Labour Party Conference

You can’t say everywhere in the North is deprived either, there are some really expensive areas and some lovely areas that are doing as well as anywhere ‘down South’ and guess what?There are some deprived areas in the South, nowhere more than London!

Time to stop all the silly North /South envy perhaps gilly
It doesn’t help anything.

I can assure you gillybob, hard work and nothing but hard work has given my family what we have. We started with nothing, renting a grotty house, missing out on C's school plays, sports days etc. I can never get those experiences back.

You are entitled to your opinion and I respect it.

I agree with your post Muffin but leaving school without any exams passed is no bar ( not talking special needs here)to shop work, pubs, cafes etc.No mines ( thank goodness) and few factories, though there are some.The service industry is huge, cinemas, hotels and supermarkets to name but a few.
Your young relative should be able to find something.

It does make you wonder if this policy could be extended so that all the 'nice' places in the SE won't have any 'problem' families but will ship them out (probably Up North!)

Perfect solution trisher

Good post muffin, I do not have a solution for these youngsters, unfortunately neither have any of our politicians from either side of the house.

We also have to lose the stigma of working in the service industry, being a waitress, shop assistant or even a carer is frowned upon by some, whereas our friends in the EU are proud to do these jobs.

That’s the problem OldMeg far too many people have this “I’m alright jack” attitude as though those of us in economically poor areas only have ourselves to blame for it . No one is asking you to “apologise for living in a nice area” grannygravy you are indeed very fortunate but please don’t jump to the conclusion that “ working hard” alone has brought you good fortune as though those of us in poorer areas must have spent our days lazing about .

Good posts GrannyGravy and lemon

Corbyn/Momentum government ? Rebirth of Clause 4 -
Mass privatisation

All donations of tea and cake to this household will be gratefully accepted. Three small kids and a c section wound is no joke, friends

I wanted to throw in something on the point about the workless needing to get a job. There’s a big disconnect between the political policy of “get them off welfare and into work” and the real world deliverability of that policy, and it hinges on something no one really wants to address, because it’s unpleasant and complicated.

The truth is that many of the long term workless in the UK are genuinely unemployable in the present labour market.

It’s possible, if you have parents who are unable or unwilling to be particularly supportive of your education, and you yourself are of average or lower intelligence, and not especially motivated, to pass through all the years of compulsory education in the UK and emerge without any recognised qualification. I don’t mean kids with learning needs or behavioural issues here - they are already mostly screwed, if we look honestly at the statistics - I mean your fairly lower average kid who never acts up enough to attract anyone’s remedial attention. A young relative of mine has recently completed education by failing all her external examinations for the third time, and to the consternation of herself and her parents, is finding out she is unemployable. She is a well presented polite kid from an upper working class (they would argue lower middle class) household with two parents consistently in skilled work, but the poor lamb is discovering she is unemployable because she has no qualifications.

Now, extrapolate that to kids all over the country who have managed to pick up official attention for learning needs, behavioural issues, a difficult family background. They are competing for work in a market where almost fifty percent of kids have (or are on track to get) a university degree. Even more are in college. These kids have no qualifications at all. It is quite possible, indeed terrifyingly so, to leave education in the UK being either or both functionally illiterate and innumerate.

The thing that has changed in our labour market from previous generations is that there is very, very little unskilled manual work left for these kids to do. The UK is a services economy. If you are ‘not good at school’, there is no mine to go down. You better have been good enough at school (and outgoing enough!) to be able to do shop work, oh and forget being even a junior manager - the assistant shift manager jobs at McDonalds et al are all graduate recruitment only these days.

(Btw, this is not a dig at folk who work in shops or McDonalds. I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life and I assure you, most of them were not fancy at all. I have flipped many a burger and been glad for the money)

And I haven’t touched on the middle aged people in their thirties and forties who are in the same boat, plus add a sparse work history and often a list of health problems.

If you were an employer, are you falling all over yourself to hire underqualified candidates who you might consider likely to be unreliable? Are you hell.

There is a huge gap between the number of people who might be considered by the govt to be physically fit to work, and the likelihood of even most of these people getting employment.

I know some of you like me have worked with deprivation issues, and I do not disrespect these people when I say: you are expecting them to do something the job market is not set up for them to do. I don’t have a magic cure for this problem in my back pocket, either. You can’t get a job if no one will give you one.

