New Slave Act ?
Our glorious leader (G. Brown) has announced plans for the young unemployed to either be given a job or take up training after 1 year’s unemployment. Failure to do either option will result in loss of benefit.
It does appear that all those dystopian sci-fi versions of the future might actually come true now.
The poor, the unemployed, the uneducated etc, can simply become the forgotten underclass. They will do all the jobs that companies will not pay a liveable wage to do (i.e. most). As someone who remembers the Y.O.P scheme in the 80’s I can testify that it was simply a source of cheap labour for companies. Effectively it became a sort of slave labour. You went on the course – or else !
For thoses who do not remember the Y.O.P scheme, people worked full time, next to salaried employees, but did so for only the dole payment + a symbolic few quid extra. In real terms less than a quarter of what a real job paid. And yes – you were expected to do the same amount of work as everyone else.
As well as make the tea…..
Perhaps the Government will make the people on the scheme wear grey jump suits. Just to blend into the background.
People will not notice them.
But they will be there…
(In case you miss-read the above post, it is meant to be laced with sarcasm. The unemployed are an easy target. Please stop picking on us. We vote too.)
Summer is here
Summer has arrived. Next week the weatherman predicted temperatures up to (and maybe over) 30 degrees.
Great if you are at Glastonbury or on holiday. Otherwise – yuck.
Hot sticky weather that is not fun to work in (or look for work in), the roads, town and beaches full of tourists, and prices going up. Is it just me or is petrol creeping up in price again? Funny how that works. Usually less demand i.e. a recession pushes prices down. Except with fuel, where speculation pushes prices up.
Nice to know the City has not lost its unwavering abilty to stick two fingers up at the rest of the country in this time of economic hardship.
And to cap it all, MJ has died.
Weird, wacky and certainly a little bit strange – but there was no denying a great talent and showman who entertained millions with his antics. On and off stage.
Already his records are selling out fast from stores and online and I suspect this weekends sunday’s are going to be full of special tribute editions.
V1
Posted by admin in Television on June 23rd, 2009
I quite like Star Trek. And all it’s various spin-offs.
However. Virgin 1 tends to spoil the enjoyment by having a bloody great logo for the station in the corner, as well as annoying little “pop-ups” for future shows appearing at random times at the bottom of the screen. These are mainly for Chuck at the moment.
Now they have begun cutting off the end of the episode by overlaying an advert on it 
Virgin 1 – How to lose viewers. Namely me…..
Summer
After a few weeks of rather inclement weather, summer seems to have arrived. Again. The weather now is warm (and a bit oppressive) and the roads and beaches have tourists on them. Everyone is expecting a bumper year in terms of numbers (and profits).
We love fleeceing tourists in this part of the world 
Only kidding. Everything really is that expensive here.
How can I tell that it is busy? Simple. I live under the flight path to the local hospital. We can always tell it is busy as both Chivenor Air/Sea rescue (the yellow helicopter) and the Air Ambulance (the red one) make multiple trips in per week.
Holidaying can be a dangerous activity…..
Choice
Posted by admin in Television on June 22nd, 2009
It is really quite amazing that there are so many tv channels, yet so little is actually on them.
Maybe that’s not quite right.
There is stuff on, but it is so badly organised. Broadcasters are still wedded to the rather archaic concept that the evening is prime time for tv. There is much to be said for the idea that ALL day long is now prime time. With pvr’s, dvd recorders and the net (ie iPlayer etc) you would think that broadcasters would realise that we can arrange our own schedule.
I suppose the reason I am writing this is that I have a ps3 and recently got the playtv attachement. So now I have a pvr with a programme scheduler. Which is great. I can even watch tv on my psp.
As such I can watch ST Voyager in the evening and Chuck mid morning if I want too.