Coastguard pay

[NickB]

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As some of you probably know the Coastguard have been taking intermittent (and very reluctant) industrial action this Summer to protest very low levels of pay compared to similar jobs in the other emergency services.

All of us who go to sea regularly know what a good job these guys do, so if you would like to show your support there is an online petition you can sign here:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CoastguardPay/

[longshanks]

My dear NickMcB,

This is NOT a yachtie forum. If anyone wants to partake in a yachtie forum they should go to the truly excellent:
http://www.ybw.com/forums

With regards supporting a petition suggesting that we pay (yet) more tax to fund a pay rise for a bunch of deskbound civil servants then I suggest there are more deserving cases such as nurses.

Remember coastguards receive Civil Service pay at the appropriate scale, and receive an inflation linked pension of 66% of salary! (Paid for by us taxpayers who receive a measly £126 a week not RPI linked and per couple!)

Also to suggest that coastguards should be compared to the Emergency Services is outrageous:
"very low levels of pay compared to similar jobs in the other emergency services"
In an emergency the police or fire service will physically come to your aid at, often, great personal risk. The coastguards, in an emergency, prefer to sit at their desks and ask a self-funding charity (RNLI) to physically come to your aid at, often, life threatening risk.

Longboat Sinks (lost at sea by choice)

[NickB]

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Whether you like it or not Long Shore (seaside dweller by choice) this is a maritime community. We fish, we take ferries, we run tourist boats . . . the Coastguard do very much more than carry out unnecessary radio checks for WAFIs, as I am sure any fisherman in these parts will testify.

The pay comparison to be made is with the folk in the Operations rooms of the other services - also 'deskbound civil servants' as you so disparagingly put it - not with the front line emergency response teams (which in this case are the splendid and wholly free RNLI of course). No-one is asking you to pay more tax - asuming of course that you pay any at all. Parity for the CG would cost very little . . . I am sure a fraction of the amount spent on unnecessary expenses by politicians local and national would cover it.


- NickB

(And if by chance you are looking for a sailing forum then this place is somewhat friendlier than YBW, which seems to be full of Long Shore's sailing cronies . . .)

[longshanks]

Dear Nick McB

I do take issue with your (potentially libelous) personal attack on me viz:

"No-one is asking you to pay more tax - asuming of course that you pay any at all."

I can assure you that my tax affairs are totally in order and legal. I would have suggested that you give yourself a yellow card but since you have subsequently edited out the suggestion in your first version of your post that I "change my domicile" away from Seil, rearing the ugly prospect of ethnic cleansing to our peaceful island, I forgive you in the spirit of our recently cemented friendhip.

You edited out something else but it doesn't warrant comment.

On a positive note thanks for the suggestion that we visit the bluemovement yachtie website. I did so but must say I found it quiet and tame compared to the YBW forum. In fact the former felt rather dated in design and the posts rather parochial and, may I sat, incestuous.

Hoping that Sleepy is happy that a potentially disagreeable discord has been amicably and maturely avoided.

Love

Long Shot (optimistic by choice)