Just Give us a Job Please

Hi Everyone

This week, two politicians who we thought had disappeared forever suddenly emerged with their ‘words of wisdom’. The first one talked about a lost generation of young people, with now approximately one million not in employment or further education, with the prediction that figure could rise by another 250,000 in four years' time. Back when I was looking for my first job, most left school at age fifteen, with some going on to sixteen and eighteen. In a typical class of thirty, everyone apart from one or maybe two would leave school on Friday to start work the following Monday. As an industrialised nation, there were opportunities for everyone. Locally, there was the pottery industry that employed 80,000 (now 2000), In addition, there were about fifteen coal mines, steelworks, a major tyre manufacturing company, and many other opportunities for shop workers, in construction, the NHS and education. The mines and steelworks are both now long gone. Employment was in many cases, long hours and short holidays, which demanded the development of a strong work ethic. Obviously, we now live in different times with new job opportunities that require different skills. In our day, getting that first job was relatively easy with perhaps an application letter followed by a ten minute interview, with many jobs not even needing that. Where I feel for young people today is that, like so many other things, the whole process has become far too complicated, with some jobs requiring layers of hoops to jump through, with so many then receiving a negative response. The other stumbling block for many is a lack of work experience. How can you have work experience until you get that first job? Most young people surely deserve better. The second politician to make an appearance said that we were in danger of losing our status as a premier league nation. Where has he been for the past nearly twenty years as, in my opinion, we lost that position following the financial crash in 2008. Maybe we should ask both these men whether they think that there is a connection between our slow decline and the situation for young people today, and more importantly, whether they are comfortable with the decisions they made during those years.

Now I assume that all you Rubbish readers have a brain, although that may be questionable if you read this stuff every week. Anyway, currently on the BBC Breakfast programme, they have a weekly brain teaser which viewers are invited to solve. Lateral thinking and logic seem to be needed, and at this point, I have to be honest and say that I have never been able to solve a puzzle, and when I later see the answer, I still wonder how some people's brains led them to the right answer. You might say that the problem is that I am approaching middle age, but I have never got anywhere near completing a cryptic crossword. If you have got nothing better to do, I thought that you might like to solve this week’s puzzle. What is the next number in this sequence - 1,2,1.4,1,2,1,8,1,2,1,4,1,2,1,? There is one clue, the missing number is not eight. Now my deficient brain has come up with the number 32, but when I see that the question was set by a professor of mathematics at Oxford University, I have no confidence in my answer. I think that my advice would be to avoid these puzzles. It has already cost me a fortune in burnt breakfast toast.

Has everyone forgotten that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed? It must be three or four weeks ago that there was concern that the merchant sailors on the many ships were running out of food and fresh water. If that was the case, what has happened since then, but then again what was news four weeks ago is no longer news. No doubt, the only important thing as far as Trump is concerned is that his golf course is still open.

Just a Thought:

We were told that hard work never killed anyone, but why take the chance.

My friend calls it lazy. I call it selective participation.

I was not very good at maths, but I can count on my humour.

Brian