Brexit Donald Tusk tells European Union to approve deal

a reply to: eletheia

The increasing cost of living without also raising wages in line with inflation is half the problem really.

Fact is you seldom get a fair days pay for a fair days works any longer, zero hour contracts and minimum wages certainly don't help matters, cant see how Brexit will fix that issue all the same, only add to the problem.

a reply to: oldcarpy

The sky fell quite some time ago Chicken Little. LoL

And it certainly did not knock some sense into us all, that's a given.

Is not up the way you want to be looking anyhow, it's what's in front of your nose that you seem to have an issue being able to see. x

a reply to: andy06shake

If you say so, oh wise one!

a reply to: oldcarpy

Cant be that wise, ive not immigrated yet.

a reply to: andy06shake

But where to, that's the question?

a reply to: andy06shake
Bollocks, in a previous career life I worked for the CAB and the bank account never lies... full sky package, iPhone contracts for all kids, domino's pizza delivered every weekend, you are talking about relative poverty and paint a bleaker picture of the UK than it is for the overwhelming majority of people.

I work 2 or 3 days a week because I have low outgoings, no sky, pay as you go ten quid phone, and eating food I actually cook instead of 15 quid for a delivered pizza.
Most people claiming to be skint just make # choices in my professional experience.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: eletheia

The increasing cost of living without also raising wages in line with inflation is half the problem really.

Fact is you seldom get a fair days pay for a fair days works any longer, zero hour contracts and minimum wages certainly don't help matters, cant see how Brexit will fix that issue all the same, only add to the problem.

It also effects cash-in-hand work. I'm semi-skilled and get asked, from time to time, to help out people for a day or two in areas of expertise (within the building and landscaping industries), back in 2008 I'd be offered £50 a day for my time, 10 years later and I still get offered that a lot, the most I've been offered (outwith my Djing escapades) is £60 for 8 hours of my time.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Poor life choices eh?

Nothing to do with crap pay, crap hours and poor working environments whatsoever? LoL

Whats crap pal is the way we treat our workforce, pensioners and poor whilst enabling the privileged few to wag the dogs tail from behind the shadow of there bank accounts.

Most people are skint, austerity is in full swing and its not going anywhere any time soon, that's by design.

Just like Brexit its a social engineering tool, poverty that is.

a reply to: oldcarpy

Well off world might be nice, but getting a ticket can be somewhat of a female dog.

Where indeed, that's a good point.

a reply to: andy06shake
Maybe it's # in Scotland but all my mates on minimum wage are doing fine and have happy lives.
Cut back on the unneeded shiny things...as I said, the bank account never lies and when I was in debt management the overwhelming majority of people just made stupid spending choices.

You might not like reading that but it is true.

originally posted by: djz3ro

I'm semi-skilled

Pure filth. Fancy sharing that on ATS. Surely a T & C breach?

On topic, yeah, people still seem to think they can offer decade ago prices in the building trade. Oh the shock they usually receive!

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Im not particularly in financial bad shape right now, but the majority of others i come across are having to rob Peter to pay Paul 3 times a week and twice on Tuesdays.

You are supposed to make "stupid spending choices" CornishCeltGuy, kind of how capitalism works in its entirety if truth be told.

Like reading does not come into it, the facts are apparent, and if you need any more convincing just look at the rise and use of food banks in what is supposed to be a first world nation.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: andy06shake
Maybe it's # in Scotland but all my mates on minimum wage are doing fine and have happy lives.

None of my friends in Scotland on minimum wage are getting by easily, none of my friends in England on minimum wage are doing anything other than scraping by (not seen Cormish John in years so don't know how our English celtic cousins that I know are doing) and the two people I know in Wales are on minium wage, one had 3 jobs to make ends meet and one is buying and selling bits and bobs to make a bit extra scratch..

Nobody on mimimum wage is doing well.

a reply to: andy06shake

Yes I know, people being sanctioned is awful, but people using food banks when all the kids have an iPhone contract plus the full sky package at home is equally awful.
That is the majority of people in debt mate, I was almost glad the government cut the funding for my CAB role, I was becoming disillusioned anyway because of people's stupid life choices.

a reply to: djz3ro

Another Scot whining that the world is so terrible, take the full sky package and thousand pounds sofa's away then life is easier.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: eletheia

The increasing cost of living without also raising wages in line with inflation is half the problem really.

You have that as a fact? or simply an assumption.....

