Forgetting My Degree....Or Not

So today I got told whilst on a "Work Placement" (with the highly incompetent HMRC) that today I would be looking for jobs. Something I could do and do do at home at my desk in my room. This was told to me (and two others) with no further warning. It almost seemed insulting at the beginning like I had no knowledge of applying for jobs but I guess it is better than taping bloody grids onto white boards, something I never thought I'd be doing almost a year after giving in my dissertation at University. Mind you I guess Andrea Dossena didn't think he'd be shoplifting at Harrod's when he lobbed Casillas in 2009.)

Furthermore from this I was told that for applications I should consider removing my degree from my Curriculum Vitae (albeit I couldn't exactly show my CV considering with no warning and no access to cloud computing I couldn't exactly magic it along). 

This isn't what you want to hear, especially when someone else being "advised" is told they need to say what they did with their last 12 months on theirs. Why wipe out three years of mine that saw me get my highest qualification then?! I was pretty furious on this. 

I'll admit when I went into do my degree, I was hopeful there would be jobs going, obviously that hasn't happened. Apparently the London Riots (oh and Birmingham and Manchester) showed that we could have less police for instance (don't ask me how the Government came to this conclusion). And if the Conservative Party win the election it appears this will still be the same given that in the televised "debate" between the two possible prime ministers this happened:

“I know that you put your lives on the line very day to keep us safe and I have huge respect for what the police do for us.

David Cameron

Mr Cameron added: “Police budgets came down by some 20 per cent but at the same time, police have done such a good job, crime has come down by almost 20 per cent.”

When asked for his response Mr Malik answered “no comment” to sniggers from the audience.

Reported by the Coventry Telegraph (see article here)

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So does this mean that whilst this sort of service isn't going to be generally recuiting from outside, or training in many ways that I should forget the three years I spent at University and forget my degree on my CV. I must admit I find this utterly insulting. The people who have studied degrees have generally worked hard for degrees. Yes we had some fun along the way,

And then we see Conservative voters like the pretty useless Apprentice contestant, who it seems ironically spends more time on a beach than working said a stereotype on students on BBC Free Speech : Ask A Tory ‘I would rather employ someone with life experience, than someone who fannied about getting drunk at uni.’.


Surely students deserve more respect and more help and support from services to find jobs in the sector they worked in. Even if it starts with work experience, rather than making young people particularly work in places they have no interest of working in in the future, who don't have a plan on what you will be doing the next day and so on. 

Surely this should be beneficial? Surely the next Government needs to change this. I'm pretty sure they'll get more out of me in a positive ambitious mood than a disillusioned mood. and I'm sure this would be the same with many more,

Remember you have until April 20th to register to vote, click here to find the registration page. Let's change this country for the better!

General Election Letter To Local Tory Candidate

As you know the General Election is only a month away now and as I believe the current system is flawed for many, I thought I would send emails to all local candidates to see the response. The first party I have emailed was the Conservative party.

I will copy the letter into a post and I shall update it when/if I receive a reply. If it helps one more person vote then I regard it as a success. If the outcome of the election see's no real notable positive change then I believe it is down to us as one to stand up and let our opinions be known one way or another. Anyway here we go:

Email sent: April 7th 15.36

Dear The Conservative Candidate for West Cardiff,

I am a constituent to the area you propose to be a member of parliament for. It will be my first election as a voter with myself being finally over the age barrier (which I personally believe should be lowered to 16 giving the fact I had many friends in my 6 form last election who were into the general election). I lived in Torridge that time and although I wanted the Conservatives to win I didn’t want the Tory candidate to win due to his pretty appalling attendance rate in Parliament due to his second job (Geoffrey Cox) and therefore for that seat was preferable to the Liberal Democrats, especially with their tuition fee pledge being much liked by my age group. Their tuition pledge which rather than holding onto when you formed coalition with them, was scrapped for one of the most pointless referendums in mankinds history. A pledge which after being broken, had salt put into the wounds with the fees going up to £9000. This put a lot of my better friends into an average of £44k of debt. Is this fair for our future generation? Do the future decide to be punished for the presents faults with the economy? We feel used, your party told us there were no plans, the Lib Dems told us they would scrap them. We end up with £9000 tuition feels for sometimes 10 hours of lectures and tutorials a week If we were going to pay a bigger loan perhaps paying a bigger maintenance loan would have annoyed us left with many people having to scrap money off their parents or out of their savings to even cover their rent in Plymouth or have more than £10 to live on a week. How does this make you feel like the party of the normal people? The people trying to make a way in life? Doesn’t it just feel like a punishment for having ambition? And how are we not going to feel the pinch when we wipe the majority of it off?  However I am finding it difficult to find reasons to vote conservative in this general election.

