Poor old sods


The Equality and Human Rights Commission are bleating on again. What is it now?

Oh. Apparently, older workers should "not be forced to retire at 65 and should be free to demand request flexible conditions including shorter hours or working from home".

What? What the fuck? 'Free to demand..'?  What that means in our brave new world is 'Employers should be forced, by law, to give whinging employees exactly what they want, even if it is to the detriment of the business'.

Baroness Margaret Prosser, Deputy Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, knows that the cash-strapped government have got far more important things to worry about than this load of old toss, so she tries to appeal by using an angle she knows they'll like: 

“Keeping older Britons healthy and in the workforce also benefits the economy more broadly by decreasing welfare costs"

Fucking brilliant. Let's keep all the old codgers at the coal face for longer, so they don't start greedily, selfishly, sucking up the pensions they've spent their whole working lives paying for, eh?

Why don't you go the whole way, you cynical bastards, like the pigs in 'Animal Farm' and have the poor sods work until they die, then sell their shrivelled corpses for glue?


And here she is! Never far away when there's the chance to dictate to employers what they should and shouldn't do. Always willing to help with the ongoing efforts to drag absolutely everyone down to the same base level in the name of 'fairness'. Yes, heeeeere's .... Hattie.

Of course, Ms Harperson is absolutely bang up for this:

"Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women and Equality, has announced that she supports calls to scrap the default retirement age and allow older workers to request flexible working."

Well, naturally. You would, wouldn't you Hattie? Why should we be allowed to choose younger, ambitious, more energetic workers when we can be forced - by law - to retain some toothless old git who can then 'demand' to go home after lunch for his nap?

Oh, but they've got a survey. Of course they fucking have. They always do.  In this survey, 62 per cent of women and 59 per cent of men aged between 50 and 75 said they want to continue working beyond the default retirement age.

What the survey conveniently forgot to ask these people is whether they want to carry on working until they drop because they love the cut 'n' thrust of the workplace, or - more likely - whether they fucking well have to carry on working because they can't afford to live on a meagre pension in the coming world of hyperinflation.

They don't all get MP's pensions, you know.

But Hattie and the Baroness aren't going to give up. Mizzzz Prosser goes on:

“Britain has experienced a skills exodus during the recession and as the economy recovers we face a very real threat of not having enough workers”

What? 'Not enough workers'? When has this country ever had 'not enough workers'?

We've got about 5 million fucking people sitting on their fat, shell suit-clad arses on benefits, many of whom could actually be converted into 'workers' (or better, burnt in power stations, but that's a different argument).

The turnstiles at Luton Airport are glowing red-hot from the endless in-flow of immigrants, some of whom could possibly be persuaded to take a break from the hate-preaching and turn in a day's work.

Why the fuck do we need to tell Grandad that he can't have his carriage clock and a nice sit-down by a sunny window?




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12 comments:

JD said...

Well said. It needed spelling out. Thanks, JD.

Lee Griffin said...

Except you've taken this as the workers being forced to keep working until they die, way to miss the point old chap ;)

Jill said...

Lee Griffin has a point...

... although, "skills exodus" - oh my giddy aunt. What skills exodused? Would they be the skills of the nasty, often brownish, gottadosomethingaboutthem, IMMIGRANT type people?

Jesus. Do any of these people think any of us are capable of joining a single dot?

Furor Teutonicus said...

Lee Griffin said...

Except you've taken this as the workers being forced to keep working until they die, way to miss the point old chap ;)


This is the same style "argument" as that for euthinasia.

"Oh but it will be voluntary", Aye? For how fucking LONG?

I can see the clowns in the dole right now "You are not getting your pension for six months because at the mere age of 90, you turned down a Hod carrier and scaffolders job, which you are fully qualified for."

microdave said...

I worked in a boatyard for 5 years - a long established family firm. They had several workers over retirement age. This was because they had decades of experience not easily replaced. They also had the patience to pass these traditional skills on to the younger staff.

However there is a world of difference between this flexible approach, and legal requirements based on arbitrary values.

It should also not be necessary for older workers to keep going till they drop because their pensions have been destroyed by that prick Brown.

Once again Liebore trying to micromanage every aspect of our lives.

subrosa said...

I'm with Furor on this one. It's all a con to get more tax. After all, the average pension doesn't generate as much does it?

I like working but I also enjoy my 'retirement'. Mind you I suspect the day will come when I'll be quite happy to sit by a sunny window and think of the days when the country was governed by those who cared about it and the people who lived in it.

Anonymous said...

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and have concluded that I have two choices when I'm 65;

1) Retire and be immediately plunged into poverty, despite having contributed to pension schemes all my life.

2) Carry on working in some capacity (if I can find someone who'll let me) to at least try to maintain a standard of living above the poverty level.

Harsh fucking choice after 40+ years of almost continuous graft. But after what the cunts have done to pensions I don't see any other choice. Of course, if you're part of Lieborg's client state then you've probably got a nice final-salary pension to fall back on. Something most of us can only dream about.

I should add, though, that this does not mean that I am in any way supporting or agreeing with Harcunt. I would still gladly take a job punching her in the face eight hours a day, five days a week for a fraction of my present salary.

Furor Teutonicus said...

I would still gladly take a job punching her in the face eight hours a day, five days a week for a fraction of my present salary.

Would not work. After so many punches their face nerves do not accept any more "pain" so basically put the face into a form of anesthiesia. You have to vary the body parts you hit quite regularly, and give recovery pauses in between for full effect.

An oxcetelyn cutter is always a usefull alternattive when they start "ignoring" the punches.

Even the mere lighting of it gets their attention rather quickly.

JohnRS said...

Having had a fair percentage of my future income stolen by the one-eye Downing Street prick, I'm not sure I have much of a choice about what to do in later life.

Assuming I'm still physically able to do my job and do not impose any extra burden on my employer because of my age, what I want is to be able to carry on until *I* choose to stop, not when my employer decides or when the hands on the clock point to some arbitrary number or other. In practice I'll probably want to go for a job share/part-time role at some point but that would be for me and my employer to work out, not for some Government drone or quangocrat to decide.

BTW, on the topic of skills, it seems that folk lacking my mature years are unable to count up to more than ten if they keep their shoes on. In a few years many employers might well find they need some old fogeys around just to make sure the youngsters don't give the profits away!!

Anonymous said...

Work until you drop dead, slaves. This is where I see dear old Mad Hatter taking us, once the gate is locked safely behind us and the trap is walked into. Just like the weasel style of the left.

Deceive then fuck them over once it is too late to do anything about it.

Anonymous said...

You seem to assume that old people dont like work and cannot work.
And that this should be taken into account.
Maybe you are wrong./

Devised Scribblings said...

Furor Teutonicus - It is quite worrying that you know all that- especially as it seems within your interests to torture the Minister for Women and Equality. That said, I'm won't try and stop you.

And in response to the most recent anonymous post, I don't really think that we can treat ageing as a myth. Science points towards an idea where old people become less nimble-witted. Not to say that the older generation can't make experienced workers. My point is, employers can't be expected to build an annex for the old folks. There should be no reason why an employer would not keep a willing and competant worker as things stand.
Also, would a move like this really be granting them freedom? It starts off friendly encouragement, perhaps a little push. Before long our all-caring government are shoving the poor fuckers off to work. Or down the stairs. Whichever. But we musn't let the old folks grow fat on their pensions. Because we've reached a whole new energetic generation of oldies. A working generation. Luckily, this presents us with lower unemployment rates. Which means more taxes. So we can expect more brilliant fucking ideas like this.