Thursday, February 28, 2013

Giz a job

As well as 3m unemployed there are 3m under-employed, that's 1m up from 2008. In 2007(the last time I worked here)  there were 2.1 people for every vacancy nationwide. Today here on The Wirral there are 38(see table below)

Wasteland Wirral, Wasteland Merseyside

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9094339/Worst-cities-to-find-a-job.html
Some 80 candidates are chasing every role going in Hull, while 73 claimants apply for every job in Stoke-on-Trent, a review of the latest official jobs data found.
In Sunderland, 54 applicants chase every vacancy, while in Southend and The Wirral there are 44 and 41 claimants respectively for every job, the analysis by recruitment site Adzuna showed. TELEGRAPH 20 Feb 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/feb/28/uk-job-market-shows-improvement

The statistics show that there were 3.22 jobseekers for each vacancy across the UK but in Hull that rises to 50.95 jobseekers per vacancy and 45.56 candidates per job in the Wirral.guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 February 2013

WANCHAI

Wanchai (to the tune of 'Downtown')

 If you are young, and got nowhere to go, head down to Wanchai, Wanchai
 All along the streets you'll find lots of bars and discos,
 All are pretty seedy, but good enough to get pissed in.
 Careful of your wallet and anything you're carrying
 Be-cause-you-will-have-such-a-good-time-there
 Oh Yeah, Wanchai, you'll find everything there,
 Wanchai It is just waiting for youuu wanchai,wanchai


If you are old and feeling life has no meaning,head down to Wanchai,Wanchai
The wife gets on your nerves and you want to escape, just go to Wanchai, Wanchai,
 Standing at the bar, you'll meet lots of sad gits,
 As the beer goes down, you'll become another sad tit
 In-Wanchai-it-doesn't-really-matter, just-drink-some-more beer-and-get-a-little -fatter,
 oh yeah Wanchai, you'll lose everything,
Wanchai, everyone's in the same boat,
Wanchai it's there for you noooowww.
wanchai wanchai

Got no money, and up for a laugh, head down to Wanchai,Wanchai
Stand on the street and watch the nutters go by oh yeah in Wanchai,Wanchai
24 hours a day, it never fails to impress,
 The people that you see, are often quite depressed
Stand-on-the-corner-watch-the-world-go-by
Oh yeah, Wanchai, it has lots of 7/11s,
Wanchai, there's always a party,Wanchai
It's just waiting for youuuuu-wanchai, wanchai, wanchai......








Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Boycott the Maldives

People have the power to stop this, let the Maldives govt know that if they do this, then their tourist industry will be boycotted. Maldives girl gets 100 lashes for pre-marital sex By Olivia Lang BBC News Maldives Rights groups have urged the government to abolish the punishment A 15-year-old rape victim has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, court officials said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21595814

PRIVATISE BRITISH GAS

Profits up, prices up, people going without heating PRIVATISE THE BASTARDS! Anne Robinson, director of consumer policy at the price comparison website Uswitch, said:"Seven out of 10 of us actually went without heating at some point during this winter and over a third of us have reported that we feel it's actually affected the quality of our life and also our health. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21598504

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Wanchai Jesus

Fraudulent e-mail from Manila.

This is a scam. An email arrives in your inbox from a friend or contact asking for help. It is a scam, your friend is fine!

Just received this e-mail today, The 'sender' is apparently a real-estate agent in Hong Kong I have used, so the email must look for a name in my contacts and pretend it is from them.
Be warned folks. And if you get one from me, it is not me, I am not lucky enough to be stuck in Manila, as if I was, I'd buy a San Miguel and enjoy the heat...oh too be hot again! Anyway, here's the e-mail.

Hello,

I am sorry for my sudden request but I am left with no option, I know I did not inform you of my trip but I had a short vacation down to manila, philippine which is just the 3rd day today, I was robbed last night on my way back to the hotel from a shopping mall with family, it's such a traumatic experience for us as the robbers had gun pointing at us. All belongings are gone now since everything where stolen off us, no one could do anything because of the panic state we were in. I already filed a report after the incident and also had to block the credit cards immediately so we don't lose more than what was taken. Please I need you to loan me $3000 to resolve our predicament back home, I will pay you back right as soon as we are back home, I give you my word. Please let me know if you can be of help.

