UK unemployment hits 14-year high.

[lou]

And the very best of luck to him. He should perhaps become a part-time mentor to inspire a good few others but whatever, he's done himself proud and I hope he stays lucky. I fully understand where you're coming from too. My own youngest experienced cash flow problems at his restaurant so registered with an agency and has knocked up daily shifts and double shifts of from 8-22 hours a day. So much for the idle youth!

But while no-one might have done your son favours it is abundantly clear that others have benefitted from endless examples of positive descrimination and the overlap from specific targts into other workplces which would have been targetted if they hadn't changed.

You say you're sympathetic to people made redundant and redudancies happened in the past long before we had a multi-cultural society.

But in those days, when the tide turned there job prospects improved rapidly. That is not the case today. How would you like it if your son was turned down for the Police of the Fire Service because he wasn't white! You wouldn't.

Fifty years ago there were very few foreign employees in this country. A trickle came from the West Indies, then a few more from Uganda and now there are lots from all sorts of places and all sorts of cultures.

That's no problem in the main if there are jobs in abundance.

But if you take a situation where a country has a white English workforce and you give 15% of those jobs to people from other countries then you voluntarily provide opportunity for some and despair for others if you don't create new jobs to take up the slack.

And that is the case today. Fifteen per cent of the jobs have been given to visitors and the displaced natives have been left in the no-hope saloon since the jobs market has contracted.

Is there any real prospect of them departing for Africa or the Middle East to find work? Hardly. Mugabe shows the kind of tolerance of the white man which prevails in his land and I've no doubt he's not the only example either in Africa, the Arab countries or many other places.

And why should people who were born here, raised here and have family here be treated as the unwanted displaced anyway? Much less handicapped by blatantly unfair discrimination.

I don't know where you originate from but would you have liked to be pushed out of work in your country of origin to satisfy some political multi-ethnic integration experiment? I sincerely doubt it.

Im White British.

The trickle that came from the West Indies were invited over here to fill jobs when there was an abundance (but you obviously know this being a mature person as I am!) ... my own kids Grandparents were among them but you cant then expect the Government to deny their offspring the same chance to jobs as you and me just because there isnt such an abundance now. I dont agree with ANY discrimination, positive or otherwise. I dont want my kids to be treated any differently to anyone else.. if they want something they have always been taught they will have to bloody well work for it. I just dont want people thinking my Son got his job through any kind of favouritism.... not when Ive seen how hard hes worked (and still is!)

Im not an expert on such issues, politics isnt my bag, Im not as well read and educated as a lot of you on here obviously are but I can honestly say I havent personally experienced any of this positive discrimination policy you speak of.... All I want is for everyone to be treated as equals, I dont see whats wrong with that.

[Thracian]

Im White British.

The trickle that came from the West Indies were invited over here to fill jobs when there was an abundance (but you obviously know this being a mature person as I am!) ... my own kids Grandparents were among them but you cant then expect the Government to deny their offspring the same chance to jobs as you and me just because there isnt such an abundance now. I dont agree with ANY discrimination, positive or otherwise. I dont want my kids to be treated any differently to anyone else.. if they want something they have always been taught they will have to bloody well work for it. I just dont want people thinking my Son got his job through any kind of favouritism.... not when Ive seen how hard hes worked (and still is!)

Im not an expert on such issues, politics isnt my bag, Im not as well read and educated as a lot of you on here obviously are but I can honestly say I havent personally experienced any of this positive discrimination policy you speak of.... All I want is for everyone to be treated as equals, I dont see whats wrong with that.

Neither do I and I'll welcome the day as much as you. And please be in no doubt that I think your son deserves as rewarding a future in this land as everyone else who's prepared to compete in a level playing field.

But like others I fear he will have to fight for a genuinely fair society. Cos there are those who only want fairness for themselves, their own and their own ideals.

[lou]

Neither do I and I'll welcome the day as much as you. And please be in no doubt that I think your son deserves as rewarding a future in this land as everyone else who's prepared to compete in a level playing field.

But like others I fear he will have to fight for a genuinely fair society. Cos there are those who only want fairness for themselves, their own and their own ideals.

and thats all I ask!

Ive seen it from both sides and its wrong either way.

[purpleronnie]

a) Try telling that to the 2.4 million and the next million who are likely to join them - a huge number of whom are young Brits who should be at making their way in life but who are in fact feeling totally let down and frustrated.

b) The prediction two days ago was that unemployment would continue to climb for the next year or so at least.

I've seen very few genuine signs of encouragement for the economic future. Morrisons and one or two other supermarkets may find a few thousand jobs for youngsters which is encouraging if enough of those jobs go to members of the indigenous population.

And Portmeirion, profitable even in the midst of the recession, have taken over the Royal Worcester and Spode brand names and declared that at least some of the production will be clawed back from the Far East and returned to England.

Otherwise though, I see the public having to pick up ridiculous bills to pay for Labour's wacky philosophies, their economic irresponsibility and ever-increasing welfare provision, and having little or nothing left over to ensure the health of manufacturers, retailers and service providers.

Day by day you see more "for sale" or "for let" signs on the High Streets as retailers and auxiliary businesses find it impossible to cope with unrealistic rents, a diminishing footfall, customers' empty purses and increasing problems of access to in-town premises.

Where is the groundwork being provided to kick-start the cycle of earning and spending?

Where are the electrical charging points needed to keep the new fleets of electric vehicles on the move? Why is our nation's construction industry on its knees when the need for housing a fast-nearing 70m population is so pressing?

Why is there no major theme park in the South Midlands and why is Britain's tourist industry feeling so sorry for itself?

While the dole queues grow like the tendrils of rampant triffids the reaction of those responsible is to relax for weeks on end with the Prime Minister reportedly being hidden from view for political safety's while Mandy, of the Soft Shoe Shuffle, works on a new production of the Grand Illusion.

Not that bad?

You sound like the sort who'd find toothache orgasmic.

You're a negative nelly.

Things will be pretty bad for another year thats how these things go, I remember the late 80's early 90's were a terrible time but since then we've had a decade of boom, that boom always ends and when it does its usually a pretty hard fall. The immigration issue is pretty inane TBH yes there has been positive discrimination but on what scale? Its tiny, the good that comes from immigration outways the bad you know that and its because of those immigrants the economy isnt worse not just now but for the last decade or so.

I feel for the kids leaving school now, I had a similar problem when I left 15+ years ago when unemployment was even worse and the countries industries were still falling apart, thankfully other industries sprung up from the rubble and are still there ,when I left there was nothing. Its going to be a tough couple of years but you cant have it good all the time, thats just greedy.

Stay positive. It will get better.

[lcfc_jme]

Not having a job is so fu cking boring and extremely annoying. I hate it. Cannot seem to get anything at the minute. At all. I swear I'm seriously considering getting a paper round. Or donating sperm. Seriously.

[MC Prussian]

They just announced the current trends in terms of job market over here and it looks like the unemployment rate will be at its highest since the late 40ies... Oh what a joy to be in the hunt for a job these days...

If that ain't motivation enough to shoot oneself apply for jobs just for the sake of it...

[clare]

What is also worrying is that in this current climate, there is the worrying trend for some people, disillusioned with the current government, to lend support to the vile BNP.

I suspect that whilst unemployment rates are as high as they currently are, central banks will continue to adopt the Keynesian policy of borrowing money to pump into the economy for spending which is on a scale sufficient to cause unemployment to decrease.

Only time will tell as to when the economy will begin to grow again.