Cyberknight:


It was common knowledge in the migrant communities and increasingly in the papers that there was a lot of fraud going on with the COS and care visa back in 22 and 23. Nigerians were making TikTok videos upandan, others were advertising on social media, the UK papers were publishing stories well before the HO finally acted.

Zahra29:


And yet, despite the wealth of supporting evidence, the government is still being labelled rightwing, anti-immigrant for implementing policies to curb the wide spread abuse....imagine if they had acted before the exposés by the DM, Telegraph and Sky (who started reporting on the care visa abuse mainly last year).

Cyberknight:


The government IS rightwing. Importation of cheap labour to drive down labour costs and ensure lowish labour costs for a generation is a right wing thing to do. Always remember that the elite care about money first - all else, racism, immigration, etc. comes second.

The Telegraph and its fellow travellers fulminate against the current [outgoing?] govt because it has discarded the low immigration aspect of the Tories' broad church of views, but it's happily fighting various culture wars and promising every kind of tax cut under the sun, fertilizing the magic money tree, pandering to pensioners, etc.

In any case, Rishi ate his spinach last night like a good boy and levelled Starmer thoroughly and commenters in the Telegraph are daring to hope again.

Zahra29:


I would say that governments like Italy, Hungary and the hopeful French contender, Le Pen, are right wing governments, but it's a subjective point in any case.

I do agree that this government has been too dependent for too long on cheap foreign labour. I've been saying that this model isn't sustainable, and I welcome Labour's pledge to prioritise training, mobilisation and retaining of the domestic workforce and hopefully stop the over-reliance on foreign labour. "Over reliance" being the operative word.

Cyberknight:


Not required to notify HMRC when you get a first or second job, it's your employer's responsibility to do that when they payroll you. Regarding HMRC messing up their calculations, they dont need anyone's help to do that. Each time I change jobs I always cringe when its time for my first pay because they generally mess up my tax code and set the estimated income at some outlandish figure.

Zahra29:


It depends on what your house and ventilation is like. I haven't used my AC since I moved home, the fan is only needed on hot days.
This isn't even a proper heat wave compared to previous years as it's going to be cooler from tomorrow thank God. In 2019 it was near/over 30 degrees for 6 weeks straight. That was something else.

Electric bills on a portable AC unit are crazy, especially if you run it through the night. If you own the property it's worth looking into a permanent and more efficient solution like a wall mounted unit.

toughest007:


What do you mean at the highlighted? How does house ventilation vary here in the UK? Houses here in general are thermally enveloped to keep things and humans warm in extreme cold. Since the windows are minimal and not strategically positioned, the possibility of having cross-ventilation is totally impossible!

In summer and in any unusual elevation in temperature, that thermal envelope becomes extremely humid, hot and totally uncomfortable.

Now, you want to use fan (regardless the power) to cool a thermal envelop and achieve optimal ventilation? Again, portable AC is the answer.

Cyberknight:


Agreed. The over-reliance is baked into the system, however.

The British people are not lazy or disinclined to work, no more than the citizens of any other developed country are. They will not do the low-skilled and other jobs that foreigners are being recruited for because the rewards are not commensurate. (Even nurses are re-locating after a year or two in the UK as they find that their Band 5 pay doesn't mean much if you're here and not reading it in delight on an appointment letter in a lower cost of living country before you board your plane). As we all know the only solution is to europeanise the system more in terms of increasing pay and increasing taxes to do so. British voters will never countenance that. They want their ancestors well cared for in their old age, and they want their hospitals staffed with nurses, doctors and healthcare assistants, but they decline to pay extra taxes to pay those people well.

So the Tories decided to break the logjam by importing cheap labour. It is arguable that a better way to achieve a result might have been not to opt for increased immigration but instead to allow the NHS and the care system to collapse under the weight of understaffing so as to drive home the point to the public that its time to pay more tax to increase pay.

Zahra29:


Unless you live in a new build estate where all the plans are the same or similar, most UK homes vary greatly especially when you factor in the era they were built in.

Some homes, such as those built in the 60s and 70s, tend to have very large windows all through. Some homes have a dual aspect downstairs and/or large patio doors which is great for cross ventilation and light in general. Older properties tend to have large bay windows, high ceilings and thinner brick walls.This makes them not as energy efficient compared to newer builds, which is nice during a heat wave but not so warm in the winter. Some properties are south facing and attract more sun/heat. Some have awnings or protruding roofs which keep the sun out. Houses are typically better ventilated than apartments.

There are many factors so it very much depends on the build of your house and what its ventilation is like.

toughest007:


Regardless of the era they were built, the type of house (townhouses, semi-detached, detached, apartment etc) and the size of the windows or presence of patios, houses here in the UK generally lack the window strategy positioning for cross ventilation. For context, you need to have at least two windows in any space and at 90° or 180° to each other for proper cross ventilation to happen.