Well said GrannyG and good posts from you.It is ironic that the very left wing on here scream that there is no intelligent debate only insults yada yada, when they soon resort to attacking posters and being insulting themselves.

It needs saying that there are lots and lots of places doing well in the UK and lots and lots of people doing well too.
All over, not just in the South.We have friends in various counties ( shock horror, even in the North!) but it suits various agendas on here to make out that the UK is sinking into poverty.Of course there are poorer families ( goes without saying, where there are various reasons that they aren’t managing as well, and guess what? There always have been, and always will be.
Employment is at a record high though and I wish that pound shops, B&M, charity shops ( apart from Oxfam which has been going a long long time) cheaper supermarkets and value products had all been around years ago when I really needed them.
Of course, if we get a Marxist Government soon then it will all be different ( different like Venezuela.)

trisher this happens in the closest seaside town to me, they have a different council. They were forced to take and rehome these people.

One of my AC lives about 20mins walk along the coast, cannot go into the town with GC.

A lot are Eastern European, so no trisher they are not all locals.

GG13 Fortunately we have had a Conservative Council for many years, who keep council tax at a reasonable level and still provide good infrastructure and services
The result is crime has gone up, drug use is out in the open and prostitution is rife for all to see. People of all ages who have lived there all their lives avoid the town centre.
The above is a fact, it has become such a problem that the council is looking into ways to claw back the community spirit and pride of the town.
Sorry but the above statements seem to contradict each other. Perhaps you could explain how you know it is the people who have been moved out to the SE who are causing these problems and not local residents? But more importantly why you think that the cuts to police services and council services have not impacted and in fact are the real cause of your town centre no-go area.

.

Thank you for all your opinions of me.

Just a few thoughts- I do not read the Daily Mail or any other newspaper as they only reflect their owner/editors views which I feel tend to be biased.

I will not apologise for living in a nice place, my husband and I worked long hours 6 sometimes 7 days a week to build up a small business from scratch. It now employs people, on way above minimum wage in extremely good working conditions, without a need for a "union".

I am not nor ever will be smug.

I did not join in this debate to be insulted, nor will I insult others on this thread.

As for them sending the homeless out of London to rehome them in the SE, they have done this to our seaside town.

The result is crime has gone up, drug use is out in the open and prostitution is rife for all to see. People of all ages who have lived there all their lives avoid the town centre.

The above is a fact, it has become such a problem that the council is looking into ways to claw back the community spirit and pride of the town.

Some on here proclaim to like debating and moan at the lack of serious debate on the political threads. What I have noticed as an observer and now having posted, something, which highlights that not all the country is experiencing doom and gloom. They do not debate but resort to personal attacks and character assassination.

I wish you all a pleasant afternoon I am now going to sit down with ☕️?

It does make you wonder if this policy could be extended so that all the 'nice' places in the SE won't have any 'problem' families but will ship them out (probably Up North!).

Yes trisher the social housing clearance is a disgrace.

Although this government is doing its best with London mostly by removing those who need social housing out of the capital to other places, where they won't upset the posh people

There are, of course, people in London and the commuter towns and villages of the South East, who are struggling financially. They might have more libraries, but life is still tough for lots of people I know who live in the South East. Housing being a particular problem there.

A closed mind. So sad.

mmmm, graffiti ! Would the anti semetic mural Corbyn admired come under graffiti?

Realy trisher !

Brilliant! OldMeg

I once read a piece of graffiti that declared

There’s no one more conservative than an ageing socialist

it could have been written for some on here.

I live in a wealthy market town and yes ‘I’m all right Jack!’, thankfully. But I’m fully aware that this is not the case in many other areas of the UK.

That’s what triggers a social conscience.

and while I'm at it ,to be homeless is an absolute disgrace. Perhaps a homeless person would like a nice job and join the library and pop into the tennis club.

Annie if you say something that isn't true it can be regarded as insulting -another term for which is disrespectful. If I refer to you as a closet Conservative do you consider that an insult? Because actually there is more evidence to prove this than any to show I am either a communist or Corbynista.

Here in the SE

The gulf between rich and poor is bigger than ever and social mobility is at an all time low. This is not some nonsense I have made up, people like the Trussel Trust and the Rowntree Commission will provide facts and figures. I have seen people crying because they are hungry and their children are hungry.

People cannot just up sticks and move to the South for work

www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/sep/05/qa-how-unequal-is-britain-and-are-the-poor-getting-poorer