Nothing is static in business you "have to weather a storm before you ride the

crest of a wave" I wonder how many will remember this ..... I certainly do and

it was weathered.

In brief

Things got worse in 1989, with rates reaching 15 per cent in October. They dropped a percentage point in October 1990, and then continued to drop steadily through 1991, landing at 10.5 per cent in September 1991.
The blackest cloud of interest-rate history - at least in recent memory - floats 16 years ago this month, when the UK crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday.
On 16 September 1992, interest rates went up from 10 per cent to12 per cent - and the Tory government said they would go up again to 15 per cent the next day.
This 15 per cent peak associated with Black Wednesday wasn't actually implemented - there was no need to raise the rates further as the UK conceded ERM defeat.
A month later, rates fell to 8 per cent - the start of a general downward trend until they reached a modern-seeming 5.75 per cent in June 1996.

The EU didn't shield us from that and we survived,

Fact is you seldom get a fair days pay for a fair days works any longer, zero hour contracts and minimum wages certainly don't help matters, cant see how Brexit will fix that issue all the same, only add to the problem.

EU GDP
European Union 18,162,109
1 Germany 3,930,000
2 United Kingdom 2,770,000
3 France 2,660,000

Those three members are approx half of the whole 28 countries in the EU

As number 2 do you honestly think the UK cannot get its act together when

not being held back by 26 other countries who in total add up to the three?

We may stumble slightly in the short term ..... but without the weight of the

others holding us back, we will be leaner meaner and fitter to surge ahead.


Here's to our unfettered success.

originally posted by: Flavian

originally posted by: djz3ro

I'm semi-skilled

Pure filth. Fancy sharing that on ATS. Surely a T & C breach?

On topic, yeah, people still seem to think they can offer decade ago prices in the building trade. Oh the shock they usually receive!

Around here I can't believe the number of people getting new kitchens

bathrooms, extentions and refurbishments .....so some people in the

trade seem to be doing OK?

originally posted by: andy06shake
Fact is you seldom get a fair days pay for a fair days works any longer, zero hour contracts and minimum wages certainly don't help matters, cant see how Brexit will fix that issue all the same, only add to the problem.

Depends what you do. The politics around zero hours contracts is based around the gig-economy, which is one of those things that benefits consumers. Regardless, zero hours contracts have been a part of life - and a convenience - for staff working on nursing banks, for example. At the end of the day, if zero hours contracts are not for you, then find something that is.

On wages. It has be evidenced that the influx of unskilled immigrants has depressed wages and has enabled the gig-economy to flourish. It's a supply and demand thing - if one person will do the job for "X" then why bother offering "Y". In addition, ready access to a pool of willing low paid immigrants has stifled innovation and productivity - again why bother investing in a new machine when it's cheaper to hire cheap labour.

Quite possibly Brexit (if it happens) will reduce the never ending supply of cheap labour and force the economy to change. Anyway, how many people complain about low wages as they take a bite out of their "affordable" takeaway, delivered by a low paid Romanian (or illegal), on a zero hours contract. There're a lot of hypocrites around.

So, perversely, being a member of the EU and with access to millions of people willing to move to the UK to work for low wages, and thus depressed wages for all, has impacted people who complain about low wages and want to stay in the EU.

originally posted by: djz3ro

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: andy06shake
Maybe it's # in Scotland but all my mates on minimum wage are doing fine and have happy lives.

None of my friends in Scotland on minimum wage are getting by easily, none of my friends in England on minimum wage are doing anything other than scraping by (not seen Cormish John in years so don't know how our English celtic cousins that I know are doing) and the two people I know in Wales are on minium wage, one had 3 jobs to make ends meet and one is buying and selling bits and bobs to make a bit extra scratch..

Nobody on mimimum wage is doing well.

BUDGETING

I have a friend in Scotland, does two sometimes three jobs.

Holiday abroad this year, New luxury kitchen just finished and holiday in

Thailand early next year........

Works hard, doesn't moan.

a reply to: eletheia
Budgeting indeed.
Loads of my mates are on minimum wage and happy with life, sure not as many shiny things but that is the problem with most people in debt...the full sky package, iPhone contracts for the kids, £1000 sofa on credit, pizza delivery regularly.
Honestly, when I was a debt counselor with CAB I got sick to the back teeth of seeing the same thing time after time.
The current account statements never lie.

EDIT
...and then they'd have the nerve to ask for a referral to the local foodbank, you honestly couldn't make it up.