Back to Work

The job of looking for work that is. I'm due in next Friday (6th of January) and the holidays ended on Tuesday with the Bank Holiday (New Years is over the weekend so that doesn't count). I'm not entirely sure how much they can reasonably expect me to accomplish in my efforts to find work between Wednesday and next Friday, but I'm sure it won't be any less than is normal. I've already looked on the JC website - useless as ever - and there isn't much at all, unsurprisingly.
This festive season has been, without doubt, the most stressful of all I can remember. I'm still feeling the effects. I went into town yesterday and it's just so busy. I don't know how people can work in that kind of environment, but the Christmas temps/kids seem to be full of beans. That's the way the world expects you to be, all the time (well at least during the working day). Unfortunately, that's just not me. I can't be the person.
Unfortunately dealing with doctors is no help at all. They just don't take me seriously. But I feel so out of it at times at the moment. How on earth I'd be expected to function in a full time working environment I do not know, even one that isn't busy like the holiday sales on the high street. Having to deal with someone else's time schedule would be extremely difficult, especially with my screwed up metabolism (diagnosed though not specifically hypoglycaemia).
Doctors seem not to take you seriously unless you are dying on your feet. We are back to the grey area again: the system thinks either you are 100% fit or you must prove you are 100% not. Anything inbetween defaults to the former without exception. Whenever I've spoken to the GP they take a similar view; they will tell me that because I can act reasonably normally that they don't want to 'medicalise' my issues. They see that as somehow 'giving in' to the problem and thus making it worse. Unfortunately they don't understand that's how the welfare state works and the only alternative is having zero income. The great fallacy they and most people fall into believing is that if you 'sign off' you will immediately get work (or conversely if you sign on you instantly become unemployable, which is what my GP thinks). So regardless of the consequence of a lack of support, that is the preferable choice. So we are left to cope and manage as best we can, stumbling along the way.
I know my GP has told me he feels signing me off would only hinder my chances of returning to or finding work. That's all well and good, and no doubt being unwell will be viewed negatively by future potential employers - which is a sad indictment of the labour market - but what's the alternative? Penalise the sick? It's the system that's at fault. He, like many I suspect, expects the Jobcentre to do the job he thinks you want him to do: to help you and supprot you. But they are not doctors or therapists and, while you claim JSA (in lieu of an alternative), you sill have to abide by its conditionality.
It's also not helped when the GP regards your issues (as one did in respect of the above hypglycaemia condition) that because it hasn't killed me, it isn't a big deal (and she wondered why i had a 'face like thunder'). They think they are being helpful, setting you straight or even putting your mind at rest, but their ignorance of the system makes things worse. It's like the bus driver saying 'this is where i stop' when you wanted to go to the other end of town and then telling you 'it's ok, i'm sure another bus will be along in a minute'.
Doctors just don't get how the welfare system works and unfortunately don't want to. That's their prerogative and I can understand that - to a point. But it doesn't really help people that aren't getting any help and are struggling to cope with an inflexible monolithic welfare monster.

A Year of Sport

It's boxing day, the weather is uncharacteristically mild (remember last year?), and I've just been for a run. I say run, more a wheezing ball of wobbling inertia (probably the result of an overly large bowl of cereal). I don't run out of enjoyment, though I am not adverse to physical activity; I do it to keep fit. Whether or not that's working is up for debate. To keep me sane as I run I usually listen to the radio, or, if local radio isn't too obnoxious, some music. This morning, local radio's finest were replaying some sport interviews. I hate sport, and next year will be the year of sport as London (ie not the rest of us) is host to a fortnight of amateur dramatics calling itself the Olympics before selling off (at least that's the plan) all the assets we (i mean you) have paid for over the last 6 years.
To be specific, it's more that I hate competitiveness. I can't stand it. Every week I have to listen to it because I live next to a little league (ie they all smoke on their way to the pub after playing) football ptich. The noise, the language - even the bigotry (they've been warned about racist abuse ffs) - is awful. It's like listening to a pub at chucking out time on a Saturday night: screaming blokes, roaring and shouting. You can hear them half a mile away - and these aren't even the players!
I abhor all of this. Even if they were well behaved and sportsmanlike in their conduct (as if) I'd still hate it. The whole idea is divisive: for someone to win, another has to lose, yet that vital part of the equation is the recipient of society's scorn. We all have to be winners, losing is for...well losers. Yet how can it be possible for everyone to be a winner! If that were the case there'd be winners because there'd be no measure to define your worth against.
I have no problem with the idea of play, but even as a kid, kicking a ball around with mates was never fun (i've never gotten into football at all, can't stand it or any professional sport) because people took it too seriously. I'm not a skilled athlete nor do I have any desire to be so I get marginalised. This has increased over the years and I am firmly and squarely a nerd. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy being outside and getting physical: walking and cycling in the fresh countryside air is pleasant and enjoyable. But ask me to compete, hell no.
So next year will be the year of sport. All we will hear is how great sport is. How it affords kids opportunities. How it transforms society etc. I'm sick of it already. Why are we wasting money hosting a sporting event we aren't going to win? Professional sports teams constantly overestimate their worth: people are as good as they are. If there's someone better, then that's just life. Why put yourself through all the heartache of trying to make yourself something you are not. Great Britain isn't the world's best country ever and we aren't going to win every medal ever, either. We'll get a few ('we' - that's something else I abhor, this sense of inclusion and entitlement amongst the armchair pundits) and that's it. Then everyone will wail and gnash their teeth and it will all be over leaving the east end of London with a huge white elephant that we will have to slowly sell off. Seems like a waste of time money and effort, and for what? How many kids get to go to a velodrome? How many get to become professional footballers? How many get to train to be world champion divers? Certainly not the experience of sport when I was at school. IN fact I skived off the entire last season of sports when I was at school. I got more exercise cycling home and tried, unsuccessfully, to argue that I could spend my time more productively pursuing English/writing for instance. To no avail. But there won't be an Olympics for the intellect. It's just a massive gravy train benefiting the likes of 'Lord' (explain how one becomes a peer of the realm simply for running fast) Seb Coe.
I'm not looking forward to this at all.

Epilogue

Well, gentle reader, I didn't ring in sick (save that pleasure for another time!), I chose to attend. Really the best thing, to be honest. I'd have only regretted it otherwise. Fortunately they were in a more helpful mood today. It's all a bit random really; sometimes they are helpful sometimes not. Is that itself a good thing? I'm inclined to say no, but there's no point being churlish or ungrateful. I got signed on quickly, got my bus fare sorted out from Monday (finally) and got the heck out of dodge. The last signing time of 2011. I'm sure I'll post over the holiday season (means nothing to me; I don't have kids nor a family to really speak of), but until then happy secularised consumerist state holiday!

