Ian

Happy birthday

No, me neither sadly, hence the reason for the question. I haven't actually read the FB pages, only seen links to the two photos and press reports on other forums. Reading your reply I would perhaps be inclined to wonder why, given an apparently reasonable explanation for low height crates, they'd then decide to do the opposite and why the RSPCA would make such an offer unless they had at least some concerns at the moment but nevertheless a temporary struggle due to ill health is to my mind an unfortunate and different thing to someone being persistently / willfully neglectful I wouldn't have described the cages in the photo as appearing huge, but nor did they strike me as small as some are portraying, certainly unlikely to be worse than Romanian conditions as is suggested and I also thought the dogs looked reasonably content.

I was saddened to read that Wiccaweys appears to have had their dogs seized in an RSPCA raid recently. Obviously this board has donated to them via auctions in the past. From what I read on line, health issues may have had an impact on them recently and yet, whilst I wouldn't keep dogs in cages all day myself, the two photos I've seen do not look as bad as I was expecting given an RSPCA raid had taken place. To be fair one person had made some less than flattering comments to me in the past, but given the fall outs that seem to go on in rescue so often I was inclined to keep an open mind. Having, over the years, seen photos of children in orphanges in Romania and the like, animals on their streets etc I find it hard to believe conditions out there would have been better than this as seems to be claimed. Has anyone actually been there recently and, if so, have things really gone so wrong in recent times, or is there something more to the story and pictures than has so far emerged? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=468119909925205&set=a.468118853258644.1073741839.185684438168755&type=3&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=468119809925215&set=a.468118853258644.1073741839.185684438168755&type=3&theater

Again probably the right decision, Francesca could have gone perhaps but surely, given that no one disagreed with her, Rebecca shouldn't have been in there given her sales even if she did partly suggest / choose the wrong location? The sooner Neil & his big head leave the better I think & I thought if he'd faced someone else Alex might well have got a smack in the mouth when he told his colleague shut up you silly s**t so I wouldn't miss him either!

Good to see the show back again, I think he made the right decision, though none of the three seemed to have done much well. Back on again tonight too, presumably just for this week?

Good luck with your new adventure

That is a good article Yantan, perhaps it's just easier to push an image of all people on benefits as lazy or feckless than actually build the economy and create jobs for them to do though?

I'm not sure what I make of these three being singled out really. Whilst I can see an argument for barring them from acting as Directors, why (only) these three? There have been plenty of bank staff and politicians involved in getting us into the mess we now find ourselves in, (and other wrongs) are any of them more or less deserving of such punishment than another? I'm not so sure.

It obviously does happen (maybe that explains why the country is in such a mess!) - and the old boys network continues to thrive whatever else they may try & kid us - but its not always so when they are so high profile as IDS failure was. Fred Goodwin for example is probably too much of an embarrassment for anyone to take on now - surely? If only IDS had gone the same way, I never liked him when he was the supposed leader.

Obviously how these things should work - and yet his tutors didn't want it. I honestly think that the problem with these schemes is the way they are set up. In some cases around here the organisation providing the placement is a sub contractor of a contractor or even sub contractor. Unlike the contractor / sub contractor the placement provider gets nothing out of it - and lose a placement for their next trainee - if a job is filled as a result of a placement. Why then would they want that to happen? The Government / Civil servants employ whoever is easiest for them - eg G4S & one body to deal with. G4S do nothing around here - they just sub the job out - and this Government has the audacity to talk about efficiency. Incredibly, I read in the last day or so that they are now also thinking about "looking at" the minimum wage - ie whether they should be reducing it. "Everyone" to have a job, but not be able to afford to live on it then, meanwhile they refuse to put Commons catering prices to a level that is comparable with the local commercial market. "All in it together", or are we? I thought Cameron had said it, but there really isn't much to choose between them!

Yes, but the difference there is that if you work for the Government, Civil Service etc you are not open to competiton, profit & loss, supply & demand etc as you would be with a commercial employer and the public who pay your wages can't get rid of you or decide to buy elsewhere in the next 4 / 5 years. IDS is a failed Tory leader and yet still holds one of the highest offices in Government, would he have the same luxury in a more commercial environment?

