Rogue Gangmasters are staffing our Care Homes

There’s a piece in The Times today about Rogue Gangmasters moving migrants to work in care homes.

These gangmasters lure people from East European and other countries to work in Britain.   They charge them for arranging the migration, charge for their travel fare, and then place them in low paid jobs which Britons don’t want to do.   Then out of their pay the gangmasters take money, probably about £100 a week, for the accommodation they provide for their gangs.  That’s a joke, because mostly it is poor accommodation, in multi-occupancy, and frequently overcrowded with many to a room.   Now we learn the gangmasters also charge the migrants a fee for filling in tax reclaim forms, for transport whether they use it or not, for opening a bank account for them, for taking them to a GP or dentist, and for arranging a national insurance application and worker registration scheme.   And, of course, many of these immigrants do need help with these things as they do not know their way around our systems, do not know where to apply, and often speak little English.

In the last couple of years a Gangmaster Licensing Authority scheme has been brought in for the fresh food and farming sector, with regular inspections to ensure the law is being complied with.   Now it seems, because they have been stopped in that sector, the gangmasters are moving people over to construction sites, to cleaning and waiting staff in restaurants and hotels, and into care homes.

The Licensing Authority says that several gangmasters whose licences have been revoked for non-compliance have just disappeared, and it is thought they are the ones moving into the new sectors.

First, of course, it’s pretty dreadful that the title/occupation “Gangmaster” has to exist and to be legally recognized.   It’s all a bit 19th century, and conjures up images of slave workers.   And perhaps some of these immigrants are living in that sort of situation, owing so much to the gangmasters that they can’t just leave and return to their own countries or go to other jobs.

So, we can have sympathy for immigrants who have ended up working for gangmasters.  But there are even more important implications for us.

Some of these people are apparently employed as “electricians” in the construction industry.   Now they might be properly trained and qualified, but we don’t know, and as they are provided by the gangmasters the presumption is that they probably are not.   Do we really want them messing about with the electricity in our homes, schools, hospitals, etc?

Then the idea of gangmaster workers being in care homes is extremely worrying.   I’m quite sure that there are some lovely, dedicated, caring people among them.   But the probable lack of English is disturbing.   When our elderly parents and relatives need to go into a care home, we want to be sure they are well looked after, and that the staff are responsive to their needs, but if the workers can’t understand the residents and the residents can’t understand the workers that leads to all sorts of tense, difficult situations, and possible neglect.   What’s worse many of these elderly residents are suffering from alzheimers or other senility problems.  They are confused enough anyway without being looked after by someone who does not speak English and does not understand the culture and customs of England.

I’m not usually one for regulation, but I do think some kind of regulatory or inspection process is needed for this one.

New Junior Doctors won’t be security checked

So now we learn of another consequence of the fiasco the government has made regarding junior doctors’ training.

Hospitals are to take on a new rotation of trainees on 1 August, but they have only just been given the names.   These trainee doctors will include home grown, home trained people, and those who have come from overseas.   They will all start their work in hospitals without the usual security checks being made, particularly those as to criminal records.

The hospital trusts have said that because the system is so chaotic they have only just received the identity of junior doctors starting with them.   One trust said:  “Overseas doctors can take months to check.  We will have no choice but to allow them to work until we have received full police clearance.”   This means there will be no CRB checks, no checking of professional certificates, and no immigration or employment checks that the doctors are legally entitled to work in the UK.

Understandably, the hospitals are just anxious to get them working, because they say they are so short staffed.

Yet people who work as volunteers in the huge number of charities and voluntary organizations in this country are now subjected to compulsory checks.

So, this will be yet another example where rules this government has made are not enforced in public institutions to avoid embarrassing Labour.

Thames Barge Match

 

Saturday was the Annual Thames Sailing Barge Match, and I was able to follow these wonderful craft down the river to the North Oaze buoy, round the buoy and back up to Gravesend in the Princess Pocahontas boat.   It was a wonderful day.   It varied from bright sunshine to stormy squalls, but the strong wind meant that the course was completed by 2.45, when it was expected to last until between 4 and 5.00 pm.   There in my position in the open stern of the boat, the spray and fresh air were wonderful  -  and the view.

The barges had an enormously fast outward trip, but on the way back had to tack backwards and forwards across the estuary and the river, and way out where the estuary joins the North Sea each tack takes a very long time before the turn.

14 Barges had entered, divided into Champion Bowsprit, Staysail and Coasting classes.   In fact only 8 started, but then these stately old ladies are often over 100 years old, and the weather forecast was bad, so probably the owners would not risk them.

