Now Is the summer/autumn/winter of our discontent

And I’ve got a season ticket , golf membership and carp ticket to pay

 

Most average people? Apart from the fact that 'most average people' are just ignorant non-thinking mass media consumers, that's hardly a valid opinion.

And why is that?

There are plenty of much harder working people getting paid far-far less, doing far more important jobs (again depending on one's viewpoint and personal needs at the time), but that is not the point is it.

But do they? Who is to say? Are you the judge of people's monetary worth?

Life by it's nature is unfair, there have always been people taking a 'bigger share of the pie' than others, either by force or by deception. It's sad but one cannot focus on that or you are just crippled from having any kind of happy, productive life because you're always looking at yourself and comparing. That does not end well, don't ask me how I know.

 

I know I should read the rest of the thread, but a couple of points first 1. The RMT who have been striking represents rail workers, ASLEF represents train drivers. However, it suited the Telegraph/Express/Mail to focus on drivers wages. Funny that. 2. my daughters boyfriends' father is a barrister. He gets £200 per case for LegalAid work, however long the case, however many times he goes to court. He is not wealthy, he has a family to support, and has no choice over this work. The Government has not reviewed the payments for 10 years+. Yes there are barristers (mostly QCs) who earn a fortune, but the majority are no different to you are or I and are trying to survive in a world where our Government appears to absolved itself of all responsibility for the crisis we are walking into. That's where the focus should be, not on the average Joe/Josephine.

 

As I understand it this is a very specific segment of the legal profession ... being paid much less per hour, once outgoings are taken into account, than the headline £70,000 p/a mob.
It's also been rumbling along for several years, with "real terms" pay dropping by 28% since 2006 .... In other words it has steadily been getting more difficult for those with the moral rectitude to choose to work in "the public sector" to stay the course.
Statistics are always "massageable" and interpretable, but apparently the "median" nett pay for a junior criminal lawyer is under £13,000 .......?

 

So how many oil services can you do in a day ? How many certificates? Even your day rate probably puts your earnings similar to a 3 year experienced legal aid barrister, and I would suggest that their overheads are considerably more than yours. Presumably also you have been in paid employment during and post your apprenticeship. A barrister, having completed their degree ,professional exams and pupillage does not usually start “earning” until age 25. Lots of catching up , hence why it was generally a profession that only the independently wealthy could enter.

 

Normally three a day, four at a push, but that’s almost unheard of as due to their nature oil boilers tend to be in villages that means lots of travelling.

How are their overheads considerably more than mine? I put 5k of diesel alone in my van last year. More like 7k this year. Last week I paid £1000 to resit my gas exams, plus lost a weeks earnings whilst doing it. Same next year for my oil exams. They only last five years. I needed a new gas analyser last year, that was £600. 3Million public liability insure. Tools etc etc.

My earning probably are around a three year legal barrister. But I also did more than five years training to get qualified in gas with continuous on going assessment and I’m not going on strike and pleading poverty and I.

 

This has been an amazingly enlightening thread. It comes to something when I come on here and advocate that the poorest public sector workers in our society should be prioritised over those that are already earning above average wages and I get jumped on by the hard line left wing Labour supporters . Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I’m the one on here that holds the truest Socialist values.

Is this what we can expect from the next Labour government? Screw the nurses and the firemen. Up the big wig barristers. Are you sure you lot aren’t all tories? I’m glad I’m on here to bring a bit of old fashioned socialist values to the forum.

up the workers. Down with the big wigs.

 

Now do some research and see what a barrister's expenses look like for travelling. Then clerk's fees and chambers rent. Their overheads are huge. Reading is education.

 

When you say travelling. I assume you mean in a car or on a train, you know like the rest of us? I’m guessing they stay in hotels, or god forbid a travel lodge like I do when I’m working away.
Unless of course their travelling expenses are for chauffeur driven cars and staying at the Ritz.

 

I'd go on strike if I were you.

 

We are all workers. When the papers/Government feed us misinformation to make us turn on each other, it's called divide and rule. Labelling those who disagree with you as hard line left wingers doesn't help your case. Read the posts, research what you are being told, and make up your own opinion based on facts and the experiences of fellow posters, rather than Daily Express editorials.

 

You make me laugh. lol
You spout Tory headlines and Tory attitudes while claiming to represent socialist values.

 

There was a guy in Germany who also called himself a Socialist a while back

 

Hang on. Aren’t you the one who said people shouldn’t be allowed to make their minds up who they vote for but should only vote one way their whole lives?

 

I am not a barrister, was a solicitor. But I have a pretty good knowledge of barristers chambers even before the tightening of Legal aid as my ex was a barristers clerk ( basically their agent ) for 20+ years.
Expenses eg.
1.A proportion of the cost of their chambers rent , service charge, and utilities.generally high as most chambers are in city centres.Wages of staff in chambers

2. Petrol and car parking charges to travel to court, Many I knew would travel Liverpool to, Carlisle, Chester, Southport ,on a daily basis, certainly would surpass your diesel expense figure
3. Continuous Professional development courses…..compulsory and very expensive.
4. Cost of chambers clerk, nowadays most clerks are on a salary, my ex was on a % of each barristers income.
5. Professional negligence insurance. Very very expensive. I have no figures but my solicitors practice which had a clean record was paying £18k a year premium, and that was regarded as cheap.
6 . Suits and clothing, those daft wigs are £500+

I appreciate you did 5 years training…..but you were being paid a reasonable wage I would expect, even at £20k p.a that puts you ahead by £100k on day one of the barrister starting to earn ( about 15k average )

 

I’ve never actually bought a copy of the express or the mail. But I’d guess they aren’t saying pay the nurses and the cleaners more before you pay the train drivers and the barristers more. Like I am. A true socialist.

 

Doesn't that just go to show how well Boris' and the blue top press' campaign of misinformation has worked? Sorry 'alternative facts'.

 

Thomas Tuckel?