Zombywuf posted:

And there's this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28597343

Bullshit Peddlers Inc. posted:

LEARN TO COOK WITH BORIS

As Mayor of London, Boris Johnson is obviously a very busy man but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have time to eat well, as he demonstrates by sharing a recipe in a new charity cookery book available from Clintons.

The London Mayor’s recipe is for an exotic delicacy which Mr Johnson has named “Cheese on Toast” and which consists of melted slices of cheddar cheese on top of toasted bread. In a bold twist to the classic recipe, Boris includes a layer of chutney underneath the cheese.

Boris’ simple to follow recipe is as follows:

• Cut a large amount of cheese, preferably cheddar, into slabs
  
• Lightly toast some brown bread
  
• Spread toast with butter and chutney
  
• Cover toast with slabs of cheese
  
• Grill until it gets all nice and scabby.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

I've just been emailed an amazing press release which contains vibrant and exciting BORIS JOHNSON NEWS


What an absolute monster. You put the condiments on after you melt the cheese, you animal.

freebooter posted:

Hey all, people ask employment law questions all the time in the auspol thread so I'm hoping it's OK here. I started a new job in mid-July, and apparently they pay monthly on the 31st, and if you start after the 9th you don't get paid until the end of the following month. So effectively they expect me to survive 7 weeks without pay in one of the most expensive cities in the world. How is that even legal? This is a full-time job so it's not like I can just go do bar work to make ends meet in the meantime.

KKKlean Energy posted:

If your company is a good'un they might give you an advance lump payment which can be deducted from your next paycheque - call their payroll department and ask nicely. you might need to request a specific amount. Say you won't be able to pay the rent without it.

KKKlean Energy posted:

As I understand it that's quite common but the 9th seems to be a bit early... they must have a poo poo Payroll department.

If your company is a good'un they might give you an advance lump payment which can be deducted from your next paycheque - call their payroll department and ask nicely. you might need to request a specific amount. Say you won't be able to pay the rent without it.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

I've just been emailed an amazing press release which contains vibrant and exciting BORIS JOHNSON NEWS


What an absolute monster. You put the condiments on after you melt the cheese, you animal.

freebooter posted:

Is getting paid monthly a typical thing here? This is my first job in the UK but also my first job that's salary rather than wages. It seems ludicrous to me. It's 2014, it's not like you need to handcuff a briefcase to the bursar's wrist and send him down to the bank on Friday afternoon.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

You're saying having the ability to do one thing is exactly morally equivalent to actually doing another, completely different thing? Without starting the whole mass surveillance thing again, you can surely see that the level of intrusion needed to discover someone is a paedophile is massively more than that involved in even the most fevered imaginings of what the Snowden leaks say?

MI5 kept an eye out for possible turning of elected representatives by watching the groups doing the turning (or, admittedly in Wilson's case, by just making poo poo up). You're suggesting that they treat MPs (and other senior political figures) to the same level of scrutiny that they gave to the KGB in the Cold War and terrorist cells today, because that's the level of scrutiny they would need to discover whether or not they were paedophiles. If you can't see the problems with that I don't really know what to say.

Now there's an argument to be made to use that sort of intrusion against paedophile networks but that has problems that make infiltration of organised crime and terrorist networks (and completely innocent environmentalist groups of course) look like a walk in the park.

Filboid Studge posted:

This has been bubbling in Northern Ireland for a long time. It ties into the fairly well-accepted conspiracy theory of the security services using Northern Ireland as a proxy to fight internal battles.

Major abusers are still on the street, and no-one who orchestrated it was ever held responsible. Colin Wallace is the name you should Google, if you're interested.

I very much doubt that there will ever be a meaningful public investigation.

freebooter posted:

Is getting paid monthly a typical thing here? This is my first job in the UK but also my first job that's salary rather than wages. It seems ludicrous to me. It's 2014, it's not like you need to handcuff a briefcase to the bursar's wrist and send him down to the bank on Friday afternoon.

freebooter posted:

Is getting paid monthly a typical thing here? This is my first job in the UK but also my first job that's salary rather than wages. It seems ludicrous to me. It's 2014, it's not like you need to handcuff a briefcase to the bursar's wrist and send him down to the bank on Friday afternoon.

hookerbot 5000 posted:

Monthly is probably the most common but there's a lot of variation. My sister gets paid four weekly, my son gets paid on the last Friday of the month (so sometimes it's four weeks and other times it's five), my mum gets paid monthly and my husband gets paid weekly.

