How to take on your bank and win !!! + Retirement update

You may recall that back at the start of February I decided to ask my bank back for all the charges it had levied on our acount for the last 6 years.

Last week when I hadn't heard from them in several weeks I began court procedings against them for the money.

Surprise surprise on the very day they were served the summons from the county court they have written to me and offered me over £2000, a little less than I asked for but we are going to settle. That'll cover the mortgage for a couple of months.

They of course say they do not accept the have done anything wrong or broken the law as that would require them to carry out a comprehesive review of their charging practices, and that the payment is a good will gesture...that's a bloody huge lump of goodwill (sic).

Anyway the whole process has taken about 8 weeks and I would recommend anyone in the UK who has been charges anything in the last 6 years by their banks to visit MONEY SAVING EXPERT and you'll find templstes of all the letters and the proces alid out in simple steps...you have nothing to lose.

Previous posts....
Give me My Money
Give me my Money Part 2

Now to get on with getting retired. I was denied medical retirement last week, however, I have right of appeal and grounds to do so. They agree that I am unfit for work and no adjustments would make it possible for me to give regular and effective service, but as my Family Doctor's report didn't specifically state that my Arthritis is permanent and going to effect me significantly for the next 23 years of my working life they couldn't retire me.

So anyway it turns out they addressed the request for a report on me to my GP's Medical Practice and not my GP himself, so the practice wrote the report based directly on my medical file, just diagnjostic facts and dates with no personal input from the Doctor who actually knows anything about my day to day issues. I asked my GP to write me a personal medical report in light of this and he has, stating the permanent aspect f my arthritis and so now I am awaitung the results of the appeal.

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.”

Slacker

Sat at home, signed off for 2 weeks again, wrists are sore and ankles (Arthritis) they flared after a nasty little head cold earlier this week, on top of that i have a couple of minor infections that need Antibiotics...same old same old.

so whilst avoiding the dreary world that is daytime TV, and not really able to do a lot of DiY or sewing to prepare for the next re-enactment season I found myself time to read, yes I am restricting my time playing Eve too atm.

Currently reading Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds of Random Acts of Reality Blog Fame. I've read his blog for a couple of years and got the book of the best of his blog entries for Xmas.

It's a damned good read, especially good as I am already familiar with a lot of the entries, it's interesting to see them laid out in this format, i'm not pedantic enough to go scan his blog to see if anything has been edited, or which entries were omitted; but I would recommend this book to anyone as an insight into the way in which these ambulance folk serve us all and the crap they have to put up with, most notably from unecessary 999 calls.

Oh and go read Tom's Blog.....then buy his book.

What else is going on, been to the Dermatologist this morning for a review of my expensive psoriasis drugs, the Primary Care Trust agreed funding runs out in 2 months time and the Derm is now begining to make my case for continued funding (£9k per year). Enbrel is the only drug in 11 years of Psoriasis that has ever worked for a prolonged period and I am a little concerned that the funding won't be renewed in light of current NHS spending caps, I'm probably worrying over nothing, after all the medical experts think i should keep taking it, but there is just a smidge of a worry the bean-counters won't agree.

I'm still waiting to see if I am going to be medically retired from work; caught sight of a letter from my employer to my Rheumatologist in my notes this morning asking for a written report on me, and I know they should have also have written to my GP (Family Doctor). I saw my GP, Yesterday and he agreed to support my being medically retired when he is asked for a report, so that's good.

I just wish they'd get a move on so many possible future plans to sort out, but no basis in reality to get things moving. Stuck in Limbo at the moment.

just plodding along

Still alive...still blogging occasionally...:o)

Still in the same job, trying to make people follow syatem safety rules and regulations they would rather ignore.

My Medical situation is unchanged, excepting my Arthritis is slowly getting worse, splashed out on a new mouse today more ergonomically suited for my hand, as my wrists are painful a lot of hte time now.

My employer is going through the motions of getting medical reports on me with a view to my possible medical retirement.

Anyway...things are hopefully going to be a bit easier financially as Mrs.A got another Job (see her Blog) in another Solicitors (Lawyers to you Colonials)

As i said in the title just plodding along, going day to day waiting for the bods in personnel to let me know if I am retired or not, can't make any definite plans for the future until we find out...ho hum