forevertufc wrote:Oh do not get me started on the minimum wage Andy. When the Labour goverment brought it in I was a big supporter of it, there were companys really taking the mick back then paying less than £2 an hour, however those companys were few and far between, you could look through the jobs paper/sites and see many vacant jobs back then paying well above what the original minimum wage was set at.
Over the last few years companys in general have used the mimimum wage as an excuse to impose pay freezes, less than inflation pay rises so bit by bit their pay scales have dropped to meet the minimum wage, I now see it as a bad idea, atleast in the past you had a quite a large choice between working for a few companys who were bad payers and a large number who were not, recently Mrs forever was made redundant and we were both shocked at the number of jobs where the employer wanted full quaifications in return for £6.19 an hour, who is taking the mick out of who.
As luck would have it she found a job after 6 weeks and the entry level pay was well above the min wage and full training given.
The results of a recent study showed the break even wage in this country would be around £8.54 if I remember rightly, so why is the min wage £6.19 ?
This is so true!
JOB AD: FARM HAND ( Bakewell - MEETS NAT MIN WAGE ).
Busy working farm in the middle of nowhere meaning you'll have to take transport costs out of your paltry wages too, is seeking hardworking individual for help on farm. Must have experience with livestock, a degree in agriculture or equivalent and have be able to drive a tractor, combine harvester, HGV and 4x4. Must have insemination skills, crop spraying certificates and be able to speak Icelandic.
It's a total joke, they don't want much do they?
Also i hate the way the goverment can twist job stats. Example: Job in a pub doing 8 hours a week at dinner times helping out in the kitchen. That is technically a vacancy yet it's no good to any f*cker. There are loads of these jobs. So when they say there are x amount of vacancies available lots of them are no good for a working bloke.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
Also some of the staff who work in the jobcentres are so dim it's untrue, they are also very rude. I remember a good few years back i was having an interview with one of them and given my background for working with animals ( vets, dogstrust, rspca etc ) i said i was looking for animal based work or anything with equines. SHE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT EQUINES WERE!
I wet myself laughing and got up and left, thick cow, she was really up her own arse and that moment gave me POWER!!! mOOOOOOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!! :devil:
Anyway, i never claimed as i couldn't be doing with going in every week to deal with utter morons so i got a job.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
i was made redundant a few years ago and managed to find a new job before i left my old one. i still had to sign on for a month whilst i waited to start my new job.i was being interviewed at the job centre when i explained my circumstances and the harpie that interviewed me was so nasty, spiteful and rude you wouldnt believe it. she was almost p**sed off at the fact i had a job to go to, lecturing me about how fortunate i was and how others arent so lucky. :slap: that was all i needed from someone after i had just spent the best part of 2 years suffering with bouts of depression and anxiety because my old job had been uncertain and in danger for quite some time.i had just started to feel right and was getting a bit of confidence and self esteem back even though it was a job i hadnt done before, i was taking a massive pay cut and starting at the bottom i was just glad and relieved to have a job. and somebody who is meant to help you and encourage you with employment issues nearly put me back a bit. lucky all feelings i had over the issue turned more to anger and a screw you attitude. i know those that work in the job centre have a tough job and deal with some right low life and aggro idiots but they should not treat anybody like that when it so unjustified. they certainly havent been to charm school these job centre staff.
You are my torquay, my only torquay, you make me happy when skies are grey, you'll never know, just, how much i love you, so don't take my torquay away.
(laa, laa, - laaaa, - la, la, - laa, laa, - laaaa, - la, la. - la,la,la,la,la, - la,la,la,la....).
stevegull wrote:Thanks for your explaining of the whole Europe thing Danny. The whole debate just makes it seem more and more stupid that Labour shoved all the powers in the direction of the EU as there appears to be little way out for us to go back to our 'free market'. But surely if we decide to go 'independent' then it becomes even less likely that the EU would accept us in a 'free market'? I will await the results of Cameron's negotiations, no matter how remote the possibility of a success.
It's no problem Steve, thank you for all the kind words everyone.
The big myth that comes from the pro EU supporters and the three other parties, is that if we left the European Union our trade would fall dramatically = WRONG! We are restricted in the EU to trade with the rest of the world. Britain should have a global trading economy and able to trade with people who speak our language and with countries who have fantastic rates, being in the EU, means that cannot happen.
Politicians who support the EU will say our British trade with the EU is over 50%, that is completely false! 38% of Britain's trade is with the EU and that falls every year, just like the European economy.
