Cameron: "Cuts will change our way of life"

[s(k)aturation]

Quote:

SD I know you know corporations don't think like that. They don't see beyond the reach of their hand, that's why we're heading for ecological and economic disaster. If only they did think about the future, that'd be a dream - that'd be a model of capitalism I could live with, one that extracts a profit but protects the greater good, rather than one which pursues short term goals and immediate, maximised profit above all else.

 

Eg. The ex-Celtic Tiger.

[dennis tooth]

BBC News - Sefton Council football and bowling fee rise 'ludicrous'

 

Sport is a luxury for the rich. They want to take over the playing feilds at rock bottom prices and build some apartments, then rent them back to people.

[Hooch]

BBC News - Sefton Council football and bowling fee rise 'ludicrous'

 

Sport is a luxury for the rich. They want to take over the playing feilds at rock bottom prices and build some apartments, then rent them back to people.

 

Heard about this last week, my team used to play on Buckley Hill till about 5 years ago when we moved over to the Civ across the way, and we bitch and moan that they charge us £900 a year pitch fees. From what I remember Buckley Hill charged less than £400, and now it's going up to £1400!!

Sunday League footy is dying already, and then this garbage.

 

We will stop complaining to the Civ now, but then I'll bet the cunts raise their pitch fees next year in light of this.

[VladimirIlyich]

Heard about this last week, my team used to play on Buckley Hill till about 5 years ago when we moved over to the Civ across the way, and we bitch and moan that they charge us £900 a year pitch fees. From what I remember Buckley Hill charged less than £400, and now it's going up to £1400!!

Sunday League footy is dying already, and then this garbage.

 

We will stop complaining to the Civ now, but then I'll bet the cunts raise their pitch fees next year in light of this.

 

Halton Sunday Football League has just gone bust this last couple of weeks.Has gone from 4 divisions to 1 in recent years and now none.

 

Back on topic.It seems the current brand of Capitalism doesnt register with the word ENOUGH when it comes to making a profit.Its fine to make a profit of course as every business needs to make money to exist but to keep making profits by cutting jobs,safety and various other things means that when the inevitable closedown happens the only winners are the few at the top with the golden handshake contracts.These same people go on to recycle the same methods over again.

 

If there was a common interest in the bigger picture then we might have a steady economy that could cope with the peaks and troughs that are a historical certainty.

[dennis tooth]

Theyve not got much choice have they in the face of that or closing more schools because of the Tory 'cuts' agenda.

[Section_31]

Halton Sunday Football League has just gone bust this last couple of weeks.Has gone from 4 divisions to 1 in recent years and now none.

 

Back on topic.It seems the current brand of Capitalism doesnt register with the word ENOUGH when it comes to making a profit.Its fine to make a profit of course as every business needs to make money to exist but to keep making profits by cutting jobs,safety and various other things means that when the inevitable closedown happens the only winners are the few at the top with the golden handshake contracts.These same people go on to recycle the same methods over again.

 

If there was a common interest in the bigger picture then we might have a steady economy that could cope with the peaks and troughs that are a historical certainty.

 

 

I think when you build a society and an economic model on self interest you get self interested people running both. The problem then is that you need to rein it in with state regulation, but that's exactly what we don't do anymore - and under this Government this will be even more so.

 

The idea that you take off the cumbersome shackles of the state and the creative and free spirited free market will run free and wild, exploring wonderous new avenues of advancement, the coat tales of which we can all ride to greater and better things. Of course this was proven to be painfully false in 2008 when we found out an entire industry had been playing Russian Roultte with our lives, and even their own firms, in the hope of making a quick buck.

 

What should and could have happened at that point is we took stock as a society, looked at what went wrong and tried to regulate it properly, but if anything we've gone even further down the road - in almost every country you look at the state is under attack, both financially and ideologically, it's incredible stuff to behold - and underlines what I said above about corporate fascism emerging as big bussinesses response to an perceived attack on its hegemony.

 

These people, this 'sector', is built only on self interest, they are not fit to lead the state anywhere (it's a matter of accepted fact that a large proportion of high functioning psychopaths flourish in the boardroom and in business in general) this is not a ship I want to sail.

