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Exactly - I think my whole post summarises as

existence of unions: good

unions taking the p!ss: bad

no idea which of these categories the BA/Unite dispute falls into

(oh well, at least my fingers get good exercise!)

As the resident left-wing bleeding-heart liberal pansy... I can see both sides.

I believe unions can be a good thing when it comes to making sure certain standards of employment are met. Providing pressure to try and ensure that companies aren't cutting basic health and safety measures, for instance, or supporting employees who survive a life-threatening illness or injury and then get pulled in front of a disciplinary board for 'too much time off sick', or holding the hand of people who've experienced workplace bullying/harassment, aren't articulate or confident enough to stick up for themselves in a roomful of 'suits', and don't know what to expect from the arbitration process.

I don't believe in "you're lucky to have a secure job" if that job, although secure, is putting you at risk because your employer expects you to work in unsafe conditions or with inadequate equipment, or chooses to ignore the Working Time Directive at the expense of an employees health and social well-being. We're supposed to be a civilised country that's a good hundred years or so on from kiddies working sixty-hour weeks in cramped, unsanitary sweatshops.

I also don't believe "you're lucky to get any pay rise at all" if the wage is still not enough to live on, or does not reflect inflationary increase. Often, pay-freezes and less-than-inflation 'raises' only affect the lower echelons, and even if a freeze is universal throughout the company, being frozen at

And again with quotes-I-stole-from-someone-else-and-can't-remember-who: if they'd spent as much time training as they did prancing about in adverts, might it have turned out differently?

No idea mate - it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, I'm sitting in the cool shade by an open patio door, relaxing online and discussing such weighty issues as what colour I'm going to paint my nails for the wedding... then I suddenly got all Eeyore.

Think I'll go kick Himself out of bed and see about Going Out and Doing Stuff.

Maybe it's just really hard to get people to fork over money to be told "actually, your life is crap, you have no potential, and there's nothing you, I, or anyone else can do about it. Go work a factory line or something - you'll be on the bottom rung for the rest of your natural life because let's face it, somebody has to be."

Truth rarely sells. Dreams sell.

Also why am I this depressed and cynical on a Saturday morning?

Hee hee, I don't often read sports stories but that one was well worth a click!

I have a huge bee in my bonnet about keeping my National Insurance contributions up to date so that I am eligible for state benefits/pension if and when I need it. I know it's naive, but I'm hoping that as long as I play by the rules and keep paying into the system, the system will at least keep me fed and sheltered when I can't support myself.

And I cannot believe I just typed that.

There won't be any cruises in my retirement but then there won't be any kids' inheritance either - I'm extremely unlikely to ever own my own home or have savings, because no matter how hard we work, as soon as my partner and I do have a chance of owning our own home or having savings, it will be yoinked straight back off us to pay for care. We're allowed about

Lowestoft, mostly, although we spent a while in Southwold too.

If anyone's in the Southwold area I can thoroughly recommend the Under The Pier Show - a selection of, ahem, rather bizarre amusement/arcade machines created by local inventor Tim Hunkin.

I was on my annual jaunt to the seaside. Most put out to discover that my favourite restaurant has closed down.

Per pound spent, the biggest ROI for me has to be developing and maintaining an online presence, closely followed by offline networking in its various forms (for example, I got startup help from the Prince's Trust, and now if the people who helped me have another client who could benefit from VA support, they pass along my business card).

However, I have to admit that as soon as we put a cash value on my time that I have spent posting on forums, developing my website, creating profiles, etc, then it diminishes rapidly. Certainly for the first few months I was spending more hours-per-week on online activity than I spent doing paid work for clients.

That said, the online activity is not a one-way conduit. If I spend an hour posting on this forum I'm not *just* raising my own profile, I'm also getting the benefit of everyone else's experience and that's invaluable.