Questioning the "Graduate Talent Pool"

Last week's budget had little cheer for many in the country, the odd incentive to start purchasing here (car scrappage), the little bit of cheer there (Winter Fuel Payments) but on the whole it was pretty much doom and gloom. However two points grabbed my attention, firstly the increase in the top rate of Income Tax and the "Graduate Work scheme", firstly the income tax rise. And on this point the people with wealth complain, but the poor were hit far worse two years ago with the removal of the basic rate of 10p, so it's about time the rich paid more into society isn't it, us poor have.

Secondary the budget also announced a "Graduate Talent Pool" scheme, which would leave no graduate or young person without the chance to train or without a job. The problem is it actually meant no 16-25 year old. Students still mainly fall between that age group, however with the increase number of mature students, or students who take time from study to save for University the age range starts to touch these boundaries, and in a greater number goes over the higher boundary of 25.

I myself would be unable to register for the scheme, having turned 26 just a few short days ago, and would be another avenue closed to me. Let's take my example: You leave school at 16 your GCSE's are just short of the grades needed for A Levels, so you retake them and you fail (as the knowledge of your learning disablity still isn't known).

However whilst retaking, you pass two and that would get you on to a foundation in Journalism or Computing. You take the foundation at 17 in Computing (Journalism is in Preston, and the cost of college is still not covered by EMA's). You pass and go on to the BTEC in computing, University now seems in your grasp. You start this course on your 18th birthday and finish it when your 20. At this stage I made the mistake of going to University early which I should have put off a year, but regardless I changed my course towards the end of my first year, and will start on what was a four year University degree (due to failure and discovery of my learning disablity) at the age of 21. Since completing to a respectable standard I have been out of work, and the scheme is announced too late for me.

So what would a fair "Graduate and Young Persons scheme" look like, well it would take into account that some people are mature students, or take time out. It would take into account that poorer students had to and still have to save for University. It would quote along with the age range that students who had left University in the last 3 years would also qualify for the scheme. Maybe it is about cost, but it is also about making sure that the future work force of this country is not saddled with a debt and forced to grovel for pittance on the dole.

As for me, well I start work thankfully in a few weeks.

Is The Recession Too Bright?

As I was walking back to my house through a former council estate the mind turns to the thoughts of what kind of people you share the area with, who are they? what do they do for a living? and in this present day how is the recession affecting them?

The recession is big news, it is the one cause of everything (It seems) and the one talking point of both national and global newspapers, however unlike previously it seems that it's use or terms have been discredited from marketing to the News is the recession too flash?

Marketing "Disaster"
The flash news, the use of the VAT cut, and the general advertising of "recession busting" prices are all common in our marketing world today. They tend to be flimsy to say the least, following the Guardian's exposure on several companies offering "recession busting" prices at remarkably higher rates than they were 4 months previously casts a mockery of what is a serious and damaging time for many people.

Another company that likes to use political point scoring is the Trago Mills, the "UKIP supporting" owner of Trago seems to use advertising in a remarkably black and white way. The boast of cuts that put the VAT cut to shame, it's a typical use of terrible market conditions to sell your cheap tat.

"News Flash"
The News is another area which seeks to put flash before substance, this recession appears to be far softer, far more casual to the viewer than previous. The graphs, the dreaded "BBC Red Arrow" all purposefully serve a comical rather than worrying sign. Queues outside Job Centres are manipulated to serve a purpose, it's like this "the figures don't hit home so here is some jobless whelks outside queuing, Well how very British is that". Ironically the BBC has yet to revisit that Job centre in Lecister or they feel that one visit to see the great unwashed was enough, as it's the same picture every time jobless figures shoot up.

One man on the news who seems to suit this current crisis is the man that matters Mr Darling, a rather dour and quiet man whose voice has the remarkable quality of being even more calming than Mozart or a pleasant group of chirping birds on a summers evening. But the news, or as it is now "THE NEWS" seems to have terrifyingly changed into some spin off of The Day Today, I await with anxious excitement the currency cat.

"Finally Britain"
Does the country taken this recession seriously? yes sure alot of us have suffered and continue to, I myself haven't been able to get a job, you may have been saving at a reduced rate, but seriously have you queued at a Job centre, or had a red arrow swipe at your feet.

This recession is worrying, as Todays report by "Save The Children" suggests the basic foods have shot up in price, would you recieve this information through the advertsing of brands? No this is the hidden facts of the Recession, these facts hit the poorest harder while they shoot below the radar if it's a busy news day.

