Politics

[Howmanheyman 32887]

Why don't they put the same graft in trying to claw back some money from this country's tax dodgers? I'm sure it would be far more lucrative. Being out of work is a real bastard, we all fear it, most have experienced it and there's even insurances for it. In short it's bad. Therefore you'd expect some sympathy? Not in this country it seems.

[ewerk 30393]

Tories once again demonising the unemployed by planning to make them work for their dole money. Hopefully they'll get kicked out and take their bedroom tax with them.

 

 

I don't see what the problem is in principle with having people who have been claiming the dole for over two years engage in community service or extra training.

 

I think the option of having to visit the job centre daily is ridiculous, as is the idea that this plan should continue ad infinitum for those unable to get work.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

The problem is not the principle of what they're trying to do, it's the way they're going to do it. There is no consideration of people's individual circumstances, and they've cut all funding to any type of support network.

 

Got an extra bedroom? Pay Bedroom tax. What, you have a disabled partner who needs a bed on their own? Tough shit. What's that? There is very little single occupancy social housing in the North East as historically governments only built for families? Couldn't give a toss. You must be on Universal Jobmatch by next Thursday. What? You have no computer skills whatsoever as you've spent your whole life grafting in manual labour? Tough fuck, next Thursday or money stopped.

[Christmas Tree 4711]

 

I don't see what the problem is in principle with having people who have been claiming the dole for over two years engage in community service or extra training.

 

I think the option of having to visit the job centre daily is ridiculous, as is the idea that this plan should continue ad infinitum for those unable to get work.

Aye, nowt wrong with this at all for "long term" unemployed.

 

Those pointing the finger should maybe consider how Labour nurtured this way of life by continually throwing more and more money to enable this way of life for a certain section of community.

 

I think we shouldn't try and muddy the waters too much at who this is targeting. I think you will also have so genuine long term unemployed who ain't skivers but will see this to get out of the daily rut it's easy to get into and get a bit of dignity back, hopefully leading to normal work.

[ewerk 30393]

I have plenty of friends and family who also have excellent degrees but still having trouble finding work. I'm not suggesting that everyone who is unemployed is lazy or should be made to feel like shit about it, just that if they're on the dole then they should be made to do some form of community service, not full time hours but even ten hours a week would be something. The extra help with qualifications could be useful as well, I know of factories around here that require at least a C in English and Maths GCSE to even get a job on the assembly line.

 

The Job Centre is undoubtedly a waste of time though in most instances.

 

Edit: And I'm not sure what your brother plans to do with a law degree but I wouldn't be encouraging anyone hoping to work in NI to think of entering the legal profession at the moment.

Edited September 30, 2013 by ewerk

[PaddockLad 17151]

Aye, nowt wrong with this at all for "long term" unemployed.

 

Those pointing the finger should maybe consider how Labour nurtured this way of life by continually throwing more and more money to enable this way of life for a certain section of community.

 

I think we shouldn't try and muddy the waters too much at who this is targeting. I think you will also have so genuine long term unemployed who ain't skivers but will see this to get out of the daily rut it's easy to get into and get a bit of dignity back, hopefully leading to normal work.

 

The welfare culture is a result of all governments misguided policies over the last 30 years CT. I can guarantee that if you chose to look into it the first time benefits came into line with average earnings for the lower paid was under the tories in the nid nineties, and that coincided with the first "single mothers holding the country to ransome blah blah blah " headlines in the Daily Mail.

 

This is a headlne grabbing policy for the conference week thats ludicrously unworkable. Tesco's arten't going to want to employ some herbert with a 10 year heroin habit 2 months out of rehab, or his dealer. Fuckin ridiculous.

[ewerk 30393]

 

This is a headlne grabbing policy for the conference week thats ludicrously unworkable. Tesco's arten't going to want to employ some herbert with a 10 year heroin habit 2 months out of rehab, or his dealer. Fuckin ridiculous.