Thanks,

Yours in HIM,

Brother Sai

Millionaires' bonus



Monday, February 25, 2013

Council tax bombshell

Mail drop from the (Wirral) council today, the same letters must be dropping through letter boxes all over the country.
To summarise; A single person on the dole will now have to pay £5 a week council tax, which is about 8% of their money.
A couple about £12-9%
A couple with 2 kids on the dole £15
A single mother with 2 kids earning about £190 in wages needs to pay  £15 per week, previously all of these groups were excluded  from council tax.
That WORKING mother will now pay £60 more per month.
For low earning working families the rise will be around £20 per week.
The government is still going ahead with massive tax cuts for the rich and large corporations. 
These letters have only just started arriving, mine today.
The actual bills are due to arrive in 2 weeks. For many, the court orders for non payment will begin to arrive in May.
Watch this space,  this same issue brought down Thatcher. How can people pay what they don't have? How will the courts take money that isn't there?

Sterling cock up

Monday blues! Osborne and Cable described the loss of AAA as background noise this weekend, the markets appear to think differently this morning, the pound is falling through the floor. How are these wankers in charge of the nation's finances?

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Shame on us

Economists, The Bank of England,  The World Bank, even the UN warned that the UK's austerity measures were too fast and too steep. And now the ratings agencies have confirmed it.To make vicious cuts without any measures for stimulation cannot work, it is simple maths. The people in this country have been bled dry and are suffering,  of course they are not going to spend money! The number of job cuts announced weekly is staggering.This govt play with statistics and claim unemployment is declining, bollocks, only an idiot would believe that.Meanwhile they spit in everyone's faces and continue to ensure tax cuts for the rich. In times of recession, belts must be tightened, that goes for the rich and the big corporations,  but the government must take up the slack. Why continue to pay money on huge welfare costs as everyone loses their jobs, spend it instead on major infrastructure projects, create jobs and build something solid with the money? Housing, railways, power projects to name but a few. This govt are  criminals, so far removed from everyday life in their ivory Eton and Oxbridge towers they think they are untouchable and treat the nation they rule with contempt. Shame on them and shame on those who put them in power. Yes, other countries are also in trouble, it was a WORLD recession after all, but it is how the UK drags itself out of that world recession that is the point.We are now entering a triple dip recession, the only developed nation to do so.

Friday, February 15, 2013

What are they feeding our kids?

Now we don't even know what shit we are feeding our kids! Famous last words from the government, 'there is no need to worry'.  These horses have been fed on bute, which has now entered the human food chain.
"Bute can cause a potentially fatal blood disorder in humans called aplastic anaemia, in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells. Because it is not possible to say what triggers the disorder, it is not possible to identify a safe level of residue in meat".

BBC News - Horsemeat found in some school dinners

Stigmatise the unemployed?


I am tired of the media blaming 'shirkers' for this country's problems, a quick search of the real data is enough to see the real picture.  Firstly, most unemployed have been unemployed for less than a year, they paid their National Insurance and are fucking entitled to dole, that's the fucking point! Nationally there are 5 people for every job vacancy, that goes up to 35 here on The Wirral, 35 people for every available vacancy, it's not rocket science, that means no jobs for 34 people!The majority of long term unemployed are over 50 years old, the group who are discriminated against the most in the job market. 

There most certainly are some lazy bastards out there, milking the system, and more needs to be done to find them, but the numbers are 5% of the total at the very most.
Give people on the dole a fucking break, they are not animals who need to be punished and stigmatised, if you want them off the dole choose a fucking government that will create jobs and not just give tax breaks to the rich.
Remember- you may be one of those on the dole, and that doesn't make you scum.
n.b. I am not on the dole, and if after being here for 6 months or so and I can't find any decent work, i have the option of finding it elsewhere. 

Source:LabourForceSurvey
Nationally there are 5.1 unemployed for every vacancy.
The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 for September to November 2012 was 71.4%, There were 29.68 million people in employment aged 16 and over, up 90,000 from June to August 2012.
The unemployment rate for September to November 2012 was 7.7% of the economically active population, There were 2.49 million unemployed people.
The inactivity rate for those aged from 16 to 64 for September to November 2012 was 22.5%, There were 9.03 million economically inactive people(this includes me, not claiming and not working) aged from 16 to 64,
WHO IS UNEMPLOYED?
HOW LONG?
32% up to 3 months
20% 3months to 6 months
26% 6-12 monthss
That means 73% of claimants claim for less than 1 year.

