Vincent Browne Heckle !

[TotalMayhem]

It is a commercial fraud and should be stopped.]

Why is this fraud? Nobody's forced to call in.

And why should it be stopped? Don't be such a spoilsport, I have just rediscovered my love for TV entertainment!

[Kev Bar]

Why is this fraud? Nobody's forced to call in.

And why should it be stopped? Don't be such a spoilsport, I have just rediscovered my love for TV entertainment!

It's certainly no less "fraudulent" than: "Girls from all over Ireland are waiting for you...."

I think however it is called theft when you are forced to pay for shinola for ****
But it can still be fraud when you are seduced or enticed to do so.

Sport?

LIke feeding Holy Joes to carnivores.

[PaddyJoe]

It's certainly no less "fraudulent" than: "Girls from all over Ireland are waiting for you...."

Or 'speeds her up, slows him down'

[Holly]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[Kev Bar]

Or 'speeds her up, slows him down'

My lady sees that less as fraud and more as an attempt at civic service.

But as the impressive Loudon Wainright says:

"She says I came too early...but it was she who came too late."

Whatever happened to you
Whatever happened to us
We missed the proverbial boat
the plane, the train and the bus
Push lady shove and we fell out of love
And we tore each other apart.
Love is grand.
But I can't understand
Why you broke my proverbial heart.

[riposte]

My lady sees that less as fraud and more as an attempt at civic service.

But as the impressive Loudon Wainright says:

"She says I came too early...but it was she who came too late."

Whatever happened to you
Whatever happened to us
We missed the proverbial boat
the plane, the train and the bus
Push lady shove and we fell out of love
And we tore each other apart.
Love is grand.
But I can't understand
Why you broke my proverbial heart.

................

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlANWXx4iUc&feature=results_main&playnext= 1&list=PLC2FD79B2EA7745DE"]Loudon Wainwright "Whatever Happened To Us" 1984 - YouTube[/ame]

[Baron von Biffo]

Are you joking, where do you want to start?

Wherever you see the greatest examples.

[Baron von Biffo]

I know one agency where a shopping spree commences annually before year end to use up the budget less the same is not allocated again.
Forklifts and all sorts sitting in mint condition in one warehouse out the road, unused and not likely to be.

You'll find that happening in every large organisation. I think it's a relatively new phenomenon in the PS, another unwelcome consequence of the demented notion that public services should be provided using the methods and philosophies of commercial business.

[Baron von Biffo]

I reckon the answer to Baron's question there deserves a thread all of it's own.

Go for it.

[Baron von Biffo]

OK I'll give you one. I live in Galway. They have spent the last 3 years digging up loads of roundabouts in Galway City, and replacing them with costly traffic light systems which has made no difference whatsoever to the traffic flow, might even have made it worse in fact.

What Galway needs is another bridge and a ring road around the city, but resources have been wasted on digging up roundabouts and replacing them with traffic light systems.

I'd say this kind of thing goes on in every town in the country.

I wish we had the same sort of waste in Portlaoise.

Roundabouts are are very inflexible traffic control tools. They really only work where there's a balanced flow of traffic. They can't accommodate the normal variations at different times of the day/week. They are also more difficult and more dangerous for pedestrians.

Traffic lights can be made to respond to different traffic flow, they can be networked and work together to help manage overall flow in a town/city They can be reprogrammed over time to suit new conditions. For pedestrians they offer much safer crossing places.

[goatstoe]

I wish we had the same sort of waste in Portlaoise.

Roundabouts are are very inflexible traffic control tools. They really only work where there's a balanced flow of traffic. They can't accommodate the normal variations at different times of the day/week. They are also more difficult and more dangerous for pedestrians.

Traffic lights can be made to respond to different traffic flow, they can be networked and work together to help manage overall flow in a town/city They can be reprogrammed over time to suit new conditions. For pedestrians they offer much safer crossing places.

Well you tell me the sort of waste you have in Portlaoise then. I'd say you know more about waste of public funding than I do. But your going to play devil's advocate and find ways to argue against every incident of waste that I or other posters will indicate, just for the sake of it. Don't worry I'm sure I'll find concrete examples that you wont be able to contrive to rebut.

BTW when I was talking about replacing roundabouts with traffic lights I was talking about how they prioritise their funding, to make maximum impact on traffic problems for the money spent. It's a bit like the hc itself; throwing good money after bad into the system.

[Baron von Biffo]

Well you tell me the sort of waste you have in Portlaoise then. I'd say you know more about waste of public funding than I do. But your going to play devil's advocate and find ways to argue against every incident of waste that I or other posters will indicate, just for the sake of it. Don't worry I'm sure I'll find concrete examples that you wont be able to contrive to rebut.

I treated your post as an honest expression of your opinion so why must you impute bad faith to me?

BTW when I was talking about replacing roundabouts with traffic lights I was talking about how they prioritise their funding, to make maximum impact on traffic problems for the money spent. It's a bit like the hc itself; throwing good money after bad into the system.

And I disagreed with your assessment. I've commented here about roundabouts in the past and if my posts are still accessible on the other site you can have a search and you'll find that I made much the same case against them as I made in my post above that you've taken such exception to.

[goatstoe]

I treated your post as an honest expression of your opinion so why must you impute bad faith to me?

It wasn't my intention to impute bad faith in you. However I do think people can trap themselves on one side of an argument in order to get points across, I'd be guilty of that myself at times. Anyway I think there needs to a spotlight shone on the waste of resources issue at local and national level. There's a lot of talk about it from time to time, but there doesn't seem to be much actually being done about it.

[Baron von Biffo]

It wasn't my intention to impute bad faith in you. However I do think people can trap themselves on one side of an argument in order to get points across, I'd be guilty of that myself at times.

Fair enough.

Anyway I think there needs to a spotlight shone on the waste of resources issue at local and national level. There's a lot of talk about it from time to time, but there doesn't seem to be much actually being done about it.

There is indeed a lot of talk about but there's not nearly so much evidence of it.

Those who are hostile to public services and who would benefit from privatisation have a free ride in the media to spread their propaganda. They are never challenged on their assumption that public provision should operate on the same basis as private consumerism.

Maybe you should start that thread you mentioned.

[goatstoe]

There is indeed a lot of talk about but there's not nearly so much evidence of it.

Those who are hostile to public services and who would benefit from privatisation have a free ride in the media to spread their propaganda. They are never challenged on their assumption that public provision should operate on the same basis as private consumerism.

Maybe you should start that thread you mentioned.

I'll answer this point on the other thread