Up For Hire

(WARNING: I may edit this post as I see fit because my thoughts on this issue will develop and evolve, but I wanted to get something down before I lost interest.)
I chanced upon this last night by innocently flicking over to BBC3. This awful programme, ostensibly providing 'advice' and discussing student/post-grad unemployment, really wound me up. All it seemed to consist of was a competition to see who had the most and crappiest job history, including contributions from 'famous' people, including some Scottish woman that runs a knickers company (something we can all do, I'm sure), and Frankenstein's own drag act, comedian Russell Kane. What is he going to teach me, the need to achingly follow superficial concepts of appearance? That's great, but I don't want to wear mascara. The whole affair was hosted by Richard Bacon whose delivery is just awful; it's like listening to a stalling plane.
The programme featured 4 young people at least 3 were students with the other a young mum (i don' t know their exact circumstances, I missed that part). All out of work. They were then inducted into some reality tv segment featuring them given various jobs in a holiday/fun park of some kind. Taken completely out of their comfort zones we get to watch them manage as best they can with tasks such as becoming a performing clown (literally), working on the fast food joint with a queue of many unhappy looking campers eager to slosh transfats down their gullets, or mucking out at the petting zoo. One lad had to prepare 60 bags of candy floss (which is probably easy if you know how) in a time limit.
Naturally their efforts were met with varying degrees of success and failure, which is to be expected when you throw someone in at the deep end without any training, especially in a busy public environment. One girl, dressing up as a clown, made the mistake of commenting to the camera that she had a degree in journalism and that grease paint and oversized shoes weren't for her. How dare she! In this economic climate we need all the people throwing confetti instead of water that we can! Of course they edit the choice parts and leave the rest on the cutting room floor.
What amused me most was their 'boss' who took the whole thing so unbelievably seriously as to be a caricature. When the lad fell short of his candy floss target the guy seemed to take personal umbrage - this is the real world son! Fuck off is it, it's a farcical parody edited to make a bunch of reasonably smart, articulate, and well behaved young people look like lazy slobs. Their only mistake was the young mum (their names, I know not) who, after working on the till of the burger joint during rush hour, received second hand criticism that she was 'abrupt' despite being very friendly with the public the rest of the time. Is this how we treat people now? Stick inexperienced people into a busy unfamiliar role with a queue of slack jawed transfat junkies and when they fail to wear their smile 100% all the time like a beaming ray of perpetual sunshine we berate them. Unfortunately for her she got defensive - with all the cameras - but then who wouldn't. Are we made of stone? No encouragement, no support. Sink or swim.
But that's what it is these days. In this era of competitive mas unemployment it's sink or swim and we've mortgaged the life jackets, bad luck.
The whole programme just smacked of this kind of grim competitiveness that I hate. We were not meant to live like this. When there are hundreds applying for a single position the odds are that any one candidate will fail - no matter how competent they individually may be. Isn't that the situation that needs addressing? No we just seek to find fault: their CV is one word too long, or too short. Their hair needs cutting. This or that. Employers don't have time to read a thousand CV's. Well make time! You want applicants, what do you expect?
Now we hear a bunch of people, such as miss millionaire from ultimo knickers, tell these kids they should be prepared to do anything - such as dress up as a clown or feed goats. Yet that's exactly what they did and have done - and where has it gotten them.
If we all subscribe to this race to the bottom what's left? The issues surrounding this social disaster of a state we currently live in are not beign addressed. Why can't someone that's trained as a reporter be given an opportunity to be...a reporter? What good will it do her to force her to work as a fucking clown? Are we all meant to be grateful for whatever crumbs the pigs throw us from the table as they snuffle at the trough that anyone not willing to lick more toilets than their neighbour is now seen as public enemy number one? If we want a better society with better standards for ourselves and subsequent generations then we are going to have to start demanding them, and not pumping out puerile crap such as Up For Hire. No, far better to get people to seriously consider walking around town adorned with sandwich boards, just as Hayley Taylor recommended in her awful Fairy Jobmother show. It's the same thing. The same kind of hectoring rubbish that avoids the real issues in the way our masters avoid taxes while telling us we have to 'take responsibility' (this kind of avoiding the issue is something Cameron is very good at).

Monday Musings, Oh My!

