Depessing news

Desperatetimes.

We could look at immigration. The sooner the Government realise that as a country we cannot sustain the current levels, the better.
With the NHS, education, housing and employment already being in such a mess how and why are we continuing to allow thousands in to the country to add to the problems?
I think we need to look at Australia's policy on immigration as a standard. They allow people in only after they have had medicals to prove they have no immediate, obvious health problems, they also have to have a certain amount of money in the bank to be able to support themselves, they have to have a skill that is in shortage and I also believe there is a 1 strike and you're out policy regarding crime.
We also need to look at benefits. The government is all to happy to pay for people to sit on their backsides doing nothing and making no contribution to society. In terms of disposable income most people on benefits are probably better off than me. I work for 20 hours a week, my partner works 40+hours a week, but once the rent and childcare has been paid out plus all of the bills there is very little left. I believe we should switch to a food voucher system whereas people on benefits have named vouchers with which to buy healthy, fresh foods and basic items of clothing. No alcohol, no cigarettes, no junk, no takeaways, no designer outfits. This may encourage people to get themselves back to work quicker.
I know there are genuine cases where people are out of work through no fault of their own and are desperately looking for employment, but a voucher system would still be beneficial to them without being quite as appealing to the "can't be arsed" set.
Even the disability benefits need to be looked at. There are some disabilities whereby a person probably is unable to do any kind of work, but then again there are plenty of disabilities with which a person could do a particular job. should parents really be given carers allowance for looking after their own school age children when they are in full time education?? Why can't those parents work whilst their child is at school? Yes they may need aditional help when that child is at home-but the money should be paid directly to the company/agency or whoever is providing that assistance and not to the parent who does not have to do anything remotely useful with either the disability benefit or the carers allowance. That money should be as a way of easing the issues that diability causes, it is not 'compensation' for having a disabled child. We all take the same risk when having children and the government isn't there to comensate us when things go wrong. Yes there needs to be help in order to allow everyone to fulfill their potential, but the current system doesn't always work. Again there are genuine cases...I just feel that every case should be judged more carefully.
Britain as a society has gone soft. People feel they are entitled to benefits, this entitlement in a lot of cases is being passed from generation.
It's time to get tough!

StevieJ

ILW wrote: »

Who do you suggest we borrow the money from to pay for all this?

I will kick it off, Roads = paid for by users = Toll = Private enterprise lining up to invest

CLAPTON

ILW wrote: »

Who do you suggest we borrow the money from to pay for all this?

well

potholes cause a large amount of damage to cars so we could increase car taxes but specifically use the money to improve road maintenance.. maybe make it easier to sue councils for damaged cause by lack of maintenence


building new housing doesn't affect govenment finance; it needs changes to the planning rules


third runway at Heathrow would be totally funded by private business .. only stopped because that idiot Cameron was in his green, save the planet and hug a hoodie phase

improving train infrastructure would require additional funding but there will be a return from increased number of journeys... maybe scrap HS2 and spend that money

investing in sensible vocational training would require no new money; just need to redirect the existing school/uni funds

dawyldthing

undetterred wrote: »

Uni should be open to the gifted,seems nowadays any chav can sign up.

This always gets me as people bash everyone that has been to uni left, right and the centre. At the end of the day most of us that went to uni went because we want to better ourselves into different careers. If we didn't go to uni a lot of us would have been added to the 933,000 young people that are unemployed between the ages of 16 and 24 that there is today. If we hadn't then at 18 we could have claimed housing benefit (single person 56 quid ish a week?), council tax (20 odd quid a week) and get jobseekers allowance (55 quid a week i believe) adding up to 131 a week. As a student (started in 2005) I got 5600 a year, so 110 a week roughly. Admittedly I know that the fees that the government paid on my behalf was several thousand, but it gave training that I will now use in a job. But still surely it is better to equip society with people with skills and knowledge.

As a society we will struggle in the next 10 - 20 years as more people are going to uni and there are less apprenticeships around and skilled traders are going to be harder to find as theres less people going into these fields. Also for most jobs people need the skills before starting, but people are often not given the opportunity to try and learn them.

We need to find the happy medium, as there are a lot of colleges and unis that do degrees that people won't really use, but the other side of the coin is that we don't have the skills for the future. In my opinion, as is the case already, everyone should have a 'training pot' as per say, that they can use to train them up in what they would like to be in the future (say 15,000, as i know at the moment each pupil in school is worth 7,000 ish so it would be 2 ish years of training) that isn't theres, but is set up for when they need it by government that can be spent for training at any age as i find it shocking that once you get to 19 unless you pay for training then you pretty much can't learn anything else really, whereas this way if needed people have the funds so that late learners don't get penalised for not going to uni/college/whatever after school and hopefully it sets them up for life.

B_Blank

Herbie_Hancock_I_wish wrote: »

We often hear about youngsters who are jobless . Benefit bashers please stay off this thread . I know plenty who are desperately seeking work . I mentioned in a thread before about a friend with a degree landing a job as a lollipop lady . A very bad state of affairs to be saddled with student debt and that is all , after 3 years of hard work you are good for .

On the other hand the over 50`s also find themselves in a perlious place .