 

The state has a duty of care that transcends self interest and cash, it has other duties to perform, more noble ones I dare say, if run correctly. The fact it's been allowed to become almost a dirty word, whether it be as some cumbersome, lumbering worthless employer of worthless people - as it's become perceived over here - or as in the likes of Greece where it's just branded a 'basket case' and used as an excuse to strip people of their working rights, is an absolute disgrace and yet more abject surrender from the so called liberal left wing press.

[Strontium]

What should and could have happened at that point is we took stock as a society, looked at what went wrong and tried to regulate it properly, but if anything we've gone even further down the road - in almost every country you look at the state is under attack, both financially and ideologically, it's incredible stuff to behold - and underlines what I said above about corporate fascism emerging as big businesses response to an perceived attack on its hegemony.

 

 

The problem is not as simple as "big business" or "the state", it's the synergy of the two. We have had a corporatocratic state with politicians bought and paid for by large private interests.

 

Crony capitalism is the problem, not capitalism.

[dennis tooth]

Oh high above the trees and the reeds like rainbows

they landed soft as moonglow

in greens and reds they fluttered past the windows

ah but nobody cared or saw

 

til the hungry came in crowds

with their guns and dozers

and soon the peace was over

God what were they thinking of?

 

Oh on and on til dreams come true

you know a piece of us all goes with you

 

Oh the birds went down

they fell and they faded to the dozens

Til in a Cincinnati Zoo was the last one

 

Yes all that remained was the last

with a name of Martha

Very proud, very sad, but very wise

 

Oh as the lines filed by there were few who cared

or could be bothered

how could anyone have treated you harder

and it was all for a dollar or more

 

Oh on and on til dreams come true

you know a piece of us all goes with you

 

Oh and surrounded there by some of whom wept around her

in a corner of the cage they found her

she went as soft as she came so shy til the last song

oh the passenger pigeon was gone...

[VladimirIlyich]

The problem is not as simple as "big business" or "the state", it's the synergy of the two. We have had a corporatocratic state with politicians bought and paid for by large private interests.

 

Crony capitalism is the problem, not capitalism.

 

Croneyism is part of the problem and so is modern capitalism.

 

The general difference is that croneyism in public services actually benefits the general public a lot more than the croney capitalism that runs rife with Tory governments.

[s(k)aturation]

In Australia, our Conservative Party, called the Liberals perhaps a little ironically, do a fairly good job of capitalism, sometimes even somewhat croneyist, that general results in a pretty reasonable distribution of wealth and benefits. And a great quality of life, most here agree.

 

But every now and then, people vote them out. Most recently, and the reason I hate most in elections, was because it "time for a change". What we got was the highest carbon tax in the world for one of the world's least "carbon-culpable" countries and an attempt at imposing a crippling tax on the mining industry, the chief source of the nation's wealth and exports.

 

All because it was time for a change. Curious.

[VladimirIlyich]

In Australia, our Conservative Party, called the Liberals perhaps a little ironically, do a fairly good job of capitalism, sometimes even somewhat croneyist, that general results in a pretty reasonable distribution of wealth and benefits. And a great quality of life, most here agree.

 

But every now and then, people vote them out. Most recently, and the reason I hate most in elections, was because it "time for a change". What we got was the highest carbon tax in the world for one of the world's least "carbon-culpable" countries and an attempt at imposing a crippling tax on the mining industry, the chief source of the nation's wealth and exports.

 

All because it was time for a change. Curious.

 

You dont realise what you have until its gone.

[Section_31]

Read more: 'Back to work' tsar at centre of fraud probe over claims 'funding went on jobs lasting just a day' | Mail Online

 

 

Spiffing.

 

The company run by David Cameron’s ‘Back to Work Tsar’ Emma Harrison is at the centre of a fraud investigation.

The Department for Work and Pensions confirmed last night that a probe into A4e – headed by Mrs Harrison – was under way.

A source at the company told The Mail on Sunday that on Friday afternoon, officers from Thames Valley Police visited the company’s offices in Slough, Berkshire.