A debate on 5Live has just wound me up - again. I don't really know why I listen to Nicky Campbell's half arsed breakfast 'discussion' since it is conducive to neither. Most of the time (ie, all the time) it is a series of meaningless unhelpful anecdotes contributed by professional curtain twitchers. The sort of people the government wants to encourage as the Big Society to rat on their neighbours out of a sense of envy (rather than actual evidence of benefit fraud or terrorism).
Yet again Peter Hitchens, one of the regular cabal of contributors wheeled in to foster 'robust' debate by talking shit, declares he knows best. The discussion is about whether or not there is poverty in Britain. As if there's a question of this with people dependent on increasingly dwindling welfare payments and food parcels as well as facing mass eviction resulting from housing benefit caps. But of course Hitchens knows best by comparing the lot of modern Britons, with our technological advancements, to that of people living here a hundred years ago, or people in the developing world right now. Spurious comparisons to say the least; a smartphone is no comfort when you can't pay the bills, but it's easy to point at someone using one as evidence of Britain's lack of poverty.
I get so angry at these stupid discussions. I've shouted at the radio (and the TV on Sunday mornings, though partly because Susanna Reid's legs are in direct proportion to her sheer banality as a presenter) more times than I care to admit. I've even complained to the BBC about Kelvin Mackenzie (after his rabid call for kids to be shot by riot police). But what good does it do? They don't care; winding up people is their stock in trade. It's classic bullying really; sheer provocation for its own sake.
Despite Hitchens' ignorance and continual blaming all the woes of the world on the 'liberal left' (he thinks crime was invented in the 50's by such people), things are getting worse. A semantic debate on whether the word poverty is the right word to describe the circumstances of some in the western world serves no purpose. It's just pushing the meat around the plate without chewing the fat. Things are going to get a lot worse; as one caller pointed out, it's a time bomb with housing benefit and mass evictions looming. The economy, as far as I can tell (i'm no expert), is certainly not going to recover and welfare reforms are continuing, even though most of them seem to be Tories taking credit for Labour schemes (what else is the Work Programme but a rebranding of the New Deal? Same people, same schemes, same results).
Now we have Grant Shapps, a feeble right wing faceman, as housing minister using the old house swap scheme of social housing to reinvigorate the spirit of Norman Tebbit. IDS has already tried to encourage people to 'get on their bikes' again, about a year ago. Now there's to be a house swap scheme for people in deprived areas to access jobs elsewhere in the country. How the hell does this work? What's in it for the people in the desired locations to swap? What do they get out of it - move to a deprived area? As usual, it's ill considered and on the hoof.
But there's something about this kind of politics that makes me think there's some kind of intelligence at work (ie malevolence). By throwing out these ideas, no matter how half baked or whether they actually exist as processes and schemes, they can further distract people from the reality: that they aren't in control and have no idea. Anyone that criticises these schemes is just a naysayer at best, and at worst a lazy scrounger. That's the tenor of debate these days.
I recieved a hefty form from the DWP in the post over the weekend. The accompanying letter wants me to fill it in so they can confirm they are paying me the correct amount of benefit (they are). The form is the basic JSA application form in it's entirety which needs to be returned on time or my benefit will be stopped, er!
I applied for the Asda position forced on me when I signed on Friday; a 16 hour a week job on the chilled counter (no Brian Eno, I fear). What a dead end job. Now look, I'm not against earning a living or being economically active, but I have NO interest in Asda, supermarkets, or serving people cold food. It's a part time job as well that's at best a foot in the door for people that do want these jobs. So why am I being forced to compete with those people? Anyway the job involved an online application that failed at the point their software demanded I own and thus input a mobile phone number. I don't have a mobile phone, I can't apply. Oh dear, lazy me.
There was also a position advertised on the DWP website for ATOS. Now I wouldn't want to work for those crooks for all the tea in China (though I did get £25 compensation for them mucking up my benefit claim last year). Interestingly though advertised as a job locally (Bristol), the link provided was for a job in Sheffield that no longer existed.
In all seriousness what is the point of having everyone that's unemployed competing for the same, increasingly fewer jobs. I'm sure I've said this before, but this is a fool's errand. It might seem reasonable to the right wing to have individual claimants applying for as many jobs as they can (which of course in their eyes will never be enough), but all this does is force the unemployed into increasing levels of direct competition so that someone that does want to work for Asda (and there must be someone) with people that don't. The employer wont' necessarily take on the former, either! Why are we not properly focusing efforts individually and helping people properly without fear of funding the 'lifestyle' of 'scroungers'. Support people properly, I say. Jumping through endless hoops to appease the right wing ringmasters in the daily mail circus is not the way to go.

