Breadline Britain

[RobM]

90% at the moment but after redundancy, 50% until I find work. However if I get Pay In Lieu Of Notice I could have to wait 5 months to receive it! Oh joy.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

So what do you want, a medal? More fool you for working for an organization that is potless and pays it bills late. And to further take employment knowing you are going to be paid late again tells me your judgement skills are sadly lacking. As for the comment of blaming the tories for everything from the state of the economy to the weather, cast your mind back to who was in power for 12 years before the coalalition came about.

Lets sell off our gold reserve for pennies.
Lets create nothing jobs for no-bodies with no agenda other than towing the Labour Party line.
Lets bow to the unions.
Lets bow to the EU.
Lets cover up what we don't wont the public to know.
Lets hound and persacute anyone who speaks out against us.
And now it's 'Give us another bite at the cherry as we will throw money we dont have around like water again'

I dislike Camaron and Clegg even moreso but if the solution is Miliband with his sorry pathetic line of 'You just don't get it' time and time again then god help us all.

Frankly,I find it rather amusing that you turn pretty much every post of mine, (on whatever thread),into some sort of comment on the Blair/Brown Governments.Sooner or later you're going to have to take on board the fact that the present Tory led coalition has been in power for well over two years now and is responsible for the day to day running of Government and not Blair or Brown or even Miliband(yet).

As for selling off our gold reserves for pennies(or for nothing really) that started in Black September 1992,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday,

when the Tories(perhaps forever but at least for a generation) lost their reputation for being competent enough to run a modern post-war economy.

No need to worry about my "judgement skills" either.

While I'm understandably, extremely reluctant, to undertake work which will be unpaid in the short term,you can rest assured that such work, while being extremely challenging,will also be(eventually)extremely well paid too.

Incidentally,Marx would have accused you of "false consciousneness" and he'd have been right.I really fail to see what a working class Tory, such as yourself, could possibly have in common with people who are prepared to spend three thousand quid on a new wrist watch.

http://www.shrimperzone.com/vb/showthread.php?72408-New-watch

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

GHG, you left out the "Let's allow Political Correctness to destroy the rights and entitlement of huge numbers of law abiding heterosexual white persons" one.

You'll no doubt have noticed, last week, that the Labour Party(quite rightly) acknowledged "the mistakes" made in 2004.

 

[Mad Cyril]

You'll no doubt have noticed, last week, that the Labour Party(quite rightly) acknowledged "the mistakes" made in 2004.

Any who was advising Blair/Brown etc. when these mistakes were made?

 

[canveyshrimper]

You'll no doubt have noticed, last week, that the Labour Party(quite rightly) acknowledged "the mistakes" made in 2004.

They weren't mistakes, it was a deliberate open door policy. And anyone who had the temerity to challenge such a policy was demonised as racist. Or in the case of Gillian Duffy "that bigoted woman",

 

[canveyshrimper]

when the Tories(perhaps forever but at least for a generation) lost their reputation for being competent enough to run a modern post-war economy.

Did it? Ken Clarke's legacy as Chancellor was to leave Brown a burgeoning economy with budget surpluses from every quarter year from I think 1992 until the Major Government left office in May 1997. A trend which to be fair lasted under Brown for a few more years. Until that is and like all Labour Chancellors before him started spending money that the country did not have and ultimately paving the way for the current deficit.

 

[Jam_Man]

Im sure if Labour were still in power things would all be rosy by now. [/sarcasm]

The country would be in trouble whoever is in power, anyone thinking any party would have made any real difference is deluding themselves.

As for what being in trouble is its all relative. Ive taken the last two summers off (1 redundancy and 1 sabbatical) and have had no trouble getting a job. Admittedly the money being offered isnt the same as it was 5 years ago but Ive still done fine. Day to day I really dont feel under any financial strain unlike when my parents struggled in the early 80s.

 

[OldBlueLady]

They weren't mistakes, it was a deliberate open door policy. And anyone who had the temerity to challenge such a policy was demonised as racist. Or in the case of Gillian Duffy "that bigoted woman",

And it's still going on because it's going to be a massive job to correct the mistakes made. I know of public sector workers where there are a small group of black and white people doing the same job, with the white people all more efficient, diligent and more conscientious, however, to reach targets, at their performance management reviews, the black men and woman have all "achieved" their targets but the whites are being told they've "almost achieved". If it had been done as it should, the black people would have pulled the racism card despite the fact that they are clearly worse at the job but have to be there to meet targets! It's blatant racism against the whites but of course, that's never admitted to is it?

 

[Napster]

And it's still going on because it's going to be a massive job to correct the mistakes made. I know of public sector workers where there are a small group of black and white people doing the same job, with the white people all more efficient, diligent and more conscientious, however, to reach targets, at their performance management reviews, the black men and woman have all "achieved" their targets but the whites are being told they've "almost achieved". If it had been done as it should, the black people would have pulled the racism card despite the fact that they are clearly worse at the job but have to be there to meet targets! It's blatant racism against the whites but of course, that's never admitted to is it?

any proof or is this just anecdotal?

 

[OldBlueLady]

any proof or is this just anecdotal?

