Bus arrives 2 hours early BBC goes into overdrive

[0a]

martin84 said:

Giving them 'retail experience' is quite pointless generally because retail is a dying business. This idea is 20 years out of date.

From the point of employability the important thing isn't 'experience' but being able to demonstrate the ability to turn up on time, do the tasks demanded and so on.

Again, many people seem to be out of contact with the real world where these are the factors the unemployed fail on. We call it 'experience' so as not to insult people.

As I understand it there is no compulsion to join the workfare scheme, however there is compulsion (having your benefits stopped) from deciding you don't like workfare once you are signed up. This seems fair enough to me as it would devalue the whole scheme in the eyes of an employer if you could pick and chose when you turned up (ie it's like a real job).

It's interesting to note that many commentators did not complain previously. Indeed, from Polly Toynbee we have The Tories were right: workfare really works (1997) which highlights how workfare interferes with benefit fraud and is a really interesting read. How things change when Labour isn't looking like it's getting in soon!

It's easy to be blase about this and fail to recognise how far many of these individuals are from being employable from the point of view of an employer. A weekend doing some basic tasks on time and to spec massively improves chances of future employment for someone who's got nothing on the CV.

[Dixie68]

Hackney said:

And to the guy at Frankfurt airport, I assume you had access to warmth, light, food while there and then several hours on a plane to sleep should you desire, not two hours on a street in London before a 14 hour shift of... standing on a street in London?

A whole 2 hours?
[Colonel Kurtz] The horror... the horror [/Colonel Kurtz]

[Dixie68]

And it turns out today that the earlier reports can be countered with the phrase, "Liar, liar, pants on fire". Not only did the majority of the 80 volunteers enjoy themselves, most are grateful for the opportunity & "had a laugh" during the extra two hours. Shelter & toilet facilities WERE provided & one of them worked out that because of the training & certification & free safety clothing they were given, they would have had to be paid £45 an hour to fund it themselves.

[TorqueVR]

Surely the real complaint here is the 87 year old woman and the 91 year old bloke who were left out in the rain and the wind all afternoon (and without a toilet break according to the BBC) - have they moaned?

[thinfourth2]

Dixie68 said:

And it turns out today that the earlier reports can be countered with the phrase, "Liar, liar, pants on fire". Not only did the majority of the 80 volunteers enjoy themselves, most are grateful for the opportunity & "had a laugh" during the extra two hours. Shelter & toilet facilities WERE provided & one of them worked out that because of the training & certification & free safety clothing they were given, they would have had to be paid £45 an hour to fund it themselves.

I find this much easier to belive then the media image of tory toffs on horseback rounding up unemployed people and forcing them to sleep rough for hours in London before being forced at gun point to be slave labour security.

[martin84]

0a said:

From the point of employability the important thing isn't 'experience' but being able to demonstrate the ability to turn up on time, do the tasks demanded and so on.

Again, many people seem to be out of contact with the real world where these are the factors the unemployed fail on. We call it 'experience' so as not to insult people.

Thats all well and good but I still feel the system is done badly. Take that case we discussed on here a few months ago about the graduate who was volunteering at the Museum but the Job Centre forced her to volunteer at Poundland instead. The system is geared up to give retail chains free staff, Museums generally rely on enthusiastic volunteers anyway so the Government went 'oh no, her volunteering isnt giving anybody free staff!! quick!! force her to poundland!!' which shows the priority is to use taxpayers money to give Poundland free staff rather than to give 'experience.'

0a said:

It's easy to be blase about this and fail to recognise how far many of these individuals are from being employable from the point of view of an employer. A weekend doing some basic tasks on time and to spec massively improves chances of future employment for someone who's got nothing on the CV.

The intention may be sound but the Government has done it badly. Considering the Conservative's are meant to be the pro-business party which understands business, they really have cocked this up. Small businesses aren't interested in this scheme because they get nothing out of it, the only ones with the resources to do it are big retail trades like Tesco, Burger King etc and they've ended up on the front pages under headlines about Tory slave labour to the point where they've pulled out. These big businesses cannot risk bad headlines. The Government dont give them anywhere near enough incentive to make bad headlines seem worthwhile. They were starting this when I was still at the DWP and I remember agents being tasked with trying to find local businesses willing to give the long term unemployed full time experience for free and practically no reward and unsurprisingly there were very few takers.

