General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSmile, you're working for the queen now.
http://www.americablog.com/2012/06/unemployed-bused-into-london-for-unpaid.htmlWho would ever guess that it's a Tory government running the UK? Anyone with a sense of decency and respect for the hard times in the UK would want to scale back if not postpone a celebration for the monarchy, but we are talking about the British royal family after all.
It's absurd to imagine any taxpayer money funding a "party" for one of the richest families in the world. It's even more absurd to bus unemployment recipients to London, ask them to sleep under bridges and then work for such an event. Royalists are naturally claiming that the event generates millions for the economy, no doubt using the same twisted logic that sports teams use when they spend millions to move a team into a new location.
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Link to Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed
A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.
Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.
Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
(snip)
Both stewards said they were originally told they would be paid. But when they got to the coach on Saturday night, they said, they were told that the work would be unpaid and that if they did not accept it they would not be considered for well-paid work at the Olympics.
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Prosperity for them, Austerity for us. Happy Jubilee.
LuvNewcastle
(16,858 posts)they wouldn't even have jobs to not get paid for.
malaise
(269,200 posts)Fuck all monarchies everywhere
nxylas
(6,440 posts)Ironic that the so-called Republican Party is the one turning America into a monarchy.
malaise
(269,200 posts)not monarchs
The very notion of "royalty" is (arguably) the worst invention in mankind's history. The mental malfunction that deems inheritance as the basis for an entitlement to wealth and power has led to some of the most pervasive oppression and exploitation of humanity over the ages. The one thing I believe the Bolsheviks did right was exterminate the Czar's gene pool.
But ... Disney has indoctrinated multiple generations: Some day your Prince will come. After all, you're worthless until you become a Princess. (Working males need not apply.)
malaise
(269,200 posts)TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)n/t
siligut
(12,272 posts)Just irritating and more in-your-face from the people in power.
Sea-Dog
(247 posts)tru
(237 posts)This seems to be a work for welfare payments program, if you read the article.
Sea-Dog
(247 posts)under a fucking bridge no toilets stripping out in public. undefendable should lose all contracts
cwydro
(51,308 posts)Those workers are on the dole. They get money regularly.
Doesn't excuse the lack of a bathroom etc., but I'll bet there's more to this story.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)and they were "paid" with their work clothes. Oh, that's right. I think they were given plastic bags as raincoats. How kind of them to not take the clothes back, launder them, and give used clothes to the next group of unpaid laborers they "hire."
They were told up front they would be paid. It wasn't until they showed up that they were told they would not be paid.
Nothing excuses the lies used to sucker them in to free (slave) labor, and their subsequent treatment.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)Round up a bunch of villagers, hose em down and make them serve their betters.
daaron
(763 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)in all its various guises, is a viciously destructive socio-cultural construct.
My roomie caught a segment on this obscene display of pomp and circumstance, and remarked, "All the homeless in the world, and she lives in a ginormous castle. Where's the humanity?"
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)How the hell does one person and her consort live in more than one castle?
But indeed, they do.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)but, one at a time, AND just by the serendipity of birth...
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Fuck the monarchy, everywhere. Let them work for a living, instead of collecting the national dole.
ananda
(28,879 posts)Tories and slaves.. what a mix.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...i'll take the British system of government, the British national transportation system, the British education system and the British National Health Care system over what you have over here every single day and twice on sundays...
You can pile on all you want about monarchies and class-structured servitude, and all that other republicanist bullshit, but until such time as you lot stop invading countries that haven't attacked you and spend TENS of BILLIONS to rebuild schools and hospitals and infra-structure that you levelled in the first place with your bombs, whilst NOT feeding, housing and tending to ALL of your own citizens first may I humbly suggest you shut the fuck up...
As you were...
lapislzi
(5,762 posts)We copied the empire model from you. How's that going, by the way?
it isn't a all or nothing state of affairs or one big package
The NHS would continue in a republic
the queen rubber stamped the NHS bill
Bake
(21,977 posts)But America does seem to love the "royals."
Royalty ... huh ... what is it good for?
Absolutely nothin'!
Say it again!
Bake
MichaelMcGuire
(1,684 posts)The more exposure the better.
Happy Jobbyilee