editor
hiraethified
Ah right. So how many extra staff do you think might be needed to deal with all these scheduled phone calls?
Brixton's Jobcentre Plus on Brixton Road to close
- Thread starter editor
- Start date
editor
hiraethified
Where would these staff be wedged into the already overcrowded, cash-stripped, space limited libraries? You are aware that libraries are closing down all over the place, yes?
editor
hiraethified
I can remember regularly stuffing a near fortune of coins into phone boxes every time I had to rung up the jobcentre/dole people. This notion that they'e suddenly going to become super efficient after their offices have been closed down is nothing short of bizarre.
Well, it could be viewed as sort of useful - public library at the heart of the community, sort of thing. I don't even need to decide what I think about that because I doubt that most public libraries happen to have plenty of empty rooms that they aren't using.
bi0boy
Power User
I don't know about your library but all the municipal libraries I have been in have rooms other than the big room with all the books in. Even that big room has oodles of space which could accommodate a stud wall or two.
None, since the number of appointments would not increase.
Surely if the DWP were putting staff in libraries, and more people were visiting libraries due to this, it would mean they would be less likely to close.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Nor i with yours. My point was that once people from many gangs find themselves in the same boat, it might - might - lead them to reconsider their postcode nonsense.
Gangs elsewhere in London have managed to set aside differences before so unless you have some actual argument to the contrary maybe we can consider one another's points instead of dismissing them out of hand.
Please let me know if you are poster or mod on this thread
editor
hiraethified
I love this shiny, working together, agencies-all-nicely-co-ordinated world you live in. Trying to put Jobcentres in libraries would be a disaster.
Here's what Brixton library often looks like:
And you think they could now just add in a Jobcentre and their staff? Where would their clients go?
editor
hiraethified
Could you give some examples of gangs putting their differences aside as a result of the closure of a local resources?
I live right in the heart of an area that sees regular trouble between kids in gangs from different areas. The notion that they're all going to get along because one lot now have to go into the other's territory because of a Jobcentre closure is, well, weird. How would this suddenly love and peace come about?
Why are you asking that (apart from to score an underhand point)? At no point have I posted anything to suggest that I'm expressing anything other than a personal opinion.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
If you take Hackney central library, the Dalston clr james library, Homerton library or Shoreditch library, this isn't the case. Nor is it the case at highgate, wood green, Swiss cottage or theobalds Road, or Norwich central library off the top of my head. Libraries are in any event not places for disciplinary bodies like the DWP.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
It's not even necessary to speak to people in many cases, you should be able to do it all online if you want to and can.
Nah, what is more likely to happen is that the DWP staff start to say "Hmm, Ms Bloggs, I noticed you browsing the bookshelves earlier. Therefore you were not properly seeking work at that time. This will not DO!"
You know, I think I was joking when that occurred to me a minute ago, but on second thoughts, perhaps not.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
I'm not expecting
Bloody hell, man! Do you go out for long walking tours of public libraries whenever you get bored?
bi0boy
Power User
I love this shiny, working together, agencies-all-nicely-co-ordinated world you live in. Trying to put Jobcentres in libraries would be a disaster.
Here's what Brixton library often looks like:
And you think they could now just add in a Jobcentre and their staff? Where would their clients go?
None of them seem to be reading books. Perhaps start with the bit where the encyclopedias are?
editor
hiraethified
Sure. But what happens when you do need to talk to someone and the office has been closed? The Brixton Jobcentre is almost always busy when I go past. Some people appreciate being able to browse for vacancies there. Where are they supposed to go? And, of course, not everyone can get online when it suits.
editor
hiraethified
I'm not sure what weirdly confused point you're trying to make here, but the fact remains the same. Your idea that Jobcentres could just move into libraries is idiotic because there's no fucking room. They're already packed. There's no space. What people are doing there is completely irrelevant.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
your implication here is that because i don't know of something happening, it can't happen. if gangs can put aside their differences temporarily due to e.g. the edl coming to whitechapel or e.g. the police killing someone, then it is evidently possible that they can find common ground for other reasons too. to repeat myself, i am not saying this is a certainty, i am not even saying it is likely, i am saying it is possible. i don't see why you have decided to vigorously oppose this, to me, uncontentious view.
i wouldn't suggest an era of peace and love will dawn. i think it possible, which is as far as i've gone, that gangs could consider that it is not in their interests to continue hostilities or relations as they are in the light of members of a number of organisations being expected to travel and thus all of them being in danger from each other as well as other gangs through whose territory they have to move. so, to take one extreme end result, all the gangs may see that their versions of localism are wrong and in a moment of clarity they all decide to call a halt to their internecine campaigns: but to take another, they see issues with their postcode extremism, and decide instead larger gangs are a better idea to keep their members safe while travelling - leading instead to fewer but better organised and armed gangs.
i am asking it because i have sometimes seen you go from poster mode to mod mode, ending in bans.
editor
hiraethified
Have I threatened or warned you in any way at all in this thread? No, so fuck off with this cheap personal bullshit.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
no. over time i have visited lots of libraries, for lots of reasons, not least of which is that libraries tend to have toilets in.
They're not reading scrolls of parchment either. And I also dare to think that the books in the library are probably not securely chained to the shelves. Shock! Horror!
Do you think print encyclopædias are usually more up-to-date than those online?
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
not up to this point
but this sounds like a threat or warning to me.
e2a: let's just continue calmly, maybe.
Ooh, I'm all in favour of public toilets. Now that's approaching a "comprehensive and efficient service".
bimble
floofy
Fine line between optimism & delusion but with all due respect i think this is bonkers.
The only shared resource i can think of that can help with this problem (young people feeling, for good reason, that stepping over postcode boundaries puts their lives at risk) is good playgrounds / playgroups for really young kids, where they might make friendships that may help them be connected across the dividing lines as they grow up.
After that its kind of too late. Kids Company for all their flaws tried and failed, though admittedly things got worse once they shut their doors.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
as long as there's loo roll in the loo roll holdersOoh, I'm all in favour of public toilets. Now that's approaching a "comprehensive and efficient service".
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
with all due respect you don't seem to have read the post.
e2a: it seems to me that at one end of the spectrum nothing might happen and editor's concerns will have been groundless. at another end, lots of people are shot and stabbed and editor's concerns are proven. i think it will be somewhere in the middle, that editor's concerns will have some foundation but that gangs may moderate their behaviour in their own self-interest - apart from anything else having cops continually sniffing about is inconvenient. this isn't about people becoming mates, at least not in the short term, but about them not wanting any more shit.
Well, if there's a crisis of that urgent nature, they often do have some pretty trashy books that could be put to good use, I suppose.as long as there's loo roll in the loo roll holders
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Which is why there needs to be a walk in service too. I wasn't arguing for the centres to be shut down. I think it's deplorable that this centre is being shut down. My point was that face to face interviews at specified centres should never be mandatory.
Well, some of them would have to be, I suppose, so that one couldn't do everything by 'phone while working under the radar, so to speak.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I don't see how any of them have to be face to face unless the client wants it.
If it can take three hours to get to and from a job centre just so you can show them your proof of looking for work, them IME that's a massive waste of time for everyone. If the DWP just left people alone to look for work, it would be a lot less stressful for the the claimants and would cost the DWP a lot less.
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