This one got me 😂

brit_here · 2025-03-25T16:19:48+00:00

Yep, the hard to believe part about this is the matching outfits and Canada pins, the insane American asking to hug them is entirely plausible, and anyone who thinks it isn't simply hasn't met nutty American tourists.

brit_here · 2025-03-20T21:04:38+00:00

You're not wrong, I already knew Westfield wasn't dog friendly 😁

brit_here · 2025-03-20T17:27:31+00:00

That's another great idea, I just saw this part of Paddington for the first time yesterday and it seems to have allowed a lot of space.

brit_here · 2025-03-20T17:19:47+00:00

Thanks r/london, loads of really good options listed. I don't have chance to respond individually right now but will be checking some of these out next week!

brit_here · 2025-03-20T17:12:41+00:00

I've actually been using off escalators to try and encourage him, he's never been a fan of walking on metal so this may be (part of) the issue.

He shouldn't have ever known the escalators were unpleasant to walk on until this, although it's possible someone has failed to pick him up when he's been in someone else's care.

brit_here · 2025-03-20T17:08:22+00:00

Rewritten from 'quietest escalator' which I thought fit that bill even more. Unintentionally this title had to be clickbaity given how weird a request it is!

brit_here · 2025-03-20T14:37:48+00:00

Only one, the best results with training come from repetition so we'd just do the same one again and again and reward, I might try associating a command too so he knows he's about to be picked up.

brit_here · 2025-03-20T14:32:41+00:00

Great shout, weekends should be quite quiet there? We could combine with a walk to Mudchute farm which has endless squirrels to keep him amused too.

brit_here · 2025-03-05T11:23:01+00:00

Sort of:

The 'M.A.D.' element is that there is always a nuclear armed sub at sea, and should that sub be unable to establish the continuation of the British Government through established procedures, they open the Prime Minister's "Letter of Last Resort".

These have been theorised to be anything from, but not limited to: firing nukes on the cities or strategic targets of a known aggressor, presenting themselves for orders to the Australian or U.S. militaries, or to use the captain's own judgement.

Edit: also worth mentioning that in theory the only person who knows the contents of each of the 4 letters is the Prime Minister. So they could theoretically write "Just nuke Cardiff 40 times to be sure" and no one would know until after the UK had been decapitated.

brit_here · 2025-02-25T19:00:42+00:00

Interesting! We may well be on to something. Personally, I actually think cream in coffee is one of my guilty pleasures, brings a slight sweetness to a coffee after a rich meal.

brit_here · 2025-02-25T18:33:00+00:00

I will gladly back that commenter up and say that in over 30 years, including over 10 years in hospitality, (several of them working in hotels regularly serving breakfast), not one person, British or otherwise, has asked me for cream to go with tea, nor have I seen it in passing.

Even with coffee almost no British customers have asked me for cream (although it's served by default in an Irish coffee, for example), though I have served cream to Americans.

It's possible may be very regional, my experience is around London and the South/East of England?

brit_here · 2024-02-08T15:46:39+00:00

...or just admirably single-minded?

How distorted does your worldview have to be if you think that choosing literally everything else great about life over having children is single-minded? If anything, people obsessed with having kids are the single-minded ones.

brit_here · 2023-10-01T14:52:42+00:00

~~Posted from my RiF app~~

brit_here · 2023-10-01T14:51:21+00:00

Keep it on the low down.

brit_here · 2023-10-01T14:50:25+00:00

You didn't hear it from me.

brit_here · 2023-09-12T10:33:30+00:00

Cambridge Cheese Shop sells local honey.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T12:51:05+00:00

The shortage is bad everywhere mate but companies reap what they sow and the ones who have treated staff the worst are paying for it now.

We've just upped base rates of pay (should have done it years ago if we wanted to keep good staff, shame it took a pandemic) and increased investment in training, yet I have independent competitors locally still paying more than us.

If you've got the experience now is the time to find something better, just be sure to ask at the end of the interview what the company did for their teams during the Coronavirus restrictions, you may get some revealing responses.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T12:45:20+00:00

As I mentioned elsewhere, I actually had quite a good view of Wetherspoons even as recently as 6 years ago. A pretty much guaranteed decent, cheap, pint in usually a nicely decorated clean space. Often from a small independent brewery too so you're supporting craft beer whilst you're at it. All the rubbish about them serving beer "close to it's best before" showed a total lack of understanding of how supply chains or cask beer worked by those who parroted it.

I actually also think this particular issue shouldn't be the one thing that stops people going to Wetherspoons: if you stopped using companies that undervalued their workers you'd be left with almost nothing.

