Autumn statement

What I'd like to know, whitewave, is why he feels the need to have an Autumn statement.
This year, there was the budget in March, then an emergency budget in July.
Why does he need to announce things again?
I do hope that someone somewhere is keeping a check on what he changes, and how the OBR forecasts have changed. They've never managed to get a forecast right, anyway.

Yes, we seem to have a lot of these 'let's all get indignant about what might happen before it actually does' threads on the political forum!

^middle (adj.) Look up middle at Dictionary.com*
*Old English middel, from West Germanic *middila (cognates: Old Frisian middel, Old Saxon middil, Middle Low German, Dutch middel, Old High German mittil, German mittel), from Proto-Germanic *medjaz (see mid)^

I think I have an Old Saxon middil

I had that feeling myself when writing my post, rosequartz! The more often I typed 'middle', the sillier it seemed...

Anyway, back to the OP
I am waiting to see

The more I look at the word 'middle' the more strange it seems.
Did I spell it correctly?
Is it Anglo-Saxon?
Fair to middling
Am I on the wrong thread?

Middle-class
I think it's 'middle England' which has nothing to do with the middle of England which is too for my brain.

There is no middle class, we were told quite firmly on another thread.
Even though Johnny Prescott told us we were all middle class these days, apart from himself who is now upper class.

Its expanding middle as far as I'm concerned.

Expanding middle from eating too many cakes?

And more importantly, what does it mean?

Middle-class, middle-income, middle-management, middle-aged - middle what?

There's that 'guilty middle' statement again! Where did it come from, Anniebach? Do tell...

"Combined with growing house prices, the shortage of affordable homes pushes more families into the private rented sector. It’s unstable. The single leading cause of homelessness is the end of private tenancies. There’s nothing in law that stops landlords asking families to leave come the end of their short-term fixed tenancy. It doesn’t matter if they’ve always paid their rent on time, been in that home for years, and been model tenants. And if they can’t find anywhere else affordable then many have no choice but to turn to the council for help."

blog.shelter.org.uk/2015/11/100000-children-will-be-homeless-this-christmas/?_ga=1.181164327.183872836.1446074492

This is what it's about, roses. The chart is quite disgraceful, gone up from 76,500 in 2011 to 100,000 this year. Mainly to do with government cuts, and as I said, the government of the working families.

We cannot know all the different stories that lead to being homeless.It may well be that the parents will not work, that there are mental health issues, that a lot are immigrants with a very large family, that some are single Mothers with a few children and they live on benefits ( all reasons on the tv programme 'How To Get A Council House') the staff were very sympathetic with the claimants, and did what they could to get them into housing.
it's not all about Victorian 'greedy landlords' or employers not paying enough, it's a complex issue.

Difficult question Jen, I would say the latter , yes most definitely the latter

'Dignity is now for the 'guilty middle' only.

To others dignity is nothing to do with 'class' as the statement suggests, whether it be used as a sarcastic comment or not. Dignity is the woman who fills the selves in Tesco to provide for her family. Dignity belongs to refuse collector who goes to work to keep a roof over his families head. Dignity belongs to the entrepreneur funding a charity

Dignity belongs to an individual not a 'class' of people. It's a sort of spin talk that can be taken two ways , some see it as a clever , we're on your side brothers and sisters, other's see it as using a persons class in a manner that shows a lack of dignity towards those the user feels less than middle class and doing 'menial' work.

You pays your money , you makes your choice which scenario fits your mentality/personal feelings but it is the sort of comment that will cause division .

100,000 children are going to be homeless this Christmas, roses. Is that because their parents do not take low paid work, or sit at home living off benefits?
Or is it more likely to be because of greedy landlords, employers not paying enough for them to live on, and the fact that the government is cutting the amount of benefits that a family can live on?

Or guilty muddle.

Jen, dignity is now for the guilty middle only

The shame lies with the government, the companies who use these fake apprenticeships and those who support it, not with the person forced to take the sham apprenticeship , it disgusts me

There is no shame in doing a lowly job, if that is all you can get at that particular time, or indeed forever, if that is all that you are capable of, do the job, whatever it is, to the best of your capabilities.That's been the problem here in recent years, everyone thinks they are too good to do a lowly job( even when it is, perhaps suitable) they are all waiting around to be 'famous'
Or if not famous, laying about all day and drawing benefits, when they are fit and healthy.Which is why immigrants are filling those jobs.

Annie, the living wage foundation say that they know that there is more to think about to get dignity at work, but they just concentrate on that. They discourage companies from reducing hours or number of jobs.
It's a shame that the Tory Government and their followers do not think about dignity at work.

I have just gone on their website and looked at the map of living wage employers. You put in your postcode and they show you all the living wage employers in your area. I had to tell them about Barclays Bank, as they have just closed our bank, the only one in the village, which was on the map.

sorry www.notjustcleaning.co.uk/staff/nationalcleaningacademy.htm

http://www.notjustcleaning.co.uk/staff/nationalcleaningacademy.htm

Nothing to be sneered at imo

Although some people may think it is.

Whitewave, it is not an apprenticeship, it's large stores getting away with paying an eighteen year old £3.30 per hour to clean floors

How can anyone no matter how right wing defend this ,

Well, some hospital cleaners certainly didn't take an apprenticeship in floor cleaning .....