Time for facts not for flash in 2009

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel: St Piran and the "Evil" EU

Having lived in the region for several months, I felt it was about time I wrote an article on Cornwall. I have no complaints about Cornwall in general and many Cornish I do meet are welcoming and do have very valid points (Such as lack of housing, lack of Business and yes lack of Services) and I back these.

However the continuous nodding of anything patriotic and nationalist, which usually disguises tinges of racism annoy me. Take the campaign for the Cornwall to be recognised as a separate state. Very well lets also make Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria separate self governing states, let's devolve England into just a load of mini states. I don't argue about the very idea of creating a local authority that governs the area and controls many local services, however 90% of Cornwall voted against such a authority and prefer to remain in even locally governed wards, which I believe just isolates rather than collects people.

This council also at the moment is also a joke, run like a joke always scores low and as the audit commission reported "has failed to adequately improve", so why keep the county council going as a failure? The problem lies, like most things in Cornwall's want and desire to keep things exactly how they are.

"St Piran debate"

St Piran the patriot state of Cornwall, a man who apparently brought Tin to the region, as opposed to the geographical nature of the area I suppose?

Well the Liberal Democrats of the area (Populist Statements for Populist Voters) deem that St Piran day be made a Holiday in Cornwall, why you may ask? Well those nasty EU people or foreigners as most people would call them, want to steal our language (Cornish language, the same one on every sign in this county and spoke by about all of 10 people) and declare it DEAD. HOW DISGRACEFUL

The word dead is used by a BBC report, Impartiality, Non? The EU declared the language as being used by very little, a further report suggests only 300 people know the language, but this doesn't stop Cornwall, oh no they are so proud of the language like their symbol they are in a FURY.

"Tin Mines"

Back to the Tin mines and this is the funniest complaint of the lot. Cornwall seems mightily proud of it's entire Tin mine industry, and rightly so just like the Welsh should be of Coal mines. But the industry of mass Tin production died out decades ago, and unlike the Coal strikes of the 80's it died out through lack of people wanting to work underground and financial constraints, rather than forced closure which Coal suffered.

Yet they bang on the drum (Tin presumably) continuously for Tin Mines and Miners to remain at the central heart of a Cornish Future, not the mines themselves but the symbolism of the industry. By showing and remembering Tin Mines I believe this keeps Cornwall and it's heritage very much alive, but it is not in the future of Cornwall anymore and to keep it central like it still is a bustling industry is foolish and makes a mockery of present day business in Cornwall.

"Cornish vs EU"
However the biggest concern for Cornish people is the EU, yeah it's remarkable isn't it. I was used to the disgust the word "EU" created down south, yet the EU are the fault of everything in Cornwall and the fixer of none and occasionally they have a point.

After all the EU have declared the "Cornish Language" as dead, which it is but never say this out loud, and secondary Fishing quota's are the last Bastille for many Cornish people. Though the Quotas are well thought out and probably much needed I can see how this affects the last proper mass industry of Cornwall.

But...

The EU have created mass investment into the area, which a report suggested has allowed Cornwall to be largely unaffected as the recession started to take hold. However this kind of report is largely ignored and if reported usually is at the bottom of a much wider story. Investment is at the heart of funding for of Cornwall and has especially been used in education and key in unlocking potential schemes. Cornwall needs the young more than ever, it cannot remain a viable county if it argues always for the past and never for the future.

In 1999 the EU gave Cornwall £350 million to breathe new life into it's economy, the average a individual pays into the EU is about a pound a week, it's money well spent and it's needed in Cornwall. The figure for the next 6 years which started in 2007 was higher at £415 Million pounds, this will go on creating new sustainable, affordable housing, unlocking innovation and potential and creating industry and growth.

So next time Trago Mills filters another advert with a piece on how the EU is destroying Britain and especially Cornwall, you have true facts and true figures in which to argue against. The EU isn't perfect, national government isn't perfect but what political system in the thousands of years of politics has there been?

This is not an argument against the Tories, Liberal Democrats or Labour this is an argument that says Cornwall is best served by looking to the future and remembering the past, instead of looking to the past and ignoring the future.

The Mail: And the use of Race.

I rarely comment on the Mail, other websites for instance the brilliant Mailwatch do an excellent critique of everything that is wrong with such a paper. However once in a while I find the paper extremely vile in it's reporting.

My current annoyance is directly linked to the news that Eastenders will screen a "All black episode" of the soap tonight (Tuesday 24th September). The problem stems from the fact that the BBC at no time has billed this as a "All Black episode", the only people who have are the Mail Newspapers and in this several of commentators, all of whom must struggle to read as at the end of the article it quite clearly states the BBC are NOT billing this as what the Mail suggests they are.

Any Point?

