Preparedness for when

Softstuff

jk0 wrote: »

GQ, I know you have a long term health problem that you take medicine for. How did you get on with travel insurance?

Since my gallstone trouble I daren't go abroad. I'm imagining either they won't cover it, or charge meggabucks for cover.

Theres only 2 companies will cover my preexisting conditions, one of them wants a specialists letter, increased excess and a few hundred dollars, the other one, the one I use, is Insure and Go. No jumping through hoops, simple online declaration, very little extra charged and I'm covered. I'd recommend anyone with a preexisting condition to give them a go. I'm not affiliated with them in any way.

armyknife

My back of envelope guestimate is that, from Monday onward ever increasing numbers of people will be slipping into the 'underclass' ; this may well be a SHTF situation for the country, but for George Osborne et al, it'll be just getting used to the leg room afforded by a parliamentary majority and five more years of power over us.


Anyone considered seeking refuge in Scotland or the EU before the Little Englanders get their way with a new 'splendid isolation'?

moneyistooshorttomention

I wouldn't care to give an opinion on which attitude is the correct one there and can understand the reasoning behind both.

(quote I made in my post - whoops...rest accidentally deleted)

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Being first thing in the morning and prior to first cup of coffee I used the first phrase that came to mind to explain what I mean and should perhaps have just used the word "unskilled" instead of "lower-level".

I would imagine that, of those who wouldn't take an unskilled/zero hours/etc contract its purely down to practical reasons and not any "emotional feelings" of any description. Those practical reasons being the jobs tend to be NMW/tend to be antisocial hours/often involve a lot of standing (rather than sitting). I had visions of aching feet/aching legs and never being available for social events at evenings and weekends and had built up a life that involved having my evenings and weekends for myself.

My personal reason,for instance, why I refused to budge from offices boiled down to that refusal to work antisocial hours and/or spend hours at a time on my feet etc and not any "emotional feelings" of any description. Just having a life and not wanting to feel ill/shattered from tiredness.

I should think that's true of most people.

Frugalsod

ivyleaf wrote: »

If/when we do get that referendum, you may be taken aback by the result after all moneystooshort - I suspect a lot of people in the generations below ours will vote to stay in, because it's what they're used to.

Also they will be paying the price for any changes. I cannot see our government cutting pensions to make up for the loss of income caused by businesses leaving the UK for elsewhere as we exit.

moneyistooshorttomention

It would be interesting to see the statistics on that - ie re firms deliberately leaving Britain for the EU (or other countries). That way we could maybe compare and see what the real likelihood was of extra firms leaving to those that would do so anyway.

The thing is = just who would provide totally unbiased figures on this? The only bodies likely to provide such statistics would likely have a very biased take on things and we would be no nearer the truth of the matter on that.

Add the fact that we would need those statistics to include the effect on Britain of all the extra people (official or unofficial) that we are getting moving here courtesy of our Welfare State (appalling as it is) being better than many AND all the extra resources needed to cover those extra people (ie demand on the NHS/schools/etc) or otherwise we wouldn't get a full picture of the TOTAL impact on Britain of being in the EU.

Just to talk in terms of whether any extra businesses "might" leave Britain if we leave the EU only indicates a portion of the total picture. It's sort of equivalent to firms saying that the cost of production of their goods is £x and carefully externalising a lot of the cost of producing those goods (eg clearing up any damage to the environment they cause in the process - a cost the firms shove onto taxpayers' shoulders).

GreyQueen

Having been to Slovenia (very nice, I recommend it) I can't see that a large amount of formerly-British-companies-in-a-huff would fit into a small mountainous country with only one major city - Ljubljana. Plus their population is only 2 million, and it's widely-dispersed across a county which is 50% forested. About half of all Slovenes are members of the equivalent of the Ramblers Association and they're passionate about their mountains and forests and I can't see them turning their lovely little country into an industrial park for the benefit of said companies.

Plus, recalling that Slovenia is a chunk of former Yugoslavia and is in an area with further potential for political instability and war, particularly religiously-motivated, it mightn't be the smartest place to domicile your business.

armyknife, I lived in Scotland for 5 years in the 1980s, I have some Scottish ancestors, and last time I was up there I was verbally abused for being English. Some English-Brits are already leaving Scotland because of abuse and harrassment from Scottish-Brits. And I really like Scotland, and Scots (work with several down here) in general terms, but I don't think relocating is a viable option.

Of course, if the world-wide Scottish disapora came back, there'd be no room for anyone else.

fuddle

Taking my little snap shot of 'lower level' job I can tell you that 43% are in the 50 and 60 year old bracket. I know by speaking to them that they do the job because it is a zero hours contract which enables them to choose the hours they work according to their own needs.

At this moment in time I can see many, many negatives about my salaried work and oh so many positives with the 'lower level' zero hour contracted work of my colleagues.

Too often I hear of people forming an opinion of people and their integrity based upon the work they do and the contract they are on. I hear a divide based on age and experience. In my line of work I just dont see it.

I am about to give up my comfy office chair (and a huge amount if expectations but upon me BECAUSE I'm on a salary) to go back to 'lower level' work that gives me an imcome, allows me to be mum and home maker and lets me say NO to extras. In my line of work zero hours gives a certain amount of control. I've tried both And I can't wait to go back to 'lower level' work. "Cup of tea Mrs....?" "can I help you with that?" "You've had an accident? I can help clean you up and make you comfortable" "its ok, I can help you into bed as I can use this piece of kit to help us" "I'll get a blanket and keep you company... abulance is on its way"

'Lower level' Hmmm

mardatha

I'm sorry about that GQ - I hate the English govt but I don't hate the English people - look at all the good friends I've got on here - I think people from down south look on us as just another part of the UK - but we aren't. We are a separate country, we have different money, different laws, we are a different people. It would be hard for you too, if you were ruled from, say, Ireland - there would be bad feeling for sure.
But I dare say that any country with a lot of incomers has this problem GQ, always somebody with a gob bigger than their brain
BTW I don't want or expect any harrassment or nastiness re this post - I'm only putting over a point here. Some of the venom I've had on another forum was quite revealing lol and I found out some "friends" were not!

mardatha

Fuddle pet - employers use the "salaried position" as a hook to catch the ambitious, and the climbers and the achievers... I found that out many years ago pet, and did as you're doing. Some people prefer family and a life eh!

GreyQueen

Terms and conditions in salaried employment are noticably worse than they were a genration or two ago, and the expectations, especially of unlimited availability of staff, are unreasonable. It isn't uncommon to be expected to do an amount of work yourself which was once 2 + people's jobs.

I encounter a fair few refuseniks who have escaped from the rat race into lower-paid, lower-status employment. And who have no regrets, either; the upsides far outweighing the downsides.