A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

maryb

There's an article in the Daily Mail today about Edwina Currie and a radio phone in where a young mum said she was having to go without food. Edwina in her totally cackhanded arrogant way was trying to get to the bottom of why she didn't have enough money to make ends meet. Very interesting reading the comments. Most of them are just saying that Edwina is a disgusting woman who has never had to cope on limited money. But there are also a lot saying, hang on, these numbers don't make sense, surely you should be getting WTC etc. and others saying if you learn to cook you wouldn't have to live on chicken dippers etc. because proper cooking is actually cheaper than ready meals. I kept wanting to say, go on MSE they'll sort you out - go on DFW to get your income vs. expenditure sorted and go on Old Style to learn how to feed your family. It made me realise what a real need there is for courses like Katieowl's

The media are quite clever at finding cases that will suit their purposes depending on the point they want to make. We had the example a few days ago of the chap on invalidity benefit who seemed to be spending a surprising amount on booze and fags. On the other hand the girl who refused to work in Poundland was actually volunteering at a museum so not just sitting around. But hard cases make bad law. What we need are proper well thought out principles.

I'm with Grey Queen - mostly. There should be a living minimum wage and affordable housing. I'm not sure about legislating to control rents because there were so many people after the war who saved up to buy a couple of houses as a small investment who were not blood suckers by any means. Mostly they were the sort of investments held by widows etc. They found themselves caught out when rent control came in followed by 20% plus annual inflation in the 1970s and were left with sitting tenants paying absolutely ridiculous sums of money in rent while the landlord was still liable for ruinous maintenance costs.

What we've been left with as a result of the massively overcomplicated tax credits system is a situation where the minimum wage is not enough to live on so it has to be topped up. So the slightly better off taxpayer is subsidising Tesco etc's profits - which enables them to pay big bonuses to the managers who have delivered such big profits. All I can say is, it's not hard to make a profit when someone else is paying your costs.

Sorry, I'm in rant mode tonight

katieowl_2

smileyt wrote: »

I am feeling a tad low (nothing to write home about though) because I have so many ideas of how my Housing Association could help tenants (I'm on the tenants' panel) but I just don't have the energy to see them through. I would love to do something like KatieOwl and have basic cooking lessons, budgeting lessons, starting a food co-operative, maybe a supper club once or twice a week where folks can get a cheap but nourishing meal, a community allotment on derelict land near me, craft classes for teaching people how to make presents like sock monkeys, journal jars etc ..... All these things could really make a difference but I daren't start anything because I know I would struggle to see it through. I know from experience how quickly I run out of steam - I only have enough mental energy to run my own life, really, but I wish I had more!

Surely to heavens this lot won't get voted in again at the next general election?

OH YES a co-operative is on my list too...love to be involved with one of those.

I've just been really lucky as this has kind of fallen into my lap. I started working in the cafe, which is attached to a heritage centre, that also has community funding. I've been doing a lot of the cooking and saving lots of money (badly needed - the waste is now minimal) and mentioned that I was actually writing a frugal cook book, and it came from a discussion we had over Christmas. Cooking, as a general day to day thing that saves loads of money is something I've been evangelical about for years, the boss said would you be interested in teaching a group of teenagers in care how to cook? Because that's something we've been approached about, and I said I'd sit on a sharpened stick to do it basically, and also that I'd be extremely keen to teach young mums I've never taught cooking anything other than one to one, but I've got no problem with the planning organising or actual standing up in front of people - I'm quite extrovert and I know my stuff (most importantly) so I do feel I've rather been handed this on a plate.

I've been to quite a few 'workshops' myself since I've been here, things to make and do, foraging etc, so know the format, and it's all quite informal.

On another subject...My Gran had a bad back, and people used to tell her to just sit down and stop trying to do stuff, and she would say if she stopped she'd never start again. I have had episodes of lower back pain, which may or may not be sciatica, and I have to take Dicloflex all the time or I just seize up in three days...Grannie was SO RIGHT. I rarely sit down, until the very end of the day, cos when I do, I find it really hard to get up again! If I keep moving and keep taking the tablets it really helps, oh and I will not do anything I think may pull my back. Nothing. No matter who asks, or how nicely...

I just spoke to needy friend. She seemed much brighter tonight, but by her own admission is up and down. She has an appointment next week with a personage from Mind who is going to sort out her benefits appeal. I asked if she was managing ok, and she said she had a good stock cupboard at the moment, so I asked the million dollar question "Do you have enough dog food..." and she said "Oh I have a huge bag...One of my neighbours gave it to me. She said her brother bought it for her dog, but it's one he won't eat!" :rotfl: I was having a little smile to myself, as that was one of the lines I was considering using when I gave the guy I know who's benefit got cancelled dog food last year Us doggie people are out there working undercover saving the goggies of the world! :T

Kate

JIL

Whatever your politics and your feelings on the last government, I cannot help but be impressed by Gordon Brown. Since standing down as prime minister he has earned over 1.4 million in fees and expenses and has given the lot to charity.

Pitlanepiglet

JIL wrote: »

Whatever your politics and your feelings on the last government, I cannot help but be impressed by Gordon Brown. Since standing down as prime minister he has earned over 1.4 million in fees and expenses and has given the lot to charity.

One could suggest that given that he was the Chancellor and then Prime Minister of the Government that led us into this mess that it's the least he could do.

