another offering... hey I'm almost keeping this up. for once I'm going to agree with Gordon Brown. It is better for the Govt to borrow and spend money than to give it in tax cuts. People are likely to save most of what they get, and there again not everyone benefits from tax cuts. All those people who have just lost their jobs for instance.

Moving to another issue of mine. the congestion charge in Manchester. Promised a referendum on the charge and the proposed question doesn't even mention the charge. that wasn't really a surprise, I actually predicted that the organisers would do something like this. you just can't trust people these days. What's most frightening is that people just expect these things these days. When a company rips themoff it's "Oh well companies have to make money, that's what they do".

I'm still waiting for a political party that hasn't lost the plot!

meltdown

The world is a troubled place at present, in financial terms. Now I was telling people that there was going to be a problem with the housing market, and that the banks were behaving irresponsibly. So it annoys me when people say that no-one was complaining, because I've been moaning for years. Ok, so I was only talking to my family, but when I am here looking for a job it is frustrating that I can't get one when I am one of the few people who saw the problem coming. The problem is that everyone believes that it is the rich that matter, that society revolves around them. And they prove it by saying that when the rich are doing well society is doing well, and their evidence of how well society is doing is measured on how well the rich are doing. Bit of a circular argument there. Most politcial parties focus on the rich with a gesture towards the poorest as a token towards social justice. I believe that in fact the strength of our society comes from those people who are working at the lower end. This includes people on minimum wage right up to people who are earning enough to consider buying their own home. And first time buyers are key to our economy, and this is where it has all gone so wrong. House prices got too high, leading to irresponsible lending and this was made worse by making buy to let too attractive. People keep worrying about house prices coming down but actually this is what the economy needs, and in fact what we should be doing instead of trying to resist this fall, is actually make it happen faster. If prices dropped by 30% then this is the point where people would find they could afford to buy again. The whole economy would kick into gear. We would just need to stop the buy to let brigade. As I have said the rich don't make things tick, in fact they are the ones who through their greed make things go bust. Just check recent history and you will see that financial disasters were preceded by people getting rich quick. Look at the era of the fat cats in the 80's, and more recently all those people putting together their property portfolios. I will make a prediction now that there will turn out to be a lot of rich people who do very well out of the current crisis. And at our expense!

looking for work

At present I don't know whether my biggest problem when looking for a job is my age or my history of depression. It doesn't really make any difference to my belief that I probably am being discriminated against, but it would be nice to know on which criterion. I've just been rejected for a job that at interview they told me that they were interviewing up to the first week in October, so I probably wouldn't hear until the middle of October. So it took me by surprise when my rejection letter arrived on 1st October. I have recently been working in the mental health field and have always been very positive about people returning to work. In fact I still believe it is the best option, but if you were to ask me now whether I would encourage mental health service users to look for work I would definitely say no! Having worked on the strategic aspects of helping people back to work I can honestly say I'm not impressed with the services I have come across. Job Centreplus have their hearts in the right place but unless you have a particular skill (or preferably job title) and experience then they are useless. If you can say you are looking for work as a plumber or shop assistant, that's fine. But if you don't have that sort of history, or if you are looking to change your career, well forget it! Oh but I have been told that if I haven't found a job after 13 weeks they could offer me more support. There are two problems with that. First is that by that time I am likely to be quite depressed which could make things a bit difficult. Second is that I fear that they will quite likely want to refer me to a "specialist" organisation. And the problem with that is that it may well be an organisation that I have applied to for a job, and obviously failed to get, and how do they think that will make me feel about that organisation? Mmmm, could it be that I might not have much confidence in that organisation?

One idea that has been going through my head is a vision of me being on tv talking about how I can't get a job, and I imagine some viewer shouting at the screen to stop being so lazy and that there are plenty of jobs out there. Then the next day I turn up at their place of employment for a job interview, and the same person tells me I can't have the job. Trouble is I think that is probably the true attitude of most employers. "Get a job! But we don't want you!"

And you know there really are people out there who will tell you that you aren't being discriminated against, because there's a law aginst that. Wow, I must mention that to any victims of crime that I meet, they must be so deluded.

A bit later than I had planned, but here is my second post. My wife Sue has been off work ill and my caring duties have delayed me somewhat. I have a lot of catching up to do in respect of my various moans so it's hard to know where to start. It could be the online job application that lets you type in your responses, and then when you go to save what you've done it says "Oh, do you want to log in then?" I suppose I need to start with a bit of recent history. I was recently self employed but decided to give that up because it didn't suit me - in fact I felt strongly that it was making me ill. I have a history of depression and have been working in the mental health arena ever since I returned to work after a breakdown. So I decided I would get a proper job, perhaps outside of mental health. As I continue with my blog I will tell you about some of my experiences so far. But dinner is nearly ready, and as I am the cook I'd better go and dish it out!

First One

What on Earth could inspire a person who isn't that good a writer, and who isn't a "diary" person, to start to write a blog? Simply it's the frustration at seeing and experiencing things that I want to shout about but not having the opportunity to do so - well not often enough anyway! I would love people to read my blog but I wouldn't want to raise people's expectations. After all , I'm not a diary writer, so I don't know how regular my contributions will be. Still, I've got some catching up to do on some of the things that have been annoying me.
I hope to remember to put down all the ad hoc comments I would like to make about things that I come across. At present though I am unemployed, looking for work, and have several comments I would like to include about some of my experiences. Tonight I am just going to leave this as an introduction, a start to things, and a test for me to actually begin to record my thoughts when I log on tomorrow.