Simple economics

Hilzoy tells the truth: I have been hearing for years and years about how the financial services sector pays such exorbitant wages because the people who work there are so immensely talented that they are cheap at $50 million a year. I never particularly bought that line before. But I never imagined that all those Masters of the Universe would do quite this badly. If we had paid them $50 million a year to go far, far away and leave our financial system alone, it would have been a bargain

The way we are - update

I reported on the near miss to immortality on Sunday before last.
Having done the immediate things on the day of the collision, I went on the offensive on Monday. I had Farmer Giles confirm his full acceptance of all responsibility in an email and that he would instruct his insurer to proceed on the basis that I would not be involving my people. That got me a very nice replacement car far better than the dead basic set of wheels my insurers would have allowed. My garage confirmed that my car was a write-off, The other party assessor was not due to be in the area for another five days but I convinced him that a total write-off would not take long to assess and he went there on the Wednesday. Two days early. By midday Friday, we agreed a value for my dead vehicle. £250 over the value shown in the trade-confidential guides as I was able to prove that it had been maintained regardless of expense and was all prepared for an already booked MOT five days after the accident.
And that is where it has stuck. A week to process a cheque and get it to me. The operatives seem to have understood that time is hire car charges but the shiny arses in the administration departments have failed to keep up the momentum. I've short-circuited the process and have agreed with my garage to collect the replacement tomorrow; he will trust the insurance people to come up with a cheque in the fullness of time. I'm left thinking the admin failure to show any initiative is part of where the country has gone wrong.
Personally, I've come out a bit ahead. The replacement is exactly the same model, five months younger with 33,000 less miles and an extra of a full length glass roof.

Manpower

I sent an email to a named individual in a government department. It bounced with the explanation that his mailbox was full. Repeated 12 hours later. Same result. Using the 'Contact Us' link on their web page returned a 404. I telephoned the department and got through to the head honcho's secretary. Having explained my problem she kindly gave me her email and said she would sort things out. The guy I wrote to had left six months ago; let us hope there was nothing urgent in his overflowing mail box.
I had a reply from the co-operative secretary telling me the name of the person I should contact. It was copied to eleven ( e l e v e n) internal addressees - ten of them in the IT department. As my query was in the text of my post to the secretary, she could have forwarded it to the man named in her reply.
I suspect there might be a tad of over-manning in that department?
I had reported the problem of the full mailbox to the postmaster@the site. No reply but I just wonder how many of the Legion of the Damned he might have e-mailed?

A police full hand gets flushed

Had I not read this on a police site, I would have assumed it was just another swipe at the police.

They do not need critics - they destroy their own reputation.

New speak

This message appeared on a forum that I haunt. Shows a certain bravado as text speak is attacked and there are a lot of male posters who have absolutely no feminine side, She wrote:

heya people, im new here so please dnt b mean, id like a blokes point of view,,
ive been wi m bf for lyk 2 years n he gets sex on tap (frm me ov course) n il do pretti much owt he wants,, soooo, y is it he has to watch porn when he's away on trainin or wteva, im nt big headed bt im nt ugly at all coz i just got scouted to be a model, but him doin this makes me feel like im nt doin it 4 him even though he swears im everythin he wants,, Is this just a basic man need, that doesnt have owt 2 do wi wt i luk like or our sex lives?
Id be great full for all your comments, im oni 18 so be kind

She was, of course, savaged by the attack dogs. For her posting at all and for the daft language. She took it in good part and re-submitted the question in perfectly good English.

So, able to write 'properly' and not amongst her usual group of pals, so, why resort to text? I liked the inclusion of a bit of dialect as well. 'owt to do wi'.

Haven't seen and not really sufficiently interested to check but has anyone written a novel or whatever in the New English? I can read her text and it does not offend me at all. The purpose of communication is to communicate and she has done that. So why do so many get uptight?