UK Wants Unemployed Youth to Do Unpaid Work for the State. State Sponsored Slavery or.....?

This made me laugh - a lot.
Seeing as this is a current British politics thread (of which there are too few IMHO) I thought I'd post it here.

Any League of Gentlemen fans... enjoy

a reply to: blupblup
That's true, gotta be 25 years old, so even thoughts of starting a fledgling self-employment like gardening or window cleaning whatever, you can't get that weekly assistance 'because they are too young'.

a reply to: grainofsand


What we need are more jobs and proper wages - a living wage - that actually makes work pay.
There are families who would be so much worse off and might not be able to afford to work, which is just insane in my opinion.
Wages have massively stagnated in this country for decades while the profit for the companies has increased hugely, shareholders, CEO's etc all take the lions share, and those actually doing the work get **** all.... and even more **** all now thanks to inflation.
Sure it's coming back into line a bit but the cost of everything has increased dramatically... houses, cars, childcare, education, fuel, gas/electric, council tax.... food and drink.

Real Term wages have been falling for longest period in the last 50 years.



www.bbc.co.uk...

www.theguardian.com...

www.thisismoney.co.uk...

While bosses pay, bonuses and overall income is at an all time high... FTSE 100 bosses now paid an average 130 times as much as their employees.

It has never been this great.

This is the issue - it's not that the money isn't there, it's that it's all getting sucked up by the few at the top, not being spread around as it used to be.

It's just greed by the few at the top... and those at the bottom suffer and then others at the bottom give others at the bottom s*** and those at the top just sit back, collect the money, hide the money in tax havens and laugh while they squabble and pick on each other.

a reply to: blupblup
There would be a good 800,000 jobs available if free movement of labour laws were different:
www.theguardian.com...

The latest Office for National Statistics labour market statistics show the number of east Europeans working in Britain rose to 895,000 in December – an increase of 168,000 or 23% in the past year.

Take what you wish from that thought, but 16 year olds used to easily walk onto building sites and start labouring with a view to gaining a trade. These days the youngsters are competing with 20 something EU semi-skilled labourers who are often disciplined and fit after a spell of national service (Polish military specifically).
Control the immigration with a 'points' system like we have for the world outside of the EU and many jobs will become available.
The question still remains will we find enough Brits to actually get up in the morning to carry out those crappy jobs the Eastern Europeans are happy to do?

a reply to: grainofsand


There's certainly an argument to be had and it's fairly easy to blame immigration solely (not saying you are btw) but as I pointed out previously, things were doing ok until the global financial crash...we were getting there.
Of course in times of strife and hardship, people look to blame "the other" and say that its the fault of those coming into the country.

As I said previously wages have been driven down by "cheap" foreign labour and unions have seen a decline because very few join unions, there is an issue for sure, but it's not the only issue and it's only part of the wider problem.

Brits still do get up and do those crappy jobs, sure there are many Eastern Europeans doing them too but it's not like there are no Brits.

That sandwich company recently that had to go to Hungary to recruit because "no brits were interested"... that seemed like an odd story to me.
They said that the area was known for low unemployment and they just couldn't get the people to fill the jobs, so they had a recruitment drive in Hungary.

So the area had low unemployment, there were already something like 1200 employed by them, I'm sure many of whom were brits... but people ran the story (The Daily Fail etc) as "No Brits willing to make sandwiches" which probably isn't the whole truth.
They said they advertised on a banner outside the site... really? That was all? No papers, jobcentre, agencies etc?

Really was an odd story.


I dunno mate... it really is a complex issue but IMHO, it's mostly an issue of greed and the rich getting richer while the poor suffer.

Of course immigration, laziness and the global financial crisis all play their part, to varying degrees too.

Soloprotocol, I think you are totally delusional. You sit there with your tin foil hat on shouting about big brother and and you don't have a clue what is going on in the real world.

a reply to: Aspie

Actually Aspie i think you may find its you and anyone else thats delusional if you think being forced to carry out work for anything other than the minimum wage is in anyway acceptable.

Here is a thought, why don't you batter on down to that Pub that apparently caters towards all those unemployed discontented individuals you keep rambling on about and take up your issue with them? They will show you the very meaning of the word delusional and most lightly give you a few stitches to be going on with also.

If you could simply walk in those peoples shoes for a week or so i imagine you would be singing a very different tune.

