boyfriday Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Har-de-har. You 'roast my arse publicly'??? By calling someone a dimwit? By wishing me dead? Christ, I'm up against a towering intellect here... Anyway, you take the next few rounds. I've got a life and I'm off out. You keep adding to your 20-odd thousand posts with your one free hand. And try reading your own sig. Imbecile, what does my post count have to do with the validity or otherwise of your inflammatory posts? Good for you getting outdoors, but be careful if you have to visit your local hospital, pharmacy, university..you may encounter immigrants who speak English and we wouldn't want you spending the day having your sensitivities disturbed would we? Incidentally I didn't wish you dead, I assume you're a strong swimmer being the most exceptional example of pondlife I've ever come across here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 He said (and I was really impressed!) "Life isn't easy. There is a lot of competition. Our potential customers are all hard-up and are trying to save money wherever possible. Our business is providing solutions which will allow them to save money and provided we continue to provide better solutions with better support at lower prices than our competitors, we won't have a problem. Life is hard, but we're doing OK." Is that because Socialism failed a quarter of a century ago and many are unwilling to move into the current century? I've picked out the above quote from a very information rich and factually accurate post. It supports the view I was trying to get across to Anna B. This is exactly where the UK has to go in a global economy. We can't compete on price or quality for mass produced goods so we have to make bespoke or specialist products, like parts for nuclear reactors, or we provide services that give overseas manufacturers an advantage. I work in IT and have spent years abroad upgrading networks and teaching their local staff. I have been doing it for more than 30 years. But, the work just keeps going because technology moves on and so do I. I keep up to date and that keeps me in work. I agree with your last point that the city mourns for it's lost past and refuses to move on Britain produces some very good engineers who are building the world's infrastructure. I know a guy who builds power stations in China for example. We are also custodians of the world's business language, English. We can teach the world to speak English. There are lots of opportunities out there but our education system is just not making the best use of the talent we have and we are being overtaken by the Germans, the French and the USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I agree with you on education, but what sort of education would you like to see? A lot of graduates are out of work. A lot of science graduates are out of work or in low paid lab work. Yet we keep being told these are needed. Engineering Graduates are finding it hard to compete with Chinese and German graduates. Vocational education seems to be a thing of the past because of cost. Would you like to see an academic education with Latin and Greek? I do think education should start in the home, and this has been sorely neglected in the recent past. Teachers can't do everything, and when faced with a 5 year old who cannot talk, hold a knife and fork, or go to the toilet we're starting from a very low baseline. A Chinese parent would think it a disgrace to have a child start school who could not write his name, count, and read simple words. Education has suffered greatly from being undermined by various governments and constant changes. Politicians can't even agree on what constitutes a good education for the modern world. I agree with your last point. But it's easier said than done... Personally, I think we need to ditch the one size fits all education system because all it has done is dumb down the system to make sucessive governments look as though they are better at education. In the process the needs and abilities of the children have been ignored. Without going back to the grammar school system and all it's inherent problems we do need a system that recognises that some children have more ability and better prospects. They need to be identified and moved on. We need academics but we also need managers, inventors, entrepreneurs and financiers. But, the ones left behind should not be left to rot as in the past but they should be moved towards better vocational training. I know this is going to rile up the lefty loons but their system isn't working in the 21st century in a global economy. Turning out hundreds of thousands of semi literate adults in the name of equality is a luxury we can't afford. As we have seen it also reduces social mobility and widens the gap between rich and poor. So it's a self defeating policy anyway. In addition to education we also need to get on top of the British attitude to work and start to value people who do work and have skills. We have to ditch the cult of celebrity and stop worshipping stupidity and laziness. Please see my adjacent post to Rupert Baehr in how I believe we survive in a global economy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hezron Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 In 1972 any person who reached adulthood could go down to the council offices and put their name down for a council property, along with a preferred choice of area. Within several months they were usually offered a two bedroomed flat if they were single or a house if they were a couple. I know this to be true as I got a new flat when single. The rents were very cheap and I would guess that at todays prices would cost around £40 per week. All working people could afford to pay rent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 In 1972 any person who reached adulthood could go down to the council offices and put their name down for a council property, along with a preferred choice of area. Within several months they were usually offered a two bedroomed flat if they were single or a house if they were a couple. I know this to be true as I got a new flat when single. The rents were very cheap and I would guess that at todays prices would cost around £40 per week. All working people could afford to pay rent. If you were working in the steel industry your job was 40% subsidised by tax payers. Could you have afforded a house on 40% less wages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 If you were working in the steel industry your job was 40% subsidised by tax payers. Could you have afforded a house on 40% less wages? What a tool, what about the successful private sector eg Hadfields who were profitable until Milk Snatcher nationalised them and closed them down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 The overwheming majority of Britons DO want work. Research conducted by the TUC over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £29.2 billion of free work last year alone. http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hezron Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 If you were working in the steel industry your job was 40% subsidised by tax payers. Could you have afforded a house on 40% less wages? Are you suggesting that it is better to support massive unemployment such as we have now. We must of course include in that cost all the ad ons such as prison costs, social welfare costs, etc,etc,etc,etc,etc,etc,etc. The devil makes work for idle hands. Some schools of thought reckon that the real unemployment figure now is 5million. That is a big price for some to think that it is worth others paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 In 1972 any person who reached adulthood could go down to the council offices and put their name down for a council property, along with a preferred choice of area. Within several months they were usually offered a two bedroomed flat if they were single or a house if they were a couple. I know this to be true as I got a new flat when single. The rents were very cheap and I would guess that at todays prices would cost around £40 per week. All working people could afford to pay rent. If you were working for British Steel your job was 40% subsidised by tax payers. Could you have afforded a house on 40% less wages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Are you suggesting that it is better to support massive unemployment such as we have now. We must of course include in that cost all the ad ons such as prison costs, social welfare costs, etc,etc,etc,etc,etc,etc,etc. The devil makes work for idle hands. Some schools of thought reckon that the real unemployment figure now is 5million. That is a big price for some to think that it is worth others paying. We've been though all that class war nonsense a million times and it changes nothing. Your non argument has no basis in fact....................or reality. Basic economics means the public sector or subsidised industries can only exist by taxing the private economy. I'm not going to waste my time giving lefty loons lessons in economics. You don't want to hear it. You want to live in a world of your own making where everyone gets everything and nobody has to pay for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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