Nasty Tories at it again

37000 more folks having to work than this time last month the highest level of employment ever and wage increases double price increases.. where will it end.. Maggie out!

yep, their plan to drive people into insecure, low skilled, low paid jobs with uncertain working hours is working a treat.

Never fear, Brexit will be along shortly to put paid to all the good work the coalition did.

We’ll all be able to have 3 jobs each when they send the immigrants home. I’m planning on being a plasterer, fruit picker and surgical registrar.

that fruit picking is skilled work muppetWrangler – don’t overreach yourself.

37000 more folks having to work than this time last month

Is that the new civil servants they’ve had to hire to deal with brexit? Or is it the number of poor sods who’ve been forced to take up unpaid work on ‘training’ courses, or sign off because they’ve got a nice zero hours contract job which doesn’t give them any work?

Lucky people!

yep, their plan to drive people into insecure, low skilled, low paid jobs with uncertain working hours is working a treat.

Even though this narrative is not supported by the facts….apart from that

But forget the nasty Tories with “their” rising employment and wage trends the real question is for the Brexshiteers who need to reconcile, immigration tends with positive trends in both employment and wages. Hmmm, that doesn’t quite fit the story does it?

Interesting stat on public sector employment levels at new lows – missed by the headlines so far.

Meanwhile in the real world, 12 points of note from the last week or so…

1. The homelessness charity Shelter reported that 120,000 children will spend this Christmas homeless, and that the new lower Tory benefit cap will end up impoverishing an estimated 319,000 children. If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s crystal clear now that Tory austerity policies end up economically punishing children for the “crime” of being born into poor families.

2. The Tory assault on children’s rights suffered a setback in the House of Lords where peers voted against the Tory plan to allow local governments to opt out of child protection measures. This Tory effort to build a “bonfire of children’s rights” is clearly designed to make the privatisation of child protection services more appealing to corporate outsourcing giants like G4S, Capita and Serco. This vote in the Lords is more of a setback than a defeat though because Tory ministers can always simply reinstate the clause to scrap child safety standards when the child and social work bill returns to the House of Commons.

3. The latest figures from the Trussell Trust food bank showed that the increase in food bank dependency in the UK is still continuing. The charity handed out a record number of food parcels in 2015-16 and their evidence shows that two of the three leading causes of food poverty were benefit delays and Tory welfare cuts, accounting for over 40% of referrals between them.

4. A long-awaited report from the United Nations absolutely hammered the Tory government for their savage mistreatment of disabled people. Not only did the report find that Tory welfare cuts have disproportionately impacted disabled people and hindered their rights to live independently and be included in their communities, the report also found that disabled people in Britain have suffered a barrage of right-wing anti-disability propaganda that has routinely portrayed disabled people as “dependent or making a living out of benefits, committing fraud as benefit claimants, being lazy or putting a burden on taxpayers”.

5. Theresa May’s government suffered a humiliating setback in the Supreme Court where the High Court ruling that Tory “Bedroom Tax” discriminates against disabled adults and children was upheld.

6. The Brexiter argument that the collapse in the value of the pound has been a great thing for exports took a massive blow when it was revealed that the UK trade deficit has widened significantly to £12.7 billion. Not only did the vast gap between imports and exports grow dramatically, the volume of UK exports actually fell by £200 million. The Brexiter argument that a collapsing currency is great for the economy is utterly daft because the UK continues to import vastly more than it exports, but when the economic evidence shows that the collapse in currency value has coincided with a significant decline in exports, even the argument that it’s good for the export sector begins to look incredibly weak. Even though the economic evidence shows that this Brexiter delight at the collapse in the value of the pound is misguided, we can look forward to Theresa May and the Tories continuing to spread the ludicrous myth that a weak currency is good for our (import dominated) economy.

7. The Bank of England responded to Theresa May’s ignorant blame-casting rhetoric at the Tory party conference by releasing a report on the relationship between inflation and interest rates that demonstrated that Theresa May simply doesn’t know what she’s talking about when it comes to monetary policy (which is no surprise given the economically illiterate myths about monetary policy spread by her predecessors Cameron and Osborne).