 

I don't think there's any doubt that this is to appease the middle-Englanders who are thinking of voting UKIP next time round rather than an effort to get the long-term unemployed back to work.

Edited September 30, 2013 by ewerk

[Sonatine 11329]

 

I don't think there's any doubt that this is to appease the middle-Englanders who are thinking of voting UKIP next time round rather than an effort to get the long-term unemployed back to work.

 

 

Pretty much it I think, and I'm sure these sort of things have been announced before and nothing ever seems to come of them.

[Phil 6]

It's not always as cut and dry as that though, my kid bro has a degree in History, a masters in Criminology, sits on Queens Students Union commity, is an asst station manager for QUB Radio, and had some other post helping to run that QUB Gaming society... he can't even get a job working in a shop.

He was in tescos for 6months parttime but at this point they either have to keep him on permanently or let them go, so they let them all go at the 6mth mark and get a new batch of people in.

Went to an interrview in town other week for one of those B&M Bargain shops, the job turned out to be for 4 hours a week, he'd actually lose money getting the bus to work.

Before tescos he'd applied to volunteer in a load of charity shops in the area to work for free to get experience/some more for his c.v he was only able to get 2weeks in one a cancer research shop.

 

He's been saving all his dole/tesco money, managed to get 4k saved so since he can't get work doing anything he's using the savings to pay for his first year to go back to Queens to do a Law degree rather than sit at home, and if he gets something while doing it he said he'll just suspend the course.

 

Feel properly sorry for the kid tbh, put in 10x the effort i would have and vastly more educational qualifactions than me, but i'm probably earning more than most of the lads he's graduated with.

 

Job Centre is a total waste of time as well. think he has to go down every 1 or 2 weeks to sign on, don't think he's particularly great with interviews and when he asked about getting advice on them he basically got a leaflet which had "have a wash and don't wear a tracksuit" in it. lol

 

A history degree and masters in Criminology - can't think why employers arent lining up to give him a job!

 

 

Like most young people today, they expect employers to give them a job - without the ability to justify it.

 

He's too educated for low end jobs and has no experience for anything above.

 

If he knows what job he's after (the law degree suggests otherwise), he needs to either intern for free or sit an industry sought qualification.

[ADP 0]

A history degree and masters in Criminology - can't think why employers arent lining up to give him a job!

 

 

Like most young people today, they expect employers to give them a job - without the ability to justify it.

 

He's too educated for low end jobs and has no experience for anything above.

 

If he knows what job he's after (the law degree suggests otherwise), he needs to either intern for free or sit an industry sought qualification.

 

 

Sorry but that's complete and utter bollocks. I'll take it you aren't a 'young person' today then, right? Is it the fault of this generation to have been told by the previous one that going to university will better employment chances and benefit a career in the long run? Is it the fault of this generation that a decent degree that you've worked your arse off for for 3/4 years in the bubble of academia, unpaid volunteer work and applying for jobs the dole office suggest to you, still will not get you work? Because that is what is happening to a shit load of young people.

 

I finished my undergraduate degree 3 years ago. Did very well, achieve first class honours. Then sat on the dole for a year because I couldn't get paid work, whilst doing unpaid volunteering for 3 separate organisations in the hope that sometime soon the employment market would get a bit healthier. Some of my friends are still in and out of that position, 3 years on working 0 hour contracts in call centres for temporary employment, until the employer gets rid of them when their temp contract runs out, at which point they will hire for the same position a similar person with the same 0 hr contract. They aren't smug twats who expect anything at all, nor are they picky or fussy about what work they want. They just need to work. Rather, decent honest people who have worked fucking hard in one particular discipline, then had the realisation just a degree, even first class degrees, cannot guarantee you a job anymore because of a lack of jobs. That everything you had been told before your degree about employability after university was utter shite.

