...it will be no good for your dicky ticker !

The Future State of Welfare (with John Humphrys) - BBC 2 - 9pm tonight

In a MORI poll commissioned for this programme, 92 per cent of adults agreed with ITK that it is important to have a benefits system to provide a safety net for anyone that needs it - not as a lifestyle choice ! (that figure is SO high that some of the dolers must have voted for it - like turkeys voting for Christmas).

The overwhelming majority - over 75% - also agree that Housing Benefit should be capped - and people forced to move if they exceed the cap (We have a duty to provide housing - not a duty to provide housing in Park Lane !!!!)

John Humphrys travels the country to talk to the people with the most to lose: people on incapacity benefit; the long-term unemployed; people on housing benefit; lone parents. Are they prepared for the harsher future ahead?

He returns to the area where he was born - Splott in Cardiff - to show how attitudes to work and welfare have changed in his lifetime.

When he was growing up, a man who didn't work was regarded as a pariah; today, one in four of the working-age population in Splott is on some form of benefit. John also visits America, where 15 years ago they embarked on what has been called a 'welfare revolution'. Is this more punitive model where the UK heading? He looks at specific reforms the Government has in mind or has begun already.

Humphrys concludes that the public don't like what they see as a growing sense of entitlement among some groups claiming benefits, and politicians respond to the public mood. He argues that there is strong consensus across political divides, and that reform would edge the UK back towards the original Beveridge vision of welfare.

In The Know wrote:
...it will be no good for your dicky ticker !

The Future State of Welfare (with John Humphrys) - BBC 2 - 9pm tonight

In a MORI poll commissioned for this programme, 92 per cent of adults agreed with ITK that it is important to have a benefits system to provide a safety net for anyone that needs it - not as a lifestyle choice ! (that figure is SO high that some of the dolers must have voted for it - like turkeys voting for Christmas).

The overwhelming majority - over 75% - also agree that Housing Benefit should be capped - and people forced to move if they exceed the cap (We have a duty to provide housing - not a duty to provide housing in Park Lane !!!!)

John Humphrys travels the country to talk to the people with the most to lose: people on incapacity benefit; the long-term unemployed; people on housing benefit; lone parents. Are they prepared for the harsher future ahead?

He returns to the area where he was born - Splott in Cardiff - to show how attitudes to work and welfare have changed in his lifetime.

When he was growing up, a man who didn't work was regarded as a pariah; today, one in four of the working-age population in Splott is on some form of benefit. John also visits America, where 15 years ago they embarked on what has been called a 'welfare revolution'. Is this more punitive model where the UK heading? He looks at specific reforms the Government has in mind or has begun already.

Humphrys concludes that the public don't like what they see as a growing sense of entitlement among some groups claiming benefits, and politicians respond to the public mood. He argues that there is strong consensus across political divides, and that reform would edge the UK back towards the original Beveridge vision of welfare.

Yes ITK I read the article on the BBC website,very interesting,and of course if we left the EU we could immediately save over £1 billion on welfare claims from EU citizens

Innocent Accused wrote:
and of course if we left the EU we could immediately save over £1 billion on welfare claims from EU citizens

... and lose our ONLY remaining major customer !

In The Know wrote:
Innocent Accused wrote:
and of course if we left the EU we could immediately save over £1 billion on welfare claims from EU citizens

... and lose our ONLY remaining major customer !

We had plenty of other good customers lost while we pandered to the EU market.
Given the state of the eurozone now I would say we need to look at alternative markets fast.The money saved from paying into the EU could be used to help British companies expand into the real world markets we either never got into,or lost after joining the EEC as was when we voted to join it.

Since the WTO was formed the excuse of losing trade inside the EU has been completely removed.China is not in the EU,but has a huge trade surplus with the EU.you don't have to be in it to trade with it,and since they export more to us than we do to them I hardly think they would be able to dictate trading terms.

In The Know wrote:
Innocent Accused wrote:
and of course if we left the EU we could immediately save over £1 billion on welfare claims from EU citizens

... and lose our ONLY remaining major customer !

Forgot to put this in.

www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/fe...ports#zoomed-picture

The USA is still our biggest export market.You will notice most EU countries export more to us than we export to them.

I shall look forward to it In The Know especially to see if Mr Humphries also explains that although it may have been true 60 years ago that a "man who didn't work was regarded as a pariah' there has been an amazing technology revolution exampled by such things- that you may or may not have noticed -that something we take for granted..say a home computer..now does the job that 20 people once did. (and is the tip of an iceberg)

Let alone the great British manufacturing revolution that transformed the country which has now been outsourced to India and such where labour costs are a fraction of wages in the West.

That of course then impacts upon just about everything we pay for but none more so than housing prices that have been artificially pumped to ludicrous levels and most certainly housing benefit has partly contributed to that and when those billions are suddenly removed from the economy...well I hate to think what will happen.

is it to be a ten part series to explain all this or just a one off show?

Perhaps you are too young to have experienced how it was when I first went to get a job.
I think I may have had at least 20 opportunities to choose from and when deciding to change jobs was able to pick and choose from the thousands on offer..as opposed to today when hundreds of people turn up to apply for just one vacant position.

(end of today's economic lesson)

veritas wrote:
I think I may have had at least 20 opportunities to choose from and when deciding to change jobs was able to pick and choose from the thousands on offer..as opposed to today when hundreds of people turn up to apply for just one vacant position.

Just shows that todays youth will have to value their education rather than wasting it, veritas !

The world does not owe you a job - its up to you to earn one !!!!

In The Know wrote:
veritas wrote:
I think I may have had at least 20 opportunities to choose from and when deciding to change jobs was able to pick and choose from the thousands on offer..as opposed to today when hundreds of people turn up to apply for just one vacant position.