ReV VAdAUL posted:

If, as you pretend, the only possible way to know if a person is a paedophile is massive amounts of invasive surveillance how did journalists find out about these paedophiles? How do the police solve any crimes if the only way to find out if anyone is comiting a crime is invasive surveillance?

KayTee posted:

In my current job, I get paid on the 15th of each month, two weeds in advance, two weeks in lieu. I've had it explained how it works, but I can never get my head around it.

KayTee posted:

In my current job, I get paid on the 15th of each month, two weeds in advance, two weeks in lieu. I've had it explained how it works, but I can never get my head around it.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

Let's play a game. You've just been put in charge of the new Section P at Thames House, responsible for discovering whether or not there are active paedophiles in Government. As it's your first day we'll let you have an easy one - how would you find out, given the powers available to the security services, whether Mark Field MP is a paedophile? If you say something like "I'd check the files" you have to explain what information is in those files and how that information was gathered.

(Note to any lawyers reading - Mark Field MP is not a paedophile, my only reason for using him as an example is that he's MP for the constituency that includes Thames House, to at least cut down travelling expenses for the new Section P)

Zero Gravitas posted:

HortonNash posted:

gently caress the condiments, he's using brown bread. Stand him against a wall!

Pissflaps posted:

Sounds like you need a payday loan.

Cerv posted:

take your new contract & acceptance letter into your bank and they'll likely extend your authorised overdraft facilty. a few pennies in interest will work out a lot cheaper than foreign transfer fees from your Dad's money. and definitely don't get a payday loan.

if this is your first job here didn't they offer you a lump sum for relocation expenses? or is that coming with your pay 2 months late?

freebooter posted:

Isn't overdraft for small amounts? Even aside from 4 weeks of living expenses I also just moved into a new place and owe about 1000 pounds in bond and August's rent, so it's going to be a fair bit of money.

I moved here first, then got a job, so no relocation expenses.

Olewithmilk posted:

It's pretty easy to get an overdraft of ~£1500. Although I guess it depends on the bank, and how long you've had the account. It also sucks because then'll you'll have to work a bit to get out of it.

SkySteak posted:

Sorry if this is meant to be in the Scottish Independence thread but what are the likely political repercussions if the referendum fails? I understand the issue of independence will be slain or at best, kicked upstairs for a while, but will it have any after effect on devolution and Scotland's role in the UK, in general?

quote:

- The ability to raise or lower income tax by 10p in the pound. Any change is applied equally across all tax bands.[3]
- Other minor tax powers: control of stamp duty and landfill tax.
- The ability to borrow money, upto £2.2 billion a year.
- Guaranteed Scottish representation in the BBC and Crown Estate.
- Legislative control over several more issues including limited powers relating to drugs, driving, and guns.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

The only possible was the security services could know if someone is a paedophile is by massive intrusion. Obviously the way that such stories that have come out so far has been from people reporting things to the authorities or to journalists. However if that worked reliably as a mechanism we wouldn't need the security services to investigate, would we? The Police would have already done their job and the person would be in prison. If a victim has been ignored (or even, as has been alleged, actively intimdated) by the Police after reporting their abuse, how likely do you think they'd be to then walk into MI5 to make a report?

Let's play a game. You've just been put in charge of the new Section P at Thames House, responsible for discovering whether or not there are active paedophiles in Government. As it's your first day we'll let you have an easy one - how would you find out, given the powers available to the security services, whether Mark Field MP is a paedophile? If you say something like "I'd check the files" you have to explain what information is in those files and how that information was gathered.

(Note to any lawyers reading - Mark Field MP is not a paedophile, my only reason for using him as an example is that he's MP for the constituency that includes Thames House, to at least cut down travelling expenses for the new Section P)

freebooter posted:

Isn't overdraft for small amounts? Even aside from 4 weeks of living expenses I also just moved into a new place and owe about 1000 pounds in bond and August's rent, so it's going to be a fair bit of money.

kim jong-illin posted:

White supermarket bread is a good way to shorten your life.

Homemade wholegrain bread is the best.

HortonNash posted:

Surely it depends on how much you eat? Is moderation in all things (except tobacco) not a sensible and reasonably healthy plan?

Cerv posted:

A few grand isn't at all unusual. Obviously you shouldn't be regularly utilising this facility but it's useful to just in case for these sort of situations.