Campaigns

Today's Guardian, as we enter the Xmas orbit, is a call to arms. I'm not going to spend this post repeating what it says other than to post links to the campaigns in question.

Here is an article on the 38Degrees blogs about welfare reform, a cause they seem reluctant to support. We need to change that. I've sent them an email, in response to their thanking me for participating in their campaigns this year, asking this. This is an excellent letter from a blog i've not come across before, to the head of 38 Degrees.

Here is the link to an epetition calling for a pause, at least, to the welfare reform bill. We have until January to change their opinions.

Here is a link to an epetition calling for it to be made an offence to maliciously report someone for benefit fraud. I think this has to be looked at: someone that reports on their neighbour out of what is essentially spite must be held accountable.

Scope are campaigning to preserve legal aid for disability claimants. This has ramifications for all claimants and so must be opposed.

While many of these are issues surrounding disability benefits/welfare specifically, make no mistake it won't end there.

Thoughts on Yesterday

I spent the rest of yesterday reeling. I couldn't really focus on anything else and went to bed pretty tired. It's like the colours changed; the rest of the day just seems different because of some fundamental change in the settings of reality. That's how my mind processed it, if that makes any sense.
I woke up this morning with issues still unresolved. I'm not sure what to do come Friday. In fact I'm not even sure the buses are going to be up to the job (and I don't want to spend Christmas in the jobcentre!) as the main road is closed for that day. I was and still am thinking of phoning in sick, but I bet saying this here and now makes that look even less credible. I told the psychologist this yesterday, she gave no response. However it's not entirely fake: I really really can't deal with that place at the moment. Perhaps being sick of the jobcentre is reason enough!
Thing is, in any normal workplace people would down tools if they had to deal with the system that the jobcentre foists on people just for being out of work. I could claim this as holiday time as apparently one is allowed two weeks, per year, on holiday. But that requires you fill in a form that demands, again apparently, a contact number. If I give my home number it's not going to look like much of a holiday and they'll think I could just as well attend (though I don't see what's so wrong with taking a holiday at home).
The system is just so monolithic, inflexible and bureaucratic that it just cannot help people - and that's assuming that's it's purpose. Certainly under the Tories it isn't. I have a telephone appointment with my GP this afternoon, hopefully he can help arrange for the psychologist to see me at the surgery and conduct her cognitive tests, as was agreed yesterday. Whether he will be sympathetic or whether he, like the populist view, regard me as a self pitying scrounger is 50/50. I iknow he won't be open to writing a 'fit' note, at least that's the safe assumption.
Even if he did, I'd then have the rigmarole of signing off and haviong to subsist on a fortnight's worth of JSA while the claim is being processed, and, by the time it's resolved, the claim will likely have ended. There's no way he'll write a note for a long period of time, longer than say a month. That's fair enough I suppose.
It just highlights the rigidity of the system: how it simply cannot address real people's issues. There's no legitimate way for someone to contact the JC and negotiate a simple break, even on health grounds, without some effort. Even if I do ring up Friday morning and say I'm unwell, it will be more form filling. My money is meant to go through tomorrow to clear next Wednesday (the normal date) and is there any guarantee they won't think, after I ring up, 'right, screw that' and cancel or recall the payment. I wouldn't put anything past these people.
What I'm saying is that the system is just so far from being fit for its purpose that some of us are just left with ridiculous choices to make. After all how many employers are going to be hiring at this time of the year (I'm sure there are some - just to appease the right wingers out there!)? But the lack of support - the TOTAL lack thereof - is staggering. I still don't even know why I was sent to see the psychologist yesterday. I suspect that what the adviser was thinking she would achieve is actually very different to what the psychologist herself agrees is her function or purpose. While I'm happy for any diagnosis she might be able to offer or even any proper help she can offer, I'm willing to bet, pounds to pence, that she can't really do anything. In which case, what's the point? There is just no help, whatsoever. Why else do I blog, dear reader?

Unbelievable

Simply, unbelievable.

To anyone with a conscience, or at least a grounding in economics, that is.

This society is going to suffer a lot more than the popular and populist media will ever ever reveal.

One side effect that concerns me - and I don't even pretend to have a scintilla of the problems that this person does - is that the level of severity that is required to be taken seriously will rise and rise. While of course people such as Sue Marsh should, without fucking question, receive ALL the help and support they need, those, like myself, who have problems of our own will have to, to quote Pink Floyd, hang on in quiet desperation. Now that's not a plea of self pity, I cannot begin to imagine her struggles, it's pointing out that we are yet again storing up a nest of vipers. People forced to repress much less serious issues are not going to do society any favours as that repression, forced by the system, will be the cause of family breakdown, addiction, nervous breakdown, or just the inability to sustain work at a time when it's more important than ever not to lose work. It exacerbates the divide and rule mentality: with so little resource to go around, cut ever more to the bone by this awful government, the masses are then led by the media increasingly to fight over the scraps when this country could support everyone needing help. Because of this I find myself mindful, as i write, that I'm trying to compare my meagre woes to the condition this poor individual endures. No comparison, nor should there be.

Good luck to Sue Marsh in her quest dealing with this scum outfit in power. What I think is needed is to get these issues and cases such as hers, with all due respect, into the public eye as much as widely and as often as possible. People are just not aware of what's going on.

Insistence is Futile

I must blog. I have just returned from my appointment with fear - I mean seeing the Work Psychologist. I'm not really sure I'm any the wiser about the point of it, though it wasn't totally without merit. Unfortunately I again lost my cool with the JC who managed, inexplicably in my opinion, to not refund my bus fare. This doesn't really help with my signing appointment on Friday (which I may not be able to attend anyway as there was signage along the way saying the road will close for three days starting Wednesday).

So i turn up in time for my appointment (and some meagre shopping in Morrisons) only to find the psychologist is quarter of an hour late. Perhaps I should stop her benefits. Ok, fair enough, these things can happen. To be fair she seemed nice enough and not an ogre.

At first the meeting comes across as a glorified careers advisory session. I explain to her that I am interested in writing (can't thee tell?), I'm also interested in music, but that's another story. She then asks me if Ive been published, if i have an agent, etc etc. She's taking it way too far. No, I just enjoy writing, as I have for many years. Dare I say it's something I have some measure of talent for. I point out that I'm not looking to become the next JK Rowling, but that, when I mentioned my interest upon starting my claim, I expected more of a response than 'pick something else, we can't help with that'. I figured that, if I can't make it as a millionaire author, then maybe that talent can be used in other areas. I point that out to her, explaining that the system of JSA and the atmosphere of the benefits system just doesn't allow me, I feel, to explore my talents, interests, capabilities, freely so that I can find something, like writing, and work towards that. Instead it's about 'get a job NOW! Only search within our preapproved categories, and receive no help doing so'. A very close minded and almost counter productive approach. Why shouldn't writing, for instance, be a valid choice for someone's career?

