the gangsters win because the state is corrupt ....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

why it is, and how it became so, are sensitive questions, but there can be little doubt that it is ...

try this for size

[amateur51]

There are some excellent thoughtful comments after this article. Having just been put through a not inconsiderable mill to justify my continued life on disability benefits I have considerable sympathy for the respondent who suggests that we should sort out these fat cats before we start on people who have highly developed budgetting skills as a result of living on benefits. Well done PAC once again!

[pastoralguy]

I honestly feel that, for the tiny minority that are both given opportunity and are brass necked enough, it's simply a case of looting the country for what they can get before it all falls apart.

If a teenage girl can be jailed for stealing a bottle of water, as happened during the riots two years ago, then why can these people not be jailed for these crimes?

[jayne lee wilson]

There are some excellent thoughtful comments after this article. Having just been put through a not inconsiderable mill to justify my continued life on disability benefits I have considerable sympathy for the respondent who suggests that we should sort out these fat cats before we start on people who have highly developed budgetting skills as a result of living on benefits. Well done PAC once again!

Oh Ams, I am sorry to hear that... I think the system is designed to crush souls rather than care for them.

It's the poisoned gift that keeps on giving, this storyline, isn't it? How did public servants, supposedly honoured to serve, arrive at this? Was it Thatcherite individualism, that placed status and success in the foreground, a sense of entitlement to every "benefit" that a similarly self-interested administrative tier could offer them? So that becoming an MP is just another step on the ladder to a more Premier League job when you leave.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Well I'm still a tolerably active public servant, albeit in local not national gov't

Can someone please give me urgent directions to whichever station this gravy-train is currently standing at?




Seriously, I'm appalled too. I'll do very well to get one year of her pension in the whole of my retirement.

[amateur51]

I honestly feel that, for the tiny minority that are both given opportunity and are brass necked enough, it's simply a case of looting the country for what they can get before it all falls apart.

If a teenage girl can be jailed for stealing a bottle of water, as happened during the riots two years ago, then why can these people not be jailed for these crimes?

And jailed in specially convened courts at a great erate of knots, I recall. It makes me puke

[amateur51]

Oh Ams, I am sorry to hear that... I think the system is designed to crush souls rather than care for them.

It's the poisoned gift that keeps on giving, this storyline, isn't it? How did public servants, supposedly honoured to serve, arrive at this? Was it Thatcherite individualism, that placed status and success in the foreground, a sense of entitlement to every "benefit" that a similarly self-interested administrative tier could offer them? So that becoming an MP is just another step on the ladder to a more Premier League job when you leave.

I think it's Thatcher + Blair = corrupt state, jlw.

It was Blair who developed a culture of doing things on the nod on the sofa, no civil servant to take a file note; lots of consultants and special advisers, in & out before you can say knife or hanging around like a bad "I can do that" smell.

[amateur51]

Well I'm still a tolerably active public servant, albeit in local not national gov't

Can someone please give me urgent directions to whichever station this gravy-train is currently standing at?




Seriously, I'm appalled too. I'll do very well to get one year of her pension in the whole of my retirement.

Does anyone know why it's a gravy-train? As in derivation? You're quite right LMP - yet another one who'll be living a life totally cut off from the rest of society by her grotesquely elevated pension fund.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Does anyone know why it's a gravy-train? As in derivation? You're quite right LMP - yet another one who'll be living a life totally cut off from the rest of society by her grotesquely elevated pension fund.

am: my large Cassell Dictionary of Slang simply records it as American slang from the 1920s, with a fuller version: "ride the gravy train". Given definitions include "a sinecure" and, for the latter phrase, "to obtain an easy financial success". Surprisingly, nowhere is there any suggestion of corruption, political or otherwise.

[amateur51]

am: my large Cassell Dictionary of Slang simply records it as American slang from the 1920s, with a fuller version: "ride the gravy train". Given definitions include "a sinecure" and, for the latter phrase, "to obtain an easy financial success". Surprisingly, nowhere is there any suggestion of corruption, political or otherwise.

I could understand if the gravy bit is a reference to the meaty drippings that often go into a rich gravy but why the train bit? Gravy is both rich and largely free (and delicious) but why in a train?

[LeMartinPecheur]

This http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question4023.html has as good suggestions as I can find. In the end, it just seems to be a memorable phrase someone thunk up a long time ago!

[amateur51]

This http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question4023.html has as good suggestions as I can find. In the end, it just seems to be a memorable phrase someone thunk up a long time ago!

Many thanks LMP - I'm strangely hungry now

[jean]

It's always worth reading what Michael Quinion has to say:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gra4.htm

[ahinton]

Gravy trains have literal credibility as such only when the railway network concerned and all trains that run on it are under private ownership.

[eighthobstruction]

Gravy trains have literal credibility as such only when the railway network concerned and all trains that run on it are under private ownership.

Eh??

I've only just caught up with story early in this new day....Yet another Baby-Boomer Rip Off....Herewith some more detailed info re situation at SFO (the SFO!! FFS)....

http://www.sfo.gov.uk/media/242368/r...tim_hurdle.pdf....It is the official report by Tim Hurdle into this....It's not such a long read....it confirms that the Attorney Generals Office was little consulted and concludes :

>>>"Richard Alderman's response to me also confirms that he did not discuss or liase with anyone on his decision to offer voluntary redundancy to CB or PW. His justification stems from his view that informing AGO, yourself or others would lead to the info being leaked to the press, thus causing maximum difficulty for the SFO"<<

....Goodness me!!