Have you noticed that every year, when the rates are due to go up, there's always some spokeman from the council who uses the cute hostage defence. They always seem to say that if they don't increase it by x amount they may have to close a library ...or a nursery ...or a community centre .... something that's useful and people actually use and care about and it stops you in your tracks. Whereas, .... if they said they would have to make the Director of paper clips and his staff of paper clip co-ordinators redundant or the equally important Stapling Executive redundant nobody would give a toss and say sack em.... I think we should be given a choice!

I always noticed that the personnel department never gave themselves the sack

Come, come Mr Frodraff, they insist on being called Human Resorces, which when you think about it is a rather Orwellian/demeaning way to refer to any workforce.

While I'm in rant mode, another thing that makes my eyes swivel is grand titles that Council 'officers' award themselves. This came to mind when I was reading a book on Ralph Ward Jackson written by Eric Waggot, the former Town Clerk of Hartlepool, the title now deemed too humble I suppose has been replaced by the much grander Council Chief Executive.

Personnel...dealing with people
Human resource...management tool
HR... dealing in redundancy
couldn't get less personal really
Its all in the name

If you think that lot sound bad, what about this-

I went to an office in a building called The Central Entity the other day and it wasn't to meet Dr Who.

£1450 per fookin year to get your bin emptied once a bastid fortnight.

What I can never understand is they will threaten to make cuts to vital services a they always do, when the cost of anything other than peoples wages (which in a recession rarely go up) is driven purely by the governments greed for more of our money. They are the ones who during a budget single out lifes little pleasures (drinking, driving, smoking*,etc), and strive to make you feel guilty about using any of them.
In a cold winter where the cost of power has gone through the roof, one of the only professions which it has'nt affected is footballers, who I'm sure can more than comfortably absorb the 5p hike on a pint of beer, the 10p increase on a gallon of fuel, the £25 rise on car tax, which for them in their fuel efficient, eco-friendly top of the range models is a lot cheaper than Joe Publics 1989 1.6GL Golf which probably costs £100 more per annum.
They endure to encourage everyones teenage son's and daughters to attend college, on pointless degrees which will be of no long term benefit to them, and the families whose life savings will be spent in trying to keep them there.
The list of many other standard things which only go up in cost(never freeze or go down) include:- T.V license, water, car insurance, bank charges, air/road/rail travel, A.A/R.A.C, holidays, haircuts,household repairs, milk, football entry/programmes, golf subs, birthday cards, trainers, car parking charges, sky t.v., cinema, pop concerts and many more no doubt.
And all this when half the countries real achievements are ran purely on the funding of everyone else's charitable donations - for which we can be truly thankful.

* not that I condone this little pleasure.

ultimately everything is designed to keep the working classes down in their "place"
That way the incentive to go back to work on Monday is ever present

Oh yeah - then one day after a lifetime of struggling against it all, you die

Aye bt!
If they think they have it bad in blighty, they'd cack their trolleys if they saw the French, and even more particularly, the Midi-Pyreneen version.

True M Allez, freaked a man out with my trousers the other day. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with them but he felt they were teamed up with the wrong jacket. He was very worried and emailed a colleague so she could warn me against further trouser transgressions.

On the plus side if I'd been 2 hours late because of lunch he wouldn't have cared at all- "C'est normale!"

Prices are coming down at Darlo, no matter what league we are in

Get yaself there!!

I wouldnt go if they paid me

I was being sarcastic Compo

You had to be, darlow struggle to pay their players never mind paying Compo to get himself down to watch them!

They could always give him 0.09p in the £.

This bloke is well in touch with reality.

Your right, we struggle to pay our players, just as well we have an "investment" or "handout" from Raj Singh to do so, just like IOR "invest" or give HUFC a "handout"!!

Don't be frettin' about us ls.
Your front room is ablaze, and the ceiling's caving in on your own club.