People of Merthyr give Ian Duncan Smith a reality check
- Thread starter Jeff Robinson
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hiraethified
It's a shocking figure all right, but it would be truly worrying if all of Merthyr had such a short life expectancy.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Yeah I agree, I got it a bit wrong. Ooops.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Young people still move for work but established families tend not to. All these people moved to the area (well a majority I would expect) for work in the coal industry, but now that has gone.
If there was true economic mobility then they would have moved elsewhare to find new work, but there has not been a new work on the scale of the coal industry since then anywhere in Britain.
It is also true that educated people who win higher paid jobs find it easier to absorb the costs of moving to find work.
There have been quite a few companies attracted to the area over the last 30 years. Many of the better jobs have gone to people from outside the area but there has been some level of employment for local people. Obviously not enough.
However slightly further away, Cardiff, Llantrisant and Newport there has been Bosch, LG, Panasonic, AB, Attracted to the area often through work by the WDA. I think I understand that Bosch is now leaving to relocate within the EU. Shame.
The area need more inward investment, a lot more.
I wonder if the Welsh parliament getting more powers will permit them to do more to attract employers to the region.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Indeed re Bosch, I think they were attracted to Llantrisant by incentives, it is an alternator plant and could be pretty much anywhere in Europe, but I think it has also been attracted elsewhere by incentives also.
It is worth remembering that even if Britain creates enterprise zones in the UK to try to attract big companies to the area, these enterprise zones are themselves competing with similar zones in other EU countries.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Fuck off Dwyer
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Well, that is probably what Americans would do, in my limited experience they move distances for work at the drop of a hat. For some reason British people are not the same.
No, you fuck off. Or come up with a better answer.
You're not from South Wales anyway.
Plumdaff
joy in people
Right, so the answer, for people in S Wales, large swathes of the North, parts of the West Midlands, Hastings, Isle of Wight etc is to leave? Do you really believe there are that many jobs, houses and services available for people in other parts of the country? It's absolute bloody madness to think the solution is just for everyone to move for work - the problem is that there simply isn't enough work in our current system and never will be and we need to be far more radical in our solutions. Solutions need to include investment in jobs, better transport systems, paying wages that allow people to work part-time and share work without falling into poverty and getting our money back off the bankers.
(We'd move to Swansea Bay area in a heartbeat, but with one of us not finding work in S London and the NHS not exactly recruiting anywhere at the moment, it's not a possibility right now. V sad)
(We'd move to Swansea Bay area in a heartbeat, but with one of us not finding work in S London and the NHS not exactly recruiting anywhere at the moment, it's not a possibility right now. V sad)
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
yes they do, you cretinous lying shite, the 70s and 80s saw to notions of local labour for local people.
dynamicbaddog
run for your life
Thanks for posting the vid, will watch it later.
I went to school in Merthyr and many of my ex classmates worked in the Hoover factory that is now closed
Ironically they filmed the factory scenes for Made in Dagenham there, some of the women who had worked there got parts as extras
I went to school in Merthyr and many of my ex classmates worked in the Hoover factory that is now closed
Ironically they filmed the factory scenes for Made in Dagenham there, some of the women who had worked there got parts as extras
In a way that's a tautology. People from all over the world did leave, and they went to America. So the USA is founded on and defined by people leaving where they come from. That's what made the USA great.
Yes I know. But I wouldn't spend my life waiting for it to happen.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
People who can barely afford to feed themselves can seldom afford to move. And it's not as if the rest of the country is overflowing with jobs. If you've been out of work for ten years you're fucked wherever you go, employers will have nothing to do with you.
Greater than Merthyr.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Better answer to what. You are saying 'get on your bikes'.
Oh, I forgot the North of Wales is so much better. Wait there, actually, it has higher unemployment and a lower average wage doesn't it? Oh.
Knob.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Ok, but just as UK as a whole is now competing with workforces / employers Europe wide, so America is now competing with Canada and Mexico for the location of employers.
On what grounds? At least the people of Merthyr have access to a healthcare system.
And what are you saying?
nogojones
spelling is overrated
Yup, Bosch is off to Hungary. Got a mate working for them who is being sent over for six months to show the Hungarians how to do his job, before they fuck him off.
I think LG went a few years back, That's the old glass plant where GKN Eastmoors steel works used to be. Soon to be turned into an incinerator to poison the poor of Splott.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Indeed, and that is the crux of the problem.
How does Britain create millions of new jobs, quickly?
Not for long. Anyone who stays in Merthyr is going to screwed even worse than they already have been.
The last thing they need is tossers like Proper Tidy ordering to them to stay put.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
I'm saying 'get on your bikes' is not an answer.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Oh, LG is gone is it.... shame ...
Panasonic moved to Newport with a record of never having laid anyone off anywhere in the world. A couple of years later and they laid people off in Wales. The first time anywhere Panasonic had laid anyone off.
Plumdaff
joy in people
If you enjoy living thousands of miles away from family and friends, enjoying no sickness or maternity benefits, few employment rights, two or less weeks annual leave a year, no health care system (if you have some insurance it probably won't cover recuperation so - like a cousin of mine recently - you have to go back to work the day after being discharged from hospital having had an appendectomy - 20% unemployment with little safety net, a poor public education system, an ever poorer public transport system but access to mind numbing varieties of crap TV and food, the US is a paradise. I say this as someone who loves her relatives in the US very much (but they do live in Michigan, somewhere with close similarities to post-industrial areas of the UK - one recently did move to Florida for work, and I can assure you they haven't done that with glee).
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Thing is ...
Most of the qualified young people I knew in South Wales have already gotten on their bikes and gone..
Sounds bad. I'd leave if I were you.
Actually, if I were you I'd probably sit around on the internet ordering everyone to stay put. But I myself would leave.
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