It's only when i mention that I've been chasing the doctor for a year to get an Asperger diagnosis that things begin to move. I'd already explained that I HATE dealing with the DWP; I was almost not going to show up this morning and really can't face an encore on Friday. I think she got the message (hopefully). I'm at my limit dealing with them now. She mentioned I should get a fit note, though when I pointed out it was easier said than done she didn't go further. Well of course I'd like to sign off JSA, but that alone won't convince my GP to start issuing sick, sorry, fit, notes afresh. I wonder whether she will convey my utter contempt and 'cognitive dissonance' with the Jobcentre to my adviser and if so how that will come across since she's likely to think 'well too bad that's the system'.

I also pointed out the issue I have with a system, in respect o fESA, that says you must be completely unwell to receive or, otherwise you are 100% ok (ie claim JSA). She seemed to get the point, though I didn't press the issue. As people reading this will know I can go on about this and the shitty nature of the welfare system ad bloody nauseum.

Curiously it turned out she can actually undertake a test for aspergers herself - after a fashion. She has offered, with my GP's approval (as he's still in the mire of organising just such a test through the regular channels) to do some kind of IQ test that will show whether I have characteristics and tendencies of that kind, as well as other, similar conditions (she mentions Dispraxia, which I've never heard of), that may apply in lieu of Aspergers itself. Well that's good. I asked her how that grants me an official diagnosuis and she says it can be taken to the people that issue such things to force their hand. Impressive, I guess. The final point I make is that I do NOT want to undergo this test (or indeed anything) at the JC. She seems able to accommodate that, providing my rather disorganised GP surgery can provide somewhere instead.

The only real issue is that, when asked where this all leads, it doesn't seem that getting any kind of official diagnosis or stamp of approval, if you like, makes much difference when dealing with this wretched welfare system. I'm still going to rely on them for an income, likely through JSA, and therefore the conditions, including turning up to that bloody place, will ultimately remain. Maybe it will make an ESA diagnosis that much easier - oh who am i kidding!
So all in all...I'm not sure! We will have to see what happens when I speak to my GP tomorrow as I'm due a telephone appointment at teatime. Whether he'll write me a sick note I don't know, but anything to avoid Friday...

Speaking of which, my adviser, last time we spoke, assured me that the travel refund issue would be taken care of in time for today. All i would have to do is sign the form and everything would be there waiting, all taken care of, by her. It wasn't. The form wasn't there, neither was the money. The psychologist gets the necessary form which I fill in and even though the adviser in question is actually present, I still have to wait for the money to be collected from, presumably, petty cash. This seems to cause an enormous problem: of all the people on deck today, including two security guards, and two people manning the reception desk (as well as sundry advisers in between clients and whatnot) only one of them has the requisite capability to actually process the form and issue me with a refund. The appointment finishes about half an hour before the bus is due and it takes about 15 minutes (including time needed to go to the nearby public toilet as by this point I'm walking bow legged) to get to the bus stop from the jobcentre.

After about 15 minutes of waiting for this person to appear, during which she seems to forget she's been asked to do this and goes ahead with her next client (and cannot, it seems be interrupted). I protest the point and get exasperation for my trouble - as though I'm being inflexible (again!) and unreasonable. At this point one of the reception guys, the person I'm talking with at this point, gets his knickers in a twist: he does that thing where he questions what you say but really quickly, as if to dismiss you while simultaneously getting the last word in. This is red rag to me at this point:

"we've had this conversation before haven't we sir," he utters quickly before, "I'll let her know that you need the money." No we haven't had this conversation before. Ever. And I need that money to get in on Friday.

My efforts are in vain and I have to leave without collecting my money. It will, apparently, be there to collect when I next come in. Problem is I don't ever want to set foot in that fucking place ever again. They are just hopeless. I of course look like the typical difficult customer. But I cannot understand why NONE of these people could simply get the money and hand it to me. the form was filled in. In fact it should all have been waiting as was agreed. Typical.

Nice Little Earner

Have a look at this post, on the consumer action group forum (which is a visual nightmare, sadly). Among the discussions is a thread about Ingeus (aka Working Links, though I have no idea why you'd change name...oh wait a minute everyone thinks WL suck). Here we have a client on the Work Programme that, having signed off, is being offered £75 by his provider....on the condition that said client coughs up the details the provider wants so they may secure a payment. This is information the client is under no obligation to provide.
Now you might think that the client should give that information: if they are being helped then why shouldn't the provider get paid. Well, my friend, you suppose an ideal world and I've read NOTHING that gives me confirmation regarding these pimps. As you can see, from the rest of the post they haven't been deserving of the client's trust, and this seems par for the course. There's also the ethical aspect as to whether such organisations should be allowed to manipulate clients in this fashion.
This is the future we can all look forward to, on the dole (which is where increasing numbers of us are going to end up thanks to the failing capitalist system and it's quasi religious tory pallbearers). Enjoy.

The Cautionary Tale of Margaret Moran

A claimant stands in the dock, accused of taking the state for an £80,000 ride. You can imagine what the papers might say. You can guess at the headlines again talking about our 'something for nothing' easily abused benefits culture and that the Hard Working Tax Payer (often through it's Taxpayer's Alliance disguise) is forever the victim. Only this time the claimant is in fact a politician.
This is the situation the former representative of Luton South faces.
It would be very easy to cast the first stone here; her party, when in power, introduced us all to those lovely people called ATOS, as well as shifting the disability benefit goalposts into Employment Support (though it's nothing of the kind) Allowance. They sowed the seeds that the likes of Duncan Smith and Grayling are reaping with religious gusto.
Now the Guardian reports she may not face trial due to a deteriorating mental state caused by the stress of the situation. I am not unsympathetic; there but for the grace of god go we all. Indeed I don't for one nanosecond doubt that the stress of going to court and having to defend her position (and she is innocent until presumed guilty) is enough to cause her reported state of mind. A series of experts concur as to the veracity of her condition. Fair enough.
I don't wish that kind of stress on anyone, whether or not they are guilty of the sorts of crimes that we claimants are assumed by virtue of our being claimants to be committing daily and wantonly. But isn't it a teensy bit ironic that Margaret can rely on these experts while the rest of us are presumed guilty and also have to deal with the ATOS system that would, in any other case, regard her fit for work (ie fit to stand trial)? Reap the whirlwind, Mrs Moran; you have my pity.