The source said they stayed for up to four hours and demanded staff hand over documents and computer files dating back two years. He confirmed: ‘Police were in the office on Friday going back over contracts.’

The source added that police had indicated they planned to make further visits to other A4e offices throughout the country.

It is also the source’s understanding that the police were investigating claims that the company had put some people in jobs for just one day, but claimed the funding nonetheless.

It is believed that Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling was last night made aware of the investigation into A4e.

The company is majority-owned by Mrs Harrison, who has made millions from running her work programmes under both Labour and the Conservatives.

Last week it was revealed that she had been paid an £8.6 million dividend after A4e’s turnover rose to £234 million.

The disclosure that A4e is being investigated for alleged fraud will be an embarrassment for Mr Cameron.

'Posh commune': Emma Harrisons home Thornbridge Hall in Derbyshire which she shares with friends

Last year, he appointed Mrs Harrison as his ‘Families Champion’, giving her responsibility for getting problem families back into work.

Mrs Harrison, 48 – who is reportedly worth £70 million – is chairman of A4e, a global multi-million-pound training company. She was once jobless before she drove A4e from a small company set up to retrain redundant Sheffield steelworkers to an operation spanning 11 countries.

The firm has received Government contracts worth millions of pounds over the past 20 years.

Mrs Harrison with her husband Jim

Mrs Harrison lives with her husband Jim and their four children – two boys and two girls – in Thornbridge Hall, a Grade II listed 12th Century mansion. It is an opulent ten-bedroom property set in a 100-acre estate in Derbyshire.

They share their home with 11 close friends and the six children they have between them. Mrs Harrison has reportedly described the set-up as a ‘posh commune’.

After completing an engineering degree at Bradford University, she joined her father’s training company but eventually set up her own firm, Action For Employment, in 1991 to provide redundant steelworkers with training to find new jobs.

 

Multi-million-pound government contracts followed for the Sheffield-based company. In the year to March 2011, A4e’s turnover rose from £190 million to £234 million. Pre-tax profits rose by £5.5 million to £15 million.

Mrs Harrison has appeared on a number of television programmes, once trying to find worthy causes to help on a council estate in Dagenham for Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire.

In 2010, A4e featured in two episodes of the series Benefit Busters and earlier this year she was on screen again, guiding four celebrities in the BBC1 reality series Famous, Rich And Jobless.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: ‘We cannot comment any further on an ongoing investigation.’ But a source said that the probe related to fraud.

Thames Valley Police said it was unable to either confirm or deny whether A4e’s Slough premises had been visited by its officers.

A spokesperson for A4e said: ‘If there are any allegations or investigations of fraud in any of our activities, we will co-operate fully with the DWP and also anything referred to the police.

‘We have a zero-tolerance policy of fraud in A4e.’

 

 

[craigLCF]

That's grim yet not all that surprising. I'm on placement with a social enterprise/charity at the mo, teaching adults literacy and numeracy but they also have a job-brokering service. The funding gets smaller every year which results in redundancies yet the targets remain the same. They now have a limit of 6 months imposed on them for working with people which means the most needy get turned away as the organisation won't be able to get them 'job ready' and into employment in that timescale. Everyone there has strong morals but what can they do? If they don't hit the targets then it's goodnight for the whole organisation and they won't be able to do any good work. Job brokers are all cherry picking their clients, I guess that A4e have just taken this to extremes.

[Section_31]

In theory world, these firms should come up with radical ways of achieving their targets such as new teaching and learning methods, their competitors should then be compelled to do the same. Anyone who's worked in the private sector however, will know they'll simply shine shit and call it gold.

[Strontium]

...teaching adults literacy and numeracy...

 

 

Isn't it depressing that there are adults who need to be taught basic literacy and numeracy? Is it any wonder we have so many unemployed when there are people who are simply unemployable?

[Jose Jones]

Isn't it depressing that there are adults who need to be taught basic literacy and numeracy? Is it any wonder we have so many unemployed when there are people who are simply unemployable?

 

The unemployment rate averaged under 5% for 10 years when Labour were in power.

Not that they are unblameable for some of the problems with the economy and indeed education.

Nice to see you are following the mantra though SD.

