BXProject

[Vanny]

So, hoses are in Walsall (not Poland, stupid) so thats a bit closer than china. Also i got a package today from Amphenol/Tyco, containing 25 brand new BX crimp terminals. Doesn't sound too exciting, but they are the sort that go on the ends of the wire in the multiway plastic connectors used all over the car. This means i actually have side lights and indicators that aren't made up of 1000 different bits of wire! WHoop! Only had to wait 30 days for the terminals to be shipped from Brazil, and can i find someone who will actually sell them? Can i balls!

[Philhod]

Isn't this what I've been harping on about for years now. We've now reached the poimt where we have to get literally everything from abroad, because we don't make anything anymore.
40 years ago you could get anything you wanted from within a 30 mile radius of Birmingham.

[Vanny]

everything comes from abroad because so few people actually work in this country, thanks to the hand out state thats been created.

But seriously, the terminals have never been made in this country, ever and making up the madrels for the pipes takes time, which means labour, which isn't likley to happen in this country without some huge costs.

[Philhod]

You would have been able to find someone to make some for you though, there were loads of small firms that would make one off's, using equipment they already had, some of it pre war.

Sadly Thatcher and her cronies destroyed all that before you were born

[Bx Bandit]

Also i got a package today from Amphenol/Tyco, containing 25 brand new BX crimp terminals.

What the fuck are they?!!! Got a piccy Van?

You would have been able to find someone to make some for you though, there were loads of small firms that would make one off's, using equipment they already had, some of it pre war.

I agree Phil Meister! The bastard problem is finding them!
The internet makes it easy, but not necessarily in the UK

[Philhod]

Well....err... that was my point Bandit, they aint there anymore

[Bx Bandit]

Oooh yeah, I see now

I was reading it as though...........if you know places, they still do old practices and/or are willing to work on limited potential (business wise), like small pattern shops and that kind.

When I worked in Thurrock, I did all I could to get the local toolmakers and pattern makers to get the work. There is no supplement for personal attendance/meetings and/or input on any basis providing they are qualified and able.

I'd like to think I put a fair amount of business to an expensive but very capable engineering shop in Essex. Mostly avoided due to £££ but mostly used by me due to quality when I got there. We were really 'getting to know each others shit' before the Americans closed us down to keep the share holders happy

[stu]

everything comes from abroad because so few people actually work in this country, thanks to the hand out state thats been created.

What he said.

Gosh, do you think working for the rozzers has changed me somewhat? I used to be a right lefty liberal.

[Vanny]

Sadly Thatcher and her cronies destroyed all that before you were born

yes you lot <old people> did rather ruin the country for us kids

[Philhod]

Yes yes I've heard it all before. Unfortunately we lost therefore we are still being arse
raped by westminster / corporations / banks.

I should temper comments like handout britain, until you have been made redundant a few times and had to live on those fantastic handouts you have been paying for. Hopefully it won't happen to you but you never know these days.

[stu]

I agree that there should be a safety net for people who have lost their jobs, and I'm proud to live in a country where no-one starves because the company they worked for went bust. It's happened to me.

The problem lies with the increasingly large section of society who believe that living on the dole is a lifestyle choice and have no intention of working.

[Vanny]

and had to live on those fantastic handouts

Been there, done that, there excessive and you don't have to work for them!

[Philhod]

Well the last time I was out of work, between us we were pulling in £95 a week. This was £5 over the point where you could claim supplementary benefit and the poll tax covered because she worked part time and her firm would not let her drop an hour a week so we would receive the extra benefit.
You may think that excessive but I don't, in fact I got behind with my mortgage, went into the red at the bank and lost my credit rating all within a month with those excessive payouts

[Vanny]

Poll tax hasn't been in existance since 1992, near 20 years ago, things have changed a LOT since then! Having been on job seekers allowance in the last two years, i can guarantee you in my case it WAS excessive and NOT earned!

[Philhod]

It was actually 2001, As far as i'm concerned it's still the poll tax, they only changed the name.
Had you a mortgage at the time??

[Vanny]

What difference does it make if i did or i didn't, more over you know the answer to that question, its not something for debate Phil, from my very recent experience the JSA was excessive and not earned.