They're trying to get people off JSA on the cheap, they bang on about how they'll 'get people off benefits without costing the taxpayer a penny' but helping people to acquire long term work is something I wouldn't mind my taxes being spent on.

Dixie68 said:

And it turns out today that the earlier reports can be countered with the phrase, "Liar, liar, pants on fire". Not only did the majority of the 80 volunteers enjoy themselves, most are grateful for the opportunity & "had a laugh" during the extra two hours.

So will PH take back its remarks about how young people are awful, dreadful scum with bad attitudes?

[Johnnytheboy]

One of the worst things about driving around all day is hearing the radio do the same story to death. By the end of the day yesterday I was so sick of this non-story.

The only interview I heard with one of the volunteers involved made it abundantly clear why he was unemployed. I wouldn't give someone with that much of a sense of entitlement a job.

[martin84]

Johnnytheboy said:

One of the worst things about driving around all day is hearing the radio do the same story to death. By the end of the day yesterday I was so sick of this non-story.

The only interview I heard with one of the volunteers involved made it abundantly clear why he was unemployed. I wouldn't give someone with that much of a sense of entitlement a job.

Out of interest what did he actually say?

[turbobloke]

As this non-story is typical BBC-Grauniad fake outrage aimed at fellow travellers (no pun intended) here's a suitable antidote from where else but the Mail, guaranteed to cause additional eye bulge with handwringer lefties.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155650/Jo...

"Labour camp? No, we just had a great time"

"Jobless Jubilee stewards dismiss 'exploitation' claims"

"One volunteer, Robert Cooke, 30, from Plymouth, said: ‘A couple of people have complained about things that weren’t controlled by CPUK – the coach drivers who insisted on leaving, and the weather.’ He said the organisers found somewhere for them to shelter and everyone had access to portable lavatories."

"The company has also received messages from other volunteers. One said they were ‘treated with the utmost respect and highly praised for the work we had done’, while others said they were looking forward to working with CPUK again at the Olympics"

[martin84]

turbobloke said:

As this non-story is typical BBC-Grauniad fake outrage aimed at fellow travellers (no pun intended) here's a suitable antidote from where else but the Mail, guaranteed to cause additional eye bulge with handwringer lefties.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155650/Jo...

"Labour camp? No, we just had a great time"

"Jobless Jubilee stewards dismiss 'exploitation' claims"

"One volunteer, Robert Cooke, 30, from Plymouth, said: ‘A couple of people have complained about things that weren’t controlled by CPUK – the coach drivers who insisted on leaving, and the weather.’ He said the organisers found somewhere for them to shelter and everyone had access to portable lavatories."

"The company has also received messages from other volunteers. One said they were ‘treated with the utmost respect and highly praised for the work we had done’, while others said they were looking forward to working with CPUK again at the Olympics"

Looks like there might be a few PH'ers who owe these volunteers an apology...

miniman said:

Perhaps if they had a better attitude they wouldn't be out of work in the first place.

Mr Sparkle said:

what a bunch of limp wristed pussys, back on the dole.

Happy82 said:

This nation needs to grow a backbone if this is considered so evil. When managing pubs and clubs I would regularly be working in excess of 14hours on my feet without a break.

Looks like the only limp wristed backbone shy people with bad attitudes were the media. Considering plenty on here bashed the media for pushing this without knowing any facts, its quite hypocritical to criticise the individuals involved without knowing any facts. the coach drivers who insisted on leaving, and the weather.

[miniman]

martin84 said:

turbobloke said:

As this non-story is typical BBC-Grauniad fake outrage aimed at fellow travellers (no pun intended) here's a suitable antidote from where else but the Mail, guaranteed to cause additional eye bulge with handwringer lefties.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155650/Jo...