Houses here are designed to focus more on achieving higher energy rating than cross ventilation. Which is why there is extractor fans, ventilators etc. Do you think people or yourself would prefer a cross ventilated home to higher energy efficient home?

I don't agree with your 'older buildings having thinner walls'. What you call thinner walls have always been a standard adopted to date. The buildup have always remained brick (external wall), then thermal insulation (at the middle) and sandcrete block (internal wall). Giving a specific thickness adopted to date in newer builds. Older buildings have low energy rating cos of the following: cracks due to ageing, outdated insulation materials used, lack of glazed windows etc...

Again, regarding the highlighted, UK architects would never insert an extra window to a detached house. I have reviewed load of working drawings, they are all following the same format. The point is houses are no better and the type of build doesn't matter!

toughest007:


Regardless of the era they were built, the type of house (townhouses, semi-detached, detached, apartment etc) and the size of the windows or presence of patios, houses here in the UK generally lack the window strategy positioning for cross ventilation. For context, you need to have at least two windows in any space and at 90° or 180° to each other for proper cross ventilation to happen.
I'm
Houses here are designed to focus more on achieving higher energy rating than cross ventilation. Which is why there is extractor fans, ventilators etc. Do you think people or yourself would prefer a cross ventilated home to higher energy efficient home?

I don't agree with your 'older buildings having thinner walls'. What you call thinner walls have always been a standard adopted to date. The buildup have always remained brick (external wall), then thermal insulation (at the middle) and sandcrete block (internal wall). Giving a specific thickness adopted to date in newer builds. Older buildings have low energy rating cos of the following: cracks due to ageing, outdated insulation materials used, lack of glazed windows etc...

Again, regarding the highlighted, UK architects would never insert an extra window to a detached house. I have reviewed load of working drawings, they are all following the same format. The point is houses are no better and the type of build doesn't matter!

Goodenoch:


House ventilation does vary though. In my current house from where I'm typing this I have a window in front of me and have direct line of sight (so 180 degrees) to another window on the other wide of the house through an open doorway, so I can achieve cross ventilation by opening both windows. Where I previously stayed, I couldn't do that.

Search Google and you'll find many guides on using cross ventilation to cool homes in the summer so clearly the concept is quite well known and and people practice it.

Also, portable ACs and ACs generally are pretty uncommon whereas fans are very common, so clearly they must be working reasonably well, unless you want to say everyone just likes to roast in heat and doesn't know what cools their home, unlike you.

Zahra29:


Lol, what are you going on about?
Do you know what dual aspect means? Where a room has windows or window/door at opposite ends or 180 degrees?

toughest007:


What are you implying at the highlighted? Why do I need to search Google when I had already noted that unless you have them at 90° or 180°, you can't get cross ventilation. Did I say you can't cool your home with the concept? The strategy is superseded by the installation of extractor fans, ventilator etc. Read again and read well, please.

How do you think this pans out in winter?

Maybe they are uncommon where you reside and across the circle of people you mingle with. Most folks I know, even colleagues at work have portable ACs, others that didn't own one bought during the last heat wave and it made sense. Even Zahra29 has one

Zahra29:


Which was originally purchased for an apartment that wasn't as well ventilated I.e. hot, and hasn't been used since. Many people don't need it for the reasons highlighted above and also because heat waves were never this intense. GoodEnoch is correct that fans are far more common (they are also much cheaper to purchase and run).

justwise:


Have you watched channel 4 programme called Benefit Britain? Look for it and watch then you will understand why he is acting like that

mayowa94:
Good afternoon, Kindly advise on the best way to reduce cost while changing from provisional licence to full licence with insurance company. As it stands I might be paying extra £70 if I change it.

chidirobert:
Good evening all,please has anyone traveled from Enugu airport to London with Ethiopia airlines lately please kindly share your experience

AgentXxx:
lol you guessed right. Young chap(25) been out of school for over three years, been collecting Universal credit and following a music passion where he gets 50£ for a gig that comes twice a month. First job and he seems not ready and prefers his unemployed life.

If na one of us Dey do this, na to carry am go for deliverance or ruqyah because he sure say na curse. 😂

AgentXxx:
So many suprises and I would wonder what the future of the Briton Next Generation is (Because he has many friends who are unemployed and would prefer the Universal credit and the twice a week Music Gig they get)😒

I enrolled him in a course that would let him use the Saas platforms we use in the organisation, My guy was asking me “does he have to do it?” 😂

Zahra29:


I would say that governments like Italy, Hungary and the hopeful French contender, Le Pen, are right wing governments, but it's a subjective point in any case.

