The Political Thread

[The Legendary Shark]

On Saturday I had to attend a course to get a Certificate of Professional Competence, it lasted from 08:30 to 15:00 and was immensely dull. There were around 20 other people there, all professional truck drivers. Despite the fact that I've been doing this job, on and off, since I was at school, if I don't get this CPC I won't be allowed to drive for a living any more - even though I have never had a single point on my license, ever.
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On the surface, this CPC seems like a good idea - training drivers in such things as H&S, first aid, tachograph rules and operation, correct loading procedure and so forth and on to make us all safer drivers. But...
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Five of these courses must be attended before a CPC is issued and each one costs £45 plus the time, fuel, lunch money etc. needed to attend. Hmph. Furthermore, your CPC is valid for only five years - so once you have one you still need to repeat the courses to get your replacement CPC. Grr.
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More than this, if I get stopped by VOSA and don't have a CPC or have left my CPC at home I'll get fined at least £200. You what?!
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Everyone in the class, including the instructor, found this to be a terrible state of affairs - but not one of them did any more than just grumble about it as if they were just slaves.
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In my view, this whole CPC thing is nothing more than a money making scheme to help the government pay off its eternal debt, through training costs but mostly through fines. And, as the government will never and indeed can never clear its artificial debt, we can expect more CPCs in the future, first for white van drivers, motorcycle couriers and whatever else they can think of, and then for all drivers of all vehicles, including you. You might eventually even need one to ride a bike or even walk down a public footpath. Think of the income from fines then, as everyone needs a CPC and lots of them leave their cards at home for whatever reason.
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And, like the drivers in that CPC class, you'll grumble and moan - but you'll comply. You get told what to do and you do it, no matter how much you disagree.
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I wouldn't have attended if I'd had to pay for it myself but my boss paid and so I just shut up and did it - I do my little part-time driving job primarily because I enjoy it and, because of this, I suppressed my usual acerbic opinions and attended the CPC lesson despite the bad taste it left in my mouth.
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This morning my boss asked me about the course and if I'd learned anything.
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"Yes," I said, "I learned that we are a beaten and dependent people."
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He opined that I'm a proper miserable bugger. He's right, of course.

[Grugz]

just go and work for a foreign firm,seriously,i don't think they have to do any courses including the driving test as demonstrated about nineish years ago when our bairn was still teeny tiny we had a day out in leeds,the motorway was a bit rainy anyway so loads of spray and not much visibility and our rover metro got boxed in behind a german lorry as another one tailgated us and with two others on either side we could go nowhere if we'd stalled or had to stop we'd have been dead ,I'm still convincved it was a bit of fun for the drivers almost planned as the german had cut us up putting himself right in front of us..sphincters went a little twitchy for sure that day!
  then to top it all as soon as we joined the motorway home little one started projectile vomiting so I had to climb over into the back at 70mph to sort her out... I may go to leeds again one day...

[NapalmKev]

just go and work for a foreign firm,seriously,i don't think they have to do any courses including the driving test as demonstrated about nineish years ago when our bairn was still teeny tiny we had a day out in leeds...

All lorry drivers working in the UK have to do their CPC, even those that hail from abroad.

I agree with The Shark about the nonsense of it all, though. We've had CPC courses conducted at my workplace and I've yet to see anything constructive come out of it.

Cheers

[COMMANDO FORCES]

The Shark is correct, when he says that the CPC is a money making scheme. I have mine and I actually learned nothing new, while sat bored to death in the class. The course was a joke and even the instructor said this is a waste of time and the money the company waste on this 'every year' is unbelievable.

You passed your driving test, theory and practical, you know the rules and regulations, so why do you need to know loads of things that are nothing to do with your actual job.

I look forward to my next lesson sometime next year, as it never ends

[Grugz]

it sounds a bit like the bollocks of the dbs check ihave to do working in care which only proves I aint been caught murdering pensioners .
  It is flawed itself I had a certificate for someone through the post last week and thought it was just a dbs typo so told them then two days later got a letter from a retirement village for the same girl who doesn't live at our house ...or does she? if she hides in my daughter's room we'd never find her! anyway contacted the village who said that was the address she gave them and theyd have a word...sent a note to fraud team at dbs as she would have had to have documents with my address on them to get checked...

[TordelBack]

In the Irish construction sector we have to sit through the hated Safepass course every 4 years, a one-day so mindnumbing that I regularly check the expiry date on my card in the reflexive fear that the fateful day is near once again.  The third worst thing about it is that it has to be a full day - even though I could do the exam right now and guarantee getting 100%, I still have to sit through a full 8 hours, complete with ludicrously long mandated coffee and lunch breaks.  The second worst thing about it is that you can actually be a safety officer, have safety management qualifications pouring out of your arse, and still have to suffer through the same base-level shite.  The very worst thing about it is that the instructors can and do cheat: I went to one where the examiner coughed theatrically at each correct multiple-choice answer.  At which point you have to ask why me?

