SHOULD WE ALL SUPPORT COMRADE RHODES ?

[Horace]

There was a woman on Question Time last night (Deborah Meaden who appears on Dragons Den) who made the most profound statement about what's wrong with the UK today. For years, our kids have had academic excellence thrust down their throats and told that they're a failure if they don't go to university. They aren't taught how to make things etc and go off to uni to get a degree in something that won't get them a job. Successive governments have been obsessed with league tables which apparently show that we are educating our kids better. Meanwhile, Eastern Europeans who HAVE been taught how to make things/ do hard work come in and take what jobs there are.

 

Our own young people have been given false high expectations. Vast numbers go to "university" (most used to be Technical Colleges teaching something useful) and do stuff like Media Studies. They run up big debts and come away proudly with a piece of paper that purports to be a passport to a better than average job, and then get a job in Carphone Warehouse selling mobile phones if they're lucky.

 

I'm an old codger and we are infamous for pointing out that it was better in our day. I was a coal miner's son and my dad ensured that I didn't have to do what he did, but for thousands it was a perfectly acceptable way of life (and safer than deep sea fishing, agriculture or the building industry). That cow Thatcher destroyed the industrial base of the UK and pinned her flag to the mast of "finance". Now we're paying the price. Can you find anything manufactured recently that doesn't say "Made in China" on it? They will soon be lending us money, if they aren't already.

 

We are supposed to rejoice in the fact that we don't need jobs in coal mines and foundries, hosiery factories etc because we're into high tech, international finance and IT. Have a look around and see who's doing well now - China, Korea etc, because they make things that people want/need. Did the Germans give up making things, mining coal etc? I don't think so.

[Big J R]

Must admit, I quite enjoyed Question Time last night.

 

Shame Ken (Mine's a large brandy !!) Clarky hadn't sobered up before he opened his mouth !

[Loose]

Did the Germans give up making things, mining coal etc? I don't think so.

 

No because not only did Thatcher destroy our industry - car making, steel (I note that Wales produce steel but under Indian ownership), and coal mining - she also ensured that while the germans illegally subsidised all of these industries we subsidised their doing so through the UK's contribution to the EEC.

[Horace]

Did the Germans give up making things, mining coal etc? I don't think so.

 

No because not only did Thatcher destroy our industry - car making, steel (I note that Wales produce steel but under Indian ownership), and coal mining - she also ensured that while the germans illegally subsidised all of these industries we subsidised their doing so through the UK's contribution to the EEC.

 

I see that Tata said ta-ta to Wales today - putting a steel mill in mothballs. And yes, the germans put several billion p.a. in subsidies into their coal industry.

[BUFC]

That cow Thatcher

 

Goddess cow Thatcher if you please!

[Loose]

You still selling those "As worn by Maggie Y-Fronts complete with skid marks" on Ebay ToryBoy?

[BUFC]

BUFC enough said mate.

Seems like the politics of envy are creeping into this debate, as the majority of people who don't support the strikers, and the worse of the lot, the ill educated who never had the guts to stand up to bad companies and spent a lifetime working for low pay and no decent pension, and who now think that because they have little to look forward to, nor should anyone else

 

TW*T!!

 

Never been a member of a union and dont have a pension and if i was ill educated blame the unions..........but i'll tell you one thing matey, i will be retired before i am 55 AND have enough money to live in comfort for at least 30 yrs' so you can stick your pensions-state one included- up your jacksy

If i wasnt happy working for someone the answer was, and is, simple.....leave

I dont need some closet Tory with leather patches on his jacket elbows to fight my corner

 

 

BTW....i have a daughter who has been a teacher for 8yrs and another who is in the second year of his teaching degree and neither gave any thought to the pension....they are doing it for the pleasure of the job

[missunderstood]

BUFC enough said mate.

Seems like the politics of envy are creeping into this debate, as the majority of people who don't support the strikers, and the worse of the lot, the ill educated who never had the guts to stand up to bad companies and spent a lifetime working for low pay and no decent pension, and who now think that because they have little to look forward to, nor should anyone else

 

TW*T!!

 

Never been a member of a union and dont have a pension and if i was ill educated blame the unions..........but i'll tell you one thing matey, i will be retired before i am 55 AND have enough money to live in comfort for at least 30 yrs' so you can stick your pensions-state one included- up your jacksy

If i wasnt happy working for someone the answer was, and is, simple.....leave

I dont need some closet Tory with leather patches on his jacket elbows to fight my corner

 

 

BTW....i have a daughter who has been a teacher for 8yrs and another who is in the second year of his teaching degree and neither gave any thought to the pension....they are doing it for the pleasure of the job

A good education for all should free society from all forms of bigotry, such a shame you missed out on one, as for your observation about me being a closet Tory, may I most humbly suggest that a visit from men in white coats could be imminent.

[BUFC]

about me being a closet Tory, may I most humbly suggest that a visit from men in white coats could be imminent.

 

 

bloody hell what an ego!!