I suspect he's done quite nicely personally since leaving office so I don't feel especially indebted to him.

Anyway this is all way too political for me, it all brings me out in a cold sweat, I I'll be back when you're back to taking about tinned tomatoes and the price of rice!

VJsmum

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

One could suggest that given that he was the Chancellor and then Prime Minister of the Government that led us into this mess that it's the least he could do.

I suspect he's done quite nicely personally since leaving office so I don't feel especially indebted to him.

Anyway this is all way too political for me, it all brings me out in a cold sweat, I I'll be back when you're back to taking about tinned tomatoes and the price of rice!

Whilst I agree that the previous government didn't do much to help - I am not sure they were entirely to blame. One could look back to the Thatcher years and wonder about the wisdom of deregulating the banks

This article is now 3 years old but sums it up nicely - Gordon Brown doesn't come out of it well, either.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article8402.html

and this one

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article8210.html

Additionally, Thatchers mantra of you can do anything and you can have anything you want has led to a society obsessed with possessions and celebrity. The media haven't helped, either, focussing as they do on the rich and famous and the famous for being famous! As various articles point out, when Thatcher arrived the country was pretty much on its knees so something radical was required. The succeeding labour governments didn't reverse the various policies either. I remember my mother saying, back in the 80's, that it was all very well Thatcher saying that but the money had to come from somewhere and had to be repaid.

I teach procurement and the Private Finance Initiative (using private money to fund schools and hospitals etc) always looked doomed to failure and the money we have to pay back, running into billions, has barely got started yet. When I first started teaching it - around 12 or so years ago - I was asking the students then to predict what state the country would be in after 25 years when the bulk of the money needed to be repaid. Of course none could but even then, of course, I could not have predicted the absolute financial crash that has occurred.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it is easy to blame the previous government, and they certainly have to take their share, but I don't think it ends there. I think the worst thing is that no-one seems to know what to do about it! These are dark times - those articles are 3 years old and still we aren't even halfway into the woods yet, I fear.

[Deleted User]

Hello BRUNO, itsa nice day down here an I has jus been fur a luvly long walkies wiv Dadi - much betta van yestiday cos I dont lika rainy stuff wot falls outa ver sky. I is wundrin if dere is a Staple fairy an if your Mumi givses you a likkle jar maybes if you puts ver stapleses innit she will leve you sum bikkits! I likes rollin too - I likes rollin onna bed after Mumi has maked it, I likes rollin onna lawn onna grassy stuff, I likes rollin inna leafses inna autum wen vey falls offa treeses but, bestest of all I likes rollin onna beach speshly iffits onna ded fishie - ony ven Mumi sez wotta pong ann I havta have a bathie which is not so gud - luv frum Doc xx

blackandwhitebunny

maryb wrote: »

What we've been left with as a result of the massively overcomplicated tax credits system is a situation where the minimum wage is not enough to live on so it has to be topped up. So the slightly better off taxpayer is subsidising Tesco etc's profits - which enables them to pay big bonuses to the managers who have delivered such big profits. All I can say is, it's not hard to make a profit when someone else is paying your costs.

Sorry, I'm in rant mode tonight

I've thought this for years. It was over ten years ago that we went to the factory that makes burgers for the big chain and the chap showing us around admitted that the people who actually worked in the factory were on minimum wage and I remember asking why such a big company couldn't pay enough to lift them out of the benefits system (I think it was called something other than tax credits then). He also admitted that they have no training schemes or means of promotion from within the factory - needless to say I don't buy their products and haven't since that day.
I also remember my MIL coming with me to an organic farm shop where I used to buy meat and veggies and she said that the food was far more expensive and I pointed out that it was probably the same price as at MrT but the difference was we were paying the full price up front and not through our taxes and subsidies.

westcoastscot

Good Morning,
I try not to think about politics - ties my head up in a knot! but I do think that a massive problem is that there just aren't the jobs out there for a lot of people. Cannot remember who posted the linky a while back to the NYT article, but it was spot on. For those that chose not to go onto further education there is very little choice of jobs, and certainly very few that could be called a career. I don't know how you are supposed to support a family and have a rewarding career these days - my dad worked in the mines, friends worked in factories and in trades, in offices where every manager needed a team of typists and admin workers. We've evolved on the technology front massively which has taken away millions of jobs, at the detriment to the daily working lives of a huge chunk of the population.

Other news is that we have snow! so pretty but very cold.

Enjoy your day, WCS

mardatha

Agree with that WCS, my dad & uncles were in the pit, my grandad was in the fishing (& granny gutted herring lol), husband started off in foundries then shipyards, and all of these industries are now gone. Dundee had the jute mills, and the Borders here had the woollen mills, all full and all well paid. All gone.

westcoastscot

There's very little employment here - the fishing fleet is much smaller, and the money isn't in it as it was in the 80's - very long hours and dangerous work for not much more than minimum wage when you work it out for those on deck. The boats don't land here anymore since the wood lorries took over the pier "temporarily" 10 years ago, so no pier work anymore for those too old to go out to sea but still young enough to work. The canal used to have a worker at each lock-gate, now it's just one or two for the whole canal.
Forestry don't employ many people as it's mostly mechanised now, just the tourism side. It's the modern clearances - the young ones have to leave home to find work, or training or college, and then with lack of employment and huge house prices they just don't come back. Shops have closed, GP surgeries and post offices are centralised - it's a different work to even 20 years ago.
WCS