Lord Tebbit: Unemployed youngsters should pull up roadside weeds for benefits

Fantastic idea! Get the lazy chavs off their backsides and out working for their hand outs.

At least they will be doing something for the greater good and will make the people who pay money into the system feel better knowing they will have to work for their benefits.
 
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To be fair, for those who only stay on benefits and have no intention to get a job should do it. :p

That really winds me up, as they sit on their arse, just signing on and that's it. Shame on them.
 
so much wrong with all of it.

JSA is meant to be support whilst you find a job.

Working for your benefits is not looking for work, neither is it being paid for your job - because if you're working 30 hours a week or more then it's a job, and not JSA anymore.

'Working for your benefits' with the vague promise of a real job at the end of your placement is a con. There is no job, just a company making use of cheap government labor, subsidised with taxpayers money.



C'mon tebbit, back in the day when you could 'get on your bike' and find a job there were more jobs available to just walk in to, unlike our current situation where there are not enough jobs for the working age population to fill with little surplus workers.

Being an educated sort of chap, having seen the inside of various jobcentres over the last 20 years, I can say with some certainty, that the whole system is designed to remove people from the unemployment figures by any means - achieving this by getting people stable long term employment, so they can get on with their lives and be good little batteries for the economy, is so far down the list of priorities as to be almost negligible.

I know everyone is looking for ideas and proposals, but we should vet them before publishing so everyone involved doesn't end up looking like a complete out of touch fool - from tebbit's half baked idea, to the press and party commentators who will make a living out of endlessly engaging in circular arguments about how this is such a terrible idea (insert social policy leaning here) and how their party would do so much better... all this talk is so much hot air because nothing really constructive is ever done.
Not when I was 20, not when I was 30 and not now when I'm pushing 40.


Far better to have a 'national service-lite' so you can volunteer to help out in your area and offer whatever skills you might have given your age/background and be employed by the government. You could choose to keep looking for a job, or have the option to help out after you've been out of work for, say 10 months.
One volunteer is worth 10 pressed men.
Given the choice I think most people who are hard up would actually relish doing something constructive with their time.

I don't profess to have the answers to all of the inns and outs of how such a service would be run, but it strikes me as a more worthy solution to the current buck passing we have enjoyed for most of my working life which does not help those who find themselves out of a job for any length of time, either due to lack of skills or because the economy takes a hit in a recession.

For what it's worth, I'm glad I'm in work because at least it keeps me out of the incompetent hands of the benefits agency/job centre who have done nothing for me except place needles obstacles in my way every single time I have had to have even the most cursory of dealings with them. So when I look at it like that, I suppose they have reached their objective.
 
russell664 said:
To be fair, for those who only stay on benefits and have no intention to get a job should do it. :p

That really winds me up, as they sit on their arse, just signing on and that's it. Shame on them.
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There are a lot more people on JSA for legit reasons than there are those scrounging on benefits with no intention of getting a job - I do wish there was a reliable way to filter that though.

jumpy said:
JSA is meant to be support whilst you find a job.

Working for your benefits is not looking for work, neither is it being paid for your job - because if you're working 30 hours a week or more then it's a job, and not JSA anymore.

'Working for your benefits' with the vague promise of a real job at the end of your placement is a con. There is no job, just a company making use of cheap government labor, subsidised with taxpayers money.



C'mon tebbit, back in the day when you could 'get on your bike' and find a job there were more jobs available to just walk in to, unlike our current situation where there are not enough jobs for the working age population to fill with little surplus workers.

Being an educated sort of chap, having seen the inside of various jobcentres over the last 20 years, I can say with some certainty, that the whole system is designed to remove people from the unemployment figures by any means - achieving this by getting people stable long term employment, so they can get on with their lives and be good little batteries for the economy, is so far down the list of priorities as to be almost negligible.

I know everyone is looking for ideas and proposals, but we should vet them before publishing so everyone involved doesn't end up looking like a complete out of touch fool - from tebbit's half baked idea, to the press and party commentators who will make a living out of endlessly engaging in circular arguments about how this is such a terrible idea (insert social policy leaning here) and how their party would do so much better... all this talk is so much hot air because nothing really constructive is ever done.
Not when I was 20, not when I was 30 and not now when I'm pushing 40.


Far better to have a 'national service-lite' so you can volunteer to help out in your area and offer whatever skills you might have given your age/background and be employed by the government. You could choose to keep looking for a job, or have the option to help out after you've been out of work for, say 10 months.
One volunteer is worth 10 pressed men.
Given the choice I think most people who are hard up would actually relish doing something constructive with their time.

I don't profess to have the answers to all of the inns and outs of how such a service would be run, but it strikes me as a more worthy solution to the current buck passing we have enjoyed for most of my working life which does not help those who find themselves out of a job for any length of time, either due to lack of skills or because the economy takes a hit in a recession.

For what it's worth, I'm glad I'm in work because at least it keeps me out of the incompetent hands of the benefits agency/job centre who have done nothing for me except place needles obstacles in my way every single time I have had to have even the most cursory of dealings with them. So when I look at it like that, I suppose they have reached their objective.
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The job centre is there purely to manage unemployment not to get people back into work a subtle distinction but an important one.

I don't think the problem these days is as much lack of jobs but as much as there is a lack of jobs the job market has changed in nature a lot over the last few decades - we are much more focused towards the service industry and there are a lot less jobs that just anyone can pickup and learn to do or have a path into - a lot of the older generations are coming from the perspective of when this country had a far more prominent manufacturing industry which made the whole "get on your bike" thing a much more realistic proposition.
 
Yet another suggestion about tackling unemployment which ignores the difference in number between people out of work & available jobs, not to mention the causes of chronic long term unemployment or youth unemployment.
 
Yes because slave labour will help with the employment crisis...

Now don't get me wrong, I think the long term unemployed scrounging scum should have their benefits stripped, kids removed and be sent to the workhouse until they get a job.

But you can't say the same about jobseekers, that is ridiculous.

I tell you what Lord Tebbit, why don't you hire some ****ing people if it bothers you that much? Or have you stopped doing it since your expenses account closed? Scum.

Isn't it funny how it's ok for an ex politician to try get some slaves to sort his garden out but most people would struggle to get a ****ing doctors appointment.

It's bad enough they have this "back to work scheme" giving the highstreet slave labour. That's a bloody good idea isn't it, make it so they have to hire less people. Well done! It's not like "I worked at poundstretcher for no wages" is going to help anyones CV whatsoever.

It's just another case of dirty Tory dealings.
 
its not a new idea and has been done for years :p

when i was inbetween jobs years ago. i was told i would be going on a farm building fences if i haven't got a job before the period it was commencing.

you could also go in charity shops to work as a option.
 
Amp34 said:
Who owns the roadsides? Last I knew it was local councils, the highways department and the government... He didn't mention private companies did he?
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Except that most council services are outsourced to private companies these days. I know refuse collection is for most towns and cities. In Sheffield highways are currently contracted out to Amey.
 
Well whats JSA £60 a week? At minimum wage that's what 9 hours work?

Or employ them as apprentices for £2.33 an hour :D(if we want to be cruel).

If you haven't found a job after a year(being nice) then either something is very wrong or you're not really trying.

I think the worst part of being unemployed is the doing nothing aspect, its easy to fall into a slump. If you're forced to do work to get your benefits that help the community not a private company, its not a bad idea in my opinion.
 
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