[Eastside Urchin]

You only just worked that our mr anderson

[BUFC]

You only just worked that our mr anderson

 

its my ill education.....bit slow aint i

[Loose]

The pots calling it

 

Can't believe the attitudes to people who choose what to them is a safe option of a pension by paying contributions direct from their pay packets. Of course you hardly bother thinking about retiring when you begin your working life but wasn't it a tory govt. that insisted that employers provided a scheme? Maybe I'm wrong about that. If you choose a vocation because of dedication to the work then that's laudable but to rely on the state pension without making your own provision then your old age is going to be one of penury so instead you save, invest or choose the penury. Not everyone has the confidence in their ability to "pack it away" for a rainy day and in the case of public sector workers most aren't paid above the average so they have the "soft option" guaranteed and in some ways their contributions and the work many do which personally I wouldn't want to is what makes it worth 40 odd years of average pay, cleaning up other peoples sh!t etc etc. If you've arranged your own nest egg the that's your choice but denying others what has been promised them originally because you think you provide it through your taxes is priggish, and wrong imo.

[Eastside Urchin]

I just fail to see how people think the government can substain it all.For me its something that had to be cut.

I know its all the fault of the nasty bankers but when those banks are doing well,we all feel the goodness that comes from their wealth.We just can't seem to live with it when it turns bad.

No doubt there were mistakes in bonuses etc but these should and probably have been learnt from by most.

People should save more.

I put into my own pension fund out of my own wages,i did when i was on sh1t money because i feel its essential in later life,not enough people do this.

Too many people rely on governments to bail them out and when you get a government which is not in a position to bail people out to the extent they feel they have to in the future with the pensions,they will be unpopular by those who rely on them.

[Loose]

Well you're absolutely right of course, it all comes down to the funding at the end of the day and if it's not there something has to give. But some of us have no idea how much money is wasted by governments and if they left different sectors of public services just the f*ck alone thats probably were we'd find the money. Successive governments have used them variously as political footballs to get elected whilst having no real knowledge, experience, ability, skills - call it what you like - to know what the fck they are doing, just calling upon their various consultants who make political decisions and not expedient decisions.

 

Had we any idea what their various re-organisations of the NHS, schools, the Police Service, Fire Service, Social Services and countless others cost us every four to five years we would expediently never vote a different government in.

 

Camerooneys latest plans to reform the NHS are set to cost £3.4bn and we all know that won't be the final cost, in all probability it will be five times that much and will it make one fck's difference? Bugg3r will it! The NHS is so fractured now from all the re-organisations that you have duplicated areas of work, no cover in some areas of medicine, in some areas and qualifications and that the additional costs to the public don't even come into it when you consider that some patients will previously have travelled 5 - 10 miles for treatment and will suddenly find that there's no specialism even within their county to get their tonsils removed! The governments own new brand of registrations and regulations, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which was changed from three separate organisations which did actually work after a fashion is failing, instead of managing to check that care homes, hospitals, mental institutions etc are visited with some necessary 60,000 visits each year are only managing 2,000!!

 

Schools. The government have been telling anyone that they can set their own Free Schools, Academies up and yet they are already failing the Governments own targets and being closed not 12 months since opening. Ofsted like CQC is failing.

 

Our own M.O.D (mentioned elsewhere lol) are already planning to overspend their budgets by £36bn. Fck's sake, planning it lol. Meanwhile in their expertise they've broken up our aircraft carriers, sold off the jump jets for spare parts to the americans and can't get a replacement in place until something like 2023.

 

Governments, don't trust the tw4ts. They spend your money very badly and then they shaft you in your old age.

[Eastside Urchin]

My missus works for an academy,to be honest before it was turned into an academy it was doing well after getting a kick up the ar$e from ofsted at various points,not so sure they are doing as well,she certainly isn't as happy there as before but not too sure that is a government issue.

We all know deep down that Governments aren't to be trusted,i have no faith in any particular party to be honest,which is why i decided a long time ago to make my own provisions for old age,but lets face it,who knows what life will be like in 30 odd years when i retire???

[Loose]

Govt. policy mate, check it out for yourself but all it's really meant to do is widen the gulf between top schools and already under performing ones, attract increased funding and they are failing, certainly in the North West where I could bore to death on the £350m spent on opening three that are now closing.

[missunderstood]

I just fail to see how people think the government can substain it all.For me its something that had to be cut.

I know its all the fault of the nasty bankers but when those banks are doing well,we all feel the goodness that comes from their wealth.We just can't seem to live with it when it turns bad.

No doubt there were mistakes in bonuses etc but these should and probably have been learnt from by most.

People should save more.

I put into my own pension fund out of my own wages,i did when i was on sh1t money because i feel its essential in later life,not enough people do this.

Too many people rely on governments to bail them out and when you get a government which is not in a position to bail people out to the extent they feel they have to in the future with the pensions,they will be unpopular by those who rely on them.

The public service workers also put part of their wages into their pension fund and are not asking anyone to bale them out. All they are asking is that the government honour mutually agreed terms and conditions relating to their pensions, which is an important part of their salary structure.