[Philhod]

Well all I can say is your experiences are a lot different to mine.

The difference is, if you have a mortgage they do not give you anything towards paying it but if you rent, you get your rent paid as well.

[Scarecrow]

Supposedly, tax-avoidance by the wealthy costs this country far more than dodgy benefit hand-outs. I think I heard that on Radio 4, so it must be true.

I've had the pleasure of claiming dole before - it wasn't even enough to pay for my fags and beer. Disgraceful.

I actually used to dread signing on - mixing with the hoi-polloi, playing brain-games with my 'advisor' looking at all of the pointless dead-end jobs which filled my heart with dread. I have to be honest that I used to listen in on as many interviews as I could and it weren't reassuring. There were a lot of (mainly) young chav's who were just impossible - I couldn't imagine them as being employable in any capacity without psychological help first. Seriously. I wouldn't want them working for me in any capacity, and I believe in giving people a chance.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, the benefits system should be about giving people a leg-up. The system should provide routes whereby people can find out what they are good at and how that can be applied to earning a living. The current welfare to work scheme should help with that, on paper at least. It's all bollocks though - the advisor's spend most of their time dealing with the disruptive and disinterested, whilst those who would like help finding a job are left to stare into the internet abyss - which they could do just as well at their local libraries without the need for travel-warrants AND bonus benefits paid for taking part in the "training programme".

For me the tax credits system is the best - in fact why not automatically pay a tax credit to everyone which is then claimed back according to taxation on earnings? No more need for administration of unemployment benefit and people could work as much or as little as they need to.

Housing benefit is the real problem - I think Ian Duncan-Smith pointed it out in his excellent (and likely ignored) review. Once people are in the system they tend to get stuck in it because they can't earn enough to stop claiming and then they give up.

Drugs are another problem - there's a whole underground economy out there. I'm inclined to say legalize the lot of it and then get the tax revenues. Police time would be freed up and the trade would be taken out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. Let's not forget that every time a smackhead scores they are paying for the Taliban to kill our lads and lasses in Afghanistan. I know it's an ugly image thinking of the junkies legally spaced out everywhere - but they are here already and most junkies manage their habits whilst working productively too.

[Philhod]

I agree with some of that, but please don't give the tax people any scope to do any more than they do because even that's beyond them.
The welfare to work system he talks about was first put in place around 1976. It will fail now if put into place just as it failed then. Not because it's a bad idea, it isn't and makes a lot of sense, but it is run by the same job centres that are patently failing everyone that goes near them.
About 8 years ago a section of job centre + was created top segregate clients into categories. Those that are going to get a job soon with a bit of support, those that are really looking to get a job but may require some support and training and those that either don't intend getting a job or have given up. The latter were referred for counseling to discover the root of their problem.
As a manager of the then training and enterprise council (TEC), I was co opted into interviewing candidates from the latter group.
What an eye opener that was. One 18 year old I interviewed had said he had no intention of working. When I discussed this with him he voiced several opinions that conflicted with each other and generally made no sense. Ultimately, when I challenged him as to why I should pay him to sit at home, he was dumbfounded when I explained to him that although the government was paying his dole, they in turn were getting it from me and every other person in work. He genuinely did not understand that.
I also discovered that he was the oldest of 6 kids and had been kept off school for most of the 11 years, by his so called parents, to look after his siblings and therefore could not read or write.
There are a whole mass of reasons, explanations, situations, out there,beneath the figures, that deserve better but this is unlikely to happen in the present climate.
It also deserves better from our politicians, who, instead of cutting benefits and making pointless comments about the sick lame and lazy, should fund and re organise the system so that it works.
Only then can you start to employ sanctions against those that won't work and educate them that there are benefits in working for a living.
Overall, in my view, the education system needs to pick up the kids that are heading towards ending up in the NEET group, post 16. measures need to be instigated to re engage them, the moment that issues are discovered. this doesn't happen now and all you get are excuses from those, on very high salaries, that are aware of all these problems, yet trot out remarks like "oh they slipped through the net"
Which would be perfectly acceptable....if there was a net.