Like i said don't hate the players, hate the game, anything else is simply misplaced hatred.

Have to agree Aspie... you are the deluded one - Also judgemental & bigoted too

originally posted by: blupblup
That sandwich company recently that had to go to Hungary to recruit because "no brits were interested"... that seemed like an odd story to me.
They said that the area was known for low unemployment and they just couldn't get the people to fill the jobs, so they had a recruitment drive in Hungary.

Having known people who worked in sandwich factories, and also knowing as a result the conditions that those people had to work under which leads to such a high turn over of staff, which is only exacerbated by having managers that are inept little chiefs who only got promoted because they 'stuck it out' and not because they have any leadership skills...this is unsurprising. Recruiting in Hungary doesn't solve the problem, as soon as those workers have got themselves settled and improved their English, they soon move onto much better paid work and related conditions and rightly so, they are often extremely hard workers.

originally posted by: blupblup
So the area had low unemployment, there were already something like 1200 employed by them, I'm sure many of whom were brits... but people ran the story (The Daily Fail etc) as "No Brits willing to make sandwiches" which probably isn't the whole truth.
They said they advertised on a banner outside the site... really? That was all? No papers, jobcentre, agencies etc?

This is why I NEVER, not ever, buy factory made sandwiches or any other processed food. I know what goes on and how that food is treated due to the frustrations of those preparing it.

They don't advertise jobs because it is all about cutting the costs, which goes on marketing of the product and paying high end wages to the upper management of some distantly located umbrella company, while on the shop floor staff are miserable, disillusioned and bloody uncomfortable. Expecting people to stand in a refrigerated environment for 8 hours for minimum wage is the reason they can't get people to stay or take pride in the work. They are paid peanuts and naturally behave like monkeys.

That's the story. Not who they can or can't get to work there, but why they can't. The Daily Mail is a pustulent sore on the backside of this country...and with it's web presence, increasingly globally.

a reply to: Anaana


Absolutely, great post and great points.
Was reading a few articles about it this morning and that's the general vibe... terrible working conditions, they also had to pay compensation to 400 workers after a tribunal ruled against them.
Many workers complain about bullying by managers and say there are all manner of problems there.

It's nothing to do with lazy Brits, but that's how they spin it.

originally posted by: blupblup
a reply to: Anaana


Absolutely, great post and great points.
Was reading a few articles about it this morning and that's the general vibe... terrible working conditions, they also had to pay compensation to 400 workers after a tribunal ruled against them.
Many workers complain about bullying by managers and say there are all manner of problems there.

It's nothing to do with lazy Brits, but that's how they spin it.

It is most apparent when you take a look back in time to how factory and service workers were treated in the 1800s and the first half of the 20th century. It was understood that the conditions of employment and quality of life were integral to the efficiency and productivity, which is why all those model villages popped up, built by Lever Brothers, Cadburys, Rowntrees etc.

All that seems to have gone out the window now, and we are back to the days of expecting people to work themselves to death to line the pockets of others. The welfare system however gives choice, noone should have to work in conditions that are both demeaning and demoralising, and the problem chiefly, in my opinion, is taking advantage of the fact that legal recourse costs more money than a minimum wage worker can afford. Their only choice, really, is to walk out because the harrassment, prejudice and discrimination laws are not automatically protective only retrospectively, and even then, it depends on education and information giving in order to utilise them. Walking out is the only weapon they have in their arsenal, and in most cases, if they do walk out that means no benefits, so instead, they are forced to get themselves sacked which has other consequences on their records, leaving them unable to lift themselves up into better paid work.

originally posted by: Aspie
Soloprotocol, I think you are totally delusional. You sit there with your tin foil hat on shouting about big brother and and you don't have a clue what is going on in the real world.

I believe someone might be Manstruating...

a reply to: Anaana

Indeed...we are back in the times of the workhouse and the Tories LOVE it.
They are stripping workers rights constantly and giving businesses more rights to treat workers like crap, sack them for no good reason and they don't even have to guarantee them any hours in their contract.
Unions have less and less power and fewer people even belong to a Union.
We worked so hard as a society to end those Victorian era practices and to help people to achieve and become more.
We're now heading back there, at an alarming rate.

