Reply to: Industrial investment in 1979 wouldn't have worked.

[Sysman]

Hence "Rover Way" in Cardiff.

Rover weren't allowed to build a gearbox factory in Brum, it had to be in a regional development area.

I remember seeing the body shells for those large Daimlers that Lord Mayors used to have being shipped up to Scotland to meet the engines and drive train. That always struck me as being the wrong way around.

I also recall seeing truck chassis on the motorway being driven to wherever they got a body.

I didn't envy the drivers, for they had zero protection from the elements.

[vetran]

YTS made me the rich man I am now.

remember the 'spanish practices' in some organisations I worked with in the mid eighties.

Surprised so many survived.

[Sysman]

Lots of demand in Eyeran.

Does he know owt about UF6?

The <insert Western govt of choice> probably supplied 'em with all they need.

[DodgyAgent]

sasguru?

SW18

It could be

[bobspud]

Yeah, then we're just going to have 100s of "cyclists are *****" threads.

That goes without saying but at least you could admire them for wanting the jobs.

[shaunbhoy]

Who do we know that lives at No. 1 Cretin crescent?

sasguru?

[DodgyAgent]

Or Fookwit Close in Kent where Troll lives.

Who do we know that lives at No. 1 Cretin crescent?

[shaunbhoy]

Hence "Rover Way" in Cardiff.

Or Fookwit Close in Kent where Troll lives.

[VectraMan]

The Thatcher government did so some things to try create jobs in depressed areas, they were just a bit half baked and as much to do with massaging the unemployment statistics. I'm thinking for example of Employment Training schemes, where you had training while still signing on (although no officially being unemployed). They were a good idea but unfortunately the qualifications were often useless in attaining paid work. Could have been good though.

My first proper post-university job I started on employment training. It was all a bit dodgy: I was supposed to be doing some kind of college course, and I had to pretend I lived at my Dad's house because my Mum's was in the wrong county. But after a month they offered me a proper position with a proper salary (£12K IIRC, but that was the going rate in 1992).

Easy to malign the likes of the YTS, and there's obviously companies that abuse it, but I'd bet it does help the majority.

[DodgyAgent]

The Thatcher government did so some things to try create jobs in depressed areas, they were just a bit half baked and as much to do with massaging the unemployment statistics. I'm thinking for example of Employment Training schemes, where you had training while still signing on (although no officially being unemployed). They were a good idea but unfortunately the qualifications were often useless in attaining paid work. Could have been good though.

Well Sparky

What do you suggest she should have done ?

[ZARDOZ]

The Thatcher government did so some things to try create jobs in depressed areas, they were just a bit half baked and as much to do with massaging the unemployment statistics. I'm thinking for example of Employment Training schemes, where you had training while still signing on (although no officially being unemployed). They were a good idea but unfortunately the qualifications were often useless in attaining paid work. Could have been good though.

[doodab]

It would appear that making people actually look for work is not in labour's manifesto - well this week as it was the tories idea

Some interesting points in there:

He is right to say that we have "created almost ghettos of poverty where people are static, unable to get work because there isn't any work there, unable therefore to get to work because the wages aren't high enough, so they can't get there and they are stuck". But many of today's jobless are not trapped in social housing, but in their own homes which they cannot sell.
Soaring house prices and the spiralling cost of moving has made the workforce far less mobile than it once was. Instead, many commute ridiculous distances every day, adding to the hideous congestion on the country's roads.
Thirty years ago, somebody taking up a job 50 miles away would have moved house. Now, given the costs involved, few will take the risk. Previous governments used regional policy to bring new jobs to parts of the country where old industries had disappeared. But there is much to be said for making it easier for the unemployed to move where the work is instead.
Moving in search of work is commonplace in Europe (why are so many eastern Europeans here?) and in America, where people will relocate to the other side of the continent if they have to in order to take up a job. But the fundamental point remains, that for various historical reasons Britain's workforce has become remarkably static – probably more so than at any time in our history.
It is not that people are work-shy. The truth is that the obstacles to finding employment and keeping a family together can appear almost impossible to overcome.

[Sysman]

I agree with you - there are many centres of excellence (including some manufacturing) and some very bright people in Britain.
But the problem is still that our cake is too small and we have no way of keeping busy our large underclass.

At the skilled end of the scale one acquaintance used to make high speed centrifuges but was told his talents weren't needed any more.

The underclass problem is something I came across in the third world. Far from automating things for the sake of efficiency they actually want work the uneducated can do.

It is to be regretted that the apprenticeships the UK used to have were discontinued.

If you really want to know who is "unemployed" don't look at the 7.7% official figure - add to that 1.7 million people on long-term sick and other "non-patricipants" in the economy.

Back in the eighties I knew people who were bribed to go onto the sick, just to massage the statistics. The recent rise of people in part time jobs and self employed takes them off the "unemployed" figures too.

[original PM]

It would appear that making people actually look for work is not in labour's manifesto - well this week as it was the tories idea

[MyUserName]

Yeah, then we're just going to have 100s of "cyclists are *****" threads.

Employ half of them to stop the cyclists?