We certainly are 
But I can assure you that no one has left due to Mr Goble.
Mandy Davies - Mary Bamber ???
Re your allusion to my being the reason Mandy left SF, @Dan_WoodâŚ
I can assure you that I had a very affectionate personal message from Mandy after her decision to leave which contained no hint of blame of me, and which ended with a genuine wish for my future in France. Mandy and I had a good relationship over several years on SF, and communicated by PM at times, and our views were much more aligned than at variance. Our homes in UK were not far distant from each other, although we were not acquainted until we met through SF.
If she told you I was the cause of her leaving SF itâs not the message she left me with.
I am not (generally) prepared to publicly discuss why individuals leave or are removed - it doesnât seem fair as they are no longer here to participate - so you will just have to take my word for it that in neither of these cases was Peter a factor.
And I didnât appreciate the âempty apologiesâ comment. You might like to edit that. Thanks.
Some people will pick a fight with their toenails methinks. 
Next year I donât want to hear about the Oscar, Grammys, Tonys of Golden Globes. I donât want to see any pathetic actor, actress, singer, celebrity or sports person on a red carpet!!!
Next year I want to see nurses, doctors, ambulance teams, health workers, shop staff and truck drivers, all essential workers, supermarket workers who have free red carpet parties with prices and expensive goodie bags. If this doesnât happen it will be the greatest injustice ever!!
I donât want to see them having parties and presents, I want to see their value to society being recognised by fair rates of pay and working practises. Unfortunately despite the recent developments thatâs unlikely to happen under a Conservative government.
under any government more likely.
Until womenâs interests are better served by a government with parity of representation of those interests - more women in Parliament - there will be no change.
The health and care services are staffed disproportionately by women. Women bear the heaviest load, but their efforts are taken largely for granted. Caring is womensâ work, and their âdutyâ, rewarded by occasional âtreatsâ - a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates, a tender word, a round of applause.
An attitude reinforced by the press, and other âsocial commentatorsâ.
Hi Peter, when we are grateful for a service received it seems perfectly reasonable to show our gratitude by offering âtreatsâ as you describe them, usually something we think they will appreciate. I have done it myself on several occasions when either myself or a family member has received excellent care in hospital, even if the person has sadly died. Iâm not sure how this is very different form the âtreatsâ we give to refuse collectors, postal workers, fire fighters at Christmas (for example) or to house removers, gardeners, window cleaners etc all of whom are largely male.
I donât know anyone who thinks nursing/health care is only womenâs work and in these times when NHS staff/carers are putting there own lives at risk to help the public we should all be grateful to them.
This is entirely separate to the issue of what these people are paid and there is no doubt that NHS staff have been largely underpaid and undervalued by successive governments for a long long time. We can only hope this will change. In the meantime I will continue to give âtreatsâ to anyone whose service I appreciate.
Izzy x
But your treats are given as a personal gift to people who have shown kindness to you, not handed out by some faceless charity. I respectfully suggest that that is quite a different thing.
It was this sort of attitude that made me mention the Conservative party. They donât look so big or so clever now do they? How much were they allowed to claim for working from home during the a COVID-19 period?
I appreciate your moderate response, Izzy, and of course you are entirely free to give treats or âtipsâ to those who gain your favour for services rendered. I speak as a nurse if over 55 years experience when I say that traditionally nurses were forbidden to accept gifts, as it encouraged divisiveness, undermined team spirit, and raised issues of âfavours expected for favours renderedâ.
You wouldnât offer a police officer a treat, would you? Why not?
If I may politely correct your implied point above, I didnât claim that care is only womenâs work. But it is establishedš that women comprise 77% of the workorce, and a considerably higher percentange of front-line, hands-on or sharp-end workers, including skilled professionals, as well as being historically amongst the worst paid too.
I have always declined gifts, politely so as not to offend. One only has to say that âwe work as a team, and seeing your recovery, and having enjoyed your trust, is our richest reward. Thank you! â
š https://www.nhsemployers.org/case-studies-and-resources/2019/05/gender-in-the-nhs-infographic
Hi again Peter, these are your words and I was responding to them. Things may have been different when you were working but attitudes have changed and any âtreatsâ I have given in a hospital setting have been received in the spirit in which they have been offered.
Au contraire mon ami, I have seen many Police officers being given âtreatsâ recently, in these most unusual times, usually sweets and chocolates as they patrol on foot.
I think we may just have to disagree on this issue.
Izzy x
Yes David, quite disgraceful. They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
Izzy x
Hi Mike, Iâm not sure it is so different. The money is given by the general public as a collective form of gratitude and thanks. People who recognise what NHS workers are doing at this time for us all, they are treating the sick but also protecting the rest of us who are well and vunerable and frightened. I think itâs very touching.
Izzy x
My NHS experience doesnât quite go back 55 years but certainly from what I know from personal experience from the mid 1970s to date is that collective gifts from grateful patients or their families of chocolates, biscuits, cakes etc have always been grateful received & consumed by nursing & medical staff on the ward or department.
It would be better spent on a campaign to shame the government into paying them properly.
And what about firemen (firepersons). Nobody gives them goodies.
Thank you Nigel, I was beginning to wonder if my gifts (treats) were not as appreciated or welcomed as I had hoped they were.
Izzy x