BS: Britons shall be slaves?

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 10:47 AM

I hope this is satire. Is this 'Poe's Law' in action? I'll bite in any case...

"i wish you lot would stop moaning.We have got the Olympics aint we..this generating billiions for the country."

That's yet to be seen. If it does actually generate £billions, whose pockets will it end-up in, the taxpayer that forked out £9 billion in the first place? That's fairly unlikely.

"People are queuing up to get into this country. "

And yet London's tourism is down whilst Paris', Berlin's &c. is up. The expected throngs have failed to materialise in the way that were touted.

"For all its faults they pay you to sit at home on your arses doing nowt. Why shouldnt you get out and do little for your food and rent and cheesy chips and gravy, mobile phones and sky telly etc..."

Ridiculous argument. Part of the problem with 'workfare' is the way it's been sold. The 'voluntary' nature of it is incredibly ambiguous. The idea of doing a "little" is misleading as often people are working 30+ hours a week on these schemes, as well as having to meet JobCentre requirements regarding finding non-existent paid work*.

It's also often for far longer than is often believed, not the 4 weeks usually spouted by the government. There's a lot of rumours that mandatory 6 months periods of workfare will be announced in the Autumn. Also, workfare comes in various flavours: one of which (the one that a lot of disabled, long term sick, mental health issues &c are being pushed on to) is pretty much indefinite. Basically acknowledging most of them wouldn't find a normal job under normal circumstances but without employers paying them, not to mention a new benefit rate far below what they were receiving before.

Refusal to do any of these schemes can now lead up to as much as 3 years with no benefits at all. It's not even as if benefits afford the luxurious standards of living the right-wing press claim. A few minutes with a pen and paper will show that JSA minus gas/electric/water/food &c doesn't lend itself to a luxury lifestyle of plasma tellys, being in the pub everyday, takeways every night, having all the latest phones, foreign holidays and whatever else right-wing fantasists believe.

Even the idea about who are on these schemes is distorted. Often it's people that have worked for long periods of time already, perhaps all their adult lives. Other times it's people that have done as the government has said, gone to college, gone to university and still can't find work. This 'get them into a routine and out bed' bollocks, is just that, bollocks. As is the 'not looking for work' arguments: proof of job seeking has been required (and the lack of penalised) for a long time now.

Perhaps the worst of this is that even government's own studies have shown that having been on these schemes you're less likely to find a real job with real money than if you didn't. In the meantime, firms like A4E rake in £millions of taxpayer's money to do what the JobCentre &c. was already doing and the taxpayer gets nothing for it.

The whole thing is a scam. Any worth in the 'work experience' it provides cancels itself out. If 1000s of people have done exactly the same jobs in exactly the scheme in exactly the same shops (and it is mainly corporate, chain-based retail work) then the more people that do it, the less 'edge' or 'competitiveness' it provides. cf arguments about the worth of degrees the more people took them. As is the idea that it leads onto paid work at these places. How or why should it be the case when there's now an endless conveyor belt of workers that don't need to be paid? Some of the chains, like Holland & Barrett, that utilise workfare have reports of workers now unable to find overt-time, extra shifts &c because those times are now filled with unpaid staff.

It's a sop to Daily Mail readers with no real argument other than 'I work so they should too', neatly forgetting we're in economic meltdown where the private sector has failed to step in as promised.

"you have had it soft for to long..long live this government i say. "

Governments of the last 30 years or so have had it "soft".

Again, if there's jobs to be done, then pay job's wages.

*to pre-empt any 'them foreigners find plenty of work!' type arguments, it's worth checking out charities dealing with homeless East Europeans who are finding it difficult to find work in places like London, Manchester &c. Also, a lot of East Europeans are 'only' doing seasonal or temporary work before going home: think of 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet' in reverse.

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,sensible chap
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 09:18 AM

i wish you lot would stop moaning.We have got the Olympics aint we..this generating billiions for the country. People are queuing up to get into this country. For all its faults they pay you to sit at home on your arses doing nowt.Why shouldnt you get out and do little for your food and rent and cheesy chips and gravy, mobile phones and sky telly etc...you have had it soft for to long..long live this government i say.

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 08:56 AM

'Well I get sweet fuck all - and that's after paying tax and NI for 44 years'


Moi aussi!

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 08:23 AM

"Of course they are not working unpaid. They receive benefit support which can include living allowance and rent and other stuff."

Well I get sweet fuck all - and that's after paying tax and NI for 44 years. If they ask me to work for nothing I'll tell them where to stick it.

You're right, Mr Happy, it's slavery all right. What has this country come to?

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: meself
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 08:18 AM

"But one of the main providers of the programme, A4e, is currently the subject of a police investigation into allegations of fraud related to government schemes. In May, the government ended a contract with the welfare-to-work company."

Do you use the term "boondoggle" in the UK?

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 06:07 AM

"Of course they are not working unpaid. They receive benefit support which can include living allowance and rent and other stuff. "

If there's a job to be done, then pay them a job's wages.

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 05:59 AM

Of course they are not working unpaid. They receive benefit support which can include living allowance and rent and other stuff.

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 05:50 AM

Ditto

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 05:49 AM

Sounds like slavery to me.
(:-( O)=

Subject: RE: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 05:32 AM

Sorry should be in BS Section

Subject: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 05:31 AM

DWP just won case over forcing job seekers to work 30 hours/week for no pay.

Story here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19146347

Discuss