Quacking Plums Forever!

I have no idea why I thought Alan Partridge's immortal lines would serve as a title for a blog, but the British Library must see something in it. They have decided to archive this blog FOREVER (or maybe a it less)! So, now's your chance to heckle me and have it preserved for the ages. Future historians will see your comments and may even agree that Ghost Whistler is a pitiful scrounger! Heh! Self deprecation immortalised!

What is Mental Illness?

I find this time of year difficult, especially this year. Last year I was (coming to the end of) claiming ESA. Little did I know that it would end on the 14th of January this year, though I was convinced it would end sooner rather than later. There was no way ATOS were going to let me through - especially as they now don't care about people on chemo. So here I am writing blog entry after blog entry, more often than not, now, as a coping mechanism. It's also practise as a writer, which is something I enjoy, though these blog entries aren't revised and redrafted (perhaps they should be).
So now I'm finding myself, in the forced introspection Winter invokes, questioning what my problems are. I've mentioned them before, along with my belief that the answer - or at least diagnosis - is Aspergers. If not that then 'something similar', if indeed there is such a thing. To put it simply, I don't feel like I fit into this society at all. I simply do not feel comfortable, and haven't for the majority of my adult life. To paraphrase Brian Wilson, I was not made for these times!
I'm sure to most that's a flight of the most self indulgent fancy.
I remember even as a kid being plagued with strange feelings and sensations even. About twenty years ago I was diagnosed, after a fashion, with Agoraphobia. I was sent to a stony faced counsellor who's response (about the only thing she said) when I said "my doctor thinks I have agoraphobia" was that there was a simple cure involving dumping me in the middle of town and leaving me to my own devices. Sink or swim, in other words. A philosophy I have no time for as it seems as potentially effective, at best, as it is dangerous. I'm not looking to drown.
I find dealing with the systems of society, which I have been on the periphery of for a long time, never really fitting in(which is probably a feedback loop contributing to the problems), like speaking a different language. I just don't understand them. The way the Jobcentre wants the unemployed to act in respect of what society expects people to do - ie work for 10 plus hours daily - just doesn't ring true with how I think people are, which is based on how I am (since that's the only experience I know). I don't think I'm necessarily opposed to working, but I find the idea of being forced into wage slavery abhorrent, almost physically so. You couldn't get a more extreme reaction if you invited me to the feast that Indiana Jones sits at in the Temple of Doom (ah, chilled monkey brains!)!
So nowadays I find myself occupied by thoughts of dread: I dread dealing with the jobcentre. I dread their control over my life to the point of penury and consequent starvation. Even the doctor thinks such a consequence is outlandish, but he can't tell me how one feeds themselves without money to buy food. I'd have to hope a charity can help me out. But even that would maintain a dire status quo, never mind providing me with the means to pay my bank charges each month (and I'm sure they'd listen!). I dread even turning up to the place. Even though it's relatively clean and, for the most part, I've had no real tribulations (aside from last Friday, which really pushed me too far, emotionally). I dread the future in this society. This cannot be a healthy way to live, but it seems these days that unless you have a very serious - ie visible - complaint you are doomed to be regarded negatively by the wider society.
Yet that's how my mind works. These feelings overwhelm at times. I have always found it difficult to deal with certain things, particularly if I feel I'm being overwhelmed. I find it very easy for things to get on top of me. I just cannot help that (who'd choose to function thus?). If i was in a busy work place god only knows what would happen! In such situations my mind withdraws and I can't engage with people properly. The Jobcenter have seen this (they saw it last week), but it means nothing to them without some kind of official stamp. This level of 'overload' dulls my emotions and I find myself incapable of thinking of anything else.
Some say Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is good for this, but my experience was that it was very very difficult to get into the space to step outside of your problem thinking in order to engage the requisite critical faculties that help deconstruct such negative thinking. That's the trick of CBT. It also doesn't help that, while trying to do it (something referred via the doctor, though off my own back, they didn't recommend or suggest it, as ever), I was still having to deal with the likes of the DWP. Consequently it's like trying to clean your hands in dirty water.
So here we are. The question I ask is what is mental illness? What constitutes a real problem and what is merely that which 'most people' call the stresses of everyday life, and is there a difference. We are expected to cope because we have to go out and earn a living and thus there's no alternative. But that doesn't help me; it's a statement that changes nothing that's merely an admission of the status quo. We can see that status quo isn't healthy because lots of us feel stressed at the very least. These days, as I say, people need to have an official stamp of their problems in order to access what help there might be, if any. I don't need an aspergers diagnosis for any other reason. Even if it came back that I have aspergers it won't be something that can be cured. In fact it might be something to be celebrated in that everyone is unique and these things comprise our personality and shouldn't be vilified. But in order to function in the society we now endure, such labels seem a necessity.
So I wonder if I'm mentally ill, emotionally ill, feckless, a scrounger, or just the odd man out!

Does Casual Work?

Here, if the link works, is the sort of job typical of what you might find in the jobcentre. It wasn't actually advertised there, I found it by searching on the WHSMith site. These days most businesses have a careers site/page. Unfortunately Jobseeker Agreements aren't up to date with this; mine says that as well as applying, I have to ring up 2 employers. I don't bother, instead I visit the sites for the major high street businesses I can think of (even though it's largely a waste of time and I have zero interest in retail careers). This is easier to do, and fortunately I haven't had a jobsworth yet criticise me for doing this as opposed to following the JSAg to the letter.
I don't see how it's effective to ring a business up and expect whomever answers the phone to even be in a position to know if there are vacancies. Meanwhile these sites have vacancies listed for all shops (at least htat's the intention), not just the one you might be ringing.
I remember a time before when I was given a job in one particular shop to apply for with a named contact (the manager). He wasn't available when I rang up (as per the instruction), but the person answering had the authority to deal with me. I didn't get the job for whatever reason and the JC sought to sanction me (they may have been successful, I have blacked out the memoery) on the ground that I didn't speak to the exact contact as specified!
I digress (big time, in fact). The reason I mention this advert is, even though the venue makes it unsuitable (i can't get to the airport), I have a metabolic condition the doctors have noted as hypoglycemia. This was a diagnosis they took and accepted in lieu of something more accurate as they can't specifically nail it down. I've had this for little over a decade and it manifests not far off Hypoglycemia (though I've been assured I'm not diabetic), so it's easier to describe it thus. Essentially I get faint, woozy and not really able to work when I get hungry. I have to therefore manage my food intake uniquely. Now this hasn't always been easy but I'm here today. However when you are working on someone else's time for their money a higher demand on your time is placed than is always possible for me to meet. Certainly ATOS weren't sympathetic. Looking at the hours for a job like this it would be very very difficult for me to do this without fainting around dinner time, and they certainly aren't going to give me pause to eat a suitable meal within a 5 hour shift.
It's issues like this that the current system cannot cope with. It doesn't prevent me fully from working, but it does inhibit what I can do. But what support am I offered? None. Even the doctor's just regard it as a quirk of my metabolism. That would be fine, but it implies that it's not serious and therefore not an issue. Unfortunately in order to navigate the welfare system to get the help one needs, these things have to be regarded or recognised as issues, whatever they are. It's the same with Aspergers (if indeed that is what I have in regard to my head). The problem is that society has become so right wing and so 'law of the jungle' that admitting such issues is synonymous with admitting weakness, and that is admitting you are lazy and a loser etc. We have got to change our thinking.

