>Liberals

[Akira]

As a uni student I feel like I'm surrounded by radical borderline communist liberals. 

 

"As a student I believe that I'm entitled to everything and the government should serve up my life on a plate for me otherwise I'll complain and protest and go on strike!"

 

Some ufkctard I know through uni posted this absurd excuse for a flash game

 

http://toys.usvsth3m.com/iain-duncan-smiths-realistic-unemployment-simulator/

 

When I pointed out how ridiculous it was, he just replied, "That's cute"

 

In other news, some equally retarded student rep is trying to get some popular song banned because apparently it promotes rape. If it's appropriate for RADIO MOTHERCLUCKING ONE, surely it's appropriate for mature, grown up university students.

 

I'm at my wit's end here.

 

Anyway, rant over. Have fun.

[.Rai]

I assume the song in question is Blurred Lines. It's a song that implies rape culture at a lot of times, but this is probably just a case of some dodgy lyricism that's offensive to a group of people (they probably have the right to be offended though). We've gotten to a point where literally no-one's listening to the lyrics anyway, so it's more of a case of numbing exposure to topics that really shouldn't be presented in the way they are. Different issue though really.

Eh, most of the time, I doubt students really do care about liberal Britain (the London riots ended up with a lot of trivial issues; I'm still cloudy on a lot of the stuff that happened). Just typical student-ness, I guess. As Brits, there's always 'its all a bit of bant'.

[Mehmani]

Blurred Lines is reprehensible, but that doesn't mean it should be banned. I'd like to point out that if you have ever lived in the North or are from a Northern family, the Iain Duncan Smith flash game is pretty close to reality. I've had relatives from Liverpool that have starved to death under Thatcher. Life under this current government in impoverished Northern towns is rife with poverty. People don't really care, however, as people from these places don't have a voice and haven't had a voice since Thatcher bludgeoned the Left into submission. It's far easier for a middle-class city dweller to go to university and moan about those damn 'liberals' (we are not liberals. In Britain, the Liberal Democrats are centrist turncoats. In America, liberals are people who say anything even slightly left-wing, before promptly losing their jobs, or just pussies like Alan "I'm a Moderate, actually" Colmes). 

 

In Britain, the North, Wales and much of Scotland have not enjoyed any of the supposed benefits of the free market-induced boom under Thatcher, Major and Blair. Since the death of industry, Northerners have no jobs to go into except hire-and-fire jobs at call centres and supermarkets, which don't pay enough to sustain a healthy lifestyle and give you next to no rights as workers. For Liverpudlians, the choice between heating your home or having something to eat is a weekly dilemma (and that's for those who have homes; homelessness has more than quadrupled under Cameron's government). I'm sure you can put up with some irritating student activists - perhaps you can try living on £50 a week and working for twelve straight hours in a call centre, with only a half-hour break for lunch and urination?

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

Pharrell is a feminist and anticipated the backlash anyway.

[Akira]

Since when do you only get £50 a week for working 12 hours a day?

[Tentacruel]

Is this a bad time to say that I bought a PS3 with my student grant money? 

[Mehmani]

Since when do you only get £50 a week for working 12 hours a day?

 

Since the government introduced a "work for your benefits" scheme, whereby people on benefits are forced to do superfluous work with unpaid overtime or they face the removal of their benefits. If the government, or the companies paid to oversee this problem, cannot find work for benefit claimants to do, they are forced to go to the Jobcentre daily (without travel expenses, which is a further kick in the teeth for people operating on under £100 a week). They are made to wait there for up to 35 hours a week, in some parts of the country.

[Tentacruel]

Since the government introduced a "work for your benefits" scheme, whereby people on benefits are forced to do superfluous work with unpaid overtime or they face the removal of their benefits. If the government, or the companies paid to oversee this problem, cannot find work for benefit claimants to do, they are forced to go to the Jobcentre daily (without travel expenses, which is a further kick in the teeth for people operating on under £100 a week). They are made to wait there for up to 35 hours a week, in some parts of the country.

 

"Yeah, we couldn't find any work for you so we're gonna force you to go to some place and wait there all day so you can get your 100 quid."

 

Who thought that would be a good idea? 

[Akira]

Since the government introduced a "work for your benefits" scheme, whereby people on benefits are forced to do superfluous work with unpaid overtime or they face the removal of their benefits. If the government, or the companies paid to oversee this problem, cannot find work for benefit claimants to do, they are forced to go to the Jobcentre daily (without travel expenses, which is a further kick in the teeth for people operating on under £100 a week). They are made to wait there for up to 35 hours a week, in some parts of the country.

 

Where are you getting this information? My partner was on JSA for a while and she was given volunteer work at a charity shop, never more than a normal 8 hour working day (because that would be illegal) and she was repaid all of her travel costs.

