Rough Times Ahead........

steveymp

Unfortunately SF will never vote to rationalize welfare, so more sorry times ahead for everyone unless your an unemployed single parent on DLA, in which case your laughing

stephenni1971

It's like trying to get turkey's to vote for Christmas....

The over representation in NI is staggering, councils, education boards, health trusts, MLAs the list goes on

Add to that all the Quangos Which merely serve as further opportunity to give jobs to the boys ( or girls )

Also it seems all you have to do to get grants n some areas is to add the words peace, resolution, post conflict to you business plan. I worked on the shankill for years and the amount of money doled out to regeneration trusts, reconciliation groups, post troubles studies was incredible. Almost without exception there was no real plan other than to obtain and then spend a shed load of someone else's money.

One group who got 3 million or so opened three different offices, employed dozens and spent a fortune on the best IT and office kit you could imagine. Three years later the money runs out most are laid off and offices shut. It's something I saw repeatedly.

The sooner everyone realises the last is the past and GETS OVER IT the quicker we can all move on.

The infuriating thing is as a province we are actually good at stuff. Almac and Norbrook world leaders in pharmaceuticals. Bombardier. Dungannon has several big companies involved in materials handling and quarrying. Quite a few new announcements on jobs coming into belfast in accounting and legal. Film industry picking up pace too.

warmhands.coldheart

stephenni1971 wrote: »

......The infuriating thing is as a province we are actually good at stuff. Almac and Norbrook world leaders in pharmaceuticals. Bombardier. Dungannon has several big companies involved in materials handling and quarrying. Quite a few new announcements on jobs coming into belfast in accounting and legal. Film industry picking up pace too.

And what do all these have in common.
1. ALL are long established companies here in NI making use of the highly educated workforce.....
2. Besides a bit of investment in the form of cash from Invest NI, they all seem to just get on with it with, i'd imagine, little or no input from our politicians...

I do wonder sometimes what they are for exactly !!

Witless

As an interesting aside, I noticed the RoI introduced water charges today ... and SF seem to have been strangley silent about: especially given their 'one island' stance.

warmhands.coldheart

Witless wrote: »

As an interesting aside, I noticed the RoI introduced water charges today ... and SF seem to have been strangley silent about: especially given their 'one island' stance.

They WILL be introduced here soon.. I'd bet my house on it..... Any takers ?? Don't worry. it's not in North Belfast !! :rotfl:

qwert_yuiop

Witless wrote: »

As an interesting aside, I noticed the RoI introduced water charges today ... and SF seem to have been strangley silent about: especially given their 'one island' stance.

They've been objecting to it since it was first suggested, but are not in government there, so no luck. They've also opposed property tax since the start, which is odd - surely every socialist favours property tax? As for dole capping, they have to object to that here, since the dispossessed are their core constituency in the south.

Cotta

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

They WILL be introduced here soon.. I'd bet my house on it..... Any takers ?? Don't worry. it's not in North Belfast !! :rotfl:

I'll take you up on that bet, I don' think they will be introduced. The good thing is that the DUP/Sinn Fein bloc would lose a lot of support if this came in and they are representatives who can stop it. Besides we already pay in excess for our rates which includes water charges.

warmhands.coldheart

Cotta wrote: »

I'll take you up on that bet, I don' think they will be introduced. The good thing is that the DUP/Sinn Fein bloc would lose a lot of support if this came in and they are representatives who can stop it. Besides we already pay in excess for our rates which includes water charges.

Sorry Cotta, I have to disagree... Look at the water rates charged in the rest of the UK.... You're looking on average £400/year. Add that to approx. £1200 / year for Council Tax and you're looking on average £1600 / year

NI "average rates" (Based on average house price x average weighting) are just under £1000.... £600 difference.... So who's subsidising this?? Maybe that's why the books are not balancing.... It will come in, just a mater of time !!

Cotta

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Sorry Cotta, I have to disagree... Look at the water rates charged in the rest of the UK.... You're looking on average £400/year. Add that to approx. £1200 / year for Council Tax and you're looking on average £1600 / year

NI "average rates" (Based on average house price x average weighting) are just under £1000.... £600 difference.... So who's subsidising this?? Maybe that's why the books are not balancing.... It will come in, just a mater of time !!

One has to remember that wages in the mainland and the ROI are significantly higher than NI.

saverbuyer

Cotta wrote: »

One has to remember that wages in the mainland and the ROI are significantly higher than NI.

One has to remember that spending is significantly higher in NI. One also has to remember NI is subsidised to the tune of £10 billion a year.

The average rates bill is actually less than £800. The England and Wales average is £1450.

We will see water charges in less than 3 years.