Fixed.

Heh!

They may be stating the bleedin' obvious, but our glorious millionaire government seems intent on ignoring the obvious at all costs.

Notice Nick Clegg on the news having a dig at Labour for “not understanding the private sector”. He added a little aside to that statement, which you would have expected more from Cameron. Looks like the Lib Dems are turning bluer than Labour was.

They probably just want us to believe it must be down to benefits cheats, as with everything.

I've a bad feeling that this is going to be once of those threads where we all talk about something that is 'obvious', but when asked to put some detail to that we find either that it isn't obvious, or that people are unable to explain why why the the obvious is true.

Any takers on that bet?

No.

I'm currently an unemployed freelance artworker. I've been looking for work since my last temporary gig in the summer, and trying to drum up work generally to pay the bills.

I've also been trying to get back into full time work for nearly two years. The best I managed was an interview last autumn, and several tens of wasted applications. It's dead out here.

From my perspective, the jobs market is a tough place to be. Plenty of applicants for every vacancy. Very few lucky enough to even get to first interview stage. It's very depressing.

Thankfully my job is guaranteed until September 2012 and my employer isn't going anywhere, but I'm not looking forward to re-entering the job market when my contract expires. I was hoping things might have picked up by Q3 2012.

Got a garden? Now might be a good time to turn it into an allotment.

Or it turns into one of those threads where people who have not experienced the troubles others face believe that they don't exist.


Potatoes, garlic, herbs, raspberries, blueberries and other fruit is all we have planted at the moment.

I'm in a similar situation in that I'm in a training programme and hence safe until July/Aug 2012, at which point I'll have to find employment. Provided I pass all of my exams, that is!

The killer here was that what was going to be a pretty good job (the regular pay would have been nice) was pulled from under my feet pretty much at the last minute. So right now, I’m treading water with a few odd jobs coming through. It’s a bummer. I don’t really want to put myself in the job market - I remember last time I did that it was soul destroying and made me very depressed. I suspect, though, that I’ll have to soon.

I suspect that if no one wants my skills, knowledge or abilities, I’m not quite sure what else I’ll be able to do proficiently.

That might well happen. On the other hand it could easily degenerate into a snidey sniping fest with all context artlessly ignored.

You are one of seven billion people, and you are among the richest and luckiest of all of those people. I'm not saying you have no economic troubles, but even if your worst fears in that context all come true - even if there is a massive depression - you still won't starve, your kids will get an education, and, hmm, ok, that's maybe pretty much all you are guaranteed, but it's much better than those other 6 billion suckers. There's a billion or so people out in the rest of the world who are counted as middle class because they earn between 2 and 12 dollars per day, one good recession is all it takes to put half of those guys back on the bread line.

I've been in a situation where my line of work went out of fashion and my artistic skills became unmarketable. In Heather's case I'm sure it will work out fine, because the exact same techniques she has used in the past will be back in demand again. In mine it was better to move into a completely different line of work. Don't confuse me with the gazillionaire governing class, I've been on the dole; I don't wish it on people, I don't accuse them of being work-shy scroungers, I don't begrudge them my tax money (nor do I think they get enough of it).

But after whatever hardship this possible new recession (sorry; obvious financial and social cataclysm) might bring to any of us, we will still be alive (all other things being equal), and we will get on with our lives, always under conditions of relative propserity. This latter part is easier to do if we avoid losing our sense of perspective. I know that's a big ask when you've had a really [LIFTED] day and you don't even get an interview for a job you are so overqualified for that you may not even need to get out of bed to do it; but that's when it's most required, so do it.

After all, would you want to to be like an Italian right now? Those guys are trying to blackmail China into subsidising their fetish for sovereign debt, because the alternative is to reform their economy to such an extent that people might be able to become taxi drivers or lawyers just on the basis of qualification to do the job (not presently possible - those are closed shop professions over there, as are many others). So rather than become a modern nation, Italy wants to steal massive sums of cash from the very people who are deemed middle class if the earn $3 /day ($2 in the countryside), with the promise that the more of it they get, the less likely they are to have to pay it back. At least we still have more pride than that!

There might be a recession again. Suffer through it like an Englishman, not a bloody Italian.

It may be obvious to you, but it's not to me. I find the entire national debt, stock market and "consumer confidence" situations totally incomprehensible.

Personally I'm just happy to have a half decent job which looks pretty secure for at least the next couple of years. And if I lose it, as Mr Waffle points out, I know I'll survive and still be more comfortable than most of the 99% of the planet who weren't so fortunate as to be born British.

Suicide is increasing dramatically at the moment. Many of the stats are hidden in the UK by not reporting deaths as 'suicide' but as no specific cause/undetermined cause.

I can't remember the specific term, but that information comes from someone in the NHS who was in a meeting about the figures.

So, no I disagree, we won't all be alive at the end of this.


I thought a true Englishman never stood for injustice. Or perhaps you're talking about the Englishman who just does as they're told by their 'betters' and be quiet?

Be the Englishman who puts up with unemployment and austerity when bankers have been irresponsible and there's over £150million of unpaid taxes that aren't being collected? One of Greece's biggest problems is the inability to collect taxes, not sure why we're following their example.

I agree we can all face trouble times the best we can but there is a point where you stop being a proud and dignified Englishman and in reality become a patsy.