Thursday, November 16, 2006

Two things......

....really irritated me yesterday.
As I mentioned in my last post it was my Mother's 70th birthday yesterday. My Brother and Sister, one of my nieces and The Hubby all went in a pub and my Dad got Mam to go in for lunch, not knowing we where all there. (She walked past us all too, didn't have her glasses on!)
Anyway, my Brother brought our attention to this guy, riding one of those laid back trikes, pulling an advertisement for Debenhams department store. Now he may have been a student trying to earn some extra money, but to be honest I was a bit ticked off by it. What a terrible job for anyone to have to take! Whoever thought that one up wants a slap, or at the very least made to do it themselves.
Half the problem with young kids nowadays is they have nothing to look forward too. There's no real apprenticeships about, where you learnt a trade on the job, and if you worked hard you would go up the ladder. Now they go to college and get no real 'hands on' experience, and half know they wont get a job anyway. The Government boasts about all the jobs they have created, but they're all in bloody Macdonalds, and places like that! How can that give people enough money to start on the property ladder, raise a family etc? No wonder that a lot don't give a monkeys, scrounge off the state or turn to crime.

Now the 2nd thing that got me annoyed was the First Direct Bank having the sheer cheek to charge customers £10 on their current accounts every month if they don't keep a balance of at least £1,500! That is an absolute disgrace when you think of the profits they make out of us!
My bank keeps asking me to up grade, and pay £10 a month. Now they tell me that I would get a £50 overdraft, (which I already have) A.A. membership, (I don't drive), and mobile phone insurance (my mobile cost about £50 so I think I could cope if it got pinched). It seems to me banks only want well off people as their customers. While we go back to keeping our money under the bed!
But then of course, we don't have that option now do we? Most of us are paid directly into the bank, so we're snookered!
At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

2 comments:

Mick & Cathy said...

You are bang on with both these moans. I have said the same thing about apprentiships for ages. I work in industry because my parents encouraged me to get an apprentiship and I got a great education.
I am in charge of the Electrical/Instrumentation department and I know its so hard to find people with the required skills when we try to recruit.

The Banking is a joke, I hope others don't follow but I reckon they will.

airliebird58 said...

There is a skill gap in this country now. My hubby is an Electrical Engineer. At 16 he went to see the Career Officer and he said 'Do you fancy being an Apprentice Electrician?' He said yes and never looked back. Kids nowadays don't have that chance. Especially the ones who maybe aren't so good academically, but are good with their hands and quick to pick things up.
A whole generation has gone untapped.