Wok Psychologist

Next Monday, at 9am (and hopefully not too cold or wet since the only place to wait after getting of the bus is Morrisons), I have an appointment iwth a Work Psychologist at the Jobcentre. I'm not entirely sure what this involves or what such a person actually does. I suspect it's either, or somewhere between, careers advisor or occupational therapist - which wouldn't be terribly appropriate. Perhaps they are there to bludgeon people with the idea that arbeit macht frei (I'm sure it does if it's a good job that pays real well, something the JC don't really help with).
I've seen careers advisers before with the DWP; they are useless. I had an aptitude test with one that produced results as bizarre (at least to me) and diverse as: forensic photographer (something I'm not interested in), Plasterer and Motorcycle Courier. All from the same results. Of course actually helping me realise any such career was another matter entirely. It just enabled them to hand out some pamphlets on what each job involved with no actual help to achieve. The JC doesn't help with that - at all. I'd like to be a writer, but even that, the first thing I told the JC when I started signing in March when asked, was poo pooed. I said that I'm interested in writing and they said 'we don't do that', as if i'd walked into a cake shop asking for aspirin. Frankly it seems like an easy job (Careers Advisor, that is) with no real outcome. It's easy to sit there and say yay or nay to me as I reel out some of the thigns I'm interested in. It's what Working Links did (though never yay, only nay).
I'm also concerned just how impartial this individual is, if at all. I'm not sure whether they work for the DWP or are contracted by them to come in and see people such as I. I'm told she comes in semi regularly so I'm guessing more the latter. This is important to me because I have no desire to confide in someone that's a fully paid up to the JC ideology. I'm not interested in being persuaded or cajoled into believing meaningless casual work is the goal. Nor do I believe that rejecting such a belief makes on inherently lazy or feckless.
To be honest, I only agreed to see this person as it was made clear that the JC were getting antsy in dealing with me. Quite why that should be I don't know, but they are always motivated by the idea that a) unemployment is a cancer on the soul that grows as time passes and b) one must find work as soon as possible regardless. I don't' share this approach, but it underpins the entire ethos of the DWP which makes signing on unpleasant. My feeling is that individual claimants should be treated as such with help toward getting them into proper sustained careers properly compensated. Not just a few weeks stacking shelves or shuffling papers. So it was either that or go to the Work Programme early. Though I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