I have since been to University, in Plymouth where I studied Criminology and Law. Aims included looking into such careers as the police, or doing a Graduate Diploma of Law and begin my training to become a lawyer. However since leaving university I preferred the idea of the first more. However cuts to public spending makes it very difficult to find any way of applying to be a PCSO or a Police Officer never mind get in. Plus the Police and Crime Commissioner is one of the most pointless posts in the world, with it just leaving to public disillusion with how the police are run. This is proven by the low turnout in the election for them and to an extent it politicalises the police which is something that should never happen. We’ve all heard about some of the misdemeanours of South Yorkshire police with the mining strikes with some alleged Government involvement.

Beyond my aim for this career, it is also difficult to get a job. I want full time work, but when I search it isn’t readily available to an entrance level, with mainly part time and zero hours available. I had a zero hours contract at Wetherspoons, however turning up at 10 and finishing at 1 was a waste of time for me with it taking an hour to walk too both ways. So it really only lasted a few weeks when the Autumn rugby was on.

So I have found myself on JSA. And whilst I look for a job that's fine. Better that than nothing, despite the total control they try to get to your life, almost making you feel like a criminal, a scrounger when you go in. Is that fair? I’m active in looking for work! I prefer to apply for a few hours every other day however I am told then it looks like I haven’t applied certain  days but I’ve applied for 20 jobs a week in average the last 6 months? Am I a criminal for that? Is this Big Brother society in the DWP fair? What would you do about this?

Add insult to injury I was put onto a Movement to Work course. Now okay, work experience can be important. I’d much prefer it to be in the sector I have done a degree to go into of course (but those good old spending cuts have ruined my ambition of that for now, seen a decrease in reported crime but a rise in unreported crime with the police lacking the resources and public backing nowadays), but my real problem with this is, when I see your stats about how many people are in work, I count as someone who does work. I don’t get paid for it! Okay I get my Kob Seekers but then if you call that a wage, that’s £2 an hour. If that counts as employed by the Government, they might as well include any form of slave labour! There isn't a real option of a job at the end of the four weeks, but I count as employed which makes me wonder what are the figures of employment when you take away the people that aren’t actually employed? Does your party know? Or do you just have these fake statistics, as that’s what they are the way they currently are formed. So when I see this Tory job miracle I’m left thinking its b*ll*cks.

And finally, if your policies are so damn good, why when I go on facebook, or see a tory campaign poster, or when I see your chancellor (who despite people like myself having the issues I have listed above, wont rule out a tax cut for the wealthy) and leader make an appearance on the news do I just get the perception that your campaign isn’t based on policies, it’s based on slating the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband? The personal swipes are just bullying and I’ve seen nothing in your leader to say he’s a better leader than Miliband or indeed Clegg. Why do I open a newspapers website, a newspaper that’s openly Tory, and rather than see “look at this amazing policy” do I see “vote us because Miliband is incompetent” or “they might go into coalition with the SNP”. It’s not like your party haven't had a coalition, plus the SNP, Plaid and the Greens would only want a vote by vote alliance. And it’s not like your party’s coalition stuck to all their policies. And can you rule out a coalition with UKIP who want to split us up with Europe who poorer parts of the nation such as Wales and Cornwall need?

After all of this, can you explain to me, why your party deserve my vote?

Thanks,

James.

James' Today 28/06/2013 - Wiley's Rant

Hey Guys!

