STRIKE !!!

I'm off work to day

My Union and I are on strike over a below inflation payrise that has been imposed upon us.

Initial reports say that 1000 staff failed to report for work today at my place of work.

I was supposed to be manning a picket line, but my Doctor told me I wasn't physically able to stand int eh cold and wet for 3 hours so told me not too. So I stayed at home, got the tyres changed on my car an fletched a few arrows.

Full Stry from my unions web pages...http://www.prospect.org.uk

Thousands join strike by MOD professionals
28/02/2007

Thousands of specialists, engineers and managers from the Ministry of Defence took strike action today in protest at a below inflation 2.5 per cent pay offer for 2006-07.

Their union Prospect estimates that at least 80 per cent of Prospect members stayed away from work in their campaign against the government's programme of pay restraint, job cuts and privatisation in MOD.

Civilian staff picketed at least 120 MOD sites across the UK including naval bases, RAF stations, maintenance workshops, training establishments, telecoms facilities, stores depots and other establishments. Six thousand specialists in Prospect are affected by the dispute, which is over a pay offer overdue from August 2006.

By agreement with Defence Secretary Des Browne, 65 staff in key safety and operational roles were exempted from the action, so as not to jeopardise essential functions.

Main centres of action today were at:

Defence Procurement Agency HQ, Abbey Wood, Bristol – excellent response from procurement specialists supervising commercial contracts. All three gates were picketed and almost 1,000 staff stayed away from work. Nearby DPA site at Foxhill, Bath, hit as 200 technical services staff working on equipment testing and measurement stayed at home.

Faslane/Coulport Naval Base, Clyde – big turn-out from members forced management to put Coulport on a 'silent hours' routine, effectively weekend working hours. Maintenance work on Trident nuclear submarines disrupted testing work not carried out. Local reps expressed concern that MOD had not asked the Nuclear Accident Response Organisation at Faslane to be exempt from the action.

Devonport Naval Base, Plymouth – all site entrances heavily picketed and logistics support closed down. No ship movements in or out of the base could take place as all Admiralty pilots were on strike. Work by contractors and industrial grades was slowed down as supervisors were on strike. In common with most other MOD sites, military commanders agreed not to put service personnel into civilian work.

Portsmouth Naval Base – 300 engineering and logistics staff took strike action in and around Portsmouth, including the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency's munitions depot in Gosport. Pickets present at HMS Sultan training centre and the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre, Southampton, the UK's only military port facility for moving army equipment on to ships.

Bicester -RAF Cosford. Home of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering, this ground to a standstill when only one civilian reported for work. Courses were cancelled and the training programme will have to be extended.

RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall- At the support centre for the RAF search and rescue helicopter force, five members exempted from the action because their work is safety critical asked to donate a day's pay to charity because they had to go to work.

MOD Main Building, Whitehall – Pickets were out in force outside MOD headquarters and the Old War Office opposite. More than 100 specialists stayed away from work and leafletted the other 4,000 staff as they started their day. Maintenance of IT and communications networks halted after the night shift stopped work at midnight.

Prospect National Secretary Steve Jary said: “It takes a lot to persuade men and women who have dedicated their entire working lives to supporting the armed forces to take this kind of action. Nationwide there has been a magnificent response. Members have made their point in their thousands and the response from the military and other civilian staff to our protest has been very sympathetic.

“MOD cannot say it has been business as usual and we call upon the department to reopen negotiations over pay as soon as possible. MOD's current policies are driving its most skilled staff out of the department and will do lasting damage to Britain's operational capability if it does not listen.”

I'm not really surprised...

You Are 72% Cynical

You're a full blown cynic... and probably even skeptical of these results. You have your optimistic moments, but most likely you keep them to yourself.

How Cynical Are You?

Waiting for the season to start

Spent the weekend travelling to Bracknell in Northamptonshire to collect a new Medieval Pavilion and some other reenactment kit we'd bought off of some peeps giving up the hobby....odd thing to do...lol

Then Spent Sunday sat in front of a roaring wood fire cutting material for new clothes for the children (Aginoth Junior specifically)

Spent this lunchtime searching through piccies of lastseasons events and thought i'd share this one of Sunset over our camp at Morimondo Abbey, just outside Milan,Italy from May Last Year. Click to enlarge

Give me my Money Part 2

Remember this post...Aginoth's Ramblings: Give me my Money...

