Screw the Penguins, let's talk about vaginas

[rauschwerk]

And this very morning we have Niall Ferguson delivering the latest irrelevant Reith Lecture...

I listened quite attentively to this without being at all convinced by the arguments. Ferguson seemed to be saying that current national debt and deficit levels had a great deal to do with welfare spending, mentioning US Medicare. He did not mention the way in which US military spending has run completely out of control in recent years, doubling to $600bn between 2000 and 2007. Neither did he mention the increase in UK (and presumably US) national debt arising from bank bailouts. I didn't hear the questions afterwards but hope someone picked him up on this.

[Lateralthinking1]

I listened quite attentively to this without being at all convinced by the arguments. Ferguson seemed to be saying that current national debt and deficit levels had a great deal to do with welfare spending, mentioning US Medicare. He did not mention the way in which US military spending has run completely out of control in recent years, doubling to $600bn between 2000 and 2007. Neither did he mention the increase in UK (and presumably US) national debt arising from bank bailouts. I didn't hear the questions afterwards but hope someone picked him up on this.

Quite. It suits some for as many darts as possible to hit the board without ever finding the bullseye. There is a lot of emphasis among economists on how we got here. That is because they have no answers to where we are going. We have discussions on whether the fault rests with Europe or America, financiers or politicians, capitalism or socialism, and now austerity or growth. In truth, national politicians were as slow as their electorates to recognise the power of private enterprise. The difference between the two was that the former were more inclined to work with it and they remain so. While pragmatic, that instinct prevents many from assessing the extent of manipulation and it turns politicians into increasingly willing manipulators for the benefit of the few.

Ten years ago, private companies informed us that Britain was woefully lacking in training and skills. Jobs would be increasingly high tech, those in other countries were well versed in it, and the British would lose out. Hence huge numbers went to university. Now, according to the private sector, people are ludicrously over-qualified, lacking in experience and lethargic compared with the Polish. "We need a good story", my old Permanent Secretary used to say. Well, the story changes to suit the wealthy, it is usually full of lies and policy is shaped on whatever the latest lie happens to be. It is still being argued that those from elsewhere are needed to undertake the high tech jobs and it has been extended to even the basic British jobs, such as they exist. The truth is that there were never huge numbers of high tech jobs and the skills were already here. At the same time, low paid jobs were systematically reduced in number and exported. This has always been about the private sector looking to reduce its costs wherever possible.

As we hear that seven million people are one bill away from being unable to pay, Maude who has issues far beyond repetitive hand washing, speaks of further reform to the Civil Service. Under his proposals, it will become an absolute hell. Again, it is the mantra that it should become more like the private sector. Poor performers will be sacked. On paper that looks like the proverbial good thing to Joe Public. However, much of that sacking will not be on the basis of performance. It will be based on unspoken factors that are buried under the guise of work performance. Whether someone belongs to a union, whether their pension is accumulating at rates the country no longer wants to support, whether they are perceived at 40 or 45 as taking the space of a younger worker, whether they have illness, whether the overall racial mix is right, and whether they are perceived by managers as a soft touch. The quota of 10% is the absolute give away. If you were really going to challenge poor performance, there wouldn't be a quota at all.

Currently, if someone is sacked from the Civil Service, there is a big question mark over whether they will be entitled to retain any of their accumulated pension. Now, then, employees will work with the fear that they will lose all their promised pension rights and largely for reasons of bias that are entirely out of their control. Meanwhile Permanent Secretary appointments are to be party political. In a nutshell, the anti-democratic social engineering of the private sector is about to be further applied to a significant part of the public sector. And as always it will be based on a "story" that is supposedly needed. A story peppered with lies.

