You only have to tie it once - then you can just loosen it off to take it off, replace around the collar when needed & then pull tight. Might need to refresh the knot after a year or so! 
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Also not that I wear one for cadets, but the clip on tie from Viper has a decent enough Windsor knot.
Perhaps we should move to this under H&S grounds?
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When I do wear uniform (not since Covid) I always wear a clip on lol
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I tie it fresh every day, i just use a different knot, which looks outwardly identical.
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Hazards of the jobā¦
Iām really pleased to hear NCS is closing down.
I spent several periods over a decade in time working on the programme. Itās not an effective set-up and it costs a good amount of money that could go elsewhere and be more effective for youth interventions.
Certainly donāt regret working on the programmes - it was a lot of fun - but I can count on one hand the amount of young people whose life it changed.
I did rather enjoying writing a snotogram to David Cameron on LinkedIn though, given his laughable comments on the topic.
A well meaning project created with magic wand thinking so poorly & ineffectively executed.
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Sums it up nicely. All designed by the big DC when he was going through his pig fuā¦ hug a hoodie phase.
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Think thatās a little unfair as I think he genuinely cared - but complete lack of understanding of how things are executed in reality.
Itās a bit like when we use to make fun of George W Bush & didnāt realise how lucky we here.
I empathise with his emotion, A scheme that he originated to benefit & help young people and the wider society is being shut down with no replacement.
Itās needing someone to kindly tell him ālook David you did it for all the right reasons but it just didnāt workā
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Iāve got mixed feelings about the closure of NCS. It was really expensive for what it was. But it did witness some really good outcomes for a handful of young peopleā¦ Albeit, they were in the minority. For most it was - for those first few years - a really cheap three week babysitting service - occupying that gap between the end of the GCSE and the start of the next chapter.
Arguably, investment in preexisting youth provision who already knew the young people in their area, could well have yielded better results; particularly around social cohesion and community pride and investment. Additionally, investing at that level couldāve seen a stay of execution for many of the Council run youth services.
But instead it got outsourced to regional providers who took their cut, then trickle down economics to local provision.
In summer 2023 we saw 3 x 3 day programmes delivered over a two week period for just 30 young people per course. No SEN. No YJST. No CIN or CP offers. No Care Experienced Young people. No Turnaround Families young people. Just those who had the finance available - and parental support - to quickly book a place - hardly the flagship of inclusivity and social mobility it once was.
Itās interesting to see David pointing the finger at Labour for shutting down the programme though. The NAO reports into mismanagement, lack of governance and accountability and poor funding models were very tellingā¦ And David was at point Chairman of the NCS Trust for a significant chunk of this!! And it was a Conservative Government which reduced the funding by 70% over 4 years - yet somehow expected comparable outcomes!
Over the last few years our local NCS programmes were scaled back further and further - over seen by a Conservative administration - to the point where they became largely laughable; one of my schools refused to have them in unless they could match the demand for places - rather than create an additional divide between then āhavesā and then āhave notsā.
Having said that, Iām still in touch with some of my client based from those early days. And for some it genuinely was a life changing experience; their first time away from home; the social interaction with people that would never come into their sphere of influence; raising of aspirations and wanting moreā¦ So there were positivesā¦ Just maybe not as many as David would like to think!!!
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I hope they have you opera glasses.
Taking a few slaps in the replies there, too.
Politically itās easier to sell something new than it is to pump money into existing things. Thatās both with his party and the public.
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It doesnāt have to be one or the other.
Surely, CEP was an example of:
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I think you summed it up well; essentially it was mismanaged from the higher echelons (and I also witnessed just how much of a cut some private providers managed to take) to the point where it was useful for some individuals, but didnāt make a drop in the ocean compared to what it was meant to achieve.
Like most Big Projects, once they are no longer new and shiny, they tend to get forgotten and then wither and dieā¦
Worked with a guy who had the best job in the world defining the comms world in 5 years time:
- Spend 6 months researching (lots of global travel to big shows etc - wined and dined)
- 3 months writing
- 3 months presenting
- Repeat
No one ever went back to see if he was right! - still waiting for my mobile enabled ear stud to appear