P&O adrift

[Borchester]

You clearly have no experience of the Welsh Office prior to devolution.

One Christmas I had a call from the missus terrified that half the Radiological Certification department would go blind because of the home made and heavily methanolic "moonshine" the utter nutters in Export Credit Guarantee had brought to the Xmas Bash.

I sprinted over from my research lab on the other side of Cathay's Park, bringing the animal House technician and a gallon of the finest the biochemistry and microbiology student society could rustle up, assayed the ass holes on the spot realised the danger they were in and took them to the brink of death by ethanol poisoning with our freeze dried home brew (what is the point of a first class honours in biochemistry and a mate with the same in microbiol if you cannot put your skills to use) to prevent them going blind from the methanol in their amateur shit.

When the medics arrived the conversation went a bit like

"You did WHAT"

"Do the blood assay yourself they were going to wake up blind"

"f**k Me So They Were. Hey have you got any more of YOUR stuff ??"

"A pleasure to be of help to the boys and girls in green" we said as we handed over several half pint bottles and went to get a box more .... "But best wait until you're off shift, at home, and add a minimum of an equal measure of fruit juice. And a very merry Christmas to you all"

Are we talking about the old ferment anything. shove it into the deep freeze and when it is solid, drive in a hot poker to release the alcohol lark? I often wondered what happened to the higher alcohols but it never seemed to matter when we were young

Happy days

[johnofgwent]

Give us a break Ollie. The point of a cruise is for the oldies to be pampered rotten and for everyone else to have a high old time, particularly when the crew broach cargo.

Can you imagine any government department organising that?

You clearly have no experience of the Welsh Office prior to devolution.

One Christmas I had a call from the missus terrified that half the Radiological Certification department would go blind because of the home made and heavily methanolic "moonshine" the utter nutters in Export Credit Guarantee had brought to the Xmas Bash.

I sprinted over from my research lab on the other side of Cathay's Park, bringing the animal House technician and a gallon of the finest the biochemistry and microbiology student society could rustle up, assayed the ass holes on the spot realised the danger they were in and took them to the brink of death by ethanol poisoning with our freeze dried home brew (what is the point of a first class honours in biochemistry and a mate with the same in microbiol if you cannot put your skills to use) to prevent them going blind from the methanol in their amateur shit.

When the medics arrived the conversation went a bit like

"You did WHAT"

"Do the blood assay yourself they were going to wake up blind"

"f**k Me So They Were. Hey have you got any more of YOUR stuff ??"

"A pleasure to be of help to the boys and girls in green" we said as we handed over several half pint bottles and went to get a box more .... "But best wait until you're off shift, at home, and add a minimum of an equal measure of fruit juice. And a very merry Christmas to you all"

[Nick]

Not really Toots. Horrified that is. P&) is just a branch of the catering trade and the ships floating hotels and as such has always relied on cheap foreign labour. I was on a ship once where the captain settled a dispute with the crew by aiming a Webley Mars pistol at one of the ring leaders and asking what the fuss was about. Happy days.

But the problem is, as you say, cheap labour isn't cheap enough. So if anyone wants to go on a cruise they had better expect some hefty price increases.

In exactly the same way that McDonalds isn't a fast food joint, it's a real estate business, as that is where they make the vast majority of their money. 

[cromwell]

Give us a break Ollie. The point of a cruise is for the oldies to be pampered rotten and for everyone else to have a high old time, particularly when the crew broach cargo.

Can you imagine any government department organising that?

Have you been on the sauce......again?  T00ts already pointed out we're talking about P&O ferries not gods waiting room trips.

[T00ts]

Give us a break Ollie. The point of a cruise is for the oldies to be pampered rotten and for everyone else to have a high old time, particularly when the crew broach cargo.

Can you imagine any government department organising that?

I thought that was what the NHS was for.

[Borchester]

Said it on the other thread iirc the ships should be seized and publicly operated.

Give us a break Ollie. The point of a cruise is for the oldies to be pampered rotten and for everyone else to have a high old time, particularly when the crew broach cargo.

Can you imagine any government department organising that?

[patman post]

Employers who upset Government departments and the RMT should expect to find themselves under intense scrutiny and subject, unexplained hitches and mechanical failures, and possible misinformation fed to news media and social media.

Kafkaesque, or what...?

[cromwell]

I have looked at it again and it does appear to be the ferries.

Said it on the other thread iirc the ships should be seized and publicly operated.

[T00ts]

Is there some confusion here on my part? I thought there were 2 P&Os 1) the cruise line 2) the ferries. I understood that they weren't related.  I thought the ship adrift yesterday was of the ferry line.

I have looked at it again and it does appear to be the ferries.

[T00ts]

Not really Toots. Horrified that is. P&) is just a branch of the catering trade and the ships floating hotels and as such has always relied on cheap foreign labour. I was on a ship once where the captain settled a dispute with the crew by aiming a Webley Mars pistol at one of the ring leaders and asking what the fuss was about. Happy days.

But the problem is, as you say, cheap labour isn't cheap enough. So if anyone wants to go on a cruise they had better expect some hefty price increases.

Is there some confusion here on my part? I thought there were 2 P&Os 1) the cruise line 2) the ferries. I understood that they weren't related.  I thought the ship adrift yesterday was of the ferry line.

[Borchester]

We were all pretty horrified when P&O sacked all their staff and shipped in much cheaper foreign staff. Since then their business model has proved pretty stupid. First their new recruits were deemed incompetent and not allowed to sail. Then I heard the other day that even these cheap sailors had been asked to accept a wage reduction. Then yesterday a ferry went awol in the Irish sea for a couple of hours until the RNLI managed to rescue it. I now hear that those cheap sailors who are apparently not cheap enough, went on strike. I wonder if P&O has yet realised that slave labour is not too reliable? Any regrets P&O?

Not really Toots. Horrified that is. P&) is just a branch of the catering trade and the ships floating hotels and as such has always relied on cheap foreign labour. I was on a ship once where the captain settled a dispute with the crew by aiming a Webley Mars pistol at one of the ring leaders and asking what the fuss was about. Happy days.

But the problem is, as you say, cheap labour isn't cheap enough. So if anyone wants to go on a cruise they had better expect some hefty price increases.

[T00ts]

We were all pretty horrified when P&O sacked all their staff and shipped in much cheaper foreign staff. Since then their business model has proved pretty stupid. First their new recruits were deemed incompetent and not allowed to sail. Then I heard the other day that even these cheap sailors had been asked to accept a wage reduction. Then yesterday a ferry went awol in the Irish sea for a couple of hours until the RNLI managed to rescue it. I now hear that those cheap sailors who are apparently not cheap enough, went on strike. I wonder if P&O has yet realised that slave labour is not too reliable? Any regrets P&O?