This week in politics

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

If an economy has most of its employment from the public sector, and the public sector is experiencing job cuts, surely it stands to reason that it's going to be in the ****? You could replace Liverpool and say any number of places. Newcastle, Wales etc. Nice try with the bait though Chico.

Oh my. She even mentions milk snatching in her article. Jesus wept. Journalism at its finest. It's like they left some tub thumper from the NUS loose on the paper for the day.

It's like there aren't actually people taking home less than £200 a week, it's like there aren't actually self employed and small business owners that hadn't earned anything/ on their knees -before the vat rise.

It's like none of this exists really, it's just made up by 'The Socialist Worker' and the like.

When it becomes apparent that the 'Nation of the Süd' cares not for the people of Liverpool and the North, those people will think nothing of heading to Londinium and taking the place apart. They will think nothing of refusing to pay taxes/ evading them/ fiddling the system and the welfare state.

If your views were expressed on a soapbox in Stanley Park Bruce you would last about as long as Boris would. It is an attitude of not giving a stuff about a city and a region.

Get the fences up, and let them lot annex themselves to the E.U., the countries heart and soul lies north of Waford Gap, bomb the Thames Barrier and leave them to their own devices, huge waste of money imo cos if London floods I couldn't give a flyin'

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Oh no, you 'didn't vote Tory' did you? No, not at all.

No. I thought my views on the political system were well known. Why would I want to vote for any of them?

It's like there aren't actually people taking home less than £200 a week, it's like there aren't actually self employed and small business owners that hadn't earned anything/ on their knees -before the vat rise.

It's like none of this exists really, it's just made up by 'The Socialist Worker' and the like.

When it becomes apparent that the 'Nation of the Süd' cares not for the people of Liverpool and the North, those people will think nothing of heading to Londinium and taking the place apart. They will think nothing of refusing to pay taxes/ evading them/ fiddling the system and the welfare state.

If your views were expressed on a soapbox in Stanley Park Bruce you would last about as long as Boris would. It is an attitude of not giving a stuff about a city and a region.

Get the fences up, and let them lot annex themselves to the E.U., the countries heart and soul lies north of Waford Gap, bomb the Thames Barrier and leave them to their own devices, huge waste of money imo cos if London floods I couldn't give a flyin'

Reidy, it's not a case of not giving a toss about a region. I'm not in the Ghost league of patriotism but of course I would love the whole of the UK to be contributing economically. I mean we sure as heck need it to be if we're not going to get overtaken by the BRICs and drift further away from any international standing. It doesn't have to be banking or services, where is the UK version of the Mittlestand? Germany has the same 'disadvantages' as the UK in terms of labour costs, yet is the largest exporter in the world and has not surprisingly weathered the financial storm as well as any. No doubt Thatcher will be trotted out to blame for this in some way but surely 25 years is time enough to drag a region back to its feet. Liverpool used to have a thriving industrial economy. If the region, and many others in the UK, don't want to be at the whim of Westminster then they need to seriously diversify their economies.

 

[Muggins]

Community Outcast..

Word from Devlin, courtesy of Muggins ere.

I represent for the jobless /
That have been made redundant /
That have got four kids and don't know how to fund them /
Ever since the wife and the husband both lost their jobs at the office in London /
Now they feel financially trapped /
Now are locked with the rats in a dingy old dungeon /
Take this young father of two /
Signing on and the government says that his family are spongers /
He's like damn man we ain't got a penny or a pound /
Let alone money for milk and nappies and trainers and jumpers /
He got taken off site coz it's cheaper to pay Europeans to labour in numbers /
How's he gonna take care of his younger's /

I represent for the homeless /
Let down by a nation /
More interested in war in this nation /
When children are sleeping at railway stations /
No home or money /
They wish they could call their mummy to put a hot meal in their tummy /
So at night when the temperature drops /
I'm asking you to remember what you got /
These kids go home to a cardboard box /
They're the soul survivors /
Warming their hands with a flick and a flame in their lighters /
All their life they've been frightened /
On the streets with their head down /
Knowing deep inside that they've really been let down /
By a country that's crippled /
And I thought mankind was supposed to be simple /