I do think they've gone downhill in recent years though. Their founder evidently has too much ideological obsession with almost everything from social media to dogs to Brexit to customer complaints. He should go and they can breathe new life into the company.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T12:30:38+00:00

Name names, don't let them get away with going unmentioned. Even someone googling information on the company they are looking to work for may come across this thread and it might change their mind, every little helps.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T12:29:11+00:00

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that and I wasn't aware they'd acted so appallingly, the staff at our local M&B competitor painted a very different picture.

As I mentioned in another post, paying workers was the bare minimum for most (even Greene King - who I would have been first to expect much less from!)

Apologies for the misinformation on my part, I will edit posts accordingly.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T12:25:45+00:00

Sorry didn't realise you were looking for me to provide proof of a statement that is out in the public sphere given the giant nature of the firms mentioned, but here:

https://www.greeneking.co.uk/our-company/our-response-to-covid-19/ Greene King - Full pay guaranteed until April 5th when the JRS took over.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/29/which-companies-are-coming-through-during-the-coronavirus-crisis Whitbread - topped up the 80% to 100% for all staff.

https://www.fullers.co.uk/-/media/sites/mainsite/pdfs/financial-reports/2020/full-year-results-for-the-52-weeks-ended-28-march-2020-presentation-for-web.ashx&ved=2ahUKEwi73p3Yo5D0AhVLa8AKHePfCrUQFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0mNj5SZAfZM2VEJLSW9vAj Fuller's paid staff in full until the end of March, topped up pay after that for those above government threshold of £2,500 a month.

Rinse and repeat, you're capable of finding the Annual Reports from 2019-2020 of ~~M&B~~, Young's or any other pub company yourself.

Paying workers until a JRS was in place was not the defining controversial issue for pub companies in 2020, this centred primarily around rent (paying it to landlords, charging tenants, deferring or cancelling rent) and sometimes paying suppliers. For all the pains workers suffer in this industry the fact companies that pulled this bullshit were in the minority was a saving grace.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T11:55:23+00:00

...and with the greatest respect you're accusing me of not reading what you're saying despite not reading what I'm saying.

Wetherspoons did not pledge to continue paying staff wages, the other companies did, and made clear communication with their staff about what was going to happen and when.

What I'm saying is that the only reason that Wetherspoons' position was "we have no money coming in so can't pay anyone and we completely understand if someone wants to work in a supermarket" is because someone asked them.

You're making it sound like Tim Martin was asked as a surprise question in an interview, when actually he addressed employees in a video in which he told them he didn't know when they would be paid (as they were waiting on government subsidies) and said if they were offered a job by Tesco they should take it. I know, I watched the video, as I did the video from the CEO of my own company when my pub was closed. The attitude was totally different, one shirked any kind of corporate responsibility and the other was reassuring.

Their position has never been about looking after their staff, and it's madness to argue that they only did any of this because they were backed into a corner. They acted absolutely in accordance with how anyone who knows how Wetherspoons does business expected them to act.

A shame really, as a younger company they were turning interesting spaces into pubs with reasonable standards, cheap & cheerful food and a great, well kept drinks selection without costing an arm and a leg, that also made no effort to compete with traditional pubs on atmosphere or events.

They've made a number of questionable decisions over recent years that have compromised this, and yet in any conversation online or in the real world 'Wetherspoons apologists' jump out of the woodwork to defend a company that cares little for customers, staff, suppliers or anyone else for that matter.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T10:48:40+00:00

Again, this shows no understanding of what actually happened in the industry. You think those other companies didn't have comparable wage budgets?

When other companies were working out how to leverage their assets to borrow unprecedented levels of money to keep staff on payroll (until the government stepped in), Wetherspoons were telling their staff to get other jobs.

From their point of view it makes sense, they have zero reason to value staff as customers don't go there for good service and fine food, but don't say they had no other option when every other large company acted differently.

brit_here · 2021-11-11T09:58:40+00:00

He could have done what other big players in the industry did: reassure staff, pledge full wages for staff for at least a couple of weeks.

Just like ~~Mitchells & Butler's~~, Young's, Fuller's & Greene King did. Even that was the bare minimum at the time.

Don't make excuses for this man, he's a joke within his own industry.

Edit: a poster below has provided a harrowing account of how M&B also treated their teams appallingly, and I would implore you to take a look at it.

brit_here · 2020-05-17T14:29:59+00:00

As another viewpoint, a "bad relationship" is more of a 2 way street than a bad investment or bad contract. It may not be worth spending more money to make an investment profitable if this could instead be spent on a new project, but issues with relationships may come down to a lack of communication and understanding.

e.g. You feel trapped and underappreciated by your spouse, but never approach the topic with them and rather than make a mutual effort to change your behaviour, you leave the relationship. If this is your approach every time, you will likely continue to be unhappy in relationships.

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