Hate Mail

Signed on this morning. The adviser wasn't present today so it was converted to a 'regular' (as if there's a difference) signing. Unfortunately I got the pedantic middle aged woman that I don't enjoy seeing. She isn't particularly unpleasant, but just a bit too pedantic: the sort that makes things just that bit more hard work than is ever necessary. I'm greeted by her pulling out a piece of paper that seems to confuse her and affords her the opportunity to screw up her face - something she does a lot, as if she's perpetually surrounded by a bad smell.
Turns out that Tesco didn't like my email address (not the one attached to this site, my much much older hotmail account that I use for casual mail - and job applications). Now that email address isn't offensive, it's from a lyric "emissary of the crystal who makes the sign of the serpent". I just like the song, and I prefer my email addresses to have a bit of imagination, rather than my name and a number representing the fact that I'm the ten thousandth person to come up with such an original moniker. She fusses over this fact telling me I need to sort out a new email account because this one is bad for business (no one else has complained) and employers don't like it, blah blah blah. Honestly what a load of pathetic nonsense; i could understand if it was 'tescorwankers@whatever'. So much for a tiny bit of creativity and individuality in our lives. Nope the jobcentre hath spoken and big business tells them to tell me they seem to find dealing with someone called signoftheserpent a frightening and possibly satanic (yes, that's right - hide your goats!) ordeal. Not that Tesco could contact me personally of course (and pointing this out seemed to invoke a load of administrative bollocks). The jobcentre also knew about this a month ago, but never chose to tell me, despite seemingly taking this - now - very seriously.
It's all so very pathetic.

The Gravy Train

Went to the doctor (as the song goes...) yesterday. Stress levels and anxiety are increased since last week. It's hard for people to understand; the sense of pervasive dread dealing with the welfare system and living in this increasingly hate filled society. It clouds your mind. That's how I feel; like a fog in my head all the time. You can't think clearly - specifically you can't think beyond a single issue that fills your consciousness. It's not conducive to a healthy state of being. A general feeling of being on the edge; of not being able to cope. How is the Work Programme supposed to help with this? I explained it all to the GP in a way that I think he might be starting to get, though he can't do anything. I'm still waiting on an asperger's diagnosis. Getting these things done is key to getting help because the system is all about ticking the box to open up doors.
I have to sign on this Friday. It's that time again. The dread is starting to build, like an impending emotional eclipse. Is this how people like me are supposed to live? Where is the help? I suspect that I will be sent to the Work Programme, but I have been anticipating that possibility for a while as it's always been on the horizon. Frankly I'm dreading that as well. I don't want to have to attend another office, filled with people I don't know (as well as staff motivated by money and not experience or trained in individual needs). I also don't want to have to explain to these people the bus schedule when having to tell them I can't make certain appointment slots and times because the buses don't run.
What I would like is that which the system is supposed to be: individually tailored and flexible to personal needs. What I don't want is what Working Links was (to whom I was referred when i started claiming ESA a couple of years ago). At first they made all the right noises and were sympathetic and helpful when I rang them to voice my concerns in light of the JC's lurid referral and it's threats of benefit termination upon non compliance. Even the first (of five) appointment was positive; the lady told me that if we agreed it wasn't going to work, having voiced my concerns these people weren't doctors and that my problems needed therapy of some kind not jobsearching, we could call it quits. She even assured me there'd be no comeback from the JC as they would explain it wasn't me not complying; it would be Working Links saying they couldn't help me.
That all changed from the second interview onwards. It changed completely 180 degrees. I was asked what I was interested in and what I would like to do, etc, and was met with a brick wall of complete disinterest. They couldn't help with this that or the other. When I then said that I would like to call it quits as it clearly wasn't productive I was accused of calling her a liar and she 'wasn't a liar'. And from there it went downhill; appointment times were poorly kept, appointments would overrun and I would be blamed for that. I was offered telephone appointments which, when I said 'could I think about it' was told that i had to give an answer there and then, like a gameshow contestant. Demanded an answer, to be more accurate (because she had a meeting to go to and I wouldn't be able to ring her back later on that day, apparently). I did agree to telephone consultations only to find she manipulated her schedule and deliberately called me way earlier than was agreed with no effort to call me back at agreed times. When I subsequently rang to find out what happened I got the blame as if it was my fault I was late or something. I remember asking about financial help (their website advertised help through their listed case studies including paying for use of a driving simulator and another guy to have his guitar repaired as he wanted to teach guitar) and had that thrown back in my face because what I was looking for wouldn't directly get me work (unlike the above examples of course). Everything was met with an attitude of 'you're not engaging with the process', in fact this point was made explicitly, even though I was attending all the appointments and punctually and telling them what they wanted to know. Just not what they wanted to hear.
Truth is all they wanted was people to turn up, sit in their 'job club' and use their facilities to search the crappy DWP site for jobs in local supermarkets. Easy money for them; we all know how it works.
I don't want to go through all that kind of crap again, and certainly not for two years.
Interestingly, at the time I had self referred (ie without JC help) to a local branch of Tomorrow's People. Appointments with them were made in a private and altogether more suitable facility (the Carlton Centre, Weston super Mare). The advisor was much more amenable, friendly and realistic (ie she knew what was on the cards and that it was all about funding). When I was referred to Working Stinks there was initially a conflict of interest: the JC+ want me to attend the people they pay which potentially meant having to forfeit the people I was already seeing. Even though this didn't happen, thankfully, the logical option would have been for the DWP to facilitate me seeing whom I had already established a relationship with, but that was never on the table. So I ended up seeing both. They were pretty appalled about Working Links and I was told about word of mouth of similar experiences (for what it's worth, to be fair).
This is the unemployment gravy train. People say that the unemployed don't contribute economically; they are dead weight. That's bullshit. They are the motivating force for this entire industry - and that's what it is. Companies such as WL are coining it in through these contracts and their relationship with the government of the day and we are losing out. They make money at our expense. So who really is the true scrounger?