[Serial_Apologist]

Ten years ago, private companies informed us that Britain was woefully lacking in training and skills. Jobs would be increasingly high tech, those in other countries were well versed in it, and the British would lose out. Hence huge numbers went to university. Now, according to the private sector, people are ludicrously over-qualified, lacking in experience and lethargic compared with the Polish. "We need a good story", my old Permanent Secretary used to say. Well, the story changes to suit the wealthy, it is usually full of lies and policy is shaped on whatever the latest lie happens to be. It is still being argued that those from elsewhere are needed to undertake the high tech jobs and it has been extended to even the basic British jobs, such as they exist. The truth is that there were never huge numbers of high tech jobs and the skills were already here. At the same time, low paid jobs were systematically reduced in number and exported. This has always been about the private sector looking to reduce its costs wherever possible.

All true - on the one hand the scientific community urges that the state of the planet demands sustainability in the provision of goods and services; on the other, firms urge consumption of product or services whose sale must meet short-term competitivity and shareholder requirements: an incompatibility all in the governing classes, internationally, are agreed upon. Someone else will make those armaments for Saudi Arabia if we don't...

[MrGongGong]

Someone else will make those armaments for Saudi Arabia if we don't...

indeed

and maybe it is time that we in the UK simply stopped pretending that we are still some kind of global power and stopped acting as if this was morally acceptable.

[Lateralthinking1]

indeed

and maybe it is time that we in the UK simply stopped pretending that we are still some kind of global power and stopped acting as if this was morally acceptable.

Seriously for anyone who has teenage offspring with abilities in science and few scruples, my advice would be to work towards a career in armaments. It is one of the few growth industries. If they are more for the arts, then it has to be the legal profession. Neither says much for the position the country is in now.

Additionally, both require more than three years of further education. I do remember even with a reasonable proportion of grant that there was that moment when three years was felt to have been enough. Librarianship was rejected on the basis that it would require another year and we simply couldn't afford it. With hindsight - closures etc - probably just as well.

But many are from backgrounds where three years of education on a loan has been bravery. It is not necessarily what they would have chosen but seemed sensible in a competitive world. They are now finding that even what they have achieved isn't a ticket into the professional classes. They might not even get to stacking shelves.

I heard last night of a family who are probably not atypical. They are as a unit what we were over 20 years ago but victims of these times. Both parents are in their 50s and have worked throughout their lives. They still have a chunk of mortgage to pay. She was made redundant last year. He has had a very long-term contract torn up and replaced by one under which his employment will cease in March. They have one son who is 24. He has a maths degree and has been unable to find work.

Both the mother and the son have been actively seeking work for over a year. She has experience but is being rejected on the grounds that she doesn't have a degree. He is being rejected on the grounds that he has no experience. They have absolutely no idea where they will all be by next June and fear the worst. Talks in Mexico are one thing but my feeling is that the Government has a maximum of two years to prevent meltdown, irrespective of what happens with the Euro.

[MrGongGong]

I graduated in 1985 with a music degree
I never expected there would be a "job" at the end at all (and there wasn't )
the idea that one studies something because its likely to bring financial rewards is a bit of a waste IMV
not everyone has the "nerve" to follow the thing they are most interested in
BUT
we really do only get one go at it ................ so being "sensible" can just lead to another life of missed opportunity and unhappiness

having been very ill in the last year made me realise that there really are more important things than having lots of money and you will be much healthier if you live on lentils and vegetables anyway

there are many young people of my daughter's generation who go to university to study a subject they happen to be good at in school , then realise part of the way in (and these days with a huge debt !) that they really aren't that interested in it after all ............ (I know several people who went to music college on this basis)

What IS foolish IMV is to waste your life toiling at something you hate for people who don't give you any respect

[Serial_Apologist]

I graduated in 1985 with a music degree
I never expected there would be a "job" at the end at all (and there wasn't )
the idea that one studies something because its likely to bring financial rewards is a bit of a waste IMV
not everyone has the "nerve" to follow the thing they are most interested in
BUT
we really do only get one go at it ................ so being "sensible" can just lead to another life of missed opportunity and unhappiness

having been very ill in the last year made me realise that there really are more important things than having lots of money and you will be much healthier if you live on lentils and vegetables anyway

there are many young people of my daughter's generation who go to university to study a subject they happen to be good at in school , then realise part of the way in (and these days with a huge debt !) that they really aren't that interested in it after all ............ (I know several people who went to music college on this basis)

