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What goes around comes around

(79 Posts)
Lizbethann55 Sat 18-Mar-23 14:45:21

I wonder how many teachers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, train drivers, postal workers etc won't be able to go on holiday this year as the passport office workers are going on strike for five weeks?

Germanshepherdsmum Sat 18-Mar-23 14:53:51

🤣🤣🤣

Riverwalk Sat 18-Mar-23 15:01:05

What's so funny?

Blossoming Sat 18-Mar-23 15:06:44

I wonder how many can’t afford to go away in holiday this year?

Lizbethann55 Sat 18-Mar-23 15:29:46

The couple who introduced me to my DH were both teachers. They took off at the end of July every year with their children for six weeks,. They did Australia, America etc. Now they are retired they are away even more and rarely spend more than a few weeks at home at a time.

Riverwalk Sat 18-Mar-23 15:33:59

Lizbethann55

The couple who introduced me to my DH were both teachers. They took off at the end of July every year with their children for six weeks,. They did Australia, America etc. Now they are retired they are away even more and rarely spend more than a few weeks at home at a time.

Well what's that got to do with the price of fish?

Geez - Gransnet is a bit of a parallel universe today!

MawtheMerrier Sat 18-Mar-23 15:37:01

Why are you identifying these groups only?

Calendargirl Sat 18-Mar-23 15:38:32

MawtheMerrier

Why are you identifying these groups only?

Because they have all been on strike also?

Wyllow3 Sat 18-Mar-23 15:42:09

Lizbethann55

I wonder how many teachers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, train drivers, postal workers etc won't be able to go on holiday this year as the passport office workers are going on strike for five weeks?

I wonder how many of those can''t afford to go on holiday this year anyway.

what a self defeating O/P.

Ziplok Sat 18-Mar-23 15:46:00

Almost sounds as if you think these people deserve not to be able to go on holiday due to the proposed passport office staff strikes Lizbethann55?
Perhaps these people have a reason for their strike action, possibly eroded standard of living? Conditions of service? Double standards of some of those in power? Rather than have a dig at all those who have felt it necessary to strike (and it won’t be taken lightheartedly), perhaps consider the reasons why they feel that this is the only course of action left to them in order to be listened to.

sharon103 Sat 18-Mar-23 15:49:48

Well I thought it was amusing smile

Ilovecheese Sat 18-Mar-23 15:49:54

It doesn't almost sound as if Lizbethann55 thinks these people don't deserve to go on holiday, it sounds exactly like Lizbethann55 thinks they don't deserve to go on holiday.

Eric123 Sat 18-Mar-23 16:09:43

My partner is waiting for cardiac surgery and as a result of the strikes has had appointments cancelled. This is not about who can or cannot afford to go on holiday. It’s about potential loss of life or debilitating illness due to strikes. The only people affected by these strikes are the general public, not the government.

sodapop Sat 18-Mar-23 16:17:36

My daughter is a nurse and has had two gynaecology appointments cancelled lately. I agree with Ziplok

sharon103 Sat 18-Mar-23 16:25:33

Eric123

My partner is waiting for cardiac surgery and as a result of the strikes has had appointments cancelled. This is not about who can or cannot afford to go on holiday. It’s about potential loss of life or debilitating illness due to strikes. The only people affected by these strikes are the general public, not the government.

Well said.

Germanshepherdsmum Sat 18-Mar-23 16:31:51

Yes, well said Eric. I really don’t understand how doctors, nurses and ambulance staff can strike when they know what the results of their actions will be - in many cases, unnecessarily protracted suffering and the worsening of conditions, in others death.

Lizbethann55 Sat 18-Mar-23 19:31:18

I certainly do not think that people who have been on strike do not deserve a holiday. Everyone deserves a break. It is the potential irony of the situation that interests me. For example . A train driver is on strike, nodding sagely and waving his placard while Mr Lynch apologises profoundly and says it is not his fault and that he is really sorry that thousands of people cannot get to work, business meetings, social gatherings and holidays, but that his workers had absolutely no choice whatsoever. A few weeks later that same train driver finds that he cannot renew his passport in time to go abroad for his holiday because the passport workers are busy waving their placards as their union leaders say they are profoundly sorry and that it is not their fault that thousands of people will be unable to get to meetings, visit families, go on holiday etc etc and that the workers had absolutely no choice. It's the irony of the situation that fascinates me, not the rights rights or wrongs.

Doodledog Sat 18-Mar-23 19:43:19

The irony is that people who need (or have needed) to work for a living persist in voting in those who set groups of other working people against one another, and enjoy smirking at the idea of more suffering amongst their fellow citizens.

Dickens Sat 18-Mar-23 20:07:26

It's quite possible the doctors, nurses, ambulance crews, etc will sympathise with those working in the passport office.

I don't know the details but it wouldn't surprise me if the department is understaffed, the workers over-worked and under-paid.

Cuts to public services include government departments like the passport office.

Governments continually want to keep cutting, make 'efficiencies', departments are consistently being asked to do 'more with less'. I believe the strikes were inevitable sooner or later.

Deedaa Sat 18-Mar-23 20:32:16

The suggestion that doctors, nurses and ambulance workers shouldn't strike because of the effect on sick people sounds like the way my mother talked in the 50s. She always used to say that nurses and teachers didn't need to be paid much because they had a vocation. I don't think she'd ever tried buying groceries with a vocation/

GagaJo Sat 18-Mar-23 20:36:55

Lizbethann55

I wonder how many teachers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, train drivers, postal workers etc won't be able to go on holiday this year as the passport office workers are going on strike for five weeks?

I'm sure public workers will understand the dilemma of the passport workers.

Cheap joke.

GagaJo Sat 18-Mar-23 20:39:17

Lizbethann55

The couple who introduced me to my DH were both teachers. They took off at the end of July every year with their children for six weeks,. They did Australia, America etc. Now they are retired they are away even more and rarely spend more than a few weeks at home at a time.

And?

They've been retired for a while. Teaching conditions have massively gone downhill over the last 20 years.

Not to mention the sea change in teachers pensions. Totally different and nowhere near as lucrative.

GagaJo Sat 18-Mar-23 20:41:00

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes, well said Eric. I really don’t understand how doctors, nurses and ambulance staff can strike when they know what the results of their actions will be - in many cases, unnecessarily protracted suffering and the worsening of conditions, in others death.

What's your suggestion for massively overworked, terrible conditions and pay?

Or shall we just let all our public service workers go to work overseas?

MawtheMerrier Sat 18-Mar-23 20:52:40

So by going on strike you forfeit the right to go on holiday?
That's what I love about GN - tolerance and open mindedness

Oreo Sat 18-Mar-23 21:59:14

sharon103

Well I thought it was amusing smile

sharon103 I’m starting to realise something about this site😖
So many miseries and self righteous posts make starting a thread about anything at all not worth doing.Virtue signalling abounds.
I had the same thoughts as you Lizbethan55 tbh I thought it was karma for them if they needed a new passport.😄