johnnybangkok

Exactly. There are much easier ways of asking this question other than 'No, where are you REALLY from'.

Perhaps, but that's one massive foot-in-mouth blunder, especially when the Royals have been consistently accused of racism, colonialism and being out of touch from the man on the street (or have we all forgotten Prince Philip?). Her resignation is appropriate and justified much in the same way as a CEO refusing to bow to Japanese investors or insulting Chinese suppliers would also have to fall on his sword (pun intended). We are all culpable for our actions, but some more than others.

From the same article 'Other local authorities with less than half of people identifying as white were: Slough, Leicester and Luton. The ONS has issued a statement criticising "misleading statistical claims" that white people are now a minority in London and Manchester'. We can all cherry pick a narrative to back up our own bias and we can shield it with fluffy language such as "some places in the U.K" but we know what the inferance is and it's simply not true.

The hyperbole from Alex Salmond is not law. You can just as easily read that as a call to arms rather than an actual time limit as amazingly enough, neither Alex Salmond nor anyone for that matter has the right to dictate how many times a referendum can be held. It does however now require the consent of Westminster, so will PROBABLY be 'once in a generation'. This might be highly inconvenient to the narrative you have told yourself, but these are facts. There is no official law/ruling that says the referendum was a one-off.

Wrong. As usual. https://www.bbc.com/news/63806518

For all of you trying desperately to defend this woman, try reading the conversation again and remember Ngozi Fulani is born and bread in Hackney and has an East London accent. SH: No, what part of Africa are YOU from? Me: I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records. SH: Well, you must know where you’re from, I spent time in France. Where are you from? Me: Here, UK SH: NO, but what Nationality are you? Me: I am born here and am British. SH: No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from? Lady SH had more than ample opportunity to pull back in the conversation with a simple 'Sorry, I meant where did your parents come from?' or 'What is your own ancestry?' rather than the route she chose which was 'well you're black so you obviously can't be British.' It may/may not have been racist but I think we can all agree it was very, very clumsy. And for all those with the 'she's 83 give her a break', she's no ordinary 83 year old. She was the Queens consort since the 1960's and still helps host occasions at Buckingham Palace. For someone in her position she needs to be a LOT more diplomatic and aware of these matters; something this conversation CLEARLY shows she is not. Her resignation was justified and appropriate as has been clearly seen by how quick the Palace was to distance themselves from her with the statement "The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63810468 There are times when PC culture can be questioned. This isn't one of them.

1. Scotland cannot legally hold a referendum without Westminster approval. Only recently confirmed but yes. 2. Scotland had a once in a lifetime/generation vote 8 years ago. Disagree. No one mentioned 'once in a lifetime/generation' at the last vote and if the SNP continue to dominate Scottish politics and consensus grows from it's current narrow margin to say 70-80% in favour of independence then I don't see how Westminster can't put it to the vote again. 3. In 20-30 years when Scotland get permission to legally hold another referendum, the Scots will once again vote against it. Can I borrow your crystal ball? Might come in handy soon.

Well I'm glad you are so magnanimous in your idea that Brexit will ONLY bring a 'short-term' pain of 5-10 years. I think many wouldn't be quite so relaxed when that 5-10 years brings unneccessary economic woes and hardship, especially when all it was all about regaining a sovereignty that was never lost in the first place or be part of an EU that is blatantly NOT failing. There has never been a conversation from independance fans that shirked Scotlands financial responsibilities but you keep bandying around an 180 billion GDP debt as fact that the author of your link himself freely admits is 'conjecture'. Likewise, there is still a conversation to be had about joining the EU but that criteria (like all countries wishing to join the EU), will be set by the EU and Scotland will/will not qualify accordingly and then we will choose (or not) thereafter. Economics will play a very big part in mine and many Scots thoughts on independance, but unlike yourself when you chose Brexit, xenophobia and the made up nonsense you continue to try and push as solid reasons for leaving the UK's largest trading partner will not.

I see the double-standards of you when you are happy to pull the WHOLE of the UK out of the EU but bemoan Scotland 'walking away from their biggest trading partner and all of the trade deals it had as part of the UK'. And they're not 'demanding exactly what they opposed so vehemently during Brexit'. The SNP didn't want Brexit because of the self-imposed trade barriers. If Scotland was independent but back in the EU, the only countries they would have trouble dealing with in Europe would ironically be England, N Ireland and Wales.

Yeah I noticed that as well. I'm not sure he's even self-aware enough to see the complete irony in his post.

I really dont get why it has to be, 'you've already voted. That's it! No more referendums!. Ever!' This idea that you don't get to change your mind goes against every democratic principal there is. For gods sake, we have parliamentary elections every 4 years. Do we ever say, 'well that's it, you voted and now you have to live with that decision and that chosen party FOREVER!' Of course not. Every 4 years you are allowed to completely change your mind based on the circumstances at the time. 8 years ago, Scotland voted 'no' to independence but at that time Brexit wasn't even a thing. 8 years later, Brexit has changed everything and it's VERY clear that Scotland did not want to leave the EU and if they had self-determination, would surely have voted to stay. I voted 'no' to Scotland leaving in 2014 but given the choice now, I'm not so sure. A lot of things have changed and I would seriously have to revisit my position with all the NEW INFORMATION I now have. That sounds just like a sensible thing to do.

