Douwe Egberts Coffee

[Docca]

Love the use of the term ‘Facebook news’. It’s the new ‘snowflake’ for the type of people who need camps to align to.

[DefTrap]

It's just a way to describe people that read stuff on Facebook/Twitter and then screech about it like it's the end of the world.
The news was showing pictures of nurses crying and hugging because of that halfwit talking shite on Twitter.

To be fair it's on 'proper' news outlets as well.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -of-medics
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-met ... y-12364442
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/c ... 90636.html
and even
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... y-NHS.html

The problem with Facebook / Twitter is that it's ALL opinion and, somehow, having an account on it gives you the right to be an authority on, and the right to reply to, every subject when you have zero qualifications or expertise. Being a mother or old or having a degree from the school of hard-knocks doesn't make you an expert on a subject or the right to subject us to your twisted empathy. Times a million if you happen to be Donald Trump with a massive audience and have no brain at all and no off switch.
Or, as you correctly say, twitter users just go WAAAH! and be both malevolent / SaccharinNice as the mood suits them.

I mean the good thing about Facebook / Twitter is that you can switch on the good stuff and turn off the shite by your simple usage. My twitter account is pretty much just normal News. So those that are being constantly triggered have just brought it on themselves - they actually want to be outraged, all the fecking time.

[Saga Lout]

I’m all for free speech, however there is a line and free speech doesn’t mean you can incite hatred or death or hurt on others.

I don't think she's advocating hanging all the doctors and nurses from the nearest lamppost. She want them to have a fair trial first.

[Asian Boss]

It looks like Christmas is to be Brexited away again. Brexited away by the Bracists.

Still, if it means the sending back of the buggers, that's a price worth paying. As the old saying goes, you can't send the buggers back without Brexiting away some Christmases.

A land fit for heroes. No more buggers. That's the Brexit I voted for.

[Taipan]

Couldn't resist!!

[MrLongbeard]

Ahhh well, it's been a long time coming, and at least we'll not be alone;
https://www.bifa.org/news/articles/2018 ... -of-europe
https://www.iru.org/resources/newsroom/ ... -soar-2021
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... 0-000.html

[Yambo]

There's a whole raft of reasons why truck driving is a job people don't want to do. I'm not going to list them, you'll just think each one is a minor inconvenience and that's what they are except they are repeated minor inconveniences that make life on the road almost unbearable.

I've been employed twice as a LGV driver, both times I was offered the job having worked at the companies for a couple of days as an agency driver. Agency driving is really shit work but if you've been made redundant, want to put food on the table and have an LGV licence then it can fill a need. Both driving jobs were pretty good on balance, didn't pay that good but were regular hours for reasonable employers.

One thing that agency work shows you though is how poorly drivers are treated, not necessarily by the employer but by the customers. I did a fair few periods with a company in Preston called Tetrad who make big, heavy pieces of furniture. The trailer would be loaded well, paperwork was all spot on, route/load organised but may be two or 3 nights out. Get to the customer though, perhaps John Lewis, around 9 am and be told that you are not booked in until 09:15 and then you don't actually get on to the ramp until 10:20. The warehouse guys refuse to get in the trailer to help you get a fuckin' huge Chesterfield sofa off the top of the stack as it's not their job. It will be their job to check it and refuse it if I damage it getting it off the top of the stack on my own. Of course, I can say "if you don't want to help me unload it I'll just fuck off." but I sort of need to get this store's load off so that I can do the next drop. This sort of attitude can be at every drop.

Nights out are shit but the reason I'm at John Lewis's at 9 am is because I had enough time to get there the previous evening and would have had enough time to unload but I'm not booked in until tomorrow morning. I'll just sit outside as a mobile fuckin' warehouse then - which is what the transport industry became following everyone's move to JIT manufacturing. But see those trucks outside that we don't want until 10:28 and 30 seconds tomorrow, yanno, the ones that would have struggled to get here in the morning traffic so came the previous evening (to satisfy you, the customer)? Well shit me!, they've all got drivers who want a meal, a shower, a shit, let alone to be home with their family. But you know what we'll do? We'll just ignore the monkeys. Fuck 'em, they're not important. We'll not even let them use one of our toilets.

I got an call one morning to go to Wigan and do a delivery to Asda in Stafford. Normal delivery time was around 07:00, which was sensible as the loading dock was only accessible across the car park. But I got there after 10:30 and the car park was full. It's hard to believe but no-one appeared to understand that this 40ft artic was in the car park for their convenience so continued to just swan around and prevent me from getting to the dock. I was getting pissed off and just about to leave the truck in the middle of the car park and see if I could get some shop staff to just stop a few cars from moving when a guy parks his car in just the right place to allow me to move. He knocks on the door, says "I share your pain, I do this shit too." and I get on the dock a minute later.