The Role of the Advisor

Here someone posted a link to an Ingeus (formerly, iirc, Working Links) video for potential advisers in their employ. I respond there and here as well. Here are my responses to what's said in that video.
Firstly, it would of course be very easy to target these people and call them the enemy, even though they are (certainly in my experience of the abominable Working Links), but these people are just part of the corporate machine dependent on them, and indirectly the taxpayer, as me. Unfortunately they are, at best, just not aware of the reality of the Work Programme and similar schemes. These people just channel buzzwords and corporate spiel and can pat themselves on the back when they get an 'outcome'.
Here we have the usual 'my job is varied therefore it's great' spiel, and also a rather blithe approach to the variety of experiences and issues that 'clients' (I'm going to use that word for convenience's sake, but it's just as stupid as JC+ calling the unemployed customers). For me, confidence issues, emotional, psychological and mental health issues aren't just a simple problem to be overcome by an action plan. They are real and integral to my experience. I personally do NOT feel confident or even comfortable in having such people 'boost my confidence', often by way of the sorts of courses that John Humphrey's investigated (baking cakes for instance) a month or so ago on the BBC. This is, at best, trivialising people's problems for the sake of an outcome. Certainly however I would consent to proper treatment/support from a qualified non-partisan professional, such as an NHS worker/therapist/whatever. But not from some advisor at Ingeus who's experience and motives I seriously question.
And this isn't helping these people to, shall we say, heal so they can become whole, but so they can be 'job ready' (another buzz prhase), so they can cope with an interview. Presumably these people believe that work cures all and so the best panacea for one's blues is a hard day's slog at the coalface. Hmmn. I wonder how many advisers have quit their job, across the industry, due to stress, anxiety, depression or whatever?
The mention of interviews, in relation to filinmg clients so they can 'practise' their interview skills just sounds Orwellian! In my opinion this focus on such things is just the industry's way of making it sound important; it's creating a problem where one needn't exist. I get there are some that find social interaction difficult, but that, again, is an issue for proper therapy. Interviews are merely interaction between two parties, what's there to learn? You talk to them, they talk to you, just remember not to punch them in the face, be sick, or rude to them - common sense surely? I'm not trying to be arrogant; I happen to think these organisations make this into the problem they are trying to solve in client's minds. In so doing they can send them to courses where they can learn 'skills' - and trouser a few quid in the process off the back of these people.
Now an advisor is talking about shopping expeditions to find, and presumably pay for, suitable clothing. What rubbish - there's no way they will be doing that! As if that’s even remotely true. It reminds of the nonsense Working Links posted on their website under one of their case studies (which included paying for the same client to have a go in a driving simulator, a spot of lunch in town whilst out shopping don’tcha know, while another client had their guitar repaired!). In other words, bollocks. They changed their website before I'd finished seeing them after I'd asked for funding for a push bike (a few quid to get one second hand). Didn't seem unreasonable to me given that they as a company advertised funding such things as guitar repair and driving simulator experiences. It's one thing to make your corporate spiel friendly and appealing, but the reality is something else entirely.
I notice their jobsearch is nothing unique – it’s using their computers to look on the DWP’s crappy archive. Which can of course be done from home, or even a local library. But these places will insist that clients turn up to use their, often over subscribed, facilities. Again the client is disempowered and not trusted.
They are talking about seeing 14 or so clients a day. So how many of them are going to be cold calling and writing spec letters (the same thing) each week. One adviser’s clients will then be in direct competition with another’s and all of them will do the same dance next week. What an utterly squalid waste of time and money. Of course these vermin will pat themselves on the back if even one of them gets a job stacking shelves at least. That will vindicate all of this nonsense. Do these advisers even question the effectiveness of these rote procedures? What is the point of just cold calling? What is the point of just sending out spec letters? Is it just to appear active and to be seen to make an effort? Employers don't want random letters and phone calls from people? How many times have you rang up a place of work to find out about vacancies and not even get through to the manager? It's a complete dead end.
Why don't we send these people to university or to further education (or whatever level is appropriate) for instance? Money, of course. It costs money to give people an education so why would Ingeus want to lose profit helping people this way when they can corall their clients into repeatedly doing the same tedious process over and over. There's nothing progressive there at all? It also limits them to looking in the local area, which itself may be the problem. If there's no work in that area, what on earth is gained by having all these clients fighting over the telephone? They also admit it's a target driven environment, which, really, says it all.
And what’s that, a customer left to read the newspapers? Presumably a local paper with a vacancies section. How easy is that? Ingeus just pop down the local papershop to pick up the weeks' local press? Such hard work! Most libraries have local newspapers as well as computers, they also don't have advisers on their case.
Curiously one advisor mentions, in respect of a client that didn't want to produce a CV (the client's choice I suppose), that it was his choice. I wonder if that's the reality and that refusing to participate in such a manner won't actually land him in hot water with the Jobcentre. Perhaps he just didn't want the advisor having access to the details on such a document.
They talk about appropriate behaviour and the adviser's position in challenging it (though not of course when an advisor behaves inappropriately). Their rationale is the workplace: instilling in their client 'workplace appropriate' behaviour, respect and conduct. Doesn't that strike you as a bit Orwellian? Seems rather an easy way to keep clients down by traducing their behaviour (without addressing it properly) accordingly. Of course you will have problem clients and of course some of them are just going to be difficult arseholes; that's life unfortunately. But there will also be people that have deeper issues and I question the effectiveness of people like Ingeus, who are only interested in meeting targets, in dealing with that. People aren't machines that can be 'repaired' according to a timetable, like an MOT; they are people - beautiful, mushy and occasionally quite fucked up.
Some of us, dare i say, just don't function in this kinds of environment.
And of course we have the idea of managing expectations. That seems like corporate shorthand for 'your goal is unrealistic, why don't you apply to stack shelves in the local tesco'. Well maybe some of us are better than that. Sorry, but it's true. If that's someones genuine goal or free choice then all power to them. But if all these places are going to do is ignore what you are interested in, passionate about and even have an aptitude for, then what's the fucking point?
That's certainly my experience of Working Links. They asked me what I was interested in. At first I was reluctant to answer; I knew they wouldn't help. Also having dealt with the likes of the JC for so long you just don't have the space or opportunity to think for yourself in this matter. You have to go along with whatever they offer you or lose your benefits. It's not always possible in that environment to follow your dreams, or even get the head space to try. When I did answer and tell her she just wasn't remotely interested and traduced my interests to nothing. Fuck that then.
So they say they are motivated to help people into long term work, but by what standard? The qualifier, as one of the advisers says, is work they have a good chance of getting. So right here is the key that allows them to cut short your goals: you have no experience of this, they will say, so your expectations have to be managed. That's the system the Work Programme is supposed to operate under. That's no guarantee of anything. It certainly wasn't my experience of Working Links, now called Ingeus. Cutting the wings of another human being is one of the cruelest things a society can do.

All Aboard the SS Toff Party

Where yesterday I doubted the focus of the Occupy movement (even though I support their aims wholeheartedly), today's revelation of the toff nazi fancy dress party removes the doubt. How these cretins can be so sociopathic I will never know. If this is how they want to live then by all means OCCUPY!
I just can't fathom the thinking behind anyone choosing a nazi costume and to then, apparently, behave in character as has been reported. Maybe if you ham up the costume to the point of obvious lampoonery, but to just don a bog standard, unadulterated, SS uniform? That's the best you can come up as a guest for a fancy dress party? Must have been a busy day at the costume shop; I'm guessing the only superhero costume he could think of was ubermensch.
If it's ok (Tory MP Aiden Burley seems to think so) to dress as members of a military force that occupied Europe for five years, camping on the village green can't really be any worse.

Occupy

Where are we going?
In Bristol today I passed, once again, the Occupy camp, located on College Green which, if the news is to be believed, is land certainly not owned by the camp. It is a fairly largish open space opposite the council offices and Bristol Cathedral and Park Street. It's popular in the summer and pleasant all year around.
The camp isn't pretty, there's no denying that - even if that is a somewhat middle class perception. The ground is going to suffer having been reduced to a lot of mud. There are a fair number of tents with constructed buildings in between as well as a couple of portaloos. I'm sure it's none too warm either.
The residents all too easily fit the dropout profile; once they would have been called new age travellers (correctly or otherwise) as well as crusties (even if they don't all have dreads). Of course that's just a superficial thing. I'm sure they represent all manner of people and views. Broadly speaking I share their views; it's all too easy to think the way the media want to think and to counter them on their terms.
Yet I'm not sure what I really feel about this. As I've said before, I support their aims. I want to see an end to capitalism, competition and the crass consumer nightmare we have been living in. It clearly isn't working and it's clearly not going to change under the current political machinery, left or right (because the current left is not really any less right). it's a battle for the centre dictated by the likes of the Mail, the Sun and the Express with facts replaced by hysteria and lies.
I come from what can only be described as a middle class environment. I can't change that, it's part of me. Those that live here, even though the Mail is a disproportionately popular news organ, are not the enemy, they are just ignorant. That's not surprising. So when confronting the likes of the Occupy movement it's easy to be sniffy because it's something new and perhaps threatening - even if just to the grass beneath.
I find myself looking through two different eyes as I behold this movement and this camp in particular. One view is that of the middle class: I see the dirty camp that resembles a stereotypical traveller camp, for instance, I see the dogs on string and I wonder just what is being achieved or what will ever be achieved.
The other view is more positive and more forgiving. I see people, with all their issues and imperfections, sharing a common aim, no matter how lofty, just trying to find a new and healthier space for society. These are baby steps for a better world. They may not succeed, but god loves a trier, so they say.
Again, it is easy to be critical by thinking the way the media, such a huge force in all our lives nowadays, wants us to. So in offering this critique it behoves me to offer alternatives, and I have two:
Firstly, I do think the movement suffers from a lack of direction. Where is it heading? Can it really stay in these occupied spaces indefinitely? Come next summer, if they remain, I think they will find a lot of opposition from ordinary people who want to also use that space and that would be extremely counter productive. How do they seek to achieve their goals? Is it merely an exercise in raising awareness?
To that end I wonder if they would have been better moving into an empty building, like a squat, and creating a more concrete, so to speak, presence, rather than a grubby looking outdoor camp. Turn such a building into a working clean establishment and I think that would impress more people. A haven for people that want to build a better future that can spread. The current camp can't really spread. What would happen if they had enough people to occupy all of College Green? Where then? If they took up the entire space they'd have been moved on weeks ago. There's no way the public would have tolerated that, for better or worse.
Secondly, I think the real weapon that we have to build a better future is massed peaceful civil disobedience. Strikes are not enough, but the unions don't have the stomach for a greater degree of unrest. This doesn't have to be violent, nor should it be. I think this is the only way we can get the powers that be to listen. If we all down tools they have to listen.
The power is in our hands.
So, while I watch these camps with much interest, I really do think that their fuzzy nature and the lack of overall direction is going to be detrimental long term. It is important that this movement goes from strength to strength, and that's how I think it can achieve this.