I represent single Mums /
All alone on their own trying to put food in the mouths of her two sons /
And the fathers gone, there's no cash flow, lack of income /
But that's just the way it is /
She counts fifteen needles pushing her pram on the way to the lift /
And this is where Blair said it's safe to live and raise kids /
She finds her way out of the block /
With two kids in a pram and a rip and a stain in her top /
She goes to sign on just to maintain the little she's got /
For her kids sake /
But they'll never seen a decent life /
But they can dream and they'll sleep tonight /
They've been hung out and left to dry /
The kids are in bed, Mums left to cry /

I represent for the old folk, that live alone /
No family or kids at home /
And all he wants is someone to speak to but nobody rings the phone /
Sits at home in the dark, no electric /
Since his wife passed, he can't accept it /
He feels isolated, neglected /
And now his council flats infested /
So he goes to the shop for his papers /
With a stick and he falls in the mud /
The people around him all pulled him up /
But to him that's just a reminder /
He's old and he's weak with no one to love /
He sees clouds up above /
Another bad day in the diary /
An old man by the many /
Killed by society, strangled quietly /

I represent for the people /
Let down by a nation /
And left in the streets where it's evil /
Little kids surrounded by knives and heroin needles /
Yea I represent for the people /
Let down by a nation /
And left on the streets where it's evil /
Community outcast, cold, tired and feeble...

 

[The-Golden-Vision]

You wont let go of that national debt 1.security blanket will you mate? 2.That's largely due to the bail out, as you well know. I'm not in the business of defending New Labour, but 3.they got into bed with the free market because they thought they could milk the revenue and 4.carry out a progressive social policy. You and others might say it failed; 5.others will point to record health spending, Sure Start and the minimum wage to balance you out. The ends that this bunch of Tory and Tory wannabe gangsters are pursuing however are not progressive but regressive: they want to crack the state wide open and leave everyone fending for themselves in the dog eat dog world that will ensue.

They'll get what they really deserve one day. I for one will be celebrating.

1.More of a mill stone really
2.which was caused by?
3.see No 2
4.surely a joke
5.see No 1

If the Tories did everything you want you would still slate them, admit it.
The Labour Party is your security blanket, I'm fed up of paying for it.

 

[a2b chris]

Word from Devlin, courtesy of Muggins ere.

SO SO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Muggins]

SO SO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers mate.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

No. I thought my views on the political system were well known. Why would I want to vote for any of them?



Reidy, it's not a case of not giving a toss about a region. I'm not in the Ghost league of patriotism but of course I would love the whole of the UK to be contributing economically. I mean we sure as heck need it to be if we're not going to get overtaken by the BRICs and drift further away from any international standing. It doesn't have to be banking or services, where is the UK version of the Mittlestand? Germany has the same 'disadvantages' as the UK in terms of labour costs, yet is the largest exporter in the world and has not surprisingly weathered the financial storm as well as any. No doubt Thatcher will be trotted out to blame for this in some way but surely 25 years is time enough to drag a region back to its feet. Liverpool used to have a thriving industrial economy. If the region, and many others in the UK, don't want to be at the whim of Westminster then they need to seriously diversify their economies.

when manufacturing plants/ foundries/ engineering works go they don't come back, the investment required to start from scratch is just too much.
I worked at a place and we were going to be taken over by a firm called Mayflower, who have a reputation for asset stripping engineering companies and shutting them down, on the board of Mayflower was a certain Mr. Major, now mayflower were always in there when places were privatised and branches/depots/factories shut down, they are also involved in the rail industry.
I'm seeing a pattern emerging.

you just can't see that what you are saying is exactly what davek points out as the tories achilles.

25 years is enough for a region to get back on it's feet being a prime example.

Diversify ? ffs jobs became available in the public sector, so of course they were the areas that people went to work in. When all these jobs have been lost, and 12 months on the public sector starts to advertise and recruit, lets see where the jobs are located, penny to a pound they will be down south.

you do realise that when you return with your piece of ivy-league parchment that you may be unemployable? there may not be a job for you befitting of your newly gained qualification, and you will be considered overqualified for the job you do now. When reality bites it's painfull mate, I'm not wishing it on you btw.