Of course it's second hand so I have no proof, but the people concerned do. They're also being set new targets which are totally unachievable because they're out of their hands e.g. training everyone in first aid within 3 months....well that obviously depends on whether first aid trainers are available and for the numbers concerned!

They are speaking to their union but again they're encountering a kind of positive racism there too.

 

[Mad Cyril]

And it's still going on because it's going to be a massive job to correct the mistakes made. I know of public sector workers where there are a small group of black and white people doing the same job, with the white people all more efficient, diligent and more conscientious, however, to reach targets, at their performance management reviews, the black men and woman have all "achieved" their targets but the whites are being told they've "almost achieved". If it had been done as it should, the black people would have pulled the racism card despite the fact that they are clearly worse at the job but have to be there to meet targets! It's blatant racism against the whites but of course, that's never admitted to is it?

The two England players that missed penalties were both black.

Coincidence?

 

[MK Shrimper]

The two England players that missed penalties were both black.

Coincidence?

You bad man :hilarious:

 

[Jam_Man]

The two England players that missed penalties were both black.

Coincidence?

They both had girls names. Penalties. They're not for girls.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

They weren't mistakes, it was a deliberate open door policy. And anyone who had the temerity to challenge such a policy was demonised as racist. Or in the case of Gillian Duffy "that bigoted woman",

I agree it was an open door policy, at a time when the Labour Party was in thrall to globalisation,the economy was booming and there was a labour shortage.Nevertheless it was a mistake.Other more perspicacious countries(eg Germany and France)did not give workers from the new EU accession countries immediate access to their labour markets on EU entry.Nor should Britain(or Spain for that matter have done so).Towns like Crewe,Southampton,Lincoln,Peterborough etc woke up to find they had a Polish population of about 6%,almost overnight.That's why it was a mistake.
Incidentally I don't remember any significant Tory voices being raised against this policy at the time.Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Any who was advising Blair/Brown etc. when these mistakes were made?

You'll no doubt have noticed that Jon Cruddas is currently advising Miliband.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Interesting survey.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/datablog/interactive/2012/jun/22/how-wealthy-you-compared


FWIW our household is in the "squeezed middle."

"46%
HAVE A LOWER INCOME THAN YOU
You are in the squeezed middle: income levels have not risen significantly and you're feeling the pinch."

Barna, I don't know how this survey is relevant to us as neither of us live in England. Perhaps you could ask your mates at the Guardian to provide a similar survey for living in France and Spain. :winking:
For this academic year we come out at 62% and squeezed middle. Don't really know how accurate you can make it, tranfering euros into pounds. Anyway, next year there is no more 'work more to earn more' in France and my wife's untaxed overtime disappears, so we shall slide down the scale, to around 51%. Having said all that, from what I understand about French salaries we would be significantly higher up the scale than if we lived in England.

 

[canveyshrimper]

I agree it was an open door policy, at a time when the Labour Party was in thrall to globalisation,the economy was booming and there was a labour shortage.Nevertheless it was a mistake.Other more perspicacious countries(eg Germany and France)did not give workers from the new EU accession countries immediate access to their labour markets on EU entry.Nor should Britain(or Spain for that matter have done so).Towns like Crewe,Southampton,Lincoln,Peterborough etc woke up to find they had a Polish population of about 6%,almost overnight.That's why it was a mistake.
Incidentally I don't remember any significant Tory voices being raised against this policy at the time.Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are quite right about Tory or other voices being raised against the policy, as I said in my earlier post if anyone raised their head above the parapets to protest they were immediately demonised as racist.

 

[OldBlueLady]

They both had girls names. Penalties. They're not for girls.

That's probably the reason more so than their skin colour!!! :hilarious:

 

[Neil_F]

I agree it was an open door policy, at a time when the Labour Party was in thrall to globalisation,

Actually, it was a deliberate ploy. Andrew Neather, the former advisor to Brown and Blunkett, said that it was the government's, "driving political purpose to open up the UK to mass immigration." Polling showed that immigrants typically voted Labour.

the economy was booming and there was a labour shortage

No, no, no. There was not a labour shortage; the government were paying 5m people (12% of the working age population) to sit at home and not work. There was certainly a demand for foreign labour because a large proportion of Brits either didn't have the skills or didn't have the financial incentives to work.

That is why 97% of the increased number of people employed from 1997 to 2010 can be accounted for by foreign workers (if you strip out pensioners returning to work).

.Nevertheless it was a mistake.

So here is a logical problem, Barna. You have called for a huge fiscal stimulus from the magic money tree. You have said this should be directed towards infastructure projects to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment, though you haven't named a single infastructure project worth pursuing.

Given that you have acknowledged that market conditions sucked in immigrant Labour in the 2000s, how would it be any different for infastructure investment in 2012 (even if you could find the magic money tree and identify projects that actually add value)?

Incidentally I don't remember any Tory voices being raised against this policy at the time.Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You missed the 2005 General Election then (though you are fortunate in this respect) as Michael Howard talked about virtually nothing else.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Barna, I don't know how this survey is relevant to us as neither of us live in England. Perhaps you could ask your mates at the Guardian to provide a similar survey for living in France and Spain. :winking:

Yogi,
Contrary to what many on SZ think, I don't actually have any mates on the Guardian(though I did once meet Peter Jenkins-in the pub next door- after a Tribune rally at Wesminster Hall).