[dickie mint]

Isn't it depressing that there are adults who need to be taught basic literacy and numeracy? Is it any wonder we have so many unemployed when there are people who are simply unemployable?

 

 

What about the people who dont fall into this catagory but still cant find suitable employment,then again there always them jobs in the private sector at them wonderfull employers Asda,Tesco and Morrisons and do you know what they will pay you minnimum wage and everything is sound is it - dont think so.

[melons]

Emma Harrison - couldn't happen to a more worthy person.

 

 

 

 

Isn't it depressing that there are adults who need to be taught basic literacy and numeracy? Is it any wonder we have so many unemployed when there are people who are simply unemployable?

 

Nothing to do with the education system for failing them then? Or to balance it, graduate unemployment is at a 15/17 year high depending on who you ask?

 

 

 

What about the people who dont fall into this catagory but still cant find suitable employment,then again there always them jobs in the private sector at them wonderfull employers Asda,Tesco and Morrisons and do you know what they will pay you minnimum wage and everything is sound is it - dont think so.

 

 

Paid for it? You're being generous, tesco just tried to blag a night shift offering a wage of JSA plus expenses.

 

Tesco's unpaid labour shows the flaw at the heart of workfare | Left Foot Forward

[Strontium]

The unemployment rate averaged under 5% for 10 years when Labour were in power.

Not that they are unblameable for some of the problems with the economy and indeed education.

Nice to see you are following the mantra though SD.

 

 

What mantra? The elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge is that hundreds of thousands of people in this country are essentially unemployable, and the labour of thousands more isn't even worth minimum wage.

 

Good to see you acknowledge that the current government isn't wholely to blame for the situation; the way some go on you would think that these millions of adults who can barely read, write or add up sprung fully-formed into being in May 2010 :whatever:

 

What about the people who dont fall into this catagory but still cant find suitable employment

 

 

What about them? I wasn't making any comment about those people.

 

Nothing to do with the education system for failing them then?

 

 

Yes, everything to do with that. It's a fundamental problem in our society. How can we find jobs for people when they are leaving school without even being able to read properly, especially while the Chinese are churning out engineers like a mass production line.

[Stu Monty]

What mantra? The elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge is that hundreds of thousands of people in this country are essentially unemployable, and the labour of thousands more isn't even worth minimum wage.

 

Good to see you acknowledge that the current government isn't wholely to blame for the situation; the way some go on you would think that these millions of adults who can barely read, write or add up sprung fully-formed into being in May 2010 :whatever:

 

What about them? I wasn't making any comment about those people.

 

Yes, everything to do with that. It's a fundamental problem in our society. How can we find jobs for people when they are leaving school without even being able to read properly, especially while the Chinese are churning out engineers like a mass production line.

 

Dog, do you not see any correlation in the skills that people are coming out of the education system with and their irrelevancy to the global system. They are superfluous. Surely you wouldn't deny that as the population of the planet booms and technology continues to advance there will be left huge tranches of people in developed countries than are no longer required to play any part in the system.

 

The Chinese are churning out engineeers because they are investing in infrastructure for their country, if they weren't, they wouldn't be.

 

I'm also still intrigued as to how you seperate cronyism and capitalism. I'm not saying cronyism is a product of capitalism (it isn't) but it's now one of the foundation stones of global capitalism and to try and suggest you could now have capitalism without the cronyism is, in my opinion, fanciful. Given how central a pillar of capitalism cronyism is, does that not make you question if it is still a viable system?

[dickie mint]

What mantra? The elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge is that hundreds of thousands of people in this country are essentially unemployable, and the labour of thousands more isn't even worth minimum wage.

 

Good to see you acknowledge that the current government isn't wholely to blame for the situation; the way some go on you would think that these millions of adults who can barely read, write or add up sprung fully-formed into being in May 2010 :whatever:

 

 

 

 

What about them? I wasn't making any comment about those people.

 

 

 

 

Yes, everything to do with that. It's a fundamental problem in our society. How can we find jobs for people when they are leaving school without even being able to read properly, especially while the Chinese are churning out engineers like a mass production line.

 

 

So what is your masterplan Sir Keith Joseph

Stop the new school building program,

put up tuition fees,

less working class kids going into University.