And most people just cannot see it.

originally posted by: Soloprotocol
I believe someone might be Manstruating...

originally posted by: blupblup
a reply to: Anaana

Indeed...we are back in the times of the workhouse and the Tories LOVE it.
They are stripping workers rights constantly and giving businesses more rights to treat workers like crap, sack them for no good reason and they don't even have to guarantee them any hours in their contract.
Unions have less and less power and fewer people even belong to a Union.
We worked so hard as a society to end those Victorian era practices and to help people to achieve and become more.
We're now heading back there, at an alarming rate.

And most people just cannot see it.

Exactly. I am dealing with a situation now at work which involves a group of homeless men who are basically doing little more than being antisocial and predominantly, 'making people feel uncomfortable'. I am the one who 'deals' with them and I have worked hard at building up a relationship with them so that I can 'deal' with them, they are all dependent on alcohol. The people I work with want the police to take them away and seem unable to understand that the police have no powers to do so. The number of times I have been told that a 'bullet in the head' is the solution to the problem only to see the Mail or Telegraph tucked beneath their armpit is depressing. There is absolutely no wider social awareness of the reasons behind why people choose to be homeless, and why they have distain for the society that expects them to conform. They are homeless because one by one their choices diminished until they had one of two choices and chronic homelessness was, to them, the lesser of two evils. Psychosis has been identified as one to the greatest demands on resources that we face as a nation and globally in the future, nowhere is that more apparent than at the bottom of the socio-economic heap. I fear that if we don't start addressing the minimum wage, and associated conditions, we are going to find ourselves going back to the workhouse culture, and I don't know, I find that idea not only horrifying but as a nation I find it embarrassing.

There is a quote that I like, by William Wilberforce, "You can choose to look the other way, but never again say that you did not know." The problem is not so much that people turn away from unpalatable truths, but that the media, and as you say government, gives them permission to do so and to feel superior about it too.

a reply to: Anaana

Great post!! absolutely nail on the head.
There are so many issues that stem from low wages and homelessness is a major one.
People just don't understand how bad it is for some people... and you're on the front line, Fair Play to you, seriously.
We in Britain have always had a sense of community and helping people and a very caring and giving nature... over the last number of years, due to many things like the Economic crash, terrorism, wars, all manner of government policy etc, people seem to have become more cold, more intolerant and more about themselves.
It's very sad to see actually.

We have the wealth in this country to help everyone, to solve the homeless issue, the create jobs for everyone, to have help and care in the community for those that need it and to combat many illnesses and addiction and to build a strong society and economy... but all the wealth only goes one way, it used to be shared and everyone would benefit from
a company/business doing well, nowadays that just doesn't happen.
Our priorities (or more accurately the "Wealth Creators" and the elite's priorities) are all wrong.
It's all about a quick buck, look after yourself and your own, look down at the poor and keep your head down, don't rock the boat.

Really is frustrating.

There are so few decent voices in politics - We need the likes of Tony Benn again.. Dennis Skinner is pretty good too.


“I am proud to stand up for my class, to say publicly that I am from good working-class stock. I am proud to be a trade unionist, to be a member of the Labour Party and to be a socialist. I stick to my principles. I know no other way in politics. I make mistakes, everybody does. Nobody is perfect. I have no monopoly on the best way of being an MP. I try not to let anybody down. I’ve sailed close to the wind in my life but always for the good of the cause, to champion those at the bottom of the pile who deserve better.”

- Dennis Skinner


He always speaks his mind and has come out with some classics.

originally posted by: blupblup
There are so few decent voices in politics - We need the likes of Tony Benn again.. Dennis Skinner is pretty good too.


“I am proud to stand up for my class, to say publicly that I am from good working-class stock. I am proud to be a trade unionist, to be a member of the Labour Party and to be a socialist. I stick to my principles. I know no other way in politics. I make mistakes, everybody does. Nobody is perfect. I have no monopoly on the best way of being an MP. I try not to let anybody down. I’ve sailed close to the wind in my life but always for the good of the cause, to champion those at the bottom of the pile who deserve better.”

- Dennis Skinner


He always speaks his mind and has come out with some classics.

Dennis is Old Labour, remember them. ?
This new lot i wouldn't give tuppence for. two cheeks of the same arse are Tories and Labour. i'm sure they sit at Eton, Cambridge etc and carve up who's going to be Labour and who's going to be Tory with the end result always being the same...Farage was probably the snottery little twat who was always last picked for a dance and the football team.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Absolutely mate - It's sad actually.