasing. Of course lockdown will give some obvious explanation however there is no chance of this ever going backwards now. Cybercrime has been on the increase for years and now is really breaking out into the public consciousness. Such types of offences are not resolved by police officers aimlessly wandering the streets. It is through police officers undertaking intelligence, data analysis, cracking encryption, CCTV and sourced footage, undercover ops and other more sophisticated techniques. Of course there will still be need for some level of visible policing particularly in vulnerable areas such as transport hubs or for specific purposes such as large crown gatherings or the usual drunken Friday and Saturday nights. However, there is no doubt that criminals have evolved and the police must evolve with them. The twee black and white days of Dixon of Dock Green are long gone.

On this I disagree. I feel its well beyond the usual moans about business rates and so called lack of free parking. The fact is that Thorntons as a brand is no longer special. It used to be a real treat to go into one of their shops with all its unique chocolates and Toffees but as soon as they started selling it pre-packaged in every supermarket or even some of the discount chains all novelty disappeared. After all, why would anyone pay £10 or £20 for a box of chocolates when they can get a similar version in the local Tesco for half the price. Add on the evolution of taste and trends with more independent, bespoke and artisan type chocolatiers emerging and this becomes another contributor to their decline. There is simply new competition which, in my opinion, is more prestigious and better quality than what Thorntons were now offering. As with all these things it is sad that there are now more job losses but ultimately another case of a brand relying far too much on it's legacy and failing to future proof and evolve.

Sounds like the talking head was as thick as mince. These are private companies. Why on earth are they going to spend millions of pounds of investment into research and experimentation and development of their products only to give it away to their competitors for free. It's nonsense. Add on the fact that medicine of any type is not an exact science and there is rarely any one size fix to cure all diseases - it is clear that a range of development from a range of supply is necessary. Add on the third factor which, despite some people refusing to accept it, medicine is a business. It is a global marketplace with huge fluctuations in prices, availability and supply across the globe. It's absolutely naive for people to think there is going to be some utopia of freely available and free from charge collaboration, communal resources and shared development. These are just a few of the reasons as a helpfully pointed out in the article you quote. It does seem to me like some people are desperately clutching at straws to try and make-up lost ground to excuse their own slow, low or non-existent rollouts.

There is a chance it is very likely. Never underestimate the levels of bureaucracy and internal warring politics within the councils. It really isn't as simple as just "chucking an extra bag on the wagon". The council, or more likely their outsourced company, will have a very detailed specific plan and agreement of what they will pick up, how frequently they will pick it up and how much they will pick up. All of which will be assessed and costed down to the absolute penny. Some bean counter with a clipboard will be monitoring that item on the contracted service agreement and if they see unaccounted extras they will raise complaint with the council who in turn will have to to raise it with their procurement executive who will have to pass it down to the waste operations sub committee who will have endless investigation meetings and next thing you know invoices are being challenged and the lawyers have a field day. In the meantime, Bob on the wagon who thought he was doing good by checking in the extra rubbish bag gets a telling off from his management for breaching service plan matrix rule 6, his fellow workers show solidarity by walking out and then nobody's bins get emptied for a week or two. Round and round it goes. Its partly for this sort of incompetent ludicrous bureaucracy that goodwill of volunteers is needed to fill in the gaps in the first place. I never believed that all failures can be simply excused by whining "the government under funds us".

I agree to a point on fairer and more northwards spending. But are there really that many "calls for yorkshire devolution" or is it just a handful of hardcore, white rose flag wielding folk in Osset beating some drum and chanting they know it all and can do better. Any idiot can declare that. Actually putting into practice is a very different thing. Frankly, after seeing the ego filled power trips and debacles caused by our City Regional Mayors so far..... full blown devolution would be the last thing I would want.

What on earth are you talking about "bribe them". Its simply business. We are now more than ever before in a global marketplace (with the world trading and bartering with itself long before that phrase existed). Its basic competition and its fierce. Incentives, reward and freebies are nothing new. Do you think retailers are "bribing" their customers when they offer loss leaders or hugely undercut their competitors with block discounting or offer loyalty schemes/privileges/rewards or offer perceived improved reputation or image by choosing their X over somewhere else's Y. Do you think online companies are "bribing" their customers when they offer tax advantages, sign up bonuses, free additional services or aggressive price matching. Its not rocket science. Its all about getting X to choose you and yours over everybody else bidding. Its been happening for decades nee centuries before Brexit and will contine to happen thereafter. I really dont understand what seemingly desprate "consequences" you were trying to prove. This is not a new story.

I am incline to agree. A lot of the comments and coverage is all very one-sided. Typical bandwagon stuff against the Boogeyman of the corporate entity. Let's hope they are all still celebrating their 'victory' once they remember they are no longer entitled to come and go as they please, pick and choose their working hours, take advantage of those tax advantages of being self-employed, lose control of their earnings and declarations....

.....so does the virus, restrictions, rules and lockdowns. Doesn't make for easy filming and production of television shows that require anything more than an absolutely skeleton crew and the controlled confine of a fixed studio set.

People ship stuff to the US, Canada, Australia, Dubai, the far east... all the time without having a meltdown. The world is bigger than the EU so can we stop with the dramatics. Yes we have left and yes there is now some additional admin to do. Most people knew that would be the obvious circumstance and, as the OP is rightly doing, they are simply checking the rules accordingly. Calm down to a panic. To the OP, you may wish to get a parcel company on the phone to check if you need to complete everything. If the laptop is actually a gift and not a sale transaction some of the rules may not be applicable. My usual go to is either UPS or Parcelforce.