And another James' Today. Kinda already done my main blog post of the day so this is gonna be short I would expect.

On a similar theme I shall briefly discuss Wiley's discussion on twitter over Glastonbury. Not to much to say on it really, except for the fact that it is totally disrespectful to the fans. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that Glastonbury isn't about making a profit, not in the way that a bands gig is anyway. Wiley is going to perform for an hour and I bet he isn't getting the minimum wage for an hours set and lets be blunt he's not exactly talented, he just speaks into a microphone and moves some discs around, as far as I'm concerned he should leave the music scene. (You readers may now have learn't that I'm opinionated). There are talented rappers, Wiley is not one of them, end of. He's also proved himself to be a whinger. That's all he's good for. So if you're at Glastonbury give him a miss. And to Wiley, if you think the English treat you like a slave, find some talent OR find out how hard it is to live in Britain without being a popstar nowadays while that twit George Osbourne makes cut after cut, and if they're not giving you much, do you care to send me your pay cheque for the event, I mean it may be nothing to you, but some of us would appreciate it.

I realise this is short, but I'll finish this with a song by Glastonbury Headliners - The Arctic Monkeys

General Concerns From A Student

I'm currently frustrated that I can't seem to get a job. I have a CV that I've tampered with to make it feel like it's the best CV I can come up with and commonly write individual personal statements per job I apply for yet I get nothing, therefore I have taken the time to email various MP's with my issues. Here is the letter.

Dear Sir or Madam,

This email I am sending you is of my general concerns as a student and as a citizen of this country, I shall cover various points and I would appreciate it if you could read my email. First of all though I shall go through why I chose to include you in this email.

Regarding the MP's of Nottingham and Gedling this is area where I reside in the summer when I'm not at University. 

Regarding the MP's of Plymouth this is where I study my degree in Criminology and the Criminal Justice System with Law.

Regarding Geoffrey Cox the MP of Torridge, this is where I used to live before my parents moved in 2011. 

Regarding David Cameron, George Osbourne, Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Gove of the Conservative Party this is because I feel each of you are relevant to issues I am going to bring up within this email. 

Regarding Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Stephen Twigg and Liam Byrne of the Labour Party, I believe you are in the equivalent opposition members to the people mentioned in the Conservative Party. 

Regarding Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, I believe his party once built a reputation about caring for young people as well as the rest of the country.

Regarding George Galloway and Caroline Lucas, I believe being sole representatives of their party that they should also receive this email (I have not included parties from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales due to the slight differences regarding having seperate parliaments as well as Westminster and my knowledge not spreading to how this effects their roles regarding the concerns in this email). 

First of all may I congratulate you on winning the seats that you did in the last General Election. I would also like to thank you for being part of the Parliament that has discovered the truth of the Hillsborough disaster and I hope that this leads to those families getting the justice that they deserve. 

I am an average 20 year old student attending the University of Plymouth, I attend all my lectures and carry out all my essays to what I believe is the best of my ability, however I also enjoy the social aspects of University too. I believe this is the same with many of my friends who agree with the majority of the concerns which I shall raise in this email. 

First of all I would like to highlight my concern of a lack of opportunities for students in the Summer, due partly to the current state of the economy which let's be blunt, it's not exactly great. Therefore many students like myself live summer with little money so the chance to go out and do something can't be taken, this is a point that applies even more to a rural community miles away from the nearest town. Without money students are left all day being this lazy picture that many of the media seem to paint of them, but this may not be out of choice like many perceive. Even in a prosperous area the amount of jobs going for students is not great. Why? you may be asking. This answer would be that a lot of employers now don't have the funds to invest in extra staff for the summer, this may involve time taken by training the individuals or simply that the public have less money so despite it being summer they don't feel they need these employees. I realise that one of the things you may email back are the opportunities to volunteer. I would like to clarify here that although my next point will cover it more that because of the rent and money involved with some university courses that just volunteering and gaining nothing financially can be detrimental to the student. But if these students are not getting an income (and only a few really have the "bank of mum and dad" as our parents are generally not millionaires), then it can be detrimental to businesses that depend on young people, these businesses being for instance nightclubs, which hold a lot of jobs for people in the society.