My attempt to get my bank to refund the last 6 years bank charges because they break contract law in that they are punative charges...

Well today is day 7 after my bank received my initial letter, and I have had a reply

Here it is scanned and doctored to protect confidentiality click on it to read


Anyway the gist of it is I have got them to agree to send me my last 6 years statement and then they will consider paying me as a goodwill gesture...lol. Well actually I think that's a good start, so now i just have to plough through 6 years of statements and then tell them exactly what i am claiming from them.

Could this be a painless claim....possibly....shock.

Anyway anyone else interestedin getting there bank chargfes back for the last 6 years see here...Money Saving Expert and here on the bbc.

New Element Discovered

A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element has been named *Governmentium*. Governmentium (Gv) has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take over four days to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 4 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming iso-dopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium - an element which radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

The Dark Sucker Theory...

For years, it has been believed that electric bulbs emit light, but recent information has proved otherwise. Electric bulbs don't emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark Suckers.

The Dark Sucker Theory and the existence of dark suckers prove that dark has mass and is heavier than light.

First, the basis of the Dark Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the Dark Sucker in the room you are in. There is much less dark right next to it than there is elsewhere. The larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to to suck dark. Dark Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in this room.

So with all things, Dark Suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full Dark Sucker.

A candle is a primitive Dark Sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive Dark Suckers is their limited range.

There are also portable Dark Suckers. In these, the bulbs can't handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a Dark Storage Unit. When the Dark Storage Unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker can operate again.

Dark has mass. When dark goes into a Dark Sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating Dark Sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass. This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it's not wise to touch an operating candle.

Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim just below the surface of the lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. The is why it is called light.

Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room in front of a closed, dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet. But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet.

Next time you see an electric bulb, remember that it is a Dark Sucker.

Days at home

It was LMD's Birthday a coule of days ago, so we are due to be invaded by a hoard of 2 year olds this weekend for her party. When asked what she wanted for her birthday she replied....Cake....Chocook Cake...so I'll be repeating my construction of a Chocolate Swiss Roll Catapillar tomorrow.

Over my infections I think, still quite tired, and my joints are improved, so i've been able to do a bit more about the house, dinner is cooking in the oven (Spaghetti Bolognaise), kitchen cleaned....got to do the lounge yet, but enthusiasm is waning now.

Not back to work until Tuesday...which is noce, hoping to have news on my medical retirment from personnel waiting for me....we live in hope.

Think i'll treat myself to an hour or so of playing on the Wii....

UpDate: OK so I found some enthusiasm and did the tidying up ....:o)

Give me my Money...

Been a while since we had a decent complain at someone, so I have decided to try and get back all of my Bank Charges I have paid over the last 6 years.

Why?

Well it all stems from an Article I read Here by Martin Lewis at Money Saving Expert and here on the bbc.

Coincidently Martin Lewis was on the TV this morning and just brought up the subject of Bank Charges as I was sealing the envelope containing the letter form the bank.

So how cn you do this, well in a recent court case Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963. It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses, the bank charges we pay (for instance £30-35 for going overdrawn and getting a letter) are disproportionate to the actual costs incurred by the banks (reckoned to be about £1 to £2).

The wording in my letter, copied from Money Saving Expert and bbc where you can find full instructions of how to claim back the hundreds if not Thousands of pounds you have been fraudulently charged.

Due to recent media coverage on bank charges I now believe that you, , have been charging me charges that are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e) of the said regulations gives a non-complete list of terms, which may be regarded as unfair, such as a term that requires me as a consumer who fails in his obligation, to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation.

I believe that your charges are disproportionately high and therefore they are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999. In addition I believe that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79 along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963. It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss.

Furthermore if you fail to comply with this letter, I request without further notice a breakdown and proof of all costs involved, in regards to your actual or liquidated losses involved in any breach of contract to which these charges relate with yourselves, and that these charges reflect your true costs in relation to the said charges, and are proportionate to the charges levied on my account as defined in Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e).

There it is nice and simple...

You have nothing to lose in this, as I said above read up at these 2 links and send your letter off ASAP.... Money Saving Expert and bbc Templates for the various letters are included on both sites.

I'll let you know how I get on...on and btw I am claiming back several thousand pounds...I sent the letter by recorded delivery to my Branch this morning.