Sunday 17 February 2013

More on Poundlandgate

I have just been watching the Andrew Marr show and Iain Duncan Smith will not 'give way' on Poundlandgate. He sees nothing wrong in the Government's position and it was simply a technicality that allowed Cait Reilly to win her court case. She was taken from her voluntary work in order to work in Poundland despite the fulfilling and relevant voluntary work that she had organised for herself.

Iain goes on to explain the Government's position. Many young people have told him that they cannot get work because they don't have experience. Now they are getting experience. I wonder if Iain sees the slight problem here. Everyone had no experience. Everyone has experience. There are only so many jobs and the number of applicants has not changed. I am not saying that work experience is bad, in fact I think it is a great thing, but it won't change the number of young people without work and that's the problem that Iain was trying to deal with. So now everyone has 'made their own luck', but we still have the same number who are unemployed.

I received some verbal feedback on my blog from the 14th February - those who use phrases like 'you make your own luck' are always successful and you won't hear the poor or unemployed using this phrase. This makes it an arrogant phrase and it is also arrogant because nobody knows what will happen to them in the future. Even people with a string of hairdressing salons, or people who network with other successful business men e.g. within the Tory Party may still find their businesses fail, their friends leave them, their health decline,  or any other number of factors that would stop them from making their own luck.

Change the world

1 comment:

  1. I fail to see how working in Poundland would count as relevant experience for a Geology graduate. (The work experience she had sorted out for herself was relevant.) After all if working in Poundland is a person's ambition in life,spending two years taking A levels and three taking a degree is superfluous. Perhaps the government should look at their scheme and make it relevant to the unemployed?

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