kerry davies

It does for insurance purposes and, as Ian writes, from a HASAWA/duty of care perspective. It can be hard to get your head around but a "person at work" may be employed, self-employed or unpaid as far as HMRC is concerned yet be an employee for all other law. The AXA website states that EL covers; "Full-time and part-time employees, Self-employed contractors you hire, Temporary staff, apprentices and volunteers and People taking part in work experience or training schemes."

As a production/site manager I rarely employed casuals but I always held employer's liability insurance because in telling contractors how to work, where to run cables etc I was in place of an employer. I guess you would be in the same boat with S/E casuals whether they held their own public liability or not. You need to talk to a broker who knows our business if only to check whether insurance as a musician covers you as a PA hire business. As long as the casuals are really self-employed and you record their UTR and they issue you with proper invoices that is about it. When I did employ casuals I made sure they were fed, watered and rested but that should come naturally.

Places of worship and hospitals are exempt so Red is fine, see also sports clubs, TomHoward. iTom's burger van is also fine if he keeps a sleeping bag in a cupboard and claims it is a caravan Amateur sports clubs are exempt but so too are golf courses because MPs play golf and are corrupt. I do like the idea that my mates on narrow boats can use any amount of Red for generation when moored up but are supposed to use White for propulsion during their monthly 400 yard trundle to a new berth. What really makes a mockery of the environmental arguments for change is that bio-diesel is now taxed the same as DERV so all that work our industry led on to address the problems has been flushed down a non-composting toilet.

A few years back our local community copper was bemoaning the fact that he had been asked by the force to visit the local youth clubs and explain the knives legislation. "I goes down there and does my bit then Dad turns up in the pick-up laden with bill-hooks and chainsaws to take 'em hedging. Pointless, innit?"

This may seem counterintuitive but layering clothing to pad out a figure only really works to make people look chubby if the top layer is too small. Alexei Sayle was already a bit chubby in the face but the undersized suits he wore in The Young Ones did the job. Think Mr Toad or Mr Pickwick and it is the tight waistcoats that send the visual message. It is that "bulging out" look that works well.

Nothing can be certain Roger but the courses he seems to be taking are no more than those which he already needs, according to the book, when working on power in event production. He isn't expanding into a new area but qualifying himself to plug in lights to temporary power supplies according to IET standards. If he was claiming for car mechanic training they might, but only might, query it and his response would be; "generators, boyo." They really aren't bothered about we small fry. The only time in 20 years I had a query was when they lost my SA and tried to charge me £100 for late submission. One email later they sent me £100 for their error.

Plus several ticks for Alistage. The handrails can be fiddly but they make properly robust working steps. They were also just about the most friendly and helpful guys in the business and, for a fee, they will design all sorts of bespoke staging. There's a youth group in Bath say they have one for hire. There are umpteen firms flogging self-assembly kits from £600 up but what do you do with them then?

As long as the training is somehow related to your current business, which this evidently is, the costs are normally tax deductible. The word "normally" is in there as the standard HMRC get-out clause, they never ever say something definitely is or is not, so claim it.

Nightclub fire fatalities are becoming more frequent and since 2000 either stage or punter pyrotechnics have caused over 60% of them. Due to the uncertainty around cause that may be as high as 80% involving pyro FX of some kind. It used to be smoking related was a major cause. As for glass firebolts, the spares come in boxes of 20 and because you can open the lock without breaking the glass, stewarded evacs don't always break them. Students seem far less likely to smash a firebolt than an alarm glass, not sure why.

Ian, that post is over 4 years old and the link does not work. You may be on your own with this.

You have to admire their completely psychopathic confidence in that "we shall pull through" when if I had my way "we" would be banged up to contemplate the folly of handing out flares to an alcohol fuelled crowd of numpties.

David, just to confirm what Tom writes. Even the Cirque shows are created using a tiny skeleton crew then developed into automated repeatable mass productions. To quote what Debra Brown's PM said to me when just we two were doing the flying for C.O.K.E. "All aerial accidents are human error. I don't trust humans, but you I can just about tolerate."

Jake; be aware that you might be asking too broad a question of a forum inhabited by theatre technology professionals. Are you "interested" in it as a hobby or do you want to pursue a career? My advice to those who say career is simply "don't", it is too hard, too badly rewarded, the conditions are lousy and most people throw in the towel in their 30's in order to eat regularly/have a family/live somewhere other than a tour bus among other blokes socks (and worse!). If, like us, it is something a lot more than "wanting" then read the books, check out school and youth theatre, volunteer to clean lanterns, pay attention to the Hippy and use Blue Room search like an addict. This is an amazing resource with hundreds of topics on the most esoteric of questions and yours has been asked many, many times before. Whatever we respond here there have been dozens more different responses in the past.

