a rant at new labour...

[Jografer]

What is for many jobs the industry standard wage, known as the Minimum Wage. It is proudly announced on job adverts "Minimum Wage, you lucky things". It is the Mode Wage (most frequently occurring, as opposed to average, which is a measure pulled higher than that received by most because very high earners are included when it is calculated), rather than a minimum below which nobody should fall, but which few should receive. This was spun as a good thing, but it is hardly something to be proud of: OUR MOST FREQUENTLY OCCURRING WAGE IS £3.40 FOR UNER 18s, £4.60 FOR 18 - 21 YEAR-OLDS, AND £5.52 FOR PEOPLE 22 YEARS AND ABOVE. Social justice in action. Not.

Compared to the £1 per hour being paid to shop workers in St Marks Rd, Bristol in 1997, or the 75p per hour being paid to workers in Somerset, making gateaux for the catering industry.....

Social justice in action. End of.

 

[danny la rouge]

Compared to the £1 per hour being paid to shop workers in St Marks Rd, Bristol in 1997, or the 75p per hour being paid to workers in Somerset, making gateaux for the catering industry.....

Social justice in action. End of.

Still happening. Hotel and catering trade can deduct rent, heating & lighting, and tips from the minimum wage.

 

[shagnasty]

Free eye test for over sixties not if you need an eye test more often than once every two years

 

[Jografer]

Still happening. Hotel and catering trade can deduct rent, heating & lighting, and tips from the minimum wage.

& ends up at an ET...

.... it's illegal now, it wasn't in 1997....

 

[danny la rouge]

& ends up at an ET...

.... it's illegal now, it wasn't in 1997....

No it isn't. Restaurants can use tips as part of the amount making up the minumum wage, several unions are campaigning for a change to the law. And accommodation offset is written into the act.

You might also want to check out the loopholes afforded by the Fair Estimate Agreement.

Still, if that's the extent of social justice. £3.40, £4.60 or £5.52, and your tips and accommodation deducted...

 

[Demosthenes]

Our top 50 achievements since being elected in 1997

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.

Except in housing, food and fuel.

2. Low mortgage rates.

Renting costs a lot though. Makes little difference if you can't afford a house,

3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.

Along with a large unseen economy where a lot of people work for a lot less.

4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.

What a waste of money.

5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.

Load of crap, the crimes just don't get reported, because there's no point unless you're going to make an insurance claim, as the police do nothing.

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.

Utter rubbish.

7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.

As a result of being told the questions and answers before the exams.

8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.

9. Employment is at its highest level ever.



10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.

11. 85,000 more nurses.

12. 32,000 more doctors.

13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.

14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.

15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.

16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.

17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.

18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.

19. Restored city-wide government to London.

20. Record number of students in higher education.

21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.

22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.

23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.

25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.

27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.

28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.

29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.

30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.

31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.

32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.

33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.

34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.

35. Banned fox hunting.

Banhappy, that's what they are.

36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.

37. Free TV licences for over-75s.

38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.

39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.

40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.

41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.

42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.

43. Free eye test for over 60s.

44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
Is that so? I never heard that.

45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.

46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.

47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.

48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.

Not sure that's true. As the claimant count is not of those out of work, but those claiming, - it's quite easy to lower that figure by refusing to pay the claimant.

49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.

50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.

So I guess they have achieved something.
It all looks a bit inconsequential to me.

 

[free spirit]

all to be lined up and shot with the rest of them...

apart from the nuke issues which isn't true we do need nukes at the moment even if we spent all the cash on renewables we'd still have around a 40% short fall of power production or there abouts read the energy review which discusses this it's just not possible as the renwables technology isn't at the affordable price point as yet it just isn't (i agree there's plenty that the govt coudl do to resolve that but then it's goign to cost more moeny which will mean more taxation at a time which really cannot afford the extra burden...

which energy review are you talking about?

and are you talking about a 40% shortfall in terms of renewables supplying the entire UK energy need, or merely replacing nuclears current production?

 

[free spirit]

Our top 50 achievements since being elected in 1997... plus fs's replies

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
yeah, but you only managed that by devolving the responsibility to the bank of england.

2. Low mortgage rates.
I'd not be boasting about that for much longer.

3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
good, now how about excluding tips and acomodation charges from it as well.

4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
police or CSO's ?

5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
reported crime maybe, what proportion of crimes are actually reported?

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
record levels of kids being excluded from schools.

7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
record levels of stress related problems for school children

8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
has it now?

looking at the actual figures it appears this is an out and out lie - even on the combined figures for revenue and capital spending it's an 84% increase, with actual spending on the education rather than the buildings being a 65% increase... not bad, but then you realise they've not factored inflation into those figures, so inflation accounts for around halfof that 65%, so you've increased spending on education in real terms by around 30-35% per pupil... (not counting the increase in capital expenditure coz that's mostly going directly to pfi companies)

not bad, just a shame new labour chose to misrepresent the figures rather than be proud of what they actually have done.

9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
good job really considering the amount of extra east europeans we've got working here compared to government estimates.

10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
and in doing so forced these countries to open themselves up to the worst excesses of neo-liberal world bank / imf demands.

essentially what this amounts to is a uk taxpayer funded bribe to the governments of these countries to open up their markets & public utilities to be raped by multinational corporations for all they're worth.

11. 85,000 more nurses.
12. 32,000 more doctors.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
well done

14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
why was it again that you left scottish & welsh mps able to vote in parliament on issues that had been devolved? ah yes, that's right, you fucked it up.

odd that the main successes of these parliaments has been opposing some of the worst excesses of new labour policy, policies that they pushed through with the support of MPs from scotland and wales who's constituents were entirely unaffected by the vote in london.

20. Record number of students in higher education.
record levels of student / graduate debt... and how many graduates are actually in graduate level jobs?

21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
is that in real terms?

22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
in doing so, you pretty much wiped out the previous network of voluntary sector preschool provision such as playschools etc. meaning that the next time a government changes its mind on preschool provision there'll be no voluntary sector network to step in and fill the gap.

sure start = good, implementation = bad


25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon Dioxide emissions have gone up since labour came to power, and this doesn't even include carbon dioxide emissions from UK air travel & shipping using UK ports / airports which have gone up massively.


40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
ay, and that got implemented really well didn't it? was an across the board cut in subsidies for all other public transport users resulting in a loss of services in some cases, and increased fares for kids etc. really the way to do it? my dad now gets to travel to work for free just because he's turned 60, yet he earns £50k or so... really well targeted policy, and brilliantly applied, have a gold star.

there is some decent stuff, but there seems to be less and less of it, and to be honest it really seems like they've spent way too much in the good times and not stuck anything away for the rainy day that's coming


btw is this list in widespread use by labour party activists? as the same list got posted on the thread on the other board as well.