General Chat

Thank you Joy.....lol

x

sue yo can have a discount petrol card lol

Noooooo Joy my cripmobile comes with tax and insurance!

Sue x

if the price of third party insurance and road tax
was put on the price of petrol
the government wouldnt miss revenue on
untaxed and uninsured vehicles on the road

it would also save time and money for the law courts to
and police time and paper work

TeresaW we all look at things differently and theres no way in a million years would i tar anyone.

Okay you people, the sun isn't over the yardarm yet where I am, so I still know who I am.

You're right, TW, that was TootyFruity -- I guess I just figure if I'm agreeing with somebody, it must be you!

And allow me to say that I very much agree with everybody who agreed with whoever it was who said there should be more trades training.

Canada, for example, has had workforce shortages in the skilled trades for ages. One problem with them, though, is that they're awfully sensitive to economic cycles -- try being a carpenter and getting work during the recent economic unpleasantness. But basically, they're never going to go out of fashion. We will always need carpenters and electricians and plumblers and all the other building trades, and various mechanics and what not.

The way it works here, for example (I got to know it through my buddy the contractor, who had an apprentice working on one of my renos) is that a community college offers the trade program, and part of it *is* the on-the-job apprenticeship. I think that's the best way. When somebody works on my house, I want to be sure they understand the theoretical parts too -- like what a load-bearing wall is, and what it takes to bear a certain load, and so on. Certainly ditto for electricians!

And you know who really needs to know what relatively secure and well-paid jobs these are, and what opportunities they can offer for controlling your own hours and moving in and out of the workforce if necessary?

Girls, that's who.

Wmsl @ TW... and Tooty Fruity... that was Maggie in Winchester, not me, lolol

Love

Daff xxxxx

Janey, I am Teresa W, that was Tooty Fruity, a different person :-))))

Janey I stand corrected. However I was trying in my own little way to highlight how much easier it is to enter the UK.

I agree illegal immigration is present in all countries. I welcome asylum seekers and do not shirk responsibility however although I accept there is no easy answer do think immigration into this country needs to be tightened.

Kids do need to be motivated. However, not everyone needs to be a high flier and there are many ways to pursue a career. I think it was Daff (apologies if I am wrong) who made a reference to a friend who had trained on the job as a carpenter but because he did not have a certificate to prove it was finding it difficult to find a job. To me his experience is far better than a certificate as this is a practical discipline . A shop assistant can progress through the ranks to become a manager so these jobs should be promoted.

I really wanted to find some figures on teenage pregnancy as compared with general rates, best i could find:

A total of 41,325 women under 18 fell pregnant in 2008, down 3.9% from 42,988 in 2007, the figures show.

Of these young women 49% had an abortion, compared with 50% in 2007.

The government had pledged in 1999 to halve teenage pregnancy rates among under-18s in England by this year but is widely expected to miss that target.

The ONS data shows for every 1,000 girls aged between 15 and 17 in England and Wales, there were just over 40 pregnancies.

The North East had the highest under-18 conception rate in 2008, with 49 per 1,000 women age 15-17 falling pregnant.

The East of England had the lowest rate with 31.4 per 1,000 young women getting pregnant.

The number of girls aged 13 to 15 getting pregnant fell by 6% in 2008, with 7.8 conceptions per 1,000 girls compared with 8.3 in 2007.

The ONS statistics show there were an estimated 887,800 conceptions among women of all age groups in England and Wales in 2008, a decrease of 0.9% on the 2007 figure of 895,900.

TeresaW: "Education to show that being proud parents is only one aspect of life, having a fulfilling career and being able to support oneself should be promoted."

While I don't by any means disagree, and in fact I wholeheartedly agree, telling someone something and convincing them it is true are two different things.

Kids need to know not just that these things are important, and are the better way to live -- they need to know that it's possible for them to do it.

When they know there are not enough good jobs to go around, that's hard to convince them of. Having only failure for a model doesn't help either. They need models of success, and many of them are so marginalized and excluded that they have no such models.

Isn't that the real problem -- not that there are too many people who don't want jobs, but that there aren't jobs for people who want them?

Actually, TootyFruity: "If I emigrate to America I need a green card to work. If I emigrate to Australia I need a visa yet the UK I am allowed benefits from the start "

You'll find much of that isn't true.

The UK isn't some special hard-done-by case, you know. All western countries have problems with what's called irregular immigration.

The US has what's estimated to be well over 10 million undocumented immigrants. Generally speaking, the children are allowed to attend publicly operated schools, for example. (The US has no public health plan, so that doesn't come into it.)

