Sad news - no Blackburn Mullards any more..

[hifi_dave]

I'm confused, even more than normal.

Was this the company that started making new designs of tubes just recently ?

One of the reasons that this once great country is going down the toilet rapidly, is that we don't manufacture anything anymore. We have nothing to sell and the Government has no interest in helping companies to get started again. What about opening up the pits once more ? This wll get thousands of men back to work instead of giving them benefits and save a fortune now spent on buying in coal from Poland.

Oh, don't get me started.....

[REM]

I'm confused, even more than normal.

Was this the company that started making new designs of tubes just recently ?

..... What about opening up the pits once more ? This wll get thousands of men back to work instead of giving them benefits and save a fortune now spent on buying in coal from Poland.

Oh, don't get me started.....

Hi Dave

As I understand it MicroSystems has gone tits up, I think they are TubeTechs' parent company so at the moment it looks bad for T/T. Great shame really if they had a bit more time to get established and secure some proper overseas distribution there may have been a rosy future as a hi-end supplier to the audio and pro-music markets. Instead we've got J. Straw with his platitudes and mealy mouthed worthless words and then another hundred or so families facing an uncertain future.
I happen to think that TubeTech have a potentially fantastic product and all it would take is a little forward thinking and imaginative political intervention to help get the ball rolling, chances of that happening, well I'd rather put my money on the proverbial pussycat in hell.
It seems that heritage, expertise and innovation count for nothing when you can buy stuff in from Asia Inc for next to no money, trouble is that is usually all it is worth but who cares these days?

PS The pits?? That bloody Thatcher woman finished them off for good, geology dictates that once a pit is closed, it's closed for good. That also means that we will now find it impossible to access the estimated 300 years worth of coal resources should the strategic need arise, good planning that.

[DaveK]

Back in 1973, you needed A levels - two B's and a C - to enter medicine. I understand it's at least three grade "A's" AT LEAST now...... I hope these extremely clever students have grade "A" life skills too!!!!!!!!!

Hi Dave,
Hope your quest to get back into education is successful but .....
a friend of mine took the same option when he was made redundant a few years ago and I don't have any reason to believe things have got better (my daughter is a teacher (Asst. Head actually) in the midlands). One particular Science teacher told him that he had given up trying to teach some classes and looked to his Teaching Assistant to help him maintain discipline - a lesson without discipline problems was regarded as a successful lesson - where is that education system going to get the country? - I despair!!
They say that a cynic is someone who looks both ways when crossing a one way street - under that definition I plead guilty, but I suspect that the medical schools have not raised their standards but rather the examination boards have lowered theirs. My 'inside' source of information definitely thinks so. All the medical schools are trying to do is ensure that the money spent on training Doctors is not wasted on the less able, IMHO, trying to 'skim the cream' such as it is with our education system.
Disgruntled 'Victor' of Sheffield.

[bacobits]

Damn, that's too bad.
I had been following what and when their offerings were going to be available.

hifi_dave,
"One of the reasons that this once great country is going down the toilet rapidly, is that we don't manufacture anything anymore. We have nothing to sell and the Government has no interest in helping companies to get started again."


Yup, agree, exactly the same here in the US.
WTF are we going to do?

[DSJR]

DaveK - AlexM and I are very fortunate to be living in the "cozy duvet" county where, even in Ipswich, the vibe is slower and more "sixties retro." - if you disbelieve me Alex, go and live in Luton or Bedford for a few years - Ipswich is wonderful by comparison!!!!! In "my" area, the kids are usually pretty good on the whole, the schools are pretty good (on the whole) and the schools I work at are very keen to raise standards, especially the High School, where the young and infectiously dynamic new head is determined to make the existing school (and the two-schools-joined-up new-build we HOPE to have soon) an outstanding one and is keen to attract staff from all backgrounds, encouraging career progression..

I have high hopes, although the three extra hours I've been given, starting today (eight and a quarter paid hours per week - wow!!!!!) will be deducted from the JSA payment

[REM]

Hi Dave

As you're working with kids may I offer some advice, always and I mean always have a witness

Cheers

[DSJR]

Taken on board and thanks for the reminder - discussed this week regarding my cover-supervision role as it develops. Pupils with special needs often want help on a one-to-one basis and concerns have been raised as the learning-support centre is in a separate sub-block and it's often necessary to have the doors shut in this little facility. This is being re-considered............

[Alex_UK]

...even in Ipswich, the vibe is slower and more "sixties retro." - if you disbelieve me Alex, go and live in Luton or Bedford for a few years - Ipswich is wonderful by comparison!!!!!

Well I did move here from good old Norfolk, or as I like to call it, the "cul-de-sac of Britain" - Ipswich is so fast paced in comparison! But, I did live in North London and commute into the City for a while, so I am acutely aware how lucky I am! Sounds like your Head is forward thinking and full of enthusiasm - let's hope that continues, I'll not get on my high-horse, but sounds like he's doing the right thing.

[DSJR]

I hope you don't have to do this, but once or twice a year, we have to go to visit family in Beds. God, what a dump of a county - dirty, characterless, dusty and, well, poluted... Fleeing back down the A14 causes much relief once the Suffolk border is finally passed (for the second time ). Once the Orwell Bridge is traversed we really feel we're "home."

Sadly, I don't think there are any old radio and TV shops left in our area any more. Central Services in Ipswich are great TV repairers, but can only get new valves. the other big TV dealer (Matthews) has an external service engineer I think (or is that only for B&O?).