To the Dogs

I actually had the opportunity to apologise to that 'gentleman' I had the misfortune to encounter the other day. I'm not too proud to apologise, though quite frankly I felt I was apologising for far more than I deserved to. He wasn't terribly interested; just said 'don't worry about it' and walked on. Obviously me hoping he might bother to reciprocate given his appalling abusive and aggressive attitude was too much to ask, but that's no reason for me not to behave properly - or at least try to. The only thing I really had to apologise for was not walking away. In the words of the immortal Bill Hicks: "if it's a piece of shit, walk away". Nuff said. Sometimes though situations just trigger a well of frustration within, and that's what happened. I lost the plot. Sadly that patch of ground is well trodden by irresponsible dog walkers who variously let their dogs run riot regardless of other people and just shit all over it. It's also subject to pointless amounts of litter and some petty vandalism. It's just so sad to see such pleasant environments go...to the dogs. They are there for all to enjoy, and we all pay for them (well not me of course, as I'm a grubby scrounger).
All this has served to trigger my mental anxiety and long term paranoia to a new level. I've mad an appointment with the doctor for Monday. I'm so unfocused (or rather, negatively focused; I can't think straight and my sleep is as erratic as usual) I can't concentrate on my exercise. People don't get problems like these: I don't have any physical symptoms (other than looking perpetually stoned, to my great chagrin, because i have poor eyes) and can usually string a sentence together. Ergo there's no excuse for not having a job, blah blah blah. But that's just not how it works. I can't switch off my emotional state or edit my feelings like Mr Spock, and I'm not some giddy schoolkid either. This is real life. Expecting people to just get on and work, never mind the reality of unemployment for the focused and the hearty, is so far removed from reality as to be wilfully ignorant.
Hopefully I can get some help. There was a local outreach meeting last week which I attended and explained my sorry situation. That seemed positive. So when they meet and discuss the possibility of referrals there may be a chance of support. Given how the system and the state works, it's about ticking the right boxes so you can move into a positive space and be helped. Otherwise you're a scrounger.