Yeah because he did a bang up job in the 4 years he actually was POTUS. If he's God's favoured one I'd hate to see how useless the other guy needs to be.

Provide a link then! Extraodinary statements require extraordinary proof. That's how these forums work; he who can come up with the verifiable figures, wins! It's not just a 'trust me I know' type of situation. I've provided facts and figures. How about you show what you've got?

Of course I understand the difference between 'training on the job and training before applying; .Thanks for the condescention. It still doesn't consitute your original statement of '50,000 vacancies anyone can do with no prior experience or training. I''ll say it's a maximum of 20,000 (and I'm being generous) the other 110,000 vacancies currently available require some sort of experience or training. Christ, 35,000 of that is nurses alone. And you quoting hourly rates is irrelevant as I actually agree with you. We might not quite agree it's 'good money' but it's certainly better than dole money.

Provide a link with facts and figures rather than just anecdotal stuff and I'll happily concede. And by the way, I'm still in the business and still recruiting in the healthcare business. Just in Thailand.

So in other words you had no previos experience but you were extensively trained. A far cry from your original statement of '50,000 vacancies anyone can do with no prior experience or training' Look. You seem like a nice guy but as a welfare liason officer, there is no way you can understand all of the complexities of the 350 different NHS careers and the requirements of so many of them. I did. It was what I literally did for a living for many years, so I know that many can join as a healthcare assistant but I also know the the low entry salary prohibits a lot of people from applying. But look, I agree with the sentiment. If someone has the choice between the dole and a healthcare assistant, then they should take the healthcare assistant job but so many Brits simply don't want to which leads us nicely back to why getting out the EU was a cr@p idea because those roles where very happily taken up by EU workers. Spoiled Brits on the dole is NOT a new phenomenom. It's been around for decades.

Well I can provide a link. Lots of them. Professionally qualified clinical staff make up over half (53.0%) of the FTE HCHS workforce. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/october-2021 of approx 1.2 million. Nurses & health visitors (jobs that both require at least training) then make up a further 350,00 jobs. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-numbers-of-doctors-and-nurses-working-in-the-nhs That's approx. 990k of the 1.2m or better said as 85% of the total workforce. 'The number of posts lying vacant across the NHS in England has reached a “staggering” record high of 132,139 – https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/01/nhs-vacancies-in-england-at-staggering-new-high-as-almost-10-of-posts-empty That means that since 85% of these vacanicies require either professional qualifications and/or training then only 20,000 or so require 'no prior experience or training', a far cry from your oriiginal '50000 vacancies that anyone can do with no prior experience or training'. One of us used to do this for a living. It isn't you.

Enough of the pearl clutching dear. We never misled people because we didn't for one minute say they could just walk into palliative care or rehabilitation jobs or many of the other thousands and thousands of other jobs that the Healthcare and NHS require with at least a very good education and or specific qualifications in that chosen field. Your view is very myopic and only understanding of a certain level of Health employment. We did however often say ' whether you are new to care or have experience, we have a job for you' because we knew we weren't lying because we could probably find them a job. And if all else failed, there was always geraitric care.

Do you mean to be trying to explaining this to me?

We all said that. Cast the net and then fish out the ones you need. Old marketing ploy. Try applying for palliative care or rehabilitation jobs without either previous experience or training. Won't happen. Might talk you into a porter job though.

You know things aren't good when you are in agreement. I feel dirty.

Care to back that up with some peer reviewed or factual evidence? I used to run a recruitment company in the UK that focused on healthcare (with the NHS as our biggest client) and I can absolutely gaurantee you there was VERY FEW jobs 'that anyone can do with no prior experience or training'. Maybe things have changed a lot in the last 10 years so I'm up for being re-educated on the matter, but if you'll forgive me, it'll take slightly more than just your own personal opinion.

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Cost of living payments cannot go on forever, neither can help with energy bills and why on earth should a prosperous country have its people relying on food banks? Talk about not looking even slightly into the future. The train drivers are on strike as are the teachers of Scotland, postal workers, college lecturers, ground handlers, nurses and about 100,000 civil servants. There is massive unrest in many other professions. With the ridiculous utopia you keep trying to present, I indeed wonder what closeted existence you’re living.

Bit it got massively conflated by a Brexit lobby that relied on the UKs natural xenophobia. We fought the Germans and Italians, we rescued the French and those Spanish/Greeks are just lazy letharios. You know, “if it wasn’t for us you’d all be goose stepping around your living room” type of thinking. And even now a Brexit fan finds it difficult to admit his xenophobia, preferring statements like “terrible idea, cultures not same”.