Dont worry Sir Brenard Ingham your other masterplan is nearly coming to fruition,you know the one,kids on Goverment schemes then into shitty dead end jobs for shite pay while you and Sir philip Green and all the other leeches live off genuine peoples backs.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

 

Isn't it depressing that there are adults who need to be taught basic literacy and numeracy? Is it any wonder we have so many unemployed when there are people who are simply unemployable?

 

You really have no idea why people are left in the position as adults to require the need to be taught basic literacy an numeracy, do you?

 

The system failed the majority of these people in school, labelling them thick and cast them aside to fend for themselves. Many suffered poor upbringing and were belittled if they tried to enter themselves, by their families and friends etc. Those who suffer with dyslexia had no plans in place in school to help them combat it, a lot from my generation and earlier were told they were thick and lazy because the system did not know how to deal with it.

 

Brush it under the carpet like it never happened.

 

I spoke with many who looked back and wished they had the support their kids get in school nowadays and that being in the bottom class was no badge of honour with fellow pupils like it was back then.

 

People who struggled with addiction for years used to have a real sense of pride when they would achieve their goal of becoming more literate and gaining basic skills.

 

Many people who have literacy and numeracy problems are employable, I should know I helped get hundreds back into work with these problems.

 

It's a very arrogant attitude to have SD, beyond arrogance maybe.

 

Oh and A4E, scumbag of a company who bled the funding dry by doing very little and Cameron got all his mates big money spinning contracts on the Work Programme and the Lib Dem's backed him all the way.

[dickie mint]

You really have no idea why people are left in the position as adults to require the need to be taught basic literacy an numeracy, do you?

 

The system failed the majority of these people in school, labelling them thick and cast them aside to fend for themselves. Many suffered poor upbringing and were belittled if they tried to enter themselves, by their families and friends etc. Those who suffer with dyslexia had no plans in place in school to help them combat it, a lot from my generation and earlier were told they were thick and lazy because the system did not know how to deal with it.

 

Brush it under the carpet like it never happened.

 

I spoke with many who looked back and wished they had the support their kids get in school nowadays and that being in the bottom class was no badge of honour with fellow pupils like it was back then.

 

People who struggled with addiction for years used to have a real sense of pride when they would achieve their goal of becoming more literate and gaining basic skills.

 

Many people who have literacy and numeracy problems are employable, I should know I helped get hundreds back into work with these problems.

 

It's a very arrogant attitude to have SD, beyond arrogance maybe.

 

Oh and A4E, scumbag of a company who bled the funding dry by doing very little and Cameron got all his mates big money spinning contracts on the Work Programme and the Lib Dem's backed him all the way.

 

 

 

Excellent post and I have seen this first hand,cant wait for Jeremy Thorpe 's answere obviously after he as looked in to his ladybird book of coalition policies.

[dennis tooth]

Haha @ Lansley getting heckled. More of this please.

[craigLCF]

Isn't it depressing that there are adults who need to be taught basic literacy and numeracy? Is it any wonder we have so many unemployed when there are people who are simply unemployable?

 

I'm not sure whether it was intentional but I find that a little offensive. There are 480,000 job vacancies in the UK and 2.7 million unemployed so I don't think you can apportion all the blame on the individual. The jobs in my area are basically retail, catering and care. I recently started working with a couple of guys in their 50s who just lost their jobs as lorry drivers. What can they do to gain employment?

 

About half the learners I teach have very recently been employed and many move back into employment very quickly, the turnover is very high. I think you would be surprised how resourceful these people are as they develop coping strategies to get on in life. I actually think a big part of the problem is the English language itself as languages like Finnish, Italian and Spanish tend pronounced exactly as they are spelt which is how UK dyslexic dictionaries function. Conversely, English has a million different rules which makes it more complex.

 

Our education system is obsessed with rote-memory, obedience and testing. We are also still dire at picking up Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, etc. We have a lot to learn from Finland...

 

No standardised tests

No private schools

Less homework

Less school hours

More co-operation and less competition

Teachers are given decent pay and a lot of autonomy

 

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - National - The Atlantic