"Labour camp? No, we just had a great time"

"Jobless Jubilee stewards dismiss 'exploitation' claims"

"One volunteer, Robert Cooke, 30, from Plymouth, said: ‘A couple of people have complained about things that weren’t controlled by CPUK – the coach drivers who insisted on leaving, and the weather.’ He said the organisers found somewhere for them to shelter and everyone had access to portable lavatories."

"The company has also received messages from other volunteers. One said they were ‘treated with the utmost respect and highly praised for the work we had done’, while others said they were looking forward to working with CPUK again at the Olympics"

Looks like there might be a few PH'ers who owe these volunteers an apology...

miniman said:

Perhaps if they had a better attitude they wouldn't be out of work in the first place.

Mr Sparkle said:

what a bunch of limp wristed pussys, back on the dole.

Happy82 said:

This nation needs to grow a backbone if this is considered so evil. When managing pubs and clubs I would regularly be working in excess of 14hours on my feet without a break.

Looks like the only limp wristed backbone shy people with bad attitudes were the media. Considering plenty on here bashed the media for pushing this without knowing any facts, its quite hypocritical to criticise the individuals involved without knowing any facts. the coach drivers who insisted on leaving, and the weather.

NIce quoting out of context. Have you read the rest of my posts on this thread?

[martin84]

miniman said:

NIce quoting out of context. Have you read the rest of my posts on this thread?

Eeerrrmmmm...no. Actually.

[Slaav]

davepoth said:

I'm mightily pissed off about it - I'm on the dole in Bath and they never asked me if I wanted a free trip to London with an anorak thrown in...

And the free boots! Don't forget the boots....

But then you would have (cannot even bring myself to spoof that with 'of') been forced to wear uncomfortable boots by cost cutting Tory to55er government!

[Johnnytheboy]

martin84 said:

Johnnytheboy said:

One of the worst things about driving around all day is hearing the radio do the same story to death. By the end of the day yesterday I was so sick of this non-story.

The only interview I heard with one of the volunteers involved made it abundantly clear why he was unemployed. I wouldn't give someone with that much of a sense of entitlement a job.

Out of interest what did he actually say?

I can't remember exactly, but his tone was very much "I want to work - I really do - just so long as everything is done for me".

Could try & find it on iplayer, I think it was about ten past eight on Wed AM on R4 Today programme.

[marcosgt]

Normally I like R4 in the morning, but they do teeter over into editorial sometime.

You expect Prescott to blather on about slave labour, the same way Tories out of power will complain that giving orphan chimney sweeps the day off on Christmas Day is decimating the economy and destroying British companies, but the thing that made me stick on a CD (yes, very old school, the Mazda) was when the interviewer said "These people were left outside for two hours in THE FREEZING COLD".

The what? Did they get left in fridge freezer or something? Whilst it was wet, it wasn't even close to being COLD let alone FREEZING COLD.

Idiot, who let his mouth run faster than his brain and he didn't even have the good grace to correct himself.

M.

[turbobloke]

That was the BBC so the supposedly intelligent idiot would have no wish to correct the deliberate mistake, if they had then the propaganda might have become news.

[thinfourth2]

How stupid or out of touch with reality do you have to be to actually think that people are going to hear about the 2 hour wait and think it is outrageous?

Or is it me that is out of touch by not being able to understand the horrors involved with having a 2 hour wait?

[crankedup]

Thing is the Company involved has publicly apologised for their mistakes, admitting things did go wrong. Being one of just a few posters on this forum that disagrees with the Governments 'work for peanuts' policy I expect plenty in here will rush to the rescue suggesting this Company can do no wrong. Is this what Cameron meant by his Big Society.

[Johnnytheboy]

marcosgt said:

You expect Prescott to blather on about slave labour, the same way Tories out of power will complain that giving orphan chimney sweeps the day off on Christmas Day is decimating the economy and destroying British companies, but the thing that made me stick on a CD (yes, very old school, the Mazda) was when the interviewer said "These people were left outside for two hours in THE FREEZING COLD".

The what? Did they get left in fridge freezer or something? Whilst it was wet, it wasn't even close to being COLD let alone FREEZING COLD.

Yep, I picked that up - freezing cold - in June?