Canada has had a problem with refugee claim backlogs for decades, people spending years here without a final determination of their cases and needing money to live on and services in the meantime. And yes, it encourages bogus claimants. As we speak, I am reading the case of yet another Mexican family claiming that somebody in Mexico is threatening to kill them, and that it's all tied up with drug wars and official corruption ... The majority of recent refugee claims in Canada were by Mexicans -- averaging 1000 a month. About 1 in 10 were being accepted. Last summer our government started requiring that Mexicans have a visa to come to Canada -- and of course our embassy won't issue a visa unless the person has a genuine reason to come here.

Mexico is a nasty and violent place right now for a lot of people there. That doesn't make everybody a refugee.

But anyway, you are making a menaingless distinction. All our countries, the UK, Canada, the US, Australia, require visas. The question is how to deal with people who enter the country without them, and especially refugee claimants.

The UK is not going to stop granting asylum, not if it wants to keep any friends on the world stage. (I'm meaning the other asylum-granting countries -- none of us want to pick up anybody else's slack.)

For anyone who's interested, the UK's specific problem at the moment is that the courts have held that parts of your new asylum legislation violate human rights, and this has backed up your system badly. Our Parliament is in the middle of debating changes to our refugee system, and we have to learn from that experience and not pass a law that will get thrown out just like yours did.

Striking a balance between a *speedy* process (to deter bogus claimants who just want the benefits) and a *fair* process is something that greater minds than ours have been trying to do for a long time.

Education is the only way to prevent pregnancy. 14 year
olds should have to look after a baby doll which cries. The ones used for parenting skills. 2 weeks of night and day will be enough for most to have second thought. A bit rough on parents.

Education to show that being proud parents is only one aspect of life, having a fulfilling career and being able to support oneself should be promoted.

Emphasis on vocational education should not be dumbed down and seen as an option for the not very bright. Everyone is talented in different ways. Academic subjects should also be promoted equally.

Both sexes should be given equal opportunities and take equal responsibility for any children.

yes Daffy,,as part of the EU,they have taken residencey in Italy then free to take it up here,,,,as they will have been processed and relevant qualifying paperwork.

Immigrants from EU have a tendency to hit UK first in recent years,and there are large numbers in many many areas that have increased in recent years,,,,,most have settled down to live here,work here,bring their children up here,pay their taxes here..they are not the problem,,,,,,,,

Our Gov is too blame for their lack of not being able to handle money for the public interest.

Cuts came in the form of hospitals,and lots of the public sector years ago.,we are no better off for it...

For me, Gwynne that is the crux... the feckless born. We have our own home grown ones, and there will always be those from other countries trying to get here. The majority of Asylum seekers really are that... seeking asylum. We are only shown the ones the media wish us to see... the young men and boys waiting to stow away etc. which makes us feel that *they* are taking over.

But they have to be processed by the system to find out if they are genuine... and in that time we have a responsibility to provide them with at the very least the basics for human life. Warmth, Shelter, Healthcare, Food, Protection.

It is a fact of human life that there will always be those who buck the system... but the ones who are genuine are rarely highlighted. They don't want to be. Because they are fleeing traumatic events, and they are terrified of being found.

I don't know what the answer is... but I do know I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the skills of immigrants to our country.

What I think is that the process of validation should be much quicker, too.

This is just a thought.... so I may be totally off track, but if an asylum seeker asks for asylum in, say Italy, and the claim is found to be valid... if that seeker then has their status acknowledged, can they then freely travel to other European countries?

Love

Daff xxxxxxxx

Again I agree with Stray under a certain age parents have to accept responsibility. I had my daughter.
Carol

maybe stop giving people under a certain age with kids a house,

have a limit to say under 18 have to live with family member or go in like a shared residence sorta thing, i duno i dnt have the answers, but somthing defo needs doing about youngsters but what???

We do need to deter bogus asylum seekers. Years ago I went to work on the Isle Of Man for a couple of years. I needed a work permit and was not allowed medical treatment unless urgent unless I paid for it. If I became unemployed the would offer the boat ticket home but no benefits unless I had worked for 12months.

If I emigrate to America I need a green card to work. If I emigrate to Australia I need a visa yet the UK I am allowed benefits from the start

I agree with giving preventative incentives completely, but that's not going to be 100%, and we will still have to deal with those who still get pregnant. It's another case where one blanket benefit just doesn't do the job isn't it. Each case to be taken on it's own merit.