It's very easy to get stuck in a rut, but it sure as hell isn't easy to get out if you haven't got a pot to pish in. It will seem to you at the moment that if that was the case you would just do this and that and everything would be fine, but the money soon starts to dwindle and before you know it you can't take a chance on doing some of the things required.

People who have never been in the position have absolutely no conception of the situation no matter how much they think they do, so their clear, cut & dry solutions are very often very far off the mark.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

when manufacturing plants/ foundries/ engineering works go they don't come back, the investment required to start from scratch is just too much.
I worked at a place and we were going to be taken over by a firm called Mayflower, who have a reputation for asset stripping engineering companies and shutting them down, on the board of Mayflower was a certain Mr. Major, now mayflower were always in there when places were privatised and branches/depots/factories shut down, they are also involved in the rail industry.
I'm seeing a pattern emerging.

you just can't see that what you are saying is exactly what davek points out as the tories achilles.

25 years is enough for a region to get back on it's feet being a prime example.

Diversify ? ffs jobs became available in the public sector, so of course they were the areas that people went to work in. When all these jobs have been lost, and 12 months on the public sector starts to advertise and recruit, lets see where the jobs are located, penny to a pound they will be down south.

you do realise that when you return with your piece of ivy-league parchment that you may be unemployable? there may not be a job for you befitting of your newly gained qualification, and you will be considered overqualified for the job you do now. When reality bites it's painfull mate, I'm not wishing it on you btw.

It's very easy to get stuck in a rut, but it sure as hell isn't easy to get out if you haven't got a pot to pish in. It will seem to you at the moment that if that was the case you would just do this and that and everything would be fine, but the money soon starts to dwindle and before you know it you can't take a chance on doing some of the things required.

People who have never been in the position have absolutely no conception of the situation no matter how much they think they do, so their clear, cut & dry solutions are very often very far off the mark.

Hi Reidy,

I don't know too much about the type of company/industries that used to be located in Liverpool, but I do know a bit about the Mittlestand. It's not your Siemens or BMWs, it's 3 million or so SMEs that work in very small niches that they often dominate around the world. Such enterprises don't require huge capital investments to start-up and it's hard to believe that if the talent was there that opportunities wouldn't arise. I mean if all the companies in Silicon Valley shut tomorrow I'm certain that the venture capital companies would be crawling all over the place looking to back the vast number of smart people out there in setting up new companies.

We have well known problems in Britain though. IET reported in 2009 that 50% of school leavers left without a basic grasp of science. Are we churning out people of the right calibre to produce the great companies of the future? We have some but nowhere near enough. F1 is a great example of an industry we dominate with a cluster of companies in the Woking/Berkshire area designed to build/service the motor racing industry, but that's just one. We need dozens of those around the country. The Midlands rested on its laurels and ended up losing the motor industry it had.

As a country we need to find stuff to do that is of value internationally. Right now we are incredibly reliant upon the City, and everyone's bashing the industry right now. Dubai or Hong Kong would bend over backwards to take our finance industry there. Without them what are we left with? Where are our companies to dominate their industries? We can't all work in the public sector, we need wealth creators.

you do realise that when you return with your piece of ivy-league parchment that you may be unemployable? there may not be a job for you befitting of your newly gained qualification, and you will be considered overqualified for the job you do now. When reality bites it's painfull mate, I'm not wishing it on you btw.

Should I go out there then I would imagine there's a strong chance I won't come back. I wasn't confident of our competitiveness before the financial mess but with all this debt I'm even less so. There are a whole host of emerging nations ready to take our place at the top table and it won't be long before we're a middle ranking muddler. Germany is pretty much the only European country that is in rude health. The rest range from basket cases to muddlers.

If you're going to make any change in culture you need a sense of urgency. If you look at what's happening in the news at the moment there's no urgency to do anything but complain about the loss of the status quo. The late CK Prahalad believed innovation occurs when you don't have the resources to do what you want to do. That's what we need now, I'm just not sure the country is up to it.

 

[Mvflusk]

Every party who is in government gerrymanders so its pointless to use it as a stick to beat any particular party with. Thats why at the moment there is 10-15% more people per constituency in Tory heartlands compared to Labour strongholds.