scottsdad

8 for Thursday

I thought either you or WRK would be the one to take this up! Very much two-way - and they should all fight the Tories rather than each other.

At the time, many of the things he did were radical. The minimum wage. Writing off the debt of the world's poorest countries. Devolution to Scotland and Wales. Sure Start centres. Winter fuel payments. Scrapping Section 28. Introducing tax credits. Banning fox hunting. Banning handgun ownership. Free TV licenses for the over 75s. Doubled the overseas aid budget. That's off the top of my head. There are stats out there about how many children and pensioners were taken out of poverty under Blair (much of which has been reversed since 2010). How many extra nurses/teachers/policemen there were. How much more he spent on the NHS. Now - if he has put these all as his main pledges, your ordinary middle England voter would run a mile.

People usually do the exact opposite. "He did Iraq so everything he did was shite". He did good and bad - I'm just making a point about how he won elections and used that to push through some radical changes.

I get what you are saying, but Starmer has to stay some of that stuff to get elected. If he doesn't look tough on crime/patriotic etc then it's just 5 more years of the Tories. Look at Blair's 5 pledges in 1997. This is a mix of right wing stuff (crime, tax) and some very wishy-washy left wing stuff. This got him elected. Then he made big strides in reducing child poverty, getting Sure Start on the go, tax credits and the like. Of course he shat the bed with Iraq and it all went wrong in the end, but he did manage to do some good for the poorest in society - by sticking the detail of that stuff in the manifesto and not really talking about it. Sounding centrist. If he sounded too left-wing he'd lose and we'll get more from the team that brought you austerity and vomit.

Nobody hates Labour more than the left. I've said this before.

Is it a bap? A roll and sausage? A softie sausage?? A rowie (fucking weirdo if it is, btw)? I thought I understood bread on a fundamental level but this thread has made me question everything.

One thing that struck me here was the possibility that your colleague is being a bit of a bellend because they are feeling threatened. They fell ill, went off sick and came back to find you doing their job and doing it well. Much of this reaction to you might be because your colleague feels that their nose is out of joint here. I had a similar situation many years ago. Not for a second excusing this behaviour - it is very wrong. But I would agree that you need to speak to your line manager. It seems that the company values you as they are looking to give you new projects. They like you, you passed probation. What you need is some clarity from the company/line manager about your future direction. Best of luck with all this.

Cats shaved: Scottish SPCA issues appeal after reports of incidents in Clackmannanshire An outbreak of bald pussies in Sauchie, apparently.

I'm annoyed at both. Turns out she had no clean red, white and blue clothes so went in pink and purple. That's my line anyway.

My daughter's school decided that today was a red, white and blue dress down day. Email sent to us at 5.30 pm yesterday.

8 Wednesday

From memory it wasn't even this bad in 2002. Maybe I have just blocked it out though. Maybe folk are putting in extra effort as they feel this will be her last.

BBC breakfast has gone all out Jubilee. Impossible to watch.

7 for Tuesday

They are a team of 5, with 2 in the office every day and the other 3 working from home. Rota to decide who is in on which days.

There is a lot of it about, especially in the east (Maddiston etc). Visited my folks in Alloa at the weekend and they have a neighbour who is the same.

Not that strange. A bit like trying out different hotel rooms, seeing which ones are nice and which ones aren't. I don't get why some folk are determined not to use any bogs other than their own. There have been times when I have just turned away from one - London City Airport springs to mind. The most disgusting toilet I have ever seen. I'd rather have shat my pants on the plane than go in there. "What's the worst toilet you have ever seen" seems very appropriate for the Alba thread, btw.

I shat in every lavvy in the gents at school. Every public building, I aim to tick off my mental shit-list. Council offices, the Scottish parliament, castles, everywhere. 9 years I have been at the uni and I've managed in every building bar one (you need a special pass to enter that one). Once I complete the set it'll be time for a new job.

It's another name for a Russian Skommel

We're having a meeting tomorrow to discuss our international field trip in the Autumn, first one since 2019. Thinking Barcelona.

What is an SA?

She is on a Teams call with her workmates all day. They keep it running in the background so that if anyone has a question they can ask. The wife has gotten into the habit of forgetting that she isn't muted. Sometimes this can be funny (like when she told Alexa to play music and it activated everyone else's Alexa's also, or when she used the hairdryer and didn't hear them all shouting at her to switch it off). My worry though is that we could be talking about anything and there is a chance that it's being overheard. I could be asking for a Barney Rubble and all her office mates could hear that.

I saw a movie* where a woman couldn't pay for her car repair. She negotiated with the mechanic for a couple of minutes (some issue with where to put a dipstick), begging and pleading but the guy wouldn't budge. Refused to fix the car for free and demanded payment "in kind". In the end they went into his back office and found other forms of payment. *May have been a porno clip.