Budget Day -

[observer]

What are you hoping for or rather expect?

[Evil Sid]

Have overslept and woken up in an alternative universe??

 

beer DOWN by a penny a pint.

 

petrol duty rises SCRAPPED

 

has the man gone MAD!!!!!!

 

   

[wolfie]

It's at times like this that I wish I wasn't tee-total, because I could now be 1p a pint better off.

[observer]

Listened to Danny Alexander's justification behind the 20% interest free loans for home buyers. He said that folk could afford mortgage payments butAlso had difficulty with finding a deposit. But in order to pay off regular mortgage payments, I presume it helps if folk are in secure employment - no jobs for life anymore;  and couldn't this lead to the very thing that set off the last financial crash? Also, couldn't this lead to an upward surge in house prices as demand increases above supply?

[asperity]

No jobs for life anymore?  When, in recent (postwar for example) history has anybody had a guaranteed job for life? Not even politicians expect to be in the same job for life.

[observer]

Don't know Asp, thought sea Captains were OK !  As long as they're not Italians !

[Evil Sid]

Ah but it was always assumed that a captain would go down with his ship hence ensuring a job for life

[asperity]

Shipping is a volatile business so, although someone may be in the industry for life it may well be that it will be with several different employers and thus no guaranteed job. I've had 8 different employers in my 45 years at sea, and been made redundant 3 times.

[observer]

Think the jobs market is a tad more unstable now than it was 40 or 50 years ago Asp, they even had 25 year mortgages then - subject to proper checks on abilty to pay, plus a deposit, of course.

[asperity]

I got a 25 year mortgage in the late 80's, after Maggie had allegedly destroyed all jobs. I think your memory is a tad wonky Obs.

[Cleopatra]

[observer]

Errm Asp, I didn't say there wern't any 25yr mortgages in the 80s, but there doesn't appear to be any now; folk I've talked to, seem to have to keep shopping around for the best deal. As to whether job security has improved, I doubt it. However, moving on, this scheme (as Labour has noticed), appears to be for wealthier home buyers to enter the top end of the market, when the need is for MORE houses in total, and especially at the bottom end of the market. Increasing the supply (giving jobs in the construction industry), would cater for housing need, but would also reduce demand pressures on house prices generally; something Osbourn's scheme doesn't appear to address. Still, I suppose the less well off should be thankfull for a penny off the pint!

[asperity]

Errm Asp, I didn't say there wern't any 25yr mortgages in the 80s, but there doesn't appear to be any now;

But you did imply that there haven't been since 40 or 50 years ago. As for there not appearing to be any now, you seem to be ignoring the financial crisis of the last 5 years.

[asperity]

 As to whether job security has improved, I doubt it.

 

My point was exactly that, there haven't been guaranteed jobs for life for a very long time.

[Davy51]

The main difference is that in the 60's & 70's people were in a position to move from job to job whenever they wanted. Even the job centre now redirects  customers to  a third party contractor to apply for what is nothing  more than agency work.

[Bazj]

Well my delivery arrived from B&Q this evening.... tail lift wagon with two lads on board.... one English; the driver and one Polish; or certainly East European (as the first thing he asked me was could he use my toilet....)..... obviously we have a shortage of skilled and qualified people; capable of hand-balling stuff off a wagon and into someone's garage.....

 

maybe these are the skilled jobs that the migrant workers are here to fulfil; jobs which our own UK unemployed are incapable of fulfilling (or if you listen to Kije; the jobs that our unemployed won't do.....)

 

 

[P J]

And I know a Polish dentist who is married to a Polish engineer.  My back specialist is also Polish .  

[wolfie]

I asked my dentist for  a quick Polish and Scale
 

"No problem" he said

 

Then his Eastern European assistant came running in and started singing, "Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti."
 

[Bazj]

And I know a Polish dentist who is married to a Polish engineer.  My back specialist is also Polish .  

 

Those ARE specialised jobs and which we may well need in the UK; but allowing people to come and take up relatively unskilled jobs like delivery driver surely must affect the chances for our own nationals?

 

If you want to go and live in the US or Australia, you have to "qualify" in so much as you have to have a profession that they want or need and you must have a job to go to before you get there and somewhere to stay. You can't just turn up with 4 mates in a Lada and then start looking for work when you get there.....

[asperity]

There is no solution to this dilemma unfortunately. Oh! No! Wait! Leave the EUSSR and only allow in people who might add to the countries value!! Sorry the majority wouldn't stand for it - or would they?

[P J]

Could we start with kicking out the Irish then Asp?

[asperity]

Not while we're still in the EUSSR. If we ever did leave I doubt that the Irish would be the first target for expulsion, after all Manchester United would lose a large amount of its support!

[P J]

I think you overestimate your countrymen's popularity in my country. 

[asperity]

I think you overestimate the number of Irishmen who give a damn what you think

[observer]

I find it amazing, that having had my view on immigration distorted and ridiculed to a surreal point, we're now back on the subject (which I didn't begin btw). My view is fairly simple: by all means "foreigners" should be welcomed to this country as tourists, bona fide students (bringing in money) and as required skills workers - on time limited visas, issued, following application and interview at a British Embassy in the country of origin. The fact that a skills shortage can be identified by the importation of foreign labour, merely condemns the inadequacy of Education and Training in this Country, to fill those job vacancies. However, getting back to the budget and the dire mess we're in, there has to be an economic stimulus to get the economy moving again; I know this sounds counter intuative in a debt ridden situation; but we have to get the majority of folk out spending money again, and there are plenty of levers to do this - a VAT reduction for a start. There is a vast amount of cash being sat on by major corporations at the moment, because they have no confidence in the current economic situation - that needs to be put to work. We've got umpteen infrastructure projects that required in there own right, many of which will require low skilled labour (EG road repairs, house building, energy generation etc); but the bonus is, they create employment, creating a workforce that then becomes tax-payers rather than tax-consumers (on the dole), and spenders on the high street.. However, IF and when things start to pick up; politicians should learn that fiscal dicipline has to become their modus operandi, and debt repayment has to be a prioritised over populist spending policies.