I hate . . . Public Sector Strikers

Striking 'workers' in Westminster.
Pic: Ema Globyte

For for those who have not noticed, around 750,000 public sector workers (or 100,000, depending who you believe) went on strike today. This included civilians who work for the police, teachers and passport control staff. They complain of plans to increase what they have to pay for their pensions, and an increase in retirement age to 66.

They have caused massive inconvenience and cost for millions - forced to arrange childcare or book time off work to care for children or to delay travel. Worse, they may have threatened lives by reducing response times to critical 999 calls.

While public sector workers do have a right to negotiate for better rights, moving to the nuclear option may leave them with nowhere left to go - hated by both their direct employers -the government - and their indirect employers - the tax payer.

And what really irritates is that they are making demands so far out of touch with the common reality. I (along with a lot of people I know) have and equivalent education level as a teacher, and probably better than many of the other public sector employees.

• Pay (from what I can see from job ads) is roughly equivalent for a similar level role. Few people I know have had a pay rise in the last two years, except by promotion or a new job. At least you get something from your union negotiated deals.  Call it a draw.
• They get more holiday - not just the statutory minimum most others get. Plus most have generous sickness payment that encourages some to treat this as extra holiday. One up for the public workers.
• They are practically impossible to fire, no matter how poor the performance. They can be made redundant, but often with massive notice, assistance in locating a new job and a generous redundancy payout. Another one for them.
• Retirement at 60, compared to 65 (moving to 66) for most workers - and that's assuming you can afford it, and don't have to continue to make your pension bigger.
• Generous pension with high employer contributions. This is the big one, what they are whining about. I've hear figures quoted of an equivalent of £400 extra a month, by the time you take the tax effect into account. compared to most private sector my age of...nothing. Yup - if we want a pension, we have to pay for it. Work for a bigger firm, and they may put in a bit, but nowhere near this amount for someone of average levels of pay. Another win for them.

So to the public sector workers: yes, we understand seeing a reduction in benefits is not good. But your expectations are now so far out from the rest of us - you know, those who actually those taxes - you begin to look like you may be moaning ingrates with too much power due to the unions. People are both living longer and expecting more, so you cannot expect the same as you got 30 years ago. You are going to have to pay more for your pensions, retire later, and maybe get less.

Get over it.

I hate . . . Bait and Switch Marketing

Bait and switch marketing is where an advert promises one thing, but delivers something else. I really hate this form of advertising; it's dishonest and (at least for me) totally ineffective. I am far more likely to never use that brand, or leave the site as soon as I notice.

The (Not) Free Offer

Probably one of the oldest, the big offering is 'FREE!!!!!' (exclamation marks common). When you actually try to get the good or service, you find that the free offer is so heavily limited as to be useless, or even worse, is nowhere to be found.

Now you see it...now you don't

I'm seeing this more and more on comparison shopping sites. A goods is for sale at a certain retailer at 20% to 70% less than the next cheapest, but when you click through it is out of stock. While they are obviously hoping their other offers will tempt you its a big fail - I'm going to hit 'back' and carry on looking for the thing I searched for. You may occasionally get lucky and get hold of the one item they actually had in stock at that price - but I wouldn't bet on it.

The Optional Extras

A favourite of budget holiday and flight companies (as well as some online sellers), this is where the big headline price does not include a lot of the extras. This is fine where the extras are truly optionally, but is really annoying when they are not.


The attached image is just a bit of Ryanirs extra charges. Like £6 per passenger per flight for making payment by card - when the processing costs are more like 2%, not the hideous 33% Ryanair charge on it's cheapest flights. Add to that baggage, food, and boarding fees, it all gets to be as much as a 'premium' airline.

Other great scams in this category are huge postage and packing fees, heavily recommended 'options' like product insurance and overpriced consumables and parts.

Amazing Job Offers

Another favourite is the fake job offer - the 'Earn £2000 per month part time on your PC' ads. They almost always based on some very shaky numbers, and almost always require upfront payments (from a few pounds to serious money) for equipment and training. If anyone has EVER made the money promised on one of these, please comment!

All these are barely one step up from the classic Advanced Fee Fraud scam - promising the world before screwing the customer for everything they can get. Marketers: unless you want lumped in with a buch of dodgy Nigerians, just don't do it!