At the last one I attended, almost everyone was on at least their third go-around, and we were able to chant the answers to the scripted in-course questions in unison. 

However.

I do believe the process has had positive effects, industry-wide, in the same way other more esoteric CPD I've done has.  There's no denying that it's a money-making scam, but having a common language, a common experience, related to safe practice makes certain things easier.  I can, with confidence, complain to a foreman that scaffolding near where I'm working hasn't been properly secured, because I know that he knows, and the scaffolders know, what the basic regulations are, above and beyond any parroted Safety Statement .  I can refuse to get into a trench that's too deep or too narrow because we all know that we all know that that's what it is: nobody can assert greater expertise, or accuse me of naivety, and tell me otherwise.  There's no room for bullshit when everyone has suffered through the same moronic twaddle over and over again.

Naturally this doesn't stop people from ignoring the whole thing, from apprentices to safety inspectors, and people still die doing or because of stupid obvious things, but at some general level there has been a step-up in standards and awareness: there's a shape to safety in the industry now, a base that you can compare any practice to.

Obviously I can't comment on the specifics of the CPC you noble chevaliers of the highway have to endure, and am sure you know bollocks when you see it, but some common ground that goes beyond the ingrained mechanics and specific qualifications of your job can have value, however irritating and pointless it seems as you hand over the cash and shut down your brain for yet another wasted day.

[Jim_Campbell]

Just gonna leave these here.

Washington Post:



Daily Telegraph:

[Hawkmumbler]

I always feel very awkward discussing Palistine as I have very little knowledge of what the conflict is actualy ABOUT. Call me a typical white Brit, but I think I need to go and remidy this.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

I always feel very awkward discussing Palistine as I have very little knowledge of what the conflict is actualy ABOUT.

I felt this way for years - I wish I still did because the heartbreaking thing is that it's really a question of entitlement and ownership of territory and its a simple and bloody dispute as old as the history of civilization.

The thing that baffles me most is how merciless some of the Israeli population have become to the suffering on their doorstep - I see these cold collections of horrific tweets/FB posts or the reports that some sit and watch the bombardment on hill-mounted sofas whilst eating snacks and I truly despair... no amount of fact-checking can make sense of that kind of attitude to me.

[Steve Green]

Yeah, I saw the news reports of them dragging sofas to watch the airstrikes. Unbelievable.

[Professor Bear]

Israel just wants breathing room and this isn't genocide, it's self-defence.

Such is my understanding from the media.

[Jim_Campbell]

Israel just wants breathing room and this isn't genocide, it's self-defence.

Don't forget the all-important imputation of anti-semitism against anyone disagreeing, on a scale ranging from "Hamas Apologist" to "Holocaust Denier".

Cheers

Jim

[Tombo]

Quick (theoretical) question. 

Imagine the scenario - Mexican narco-terrorists begin randomly firing rockets into southern California with the intent to kill as many civilians as possible, the US government asks the Mexican government to stop them only to receive the reply that it's not their (Mexico's) problem.  The CIA then uncovers evidence that rogue elements in the Mexican government and military are actually selling the rockets to the cartels.

How would the US react?  Keep asking nicely?  Go to the UN for help?  Or do it's utmost to stop the attacks either through passive countermeasure or actively going after the launch site?  Because that's exactly what has been happing in Israel.  It's only been the effectiveness of the Iron Dome system which has stopped hundreds of Israelis (of all faiths) been killed.

Granted the current operation is excessive but the Israeli government has shown a huge amount of restraint given that they have the capability to turn the entire Strip into one big car park.  I also believe that the civilians on both sides want an end to the fighting but "hawks" on both sides are in control at the moment

Oh and Palestinians have also been seen sitting on chairs cheering their rockets going in to Israel.

[NapalmKev]

Bombing Civilian targets such as Schools and Hospitals is not the way to get your point across. And I would further argue that they are not showing "Restraint", by any measure.

Given the fact that Israelis have been persecuted many times in the past, I cannot understand why they would do it to other people?

And the US and UK Governments should feel utterly ashamed of themselves for doing absolutely FUCK ALL to help those that are genuinely in need of help, the warcrimes vote being a case in point!

cheers

[Jim_Campbell]

Quick (theoretical) question. 

Imagine the scenario -

The US builds a massive fucking wall all the way around Mexico, infringes the internationally mandated coastal waters, enforces an armed blockade of basic goods and treats the Mexicans it allows to cross the border to do shitty jobs in the US as second class citizens. It declares chunks of land on the Mexican side of the wall as no-go areas to the Mexican population, even though those these areas encompass significant amounts of the available arable land. Its sea blockade radically impedes the Mexicans' ability to fish.

Also: pointing to the US as an example of how to behave in international relations undermines your point somewhat.

a huge amount of restraint given that they have the capability to turn the entire Strip into one big car park.

It's OK for Israel to kill women and children because they could have killed everyone but they haven't? Umm... OK.

Cheers

Jim