co durham boy

I think my point was more aimed at Tradesman that are aged 40 Plus and that niche of workers who find it hard to pick up a duster and a hoover never mind retrain for work and find another profession rather than pride.

There's an awful lot of people who chose not to work and are still in that mode 25 years on and the world still owes them a living and it's still someone elses fault.

scrubbedexpat141

I see what you mean, as much as I think at any age anyone can do something to earn money for the family... but as you say, too many seem to feel they are owed a living.

Sandboy

you've never been up north have you ? why do you think there are so many northerners on this forum ?

This is today's news - the pic of the little girl walking home from school is haunting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wear/hi/...00/9398380.stm

scrubbedexpat141

No, not for any extended period of time, but with cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle etc, I fail to understand why fundamental differences in mentality should exist?

Why, if so many on here are Northerners and working elsewhere, can't the majority of others do so? Granted there are always exceptions to these situations but I do not believe that people strike / lose their jobs and then are faced with poverty and no other options.

Call me naive but it seems easier to sit and bemoan a government (Tory / Labour / Left / Right / Any) than make adjustments and decisions to make a difference to your circumstances...Regardless of whether you live in the South or North.

Sandboy

ok, you're naive

that's we did but not everyone has that choice unfortunately

scrubbedexpat141

Debatable to a point but I accept that it's not an option for 100% of the population.

Hello.Kitty

Indeed - you only need to look around you here to see that some people, rather than face unemployment and not being able to put food on the table, have actually left their families to work in another country in order to provide for them.

I really think that a lot of people put obstacles in their own path (ie "make excuses") as to why they can't do something. There was work around elsewhere - my dad was a gastarbeiter in Germany in the early 80s.

scrubbedexpat141

Exactly, I think we are saying the same thing, I know my Grandparents moved South from Manchester when my Grandfather got a job with Esso at Fawley, when that was hard he took a contract in Libya delivering work. My Grandmother worked in the General Hospital in Southampton and was fortunate that her skills / training were transferable across the country / world.

The problem comes with those who would rather be idle and collect what they can from the state. Links back to what another poster said about making those on benefits who are actually fit and able to work to be involved in some form of community service, not as a punishment but a way of at least giving back / earning some of the benefits they receive....or is that too akin to us becoming communists?

Either which way, I believe 99% of people have a choice; sit, complain and claim or do something about it.

Sandboy

nice piece in The Times today by Phillip Collins - I'd link it but Rupert Murdoch doesn't want you to read it unless you can afford it

5 job seekers for every job in the North East, no need for headhunters up there

scrubbedexpat141

Well I guess you're right after all.

How silly of me to forget that the North East is hundreds of years behind the rest of us. No roads, no trains, no airports, not even a horse and cart to get anyone to a city with a bit more work. How foolish of me to think otherwise.

In fact, come to think of it, is that why nobody ever wears a coat up there? Have they not made it that far North because of this apparent lack of infrastructure?

Wish I'd be so lucky to have excuses being made for me by Mr Collins.

Paracletus

Does anyone else think Cameron is an anarchist? Seriously, his politics remind me more of anarchism than any traditional forms of politics as seen in the UK. 'Big society' surely is 100% anarchism, and so red and left I can't quite believe it.

Sandboy

you're struggling now mind - go and hunt some heads

scrubbedexpat141

zzzz

Meow

I thought you were only 29? If so, you aren't old enough to remember.

Certainly some of the unions were out of control and damaging industry, but what happened to the actual miners, their families, their villages/towns etc was wrong. Many of those places and people have never recovered. Change was due, but as usual it is the average man who pays the price.

Thatcher's legacy is people not caring about others and only being out for themselves. One of the main problems in the UK right now.

Ethos83

The mining industry was heavily subsidised by the government (and UK taxpayers). It was operating at wartime capacity in an era of dramatically declining demand for coal (for which the UK is far better off from an environmental and health perspective). Any attempts by the various governments to gradually downsize the mining industry was fought off by the unions - till there really was no choice left but the radical one taken by Thatcher.

I certainly don't applaud the economic devastation of towns and regions affected by the pit closures, but in the long run both the miners and the country are better off. We rid ourselves of an obsolete industry that had grown parasitical and the offsprings of the miners (well, the brighter ones) have moved into more relevant and healthier sectors of the economy where they don't have to worry about getting the miner's lung diseases and other health problems that came with working in the pits.

Perhaps part of the problem in the UK is that we care too much with the result that we have a lavish welfare state that has allowed for the creation of a permanent underclass with a sense of entitlement towards receiving benefits without having to work - that the State 'owes' them a living simply because they happen to be around.