Those that did though gave us an exciting match as they raced the river, heeling right over into the wind.   The winner overall was Decima, with Thistle second, and first in her class.

The Barges moored overnight at Gravesend PLA pontoon, except Thistle which lay alongside Tilbury Landing Stage.

The Thames Barge was specially designed for the work it did.   It has a flat bottom and a shallow draught, allowing it to sail into creeks or near to shore.   It can carry 250 tons of cargo, driven by up to 5,000 square feet of canvas.   In fact, some were called “stackies” because they could carry a complete haystack on deck between the masts.   Thames Barges were crewed by just two men, the captain and the mate, and they could even load and unload without help by using the huge main sprit as a crane.   

There were thousands of barges trading around the east coast in the early years of the century, but trading ceased in many cases around the time of the 1939-45 war, and completely by the 1950s.   Some had engines fitted; others were converted to yachts; some just became hulks in harbour entrances.   Then in recent years enthusiam for the Thames barges grew as people sought them out, taking them from their use as houseboats, yachts, or just rotting in the mud.   Work to restore them began, with volunteers using old skills and new, and spending a fortune to bring these elegant old ladies back to life.

Now only a few of these wonderful boats are left.   There are about 25 in use, with another 20 or so under restoration, which may take years or never be completed because of the cost.   Many of those which have been restored are “working” again, often as holiday or day charter boats, and some have even cleared their cargo holds, given them wood panelling, and they are used for corporate entertainment and conferences.

The Barge Match was a day to remember.   If you can get a chance to see Thames Sailing Barges, (at, for example, Maldon, Essex, or Faversham, Kent), do take that opportunity.   I’m certain you will enjoy your visit.

Only one heavyweight Tory for London

So it seems that four people have got through to the hustings stage of the selection of Conservative Mayoral Candidate for London:-  Andrew Boff, Victoria Borwick, Boris Johnson and Warwick Lightfoot.   OK…….. but the only name that’s known is Boris Johnson.

I have to agree with those who say that the election would be equal in one way if Mr Johnson is Candidate, because the two front runners are known just by their first names:-  Ken and Boris.   I suppose that’s when you know you have really arrived  -  when you are just known by your first name and are instantly recognizable by it.

Andrew Boff put himself up in 2000 and 2004.   The first time he got to the last two, but did not get to the final in 2004.   No doubt he became known as a Hackney councillor in his own patch, but not to the wider London or to those outside local politics.

Victoria Borwick has also run twice before, and is a Kensington & Chelsea councillor.   She is a very nice lady, very kind and generous, but not known outside Conservative London politics.

Warwick Lightfoot is a Kensington and Chelsea Councillor and a former Mayor so will be well known there, but not more widely.

Only Boris has the high profile necessary.   The London Mayoral election is like no other.   The candidate can hardly stick his/her nose outside the door without camera crew descending.   The London press are all over the candidates.   Anyone fighting as the Conservative Candidate must be able to have the quick answer ready for the constant questions, must be witty when occasion demands, and ready for all the photo ops.   And on top of that must produce a well thought out policy for London.

I’m not sure Boris can do all that, but I’m certain the others can’t.

English Nurses get the short straw

Just a quick post about nurses.

Let’s forget for the moment whether nurses should have higher pay.

Let’s think about what’s happening in the year 2007 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which, so far as I know, is one sovereign nation state.

We have nurses in Scotland getting a pay rise;  we have nurses in Wales getting a pay rise;  we have nurses in Northern Ireland getting a pay rise;  and, surprise, surprise, we have nurses in England not getting a pay rise, or at least only getting a complicated two year deal.

This can’t be right.   This can’t be fair.   Can you imagine what a fuss there would be if nurses in Mayfair got a higher rate than nurses in Hackney?   But it’s the same principle.   Mayfair and Hackney are both part of the UK.   Well, the four countries are all part of the UK too.

Logic alone says that all four should get a pay rise.   Is this a modern interpretation of the West Lothian question?

Another “1984″ scheme from the control freak Government

The leaked memo between the Department for Transport and the Home Office shows just how insidious this Labour Government’s plans to control people really are.

When we complain about invasion of privacy, the “control freaks” always say, “If you are innocent you have nothing to hide, and if you have nothing to hide you should not oppose these ideas.”

That’s rubbish.   I have nothing to hide, but I do value my privacy.   Where I go and what I do, (as long as it is within the law), is my business and not that of anyone else whether they be just curious gossips or an-all invading dictatorial government.

