We all pay standing chardges for electricity, water and gas, even if we are on holiday abroad and use none of them. Basically this is a blanket tax where the poorest pay the same as large users. Pay as you use would be much fairer, as would putting everyone on a meter for water, as it is for gas and electric – it would also encourage people to invest in solar panels and heat pumps. Removing the standard charge for electricity and gas would mean that the pre-nationalised companies would have to recalibrate their charges on domestic usage.
Consultant doctors are to go on strike next month in a despute over their pay – poor darlings only earn an average of £150000. We discussed wges this morning and the change in attitude in education and health, With greater observation and assessment comes the inevitable reduction and commitment – it is just a job to many. In teaching the rot started with Sir Keith Joseph (I think) proposing that teachers should work 1250 hours a year – at school at the time, I stated that if management were counting the hours, then so would I and parents evenings would cease after March! School dropped the idea of counting the hours. But the same happened with the National Curriculum, teachers with enthusiasm and experience of different areas were dictated to by faceless civil servants in Westminster. The joy of teaching has been undermined – every parental complaint logged and recorded, however unreasonable; my experience of parents was overwhelmingly positive, but my dispues with management were such that it was a standing joke that when a shipping container was delivered for theatre stuff, it was mentioned that it was for managements files on my disrespect for them! In my mind the manager who micro manages staff is not only ruining the job for employees, but also missing out on a lot of talent. I know nothing about the NHS, but suspect that much may be similar, but different there.
Anthropic is listing on the stock market and is estimated to be worth £1.1 trillion, META is going to the market to raise £71billion. All for a technology that is not proven, and may just employ computer/robots/AI instead of hard working employees. And where does this money come from? I guess it is from pension funds and bank, etc. All this potential collapse in employment and no proper discussion. Sounds like a disaster is waiting to hit.