Bankers: Cameron shows his true colours

[YCCMB]

There's a lot to be said for location, that's very, very true. My eldest lives in London and is a student, still, at 26. As he's a postgrad, he doesn't get any assistance apart (luckily, given where he's studying) from a few hundred pounds bursary per term from his college. He gets nothing from us, apart from a bit of a loan every once in a while. He manages to cover all his overheads by working - self-employed - as a technician, labourer and general dogsbody wherever he can, and the odd few hours of teaching work from his college which is well-paid but amounts to maybe £70 every term. Despite being unqualified to do anything proper (yes, he's got a degree: in fine art) he's almost never out of work, and when he is, he gets on the phone and talks to all his friends and contacts and lets them know he's in the market for any work they have. ANY work. He has periods where he has no idea where his next month's rent will come from, but he's never had to throw in the towel and come to us for a handout. He's refused to go anywhere near a jobcentre, and in any case he's not eligible for any state help because he is still officially a full time student, even though the demands of his course are flexible enough to mean that he can work at least a couple of days a week.

There are undoubtedly people who find jobhunting really tough. There are certainly many, many people who would give their right arm to have any sort of job. All of that is true. Being in the right place is crucial, but perseverance and adaptability play a part.

However, at first hand I can tell you that it is entirely possible to live and find work in somewhere like central London and survive quite well on not very much money at all, doing work for which you really don't need much in the way of qualifications.

When all the Poles started leaving the UK there was a very interesting programme broadcast on Radio 4 which examined the problems faced by companies which had expanded their business on the back of being able to recruit reliable (not cheap, just reliable) workers from Poland. Many were facing the collapse of their businesses due to so many Poles going home, as they simply could not find replacement staff from the UK population. And then, of course, there are all the entrepreneurs from other countries who come to the UK. They don't take jobs from UK workers, they create jobs. They run their own businesses, and not exclusively catering for their countrymen (although there's nothing I can see wrong with that: after all, in the past it's feathered the nest of many a UK "expat" in France, hasn't it?).

I seem to remember Gordon Brown promising "British jobs for British workers" some considerable time ago (well, it must be a while - Gordon Brown? Who he?) and a great deal of not very much happening, so I'm not entirely sure that pinning the blame on the current government is appropriate...

[Quillan]

[quote user="Hoddy"] “My problem is that there is loads of jobs around if you go looking for them.” Do you have any evidence to support this statement ? Hoddy[/quote]

Yes I do, just Google Jobs or Jobsite and they have jobs all over the UK. One website actually says it has "1000s of UK jobs", Jobserve has over 17,000. These are just the general sites then there are more specific skill set orientated websites if you go looking for them. Most of them have contract work as well as perminant positions.

[Hoddy]

Sorry Q I just don't accept that as real evidence. I know that lots of those 'vacancies' are duplicates or just never existed but where the agency is trying to build up a large number of email hits to make their recruitment agency look good.

I was wondering if there were any official statistics comparing the number of actual vacancies with the number of people looking for work.

Hoddy

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Hoddy"]Sorry Q I just don't accept that as real evidence. I know that lots of those 'vacancies' are duplicates or just never existed but where the agency is trying to build up a large number of email hits to make their recruitment agency look good. I was wondering if there were any official statistics comparing the number of actual vacancies with the number of people looking for work. Hoddy[/quote]I don't think there are ever any accurate stats showing the number of actual vacancies for the reasons you give above. I have heard stories of firms placing job adverts when they were actually considering redundancies. This was done so that potentia; customers would not realise the firm had problems

[YCCMB]

Make of these what you will: The source is the Guardian, so all the right-on left wingers will find it acceptable, but the Guardian's source is the government so the one sort of counteracts the other [:D]

Firstly: [url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/feb/28/uk-job-market-shows-improvement[/url]

and for interest from the other perspective:

[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/feb/06/unemployment-vacancies-ratio[/url]

[YCCMB]

Oh, and just as an aside....where are we drawing the line on UK jobs for UK people? Because if the UK hadn't given jobs and safe haven to a couple of Polish/Belgian immigrants, The labour party wouldn't have its current leader. The Libdems would probably be shopping around, as well. London would be mayorless (not for long, of course, Ken would be shouting "me! me! me!" within seconds). In fact (oh dear) CallmeDave is probably the most British of our current political leaders, apart possibly from the odious Nigel Farage, whose wife is German. So he'll be sending her home come the revolution, I imagine...