I hate . . . Password Strength Requirements

I use a lot of site for work and fund. Blogs, facebook, twitter, forums, webmail systems, hosted applications - it's a whole lot.

I also work from different computers, using different browsers for different purposes, so have no one single browser to save passwords.

To simplify things, I try to use one password for unimportant things - blogs and forums, one for medium secure things, like Facebook, and one more complex one for high security systems, like online banking.

So when a 'low security' blog or forum does this, it's really annoying:



Just stop it! If I want to use 'password' then I will. If I want to make my password '1' I understand it's not that secure, but I don't care. It's not like I am really bothered if someone manages to hack into an account on a forum I may never visit again.

Finally, for all those who get annoyed with bad web design, have a look at this from the excellent Oatmeal: How to make your Shopping Cart suck less.

I hate . . . The House of Commons

For our overseas readers, The House of Commons is where UK's Parliament meets. There are 650 Members that govern the UK, forming one of the oldest democracies in the world.

I've spoken to a couple of MPs. They are generally well educated, well spoken and intelligent, and with a handful of exceptions seem to genuinely be trying to govern sensibly. So why do they sound like a roomful of drunks watching a football match?

If you have not had the pleasure, have a listen to this:

Don't worry about the questions - listen to the boos, the jeers, the slurred 'Yeaahhhhhhhh!', the unintelligible noises, the pointless shouting. You would think a room full of people supposed to be the best and brightest in the country would realise that they are making both themselves and the system of Parliament sound like morons.

I wonder if they have to do a special induction course to learn the right noises to make?

I hate . . . Traffic Lights

Like a lot of you, quite a lot of my driving is through towns and cities. Driving back across recently, the traffic was really light - 5:30 PM on on a Sunday, so not that surprising.

Troll Traffic Lights

However, it took 25 minutes to cover 3½ miles. That's an average speed of 8.4 miles per hour. I was not driving like a granny, stopping at every McDonalds, or even courteously letting everyone out every junction.

The primary cause for my extreme slowness is the proliferation of traffic light. There's lights for pedestrian crossings, lights for junctions, lights for roundabouts, lights to slow you down for more lights. And every single one turned to red as I approached.

Who designs these light systems? We are capable of huge feats of engineering, but the ability to set up some simple lights so they change in a reasonable sequence is beyond the abilities of the civil engineers who plan traffic. Instead of setting the lights so that cars on the main roads can drive smoothly through, they seem deliberately to force you to stop for each one.

Now, There may be an argument for using lights to reduce traffic speeds - but what is the first thing you do when pulling away from a light that's held you up for no reason at all? That's right, accelerate harder, which is why they often put speed cameras a few hundred yards past a traffic light. They also hugely increase pollution, as the amount of fuel needed to accelerate is far more than that to maintain a steady speed, and the vehicle generates a lot more noise as well, which must annoy local residents.
So I've a little suggestion, based on a recent experience. Just turn them off.

A while ago, a set of lights on a very buy roundabout failed during rush hour. It's one of the main routes out of the city and on to the motorway, and the lights controlled all but one of the entrances, as well as points on the roundabout as well, so you would expect there to be chaos. On the contrary - traffic was flowing well, with cars entering and exiting smoothly on all access roads. In the few minutes I was waiting, traffic seemed to be flowing much faster for everyone - my journey to work was 5 minutes faster than usual. I suspect for quite a few sets of lights, disabling them permanently would improve traffic flow.

At night, it's especially annoying to be sat at a set of lights, waiting for non-existent cars on the other road, so we can turn them off too.

Pedestrian crossing may be one exception, but home many times have you been sat at a pedestrian crossing with no-one on it - because the person who pressed the button used a gap in the traffic and has long gone, while the motorists are sat waiting.

Have a look at traffic lights for this country. How about the 'flashing amber' used in the States, where you can proceed but have to give way to vehicles or pedestrians? Or making many more lights time dependant? Or even just adding some smarter sensors and controls that maximise traffic flow by only cycling lights for the minimum period?

I'm sure there are better options; save petrol, save time, and save me from shouting at inanimate road furniture...