 

It just irks me that some people have this perception of people finishing uni with an air of expectancy when entering the job market, as it if is their fault that they have been told that a degree is a valuable asset on your CV. And while I'm venting my spleen, as Ewerk stated, the job centre is a total joke when it comes to helping you find employment. Far more interested in finding a way to chuck you off the dole, than actually get you off the dole via means of work. Awful lot. I once asked one of the job centre members of staff how he got his job, as he was being really shirty with me because I had failed to find employment after 6 months of practically begging anyone to take me on. He replied 'well, I had been coming here as an unemployed person (actual words! as if they aren't to be touched lest you want their disease) for 3 years, then one day someone just offered me a job here.' Depressing...

 

@@Ant, that's shit about your brother like. I was in a very similar position, and it is really tough. Breadline living (because that's what the dole is) is nothing pretty. And I don't think that History/Politics degree and Criminology is to be sniffed at (not saying you were). When the office space has become the new factory floor, degrees like that show at the very least a capacity to be effectiveness with wording and documentation.

Edited September 30, 2013 by ADP

[Sonatine 11329]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/feeding-homeless-to-be-banned-by-tory-run-westminster-113433#.UklOw_-qgeI.twitter

[Renton 21435]

How did he manage to save 4k on the dole or minimum wage? That's over 75 quid a week over a year. I can't save that.

 

This law degree sounds like a terrible idea unless he has strong family connections with solicitors firms etc.

[Gemmill 44556]

He sounds like he might be a serial killer.

[Gemmill 44556]

Aye it must be a real kick in the balls. I mean to a certain extent, there's an onus on the student to study stuff that actually has real life uses, but to be a bright bloke and unable to find any sort of job must make you feel like shit.

 

You don't realise how lucky you are.

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

He sounds like he might be a serial killer.

Aha!

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Regardless of whether you think Labour made the welfare system a lot easier to play or not, cutting people off and adrift so quickly and harshly is not the answer. I work with the unemployed and the community. They are having to use Food Banks more and more despite smarmy Gove thinking it's all a big laugh and all their fault. Also, they don't own 52" flat screen teles and play on their PS3's all day © Daily Mail.

 

Tories shit scared of losing the right wing and home counties 'I'm not racist but' vote to UKIP so on the attack now.

 

By the way, this country needs a socialist party. Or at least remind the one that used to be that it should go back to being one again.

Edited September 30, 2013 by sweetleftpeg

[NJS 4375]

If the aim was to say to people who've been unemployed for two years "you really need a hand" and mean it I cant see too many objections.

 

However it's actually more demonisation for the benefit of Daily Mail cunts.

[CleeToonFan 1]

Really glad I read those last few pages in the last year of my history degree, cheers guys .

[Monkeys Fist 42189]

Repeat after me -

" Would you like fries with that?"

[CleeToonFan 1]

Not that it matters, I don't need a degree to become the rock star footballing porn actor I'm planning on becoming anyway .

Actually I think there's a BTEC somewhere...

[Monkeys Fist 42189]

You'll have to lose the Yorkshire accent first.

[CleeToonFan 1]

That'll go with the twitch...

[Meenzer 15466]

Repeat after me -

" Would you like fries with that?"

 

An insight into the forum nerd thought process.

 

History, you say? Maybe he's studying mediaeval/renaissance history.

→ If so, Don't you mean "Wouldst thou essay to..." etc. etc. would be a neat reply. Using his learning on the job and all that.

→ → Except he wouldn't be asking if they wanted fries because the potato didn't reach Europe until the 16th century.

→ → → Best not bother then.

 

[CleeToonFan 1]

 

An insight into the forum nerd thought process.

 

History, you say? Maybe he's studying mediaeval/renaissance history.

→ If so, Don't you mean "Wouldst thou essay to..." etc. etc. would be a neat reply. Using his learning on the job and all that.

→ → Except he wouldn't be asking if they wanted fries because the potato didn't reach Europe until the 16th century.

→ → → Best not bother then.

 

I'm actually doing my dissertation on the Cod Wars, so you can't even get the correct type of fast food. Your nerd status is hanging by a thread.

[Monkeys Fist 42189]

Have you written to John Craven?

He kept me up to date with the Cod Wars as they happened.