[Quillan]

[quote user="Hoddy"]Sorry Q I just don't accept that as real evidence. I know that lots of those 'vacancies' are duplicates or just never existed but where the agency is trying to build up a large number of email hits to make their recruitment agency look good. I was wondering if there were any official statistics comparing the number of actual vacancies with the number of people looking for work. Hoddy[/quote]

One or two that come up I know personally and they are not agencies but sites where agencies advertise jobs and they pay to have the jobs advertised there. If you look at Jobserve you can see how long they have been advertised, the agency name and the contact. I can't see what benefit an agency gains by paying to advertise on websites like Jobserve jobs that do not exist. Monster is another that operates the same way. Obviously they pay for one, two or even more weeks advertising and if the job goes after a couple of days the job still stays on the website till the time bought runs out. Perhaps you can prove to the contrary?

[Hoddy]

Thanks Q and `betty for trying to find figures for me.

I was hoping to find some which would tell me exactly what I want to know. I was hoping that there was a government site which shows how many job vacancies there are and how many jobseekers there are.

For some icing on the cake it would be nice if it were broken down by region.

I want to make my own mind up because the 'there are plenty of jobs if you look for them' that is often bandied doesn't seem to match with what I observe going on in these parts.

I think it is as racist of the DM to label the English as scroungers and layabouts as it is to say that the Romanians are all thieves coming over here and taking 'our' jobs.

Hoddy

[Quillan]

Well it is going to be regional and as I believe Leicester is near you according to the link Betty gave the ration is 6.9 i.e. for every job there was (because the figures are for Feb 2012), for the sake of argument, seven people for every job. When you get to Lewisham we are talking 34.6. On the other hand Leicester has a food and garment industry that is still active where as Lewisham has traditionally been the home of small business's and many people there work in central London although it has become a centre for the arts. Strangely when I was researching Lewisham (I had family living there for many years and can't remember seeing industry there) according to the "Lewisham Strategic Partnership" seven out of every ten people have work.

http://www.lewishamstrategicpartnership.org.uk/borough.asp

One can only assume that there have been massive changes in Lewisham since Feb 2012 or somebody is being a little economic with the truth.

I do agree with your final comment. If you read the Guardian and some of the readers comments you get the impression that there are no welfare "scroungers" and all immigrants are hard working and none are a draw on the state, the complete opposite of the DM, but somewhere between the two extremes (because I believe both papers to have extreme views) lies the truth. Like you I look at many sources and try to make my own mind up. Problem is if you say you read it her or heard it there your source is always lambasted which is why I only give a source now and again that people can see is beyond reproach.

[ebaynut]

I am always amazed whenever UKIP is mentioned, there are always a number of posters on here who say that immigrants work hard for low pay, the lazy British wont work etc etc.

Well I personally have no problem with people coming here from Europe to work, what I have a REAL problem with is groups of Asian taxi drivers who were on all the main news programs this week, who abused and even branded with a hot iron, under age white girls and force them into have sex with them. The lady from the DPP even stated there was a large problem with this happening in the UK.

I have REAL problems with Muslims from Spark hill in Birmingham who want to make bombs to blow up white people in this country, but of course they are not immigrants, they are British Muslims ( WTF is one of them??) and I have REAL problems with the scum who like to climb in the back of lorries and try to enter the UK this way. Do you think for one second they are here to work. No women or children with them, just young fit men

But no, ignore all this filth, after all many on here believe this scum have rights.

