h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

He does have a fair point Fanny. What he's saying is that if you provide "fair individual chioce for all", as you recommend, you will find that certain groups are overrepresented in some fields and underrepresented in others. This because most, but, as you point out, not all, members of these groups share certain preferences, tastes, and asperations about what fields they *want* to be in.

So the apparent lack of equality in outcome may actually be a *good* thing. It means that people are retaining certain aspects of their cultures (which you like, Fanny), and making choices about where they want to end up based on these cultural biases and assumptions.

Might I take the opportunity to recommend Anna Mindess' book Reading Between the Signs? It's a primer on intercultural communication, with particular application to the Deaf. But it's valuable in many other areas.

TRiG.

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Um, what's the unemployment level now? Did I or did I not read that around 50% of Glaswegians are economically inactive? What schemes have Labour come up with? "New Deal" where you've got to be on the dole for 18 months before you get help? (Unless you qualify as a designated victim of course). The true figure of the trendy label "economically inactive" is estimated at 5 million now.

What other brilliant socialist schemes for the working man have we witnessed? Ah yes, take away benefits for 16-18 year olds. Millions of working parents were rolling in the aisles at that one.

Thatcher was a bitch, certainly. But Blair has proved himself every inch her natural heir.

Yes Trig, the Scots are talented at canniness and meaness, they are indeed talented politicians. Don't know what their womenfolk are any good at besides stirring porridge.

I don't get your point, F. (Do you actually have a point?)

I'll give you a clue trig. SWL is a proud, mean and canny Scot, so he's be a rubbish policeman, a rubbish merchant, a rubbish corner shop proprieter. But he'd make an excellent politician, unlike his wife.

I wont pretend otherwise SWL, but to suggest Thatcher was good for employment is laughable....

FB, as I said, Thatcher was a bitch and I wouldn't say she was good for employment. But her Government at least developed schemes which tried to provide training and work for the unemployed. Sometimes it felt like new schemes came out monthly, certainly, but they existed and many people were helped into work. This government doesn't even make the attempt.

It is worth remarking that YTS schemes gave many kids with poor exam marks and no idea of what they wanted to do, a chance in the world of work. My own son did one year with IBM,and although he didn't go into computing as such , he now manages an area of photocopier engineers dealing with the large multi function machines.

Without YTS I doubt if he would be doing it.

Novo

Can't stand Thatcher but I believe she did wrestle with the Unions initially and stopped their stranglehold on industry that created the winter of discontent etc. She, unfortunately, then went mental and that's all we remember her for.

Also, she did create a lot of the unemployment as well so they had to put schemes in place.

Blair, on the other hand, sailed in, kept on the Tory policies, got in when the economy and the Tory policies were actually good and has bene riding that wave ever since. He has hidden unemployment by redefining who is unemployed and if he did put in any 'back-to-work' schemes that would signify that there was an unemployment problem when officially there isn't one.

Photocopier engineers or photocopier REPAIRMEN?

Major bee-in-my-bonnet when people get called engineers when they are repairmen or maintenance men.

Engineers have degrees, maintenance men have spanners.

OK, engineers have spanners as well but just to hit things with.

Alfster

MENG(hons) MIChemE CEng

Engineer, or repair man?

A bit of both I suppose, though In terms of your personal definition, more uncrating, installing, powering up, testing,etc - if you call them repair men then OK.

But it was YTS that 'lit' his interest in the mechanics of computr controlled copiers/printers.

Novo

That's not being an engineer more of a technician (repairman/installer/maintenance man combined) - the word I was scrabbling for earlier on. An important role: I have to rely on well-trained experienced technicians to carry out the engineering work that I have defined and worked out...they aren't engineers though.

The equivalent of being able to change an engine on a car. A few years ago a poll was ran to see who the best known engineer in the UK was amongst the public. The person most people thought as being the best-known engineer was the character Kevin on Coronation Street. He is a car mechanic.

It is this mis-use of the word that has made the engineering profession less than it used to be. Rather than factories being ran by engineers who know how things work they are run by accountants and HR who know sod all about running a business just about keeping costs down because the company is losing money because they won't let the engineers get the plants working efficiently because the accountants won;t give them the money...because they need to cut costs to make the shareholders happy...because the company is losing money...but they still need the shareholders...so they cut budgets...so less stuff gets fixed...so the plants are less efficient...so the engineers say they need money to make them more efficient...but they can't have any...because the budgets are tight...because the company is losing money...because the plants aren't maintained properly...because the maintenance teams have been cut...because they had to reduce head count...to safe money...

You get the general picture! And this is NO exaggeration of the facts...this is exactly what happens.

I understand perfectly.

Until I was 60 I worked for a plastics procesing company. both injection moulding and extruding. I used to desging the extrusion tools, and made about 600 within the in house toolroom. In 1991 the company was sold. It was then turning over £10million, employed 260 and made a profit of £960K.

The new owners were as you describe, and systematically mismanaged it to the point where it now has about 35 staff - God knows whatT/O and profit are, but as you say, it is the bean counters who cannot spell Polyvinylchloride who have reduced it to its' present state.

Novo

Sorry, going back again.

On the grounds that they are discriminatory by their very nature, I would expect to see ethnic/national descriptives removed from state-funded bodies.

The YMCA are totally out of order - ageist, sexist and religiously proscriptive.

Young man, are you listening to me?