Soapbox

peter piper wrote (see)

 Just for the record the "crown estates" do not belong to the sovereign its a legal term for government property...

HM Treasury and The Crown Estate: framework document
This document describes how the Treasury and The Crown Estate work together. It is intended to
be updated annually and as practice changes.
1. The Crown Estate traces its origins back several hundred years and is conscious of its long
term responsibilities for the assets under its management. It is a body established in perpetuity
under the Crown Estate Act 1961 as a trust estate, independent of government and the Monarch
with a public function to:
.invest in and manage certain property assets belonging to the Monarch; and
.remit its revenue surplus each year to the consolidated fund.

I think that is crystal, then. 

Sorry Mike

You should have made it clear that you came from Dundee, and were raised in a tragically tough world (I have actually heard people laugh at the bleak but poignant realism of the Bash Street Kids and Oor Wullie),

I have never felt suffering like the realization of someone who knows that they have been born in Dundee. 

I salute all those of you who have been dealt this hand in life, have struggled with it and survived–– however damaged. 

WTF? As they say.

I'm sure it gladdens our hearts that you know some occasions where an apostrophe is appropriate. Now all you have to do is acquire a more comprehensive set of literary skills or at least brush up those that you seem to think you have.

Kish Logan wrote (see)

Um it was a joke --- I am shocked and horrified by this suggestion that the royal family are parasites............................................................because there's a tiny insignificant typo.

Can I be the first to claim that I thought your first two posts were supposed to be read together ironically?

But because I'm still no' sure that you're right about the apostrophe, I'll also be the first to admit that I sat quietly in the corner thereafter.

Parasites (plural) wedding(marrying) surely doesn't need an apostrophe?

Did anyone watch it? Fraid I missed it catching a ferry

wedding in it's first use as a verb.  nice one, kinky.  if a little... antiquarian.

why watch, when you can be outside getting tipsy with the neighbours?

Ecomonic crisis, but the government declared a bank holiday for Public sector. Then the met drafted in 5000 coppers for the day.

Who paid!! High horse time

And indeed,

Jerry Atric wrote (see)

Ecomonic crisis, but the government declared a bank holiday for Public sector.

No, they declared it a Bank Holiday. That means that the banks (private sector) are closed.

Most other employers also grant their employees the day off on public holidays.

As I stated above, the NHS trust where I work (largest in England; 15,000 employees, PUBLIC SECTOR) did NOT get 29 April as holiday.

why oh why do certain people on here constantly bemoan the public services, shame on you and i hope you never need there services but im sure you will at some time in your life. maybe when you do need them you will stop and think that maybe you were too quick to criticise something that you probably know very little about,  except what you read in the daily mail or the sun newspapers.  rant over

Why indeed. I think it's because those "certain people" are a bunch of sheep.

It doesn't take a genius to understand that the rich would rather pay less tax and invest in those services that are provided by the public sector which could provide a profit for them if privatised. The capitalist press deliberately and cynically appeals to the prejudices of those "sheep" by selective and biased reporting of largely unrepresentative "facts"  with the express purpose of creating a climate of acceptance for such privatisation.

Recent governments of either political shade (light mauve and blue) have done a similar job in attacking public services, especially what they have characterised as burgeoning management, while making sure that growth of the public sector has been necessitated by multifarious target driven and usually disruptive policies in public services.

Incidentally, much of that increase in management is down to retitling of traditional roles. Some examples are, ward sisters in the NHS being redesignated ward managers, cleaning supervisors officially becoming domestic services assistant managers, the transmogrification of the head porter into support services manager for portering and messaging, the rechristening of the superintendent radiographer to imaging services manager. 

The list is long and, I suspect, the process has probably been much the same throughout the public sector.

Successive governments' greatest evil, at least, as far as I'm concerned, has been to allow, even tacitly encourage, everyone dependent on the welfare system to be characterised as scroungers.