Take our Muslin "friends", and the way they like to kill their animals, barbaric but for some reason this government allows this cruelty.

It should be banned and perhaps the same fate applied to those who think it OK to cut an animals neck and let it bleed to death.

I cant even take a drink on an  airplane anymore because the Muslims like to blow our planes up, yet we let them enter the UK and live here.

So if we have to send home those that come here to work to get rid of the above mentioned, then I fell it is a price which is worth paying.

Shame that a certain poster who watches "saints and scroungers" does not mention all the non white multi fraud cheats its highlights.

 

[Quillan]

Now that really is a DM reader.

[YCCMB]

Hey ho. They say the weather is going to get a lot milder this week.

[Chancer]

And if the taxi drivers weren't Asian and the girls weren't white............. [Www]

 

[Rabbie]

[quote user="ebaynut"]

I am always amazed whenever UKIP is mentioned, there are always a number of posters on here who say that immigrants work hard for low pay, the lazy British wont work etc etc.

Well I personally have no problem with people coming here from Europe to work, what I have a REAL problem with is groups of Asian taxi drivers who were on all the main news programs this week, who abused and even branded with a hot iron, under age white girls and force them into have sex with them. The lady from the DPP even stated there was a large problem with this happening in the UK.[/quote]

Surprisingly I have seen no mention of this on the BBC website so I wonder if it is that widespread. The Daily Telegraph seems to have missed it too

[quote user="ebaynut"]

I have REAL problems with Muslims from Spark hill in Birmingham who want to make bombs to blow up white people in this country, but of course they are not immigrants, they are British Muslims ( WTF is one of them??) and I have REAL problems with the scum who like to climb in the back of lorries and try to enter the UK this way. Do you think for one second they are here to work. No women or children with them, just young fit men

But no, ignore all this filth, after all many on here believe this scum have rights.

Take our Muslin "friends", and the way they like to kill their animals, barbaric but for some reason this government allows this cruelty.

It should be banned and perhaps the same fate applied to those who think it OK to cut an animals neck and let it bleed to death.

I cant even take a drink on an  airplane anymore because the Muslims like to blow our planes up, yet we let them enter the UK and live here.

So if we have to send home those that come here to work to get rid of the above mentioned, then I fell it is a price which is worth paying.

Shame that a certain poster who watches "saints and scroungers" does not mention all the non white multi fraud cheats its highlights.

 

[/quote]I suspect that many Muslims from Sparkhill  are born in the UK and have UK passports. This to me defines them as British Muslims. Is that so hard to comprehend?

In fact the only thing I agree with you is the issue of Halal Slaughter which I believe should be banned on humanitarian grounds. It is banned in  other EU countries such as Sweden so it could be banned here

Otherwise you appear to be even more extreme than UKIP.

[woolybanana]

Morning windup?

[Rabbie]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Morning windup?[/quote]You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment[:D]

[Quillan]

[quote user="ebaynut"]

Shame that a certain poster who watches "saints and scroungers" does not mention all the non white multi fraud cheats its highlights.

 

[/quote]

Unlike yourself who is clearly a racist I don't discriminate on the basis of sex, colour, sexual orientation, religion and even age although reading some of your posts you do on at least four of those points so why would I bring up the colour of those "scroungers" or anyone else. I wonder what you think about "white English" women who, allegedly, have eight or ten children by multiple fathers claiming benefit's because they "like having babies"? No doubt under UKIP or the BNP whichever your a member of will come up with forced sterilisation being on the agenda after a while.

I wonder if we will see the burning of Muslim, Polish, Romanian books on the street if UKIP get in to power, the smashing of Muslim, Polish, Romanian  owned shop windows etc? I can see where it will got, UK's own "Crystal Night" which is why I say again UKIP is an insult to those that fought in WW2 including your father, I wonder what he would think of stuff you have been writing, pretty sick I would think.