The last time I drove a truck for a living was around 2000 when I got a job with the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership, doing a study and setting up a load of mobile speed enforcement sites where local people felt they had problems. It gave me enormous satisfaction knowing that very soon, other motorists who had been giving me and other truck drivers a hard time for simply trying to deliver stuff that wanted to buy, were probably going to get done for annoying local folk by speeding.

No one sees the driver of the truck. They just see an inconvenience. Companies don't see the drivers, all they see is a failure to satisfy the customer's demands by some low paid monkey.

There's a shortage of monkeys?

Good.

[Mr. Dazzle]

How is any of that stuff any different to any other job though Yambo?

I bet you can go to pretty much anyone who's employed and they'll be able to real off a big list of stuff they dislike about working without even having to pause for thought. Hell, I love my work and I'd do it for free, but even while typing that sentence I thought of about 7 things that wind me up about it.

[DefTrap]

Service industry innit. Unless you're actually building new business or are a chargeable asset then you're a neg on the balance sheet, so whilst you may feel like a big wheel in your own industry you're just a cost to others - get the feck on with it quick smart and hurry up because we really want someone to do this simple job a bit cheaper.

I thought lorry drivers were paid well enough such that long hours and shitting into a carrier bag next to where you sleep was taken into account? Plus easy access to dogging and child catching as well obviously.

[Yambo]

How is any of that stuff any different to any other job though Yambo?

I bet you can go to pretty much anyone who's employed and they'll be able to real off a big list of stuff they dislike about working without even having to pause for thought. Hell, I love my work and I'd do it for free, but even while typing that sentence I thought of about 7 things that wind me up about it.

I'm sure you're right and I'm just as sure that there any number of truck drivers who enjoy what they do and are happy, especially if they have regular hours. There are a couple of buts though that other jobs don't have to contend with. I'm sure you are well aware of EU Regulations 3820 and 3821 (which have UK equivalent legislation). Not many other jobs have specific regulations that may require you to stop working after a specified period of time and take a break. Unfortunately, the legislation does not include instructions for governments or local authorities to provide places where those breaks may be taken. A truck driver is responsible for an expensive piece of equipment and possibly an even higher value load on the back with very little in the way of security features. As an example, what is the cost of a pack of razor blades and how many do you think can be put in a 40 ft trailer?

I thought lorry drivers were paid well enough such that long hours and shitting into a carrier bag next to where you sleep was taken into account?

I don't drive any more at all and truck driving was just something that I did to put food on the table when I was out of work. I kept a roof over our heads by matching my mortgage payments to my army pension - I was in logistics (the Royal Corps of Transport) so understand a little bit about how delivery systems can work Sadly there have been a lot of haulage companies that set up without that expertise.

But I'm retired and couldn't give a fuck. Truck driving will attract some people and repel others but if there's a shortage that needs to be filled by people in the middle it's going to have to be made more attractive. A nice new posh, all electric 40 tonner isn't going to cut it when you still have to shit in a poly bag and eat at greasy spoons.

[irie]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.indy ... 0047%3famp

She’s a proper toxic person.

She's voicing her opinion, it's called free speech, it's something the so called liberal left seem determined to get rid of, if you have an opinion different to theirs they'll find an insulting label for you in an attempt to bully you into keeping quiet. At minimum it's thought police, it smacks of Stalinism

You are kidding, right? Even her own son wants her arrested.

I’m all for free speech, however there is a line and free speech doesn’t mean you can incite hatred or death or hurt on others.

As for the degree conversation: my guess is fromage doesn’t have an education, which is why their view falls short of rational.

I see there are two types of degree: those that you do to play the game to get you into the career you choose/fall in to…and those you choose to further your understanding of the career you have chosen. I’ve personally got more out of the latter.

Also: my father was outraged I wanted to be a nurse. It worked out ok ( I don’t have a degree in nursing)

Has Iccy, Harry, Potter, or whatever he is now, hijacked your login? Certainly looks like it.

PS - there are also people who do degrees without thought of future careers simply because they have intellectual curiosity, and a fundamental interest in the learning process. IYSWIM.

[irie]

Nice try.

[Docca]

There hasn’t been any sparkling water in Sainsbury’s for months. That’s real world issues right there !


I was going to say re: low paid truck drivers- has anyone said they can always find another job doing something else instead of just moaning yet? No? Good- because that would be a twattish thing to say.