Think it is the same Bill Hanley that is pictured above. Woodstock, Shea Stadium, Bill Graham's Fillmores and the Bloomfield/Butterfield/Dylan electric gig were just some of the notches on his fader. He was the US version of Charlie Watkins though younger. If still with us he would be 84.

Oh and what I wrote on the 10th didn't last a week, DEFRA has announced that they can't be bothered with UK REACH even though they created it and will now water down EU standards on toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. as well as delay things until 2025. Still no sign of an Inland Border Facility at Fishguard

As if by magic they have cancelled New Year's Day.

Written here before about a major city that had 60+young people driving minibuses full of children none of whom had a D1 driving licence but had been "tested" by a council driver. The police were not amused and the council insurance woman near fainted. Same council I found an annual festival that neighbourhood officers not only held licensable events but a bar because; "The park is council owned and we always do it this way." Me, I just love the online small claims system. E2A Just walk away politely, they may also have learned a big lesson and if they contact you again that will instantly be clear.

I feel stuck between Paul and Tom. This is a big learning experience for you and the first lesson is in setting your own personal boundaries before you get involved in anything with anyone. Having agreed to be involved you appear to have accepted roles that you should have steered well clear of and now feel obliged not to let people down. That isn't the case at all, you have been placed in an invidious position. I would talk openly, honestly and directly to the employer and demand (not ask for) answers. If you are running the bar, who is the personal licensee? Is there a premises licence? Is there insurance? How many jobs are you being paid for? What do they expect you to be responsible for and is that even feasible? If they are straight out of education they may not even realise what is involved or what they are asking of others. If then you have no satisfactory resolution, walk away. Forget reputation, they come and go. Most of us who are self employed get "the fear" of where the next job is coming from and yes, we do recover.

We have 3 weeks before a whole load of customs arrangements which were can-kicked a year ago come round again and rumour has it that some small firms haven't even bothered with it as they hope and expect it to be delayed ad infinitum until we rejoin. The Daily Express is upset that UK GDP continues to fall as EU GDP returns to 2018 levels. They are going to be despairing once they realise that the EU GDP has returned to a point when the UK and it's 66M people were still in the EU so is in effect a 13% increase since then.

... and as if by magic, George "Useless" Eustice announced on Wednesday that; This Brexit thing is somewhat beyond the REACH of this government.

Thanks John, will catch up later. I was sitting in a hospital car park today and the second of the four Reith Lectures on AI appeared on Radio 4. Worth a listen just to see how common or garden tech we already use can combine into a very personally targeted autonomous weapon for pennies. Very interesting but very scary.

They aren't EU bodies, Brian but were set up by EU Regulation, the latest being 1025/2012. The original intent was to set the same standards across the Single Market but, as you say they outgrew the EU. The problem from a UK PoV is that EU Regulation 1025/2012 is under the legislature of the ECJ which the UK government will not accept. Until last week they rejected outright any recognition of CEN, CENELEC or ESTI and were indeed "going it alone" on rejecting CE marks in favour of UKCA. BSI always knew this was impossible, a tiny nation like us cannot dictate to a global market, but this government promised it to the electorate. Now that BSI is able to remain a member of them, will continue to adopt "European" standards and thus recognises the ECJ if only passively where does that leave government? What happens on 01/01/2023? Is the CE mark still banned from the UK? If we are now recognising CEN etc is there any point in UKCA?

I have just found out that BSI is to remain a member of and chair committees on CEN and CENELEC and UK HMG will recognise both those bodies. There is no mention of the 2023 deadline for CE markings to become invalid or the implementation of UKCA and UKNI marking which is apparently in huge difficulties. As I am retired this is just a topic of interest but rather than "taking back control" and having a British regulatory body we might end up with two or more. Does anyone know anything?

Short answer? The profits and dividends have been privatised and the losses have been socialised. We pay higher bills AND higher taxes.

I disagree Adam. It is the responsibility of the armourer and first AD to ensure safety. Asking an actor to take that on when their concentration is on other things and their knowledge and skills are probably lacking is itself a risk. Recreational shooting is something else but in a state with the incredibly lax "open carry" and "assault weapons" laws a frailure to maintain complete isolation of set from environment is just stupid. I would hazard a guess that security were carrying weapons loaded with live ammo and the RA should have insisted on strict reduction and even stricter isolation. Again it smells of cutting corners on more than one aspect of the project and that has been alleged by IATSE.