The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub

First topic message reminder :

Welcome to the Virtual Rugby Pub - a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no defacing pictures of Rhys Priestland, Cian Healy, or the special one of Charlize Theron and Gibbo above the bar!


So pull up a chair....what'll it be?



Old Pub:https://www.606v2.com/t18722p1000-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub#723943

More cake! I'll be fat!

ah yeah I had e-mails round saying they were setting off from City Hall as like 12 noon Penfro

I am sooooooooooo SO bored.

Prop - maybe, maybe not. I don't understand enough about it to really comment, I just know that it's a huge pain in the arse and stopping me doing my work. Not happy over here.

The back of the march has just past the building

Pete: were they marching on the road, stopping traffic?

Dreamer: basically i could be facing redundancy in march due to no funds being available...i'm technically over-worked and underpaid severley compared to collegaues...i don't complain because i'm doing the job i want to do and helping people yet no-one seems to want to give money to help my project support these young people back into employment.....there's my rant done!! Am I striking??!! NO because I can't afford to and can't simply decide i don't want to help my young people for a day.

Anyway..looking forward to a nice tonight

Have one on me then Prop

I'll have quite a few for you rava!! Need to work out a free weekend to head up to this northern oirish place again

aye exactly, look forward to your :cider and floggingmolly (or whatever it is) later

Tis perfectly fine to think like that. I'm not in any union, so don't know the ins and outs of it, but one thing has annoyed me is that we've got loads of invoices to pay this week, to really small companies and businesses who are desperate for cash, but they won't get paid due to the invoice run not being met this week because of the strike. Don't see how it's fair on them at all. I understand to an extent why public sector workers are striking, I just don't think personally that strike action is ever the right option to take. (and I know there will be plenty who disagree with me )

Dreamer: i'm the same with not being in a union, to be honest all i ever hear about unions is wanting to go on strike!!

I'm not going to lecture, but all I'll say is this: all those things you take for granted in your workplaces - regular breaks, health and safety conditions and the like would not be in place without the trade union movement. Industrial action is actually a very small part of what they do.

I'm not saying the trade unions don't do some very good things Cari, I just don't agree with striking is all

And Cari i'm not saying they don't do good things but personally I never hear about !!

Trade unions are only ever in the news when industrial action's in the air. It's a shame but that's the way it is.

Of course Lucky, because industrial action has a bigger impact on the wider public and any government has to respond to such a threat, and that generates more publicity. Perhaps people just need to find out more about their workplaces? In my experience some people don't get involved with a union until they're in bother with work or something like that. Shame really.

Happy birthday luckless

Thanks, Hughie.

Lucky - how come Facebook doesn't tell me it's your birthday today? is that cause you hid the date or something?

I don't know, Cari. I haven't hidden the date. Maybe Facebook doesn't like me.

Booooo Facebook! That's odd though, cause usually on my newspage, it tells me when one of my friends has a birthday. Does it say on your page it's your birthday?

It does for me too, Cari. I'll have to have a word with Mark Zuckerberg. I only punched him the once and that was years ago anyway.

Well I've written it on your wall like I do for everyone else anyway. When I looked at your wall I noticed your birthday wasn't showing, maybe that's why.

FB is going on the market next year;starting price $10bn,estimated value $100bn,current turnover $4bn,profit margin 50%;Happy Birthday again, Lucky.

Afternoon all

My contribution to the 'striking' debate is....

I am not allowed to strike!!!

Oh, and I think if the govt stopped taking the pish out of public sector workers with pay/pensions reforms whilst lining their own pockets, we wouldn't be in a position where people feel the need to strike to make their voice heard.

In other news, I had a mole removed from my back yesterday. Stitches right on a muscle and every time I move my right arm I can feel them stretching a little, is a very strange sensation!!!

Greetings to all from the Hound in a beautifully sunny Dubai (Bar Steward!) - network reception and messaging very expensive, so he may not post till he's back next week

awh Ozzy, I had a mole surgically removed once too. It's suprisingly painful, but worth the pain I suppose.


