Ooooh! Our benevolent Tory government!

[celyn]

Right, now I am completely appalled - how the hell did this sort of thing carry on if, as it seems, everyone sort of "knew", especially with a bloody Chief Inspector living close by?

Oh, bloody hell. Words fail.

(Actually, I'm also shocked, as I always am, at the way time sneaks along when we're not looking, such that we can say "x was 40 years ago". I mean, dammit, 40 years ago ought be be ancient history, not my history! I don't feel grown-up yet. Am 53, since you ask).

And your mention of new-parent brain-fog in 1993/4 means that your young Ms Rolo is the same age as two of my nieces - there you are - could have been worse - think of the brain-fog of having twins.

[ozneil]

Gees a mere slip of a girl



My daughter was born 1963 in Glasgow, left UK 9th, or thereabouts, Feb 1968, BA flight a Boeing 707. My rotten employer wouldn't let me go by ship New York, San Francisco (stop over) Hawaii, Fiji (Interesting Fiji customs wore same hat badge as pommy ones) and finally Sydney.. Went through migrants' gate , Mrs & miss Oz were on a UK passport , Mrs thought we would get into trouble me using wrong gate. Red haired passport guy looked at my passport after Mrs Oz's one, winked at Miss Oz and said to me in a very resigned tone "I suppose I will have to let you in too" ........... I was home wonderful, fantastic after 7 years Couldn't have had a better welcome


Hell's teeth my eldest Grandson was born in 1989 geees Im ancient

[Deleted]

Wish you'd stayed, we need all our good people here, but hey. Understand why you went. That was then, this is now.

Let's not get too off topic though. While I'm helluva glad you and yours are doing OK over by, Oz, here in the UKE, we're informed today that 20% of workers are being paid less than the living wage of £7.30 per hour. It gets worse when we learn that 70% of those aged 18-21 are on minimum wage, which is about £5.60 per hour.

Something has to give. Austerity clearly isn't working: the UKE national debt, instead of shrinking via swingeing austerity measures is actually rising. The rich are getting richer by the second, while the ordinary person is really struggling to just maintain any kind of reasonable standard of living.

What is happening is that huge conglomerates are taking total, bsrtding advantage of the fact that people will accept just about ANY conditions to earn a wage. It's like we are all supposed to tuck our forelocks and give thanks we have a job at all.

Many people are better off claiming benefits than if they were in work. THAT IS MADNESS. It's not benefits that are too high, it's wages that are too low.

And the majority of benefits are paid to people who are WORKING by way of top-up tax credits/family allowance etc.

ALL of us who pay our taxes are subsidising the obscene profits made by companies who are getting away with paying poverty wages that nobody can actually live on.


Meanwhile the Westminster government persists in demonising people for being on benefits. Aided and abetted by the gutter press.

This is NOT about the tiny minority who play the benefits system. It's about those who cheat us all in FAR BIGGER WAYS.

Something's gotta give. And soon.

[ozneil]

I left UK for many many reasons.

I dont think I have a main reason

In this context even then I didnt like the way it was heading towards bigger govt. I know each time I came back I felt more hemmed in, Scotland 1985 London 1993 -1996 though you cant count the latter visits , arrived Monday morning meetings in Central London and site visits to Walthamstow?? left Thursday if lucky, usually Friday, back to Hotel each night to write up notes and a quick meal in a pub hardly an in depth study! taken everywhere by car.. They hated me! I was hired by their head office which didnt trust them. They had try to snow them hence me being hired. Buggers didnt even meet me at airport (how to win friends and influence people).

I know I always felt glad when I heard QANTAS Flight to Sydney now boarding at Gate?

I felt UK was getting a more and more restrictive place as time passed and I found it unhappy but maybe I was unduly influenced by the vibes I got. I felt the rules and regulations were strangling the place. Initiative seemed to be discouraged. I have no idea whether it was a Tory or Labour government

I was sorry I just hadnt the time to go to Scotland.

I read a novel written in 1950s by Nevil Shute "In the Wet" if you can still get it. A lot has come true and a lot hasnt worth a read for his thinking in 1950s. Iread it in 60s and it made me think again and start working on Mrs Oz

Dont get me wrong this aint Utopia you gorra work bloody hard to get ahead but at least you get the opportunity. Min wage is $16.67 0 (£10) per hour with a minimum time of 4 hours if income falls below a certain level it is topped up by Welfare

[Deleted]

Please don't get me wrong, Oz m'dear, I'm not 'on your back' for leaving because that was then. So many good people left in search of a better life, many of my own family included.