The EU sell £80 billion pounds more to us than we do them! If we left the European Union, they couldn't afford not to trade with us!
Britain are the 5th largest trading country in the world. We have to be represented by the unelected, non democratic bureaucrats to decide how our trade deals work. For Britain, that is a complete disadvantage!
Coming onto the minmum wage debate, these two policies of UKIP, along with the cuts of tax we wouldn't have to pay by not being in the EU, are rather good in my opinion:
· Take all minimum wage earners out of tax by raising the tax threshold to £11,500; encouraging many to work, in tandem with UKIP’s welfare reforms
· Introduce a flat tax which will make all taxpayers better off and take a further 4.5 million lower paid workers out of income tax altogether. The flat tax will merge existing income tax bands and Employees’ National Insurance contributions into a single rate, starting at that £11,500 threshold. Pension income below the higher-rate tax threshold will stay at 20%.
Been a Labout supporter all my life, and if i start typing about politics, fookin Thatcher and her privatisation 'legacy', Tories looking after their rich friends interests first etc etc then I'll not get any sleep tonight.
Needless to say I have two daughters, both working and both struggling to make ends meet (so much so the youngest is giving up her flat and moving back in with us), while their unmarried mother cousin sits on her fat idle arse all day moaning constantly on Facebook (about 5 status changes each day) when her internet is down or her new i phone 4 is playing up or her evil witch of a toddler daughter has destroyed the flat screen TV (yep it happened), smokes, drinks and is constantly boasting about when she's getting her next piercing or tattoo (feck knows where she'll have it, she's covered in them, she looks a fookin mess!), well, that makes my p155 boil.
But if the Con-Dems sort out these lazy b@5t@rds who sit on benefits rather than contributing nothing to society other than feral kids then they will get my vote.
Fags, booze, piercings, i phones, and tats are luxuries, and if you can afford them while on ANY benefit then you are receiving too much!
Rant over (for now)
'Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level then beat you with their experience!
Even as a lifelong Labour fan you must admit at least some the problems you specify wer created by Labour? During the 'boom' years with Labour these things were handed out and now we have no money left in the pot! Labour were happy to say what economic mavericks they were before the 'crash' but they obviously are not responsible for the mess we're in now! It goes both ways lads!
I too hope that the coalition can crack down on the types of people your refer to. Unfortunately it does mean that Miliband and Balls can continue their line of attack that the conservatives are 'out of touch' with people.
We're approaching an important part for many voters now, I believe. And I'm not sure too many people are fooled by the PR stunt of offering equality to same-sex couples. That's all well and good, but it isn't one of the big issues they need to sort just yet.
I love politics. No, actually, I don't, I love people's attitude to politics. 4 years ago, at the end of the last Labour reign of terror, you couldn't walk down the road without coming across someone on a rant about how everything was the fault of the incumbent Government, how the country was going to hell in a handcart and it was all the fault of Blair and Brown. Fast forward a few months, not even so far as the present day and what do we find? That's right kids, we find those same people whinging on endlessly about how the Coalition has buggered the country and how we are going to hell in a handcart because of the cuts. Face it, politicians, their alliance, the decisions they make have absolutely nothing to do with the state of the country of how you and I live our daily lives. Sure, odd things may change, we now have to pay extortionate fees to Virgin rail or whoever instead of British rail, but the trains are still late, they still refuse to run when there is a week in the month and you still have to re-mortgage your house for a single from Newton Abbot to Torquay. Hopefully, soon, homosexuals will be treated as equals in society (more on this later), that's another positive, tangible change that we have seen, but does anyone really think that we would be in any different a state now than we are if the Conservatives, or UKIP or the Monster Raving Loonies had been in power from 1997? No, of course we wouldn't. The world's money markets would still have crashed, 9/11 would still have happened, Northern Rock would still have gone under and dragged everything else with it. The only difference would have been the appearance of the man on the News at Ten telling us it's all going to be alright in the end.
Have a look back through history and see if you are able to identify any correlation whatsoever between the party in power and the state of the country. We have had boom years and we have had bust years, we have had war and peace, we have had prosperity and poverty and there is not a single link between any of these states and the party in power. What happens, happens. The changes made are so very rarely severe enough to make any real impact on an entire population, especially one as diverse as that of Britain. I'll grant you, the implementation of the NHS, or the decision to join the Second World war rather than remain neutral, these are decisions which made history and shaped the nation, but buggering about with the base rate of income tax, or following the Yanks into Iraq, in the big scheme of things, meant bugger all to anybody.