8. The Institute for Fiscal Studies identified a £25 billion black hole in the UK public finances.

9. The Crown Prosecution Service are considering a “corrupt practices” case against the Vote Leave mob (which included high profile Tory government ministers like Boris Johnson) for lying to the electorate over claims like the “Let’s give the NHS the £350 million a week …” lie and their false claims that “Turkey is joining the EU”.

10. Theresa May visited India in order to beg for some kind of trade agreement with them, but ended up getting her ear bent about her obstructive attitude towards Indian migration and the “detrimental” immigration policies she implemented during her time as Home Secretary. Additionally Theresa May didn’t even bother to schedule a meeting with the Indian conglomerate Tata to discuss the ongoing crisis in the British steel industry while she was in India.

11. After returning from her failure of a trip to India Theresa May continued the Tory policy of sucking up pathetically to the Chinese communist government, even allowing herself to be lectured about the importance of “mutual trust” by the Chinese when one of the contractors they lined up to build the UK’s rip-off nuclear infrastructure for us has been charged with nuclear espionage in the United States!

12. The hope that the Tories are finally going to bin their economically ruinous ideological austerity agenda in order to pursue a sane investment led recovery strategy took another blow with the announcement that the rail electrification project for the South West of England has been indefinitely suspended.

link

yep, their plan to drive people into insecure, low skilled, low paid jobs with uncertain working hours is working a treat.

Naughty bad, evil tory, tory evil “people” cutting the unemployment figures and expecting the poor-downtrodden masses to contribute to society.

Evil swines!

. The Crown Prosecution Service are considering a “corrupt practices” case against the Vote Leave mob (which included high profile Tory government ministers like Boris Johnson) for lying to the electorate over claims like the “Let’s give the NHS the £350 million a week …” lie and their false claims that “Turkey is joining the EU

Oh I like that one!!

Sadly all the others affect honest working folks or honest folks unable to work due to circumstances beyond their control..

I want this Government to fail, and fail dramatically.

Naughty bad, evil tory, tory evil “people” cutting the unemployment figures and expecting the poor-downtrodden masses to contribute to society.

Evil swines!

I think you misunderstood the point there. He’s saying that the jobs that are being created are low pay low quality low security jobs. Whilst this is usually better than no job at all, it is not really good enough.

He’s saying that the jobs that are being created are low pay low quality low security jobs.

which is not the case

Let’s hear it then THM?

There’s also the issue of underemployment, with part-time workers who want to work more not being counted.

so lets get this straight

being in the EU is REALLY GOOD FOR OUR EMPLOYMENT FIGURES!?

why are we leaving again?

More than one in five workers, some 7.1 million people, now face precarious employment conditions that mean they could lose their work suddenly – up from 5.3 million in 2006, according to analysis of official figures conducted by John Philpott, a leading labour market economist. Half of the biggest group – the self-employed – are in low pay and take home less than two-thirds of the median earnings, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank. Two million self-employed people now earn below £8 per hour.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/15/more-than-7m-britons-in-precarious-employment

Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. Two-thirds (66 per cent) of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one member works.

http://www.cpag.org.uk/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

It’s threads like this that fill me with despair about the social attitudes of some forumites.

The belief that poor people must be bullied because the lack of public money is their fault, not that of tax avoidance and corporate brown-nosing still persists, sadly.

why are we leaving again?

We’re very angry about something. Although we’re not entirely sure what it is anymore. And so that Boris Johnson can be prime minister.

Just go and read mol – the stats are all there, beyond the emotive soundbites and false claims

Kimbers – the ONS report shows v nicely the correlation between increased immigration from EU and non-EU, falling UN, rising employment and rising wages. It would be fun (in a masochistic kind of way) to hear the Brexshiteers explain that one away.

The number of self-employed people increased by 213,000 to 4.79 million – 15.1% of all people in work.

self employed…right 🙄

There’s your zero hours and insure job roles, right there.

plus the same organisation suggested that their figures for the rise of 37,000 are statistically correct with an error margin of 79,000…so more or less insignificant.

Meanwhile Channel 4 are still digging into the Tories’ election expenses in their opposition to UKIP.