Gone to the Dogs (now with added cussing)

Warning: this is a self indulgent narcissistic rant and a lesson in self control, even if the other guy was a prize twat. You've always got to make allowances for twats because you just can't second guess their behaviour...

Went for a cycle down the lanes/cycle path after dinner. It's a little habit I have while the weather is pleasant and the nights aren't too long. Helps me think.
Unfortunately that particular lane, for a while, has been used as a toilet for many of the dogs walked by inconsiderate owners, despite a campaign to draw attention to it's unpleasantness (as if you'd need such things). There's also a lot of vandalism that goes on up there which I cannot explain: some people are just hellbent on shitting on their own doorsteps - and so are their dogs.
Anyway this one guy walks past while I stop to have a ponder. At this point I suspect he has a dog with him, though I can't quite see. He walks past, no problem. I don't see a dog until the tiny little thing jumps out of the hedge beside me forcing me to brake hard.
"For fucks sake mate, I nearly flattened your dog!"
He doesn't even turn around: "fuck off you twat."
I lose it. Not a good situation to be in with an anxiety and stress problem. I've lived a life of being on the shitty end of the stick, albeit in small ways, many times. It wears you down, blunts your patience and sharpens your sense of inequality. I don't use it as an excuse, I should have walked away. But there are times when that sense of personal injustice takes over. I'm not proud of it. I speed back to catch up with this clown, I'm incandescent.
"Fucking hell mate your dog jumped right out in front of me"
I can't remember the exact words of the interchange. He thinks, clearly, I'm just behaving like a jumped up moron. He doesn't seem to care that I nearly killed his dog and seems visibly inconvenienced that I'm daring to challenge him. He walks off and I call him a cunt. He then turns around charges toward me fist raised and almost..."what did you call me, you cunt."
"Oh it's ok for you to call me a twat then is it."
Yeah it's pretty stupid.
Nothing either of us should be proud of, though I doubt he cares. He didn't seem too bothered i nearly killed his pet. Didn't even stop to look back when I first cycled past just to make sure his dog didn't get in the way (and I'm not exactly rocketing past like Carl Fogharty).
A ridiculous situation you'll agree I'm sure, but that's how it is these days. The male psyche has been manipulated and twisted into this monster. I'm not blameless, but it's just typical of people round here now. It used to be a nice place. People have grown selfish (dog owners uniquely so) and just don't care anymore. I'm sick of it. Despite my stupidity in not walking away when I should have, I don't provoke trouble; I smile at folk, mind my p's and q's and happily step to one side to let people past. I also don't shit all over the cycle path either.
What's happened to our society? Years of greed, manipulated aspiration, rolling news, twenty four seven media programming have bred a nation that cries when it's team loses and then embarks on a rampage, its kids go on the riot while the keepers of laws break them repeatedly and with impunity. Is there a point of no return. Have we passed it?

On and on it goes

This piece from the Guardian yet again highlights yet again the increased pressure on people with nothing. When will this endless hatred change? When are the poor ever going to get their chance? For god's sake, at what point will this vile crusade end? We already have people killing themselves thanks to ATOS. Now some right wing 'think' tank puts forward again the lie that welfare is all about a 'poisonous' something for nothing system. These idiots wouldn't know reality if it shook them by the hand. We've had riots, we've got no growth, we've got unemployment rising - still, and the genius minds at the Policy Exchange want to tell the unemployed they must do MORE for their pittance allowance. Apparently looking in newspapers shouldn't count as searching for a job for the purpose of fulfilling the JSAg. Good advice guys: now people won't even bother.
What do these cunts want us to do? What does count as looking for work? They of course don't say. They aren't interested in providing solutions only kicking at the crutches and depriving people who already have nothing. I'm not going to justify myself here, but if these idiots can't even recommend the DWP fix it's own hopeless job search site how can they criticise the entire system and those claiming. Some people will have access to more facilities than others - people in cities over those in rural areas for instance. I rely on the Internet for job searching, no doubt that isn't enough. Well tough shit.
I say it's high time to fight back. Let's send a message to these pompous pricks and give them something to really think about. You want the poor to starve in the gutter? Then be prepared for the consequences. Deprivation is the breeding ground of riots and such. These cretins are fast tracking anti social behaviour that will make august look like a damp Monday morning.