What IS foolish IMV is to waste your life toiling at something you hate for people who don't give you any respect

Back in the early 70s, when jobs were still ten a penny (just about), musical and artistic friends of mine would put in, say, a year at a menial job, then take a year out hitchhiking Europe and the world or devoting their time to developing their talent. Jazz musicians got jobs in "palais bands", backing sections for rock albums (one I know is uncredited on several Elton John LPs), or doing advertising jingles: all options now gone for the jazz muso. My own "solution" was taking clerical work in engineering, which fortunately lasted until 1993; during which time, as a singleton, I left it for colleagues with mortgages and families to take whatever overtime was on offer. I became active in the union too, and I think they were pretty chuffed to get rid of me on a block redundancy. Moved back in with disabled father, availed myself of one of the last local authority grants, did and got degree in Horticulture, which did me no good, there being no available work commensurate with the qually and all that taxpayers' money, and in any case Dad needed care more-or-less 24/7 till he took leave of this world in 2001, leaving me a family home to sell in exchange for the modest flat (where I now am); what's left of his share portfolio (he liked to dabble); and at retirement age in 2010 enough company and state pension to survive in a frugal-ish (but hopefully not ungenerous) way. One has an accompanying feeling of having "arrived". Selfish though it may seem (and most probably is) I am glad I took all necessary precautions not to further populate the planet with additional consumer-polluters, though I feel great anxiety on behalf of the youngsters I feel our generation badly let down in the political and many of the lifestyle choices we made or introduced.

Er...

Self-excoriation over....

[Budapest]

I'll just say that perhaps everything I've been banging on about in this thread is connected.

Talking of which, news is just coming through that Julian Assange is seeking political asylum in Ecuador. You couldn't make it up! (and I'm disapointed that Assange does not trust European justice) Apparently, Assange is presently in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Some background to all this might be provided by the recent interview Assange did with Rafael Correa, the left wing populist president of Ecuador. If interested you can find the interview here...

The Julian Assange Show: Rafael Correa

[Lateralthinking1]

I feel our generation badly let down in the political and many of the lifestyle choices we made or introduced.

Mr Gong Gong - I was sorry to hear about your year and hope that you are on the road to recovery.

Serial_Apologist - Your story is a humbling one in many ways and inspires hope.

I had to give some thought to your criticism of the leaders of your generation because I have been saying that it is my generation that has been the problem. It could almost turn into a Python sketch. What I have concluded though is that lazily I have tended to think of those with influence in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as respectively 'The 1940s, 1950s and 1960s Generations'. Of course, they weren't, having been born many decades earlier.

My conclusion - and I must say that it really surprised me - is that the vast majority of the movers and shakers born after World War One have badly let us all down. As to the whys and wherefores, there is probably a book in there somewhere!

Budapest - Once in a while an individual emerges who is so completely unusual that even those of us with views on almost everything feel nonplussed. For me, Julian Assange falls into that category.

[Budapest]

Budapest - Once in a while an individual emerges who is so completely unusual that even those of us with views on almost everything feel nonplussed. For me, Julian Assange falls into that category.

Whatever people's views on Julian Assange (and I perfectly understand why many people dislike Assange), I can't off the top of my head think of any individual who's had such an impact on history. The revolution in Tunisia can be directly linked to the 2010 Wikileaks release of documents (which showed how corrupt Ben Ali & Co were), likewise with Egypt et al.

I believe I've already linked in this thread to Assange's interview last month with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, which shows yet more examples of how much Wikileaks has influenced events worldwide (including the occupy movement).

Julian Assange's latest programme in his series The World Tomorrow, broadcast by Russia Today (RT), funded by the Kremlin, was an interview with Imran Khan, former cricketer and now a politician in Pakistan. I urge anyone interested in this stuff to see what Imran has to say. You can find it here on YouTube (and I can't help the adverts you get on YouTube thesedays)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WacS98ATtIM