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[keasy]

Maybe everyone who voted tory should volunteer to be first out of a job.

What a brilliant statement   

[Wooster]

 

[Thermalsig]

So,the way I see it from this discussion is from to polar sides of the island? The Scott liberal view that I've paid my dues and give me my worth. A fair days pay for a fair days wage. I am a liberal, but I realize the worth the market can bring to bear in conjunction with social reform. I see C's thought that you have to support business and fiscal conservatives and stabilize the economy. A trickle down kind to the little man through support of business. Here's my view. The market has had to much free reign for the last 15 years and has bankrupted us. Financially and morally. I believe in the market and the ability to help improve society, but not with out govt control. That has been sorely missing. I believe that business has really gone full tilt overboard to support the investor and has forgotten the bottom line. If the working man producing the product is living not far off the poverty line, what is to gain by working harder? It's a vicious circle that puts people in the moral pits. I do not place any faith in the belief that humane natures ego can ultimately survive with out the belief that if I work harder, I will have more. That is maybe where I have a hard time swallowing the pill of not giving a little back to society because "I paid for it, I deserve it". It's ultimately not for me only in my mind, it's for society. I will admit to having a bit of a grudge against business, but I'm not willing to throw tire tracks on it with out realizing it's place in the market and it's ability to help correct. I will how ever keep an eyeball and ask for more govt(meaning cost control that is fair to the people at large) oversight.

[Wooster]

Going back to the original point for a bit..

Most people work if they can and most of the families I know have two working parents in the household.
When one gets made redundant, the other usually has to take up the reigns and work overtime and the other devotes more time to raising the kids.
What happens in those for weeks the other is forced into doing unpaid work?
Where do the kids go? Daycare that they couldn't afford for the eleven months before?
Where do the additional expenses of carrying out this unpaid work come from when JSA is the bare minimum amount that you are supposed to be able survive on?
Will it result in a two tier system in some sectors.
What will all those people carrying out Community Service punishments do when the role is filled with the jobless? (Take a month off and put their feet up?)

And lets not forget the other side of this nefarious plan.
The proposal to make prisoners work a 40 hour week.

Something that on the face of it, looks like a good idea, but in reality will threaten even more jobs since it involves prisoners working for a pittance for private companies.
...the logical result of which will be a drop in the already shitty wages at the low end of the pay scale, and even more on the dole.
(That's the kind of work the good people of the UK had already turned their noses up at.. which led to the rise in immigration that boiled the piss of every Daily Mail reader.)

It has to be nipped in the bud or we'd all be as well hitting the cotton fields tomorrow.

[keasy]

Prisoners working for private sector or even public sector is new to me, I never knew that.


I'm al lfor them working but like it was in the older days when the work was supporting them as a self contained community.
Grew their own veg.
Better nutrition. Gives them work. Saves money on tax payers.
That sort of idea.
But no doubt there is some wonky European legislation on the human rights act that prevents any common sense.


I always liked the idea of giant man sized dynamo mouse wheels attached to battery banks they can exercise in.  
They could sell the surplus electricity they produce....prison power, convict tricity, powercon and so on...

[Wooster]

I always liked the idea of giant man sized dynamo mouse wheels attached to battery banks they can exercise in.  
They could sell the surplus electricity they produce....prison power, convict tricity, powercon and so on...

That's (sort of) why prison guards are called 'Screws'.

In ye olden days some prisons had inmates spend all day turning a crank handle.
It wasn't even attached to anything, but to make it harder on them the guards could tighten a big screw down on the axle.
(I'm pretty sure the big mouse wheel idea has been used before as well  )

[keasy]

I actually knew that
The big mouse wheel was proposed back then I'm sure.
But I propose creating electricity...maybe they could call them electro-guards.

[corroded]

Maybe everyone who voted tory should volunteer to be first out of a job.

What a brilliant statement    

My area has been since 1881.

Apart from four years.

When it got rezoned.

And still was tory.

Seriously, I could run around in a chimp costume and get more votes than Labour in my area. I think the last Labour total was about 300. :|

[Wooster]

Conservatism used to be quite popular in Scotland (when it was called the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party).
Over the years they've gone steadily downhill, and even given the woeful performance of the Labour Party in recent years they still only managed to claw back less than 1% of the vote.
I can't think of a a more obviously damning indictment of how they are perceived up here.

1950    44.8%    
1951    48.6%    
1955    50.1%    
1959    47.3%    
1964    40.6%    
1966    37.7%    
1970    38.0%    
1974 (Feb)    32.9%    
1974 (Oct)    24.7%    
1979    31.4%    
1983    28.4%    
1987    24.0%    
1992    25.8%    
1997    17.5%    
2001    15.6%    
2005    15.8%    
2010    16.7%

[gi joe]

Haven't read rest of thread but saw small bit of the article.  Sounds well bet and so clearly their way of claiming "We've cut unemployment".  No you haven't, you've force people into free labour, but also, because they will be on job seekers allowance, they need to be available for work.  Because they won't be available for work as you are forcing them to do something for free, you'll then take them off job seekers allowance.

I use to be on it, then was forced to go to a shitty scheme thing helping us with CVs, interviews etc.  It was shit.  Government funded but not owned by them.  They'd have to get grants each year.  So they'd scam it.  If you hadn't got a job after the 4 weeks you were there, they'd stick you in a charity shop, doing work for free.  They could then claim they'd found you work.  I wanted to get into IT, how would working in a charity shop with old birds help with that FFS.

It's been over 3 years since then, they've now gone bust.  Good, fuckers.

[gi joe]

I still don't have a problem on a whole with the scheme. I think it's a good thing for people to do a little bit of something after a while.

But I do.  I would of possibly been one of those people over 3 years ago.  However, I was told my JSA was being funded from the years of NI I'd paid.  So why should I then be forced into forced labour, into a job that has no interest for me and will not benefit my career choice.  Because they will give you shitty jobs.  You will be a long side cons who are on community service orders, I guarantee it.  Picking up litter or working in charity shops.  As I said before, the place they sent you after a few weeks on JSA, that company would force you to work in a charity shop, if during the time you were with them, you hadn't found a place to do trial work.  Most companies never took the people on from this scheme because they thought they were all just wasters or ex cons (which some were, wasters and an ex con who had been inside for burglary and fraud in our group).  I wanted to do IT, being forced to then work in a fucking charity shop, wouldn't of got me any closer to that goal.

[corroded]

I always liked the idea of giant man sized dynamo mouse wheels attached to battery banks they can exercise in.  
They could sell the surplus electricity they produce....prison power, convict tricity, powercon and so on...

Are you sure you aren't a politician Keas

Force Labour is bad!
Except when it's Cons providing Electricity. That's awesome!!!!!