Brian Dowling is apparently "getting the push", despite still having a contract they'll have to pay up to replace him. I've never been a fan of his myself but I do like lovely Emma Willis who now takes over as host http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/big-brother/big-brother-2013-brian-dowling-is-furious-over-emma-willis-replacement/

Well, IDS apparently won't be taking any lessons from this stunt / "the left" - yet another example of him opening his big mouth before establishing facts! He doesn't seem to appreciate that someone who can afford to ignore the dole and just live off savings isn't really struggling at all. As to nobody having given him a damn penny I wonder where he thinks the "pennies" paying his wages in Government or the army actually come from? http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4871137/iain-duncan-smith-calls-benefit-petition-stunt.html

I'm not against the idea of someone who has been out of work a while being given something like a "work trial" for a "short period" (perhaps even a month or two) in order to prove they can do the job. The trouble is that these schemes appear to be run by people who want to be seen to be doing something rather than people who are focussed on getting people into work. Around here they continually put people into poundland (and other places) but there is no proper measure of a successful outcome or requirement to give such people a job at the end of it. It therefore becomes far too easy for unscrupulous firms (or Managers) to just acquire a constant source of free labour.# As for the "wonderful" work oprogramme, all those people in need of a job, many of them under G4S or it's subcontractors & yet where were the adverts / SIA training for the Olympics jobs they claimed to be unable to fill?

I'm not sure about Michael Portillo but I'd like to see IDS on the dole - and not just for a week either.

Coming up for 3 years on now & I found myself wondering if you had known then what you know now would it have changed your vote? Of course those who simply wont work need to be encouraged to do so but I don't believe that is the majority of the jobless at all. I for one am appalled by what the current Government is doing - nothing to create jobs yet driving the poorest in society ever further into poverty or now possibly even out of their homes. There was a guy on local radio the other day whose "spare" bedroom is housing a dialysis machine. He still needs to find another £49 (he didn't say whether weekly, fortnightly or monthly)to cover the drop in his housing benefit - he's a sick / disabled man not feckless for gods sake. To my mind yesterdays Mirror was therefore unfair as this goes way beyond anything Margaret Thatcher was ever criticised for - ie the poll tax & school milk - Cameron, Clegg & Co ought to be ashamed of themselves in my view. I wonder A) whether I'll ever vote tory again? & B) Who I will vote for next time? Given that it wont be the current lot & Labour got us into this mess I think it's probably going to have to be UKIP, even if only as a protest vote! What about you?

I received this petition via email and thought it worth sharing. I'd certainly like to see this man learn what it's like for those who struggle day to day rather than just talk nonsense about it. The petition challenges him to back up his claim he could live on £53 per week "if he had to" with evidence of doing so. https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/iain-duncan-smith-iain-duncan-smith-to-live-on-53-a-week?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=21557&alert_id=qrSdtClCyu_PlhQVCHjwz

Signed though sadly I doubt they'll listen

Good luck

Times flies doesn't it! Though I hope you'll have plenty more years together yet

Bless, though I was just thinking that if I were "the little one" (sorry I wasn't sure which dog was which) I'd want to be on top - just in case

Thankyou, the vet did seem to conclude it was neurological but never for sure whether from birth or brought on by some other factor. Probably not just yet but I'm missing her character & in time we may find we've become household that just isn't the same without a dog and a cat

Yes I know what you mean. I hadn't gone looking for Lucy, (Gsd), I just noticed her straying as I drove down the road, she was young & frightened so I didn't want to see her in kennels but did think she'd be claimed as a pretty young dog. Her owners never came forward & she just made herself at home with little Chloe & I

Thankyou. Chloe was my first cat & to be honest there were times when she was small & clawing her way up my legs & sometimes the curtains I wondered whether she might also be my last but she soon won me over & I'm now missing having her around, as I think is Lucy as she'd enjoy playing with Chloe. A little soon yet but in time Lucy I may well therefore find that we now "have to" offer a home to another cat

Thankyou, despite Lucy being young and energetic the house still sometimes seems eerily quiet without her running around at the moment & I'm just trying to keep busy really, I keep looking at the only photos I've been able to access of her at the minute (have yet to find the card reader for the early ones), one not so good, the other wrapped in the blanket I brought her home in & looking like she's just asleep. It's such a shame for one so young to leave us, but life sucks sometimes. In time I hope my happier memories of her will help to think of her in happier ways, as short as they sadly were destined to be.