Human Error?

I'm not going to be excused on the 23rd, quelle surprise. Of course as a scrounger I shouldn't be because everyone else has to work blah blah blah. Let's just get that chestnut out the way. Though the money does go in earlier (and should clear on that day). That should take the edge off signing.
I also have an appointment with a Work Psychologist (not sure if I've already mentioned this) on the 19th. I have no idea what such a person does, but it was either that or get sent to the local Work Programme Gulag (which will happen sooner or later I think).
Today's fun and games was a complete fucking joke. I'm so sick of the inflexible and hapless Jobcentre bureaucracy now; coupled with this insane time of year and the general winterness of winter I'm starting to seriously lose the plot.
So I'm called over after a ten minute wait; I'm not feeling particularly shall we say effervescent this morning. While I wait I'm watching the three ladies on the signing desks stuck in some bureaucratic mire about this or that. I think a person before me is facing a sanction. Happy Christmas for him!
When it's my turn I sit down offering the usual glib pleasantries - I've never been rude to the staff there and always show respect. I've no desire, unprovoked (when provoked it's a different matter and I've no patience at all thanks to stress and anxiety prolems), to be rude to them anymore than anyone else. I then am informed I'm supposed to attend on the 29th for some review.
"But my next appointment is the 23rd?"
"It's on the system, here, you have an appointment on the 29th for a 6 month review"
I point out that the screen shows my last signing time, 25/11/2011 - with the same adviser as is supposedly reviewing me on the 29th; my regular adviser that I see whenever possible each time I sign. I also mention that my claim is 9 months, not 6 months. At this point I'm not even convinced they've got the right person's file.
"i don't understand what any of this is about"
At this point I can barely speak above a whisper; my stress levels are redlining and I'm starting to feel self conscious at the attention this corner of the open plan office is attracting (I'm sure no one else really cares anyway). I have no idea why and have not heard from her since last time where I sat and watched her make the appointments while explaining it all to me (they have various diaries that deal with different types of appointment). I'm in on the 23rtd with that same adviser so what is the point of another appointment less than a week later ffs?
The tone starts to change when the adviser at hand calls over someone to assist. I'm guessing this is the senior signing lady.
"The adviser made a genuine human error Mr W, it's a stressful job. Surely you can understand that?"
I'm gobsmacked. The adviser is an experienced person. I grant that doesn't mean she's immune from errors, but it certainly didn't look she was screwing things up when the appointment was made and this has all been thrust on me today. Her tone is rather chiding; a level of condescension that's completely uncalled for. If she read my file she'd know I suffer from stress and anxiety permanently and that, while I can forgive mistakes, thrusting this on me right now and for no blood reason is hardly helpful. But this is how they operate; the system only knows how to beat you over the head. It's like a club over the head.
What annoys me is that I'm the one that has to dance to their tune, and when I do (got no choice), I still get clobbered. That's what it is to sign on: you can't do right for doing wrong.
Superior Signing Lady (sounds like a Japanese robot) is happily talking to me like this pretty loudly in an open plan office so everyone can hear. This is a great way to be treated; as if my confidence isn't already low dealing with this system and this society. I'm not here to whinge and whine (well, a little bit), but come on! Some of us really do struggle (and yes, some a lot more than me).
Then they look at the appointment for the 23rd - this time it's listed as 12:25pm instead of the 9am that was agreed (and I have in writing on the card they gave me last time!). I can't get in at that time because of the bus schedule. That's something else they ignore, even though they took a copy of the bus timetable so as to avoid such issues months ago.
"why can't you attend at that time?"
"because the buses don't run then."
Then it's the predictable and stupid response pertaining to the implication that if I can't attend at that time then I can't attend any time whatsoever. I'm also asked why I don't go to other jobcentres (why should I?) to sign on. Well the simple answer is that they are too rough; far too many unpleasant people (we are talking major urban centres). I'm not trying to be arrogant, I'm just trying to get by. I can't deal with these places; I used to sign on in such a place and it was, to be blunt, a fucking nightmare. That's why I picked this one but they seem intent on making it into another fucking nightmare.
Anyway they decide to alter the times concerned so that I attend on the 23rd at 9am as was agreed, but instead I'm just to sign on normally (at least I think so, who knows at this point), and that I wont be in on the 29th but this review will take place on the 6th, which is the next proper signing time afterward. I'm still none the wiser as to why all this is necessary and what mistakes have been made or why the adviser isn't available on the 23rd or whatever the fuck is going on (is anyone keeping up with this? I'm not!).
As this is being processed SSL decides to look at my jobsearch which the adviser in question, now inputting the new appointments, was about to look at prior to this rigmarole kicking off. In so doing she, again loudly and condescendingly, decides to ask some questions about it which are utterly stupid.
She points to where I've recorded my searching the websites of the major shops on the high street (WHSmiths, HMV, Boots etc): "Where will these jobs be?"
"That's the websites, I just look on their websites to see what jobs they have locally as they have all their vacancies, if any, advertised."
"But where will they be, what town are you going to apply in?"
I've no idea what she's on about.
"So how close are you to getting a job?"
"I don't understand how I can answer that?"
"What interviews have you got? What's in the pipeline?"
Well if you read the fucking jobsearch you'll see. I don't have any interviews because noone has invited me for one and I have nothing in the pipeline because there aren't any vacancies, and certainly not at this time of year, if there were they'd be recorded on the jobsearch. You tell me to record my efforts, I've done that. What else do you expect me to say?
What's in the pipeline? What a stupid question. I look for work, what's available is simply that. I'm not a bloody psychic!
It's the usual process with them: the hectoring, the inflexibility, the insensitivity. If they'd even bothered to read my records they'd know the problems I have - including bus travel.
"Do you have a driving license or just don't have a car?" (the assumption is that I can drive, I can't and won't be able to with my eyesight - all recorded on the file).
"No, I can't drive."
"Are you going to learn anytime soon?" the hell? How am I going to afford driving lessons and a car on JSA?
"uh no." Now I'm getting beaten down.
Then someone else comes over from the other side of the office.
"Don't want you to think we're all ganging up on you, but can I ask a question?"
"uh, yes." as if I could politely say no, fuck off and leave me alone.
"Why don't you look for work locally?"
"Because of the bus schedule" which, again, they have on file.
At this point the timetable for my next visits (barring further 'human error' is set, I sign the dotted line and leave. I'm feeling browbeaten. I can't deal with this system anymore. I hope I've conveyed today's experience accurately; I'm sure there are some that will read this and think I'm just being narcissistic and self pitying. Well I can only try my best to convey these experiences. Getting across the emotional aspect isn't easy and is really the key. I just cannot deal with this anymore. I'm at my limit.