Just shows that todays youth will have to value their education rather than wasting it, veritas !

The world does not owe you a job - its up to you to earn one !!!!

and that is were our views part In the Know.

Who the fuck decided who owns what on this planet?.

We are all born equal (stop laughing ! ) and generation after generation of minorities who were more murderous,better thieves.. stole, coveted etc etc and have convinced the masses that the famous 99% now occupying Wall Street are "not owed a living" while the privileged few should have it all.

There are several reasons your theory about the young and education doesn;t wash but just a handful are :

1. you claim they aren't educated (and I agree) so how can they can waste what they don't have ?

2. when the handful..say the 300 go for a job and only i gets the job..the other 299 possibly will eventually become as angry as today's yoof.

3. That 299 may go on the rampage and cause millions of pounds of damage ( Tottenham) and hit Mrs In The Know over her head for her designer Prada shows (made in china by a 7 year old Vietnamese peasant girl kidnapped sold to a factory)

sorry..here's another one :
4. You have been cheering for the overthrow of Gaddafi because Libyans basically agree with me !!

who is the loony one here ?

veritas wrote:
and that is were our views part In the Know.

There are several reasons your theory about the young and education doesn;t wash but just a handful are :

1. you claim they aren't educated (and I agree) so how can they can waste what they don't have ?

We've already wasted nearly 100K on each and every one by the time they are 16 - why not re-introduce the 11+ (and also the 5+ 7+ 13+ and 15+ too !) and cut off all future funding if they are going to waste it by not achieving the required standard at each stage ?

2. when the handful..say the 300 go for a job and only i gets the job..the other 299 possibly will eventually become as angry as today's yoof.

Quite possibly because the "1" had a degree, veritas (or could read and write maybe) ???? Just a thought !!!!!

3. That 299 may go on the rampage and cause millions of pounds of damage ( Tottenham) and hit Mrs In The Know over her head for her designer Prada shows (made in china by a 7 year old Vietnamese peasant girl kidnapped sold to a factory)

Your uneducated masses veritas, ALL want huge wages and cheap clothes. That proves they know nothing of maths !!!!

4. You have been cheering for the overthrow of Gaddafi because Libyans basically agree with me !!

Did they get (and waste) free education ?
Did they have the right to elect whoever would allow them to stay in bed all day (whilest providing cash !!!!!)

who is the loony one here ?

Thats easy, veritas WE ARE - for putting up with these scroungers !

If you had watched the prog on WorkFare in the US veritas, you would have seen that young people there are buckling down and working hard - because they have seen what has happened to their older siblings and parents !

who are all these people who stay in bed all day getting cash ?

you sound like a peeping Tom trudging the streets of Britain checking on every welfare recipient.

I think you must have found a bunch of old Johnny Speight scripts.

veritas wrote:
who are all these people who stay in bed all day getting cash ?


I'm surprised that you've not heard - its been in all the papers and on the telly !

Go to ANY town in Britain veritas (but not till AFTER 2pm - they dont get out of bed till then).

Usually found in McDonalds !

good on them. They're keeping McDonald's workers in a job.

veritas wrote:
good on them. They're keeping McDonald's workers in a job.

... and keeping the NHS busy in the future looking after these fat..ties ?

Anyway, going to take my leave for the forseeable future veritas .... lots to do / life's too short etc

I will be in Oz next summer (thats our summer - not yours !) and if I see an elderly gent in a bar, with dodgy knees, spouting the wisdom of Tony Benn, I'll come over and buy you a drink !

I'll make sure I'm out of town.

and my experience is that if you start spouting that small town Tory talk in an Aussie pub you better make sure Mrs In The Know is wearing her Christian Louboutin running shoes.

In The Know wrote:
veritas wrote:
good on them. They're keeping McDonald's workers in a job.

... and keeping the NHS busy in the future looking after these fat..ties ?

Anyway, going to take my leave for the forseeable future veritas .... lots to do / life's too short etc

I will be in Oz next summer (thats our summer - not yours !) and if I see an elderly gent in a bar, with dodgy knees, spouting the wisdom of Tony Benn, I'll come over and buy you a drink !

PS : forgot to mention (elderly ? soooo rude..I look 20 years younger than I am!)...I no longer have dodgy knees having had two full knee replacements on Oz's brilliant and completely socialised medical system which both Tory and Loony Labor battle over to see who can subsidise the most.

(they did make me pay for my own taxi to and from the hospital..although a courtesy bus was on offer )

I do enjoy the arguments between you two.Daft as a brush both of you,but what fun
In The Know is getting the better of most of the latest ones,bet you never would have thought that a year ago?

CanterburyDave wrote:
I do enjoy the arguments between you two.Daft as a brush both of you,but what fun
In The Know is getting the better of most of the latest ones,bet you never would have thought that a year ago?'

Oh I know I am daft-if not plain loony. But for all the right reasons.

just as ITK is wrong for all the right reasons.

but 'getting the better"..I do not think so. He's already fleeing the board and planning to emigrate.

I am having teams of red back spiders and deadly Taipan snakes posted at every airport armed with his photo.

veritas wrote:
CanterburyDave wrote:
I do enjoy the arguments between you two.Daft as a brush both of you,but what fun
In The Know is getting the better of most of the latest ones,bet you never would have thought that a year ago?'

Oh I know I am daft-if not plain loony. But for all the right reasons.

just as ITK is wrong for all the right reasons.

but 'getting the better"..I do not think so. He's already fleeing the board and planning to emigrate.

I am having teams of red back spiders and deadly Taipan snakes posted at every airport armed with his photo.

You love him really