Hello via Asbo - hope you're having a good time.

Afternoon all.

Happy birthday Lucky. was wondering as well why it didn't show up on my facebook either.

extremely tired today and sore throat.. going to go the chemist now. don't want to be in ribbons for the weekend

Thanks Micky and Chef (again). I'll have to have a look at my Facebook account and see what's up.

Cari wrote:awh Ozzy, I had a mole surgically removed once too. It's suprisingly painful, but worth the pain I suppose.


Hello via Asbo - hope you're having a good time.

Ah it's not painful really, the local anaesthitic injections were more painful than them digging it out, which was a wierd sensation as I could feel them diggin but not any pain!

Happy birthday Lucky. By the way if you did eat a lot of cake and get fat you can say it's winter weight! It's a good way for sayign you overindulged at Christmas we've all used it at some stage.

hughie1986 wrote:Well you see Andy, came in sat down and away and it felt like he would fit in fine, very easy to talk to like his sport and beer, even had a horrible attempt at a Mo. Winner Winner Chicken dinner.


Ash, she came in and was pretty easy going as well, works in sports event management, freebies!!! Very easy to look at and I reckon the girls in the house would prefer her. Oh and she loves her sport as well.


Its a tough one

Tell your current flatmates that you'd like to take both on, so which of them would like to volunteer to leave?

Thanks, Thomond.

I've just looked at Facebook and the setting was 'don't show my date of birth on my profile' for some reason. I've changed it now. Cari - thanks for the cake!

Just making a joke and giving the public advice. You know I do what I do when I do what I do.

Many happy returns lucky!

In other news t'is the last day of Movember! Not that anyone, in any proximity to me in the last month will noticed.

So you won't be keeping your 'tache then, Willy?

Ozzy - have the police force never had the "Blue Flu"

They had that once in Ireland where all the police agreed to call in sick on the same day as a form of strike.

Penblwydd hapus Lwcus, postiwr mwyaf gwreiddiol yn ail fersiwn. Happy Birthday and all that.

Public Sector strikes.

Cari is right, in the PAST some vital concessions were gained by negotiations conduced by the workers pooling power into a representative Union. The withdrawal of labour is part of that and should only be used as a last resort, often because it is actually quite ineffective.

This strike is a negotiating tool but in 2011, everything is about PR and it is actually more of a publicity stunt than a strike.

Personally I think the argument put forward by the public sector, that they deserve gold plated pensions because they get paid less than they could be in the private sector is a fallacy. Or if it is true, it would only apply to the very top of the civil service, who often leave to feather their nest in the private sector before retirement age anyhow. Decent holidays, lack of a commercial imperative, flexi-time, a weekend starting Thursday afternoon (OK this one is tongue in cheek) good pay scales if you can get up them and the joy of serving the public all act (or should) to discount the argument. Also the pensions they will get will still be pretty attractive compared with the contractors who are often called in to do jobs the public sector used to following "outsourcing" like the bins and road maintenance.

You see Glas, this is the thing that pees me off....so far this week i've heard nobody complaining from the voluntary sector and surely some of us are worse off that public sector workers??!!

I'm sure it has happened in the past Stag, but certainly not during my service here.

Glas, I don't disagree with some of what you say there, but in terms of the 'gold plated pension' you refer to, I pay 11% of my monthly wage into my pension. One of the attractions of joining the job was that although I pay higher contributions than any other public sector worker during my employment, I get a good pension at the end of it. If the government has their way and changes the pension scheme that I signed up to, I will end up paying 13% and getting less at the end of it. How can that be right and fair?

Glas I agree with most of that (not really about the good pay scales but I know that's changing soon).

I just had the most amazing American Breakfast Waffle at the waffle shop. Yum, yum and YUM. Have really missed them actually, might have to venture further into Canton more often again me thinks.

Pete - does that work out as less over all, or just less annually? (forgive my ignorance but pensions don't really make much sense to me).

Diolch i ti, yr hollalluog Glas!

