We can but dream. My father taught me an old motto that I live by: "If you want to truly find out what's going on, follow the money!" Council make a lot of money out of late payment penalties and exorbitant interest charges. Councillors know this and while they may pay lip service to the notions of fairness and play at being compassionate when cases hit the media, they know which side of the gravy train their bread needs to land in. I'd get a lot of sympathy from the councillor concerned with no action and, if it got traction in the media, Council would quickly rescind the interest and charges on compassionate grounds looking like the good guys. What I intend to do instead is take this through the courts (not the municipal tribunals), so they have to brief a barrister and argue their case before a judge. In the past, the municipal tribunals have basically rubberstamped Council's actions. Fortunately, as this is an interest and penalties case, other courts have jurisdiction over these matters and I intend to use that loophole to move it outside of Council's control. While this is a time waster for me, it's a bottomless pit of expense for them. Also, once there's a precedent that their interpretation of what an "outage" means (which is very clear from the relevant bylaws) is wrong, the municipal ombudsman is going to rule against them on all such future cases too based on the precedent. They can't very well change the law at that point to bring in their interpretation of the law as that would pique the interest of the media and the local ratepayers, resulting in a bloodbath at the next council elections, so they would have to weasel their illicit funds from other equally dubious sources. I'd like to say that it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of thugs, but I suspect that ultimately, they will simply shift their feeding trough elsewhere. Still, I'll chalk one up to the little guys and move on.
I was going to head over to a wine tasting room after work last night, but damn if they weren't closed!
Nah councils make very little on late charges, what tends to happen is that people don't pay and don't pay and don't pay until it goes to court and then they tell the court they don't have any money and the court orders them to pay £1 a week for ten years or whatever... at that point the council is out several hundred quid in legal fees that they'll never see again. To be honest I don't have a great deal of sympathy with late payers - mostly they need to pay what they owe just like everybody else. Your situation is different because you are trying to pay, and the system isn't letting you - the council want to get the money in so anyone more senior than a call centre monkey will make it happen By taking it to the courts instead you are just wasting other tax payers money, and my sympathy stops short at that point
That might be what it's like where you are, but here, if you don't pay your rates, they evict you and sell your property to make up the shortfall. They're not lacking in funds and aren't afraid to use their powers. The system is gamed in their favour.
Lakme - Dome Epais (The Flower Duet) 3:51 Lesley Garrett Lesley Garrett: Diva! A Soprano at the Movies Classical 0 Jeez; how did that happen.
I've recently taken to sending in 'Freedom of information requests,' for EVERYTHING (Make an Email template) they are obliged by law to answer and you can ask all sorts of ridiculous questions in an attempt to piss them off. I know I'm childish, but until I'm rich it's the best I've got.
Went to a Mod Pizza and inside there was a family sitting down and eating. Two obnoxious boys, maybe early to mid-teens in age, their mother who they completely ignored, and their idiot father. The younger of the kids was coughing as loud as he could to be annoying and dramatic (he thought it was funny). The whole family was sick with whatever cold. They rarely ever covered their mouths, and the few times that the kid did, his elbow was two feet away from his punchable little face. I hate, absolutely hate being sick. I cannot stand it. I cannot function. I am always tired. I'm completely distracted by the cement in my nose, the incessant cough, the headaches. But what's worse is getting sick because of absolute morons and their two stupid kids. I thought about all the things that I touched while I was in there and determined that the likelihood of me catching their sickness was pretty high, so upon returning home I immediately drank a glass of water mixed with an Emergen-C packet. This will be the first thing I do tomorrow morning as well. Sometimes I wish we were like Japan in one aspect, and that is wearing those white-and-blue surgical masks when you're sick. And now I realize how easy it is to get sick. Every person that comes in there tonight and probably tomorrow (unless the employees wipe down everything as if the store goes into nightly quarantine) who touches the glass containers of seasoning and the bottle of hot sauce or whatever-the-fuck is going to get what they got. But at least they'll have the solace of not knowing they got it from a bunch of dipshits. As you might be able to tell by now, few things infuriate me more than being sick.
