'Patronising' booklet tells council staff to save money by selling unwanted dresses

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... esses.html

management live in a different world. on, in or about an orbit of the 4th rock from the sun
i love management they are there own worst enemies they just keep taking them pieces of silver

but sadly management are like plastic nodding dogs you see looking out of the rear window of a car
no matter what, they just keep nodding, unable to see the direction that they are heading (crash) ...

Some are simply incompetent. This is simply inept. The last thing that you do is tell staff what to do with their money. It is like financial planning unless you have a overall financial picture you cannot comment about how people live their lives.

We have book called "Make Do and Mend" which is a series if reprints of leaflets from WWII - it gives just this kind of advice, and no one deemed it patronising at the time. While I agree that the tone may be wrong, people are used to a certain way of living, and won't be able to tell when the well is in danger of running dry.

Yes but the circumstances of that leaflet were very different. Then there was a national emergency. Now we have a problem the result of bad government policies twenty years ago which created a banking crisis that took that long to implode. Hardly the same type of crisis. Now it is patronising.

It's only patronising if you're preaching to the converted. There's a lot of people in need of converting...

"Mend and Make Do" is the way I was brought up. Why? Because we weren't rich and we knew it. These days, people with no money seem to think it's right to borrow more than they can afford in order to furnish themselves with brand new goods they don't even need.

These days, you there's a also a green twist on the motto:

"Reuse, Repair, Recycle."

Absolutely - we are in a throwaway society. Mending something is not something people do - you chuck it and buy something new.



I was brought up like that too. Clothes were mended, some were even home made. We survived. Kids today don’t know they are born, etc..

Yes I will accept the green arguments, but top say this is how you should live because we are about to cut your pay is heartless to say the least. The problem is that many devices nowadays are not built to be repairable. Years ago you could buy replacement kettle elements for a kettle, not now. The recycling directive could be a lot tougher so that goods can have a much longer lifetime.

I’d say that it’s telling people that they need to look at a different way of living. Pay cuts will happen - but to do it without any form of advice on how to live with less is irresponsible. Society as a whole actually does need reeducating. Spending money on a sewing kit is money well spent. We mend clothes here rather than rush out and buy new ones.

One of Chairman Mao’s ideas was that a suit would last you nine years. The first three years it is for “best”. The next three years it can be used more for work, and regular use. The next three years it can be used as overalls as it will be tatty and need repairing. In reality, and with care, your suit could last you a lot longer. The thing is that we as a nation used to think like that, but we no longer do.

This year, we rescued a piece of furniture from a garden. It was being given away for free. People didn’t want it, and we had a need. We took it home, tidied it up and painted it. It’s not being a cupboard here. The amount of people who were horrified that we had done this is incredible. I like to remind such people that it saved us a good £50-£90 on buying such a thing new.



That depends if you are happy moving from the comfort zone of the Shopping Mall and homogenised high street. There are places which sell this kind of thing, and will even fit them for you. Sole worn out on a shoe? It’s cheaper to have a new sole put on than buying a new pair of shoes.

Maybe this is my bringing up coming to bear here. I know how to live cheaply. I think a lot of poeple have not been afforded that luxury.

That's only true if you have good quality expensive shoes. A cheap pair for £10 will usually last a year or two, which is less than the cost of a repair.

It's the availability of such cheap clothes and white goods which enables the disposable society. It's not a good thing on so many levels...

I can live very cheaply as well. I use cobblers as much as possible, as you say it is a lot cheaper. I also have a lot of things that others did not want. I buy my rice in bulk, and most of my food as well. I plan my meals so there is no waste, I have low energy light bulbs throughout the house. I still do not think that telling staff how to live their life is acceptable.

If you want to live cheaply insulate your house, shut doors, wear jumpers, turn down the central heating and turn into a rabid draught-hunter.

The waste from leaving one door open will usually dwarf the savings from using low-energy bulbs.


Sorry - couldn't resist.

I do all that and see if I can avoid putting the heating on at all. I think last year it was January before I put the heating on.