Oh for crying out loud

[PartTimePongo]

Any fool can tell you, never ever rob an Arab of his money or reward, and NEVER EVER go back on your word to one.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-662816,00.html

'Even under Saddam pay was better than this'
By Richard Lloyd Parry



THE revolt of Basra began when a printed notice was pinned to the front gate of the former presidential palace, now the headquarters of the Desert Rats.
The British Army was slashing its rates of pay for locally hired staff “due to circumstances beyond our control”, it announced.

The wages of skilled workers were to be cut to $22 (£13.80) a month, those of the unskilled to $10. Graduates and trained professionals, who had been working as translators and drivers for about £1.30 a day, found themselves being paid 50p or less. The effect was immediate: less than three weeks after liberating Iraq’s second-largest city, the British forces had a strike on their hands.

The pay was being cut to conform with standards imposed across Iraq by the United States. “This is cruelty,” Vahan Gregor, a civil engineer who used to have his own company, said. “The rate is not even enough to pay for the lift into work. A packet of decent cigarettes costs more than a day’s pay. A packet of nappies is one month! Is this fair? Even under Saddam, it was better than this.”

Yes, I think the Iraqis realise it's beyond British control, but it's not going to make them any happier, and this WILL foster lawlessness and the Black Market.

DOn't the Americans realise, that you can't treat a lot of these people like they're backward savages? A lot of these workers, are more qualified than most of us, and for that matter, Blair, Rumsfeld and certainly Bush.

Come on Gordon, you're going to have to find the shortfall. It's an excellent PR opportunity for britain, and would certainly make us some friends in the region.

The alternative of course, is NI in the sun......

 

[Line_Grunt]

two hopes of the tight fisted ****** handing out cash...and i think both of them are dead!!

 

[PartTimePongo]

Liney, you dont need a degree in rocket science, to see how the more vocal and seditious elements would use this...

Come on Gordon and Tony, get a grip, and INCREASE their money

Mind you, this is the same government that dicks Ghurkas....
Oh, and Bob is still going strong.....

 

[Albert_Tatlock]

PTP what's this dicking Gurkha's all about then?   From what I can see they are infact getting a good deal.   I wish my pension was going to be equal to or better than a proffesional salary in my own country.

 

[Line_Grunt]

A quote from Gen. Sir David Frasers book "August 1988" - it seems quite apt for the situation we find ourselves in with this current government.

"We've let evil come in quietly, in respectable clothes, speaking with soft accents. And a lot of decent people have been taken in.  At each step there was something to be said for it.  There was always a respectable arguement. "