I strongly object to all this government’s invasive and controlling schemes:-

This proposal to release to the police and all government departments filmed evidence from congestion charge and highways agency cameras, which will be able to track every journey I make in my car, point of departure, point of arrival, route used, time and date of journey;

Identity cards  -  a simple identity card is not a problem.   Most of us carry a considerable number of similar documents:-  passport , various credit, debit and store cards, driving licence, workplace and other identity documents.   What is worrying is the compulsion proposed for the future, and the information stored on the card.   The card could justifiably carry name, former names, private address, nationality, date and place of birth, and, perhaps, national insurance number.   Any additional information is invasive.   I do not wish to have stored on such a card my medical records, my financial details, or anything else.

The London Oyster Card  -  nothing wrong with it in principle, except it works against people who only visit London occasionally or pass through it in transit very infrequently.   If, as proposed, ticket offices disappear from the tube, how do such people pay their fares?   More often than not the ticket machines are not working.   The big complaint about the Oyster Card, though, is the Mayor’s proposal to turn it into a bank/financial card.   No doubt it will be sold as making life easier as you will only need to carry one card.   But all your financial details would be at the mercy of the man who used to be known as Red Ken.

The proposals for a national health service database containing the medical records of everyone in the country.   This does not bode well in view of the experience of other major computer projects undertaken by government which have gone horribly wrong, and already the scheme is being delayed by computer problems.   Much more frightening, though, is to contemplate who might be able to access these records.  They might be made available to the police, to other government departments, to the tax authorities, and will be accessible by hospitals, clinics, GPs, ambulance service staff anywhere in the country.   Amongst that lot there are bound to be friends and acquaintances of the individual who would like to know about him/her, and who he/she would prefer didn’t know.  There are also possibilities of use by such authorities, who wrongly suspect someone of something, and of general interference in the life of the individual.

Big Brother does not seem so very far away when one considers the above.   Perhaps 1984 has got here, but just a few years late.  

If I had wanted to live under a dictatorship or communist/nazi-style “inform on your neighbour” culture, I would never have thought of England as being the place to come.  Great Britain has always relished and cherished its freedoms.  

Wake up now, English men and women, and stop these interfering, controlling, plans.

Write to your GP and say that you refuse permission for your medical records to be put on the NHS central computer system.   Campaign against ID cards and invasive camera records being made widely available.

Do all you can to ensure that we can remain proud and free English people.

Boris for London?

Good news that Boris Johnson is to stand as Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London.   He will bring some joy, amusement and interest to the campaign.

At least he turned up for the announcement that he is to stand.   Turning up is not his strong point, but then perhaps this new challenge will attract his full attention.

I have to agree with other bloggers who have said what fun a Boris v Norris contest would have been.   But I accept that  Steve Norris really can’t give up all his other interests yet again.   Still, “Boris for London” is not that far from “Norris for London”.

We still don’t know who all the 50+ who are said to have applied may be, but, of those we do know, there are some worthy Londoners who are genuinely decent people, but they are not known.   Now Mike Read was known, pity he has stood down.   He has been a strong Conservative supporter for years.

I just hope that electors won’t feel that Boris simply does not have the experience to run a major business like London.   But then the present incumbent didn’t really, and he managed to get himself re-elected.   Perhaps the “Anyone but Ken” site says it all.

It will certainly be a fun roller-coaster ride with Boris. 

Incidentally love this from Raedwald – “London – it’s Puritans vs Cavaliers” 

http://www.raedwald.blogspot.com/

This year’s Crucial Crew doing well

I’ve been very busy for the last two weeks at Crucial Crew.   That’s something which all 11 year old children in the area attend before they go up to secondary school next term.   It is organized by the Police and the local authority, and the emergency services and others take part.   This year we had the police, fire service, health primary care trust, Network Rail, road safety, recycling, tidy environment, and the one I was doing – water safety.   So I have been giving 16 presentations a day, back to back, and have spoken to 1800 children.  

I have to say that mostly the children were quieter, more attentive and better behaved than previous years.   They also seemed pretty intelligent, and could supply the answers to the questions I was putting to them.

 A few notable exceptions, though.   One girl informed the tidy environment people that she always dropped litter because it made jobs for people to pick it up!   Another was asked to move by his teacher, to separate a couple of noisy ones, and just said “no, I won’t”.   Sometimes the old days of “What did you say?!” and a quick belt round the ears seem pretty attractive.

Most looked neat, tidy and attractive in their school uniforms, but a few seem to ignore the uniform and those also looked in need of a good wash.

All in all, though, a satisfying two weeks which make one feel the next generation won’t be too bad!