So now onto my second point, the student loan. Now here I'm not talking about tuition fees despite my anger that this was put up to £9,000 for students the year below me, which means many years with a debt in their name, there were alternatives that I can point out to each of you about this (a graduate tax for the graduates who are earning over £30,000 for instance), but I really wish to talk about the actual maintenance loan. I read somewhere and have been told by a lecturer before that the rent of a property for a student should be around 50% of the loan. Now I live in Plymouth at term times and I'm living in a house that is £86-£90 a week, which is considerably cheaper than some places. This is costing £4,500 a year however as all landlords seem to charge for June and July despite the fact that exams finish in May in Plymouth. Therefore this year that was £860 extra I've paid for rent without being there. This therefore works out at 75% rather than 50% of the maintenance loan, giving a student £1500 to live on for about 8 months. You may say you can do this, as I know one of the recipients of this email has essentially said, well try it. It isn't easy. Therefore this year that was £860 extra I've paid for rent without being there. This may be easier if every student could get a job, however as I previously highlighted the lack of opportunities made for them because of the economy means only some students can get a job. Even more annoying for some, particularly myself is that when me and my sister who is two years younger did our student finances, in my third year where I have a dissertation which I have always aimed to do a survey using an iPad. Apparently the dissertation that the majority of students have to do in their final year is overlooked by this loan as when I phoned to ask about this my answer was because my degree finishes in May, however with the money students have to put into their dissertation that reason I'm sure you'll agree is outrageous.

Both these point I have risen with you leads to students feeling like they are not listened too which leads to a lack of motivation generally. These young people are the future of the country and therefore making them feel like no hopers is a negative stance. I realise there are the arguments around no money to spend, but this is not the case, if there is more money put in, there will be more money spent by these people eventually in the long term leading to the upturn of the economy and preventing any scenario like Greece. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the current ways aren't working but are letting people suffer, in the case of this email the young adults, but I'm sure other age groups suffer too. Look at the average age of someone buying their first house for instance, it should be in the early twenties really, we should be looking to get people to settle rather than to live and depend on their parents, it's extra strain on everyone the way people are now in their thirties or forties when they get their own house. It's something to be proud of and someone in their twenties getting their house if they've worked for it and houses are affordable for them, which right now they are not, would lead to pride. It would make communities safer. Me and my cousins were attacked on my sisters 18th birthday last December in Arnold. We hadn't had a drink, but don't you think that the young people who attacked us would be somewhere else, doing something more positive or at least legal, if they felt like they had hope with doing what they want to do with their life, trying to create a fulfilling career rather than watching the country melt down with shops closing, buildings being boarded up, people losing their homes? And let's be honest with people losing their homes, I'm sure we all agree that keeping people in their homes is more important than paying millions to a funeral for a woman that the public seem mixed on.

I also would like to raise both the NHS and legal aid in this email. As a Criminology and Law student, I know stuff about legal aid and as a citizen of the country I'm bound to know about the NHS, and taking these services away, or making people pay for them will lead to even more of a meltdown as a country, I want to see the country be able to proudly shout about how we have a health service for everyone in the country, I want to hear us shout about how whether you be rich or poor you can get a fair trial with a decent lawyer. This country has been proud of these things for decades, privatising the NHS or making legal aid very niche is a very negative thing to do. The NHS is one of the best things about this country and in all honesty I'd rather see the defence budget cut, and nuclear weaponry lessened or stopped as the nation won't be attacked in a way that needs a nuclear bomb, than the NHS, something that doesn't attack other nations but actually looks after it's own people in their times of need. The NHS saved my uncles life when he had a brain tumour and I am incredibly grateful for the great service they gave to him. Privatising it seems to only make it much more of a confusion institution. 

I hope you can respond to my concerns. And I hope you can see into my reasoning. There are times with the way the countries run that I would like to stand in an election to just put through my opinions and that of many other people within my age group because right now it's an age group that want to be listened to but just don't seem to get the recognition that they should. 

Yours sincerely

James Martin