Minimum wage is relative, of course, to the cost of living in any country. And this is the nub of many of the issues that face us in a global economy, isn't it?

£5.60 an hour probably represents untold riches for some workers who come to offer their graft here from elsewhere. But the UKE is a very expensive country to live in. We're told it's because the cost of importing goods is relatively high but in actual fact, companies who overcharge for goods here are doing it because they believe people are daft enough to pay a premium. And sadly, some are.

It just seems to me, living here, that it's becoming a race to the bottom. To me it's a complete insult to pay ANYONE £5 an hour. Yet we have people competing to earn that little.

Even average wages have not even kept pace with inflation these past 6 years. We've been totally suckered by the whole aspiration/advertising thing where people have been induced beyond belief to expect to afford overpriced goods.

Time for a major rethink. As if.......

[ozneil]

No not "leaving" as in emigrating I came home! My birth & formative years were in Brisbane though I returned to Sydney. It was a wonderful feeling coming back!!!

I have made a point of asking every Brit migrant I have got friendly with in a pub why they came. Invariably the same answer "for the kids". Very very few have regretted it. Even those that have and return to UK a lot come back again (Boomerang Poms).

It looks like to get ahead they think it better leaving UK. You are losing some of your best go-ahead people through piss poor leadership

and that doesnt even take into account the weather!!!!

[bormes]

You have put your finger on THE PROBLEM OZ,
Piss poor leadership!!!!
Westminster has turned into a self satisfying greedy monster.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2014 15:41:31 GMT -1 bormes said:

You have put your finger on THE PROBLEM OZ,
Piss poor leadership!!!!
Westminster has turned into a self satisfying greedy monster.

Exactly. And why the independence movement is not going away, ever!

We're on a treadmill of long hours culture, expensive cost of living, ridiculously high energy prices while wages are static or worse, yet some are doing very very well indeed by exploiting ordinary decent working folks.

It can't be allowed to continue.

[ozneil]

Stop voting for them ...Its only encouraging them either labour or tory

[Deleted]

Labour will be dead In the water come general election in May. In Scotland at least.
Lib dems will be wiped out.

Tories will lose bigstyle to UKIP. Scotland will rebel even further as a consequence.

[ozneil]

Nov 26, 2014 20:46:38 GMT -1 @rolo said:

Labour will be dead In the water come general election in May. In Scotland at least.
Lib dems will be wiped out.

Tories will lose bigstyle to UKIP. Scotland will rebel even further as a consequence.

excellent about time UK people woke up to the major parties. Shake the bastards up!!!

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2014 21:07:36 GMT -1 ozneil said:

Nov 26, 2014 20:46:38 GMT -1 @rolo said:

Labour will be dead In the water come general election in May. In Scotland at least.
Lib dems will be wiped out.

Tories will lose bigstyle to UKIP. Scotland will rebel even further as a consequence.

excellent about time UK people woke up to the major parties. Shake the bastards up!!!

SNP are on course for an even bigger landslide come May 2015. Taking probably 40 or more of Lab's 50 odd seats at Westminster.

SNP, along with Plaid Cymru, are set fair to hold the balance of power in UKE as Lab will need a coalition to 'rule'. Lib Dems are nowhere. Tories won't ally themselves with UKIP's burgeoning vote either.

SO...... Alex Salmond, if he *does* decide to stand for Westminster in Aberdeen seat, might just be the UKE's Deputy Prime Minister come May.

He's keeping us on tenterhooks, of course. Brilliant politician, brilliant all-round guy.
Old-style three party rule is SO over.

[bormes]

He has given his complete pension to charity ad infinitum.

[Deleted]

Nov 29, 2014 14:26:39 GMT -1 bormes said:

He has given his complete pension to charity ad infinitum.

Yes. And also half his parliamentary salary, has done for years.
Mainly to charities for sick/underprivileged children.

[ozneil]

We had one the same! Ted Mac an Independent Pollie... very left wing. When mayor of North Sydney sold the mayoral Merc & bought 2 community buses. Ousted the Deputy leader of the liberal party from a very safe liberal seat when he stood for parliament and kept it till he retired ..

He is a great man and a thorough gentleman