I'm going to start carrying around a gasmask and put it on for moments like these so I can be a smartass.
Wow - this is how cross you are when you're not actually sick but might get sick! I confess to a certain sadistic anticipation!
I say thee, yay @Mark Burton! Come on over here and kick some ass! I say nay nay. When a system created to serve taxpayers has corrupted (systemic) itself to the point of mocking a taxpayer, that system must be reformed. A citizen demanding that reform deserves support. If it requires money to bring it to awareness, were wisdom lacked, such is the price of civilization. "Pity a society of quiet men."
Sorry to say it'll be sort of anti-climactic when I get sick, because I'll need to save my strength. But I think it was just the context of it that put me over the edge. It's one thing if the person washes their hands, covers up when they sneeze and cough, and I still get sick. It can't really be helped. I was watching these kids though, and it was clear to me that they did not give a fuck, and neither did their parents. Especially the youngest one who was deliberately coughing all over the table and everything he touched in an exaggerated way with a conscious effort to NOT cover his face. I'm not being hyperbolic about this at all. I've never actually witnessed somebody deliberately make sure they spread their cold. It's one thing if that happens in the household. Some families, mine included, kind of just have an unspoken rule that if one person gets sick then the rest of us are probably going to get sick no matter what we reasonably do to prevent it. Still, we don't act like uncivilized pricks and go out of our way to cough in each other's cereal or coffee or toothbrushes. Alright, I'm done whinging. Time to get drunk before I go to bed.
Vexatious requests can be reviewed by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and they can refuse you service... if your numerous requests are deemed thus. Or, they may just broaden your request, and take years to supply you with the documents, and then when they finally do, it will be reams and reams and reams of paper. Upwards of 60,000 pages. Ah, nevermind. I see you're in the UK. I'm in Canada. Many of my thoughts here likely don't apply. Ooh, looky. They do have something comparable. https://ico.org.uk/media/1198/dealing-with-vexatious-requests.pdf Looks like Section 14(1) may apply.
Boo! I'm sure if it were that simple we could quickly eliminate many diseases, but I must say that I don't get nearly so many coughs and sneezes now I don't get the commuter trains into London... One of the great things about the internet crossing time-lines with impunity - that is such a heart warming thing to read at 08.00
I say reality check - Councils have had 85% of their funding cut by austerity measures since 2010. Wasting what little resource they do have on law suits which could be easily avoided by sensible and proportionate action does not benefit the tax payer one iota Also the easiest way to avoid penalty charges is to pay your council tax on time.. I pay mine by direct debit and have never in 27 years of adult life had a penalty charge - the system is not systemically corrupted, it merely requires that tax payers actually pay their tax. On the point at hand a small technical problem is preventing payment - is a proportionate response to that a) a complaint to someone who can fix it or b) a lawsuit ?
Thus wasting even more of their limited resources and making a mockery of the FOI system which was intended for serious disclosure... you must have a very sad life if this is what you do for fun. Point of note you won't piss them off, officers charged with answering the questions will just laugh at what a childish tool you are being.
Yeah yeah yeah...until that 'idiot kid' starts choking and you rush over and save the world with your Heimlich manouvre and you engage and talk with the people and discover they are a perfectly ordinary and a kind family out having a special meal. It's natural to have that rolling kettle inside yourself. But recognise it for what it is. I'm sure you do, it's fun and funny for writing. It was bad enough for me travelling on a bus - but when the feral children and mommy and daddy stepped on, the straw in their hair, and their shouting, and the dad was an 'asshole, obviously' - but then he started playing with his girls, he was the cutest man. Always the way.
"Damn it hubby! This cold is not something you needed to share with me and the chillens. And once I get done with this snot rag, I will send it back to your boss."
Why would someone join your group, then repeatedly no show, then go about trash talking you after you finally stop inviting her?