27% claiming more than 12 months for all ages
highest group 36% over 50 yrs old.
less than 10% claim more than 2 years, tthe majority of those 50+ years old
6.5% all workers on temporary work
24% part time work
2.5% have 2 part-time jobs

Source
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-222531

enquiries: labour.market@ons.gov.uk

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Time to boycott Amazon


Amazon electronically tag workers in the UK and pay no tax. Time to boycott these fuckers!
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/when-did-lowly-paid-become-offence

Also;
Project Gutenberg

Germany's largest network ARD reports how Amazon employs foreign subcontracted labour paying them ridiculously low wages and lodges them in overcrowded cottages watched by neonazi security firm HESS.In German. Share with your German friends

http://www.ardmediathek.de/das-erste/reportage-dokumentation/ausgeliefert-leiharbeiter-bei-amazon?documentId=13402260

Ausgeliefert! Leiharbeiter bei Amazon - Reportage / Dokumentationwww.ardmediathek.deDie Reportage deckt auf, was sich hinter der Fassade von Amazon.de verbirgt und wer dafür zahlt, dass die schöne neue Warenwelt des Internethändlers so billig zu haben ist.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Slave labour

Nothing wrong with making people work, but it must be for minimum wage, as part of benefits. Companies have been using these schemes to get cheap labour, thereby reducing the number of real workers employed. Minimum wage is £6.19 per hour, most people on dole would quite happily work the 11 hours needed to earn their £70 dole.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21426928

A university graduate has won a legal challenge on appeal, claiming that a government scheme forces people to work without pay.Cait Reilly, 24, claimed that requiring her to work for free at a Poundland store breached laws banning slavery and forced labour.The University of Birmingham geology graduate lost her original case at the High Court, but has now won on appeal.Her solicitors said this could have major implications for jobseekers.

Monday, February 11, 2013

(No) Care for the elderly.

THE Tories announced another major policy yesterday: Care home costs will be given a maximum limit of£75,000. Sounds reasonable at first, but when looked at closely it becomes apparent, it is all lies, as usual, and helps nobody. Independent analysts recommended a £35,000 cap.
A £75,000 cap would not kick in for four years, by which time the average person in care would have died. The average length of time in social care in a BUPA home, funded to the tune of 70% by the state, is two years."If the cap is set at £75,000 it will take people four or more years before they hit the cap. The vast majority of people in residential care homes would have passed away before that happens."

Polly Toynbee's excellent article looks at the true picture.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/11/jeremy-hunt-will-not-solve-care-crisis

Securing more of older people's savings is partly funded by freezing the inheritance tax threshold, sending the Tory party into new paroxysms of fury. The front pages of the Telegraph and Times blasted, "Cameron abandons inheritance tax pledge" and "Osborne stealth tax on inheritance". Note how those same voices that call for more cuts to benefits for the near destitute want inheritance tax (IHT) exempt from a freeze.
As it is, only couples with property worth more than £650,000 pay any inheritance tax. That is only some 3% of the population.
Britain is a country profoundly ignorant about the distribution of its wealth, the electorate suffering under a conspiracy to deceive them. The persistent misrepresentation of the true"middle" leaves most voters clueless as to where they stand on the spectrum of incomes. Even the poor imagine they are much nearer the middle than they are, as the rich pretend to themselves that they are only middling.

New figures show the widening income gap: 1% of people now take 10% of all income while the entire bottom half receives only 18% of national earnings. Wages keep falling and wealth is sucked ever upwards.

A typical cost(in a care home) is £800 a week, so families will still pay a £360 a week top-up, plus £240 board and lodging.
People will get a nasty shock when they need care for a parent, only to discover how much they will still have to pay, and how bad is the care they receive. To cap the cost is a good idea: Andrew Dilnot called for a £35,000 maximum. But at £75,000 Hunt's words turn to dust for most, as few ever reach this level of cost.

Is that our most pressing priority, when families are queuing at food banks?

