Oh I dunno ... no speed cameras, anything that could outrun a cop car would probably get away with it, oil burners, about a hundredth of the laws we have now, no mobile phones, the only blueteeth were the ones the dentist ripped out, fill yer tank for a couple of quid, health and safety something the Yanks did .... it wasn't all doom and gloom
Well if you watched it. I'm guessing you all liked the bit about our lost generation of young people and the Banks getting a kicking over this crises instead of the unions getting the blame like they did in the 70s.
Very interesting and some admirable stuff from most except the money grasping tradesmen. The whole country needs this kind of wage restructuring.
But what stuck out most to me was.....
Plumbers on 100k! And they by and large were the least likely to take part and try to help out in restructuring the salaries to be more fair for the lowest paid employees. Money grasping selfish Mf!$%ers they came across as, to me.
And us public sector workers are being told we earn too much have gold plated this that an the others!
Train for a year to become a plumber and earn 100+k clearing drains or train for 4 years at Uni after doing two years at sixth form and earn 40k like my bro who is a deputy head of a primary school, helping teach and raise the nations future(a bit more important than a blocked drain FFS)
This country our society is royally f!$%ed up with the worst set of priorities ever it would seem!
(BTW this is the room for serious stuff I've been told. So that's why its here)
It is a fact that the people the country can do without least are the least well paid. If all the 'mega bucks' bosses decided to have next week off, life would go on and their absence with be largely unnoticed. If the bin men, cleaners, lorry drivers, shop floor workers etc had next week off the country would be on it's knees by Tuesday morning.
It's like these bankers, the last one to lose his job has just turned down his bonus package ... an estimated £20million. WTF does a bloke do that warrants that money ... because since he quit the bank hasn't closed, he hasn't been missed, so why was he worth that stupid amount ?
That's why we're f!$%ed ... we've come to believe the hype these twats want us to believe, that they're somehow so valuable and vital that we can't survive without them. 'Tis bollox
nickwiz, you need to understand market forces. If your skills are in demand, you can expect to make a good living. Nowt wrong with plumbers making a 100k. What happens is other see that they're doing well, train up, enter the market and bring down prices are competition increases. Its the basics of free markets and the lack of plumbers (and other such trades) is a direct result of trying to fit everyone into the acedemic mould (uni) rather than vocational. Its time we adopted the German model.
I'm with you on teacher's being undervalued. But then I don't think its a monetary thing - more of an attitude and lack of respect for the profession.
Watching "The Town That Never Retired", what strikes me is that our system doesn't encourage the older part of the market not being used to train the younger part of the market (such as via apprendices). It also strikes me how everyone hopes to be able to pick up a job without any form of training (thinking of the young waitress lass)
we really really need to find apprenticeships or work for our young people because if we don't we are raising a disenfranchised angry generation.
Last summers riots were criminality sure but they didn't happen in a vacuum. If you raise young people but deprive them of the ability to consume in a consumer society they will find other ways to get what they think everyone else has. Condemn the criminality? Sure but that aint enough. Everyone should be concerned because if it kicks off worse everyone will suffer. I fear for their and our future.
On the Subject of Telly. Anyone watch Bank of Dave tonight? I thought it was brilliant.
I agree with you on the apprenticeship's Nick. I work in the building trade and when I left school in the 70's an apprenticeship was the prestige job to get. But I am afraid in todays world of computers and technology, if you give a young lad the option of working as a brickie or joiner up on the scaffolding in all weathers, or job in a warm office clicking a mouse, there is no contest! There are still a few companies who take on apprentices each year, but I am afraid for every lad that completes his apprenticeship there are 2 that give up in the first year.
The one Tradesman. "you took the job why should I help you?" man. What a c!$%. That's exactly the sort of attitude I bloody rail against. Thatcher's f!$%ing generation. Sod you Jack I'm OK. Sickens me.
This is something of a tangent, but I think you may find it relevant so bear with me for a moment...
As a bit of good PR the company I work for got the princes trust to find them a group of young unemployed lads and they gave them 3 weeks unpaid 'work experience' after which they told them to sign up to the agency we use in the hope of getting some semi regular work.
