Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

UK has been hollowed out of Productive Jobs over a 30 year period.
Masked for a long time until credit crunch laid everything bare.

I don't blame individuals for current plight. Its been a long time in the making.

Real question is how do we resolve it?

Stop voting for them would be a start.

A millionaire Tory donor gave more than £300,000 to the party just weeks before David Cameron handed him a peerage last week, it emerged today.

Financier and party co-treasurer Michael Farmer, who was among 12 new Conservative working peers announced last week by the Prime Minister, gave £333,500 between April and June.

His donation helped the Tories pull further ahead of Labour in raising funds to fight the 2015 general election.

Excellent! I know an Indian property millionaire that plans to give quite a large donation in a few months. And he certainly wouldn't accept a peerage. He has been giving money regularly since Cameron became leader. Labour are pretty broke. Quite a bit of their money is in the way of no interest loans, which have to be repaid.

Why do jobs need to be productive? The UK is a small island with a relatively strong currency. It's a no-brainer that there's going to be a limit to how much domestic produce can be consumed, and the strong currency is going to inhibit exports. The UK failed to let go of its heavy industry after WWII and, as a result, now lags Germany and Japan in the production of lighter niche products. Instead, 13% of GDP comes from the financial services sector, and there's certainly no shortage of jobs where the money is.

My son has just graduated. He's had no problem walking straight into a (fcuking excellent) job in the city. Ditto his friends.

And my daughter ,who's only 20, and didn't bother to go to uni, has been offered work following every interview she's attended and now gets approached by firms asking her to leave her current job and switch to them.

So, all the crap about youth unemployment is a load of baloney imo.

What is a working peer?

Germany is full of heavy industry, and I suspect Japan is too.

Yes, I worded that slightly wrong. I meant to include the words 'antiquated' and 'technology driven' somewhere, but neglected to do so. You are welcome to choose where to insert them.

Hilary- not all our offspring have been as fortunate as yours. Best of luck to them though.

Good fortune might help, but we're all masters of our own destiny, Claret Dragon.

Hilary said........"So, all the crap about youth unemployment is a load of baloney imo".............ends

Now stop being silly Hilary you may able to get a job in London as an under 21, but elsewhere its virtualy impossible.

And if your a northener and you get a job in London, how on earth do you pay for your accomadation. No chance.

The fact is thousands of kids outside the London area are are stuck on 'Workfare' do a 6 month course (slave labour) and then are slung back to the Job Centre who in turn put them on another 6 month course and so on. This all brings down the claimant count and makes the unemployment figures look much better.

The definition of Workfare by Wikipedia..........

Workfare in the United Kingdom refers to government workfare policies whereby individuals must undertake work in return for their benefit payments or risk losing them. Workfare policies are politically controversial. Supporters claim that such policies help people move off welfare and into employment (See welfare-to-work) whereas critics argue that they are analogous to slavery or indentured servitude and counterproductive in decreasing unemployment.

Wiki then looks further into Workfare ......

In 2008 research undertaken by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found that there was little evidence that workfare programmes increased the likelihood of finding paid employment and could instead reduce the prospect of finding paid employment by "limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workfare_in_the_United_Kingdom

I certainly concur that jobs for youngsters, especially those who have messed about at school and are thus virtually illiterate = unemployable, are very hard to come by

it's not even easy for many graduates with decent degrees from "proper" universities

however, I do wonder how many of these youngsters have ever thought of looking further afield, especially in Dubai or similar, or even volunteering to work in say Africa for one of the genuine and productive charities - I'm sure they get some pay even if not huge

Well Im sure some would Cynic if they had the funding, but we have to start to develop a bigger manufacturing base in this country.

Its ok saying Ohh weve got a big service sector, but service sector jobs are mainly again found in london in the CITY and are by and large very sensitive to government policy which further leads to insecurity and holding the country to ransom, eg, Bankers.

How many Bankers were put in prison for the 2008 crimminal crash...........I think its 0 here in this country and a handful in the USA.

How do you then explain that!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyners, Fishfinger,

It's funny how the Poles are quite happy to travel the breadth of a continent and successfully find work. The have the nous to realise that society owes them nothing, and they're quite willing to get up off their backsides and do something to get ahead in life. To the extent of learning a foreign language along the way, in many cases.

Maybe it's wrong to stereotype, but can you truthfully say the same of the UK's kids?

Fishfinger,

We've got a big service sector because manufacturing is dead in the UK. You've got the likes of Arthur Scargill to thank for that - by not embracing change, and trying to cling on to history.

As I said last night, Germany and Japan leaped ahead of the UK after WWII. The Germans were building fancy vroom vrooms with flashing gizmos while Leyland vehicles still had square wheels and pedals. When the techno revolution eventually came to the UK, it was to the benefit of the towns along the M4 corridor. The northern towns missed the boat.

From my local rag:

Nearly three homes are at risk of being repossessed in Northampton every day, according to Government figures, making it one of the worst-hit areas in the East Midlands.

The research, based on data recorded by the Ministry of Justice, found that in the past year, more than 15,800 homes in the East Midlands were at risk of repossession, the equivalent of 43 every day.

Nottingham was found to be the worst in the region with 2,331 possession claims issued in county courts between July 2013 and June 2014.

In Northampton there were 952 issued.

It makes it the seventh highest area in the region, meaning one in every 70 rented or mortgaged homes were handed the warning in the past year, the first stage in a process which can end with the loss of a home.

The homelessness charity Shelter is warning that sky-high housing costs are pushing more families in the East Midlands to the brink.

Chief executive of Shelter, Campbell Robb, said: “A total of 43 households at risk of losing their home every day is 43 too many.

“Each one of these will have had their lives turned upside down by this experience, as they faced seeing their home, the foundation of their life, ripped away from underneath them.”

Mr Robb said Shelter was seeing a rise in people using its services, adding that many can become homeless after just “one change in circumstance”.

“We urgently need people’s support so we can help more people in the East Midlands avoid the nightmare of losing their home,” he added.

Northampton is up north where things are different (anywhere north of the North Circular is up north).

It was poor management here in this country Hilary that led to the downfall of B Leyland and co, they wouldnt RE-TOOL and all along the unions were pointing out the Germans and the Japs were getting the upper hand.

They wanted to sit round the table and discuss bringing in new tech but the greedy management didnt want none of it.

And as for the big service sector(situated in London) Maggie prompted that with the BIG BANG policy.

And why doesnt the government spend far more on the North where the unemployment is???, that way your 2 kids could come up here and learn the lingo.

Strange that exec because a lot of these in London who cant afford their homes now because of the benefit cap and the bedroom tax are re-housed in the Notts and Northampton area.

Social cleansing they call it, Boris said it wouldnt happen on his watch "over his dead body" he said...................................could you trust him as Tory Leader!!!!!!!

http://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/social-cleansing-of-london-is-well-under-way-bbc-documentary/

I suppose the Tories will then kick those out that they have re-housed from London to Notts/ Northampton onto the street.

Then they will be satisfied.