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/slump-shuts-over-50s-out-of-job-market-1.1120364

Often a time when finances are not great . Also expecting a further 15 years in work to build up money behind them . Kids at school or at uni . Quite likely still with debts and a mortgage . Do also remember that less companies pay into a pension fund .

Now with the average age of a first time buyer being 35 think what that would hold if this is a pattern .

Savings are rubbish , annuities halved over a couple of decades and a stock market that is no better than a yo yo . Yet many , even at retirement age cannot afford to give up work . Yet the toffs say , we might all have to work a bit longer . They didn`t quite say where these jobs are coming from . To me this is not acceptable .

Tax payers are picking up a lot of bills . Underfunded state job pensions whilst many of these same tax payers look forward to a much reduced income in retirement . Start your own business , don`t make me laugh . I speak from a long time being self employed . If you are a small trader there is little help . However costs are soaring . The state is intruding everywhere . Next door put out there rubbish a day to early . The refuse police came around and fined them £50 !

House prices shot up way beyond where they should be . With the likes of kirsty and co ( was she really an advisor on housing for the Tory party ) , people were inflamed to buy a nasty little gaff in case they missed the boat .

For people on benefits who require housing , so much more has to be found by the tax payer to pay the market rental price .

I could go on . I cannot see a way out of this dreadful state of affairs .

New labours house price policies and their educational failures (making people go to uni who then couldnt get jobs) and their immigration policy has failed young people in this country.

Its a disgrace. But the 40/50/60 somethings on this board will just shout you down for saying that. Young people get screwed by every party. New labour did the damage and the torys backed their policies and are not reversing it.

B_Blank

Oh and let me tell you all something about why david cameron is a stupid douche to young people. The RETIREMENT AGE GOING UP SCREWS YOUNG PEOPLE. Less jobs are now going to open up in the job market. What they should do is raise the shortfall by taxing property wealth of older people and increasing inheritance tax. Inheritance tax should be moved up to 50%.

StevieJ

B_Blank wrote: »

Oh and let me tell you all something about why david cameron is a stupid douche to young people. The RETIREMENT AGE GOING UP SCREWS YOUNG PEOPLE. Less jobs are now going to open up in the job market. What they should do is raise the shortfall by taxing property wealthof older people and increasing inheritance tax. Inheritance tax should be moved up to 50%.

That would be a very positive move for young people :eek:

B_Blank

StevieJ wrote: »

That would be a very positive move for young people :eek:

I dont believe in inheritance. It is better to earn everything you have yourself. I will donate any inheritance I recieve to charity whatever my personal circumstance

patrick_bs15

Pennywise wrote: »

For a start, we need to get back to where only the best go to Uni. Rather than the ridiculous 50%, how about the top 10%, and I personally think that's till too high. Let's get back to where employers only insist on a degree where it's relevant and necessary - not as we have today, as the baseline standard for virtually any half decent job.

Then plough all the money saved into converting the redundant Uni's into technical colleges, polytechnics, etc., with an emphasis on hands-on trades and professions such as the building & trades, engineering, and a whole host of other jobs, such as hairdressing, hospitality & catering, etc. Things that the less academic can do.

We should also greatly bolster our pathetically small resources for training doctors, dentists, nurses, etc. It's ridiculous that we still have to rely on "importing" people trained overseas, simply because we don't have enough training places in the UK. The "closed shop" must end. We need to double, even treble our uni places for healthcare professionals. It's crazy that we restrict the number of entrants by requiring top grades, then don't produce enough so we have to rely on immigrants. Let's utilise the premises of a few redundant unis (when we abandon the 50% stupidity) and convert them into medical unis.

Let's concentrate on basic reading, writing and maths in secondary school for those that aren't up to standard with non academic subjects alongside. Pointless making someone try to learn French if they can't read or write properly, or physics if they're not numerate. After 10 years compulsory education, it's a travesty that so many young leave school being not up to the standard in the basics and then just abandoned by the education system.

At the end of the day, we have to start being more reliant on our own home-grown labour force. If, today, we have to rely on immigrants, then let's spend a decade bolstering up our education & tranining system to train our own for the next generation. Crazy to have mass immigration when we have mass unemployment - we have to match the jobs to the unemployed and that means some decent training and education.

I think academia has a lot to be blamed for. The academics who control the education system have for far too long just cast aside anyone who isn't academic. We need joiners and plumbers just as much as we need doctors and accountants, yet the educational establishment seems to want to get rid of the potential tradesmen asap to fend for themselves and be trained up by employers - yet they're happy to keep the potential doctors and accountants within the education system for another five years at least. I'd far rather my son knew how to re-wire a house than be able to recite a page of Shakespeare!

This is one of the best posts I've ever read on here (and I say that as someone with an English degree and a love of Shakespeare!) What pleases me (as a primary school teacher in Bristol) is that there genuinely is better provision for children who want to pursue more vocational courses at secondary school now - one academy close to my school is particularly good at this.

Pennywise is right: practical skills need more emphasis in our education system - so does financial literacy too :beer:

dawyldthing

most definately financial literacy. The amount of people I know thats on probably double what I am yet are financed up to the eyeballs is surreal