Although i must admit i do get a good deal with my pension having what i put in matched but again, this is something some people don't realise START YOUR PENSION EARLY!!! Since i've been in full time work i've been paying into mine, i know people who are earning a lot and in their mid 30's but have no pension.

No idea what my pension deal is, but I have paid into it since I started my first permenant contract job so at least I'm doing that I guess.

Police are on final salary pensions dreamer, which means that what you get when you retire corresponds to what salary you are on when you finish your service. It is why quite a lot of officers try to get promoted in the last 3 years of service, as it gives them a slightly better pension. They want to change it to an average salary pension, which means the only way to get the same amount would be to get promoted to Sgt as soon as you finish your probabtion (2 years) and then try to get promoted yearly. Now as you go up the ranks there are less jobs, so not everyone can get promoted, and the promotion system is one where if you are good at exams you will progress quickly, it has little to do with the ability to supervise people or do the job, and there will be a rush of people trying to get promoted who are patently not suitable to be under the new pension system.

In simple terms, over the remainder of my service, I will contribute more each month than I currently do, but get less at the end of it than I would if the current system remains.

rugbydreamer wrote:Glas I agree with most of that (not really about the good pay scales but I know that's changing soon).

I just had the most amazing American Breakfast Waffle at the waffle shop. Yum, yum and YUM. Have really missed them actually, might have to venture further into Canton more often again me thinks.

Can we go when Im in Cardiff?

Ozzy - we had one recently in Ireland I remember my Dad actually had a day off work

Ozzy3213 wrote:I'm sure it has happened in the past Stag, but certainly not during my service here.

Glas, I don't disagree with some of what you say there, but in terms of the 'gold plated pension' you refer to, I pay 11% of my monthly wage into my pension. One of the attractions of joining the job was that although I pay higher contributions than any other public sector worker during my employment, I get a good pension at the end of it. If the government has their way and changes the pension scheme that I signed up to, I will end up paying 13% and getting less at the end of it. How can that be right and fair?

I understand that it's not right or fair, but what do you say to somebody who had the foresight to pay a private pension only to have to retire in the middle of a stock market crash? That's not fair, but its also a case of tough luck, get on with it. So whilst it may not be right or fair it may actually be necessary if we want a public sector to speak of in five years time. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trust every word politicians say on this issue, especially Con-Dems, but we will all feel the pinch in this, nobody can be immune.

Stag - aye if we've got time, sure

Pete - okay. Still don't really understand, but then I don't get how pensions really work.

The pension is still going to be a good one though, isn't it?

That's the understanding I've been getting from reading the newspapers, it's just not going to be as good as what people are used to having.

(I could be completely wrong, the coverage of the whole thing hasn't been very good imo).

Ozzy3213 wrote:Police are on final salary pensions dreamer, which means that what you get when you retire corresponds to what salary you are on when you finish your service. It is why quite a lot of officers try to get promoted in the last 3 years of service, as it gives them a slightly better pension. They want to change it to an average salary pension, which means the only way to get the same amount would be to get promoted to Sgt as soon as you finish your probabtion (2 years) and then try to get promoted yearly. Now as you go up the ranks there are less jobs, so not everyone can get promoted, and the promotion system is one where if you are good at exams you will progress quickly, it has little to do with the ability to supervise people or do the job, and there will be a rush of people trying to get promoted who are patently not suitable to be under the new pension system.

In simple terms, over the remainder of my service, I will contribute more each month than I currently do, but get less at the end of it than I would if the current system remains.

Try finding a final salary pension in the private sector. Then if you do try to find one that is not almost bust and will actually be able to pay out what it promised to. It is a matter of prioritisation. There is not enough money in the public purse to go around and raising taxes would wipe out any signs of recovery, so the chance of getting any more soon is remote. If the public decide that providing these pensions is their priority fair enough, but for me in the wider picture, there are higher priorities.

Right that's it. I don't want to politicise the pub!

tut tut Glas!


Oo err, men, watch out for wifi! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15943816