Blog Archives

My job was replaced by a workfare placement | Martin Dunne

With the number of work experience placements rising, are we really to believe that there are no actual job vacancies? Recently, I applied for a part-time customer service position in a local supermarket in the hope of earning some extra cash while studying for my A-levels. I was soon contacted to arrange a date for [...]

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Tax credits cut will hit those the Tories love to praise – working families | Polly Toynbee

The government is hurting those trying to stay off the dole, while filling workplaces with free staff. Voters should be shocked With a gnashing of teeth, the employment minister Chris Grayling backed down as companies shied away from his unpaid work scheme that threatened young people’s already meagre weekly benefit of £53.45. Protests and a [...]

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Guilt is for ministers, not mothers | Madeleine Bunting

Another report seems to blame working mothers for a problem whose true origin is social inequality Children want to spend more time with their busy working parents. The guilt, the guilt. Unicef’s latest report on British parenting prompted the kind of headline that strikes panic into working mothers. “It feels so true,” lamented a colleague, [...]

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Response: It’s nonsense to claim Britain produces too many science graduates

The skills our students gain are highly sought after across the jobs market Your article reports on a study that claims there may be “too many science graduates for the labour market” (Job figures cast doubt on push for teenagers to study science, 8 September). The research propagates the notion that, unless graduates find work directly related [...]

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Response: A showcase for talent? Work experience is simply exploitation

Unpaid internships distort the jobs market. Even for middle-class kids they are wrong, says Colin Marsh John Harris writes about the political rhetoric which, more and more, allows the unemployed to be used as unpaid labour (Working for peanuts – a new recipe for the likes of them, 24 August). I agree with his criticism [...]

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Tax cuts for high earners make no sense – give them to those on low incomes

Poorer families are bearing the brunt of austerity, making ‘we are all in it together’ sound fatuous Britain’s high earners have a doughty champion in Boris Johnson. It was one of the senior aides to the Mayor of London who organised last week’s letter to the Financial Times urging the government to cut the top [...]

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