Guilt Free Railing 20

[WouldBeGood]

The curtain call.

May this thread be empty 😃

All good news welcome too, to go along with railing, guilt free

We concluded today that if a party/someone had been elected when the SNP were and had done absolutely nothing, just walked about with an empty briefcase and left the civil service just to carry on and do what it does, we'd probably be in better position than we are now.

We're in Edinburgh and several social occasions that would have involved friends coming in by train all look likely to be cancelled now. Thankfully we have spare rooms so can put up visitors when needed, but it's all a bit ridiculous.

We can't go for a night out in Glasgow as our last train back is quarter to 8. Slightly better for Edinburgh when it's just after 8. And if those get cancelled then you are fucked.

From tomorrow, the last train from Glasgow on the Milngavie line leaves at 20.41. There's a later one to Westerton, if you're up for the 3 and a bit mile walk up to Milngavie from there.

This timetable is going to last for AGES because the issue is that drivers are refusing to do overtime, unless the Scot Gov gives them a whopping great payrise.

Yet another Scottish Government shit show.

I suspect the plan is for them not to return to a "normal" service. The reduced service will be the service with maybe a few extra trains. The pattern seems to be that something gets changed/reduced "'cos covid" and then that becomes the new accepted standard.

On another note, although I don't go into Edinburgh that much nowadays, when I do I'm usually on the train and I'm generally doing something at the East end. Today however I was on the tram right along Princes street and it's quite shocking, the amount of prominent buildings just boarded up and cheap chat type shops that are there, it's a disgrace and really really sad.

It’s not very progressive, all this

Would love to know what their wee pals in the Greens think about it. Because everyone who would previously been using the trains will be jumping in their cars or calling an Uber.

The daft green msp i me timed a couple of days ago thinks “the Scottish government” needs to sort it out….

So the train service is slashed, it's unaffordable to park in the city centre of Glasgow and will soon be banned to all but electric cars.
Hospitality must be tearing it's hair out yet again - imagine this on top of two years of restrictions and closures.
It's an embarrasing mess.

I contacted all my MSPs on this issue. I totally get it's a political point scoring exercise for some, but I had 3 personal, very quick responses from the Tory list MSPs and radio silence from the rest (all SNP and 1 Green, I think)

My niece works in hospitality. She's had to offer to take less shifts as she has been unable to get home after lates for ages. So they've been giving her 4 x earlies and mid shifts but that not really fair on the other staff. Now she can no longer get in for an early shift so is only now able to do mid shifts so looks like the most they'll be able to offer her are 2/3 shifts a week. She doesn't drive/have a car (and would cost half her wages to run a car/park in the city)and to use the bus means 2 or 3 changes and still doesn't get her in or home from earlies or lates and gives her a 4 hour commute (in total). She was hoping to be able to get a flat with her boyfriend in Glasgow but now hasn't got enough work to be able to save for the deposit so is going to be a bit stuck. There is very little employment available to her locally.

How are young folk meant to get a start in life?

That's been my experience when I've contacted them on any issue @BeanMachine

@BinBandit that is awful, and I'm guessing must be a common scenario.

The best response I tend to get from MSPs is from Labour. I don't even bother contacting my SNP MSP and just got straight the Labour list one now.

@Scianel and @BinBandit - I've only contacted them all for one other thing but it was the same: personal Tory responses and cut&paste jobs from the SNP.

I have never in my life even contemplated voting Tory and yet they seem to be the only ones who are even listening

And still the people continue to vote SNP…

Funny/not funny

It was exactly the same when I emailed everyone I could think of over the "blended learning" fiasco in summer 2020 when they were offering secondary pupils 33% of time in school. I emailed my constituency and list MSPs and the education spokespersons for every party. And all the local councillors as each council was doing things differently.

Most of the SNP didn't bother to reply. And if they did, it was a cut and paste job saying what a marvellous job Sturgeon was doing. Labour and Conservative tried much harder with personalised replies. Jamie Greene was particularly good, as was one of the local Labour councillors who has children at the same school as mine.

@BinBandit great video. Would be funny if it weren't all true 😥

Just adding another to this: I contacted my SNP MP around vaccination roll-out and never got a reply.

SNP so arrogant and comfortable in their positions that they don't feel the need to reply to questions from the electorate😵.

This has been my experience whenever I've emailed MSPs over a variety of topics (school closures, hate crime bill, and pre-pandemic closures of local health centres come to mind). I always email all my MSPs now, including the list ones. Most of the time, especially in the last couple of years, the SNP have either not bothered to reply, or have replied with something really generic to justify whatever course of action they have decided to take, that doesn't address any of the specific points I've made. They really aren't even allowed to have their own opinions and are just there as 'numbers' to rubber stamp Nicola's decisions in votes, which is absolutely infuriating and not at all how government is supposed to work (Westminster is light years ahead in this respect). I have to say over the years it has generally been the Tories, whoever they may be at the time, who have given responses to what I've actually said rather than copying the party line.

Well I am going to rail about something slightly different. Some of you might find this helpful. I am registered with Tesco dentist in west Edinburgh - no qualms about naming and shaming. Phoned for an emergency appointment this morning due to ongoing toothache and they refused point blank to give me an appointment as they “only provide 2 emergency appointments a day”. I then phoned the dental hospital for an emergency appointment and was refused point blank an appointment as I am already registered with a dentist. When I explained that my dental practice had refused to see me I was told that I needed to sort this out with my dentist myself and that it was all up to me. Though I was told that - here’s the helpful bit - that if you have a dental emergency if you are registered with a practice in Scotland they legally have to offer you emergency treatment within 24 hours. Phoned back Tesco dentist, they initially tried to fob me off, but when I mentioned the 24 hour requirement they magically found me an appointment tomorrow afternoon.
While I am very relieved to have some upcoming treatment, I am appalled that any dental practice could behave in such a way and wasn’t particularly impressed with the offhand emergency dental hospital service either. The person I spoke to seemed so uncaring and unconcerned. I’m sure they get lots of telephone abuse and were probably suffering from Monday morningitis but it’s part of their job description to pretend they care.

Written by someone on a group I'm on, on Facebook. Thought it may be appreciated here lol. I asked his permission to share

The SNP Anthem....

To the tune of 'Mine eyes have Seen the Glory'

My name is Niccy Sturgeon and you'll all do as I say
For I'm the Queen of Scotland and I always get my way
I'll cheat and lie and hide the truth until we all are free
and the Referendum comes

independence Hallelujah
independence Hallelujah
independence Hallelujah
and the we join the great EU

I've buggered up the ferries and I've buggered up the trains
I've made a mess of the NHS, education and the drains
The roads are full of potholes and the shops are shutting down
still the Referendum comes

Chorus

I fly around the country and ride in fancy cars
You might get a free pushbike and thank your lucky stars
All will be perfection, unicorns and money trees
and the Referendum comes

Chorus

Vote yes to get your freedom and lots of shiny things
All you want you'll get for free and you can live like kings
It's Brigadoon for ever , realities a myth
when the Referendums won

@AmadeustheAlpaca that’s horrible. And dental pain is the worst. 💐 Thanks for sharing that though, I had no idea about that obligation. Very useful to know. Fingers crossed for you tomorrow

@hilbil21 i now have that stuck in my head 🤣