[Mehmani]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/01/benefit-reforms-iain-duncan-smith-unemployed

 

In call centres, people are forced to work for shifts of up to twelve hours with regimented breaks that often total less than an hour (this includes relieving yourself. Even pregnant women aren't granted any extra breaks in some call centres). Thanks to inflation and a miniscule minimum wage, take home pay after rent and energy costs can be as little as £50. Source: Chavs, or the Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones.

[L0SS]

In Britain, the North, Wales and much of Scotland have not enjoyed any of the supposed benefits of the free market-induced boom under Thatcher, Major and Blair. Since the death of industry, Northerners have no jobs to go into except hire-and-fire jobs at call centres and supermarkets, which don't pay enough to sustain a healthy lifestyle and give you next to no rights as workers. For Liverpudlians, the choice between heating your home or having something to eat is a weekly dilemma (and that's for those who have homes; homelessness has more than quadrupled under Cameron's government). I'm sure you can put up with some irritating student activists - perhaps you can try living on £50 a week and working for twelve straight hours in a call centre, with only a half-hour break for lunch and urination?

As a northerner, I feel that this is a mass generalisation. There are still plenty of opportunities for people out there; they may have to work harder for them, but they still exist. There are plenty of affluent people from those areas, and the majority of people who life in the North don't have to make a choice between heating and eating, and to suggest otherwise is absurd. Of course, there are areas of poverty, and of course, there is still a divide of some form, but it's no where near the levels that you suggest. 

 

Regardless, the Liberal attitude is irritating, but hardly noteworthy.

[Mehmani]

It is a generalisation, as it does depend on where in the North you live - Chester or Southport, for example, are extremely well-off and only a few miles away from poverty-stricken places like Birkenhead or Kirby. Chatsworth Estate (the giant Downton Abbey house) is a short drive from Sheffield. In London, Richmond is a few short miles from Tower Hamlets or Bermondsey. If you live in the city, you get a better idea of things - in the part of London where I live, five minute bus journeys West and East will take me to the million-pound town houses of Dulwich Village or the abject poverty of the worst estates of Lewisham. You are in close proximity to poverty, so you are more aware of it. If you live a leafy, pretty little village in the Midlands then you certainly aren't going to see smackheads waiting outside the Jobcentre. Even an outer suburbanite in Leicester is unlikely to see the living fossils of Britain's industrial heartland unless they set out to do so. 

[Akira]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/01/benefit-reforms-iain-duncan-smith-unemployed

 

In call centres, people are forced to work for shifts of up to twelve hours with regimented breaks that often total less than an hour (this includes relieving yourself. Even pregnant women aren't granted any extra breaks in some call centres). Thanks to inflation and a miniscule minimum wage, take home pay after rent and energy costs can be as little as £50. Source: Chavs, or the Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones.

 

Well then perhaps the problem is that the people being exploited by call centres don't have a voice. As I said, it isn't legal to force someone to work for 12 hours without getting overtime but if those in crisis don't know who to contact in such a situation then it will just continue as if it's the norm.

[Catterjune]

I don't really know or care about Britain buuuut...
 

"As a student I believe that I'm entitled to everything and the government should serve up my life on a plate for me otherwise I'll complain and protest and go on strike!"

F[orget] this whole mocking attitude and belittling people who demand better.

If it weren't for people demanding change we'd be working 12 hour days in sweatshops and factories for pennies along with our children in unhygenic, dangers environments. People fought and died for these basic human rights. "Nah, but f[orget] liberals, amirite?"

[Akira]

I don't really know or care about Britain buuuut...
 
F[orget] this whole mocking attitude and belittling people who demand better.

If it weren't for people demanding change we'd be working 12 hour days in sweatshops and factories for pennies along with our children in unhygenic, dangers environments. People fought and died for these basic human rights. "Nah, but f[orget] liberals, amirite?"

 

There's a difference between fighting for the right to fair working conditions and complaining that your degree in social sciences isn't 100% vocational off the bat.

[Catterjune]

Yeah, and your shittly written opening post makes no mention of any of that. Just says "lol self entitled liberals" and leaves it at that.

[Mehmani]

The working class used to have a voice (a rather powerful one at that) in the form of the trade unions. Britain has some of the most restrictive laws in the world regarding trade unions, although the unions themselves are partly responsible for that by being corrupt or abusive of their power in some cases. Ever since the Thatcher took on the unions and crushed them in brutal fashion, the working class have simply not been able to form proper unions. The kind of jobs available for working class people are hire-and-fire, allowing precious little opportunity for unionisation. It is actually beneficial for our neoliberal economy to have a sizable number of unemployed, as they are always there to replace the fired dissenters who complain about poor working conditions. Student activists are a pet hate of mine, as I find them right-on, pretentious, shallow and over-the-top. Take the people who ban Blurred Lines and the Sun newspaper - both ugly pieces of media, granted, but you shouldn't ban something because you don't like its values.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

shittly written

 

 

lol

 

I do agree with you though about human rights and whatnot.