The Political Thread

[Jim_Campbell]

I know you find it hard to believe that people don't want to work, especially anti-social shift work!

No, I don't. I really don't — like most people, I know people whose unemployed status is easily as much "won't" as "can't"...

But you have neither demonstrated any evidence that there are enough unemployed drivers sitting around on the dole to fill the vacancies, nor even said whether those vacancies have been advertised locally at all. You just "presumed" and managed to indulge a range of your prejudices in one go. Well done, you must be very pleased with yourself.

[Frank]

There are numerous unemployed drivers out there.

It's difficult to believe they'd all rather be watching Jeremy Kyle than doing a back shift. There's a huge refinery up the road from me, and the HGV drivers employed by contractors servicing it are/were all on long term contracts with well defined terms and conditions and generous pension plans. They say all the new starts taken on in recent years are on short term contracts, much smaller salaries, and no access to the pension scheme. I can't remember the last time a petrochemical company issued a profits warning to investors, so it's difficult to see the race to see how little they can pay their contractors and their employees as anything other than greed.

The oddball, Charles-Montgomery-Burns-like owner of the refinery just blackmailed shrewdly negotiated a deal with the Scottish government to underwrite a storage facility for US shale gas, so he obviously doesn't share your disdain for taxpayers' cash being lavished upon folk who've never done a real day's work in their lives.

[Professor Bear]

I know you find it hard to believe that people don't want to work, especially anti-social shift work!

No, I don't. I really don't — like most people, I know people whose unemployed status is easily as much "won't" as "can't"...

Having done years of unemployment, I can heartily recommend it as a cure for the "won't" crowd, as it sends you fucking batty eventually.

And to be fair to CF, I didn't see any swipes at cyclists in his posts so he must be mellowing with age.

[Jim_Campbell]

Having done years of unemployment, I can heartily recommend it as a cure for the "won't" crowd, as it sends you fucking batty eventually.

I graduated with a useless degree into the middle of John Major's recession and a year-and-a-half of unemployment was enough to drive me to abject despair and profound depression... and I had a supportive, caring family to help me.

Cheers

Jim

[ZenArcade]

Thank god I was spared the brew* myself....I imagine it is no fun whatsoever. Z
*dole in NI speak

[Frank]

buroo (bəˈruː Pronunciation for buroo ; bru)

Definitions
noun (plural) -roos (Scottish & Irish, dialect)

1.the government office from which unemployment benefit is distributed
2.the unemployment benefit itself (esp in the phrase 'on the buroo')

Word Origin
C20: from bureau

[ZenArcade]

Well now I did not know that. There you go. Although we do spell it differently in Ireland; invented it first and ours tastes much nicer. Z

[Leigh S]

Having done years of unemployment, I can heartily recommend it as a cure for the "won't" crowd, as it sends you fucking batty eventually.

I graduated with a useless degree into the middle of John Major's recession and a year-and-a-half of unemployment was enough to drive me to abject despair and profound depression... and I had a supportive, caring family to help me.

Cheers

Jim

I dropped out of Uni just as John Major took over the recession and did an 11 month stretch with a bastard unsupportive family of bastards piling on more pressure in any way they could see fit, but it was the unemployment that did the most damage!

[ZenArcade]

I am truely sorry to hear that Leigh, it must have been soul destroying. I thank God above every day for my good fortune in work and for a loving supportive family. I'd be a lost soul without them. Z

[Frank]

Although we do spell it differently in Ireland; invented it first and ours tastes much nicer.

Heh - not biting. Because it isn't to be found in official documents or even the journalist's lexicon, the buroo is one of those terms you only ever encounter in conversation with others, so I'm sure its written form is a revelation to many. Angus Og used to talk about going down the buroo to sign on, otherwise I wouldn't have a clue it was spelt that way:

[ZenArcade]

Ach sure we're 2 nations seperated by a different language. Z

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I too was unemployed for a year under John Major, and I didn't like it at all. Still, no one actually hassled me to get a job because IDS was a "bastard" that Major wouldn't let anywhere near his government and my Mum wanted me to go to university rather than to "get on my bike", so that's what I did. I got a grant, too. Seems like a different world...

[Leigh S]

I am truely sorry to hear that Leigh, it must have been soul destroying. I thank God above every day for my good fortune in work and for a loving supportive family. I'd be a lost soul without them. Z

Cheers Zen... weird it's only now I'm in my 40s with children of my own I can see how isolated I was back then - I was a bright kid - top of my class and all that - but I'd never had any kind of guidance as to where I was going with my life.  Managed to get through school without any careeres advice, presumably on the understanding that as i was going to go on to A levels etc, I'd sort myself out.  Randomly chose a uni course and almost as randomly dropped out without anyone questioning it.  Once I ended up on the dole there was no actual support offered - so I drifted along without any direction from family, jobcentre or self - I was  (on paper) no dope, but it was so easy to slip into that role of someone without hope - my family could have been  a lot worse, and my own resources a lot less and I find it very hard to judge anyone who finds themselves entangled in that situation worse than I ever got

[ZenArcade]

Amen to that kiddo. Z

[Fungus]

Well I have seen buroo written, often; it was the official nickname of our (Paisley) Students Union, 300 years ago...
Probably for historical reasons to do with the building, not an antagonistic swipe at the employment prospects after graduation 
... because, like others, I graduated in Major's Britain and suffered a year on the dole. Not nice. And I DID have a useful (Honours, FFS) degree. Hard Times.

This is a right spooky forum.