sadoldgit

My wife suffers with sleep apnea. She had some tests done in June 2024. She has waited all this time for a follow consultation and was finally given an appointment today (Sunday). The nurse apologised profusely for the very long delay and explained that they had a massive backlog and had been prioritising the more serious cases. When I asked why the appointment was made on a Sunday she explained that Wes Streeting had green lit funds for overtime to help deal with the backlog. Just another example of Labour having to spend money fixing issue left by 14 years of underinvestment in public services.

The shooter is a foreigner and Trump closes down on immigration. The shooter is one of their own and nothing happens. Who are you more likely to get shot by Donald?

This was only the figure up to 11th November. So much for the cease fire. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2025/11/11/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers

In case there was any doubt if Donald J Trump is the thickest POTUS ever…. He believes that the Declaration of Independence was signed at the end of the American Civil War. No Donny, you are not only 89 years out, you also have the wrong war.

No surprises here… https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/gb-news-urged-to-cut-ties-with-contributor-accused-of-racism/ar-AA1Roib9?cvid=1c60bc0c8d1648ae9af71fa6bb5258ed&ocid=hpmsn

Blows up boats allegedly carrying drugs on day, wants to pardon this guy the next. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/trump-says-he-plans-to-pardon-former-honduran-president-serving-drug-trafficking-sentence For someone who pretends to be tough on crime he certainly has a soft spot for criminals.

Bye bye nic. Get well soon 💐

Farke has a greater potential for comedic uses of his name though.

Post of the year! How odd that, on a thread entitled New Manager Debate, someone feels the need to have a pop at someone else for giving an opinion on the next manager. Even more odd given he didn’t feel the need to pick up on the dozens of other comments by other posters. Still, stalkers gonna stalk. And as if by magic ⬇️

Starmer has said himself that the welfare system needs to be overhauled. Why do the likes of Alan Sugar and Richard Branson get the winter fuel allowance for example? The Universal Credit system has been slated over the years as not fit for purpose. https://www.usdaw.org.uk/latest-news/universal-credit-is-not-fit-for-purpose/

I made the suggestion because a poster earlier in this thread said he shouldn’t get the job because he is too young. I don’t disagree that he should pick his own backroom team should he get the job.

It’s not Starmer’s place to deliver. It’s down to Macron. We are paying them enough money. Time they delivered.

My point is that the system is supposed to be there to support people who need it. Means testing to me should be about looking at each case on its own merits and providing commensurate support. Yes, you probably need a cap but a set amount might be below some people’s needsand more than other people’s needs.If it is the case that generally people rely on two incomes then that should be taken into account if one income goes. Means testing doesn’t mean you still have one income so you are ok. It doesn’t matter if my wife had left her job willingly or was sacked. It didn’t affect the outcome of our case. You keep going on about nice holidays. Perhaps you know one person who does and base your assumption that everybody is on that but I think you will find that people struggling to make ends meet and even have to rely on food banks don’t go on nice holidays. We weren’t fussed about having a nice holiday. We just wanted to meet our monthly bill obligation whilst my wife looked for another job. We did take responsibility for ourselves thanks and we found a way through it without any state support. Others probably weren’t as fortunate. I am not looking for sympathy, I am just trying to point out, from first hand experience, that the current benefit system, Universal Credit, is very hard to obtain, the system is a nightmare to negotiate and this idea that most people who do use this system are all living it up thanks to those who are working is pure nonsense. By the way, are smart phones really a luxury in this day and age or a necessity?

Turkish? I might reference other posters but I don’t follow them around constantly.

We were getting by on both of our incomes. When we lost her income we had problems as we were reliant on both incomes. My wife left her job because of intolerable working conditions that seriously affected her mental health. Should she had stayed? We weren’t means tested. We didn’t qualify because of my income, which was barely enough to cover our basic outgoings. If the benefit was means tested we could have shown that we were struggling to cover our basic outgoings every month just on my income. Many people now rely heavily on two incomes, it is not unusual. If one person becomes employed for whatever reason, it puts an enormous strain on the family finances. My point was that everybody’s needs are different. There is no one size fits all and everyone seeking benefits should be treated on their own circumstances with the benefits being commensurate with their needs. She was given a caseworker who was based somewhere else other than the building she needed to report to. There was no direct contact with her caseworker, it was all done through the person she met at the time. She never met the same person twice, nor did I. There was no way of building a relationship with anyone. It was all clicks on a computer with someone somewhere else making a decision and informing you by post. It is not a very humane system. Because my wife had started an accountancy course, they eventually said that she qualified for a couple hundred loan as a “student.” We were never given any information about paying this loan back. About a year later some money disappeared from my account without any notification. After some digging I found out that it had been taken directly by the DWP without any prior contact with myself or my wife (who the loan was made to in the first place). No phone call. No letter. It is an inhuman process and if you have worked all your life it is humiliating. We have both paid NI contributions for years and just needed some financial support to tide us over until my wife got another job, which wasn’t going to take forever. No luxuries. No holidays for years because we had to pay back money we borrowed to pay the mortgage and bills. We went down from two cars to one which may not sound like a big deal but if you live out in the wilds with no decent public transport system it isn’t great. So no Egg, we didn’t seek help for luxuries. We sought help to pay our bills. Like many people, this is a second marriage for both of us. We both had to start again which meant a new, big mortgage at an age when you expect to have either paid it off or nearly paid it off. We don’t have an extravagant lifestyle. The cost of living crisis has affected us just as it has many other people at an age where you hope that you don’t have to worry too much about making ends meet. I don’t see paying the electric bill and the mortgage as a luxury but it felt like that for a time. We haven’t had a proper holiday since before Covid but I’m sure we aren’t alone there and it isn’t the end of the world and we managed to get through a difficult period without having to sell our home. Its very easy to be sniffy about benefits until you find yourself in a position when you need them.