I do agree that this government has been too dependent for too long on cheap foreign labour. I've been saying that this model isn't sustainable, and I welcome Labour's pledge to prioritise training, mobilisation and retaining of the domestic workforce and hopefully stop the over-reliance on foreign labour. "Over reliance" being the operative word.

AgentXxx:
lol you guessed right. Young chap(25) been out of school for over three years, been collecting Universal credit and following a music passion where he gets 50£ for a gig that comes twice a month. First job and he seems not ready and prefers his unemployed life.

If na one of us Dey do this, na to carry am go for deliverance or ruqyah because he sure say na curse. 😂

Chreze:


Yesterday when @lavida001 quoted your post, I was so tempted to reply him., I didn’t want to say what I am abt saying as I recently started healing from my experience. I was hoping it will end yesterday, guess it needed to be shared.

I had similar experience too, but mine affected me because going by lavida’s term “he is one of us”. I tried everything to help the homie, did his work, cleaned his mess and all. To the detriment of my own health, as it started affecting my mental state.

Why it affected my mental state was cos I personally don’t believe in treating people specially simply cos we are from same country/region/state. I see it as the first stage of racism. I believe to treat everyone same as we are all one (my personal translations of being a Christian, or a “true Christian” as we call it in Naija). Guess what, I didn’t know when I started treating homie specially, he kept playing the race and my own country person card. I was always angry during and after work. It started with me feeling like an immigrant shouldn’t be like that, to cleaning up his tasks. whenever he was unable to do his task and people noticed, I felt even worse cos people would report to me and expect me to do something or raise it with our manager. Infact, there were couple of times our line manager called me and wanted me to validate some complains he got from other teams, my response was “I am sorry, my work here is to secure the companies assets and grow personally/professionally, I don’t involve in conversation like this in place of work and outside office, there are means for security teams to monitor things, those means should be used”.

This whole issue messed with me for months - close to a year. It was so bad that my conversation with my wife daily was about work. How did it come to an end? One day he said something that got me so so upset that I took some days off. While I was on my days off, I realized I was in a very bad place, my thoughts were more negative than positive, I was losing me. I had to press my reset button. Went back to work with the sole aim of doing my job and logging off. I even told my manager I was promoted cos of my work ethic/performance, not to baby sit anyone and that he should deal with his people management ish leaving me out of it.

That was it, now I go to work, do my shit and log off. I Openly provide materials for everyone to learn and grow. No special treatment to anyone, back to me again.

To summarize the story, there are immigrants too who behave that way, it’s not particular to indigenes, Yes, you may want to argue that the homie in question has lived here for a very very long time, but guess what, with all the years, his accent and diction didn’t change, so the long stay thing doesn’t count either, People will always be who they are “or truly are”, no matter the skin tone. Like everyone has said, just do your work and let him be himself, being in security gives us access to be able to prove if people are working or not, you don’t have to say anything, direct your manager to using security tools to gather his evidence.

No drink panadol for another person headache. Keep your panadol, you go need am after people from Naija don call you to complain Tinubu full everywhere. 😁

lavida001:


The future is not looking bright from my lens. I pity Nigeria and other African nations. One day they might just put on their colonial 🎩 and decide to colonise us and we won’t be able to stop them.

lavida001:


Abeg your company dey employ ?

justwise:


Have you watched channel 4 programme called Benefit Britain? Look for it and watch then you will understand why he is acting like that

AgentXxx:
Can you please confirm the channel and title of the programme, I couldn’t find any with such name on both channel 4 and 5 even though when I Google, he brought suggestion of a series in channel 5

AgentXxx:
Thanks for this eye-opening post. But the difference in my own case is that I am his manager, he is also yet to pass probation(it is common for many to become lax after probation or spending over two years in an organisation) and he is trying to use the mental health card which I know vividly that isn’t the case but just as justwise mentioned and other mentioned, I would try to keep evidence and make sure to stay away from making it a personal grudge.

Chreze:




I had similar experience too, but mine affected me because going by lavida’s term “he is one of us”. I tried everything to help the homie, did his work, cleaned his mess and all. To the detriment of my own health, as it started affecting my mental state.

To summarize the story, there are immigrants too who behave that way, it’s not particular to indigenes, Yes, you may want to argue that the homie in question has lived here for a very very long time, but guess what, with all the years, his accent and diction didn’t change, so the long stay thing doesn’t count either, People will always be who they are “or truly are”, no matter the skin tone. Like everyone has said, just do your work and let him be himself, being in security gives us access to be able to prove if people are working or not, you don’t have to say anything, direct your manager to using security tools to gather his evidence.