Monday, June 04, 2012

Let Them Eat Cake

I have had an email from a colleague who assures me that the following is genuine:-
To achieve a viable catering service, it has been necessary to increase food tariffs within all MoJ sites. Tariff increases will come into effect from Monday 18th June 2012. Main restaurant areas serving food to the general public and HMCTS staff will incur a cost increase of 9.2%, juror restaurants 3.5%, and food delivered to judicial dining rooms will incur a 4.2 % increase.
 It's nice to know that judges, who mostly pull down north of £130,000 a year, have been hit with less than half of the increase faced by the lesser orders who toil in the Ministry. 


27 comments:

  1. On the other hand, have you ever eaten in a judges' dining room?

    Reminds me of 1970s school dinners...

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  2. Yes I have, often. At the CC where I sit, the judges appoint a fruit monitor each week to bring in some fresh Vitamin C, a move prompted by she appointment of a number of younger female judges.

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    1. So the post-prandial lassitude isn't scurvy then...

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  3. When I did jury service, we did not have to pay for our meals.
    I enjoyed the dinners at the school I went to.
    John Gibson
    Ps Are you being serious about the fruit monitor.

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  4. Fruit monitor? Why not employ someone to count the peas too?

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  5. It is only fair to point out that the discount afforded to HMCTS staff in these restaurants (which are also open to visitors to their buildings, but without any discount) has at the same time been increased from 15% to 20% to offset some at least of the impact of this hike in prices.

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  6. Isn't the whole notion of subsidised meals for staff just a little outmoded??

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  7. This means that the price increase for staff and the judiciary is the same in effect, at 4.2%. But then why let the little matter of a few facts get in the way of a good tale?

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  8. I am not sure about some of the maths - I make the increase for MOJ staff 2.8%.

    Sounds like a good Sir Humphrey letter - it looks like the civil servants are getting the worst deal and in fact they are getting the best deal.

    Re the fruit monitor - all it means is that the judges take it in turns to personally buy the fruit and bring it in - very sensible.

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  9. Apart from Jurors (who are only there a limited time) the others can go out to lunch. The Judges do not have this option. Also Justices sitting at CC have to pay the same costs as Judges and our measly allowance doesn't cover this at all. An example sandwich and a coffee £7!

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  10. At my home court we have a nice little snack bar (privately run) that is a great asset. A freshly made sandwich and a piece of fruit is under £2. Next door to the court is a Chinese restaurant that does a two-course lunch for £5.25, and very good it is too.

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  11. You have a 'nice little snack bar (privately run)'. Now your just boasting!! Us mear mortals in the shires have to trawl town centres for our lunch.

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  12. That's the case in two of the courts that I use regularly.

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    1. We used to have 'a nice little snack bar' apparently - it was closed before I transferred to my current court - I am sure there was no correlation in the two events!! . I have often thought about offering to open it up again as a little bit of private enterprise to supplement my meagre expense allowance...:-)

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  13. No doubt these increases will be taken into consideration when mags' expenses are next reviewed.

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  14. There is, of course, the option to bring your own lunch. It's what I have to do — no restaurants nearby, and not enough time to go somewhere else.

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  15. There's a wonderful snack bar just round the corner from my home court, run by the local "young homelessness project". They do fantastic dishes of the day, and salad packs that knock spots off anything you could get in one of the chain stores. There's a wide choice around our other courthouse too, including a good Chinese, which has alcohol free beer too, but as it's in a tourist Mecca, prices tend to be a bit higher. The judges' dining room in the Crown Court isn't bad, ''though the coffee is revolting! Prices are very reasonable. Fruit is included in the all-in price, and there are lean cuisine options for those who have the resolve.

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  16. The two significant figures shows that these people are clueless.

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    1. Not if they want the punters to infer that some highly complex, well-balanced, morally-debated, precedent-governed, nationally-considered arithmetic has been carefully and actuarily validated by those that run that bit of the civil service. By the way, they are that extremely rare thing: considerate and moral financial geniuses desperately finding compromises with everyone's benefit at heart. Aren't we lucky to have them looking after us ? When they actually are at work, that is.

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    2. Yes, about as clueless as the BBC commentators at a Diamond Jubliee pageant.

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  17. Percentage increases on their own, without some idea of the absolute cost of the items in these various eating establishments, are totally meaningless.
    This is just another example of the poor standard of numerical education in this country I suppose.

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  18. Now I understand that Judge's pay is never reduced, except when taxes are raised, thus is this deduction not a decrease in their wages and thus illegal?

    Or am I mixing up US and UK law?

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    1. You are not correct. Their salaries remain the same, regardless of what happens to any food costs.

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  19. On something totally unrelated--------- it seems people fiddling tax credits are to be dealt with summarily if the fiddle involves less than £20k. If that is right one wonders why all offences relating to money or dishonesty aren't dealt with similarly.

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  20. When I worked in a newly opened courthouse the canteen, open to staff and customers was great - no subsidy for staff though. After 3-4 years the contract was re-tendered to a obviously cheaper bidder. Boy could you tell - prices went up, quality went down and the number of people using it dropped through the floor. Now when I have occasion to visit the same building the only people who appear to be suing it are luckless defendants whose bail hasn't been extended past the front door over lunch.

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Posts are pre-moderated. Please bear with us if this takes a little time, but the number of bores and obsessives was getting out of hand, as were the fake comments advertising rubbish.