Some of them were the predictable drifting through life with no direction types but one lad in particular stands head and shoulders above the others both in terms of ability and work ethic. He's 20 and has spent the time since leaving school working as a plasterers mate and had just progressed to plastering himself when his boss' work dried up (excuse the bad pun) and he found himself on the dole.
Being used to building sites he can take the banter of a fairly brutal job and has the maturity to shoulder his share, and more, of the workload.
I asked him why he didn't just go out on his own plastering and he replied that he hasn't learned to drive because even if he passes his test, he cant afford to insure a van to get from job to job!
I'm sure some of you will reply that young lads are a bad risk and so must pay through the nose to be on the road but think about it. If he can't carry on in his trade due to being from a pretty s!$%ty background and not having parents willing/able to front the money for him to be mobile for work then there must be countless others in the same situation and so we end up with yet another shortage of labour in the building trades, which puts up prices to build and maintain properties and in some small way contributes to the house price bubble which seems to be being blamed as being a contributing factor in the current financial mess. We all know that motor insurance is a government endorsed protection racket enforced by statute and the police but I cant help but feel that now more than ever the young are being being treated as an easy target.
As things stand he has no prospect of making something of himself, being his own boss or being able to better himself through actually working for a living.
If this is the message now being delivered to the up and coming generation then I can say hand on heart that I'm bloody glad I'm not 20 years younger! That's definitely not a good sign...
Nickwiz, now let me scare you. This is your old stomping ground. Nice, rura, nothing ever happens Suffolk. The kids in your areas must be expected to pay 2 or 3 times the amount this poor lad is expected to.
To put this in perspective, then I was 18/19 I had to pay about twice the cost of the old POS I was driving. Now seems to be between 5 to 10 times the value.
Quote: "you took the job why should I help you?" man. What a c!$%.
Yeah, he was OTT wasn't he
Quote: To put this in perspective, then I was 18/19 I had to pay about twice the cost of the old POS I was driving. Now seems to be between 5 to 10 times the value.
That's because they're insuring you not the car. The value of the car you drive is irrelevant if the potential claim they're covering against is for you causing harm to others.
Worth reading MCN (yeah I know I know) but there is an article in there about a young lad on a 125 who hit a car broke its light and that's about it. He walked away I believe. Yet the drivers insurance company are claiming for doctors visits to a doctor in Leeds when the person lives in London. whiplash. Replacement cars. Etc etc. Its bloody fraud and yet the Ins companies are colluding in it. I recently had a six grand claim made against me because the woman in front stalled at a junction and I bumped her car. Her bumper slightly deformed and a thumb size dent. She claimed for whiplash, written off car etc. I broke the headlight glass on mine that was it. It was a 5mph bump. No injuries. FFs Fraud and m y ins company paid out!!!!
Thats what Ins companies are insuring against. Fraudulent claims which they are paying out. f!$%wits.
Personal claims need to be attached to your own insurance so that you claim, you claim against yourself. If you're genuinely hurt it would be worth claiming but would stop scam artists as how many times could they claim on thier own insurance.
And they by and large were the least likely to take part and try to help out in restructuring the salaries to be more fair for the lowest paid employees. Money grasping selfish Mf!$%ers they came across as, to me. 
natural, down to earth .... "Has that f!$%ing clock stopped ... " 
Sickens me.
) but there is an article in there about a young lad on a 125 who hit a car broke its light and that's about it. He walked away I believe. Yet the drivers insurance company are claiming for doctors visits to a doctor in Leeds when the person lives in London. whiplash. Replacement cars. Etc etc. Its bloody fraud and yet the Ins companies are colluding in it. I recently had a six grand claim made against me because the woman in front stalled at a junction and I bumped her car. Her bumper slightly deformed and a thumb size dent. She claimed for whiplash, written off car etc. I broke the headlight glass on mine that was it. It was a 5mph bump. No injuries. FFs Fraud and m y ins company paid out!!!! 
