Rabbit Thought of the Day

SOUTHEND sorting office has been named the best in the country, which posties say makes the proposed closure even more “staggering”.

The supermarket chain wants to buy the sorting office and provide a new sorting centre as part of the plans for a store, flats and new youth centre.

But the Communication Workers Union is against the plans and says it will put jobs at risk and disrupt the service.

Further to the previous post, reference the college who have cancelled a teacher training trip to Spain. It is probably very true that the school will have to pay some recompense or they will no doubt lose their deposit after they cancelled their planned training in Spain.

The training as far as I can make out was for the school staff and involved no or few outside agencies. It would cost little or nothing at all to use the school facilities to undertake this training. Instead of using the these facilities it was decided to do the training abroad, the course was only for two yet the trip was scheduled for four days obviously 1 days travelling at either end of the training course.

The public perception of this is that the teachers are getting a nice holiday at public expense; the children get four days off school, yet if parent was to take their children out of school to go the Spain on holiday they would be fined for doing so.

This ill-conceived and barmy idea was doomed from the start, irrespective of the turmoil which as happened to the world markets in the last few months this trip to Spain should never have contemplated. Wouldn’t this venture have to have been approved by the board of Governors if so why was it approved or were they also invited to Spain for four days at public expense. Quite frankly the idea was crazy, if my kids went to that school I would be asking questions of the headmaster’s suitability to run this school and is he the right man to educate these children.

A four-day teachers' training trip to Marbella in southern Spain has been called off, following criticism over costs estimated at thousands of pounds. Pupils at Edensor Technology College in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, were expected to stay at home on Thursday and Friday while teachers were away.

The school's head Richard Mercer said it had been called off because of "pressure from media interest". Staff will now discuss the school's new curriculum and academy plans on site. The cost of the trip has not been disclosed, but a calculation by the BBC's Midlands correspondent Fiona Trott estimated it at £18,000, based on 80 staff travelling to the Spanish city.

In a statement Mr Mercer said: "Following the recent publicity concerning the proposed visit to Marbella for training purposes by staff from Edensor Technology College, it has been decided to cancel the trip.

"The training programme will now take place at the school over the next two days. "It was felt that due to the pressure from media interest in the trip it would be unfair to the staff, pupils and parents."

In a statement released on Wednesday the school said the Marbella trip was the "best value for money" compared with other UK and international venues.

The school said it had sought quotes from nine venues in total and the conference was booked at the end of 2007.

Stoke-on-Trent's elected mayor Mark Meredith had previously criticised the planned trip and said he was glad it had been called off. He told BBC Radio Stoke: "We did think it was an absolutely barmy idea. "We told the head teacher that. He's usually a very level-headed individual and a good leader of the school. "I know he's incredibly creative but I explained I thought his creative juices had overflowed."

Parents had also criticised the trip. Andy Sales, 34, of Fenton, said: "Why isn't this money being spent on our kids? "Parents are having to take time off work or are paying for extra childcare while the staff are enjoying the sun at the school's expense."

The Dutch city of Eindhoven is to award credit points to street prostitutes in exchange for good behaviour. Prostitutes with enough points will get street miles from the City Hall which they can use to buy designer clothes and furniture.

In return they must take part in a city plan to help prostitutes find alternative employment. Dutch cities are starting to close red light districts where street prostitutes operate.

Eindhoven plans to close the zone for street prostitutes by 2011.

The prostitutes' union, the Red Thread, is enthusiastic about the plan to help street prostitutes seek another profession. With street miles from the City Hall, prostitutes can buy designer clothes and furniture from outlets like the Eindhoven Design Academy and the International School of Design in Cologne.

To earn credit points for street miles, the prostitutes must take part in activities such as workshops where they can learn a range of skills to equip themselves for other work. The City Hall says the street miles credit system goes far beyond designer clothing and street prostitution and is aimed at combating a combination of social problems.

A £1,000,000 Bank of England note will be sold to the highest bidder as it goes under the hammer. London auction firm Spink is selling the famous eight-inch-wide green banknote, numbered 000008, which is believed to be one of only two existing notes of such a high denomination.

The other £1,000,000 note is numbered 000007 and was sold for £8,000 by Spink in 1977 through a private sale. The note was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as being the highest denomination in private ownership. A Spink spokesman told Coinlink the defunct Number Eight note, entered for sale by UK-based banknote collector Bill Parkinson, may fetch £35,000 to £40,000 at its sale of world banknotes.

The million pound note was issued after the Second World War in connection with the Marshall Aid Plan and was intended for internal use. It is believed notes number seven and eight are the only remaining notes of nine that were produced at the time. They were given as mementoes to the US and UK Treasury Secretaries.

The number eight note is dated August 30 1948. It bears the signature of E E Bridges in the lower right hand corner and is cancelled over the signature and stamped October 6 1948, Bank of England. The sale will take place at Spink's auction house in Bloomsbury.

God, it only nine a clock and I have already had a very productive day, I have filled out my expenses form and monthly mileage form and submitted them. I completed my monthly timesheets. Plus I have completed and posted my self assessment tax form, and I had to phone up the MoD pensions department to get some details because like a pillock I can’t find my pension P60 included within the tax form was form for reimbursement of expenses for mileage so with a bit of luck I might even get some money back.

Although I very much doubt that, it like trying to get blood from a stone trying to get money out of the tax man. But everyone can dream. Now I have done the important things in life, I can settle down and do the less important things like work, which is what I get paid for.

The conference season is drawing to a close, this week it’s the turn of the Tories (that was for the people who have their heads buries in the sand). Early in the week during one of his speeches he indicated that if comes to power he would scrap the expansion of Heathrow Airport in favour of better rail transport links, a sure vote winner for people living in the Heathrow area.

Yesterday he announced that again when he his in power (I don’t think there is little doubt that the Conservatives will win the next election, Labour has made such a harsh of it in the last two years) he would also scrap the second runway at Stansted, a sure vote winner in that area as well.

It is interesting listening to the bosses at Heathrow and Stansted that if expansion does go ahead at these airports it would threaten local jobs. Now correct me if I am wrong but how can it threaten local jobs. If the airports went into reverse and less aircraft used the airports then yes jobs be under threat. However, if the number of flights stayed constant then the airports would require the same number of employees hence no loss of jobs. Am I being stupid and missing something.

Another point, made by the boss of Heathrow, he stated that if Heathrow did not expand then that would threaten job prospects in the city, well after resent events would that be a bad thing, after all it’s the bankers and money markets that have got us in to this situation a few thousand of those people going could only be a good thing. But the point is if our investment company’s and  banks were the best in the world then no matter what the transport infrastructure was people would still come to us because we are the best irrespective of what the transport links were like. Heathrow and Stansted do not need expansion they just need to improve how they operate.

Good morning fellow bloggers, how are we all this morning? For me I feel great an excellent nights sleep, no early wake up calls nor did I wake up during the night. Today, I find myself back in the office on normal duties after yesterday trip in London for my weekly M&E design meeting, which as usual was a complete waste of time.

Yesterday we discussed issues that we covered weeks ago, but we had to go through once again, to tell you the truth in the hour and three quarters that the meeting went on for, I think I only contributed one sentence, maybe two. It was pointless me being there, consider in two weeks I am leaving the company anyway. Still it was a pleasant day out in the capital anyway.