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I may be guessing here but wasn't Dave G.=20
making a joke?
On Tue, 23 Jan 2001 17:58:23=20
+0000 Hillary Shaw=20
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > My own view is that there is no such person as Paul
> > Treanor, rather its a name for a group of people who
> > delight in trying to be provocative on email lists. No one
> > could spend that much time trawling lists and commenting
> > surely?
> >
> > Dave
> >
> I sincerely hope there is such a person as Paul Treanor, as I share
> his suspicions of the real beneficiaries of "New Labour"'s
> unemployment policies. Was i alone in reading through the list of
> Blair's aims for his next term, (he hopes!) and finding absolutely
> nothing in there to which I could say "Wow, must have that!" It was
> all vague platitudes, eg "increase visitor numbers to museums,
> reduce the crime rate" - all very good generally but as my burglary
> rate will either be 0% or 100%, there is nothing I can say, must
> have that, to. I would have liked to see something like "Police on
> the beat will rise by 20%, or "pensions will be linked to earnings" or
> "rail will be renationalised" but nothing so definite of course.
> As for unemployed, policies like the New Deal could have come
> straight from Thatcher's policy bag. But then it is worth reading
> Bauman's theories on why the unemployed are to be kept poor,
> kept harried by govt for jobs that either aren't there or pay so low
> that the dole is actually a better financial prospect(given travel
> costs, time taken, loss of other benefits, need for childcare etc).
> But if you dont want to plough through Bauman, just consider how
> employers must lap up the minimum wage jobs going,or even
> better for them, the 3 month job placements (for employers, read
> free labour) which the unemployed cannot avoid on loss of benefits.
> But these "jobs" rarely lead to anything much better -
> a better New Labour policy would be to encourage/coerce
> employers to offer in job training, to allow the unemployed to earn
> more than a derisory =A35 before benefits are reduced ( why not say
> take off 50% of earnings whilst on the dole, not 100% over =A35, that
> would encourage unemployed to start building a career, and reduce
> fraud). Of course funding this may mean a few % on income tax fior
> the higher earners. But the big MNC's would squeal a bit at that,
> and we can't offend the city fat cat shareholders can we, heaven
> forbid we take another 1 or 2 % of those =A3million plus city bonuses!
> I just want to know, Does new labour exist(or is it just a group of
> right wing politicians trying to be provocative to the poor - no-one
> could spend that much time trawling the country and
> miscommenting on puiblic opinion could they?
> Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds
-------------------
Adam Tickell
School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1SS
UK
+44 (0) 117 928 9038
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www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/staff/ggatt/index.htm
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