Reckon it won’t be too much longer before we’ll see a tweak to some Brexit clause. Fingers crossed.

[DefTrap]

I'm seeing the gutter tabloids editing their probrexit memory already. When there's no food on the shelves to feed kiddies and kittens they'll have Boris for breakfast.

[Mussels]

In this case pay them more is probably the right answer, freedom of movement has caused the problem by enabling the race to the bottom. Lorry driving needs to become more desirable, that will involve a better package and maybe the government offering student loans for something more useful than a degree in advertising.

[irie]

I'm seeing the gutter tabloids editing their probrexit memory already. When there's no food on the shelves to feed kiddies and kittens they'll have Boris for breakfast.

It's amazing how Brexit has similarly hit Eurozone supply chains. Maybe.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ttlenecks/

Don’t blame Brexit for supply bottlenecks.

The eurozone is suffering just as badly from supply chain issues – with the gap between the output and orders hitting a 24-year high.

This issue is by no means unique to Britain – whatever the diehard anti-Brexiteers tell you. Across the world, companies are grappling with global shipping problems, tight supplies of steel, wood, semiconductors and other vital inputs, plus Covid-related staff shortages. Rising input, logistical and also energy costs are causing sluggish production and inflationary pressures too.

But as said previously, the BBC can be relied on to ignore the facts and keep the Brexit disaster story running.

[irie]

In this case pay them more is probably the right answer, freedom of movement has caused the problem by enabling the race to the bottom. Lorry driving needs to become more desirable, that will involve a better package and maybe the government offering student loans for something more useful than a degree in advertising.

This.

[Count Steer]

The % of the average family budget spent on food has been falling for years because 'people want cheap food'. Well, if that's really what 'they' want (and have come to expect), that's what they've got:
- supply chains that break under a bit of pressure
- automated farms with few jobs and/or
- farms that rely on cheap (often imported, seasonal) labour
- small farms going out of business
- transportation that relies on cheap (see above)
- shelves full of cheap crap of dubious nutritional value
- obesity issues
- food wasted
etc etc etc
Cheap food? As the saying goes 'Lord protect me from that which I desire'. (Or what you get is the stupidity of the £1 chicken, automated mega-farms/crap, underpaid jobs etc).
Spend more on decent food, actually cookstuff, buy less tat, fags and booze. Sorted.

[Noggin]

The % of the average family budget spent on food has been falling for years because 'people want cheap food'. Well, if that's really what 'they' want (and have come to expect), that's what they've got:
- supply chains that break under a bit of pressure
- automated farms with few jobs and/or
- farms that rely on cheap (often imported, seasonal) labour
- small farms going out of business
- transportation that relies on cheap (see above)
- shelves full of cheap crap of dubious nutritional value
- obesity issues
- food wasted
etc etc etc
Cheap food? As the saying goes 'Lord protect me from that which I desire'. (Or what you get is the stupidity of the £1 chicken, automated mega-farms/crap, underpaid jobs etc).
Spend more on decent food, actually cookstuff, buy less tat, fags and booze. Sorted.

I do sometimes wince at the price of some foods here. BUT - in general, they are better than the cheap stuff in the UK.

I know that there is a lot of protectionism (I think that's the right word?) here - supermarkets can't sell drugs, pharmacies don't sell anything other that meds/health stuff, rules about farming, lots of co-op setups - but it keeps farmers living (different set up here, lots of small farms, not the huge processing set ups back there) and smaller shops survive better in general

I'd rather buy/eat less but eat good stuff than buy cheap and rubbish food. Just a case of retraining to learn to eat more seasonally (there are imports, but they are generally more expensive)

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The % of the average family budget spent on food has been falling for years because 'people want cheap food'. Well, if that's really what 'they' want (and have come to expect), that's what they've got:
- supply chains that break under a bit of pressure
- automated farms with few jobs and/or
- farms that rely on cheap (often imported, seasonal) labour
- small farms going out of business
- transportation that relies on cheap (see above)
- shelves full of cheap crap of dubious nutritional value
- obesity issues
- food wasted
etc etc etc
Cheap food? As the saying goes 'Lord protect me from that which I desire'. (Or what you get is the stupidity of the £1 chicken, automated mega-farms/crap, underpaid jobs etc).
Spend more on decent food, actually cookstuff, buy less tat, fags and booze. Sorted.

This, and it's not just food it's everything, I assume the rest of the supply chain is like where I work, in the last 17 years we've gone from 6 people in our department to 2, if somethings break when I'm not there there's no one to fix it and I'm on call 24/7.