Every six weeks or so, I meet up with people I used to work with. We call ourselves the HEAPS group: Happy East Ayrshire PensionerS, though not all have worked for East Ayrshire, but we all worked in the public service till fairly recently.
We always try to meet at the very start of the school year (to celebrate the return to work of the education wage slaves) and today we had a lovely lunch at the Sorn Inn. Highly recommended - good food, good coffee and good service.
Three stories were told over lunch. If any one of them is true, this country (be it the UK or Scotland) is screwed:
1 A pensioner goes to replace his blue badge at a council office and is refused it because he manages to walk into the office unaided.
2 A student is told there are places available on the course he wants to study at university but he can't have one because these places are reserved for students from overseas who will pay huge fees.
3 A graduate who wants to be an educational psychologist is told that she will have to give up the job she now holds in order to do the training course, that she will have to pay fees (all postgrad courses in Scotland now have fees attached) and that there is no guarantee she will get a job at the end of her course since all local authorities are so short of money.
I used to work for a boss who regularly commented: 'Where's the natural justice in this?'
Anyone care to add anything?
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