British Workers Wanted - Channel 4

[James Wilkinson Sword]

The law needs changing. Go on strike, get fired, end of story.

[tim...]

food might be more expensive on a one year timeline

on a 20 year time line it most definitely isn't (relatively speaking)

tim

[tim...]

ITYF It's mostly through choice

tim

[tim...]

for the average user it's likely to be worth less in London than it is elsewhere

single point to point tickets to the shops being much cheaper than similar distance rural fares

of course if you are a bus spotter spending his day out on the road (because you have nothing better to do) it has greater value, but not too many people do that.

tim

[tim...]

in London, they do (or did anyway)

[tim...]

ITYF that it isn't that easy

tim

[Andrew]

Really ?.

My work at a telecoms firm was outsourced to India in 2008 and I managed ok on the money I had kept back in my Ltd Co during the good years, for the next 4 years.

Since 2012 I have been getting a small NHS pension of £3,500 a year and I have made a point of trying to live on that and only use capital on rare occasions. I managed quite easily, so it can be done.

In late 1978 I saw an advert for trainee computer programmers at Control Data Institute in Wells St London. I hated the people I was working with at the time (NHS path lab) so I resigned and left and started this 18 week course on Jan 2nd

1979. I got the equivalent of dole rate as financial support and I think I got a travel warrant to get from Sussex to Oxford St every day, but an annual season was only £400 in those days, a fraction of what it is now.

Mortgage rates had just shot up to about 10% at that time, but I still managed, just, having bought my first house in May of that year.

The course was easy (for me), I completed all the modules ahead of time and then did the ICL plan assembler course in the four remaining days which should have taken 2 weeks.

One of the original tests (IBM cobol) was a bit of code with many lines missing. Apparently I was the first person to work out what the missing code should have been. Lots of perform paragraphs and goto's everywhere.

I had about 6 job offers at the end from local companies but ended up at Redifon Computers in Crawley, where they actually made their own data general novas. The whole lot, in house. Somehow they had a license to manfacture a look-alike made by DCC or someone.

[tim...]

there is no chance of that

that would "punish" everybody who paid stamp duty when they bought their current house

and they would not forget it next election time

It is not a change that can be made in a single step

and it would cost too much in multiple steps

so change the rules just for FTBs

in theory CGT and IHT do that

an entirely different issue (with which I agree BTW)

tim

[tim...]

It may be below market values for the nice places to live

but it isn't for the shitty places

tim

[tim...]

If you discover that they are useless in the first week

don't be daft

If it takes you a year to discover that they are useless, then there are two useless people in the company

the worker and you

(FTAOD I have worked at companies where it took managers over a year to find out that specific staff were useless)

tim

[tim...]

unfortunately, whatever rules are brought in they are unlikely to be retrospective

tim

[pamela]

I remember Arthur Scargill fought to keep his flat even after the union decided it wanted it back.

[Fredxxx]

I might call myself a capitalist, and am happy for workers to strike, as long as the company can fire the striking workers and hire alternative labour.

Now that is what I call a capitalist approach to labour. Trouble is some want to enshrine the supply of labour in protectionists schemes.

Most employees I know if unhappy with the pay and conditions simply move. If pay and conditions are the market norm, then it's best to stay put and shut up.

Some companies went out of business through union action. Red Robbo comes to mind.

[Andrew]

If you retire now and have never been contracted out and have at least 35 years of full rate NI contribs then you will get £155 a week. In fact you will get a lot more than £155 because you will also have serps entitlements and your benefits will be calculated under the old and the new schemes and the higher amount paid.

Only people who have been substantially contracted-out will get somewhere between £119 and £155.

[JNugent]

The ETU (later EETPU - I was a member when that change happened) was headed by Frank Chapple, who had moved from being a supporter of communism to one of its leading opponents.

Does that explain the loathing of Chapple by people like Scanlon and Jones, and the strong support for him from within his craft union?

[JNugent]

Please explain how unemployment benefit and the NMW are "linked".

Work is often neither easy nor pleasant. That's the point.

Actually, there are, though they won't be necessarily available to the specific individual. You must have read somewhere that the economy is not a zero sum game/gain (both versions exist and apparently mean the same thing).

[JNugent]

You'll wind up a few of the usual suspects with that...!

[JNugent]

Another "yes, but..."!

But why doubt it?

Do you never look at the Situations Vacant in the press or online?

You may be right on that. But I'm sure you will realise that "the authorities" responsible for paying out taxpayers' money prefer to determine that for themselves.

Ah yes... "Catch 22"!... a variant version of "ah but...".

[JNugent]

I gave the answer to that a few hours ago.

Pension is a lifelong thing.

UB is a stop-gap until things get better by other means (a job).

[JNugent]