If HR aren't helping with an advance, ask your new line manager to speak to them. They're more likely to care about forming a good relationship. And like Zephro says they actually want you to not starve.

Also congrats on the cheap flat.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

Let's play a game. You've just been put in charge of the new Section P at Thames House, responsible for discovering whether or not there are active paedophiles in Government. As it's your first day we'll let you have an easy one - how would you find out, given the powers available to the security services, whether Mark Field MP is a paedophile? If you say something like "I'd check the files" you have to explain what information is in those files and how that information was gathered.

(Note to any lawyers reading - Mark Field MP is not a paedophile, my only reason for using him as an example is that he's MP for the constituency that includes Thames House, to at least cut down travelling expenses for the new Section P)

Zombywuf posted:

Why are we interested in $TARGET? Have we received reports that they are an active paedophile? Anything aroused our suspicion at all, or are we running Section P by chucking darts at a seating plan of the Commons? If it's either of the former we have a mandate to investigate, with a targeted investigation. Chances are someone didn't just push a note under our door with a name on it, there's likely locations, times, acquaintances. Basically, police work. The claim about MI5 knowing isn't that they gain omnipotence by dint of tapping all the phone lines leaving the country, it's the numerous claims of people reporting this stuff to various authorities. Any of these reports is grounds for investigation, which is potentially grounds for individual tapping - as opposed to the half a million odd "requests" for communications data made by the police last year alone.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

For fucks sake, how many times do I have to explain this? Communications data is not the same as tapping a phone. In any way. At all. Comms data is "Who is the owner of this phone number/IP address?" and "Which IP address accessed this mailbox?". It does not, and cannot, give any clues as to the content of the communications.

quote:

As to the rest of it (and rev's post) what you've described in both those cases is just police work. We have the Police to do that. By their very definition intelligence services work with completely different (and very much more invasive) methods, and there use should be much more carefully proscribed. Fix the loving Police, don't start getting these sort of methods involved.

(And to think I was the one accused of pulling "Think of the children!" as an excuse for greater powers for the intelligence services...)

Zombywuf posted:

I'm well aware of this, there were a mere 3000 warrants for tapping issued last year - we have no idea what their scope was. Of course, comms crossing an international boundary don't need a warrant, which is where the mass surveillance comes in. This doesn't change the fact that 500,000 claims for communications data with next to no oversight is troublesome.

Zombywuf posted:

Most of what the intelligence services do is police work. I'm not arguing for greater powers, I'm arguing that the powers they have are easily sufficient. Not handing the police greater powers to abuse is step one of fixing the police as much as it's step one of fixing the intelligence services.

The thing you seem to be missing is that it seems that the police, ministers and intelligence services were handed child rapists on a silver platter and they dismissed them. They don't need a massive technological panopticon to simply follow through on reports received.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

So why did you mention it in the same sentence as phone tapping?

quote:

As to no oversight, there's a pretty loving strong regulatory framework with people at all stages in the operation having the power to reject overly-broad and overly-intrusive requests, and IOCCO as well as the parent agencies (Home Office, NIO, FCO, and the Scottish Government) all regularly auditing requests as well. Not to say it can't be improved (the problems with collated data I mentioned in the last thread being one of them) but there is a regulatory framework and it is well-enforced.

quote:

But like I say the solution here is to fix the problems in the Police (and maybe that's something that MI5 or NCA might be able to get involved in but then how can you know they have clean hands?) and actually get these fucks prosecuted and behind bars, not giving intelligence services free (well more free) rein to say "Hey, we've heard some nasty poo poo about so-and-so, best not make him a minister".

Rolled Cabbage posted:

I am going to be the little gloomy cloud and say they absolutely don't give a poo poo. Unless you work at the kind of firm (bank, law) where it would ~reflect badly~ if you were reduced to nicking stuff to eat stuff, you will be very lucky if you are paid on time and in full regardless of the size of the company. Yeah, it's illegal, but you have to pay your rent and you'll be the one stuck paying off £10 a day of bank fees, not them. Even if you quit, you've still got to find a new job and good luck surviving in the meantime.

It's difficult in London, but that makes it even more important that you build up a good nest egg as soon as possible. I've known previous senior bosses miss mortgage payments because the company paid them a month late, another acquaintance got paid after 3 loving years recently, so it's not as uncommon as you might think, regardless of how high up the pole you are.