Re: Oh Darling,
 

[quote=SoulKiss;1744775][quote=Mr Speirs;1744765]
Interesting, my son is in trouble, lost his job in October and has done a succession of jobs since just to pay his mortgage. He did not lie on his application. but his income is now less than half of what it was 3 months ago. He is now reduced to labouring on National Minimum Rate when he cannot get tiling jobs. Fortunately my brother gives him the labouring work and understands if another couple of days work comes up elsewhere he will be off.

The problem he is seeing, is that in common with himself every other tiler in the area is also now unemployed and scrambling round for bits of work, undercutting each other.

So if you look at his income now, he is earning less than half of what he claimed to. His girlfriend has left him as she will not live to his budget and taken her income steam with her etc.

At time he would be better off claiming benefits, but as he is only 21 he would get £41/week to live on. that is less than his gas/electricity/water/house insurance cost. He would have to wait 13 weeks before the system paid his mortgage interest. He has already told his mortgage company he may not be able to pay and they say that as soon as he defaults they will take steps to repossess as the house is already in negative equity etc.

People do need help. But lets help those who are prepared to help themselves. In order to work, my lad needs a van/insurance etc. I now have his van on my insurance with an any driver entitlement as that saved £80/month on what he was paying etc. But beyond that the only help he can get is for bank of mum/dad to pay his mortgage and deliver him food parcels.

Re: Oh Darling,
 

Sorry to quote just this section of your reply, I may be taking it out of context, but what precisely, are the current problems, that you feel have occurred due to poor parenting?

The current problems we as a country face, appear to me to be the result of poor government policy and loose regulations that have allowed financial institutions to do what the hell they like for a long time. Are you saying this wouldn't have happened if families had sat round the dinner table and talked rather than letting the kids throw stones in the street?

Genuinely interested :)

Cheers,
Matt

Re: Oh Darling,
 

i assume he probably means the social problems with gangs, knife crime etc, not the economical ones

Re: Oh Darling,
 

To clarify - I was lumping in the whole summary of societies woes so including the "Feral Teenagers Stabbing each other" issue in with this as I was basing my responses to this thread from my initial stance of "its Maggie Thatchers" fault....

Re: Oh Darling,
 

Maggie left office nearly 19 years ago! Get a Grip! The current party has been in government for almost 12 years, any blame for this mess should be laid squarely at their door. They have had ample time to correct 'market forces' and influence house buying policy, they have not.

If you want to name names, who has been at the centre of economic policy since 1997? Gordon Brown.

None of this finger pointing will help anyone suffering from the consequences of government policies. What we can do this year is use our vote to get shot of the current crop of incompetents. (Probably replaced with more incompetents, but it will be a different set!)

Re: Oh Darling,
 

I'm thinking Soulkiss is meaning in the way of 'most' parents spend so much time working to keep the family going, that they spend very little time with their children thses days. I have been a single parent for 4 yrs, but not recently. I have managed to get work on the weekend that revolves around my son, so I am always there after school and can have a healthy balance. I am very luvky in that respect but I pay for it with the amount of nights I work to keep my house my own. I feel that a mums place is at home with the kids and should do part time work, but thats a little old fashioned these days as not many can afford to do that....
When parents think they are doing best by working all hours god send, put the kids in after school clubs and spend a small amount of time on weekends with their kids, on occasions that can be the worst thing that they can do as they turn them into monsters indirectly....who turn to drugs, get asbos and drink cider on street corners


but then again I may be wrong

Re: Oh Darling,
 

As a Scot. Maggie has a special place in my heart......

Having seen the BBC documentary that was shown on the 1st Jan I can see that some of my sentiment towards the old bag is perhaps a bit coloured.

But it was her governments plans that started the slide - BT now makes money, that could be going into the countries coffers, British Gas and the Electricity Board could be made to drop prices instead of the rampant profiteering that we have at the moment.

So yes, fair point LP, but I am looking at root cause, not the bumbling that came after....

Re: Oh Darling,
 

I'm no economist, but they keep pouring cash "we" don't have into banking, to keep prices high, and keep the upper levels of banking people earning a fat wage. We're skint, spent up, they're rolling a snowball uphill and the hills getting steeper.
A cynical view would be that they know they are getting the boot next election... so if they make the situation REALLY unpleasant for the next lot, they stand a chance of getting back into power next time...

Re: Oh Darling,
 

Hardly serving the people :)

Re: Oh Darling,
 

+1

Although im very cynical as well!