As to gay marriage, the ONLY "argument" (not actually an argument) Mr Anonymous has seen so far is "I think marriage is between a man and a woman" (or variations thereof). That isn't an argument in the same way that Mr Anonymous saying "I don't think black people should be allowed to vote" or "I don't think eyebrow shaper is a real job" isn't an argument. An argument may be that it would cause such gross offence to such a number of people (religious people, the elderly, those genuinely opposed to homosexuality, no matter how wrong they may be) that it would be undemocratic so to allow gay marriage. That, at least, has some tangible reasoning to it. The droning on from those opposed to it seems to run along the lines that they don't much care for poofs. Well, guess what, Mr Anonymous doesn't much care for them either, but that is absolutely no reason to suggest that they should not be allowed exactly the same rights and freedoms as everyone else, provided, of course, that they are subjected to exactly the same responsibilities also. Mr Anonymous doesn't much care for Exeter City supporters, but I'll defend to the death their right to support whichever damn club they jolly well like, because that is what sets us apart from the Taliban and Saddam Hussein (well,that and a pulse, I suppose). We, as a nation, harp on about our tolerance, often, we go too far with it and insist that Christianity, heterosexuality, middle class-ness and Caucasian-ism be hidden from view, as if those things by their mere presence may cause offence to those who 'do not belong'. Occasionally, we feel so strongly about the regime in other places not being the same as ours, that we wage war against them and send heavily armed thugs to murder the locals. How can we possibly hope so to do in the future with any credence, if we ourselves oppress homosexuals and their freedoms?
There is a reason that people who are 7 feet tall cannot be fighter pilots, that reason is simply that they will not fit into the jet. There is a reason that a Downs Syndrome man with an IQ of 44 cannot be a Medical Doctor, that is simply because he hasn't the intelligence. There is even a reason that Martin Rice cannot play for Barcelona, and that is simply because he hasn't the talent. There is absolutely no clear reason why homosexual people may not be joined by marriage, both spiritually and legally. Mr Anonymous will leave aside his thoughts on religion in general here, for it is an argument which will see us lose focus on the issue at hand.
That can't be Matt, there are too few paragraphs and he'd have had your life for that! :~D
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
Mr Anonymous wrote:but does anyone really think that we would be in any different a state now than we are if the Conservatives, or UKIP or the Monster Raving Loonies had been in power from 1997? No, of course we wouldn't.
Well of course it would be different?! With UKIP, we wouldn't be in the European Union and therefore would be able to govern our own country, wouldn't have to pay £53 million a day, plus the added on taxes which are just ridiculous. We would be able to control our borders with immigration and make our OWN laws, unlike the 75% of them made in Brussels! We would be able to control our trade, have free trade deals with the rest of the world, unlike trading in one who's currency is basically bankrupt! I think I could go on and on and I would if I had more time, but just to add. The Labour Party wouldn't have mucked up our economy and put us in loads of debt, wouldn't have gone to war with America and Gordon Brown wouldn't have sold all our gold reserves (400 metric tonnes) at $275 an ounce, in the years 1999-2001. In 2011, it would have been worth $13 billion dollars! But it wasn't just that, he announced what price he was going to sell it at and on what day, in advanced! So to answer your question, yes we would be in a completely different state, if a party like UKIP were in power from 1997.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
austrianandygull wrote:You posted it twice it was so good Danny!
Haha I know! Pressed the wrong bloody button, have edited it now with a cracking video! Nigel Farage ( ) just saying what I said and more to Gordan Brown (when he was PM) in the European Parliament
that was good, very good. like we have said if only so many people werent so closed minded to sticking with the same parties and would actually listen to what parties like ukip had to say who knows what might happen. he just destroyed the pm at the time more than cameron and clegg ever did and i bet hardly anyone got to see it.
You are my torquay, my only torquay, you make me happy when skies are grey, you'll never know, just, how much i love you, so don't take my torquay away.
(laa, laa, - laaaa, - la, la, - laa, laa, - laaaa, - la, la. - la,la,la,la,la, - la,la,la,la....).
i know those that work in the job centre have a tough job and deal with some right low life and aggro idiots but they should not treat anybody like that when it so unjustified. they certainly havent been to charm school these job centre staff.
) just saying what I said and more to Gordan Brown (when he was PM) in the European Parliament 