There’s also the issue of underemployment, with part-time workers who want to work more not being counted.

Again – compare this with main increase coming in full-time, not part-time working

There’s your zero hours and insure job roles, right there.

all 3% of the workforce???

This thread is starting to make Brexshiteers look honest 😯

also released today

Britain has a deep social mobility problem which is getting worse for an entire generation of young people, the Social Mobility Commission’s State of the Nation 2016 report warns today.

The impact is not just felt by the poorest in society but is also holding back whole tranches of middle, as well as low income, families – these treadmill families are running harder and harder, but are standing still.

The problem is not just social division, but a widening geographical divide between the big cities – London especially – and too many towns and counties across the country that are being left behind economically and hollowed out socially.

The State of the Nation 2016 report, which was laid before Parliament this morning, lays bare the scale of the social mobility challenge facing the Government. It finds fundamental barriers including an unfair education system, a two-tier labour market, a regionally imbalanced economy and an unaffordable housing market.

The Social Mobility Commission welcomes the high priority that the current, as well as successive, governments have given to social mobility and finds that some real progress has been made. But it concludes that the twentieth century expectation that each generation would be better off than the preceding one is no longer being met.

The belief that poor people must be bullied

expecting all those that can to work and contribute rather than just living off other people is not bullying – it is fairness.

And, it is immensely beneficial for people to be in work:

The evidence is compelling: for most individuals, working improves general health and wellbeing and reduces
psychological distress.   
Even health problems that are frequently attributed to work—for example, musculoskeletal and mental health
conditions—have been shown to benefit from activity?based rehabilitation and an early return to suitable
work.

Research shows that long?term work absence, work disability and unemployment are harmful to physical and
mental health and wellbeing.  
Moreover, the negative impacts of remaining away from work do not only affect the absent worker; families,
including the children of parents out of work, suffer consequences including poorer physical and mental health,
decreased educational opportunities and reduced long term employment prospects.

http://www.insteplimited.com/pdf/Realising-the-health-benefits-of-work-May2010.pdf

teamhurtmore – Member
Just go and read mol – the stats are all there, beyond the emotive soundbites and false claims

Love to. Where, exactly? Isn’t it normal to back up claims with evidence?

You seem to know where they are, how about a link or two…

It’s threads like this that fill me with despair about the social attitudes of some forumites.

The belief that poor people must be bullied because the lack of public money is their fault, not that of tax avoidance and corporate brown-nosing still persists, sadly.

Exactly how I feel. The complete lack of empathy from thankfully a minority is thoroughly depressing. The forumites in question come across as pitiless, self-centred individuals who take a perverse delight in the misfortunes of others.

expecting all those that can to work and contribute rather than just living off other people is not bullying – it is fairness.

Ah, the feckless poor. You do know that most of them are in work, right?

expecting all those that can to work and contribute rather than just living off other people is not bullying – it is fairness.

Everyone thinks that. Even Labour.

The problem with Tories is how they go about trying to encourage that. They take things away without a thought to how people will replace them. They assume that everyone is happily taking money out of the system out of laziness, and if they take the money away they will simply be able to start working instead. They don’t seem to have any idea of the genuine misery their policies cause, and they don’t appear to care.

If you want to get people into productive work, you have to HELP them, not simply punish them. That’s what they don’t get, and that’s why they are the nasty party. Because they don’t give a shit.

Seriously, this ever greater entrenched, tribal attitude towards ‘them and us’ helps no one.

Just because your team didn’t win the last election, it doesn’t mean every single little thing the team that won does is evil, nor does it mean that everything bad in the world is their fault.

The Lowest level of unemployment since 2005 is remarkable really, especially with the Brexit hanging over us. Yes, there is a problem with under-employment, but low unemployment shifts the balance in the jobs market from a seller to a buyers’ market, something that’s shown in the rise in wages, no it’s not the whole story, but why try to pretend it’s bad news, just because you don’t like the government who were in power when the people drive the economy.

expecting all those that can to work and contribute rather than just living off other people is not bullying – it is fairness

Of course, we’ve a massive problem of dole bludgers nicking of the social. 1979 called, it wants its election soundbites back. There’s also the issues around terminally ill and disabled people being harassed and harangued by the state.