While the rich and their press fume over inheritance tax betrayal, the danger is that voters think money has been found to cure the care crisis, when nothing new has been added. So be prepared for some Mid Staffs-sized scandals soon in nursing homes and in people's front rooms soon. "Care" may become a word spoken only in irony. With no useful solution, the government should have left this snake's nest alone.

Saturday, February 09, 2013

Shale future.

The UK has found enough shale gas to power the nation for 1500 years.  The US has its own reserves and has begun to extract it.For the UK this means a future not reliant on Russia or The Middle East.  In the medium term, energy prices should stabilise. This country is far from finished. Expect full scale extractions to 'begin' before the end of this year, although production and  sale is still a number of years away.
http://ktwop.wordpress.com/

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Foreigner!

My mother has been told twice this week she is a foreigner, first by the bank and second by her work who asked her to send her passport to prove she is eligible to work here! She has worked for them for 5 years!I told her to tell them to bugger off, and point out she has lived here for 55 years, has voted in numerous general elections, paid tax for 55 years and had 2 sons and a husband in the British Army.As well as that Irish people don't need a passport to enter the UK and NEVER have, long before the formation of the EU and our entry into the EU. Liverpool was built and maintaned by a steady stream of Irish for centuries, and to a lesser extent most of our major cities.This country is shooting itself in the head with ridiculous red tape and spurious, needless checks. There has to be a certain amount of common sense when trying to detect if someone is a johnny foreigner, picking on 70 yr old women who have worked for half a century and sound about as foreign as Hilda Ogden is not the way.I could understand myself being asked as I seem to be mistaked for South African, Australian or German.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Explosions

Duty of care.

There are 3 problems which are dominating UK news at the moment, which all have the same solution.  First within the NHS and Care homes for the elderly and also in Kindergartens and Nurseries. All nurses are now required to be educated to degree level,  while quality of care seems to  be hurtling downwards at the same time.
Whilst a certain number of highly educated nurses is needed,  there really is no reason for all to have proven academic qualifications.  Surely those who are able to apply their caring ability and practical skills should also be sought?
The same basically applies to childcare, those who possess child care skills should work alongside those with teaching backgrounds.
A degree does not make a good carer or a good child carer.

Residential Homes for the elderly is a slightly different problem, substandard conditions  due to a  culture of complacency, and  a lack of real care, leading to horrific conditions for the elderly.

The old, the sick and children. 
The vulnerable.

30 years ago, their care was seen as a right.What changed?

The main problem seems to lie within society itself. Where did the ethos  'duty of care' go? What happened to respecting the rights of others? Today the sick and the old are often left to lie in their own waste, sometimes malnourished and thirsty, how and by whom? People and especially those in the caring industry used to 'care'. What happened to the kindly nurses who would go that extra mile or the stern matron for that matter who made sure things got done? The truth is, is that they would not qualify today, and how many like them have been put off training because of the degree requirements?
Of course money is a factor, but not the whole reason.During 2 world wars hospitals ran under extreme circumstances.  But money of course still remains a major factor,  so as well as changing the mindset of what makes good care and who we need to be carers, maybe  this is the wrong time for the NHS to lose vast amounts of money and for local councils to be starved of the funds needed for care homes.

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Falkland Islanders will determine their own future.

 The Argentine foreign minister Hector Timerman had a lot to say in London today, here are some excerpts and my comments underneath. 

 "We have been trying to find a peaceful solution for 180 years. I think the fanatics are not in Buenos Aires [but] maybe in the United Kingdom because they are 14,000km (8,700 miles) away from the islands.
1. Argentina didn't exist 180 years ago, it was part of the Spanish Empire. 

He also dismissed the forthcoming referendum - on whether the Islanders want to remain part of the British Overseas Territories - as meaningless.
1. Self determination is meaningless? Tell that to the Bosnians, Kosovans, East Timorese, Scots, Irish, etc.
 
On a visit to London, he claimed "not one" other nation supported UK sovereignty of the Falklands. 

1. The UN has recognized the FALKLANDERS right to choose their own fate.  

"If you ask the colonial people who came with a colonial power and replaced the people who were living in the islands, it is like asking the British citizens of the Malvinas Islands if they want to remain British," he said.

1. The islands were uninhabited before the arrival of the British.
2. Argentina itself was settled at the same time, replacing the indigenous people! 

"Argentina 'will control Falklands within 20 years"

1. Deluded twat!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21341578