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I think a newly qualified teacher should be on a salary higher than what a newly qualified tradesman is earning, only because the teachers education standard are so much higher (or should be) but my gut feeling is is that teachers earn much less than what those with the equivalent qualifications earn. 

I was listening to their representative on LBC radio this morning one of their gripes is, Is that Uber (and I like millions of other Londoners had never heard of them until today) were avoiding tax, coming from black taxi trade, its a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. All industries regardless of their history change and they have to change to the modern world, most of us don't like change, just like the London underground tube drivers don't like driverless trains. Driverless trains are on the way, in fact the Docklands railway is just that. My industry has changed probably more than most. Years ago you got your city and guilds and away you went, nowadays your retested every 5 years, we didn't like it but we had to do it. What also makes me laugh about the black taxi trade is, although they have done the knowledge which granted is difficult to complete, the majority of cab drivers now use sat navs. What their gripe is really about is that their going to have to work harder for their money. As to whether their strike effected me, no I was at home mowing the lawn

I think Steve goes everywhere in one! Personally I've never had the need for one and if I turned up to a customers house to give a quote in one, I probably wouldn't get the job....

The funny thing is, the customer is carefully wording emails now suggesting that should anything be wrong with the dimensions it will be down to me. But being one step ahead I never gave him any dimensions from the outset, I just gave him a copy of the manufacturers technical specification, unfortunately for him he decided to read the wrong product page even though he specified he wanted the top of the range product. It also gets better, because this is to do with new Green deal scheme, the customer has got it in his head that he'll be getting a cash payment form his energy company of around £900 per year, when I queried this with manufacturer they said he'll be lucky more like £150, in fact they were even more confused about what payments were realistic via the Green deal scheme. So if their confused how the heck is the installer suppose to provide accurate information? This is one of those jobs I wish I never got involved with.....

A boiler manufacturer asked me to go and give a potential customer a quote for a new heating system and solar panels. The customer lives 40 miles away, of I go and visit him, carried out the heat loss calculations for him, told him the size of the boiler and emailed him a quotation based on what he wanted. Three months later he contacts the boiler manufacturer and asks where's the quotation? Having rechecked his email address I resent it, another 4 months later he contacts the boiler manufacturer again, by which time because I haven't heard anything have deleted the quote. I then get asked if I would revisit the property, not to pleased I agreed. I told him what we could fit with the space he had available.

I told him we could fit 3 panels and a 330ltr thermal storage unit, he then went away and did some research and came back and said he wanted 4 panels and a 450ltr thermal storage unit, I said it wouldn't fit, he said he'd doubled check the measurements and that it would. This boiler weighs empty 500kg so half a flipping ton and we're suppose to be fitting it in a 3 bed semi I kept telling him it's not going to fit, but he was adamant that it would. I then took a deposit of £8k before I placed the order with the manufacturers. They've now been paid and the order is ready for dispatch this Thursday, customer has now emailed me this evening and said he was reading the wrong information on the manufacturers website and it won't fit. So now I'm going to have to waste my time talking to the manufacturer to amend the order.... So if anyone wants half a ton of metal in their kitchen let me know as I know where one is going cheap....

Well the Sun, will be paying the Post Office a heap load of money to have the paper delivered, the Post Office in turn pays it workers to do a days work. Where do you draw a line on morals? I'm sure there are plenty of unemployed people who would quite happily deliver it.

I'm not sure that by naming and shaming businesses actually helps the situation. Just done a search on one of the businesses, they only set up 2 years ago and owe a worker less than £300. Ok they should not have done so, but words of advice from the powers that be would probably been enough. Instead they have been financially penalised, they've also got more web presence now, than what they could ever of dreamed about having.

Strangely HMRC fails to name and shame the largest businesses involved because it feels it needs to protect taxpayers confidentiality. Either name and shame everyone or name no one and have a level playing field. I've never paid the minimum wage to anyone simply because everyone regardless of what they do earns well in excess of it. In London we also have the 'London living wage' which is set out by the Greater London Authority i.e. Boris Johnson, it is currently set at £8.80 per hour or £70.40 a day based on a 40hr week, although not law, it is the recommended wage for low paid workers in London. Now that's fine if your daily turn over covers that amount, if it doesn't then there is one more person on benefits and for many if they put their rates up to cover the additional costs, then their find they will have no business.....  

Paid £1.33 at Asda's this morning...

I tend to roll breakfast, lunch and tea all in to one around 8pm at night... Worse thing you can do I know, but that is the reality of it... Sometimes I wish I had a desk to off...

Can only go by experience, my old site has 20 trillion zillion links, no telephone calls, plenty of spam emails and nowhere to be found on Google. New site up and running 18 months not one link building  done at all, very little spam, constant phone enquiries and I couldn't ask for a better position in the search engines...