Boards
Long term unemployment
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7816500.stm
Several things struck me about that article. The first is that the minimum wage is criminally low, far from the living wage it ought to be. Secondly, Lauren has completed one part of a childcare course but for whatever reason left, now she wants to go back to complete it but thanks to some wonderful cost cutting measures it's no longer free for her. Problem is she doesn't have the money to complete the course at present and is just as unlikely to if she was working due to the poverty wages. Something of a catch 22 if she wants to progress then, question is why isn't free education for all a right (answer because our government is too scared of progressive taxation to fund it, and wastes countless £billions on projects like Trident replacement, the Olympics, consultation for a new generation of unnecessary nuclear power stations ((never mind the actual cost of construction still to come)), fighting illegal and immoral wars that serve no purpose other than the economic subjugation and exploitation of both Iraq and Afghanistan, even more money thrown at bailing out banks without giving a toss about saving what remains of British industry, preferring instead to focus on the less than productive tertiary sector).
Next things it's not that immigrants are deflating wages and taking jobs that apparently should be reserved for "British workers", it's more that employers are cutting more and more jobs and forcing say 10 people to do what should be the work of 25 people for longer hours and lower pay.
The last point is in a large point related to the persistent attacks on trade unions, starting with Labour's "social contract" in the 1970s, peaking with Thatcher's series of vicious anti union laws, but continued today by Brown, Darling, Mandy and their merry bunch of cronies. The toothlessness of the unions further compounded by an increasingly right wing bureaucracy within the unions seeking to further their own ends and hold down class consciousness.