I Want to Break Free!

Though not in drag with a hoover and a 'tache.

My gods do I need a break. This time of year - specifically the pre Christmas madness - really bends my brain. Everything seems to mount up - real or imagined - and I find it increasingly difficult. Once you get to Christmas it's not too bad; I don't enjoy it (I'm on my own, so I don't have a family to share it or kids to spoil, and I don't believe in the miracle of Jesus, sorry), I think it's still to commercial and over the top. Plus I hate with the strength of hellfire those seasonal adverts. But the early nights, the cold (I live in a cold house and I just cannot get on with the cold), the jobcentre...
Having to sign on is bad enough, but I really need a break. I'm not sleeping properly at all. My head is all over the place, and having to concentrate to find work especially at the worst time of year to do so is a nightmare I could do without, frankly.
I should caveat this by saying there are plenty of people far worse off than I (who should also be helped - this isn't a competition).
Having said that, I have been given the 23rd as the date to sign on (after this Friday) and I'm hoping, though I fear for naught, that I won't have to go in then. Hopefully at least the money should go through earlier, but I could reaaaaaaaaaaaally do with taking a break from this, at least for now. I also have to attend on the 19th to see the 'work psychologist'. I have no idea what one of those is or does, but I'm sure it will be a thinly veiled attempt to inculcate in me the value of the ethic of hard work. The sort of ethic that rewards people with unpaid slave positions for big businesses like Poundland and Tesco.
I'm going to attempt to see if I can be excused on the 23rd, if they don't feel seasonally charitable, by taking a holiday. Jobseekers are allowed a fortnight, each 12 month period, to take a holiday. Unfortunately I think the form requests that you leave a contact number. I have no desire, and not the energy, to lie to them and I suspect that they wont' allow me to take a holiday at home. One can only try.

So, The Strikes

Tuesday we got the Autumn Statement from Gideon Osbourne (a man who prefers the name George - a hideous insight into the mind of a fiscal madman). Seems to me he was happy to blame the current financial Defcon level on the global economic crisis - that is, NOT Labour, and specifically not Gordon Brown. This seemed to slip past Ed Balls (is that a real name, or a cartoon strip footballer?). So it's ok to blame the last government when it suits them. This has been the trend for the past few months: take credit for Labour's schemes, blame them for the current woes and revise history. The most disingenuous fact, it seems to me, is that had the Tories been in power during the banking crisis things would certainly have been no better. I don't recall Cameron and Osbourne suggesting alternatives to the very act of bailout that seems to be the reason for the current austerity (that the Tories happen to capitalise on very happily). I also notice that while Osbourne didn't increase Tax Credits, he did uprate benefits; I can't help thinking that's a deliberately divisive policy. Again the Sun reading taxpayer will feel that us claimants are getting the best of everything.
Then yesterday the public sector took to the streets, and good luck to them. The shrill self absorbed whining of Cameron in the Houses of Parliament was sickening. Are you seriously trying to convince me that these people are all deliberate agent provocateurs? All stereotypical anarchists out to wreck the society for hard working taxpayers? The whole notion is laughable - they are themselves taxpayers. Despite the push for the lowering of standards by setting public and private sector, it's the public that spends in the private sector just the same. There wouldn't be a private sector without people having money to spend, yet that seems to be what this insane government wants! Someone on the radio cleverly pointed out that, with private sector pensions being low, the public sector helps to subsidise that. This divisiveness is insane: it's ok to complain about the public sector, yet it's also ok for the private sector to have the potential to earn incredible wages (just ask Wayne Rooney or Jeremy Clarkson). The strike isn't just about the public sector it's a call for fairness for everyone. If they can strike, then why don't these hard done by private sector workers do the same. It's called Solidarity folks!

Jeremy's Spoken (hide the kids, there's gonna be swears!)

After the strike, which I fully support, we all get to sit down to tea and watch the delightful flufforama that is the One Show. Look who the guest is, it's comedy legend Jeremy Clarkson. Let's hear what this insightful reporter has to say.
There isn't enough sarcasm in the world to adequately compensate for how angry this fucking moron makes me feel. But of course that's the point isn't it. He's just a sad little agitator handsomely paid (ironically) to animate the country's favourite current bogeymen, usually under the guise of 'political correctness gone mad'. Is he joking? Christ knows, does it matter though? He's a cunt of the highest order. The sad thing is, as his laughable 'career' trajectory veers down he finds he has to resort to ever more shocking nonsense in order to seem relevant to his audience. I can't imagine who they are: the petrolhead Sun reading climate change denying (because climate change is, predictably, 'political correctness gone mad') knuckle draggers that buy into his feverish invective believing it to be real. The sort that look to Al Murray for verification of their worldview. I bet the EDL have Smash Hits like posters of Clarkson all over the walls.
I won't go into detail about where his point of view is mistaken since it's patently obvious that it's a load of utter bollocks playing to a small minded crowd - the sort that think the beeb is a loony lefty nuthouse. What does annoy me though is how people like this control the debate.
Two factors come into play in responding to the likes of Clarkson:
Either you ignore him, which tacitly gives him credibility because his views go unchallenged. Rising above it and 'sticks and stones' is all very nice, in theory, but in reality it doesn't do much to confront the ignorant nor stem the rise of their views in the general populace.
Or you get angry and call him a twat. This is immediately satisfying but has the problem of playing into their hands. You then become the loony lefty liberal politically correct bogeyman that he and his pals rail against. You become 'the man'.
It's just pathetic. But then so is Clarkson.
Fortunately the answer is simple - out of his own mouth in fact! Can you guess?