[powerdesal]

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="ebaynut"]

Shame that a certain poster who watches "saints and scroungers" does not mention all the non white multi fraud cheats its highlights.

 

[/quote]

Unlike yourself who is clearly a racist I don't discriminate on the basis of sex, colour, sexual orientation, religion and even age although reading some of your posts you do on at least four of those points so why would I bring up the colour of those "scroungers" or anyone else. I wonder what you think about "white English" women who, allegedly, have eight or ten children by multiple fathers claiming benefit's because they "like having babies"? No doubt under UKIP or the BNP whichever your a member of will come up with forced sterilisation being on the agenda after a while.

I wonder if we will see the burning of Muslim, Polish, Romanian books on the street if UKIP get in to power, the smashing of Muslim, Polish, Romanian  owned shop windows etc? I can see where it will got, UK's own "Crystal Night" which is why I say again UKIP is an insult to those that fought in WW2 including your father, I wonder what he would think of stuff you have been writing, pretty sick I would think.

[/quote] Q, like you I do not consider myself a racist or any other form of ''ist'', however, from what I have read of the UKIP manifesto and various other articles about UKIP I do not remember thinking that they were a racist party. They have some ideas that are somewhat different to the other parties and some that may even be called ''radical'' by some people but I do not think that they are any form of insult to anyone who fought in WW2 ( or since ), as an ex serving member of HM Forces I don't feel insulted by their proposed policies.

[nomoss]

[quote user="powerdesal"]

Q, like you I do not consider myself a racist or any other form of ''ist'', however, from what I have read of the UKIP manifesto and various other articles about UKIP I do not remember thinking that they were a racist party.

They have some ideas that are somewhat different to the other parties and some that may even be called ''radical'' by some people but I do not think that they are any form of insult to anyone who fought in WW2 ( or since ), as an ex serving member of HM Forces I don't feel insulted by their proposed policies.[/quote]

 

I think there may be more than a few here who in their haste to respond confuse the UKIP with the BNP[:D]

 

 

[Quillan]

Well I thought if somebody wants to get silly and stupid then why not do the same. Clearly, having read UKIP's policies, I don't think that Ebaynut has little if anything in common with them but more in common with the BNP. I have read the parts about immigration in the UKIP manifesto as I have about their economic policies and there are certainly an amount of, well shall we say, licence in their comments. I also find some of their comments aboout immigration quite unrealistic and clearly designed to attract people who I would call bordering on racist.

Fortunately it is a given that they won't get in to power, they may get one or two one term MP's but that's about it. Even with their phenomenal 'growth rate' (50 to 70% growth per election) they couldn't get a majority to govern for about about 30 years or more if you work it out. As to local government, well they don't really say a lot about what they would and would not do because quite frankly I don't think they have a clue. Therefore in the immediate future a vote for them is a wasted vote unless you are making a protest vote which I am sure many are doing.

And that's from an ex serviceman who has seen active service (29 Squadron, Falklands).

[Quillan]

[quote user="Russethouse"]When we started this business in the 1990s we borrowed an amount to see us over the first quarter, we were quite clearly told that we had to take out the insurance as a condition of the loan even though it was clear that we could never claim because we were then going to be self employed. I'm not sure I can be bothered to go through the faff of claiming,[/quote]

Well this morning I found a cheque for just over £1,500 in my letterbox. Remember the Goldfish Card, think it went bust in 2007 or somebody bought it which must of been Barclays. I send all the details and copies of my statements to the Banking Ombudsman following their advice..

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/ppi.html

months ago and heard nothing and now this cheque arrives from Barclays in settlement of my Goldfsh claim. That's three from them now in total (BC Visa, BC Mastercard and Goldfish). I didn't think I would hear a thing so as I said it's worth a try, you might get lucky plus a nice holiday somewhere.