So why have the Mail sparked this latest row? Are they still campaigning on the back of the "Brand/Ross Scandal" or are they, and it wouldn't be for the first time, stirring up racial tensions?

As mentioned by the spokeswoman from the BBC, this is not the first time the BBC has shown a episode featuring only a certain amount of characters, with all the previous isolated story lines featuring nothing but White people.

This storyline seems to be another difficult story being tackled in the most sensible manner, by some excellent actors. If the real reason is that the Mail want to protect the nation from the past then again it's a disgrace. We should not accept this petty racism and should draw parallels with our current climate. The fact we don't discuss the Notting Hill riots in schools, along with the covert racism towards people is another reason why we see the rise of such factions as the BNP.

And I for one would not vote for a party with ideologies, that my relatives fought so hard to prevent.

Matt Hurst

In reference to this article: - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1153903/BBC-screen-episode-EastEnders-featuring-black-cast.html

Is it Time to Build?

One of the very few plus points of being unemployed is that you get to delve into the massive list of books that builds up through the times when your life is busier. And some of the best moments of life are when seeking that dodgy mostly dog eared copy of a forgotten Graham Greene classic.

One book however crossed my path by accident, when trying to borrow one of Christian Wolmar's books on "Steam railways", I came across a book about the history of the tube in London called "The Subterranean Railway". Quite interested by the bio, I decided to book it out and take home.

The book is readable for anyone whose interested in both the social build up of London, or has an interest in what millions travel on. The one fact that Wolmar keeps mentioning throughout however is that the tube was never profitable, especially the district line. And the railways in general across the world weren't built for profitability, they were claimed they were and shareholders were sometimes foolhardy to invest, but Victorians and to a certain extent early Edwardian "can do" attitude is why Britain still has a good (Beeching cuts destroyed it from being excellent) train system. The tube was built through the sheer excellence of ideas and hard work from the working class navvies. It was one of the first systems that did not determine comfortable conditions and travel by class, and Britain is better for it.

So what is the lesson we should learn for nowadays, as much as the Conservatives (and it is only the Conservatives) complain about borrowing beyond our means (Britain is one of the lowest G8 borrowers in the world), this is the age in which we should learn the determination to build our way out of recession and to create an excellent modern 21st century Britain, dedicated to it's new industry as much as it was to it's old.

One such scheme was the Manchester congestion system, and should it ever return then Government should bring it in, show the improvements and then say we've done our part of the bargain, now it's time you pay yours. The distrust in it being built was the one underlying factor I got from people who would use the system, as opposed to the car owners and car lobby's.

Another would directly prosper one of the poorest areas of this country, Cornwall. Four Hours is far too long for a journey to Bristol by train, and industry by motorway still takes at least three. The worry about rising sea levels and erosion leaves any electrifying, or indeed connection to Plymouth and Cornwall in danger in future years. So the first decision would be to reinstall a line that by passes Dawlish area (though as beautiful as it is) and connects Cornwall and Plymouth with the rest of the country.

Okehampton is the line that was once in place, and still only a few council buildings and houses stand in the way of this reinstall, Victorians would never let this get in the way, and though the house is a home concept is only valid when this kind of thing is proposed, (it's mostly a way of making money) to benefit the area and to save Cornwall from collapsing all together after the awful recent summers have hit tourism hard.

It may cost money, it may not even see returns, but it will socially improve Cornwall and let the people who earn pittance, start to earn pounds.

Politics Awards 2008

After reading a similar article in that "Gordon Brown spokespiece" The New Statesman I have decided to give out Politics of the year award. So here it is my politicians of the year.

Politician of The Year
My Politician of the year is Vince Cable, being a man who wasn't one of his biggest fans Vince Cable bar the annoying soundbites remained a sensible voice on the economy rising above the bearpit of criticism which "Dave" and Nick Clegg resulted in. Showing an old head in these times is important and showing what Dave could have if he had the guts to call on his old beast "Kenneth Clarke".

Party Leader of the Year
If this is solely Britain then Gordon Brown's resurgence wipes the floor with the others, as Dave faltered and Alex Salmond struggled Gordon found his feet as the country collasped.

Event of The Year
Very few can match the David Davis resignation, however as this changed very little and as Davis was fighting for his own "brand" of civil liberties and comfortably ignoring major issues in the debate, the event of the year is that Brown speech.

Comeback of The Year
Can anyone match Mandleson's return. Swishing back under cynical backlashing Mandleson came back and exploded Osbourne's reputation and left the Tories wounded for the first time since Cameron took over.

Obama: - America's 44th or should we say 43rd President

Will be doing a post election article on the state changes and comparing the polls of previous days in the next few days, I just thought this could not be ignored.