Seriously, what I said about being depressed at some of the attitudes on here is true.

We live in nasty times, with a nasty party in power. Social mobility is dead in the water, corporates and banks get all of the social welfare, while people are asked to pick up the bill.

expecting all those that can to work and contribute rather than just living off other people is not bullying – it is fairness.

whilst the principal is true, the method of evaluating who can and cannot is not.
for example (and apologies for the rag link):
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/a-slaughterhouse-sick-disabled-reporter-9260960

If we’re assuming that the spongers are at it…

but why try to pretend it’s bad news,

It’s not treating it as Bad News, it’s just expanding on the superficial headline that encourages no thought to what those bland stats mean and how they are propagandised.

The Lowest level of unemployment since 2005 is remarkable really

If you can show me that this is actually because of what the Tories have done, then I’ll gladly concede. I would love the Tories to be better than I percieve them to be, because then I would be a lot less depressed and a lot more optimistic, which I much prefer.

My complaint about this current lot is that they lack competence (as do Labour) and have done for years. The difference is that they are very clearly pursing an objective with which I do not agree, using methods with which I also do not agree. And they do not do anything to help the misery that people are feeling in the country they lead. I wouldn’t mind if they’d tried and failed, but they don’t try. Apparently because they don’t think it’s their job.

Love to. Where, exactly? Isn’t it normal to back up claims with evidence?

Here’s a challenge woppit – we are talking about the latest labour market stats, albeit under a tongue-in-cheek thread title, they are published by the ONS, and the ONS has a website – go on, be brave, have a look….

You seem to know where they are, how about a link or two…

If that’s too difficult, I will post the link in 10m. Enjoy the challenge…

Mol – your point on causation (which I partly agree with) works both ways. So try matching your comments on reduced income inequality and the highest employment levels since ’71.

Careful clod/fred – that looks like some stats you are using there

“Just go and read mol – the stats are all there, beyond the emotive soundbites and false claims”

😆

Ok then:

Child poverty reduced dramatically between 1998/9-2011/12 when 800,000 children were lifted out of poverty. Since 2010, child poverty figures have flat-lined. The number of children in absolute poverty has increased by 0.5 million since 2010.3

‘Stats’, which you so dearly love THM, suggest that child poverty fell ‘dramatically’ under Labour, and has now risen again under the tories. Now, we can’t argue with such facts now, can we?

There’s also the issues around terminally ill and disabled people being harassed and harangued by the state.

We went through this recently, trying to apply for PIP. Long story short, I’m convinced that the entire system is designed to make you fail.

When the government get on their little soapboxes about how they’ve reduced the number of people on benefits, I’d urge you to consider that it’s almost certainly not because they’ve clamped down on “scroungers,” but rather made the whole process so obstructive and packed with outright lies at every step that the uncomfortable truth is that many disadvantaged people who should be entitled to help aren’t getting it.

There is no doubt in my mind that if it wasn’t for our relationship my wife would be homeless by now. So you’ll excuse me if apologist comments make me a tad vexed.

The General Election is in 2020, until then the PR spin of charities and lobby groups will be just that

We went through this recently, trying to apply for PIP. Long story short, I’m convinced that the entire system is designed to make you fail.

My mum worked for Citizens advice for many years, and spent her days filling out forms like PIP. Her opinion is that we’ve gone back about twenty years.

Well here’s an anecdote to back up that statistic.

I’ve got a job!

I’ll take home about the same in November as I paid tax in June, but lets not let trivial details like that ruin things.

I’m a step parent to a teenager with Type One diabetes. I’ve been down the PIP route too.

I’ve a friend recovering from major surgery who has been shafted by his employer. He can’t sue – because he can’t raise the funds, he’s been denied PIP and the most recent form he’s been sent to complete is forty-nine pages long.

He’s also highly qualified and very, very intelligent. But “the system” wants to force him into homelessness and ultimately poorly paid work with no support before he’s fully healed. I sincerely hope that those politicians behind this one day get held to account.