Morning:
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Back in the early 1980s, Alan Bleasdale's TV drama Boys From the Black Stuff gripped the nation. It followed the fortunes of a group of unemployed men. One of them, Yosser Hughes, went around Liverpool saying "Gissa job" to anyone he came across who was working, following it up with the more plaintive, "I could do that."
"Gissa job" became one of the catchphrases of the time, the opposite pole to Norman Tebbit's "Get on your bike". But who will be the Yosser Hugheses of this recession? What will the attitude of Government be to them, and - more importantly - what will collective response be?
Monday was another black day for employment statistics, with 75,000 jobs lost globally - 4,000 of them in the UK.
This recession will differ from the 1980s in one crucial respect: no one will be able to make the argument that job losses are part of restructuring the British economy, unless, that is, the restructuring required is that of the financial sector - and by implication a retreat from globalised finance to economic autarchy.
Perhaps it will take people in tattered pinstripe suits, wandering the dealing rooms of the City and crying out "Gissa job" before this is given serious consideration - if so, I don't think we have long to wait.
Until the current downturn, unemployment had more or less vanished from the political agenda. The New Labour Government hid unemployment statistics - as did the Tories before them - under the guise of "sickness". The truth is that there were more economically unproductive people than ever before in pre-recession Britain, their benefits paid for by tax receipts garnered from the asset prices boom and the banking sector.
We won't know quite how bad it's going to get until the upturn comes. But from where we're sitting right now the prospects are not good at all, and here in the South-East the guillotine is falling hard and fast. I've sat round quite a few kitchen tables recently discussing retraining - fast becoming to 2009's middle class what "downsizing" was to 1999's. But if, to paraphrase Lord Tebbit, we should all get in our BMWs and look for work, what work should it be?
Many of the Yosser Hugheses of the early 1980s never worked again. I think we need to ask ourselves some hard questions about what our work is for, who it benefits and why we should do it at all.
Government rhetoric has all been about a skills-based economy and competing in the world market but the harsh facts are that all those people being laid off from ING were skilled in paper-pushing and number-crunching. If we are to come through this recession only for the economy to take on the same old ghastly lineaments, then it will all truly have been in vain.
Kate needs to have words
I have no intention of looking at clips of Kate Winslet's tongue-tied acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, any more than I looked at coverage of her emotionally incontinent performance at the Golden Globes. This is not the Kate Winslet I love, for she is never inarticulate, or histrionic — unless the script demands it. Yes, the truth is out, the Kate Winslet I admire is an actor, and an extremely fine one.
Schopenhauer famously observed that we are all actors, and we all play a part — it just so happens that the parts Ms Winslet plays require scripting. In the unlikely event that we should become a couple, I would insist on a prenuptial agreement that included a provision for a brilliant screenwriter to be on hand 24/7 — only then would my true love live up to my expectations.
My date with a serial killer
Generation Kill, the new series by the makers of The Wire aired on Rupert Murdoch's FX on Sunday evening. As a big fan of The Wire, I called up my cable provider, Virgin, to enhance my package, so I could watch FX. I was delighted when the nice
call-centre woman told me that due to a special offer this would cost me only 55p a month for the first three months.
Conveniently, Generation Kill's first season is only 10 weeks. I like to think I'm depriving Rupert Murdoch and Richard Branson of revenue — and it's a great evening's entertainment.
Reader views (4)
What is work for? How does a 40-something stuck in the wrong job change from £70k/£80k to £20k/£30k in the right job? My company was recently taken over and I was very lucky to retain my job. The only problem is that I actually was looking forward to a small pay-off and my annual bonus to go and do something more productive, more me.
I now feel guilty that I want to be made redundant as this would put pressure on my working wife and that I am ungrateful for a job many would comsider a privelidge.
Artschool never prepared me for this!!!!!
- Max Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Will, I'm a careers & education adviser and have worked with all ages & levels of clients/students for 3 decades. I've been through a couple of recessions- ie the heavy engineering blitz in the mid-80s and the City cull in the late 80s. I remember being inundated with redundant City workers seeking retraining then. This recession is different in that it's bigger & global. However, after it settles, most of us will still be in work & there are still plenty of career choices to be made. It's the job of my profession to look ahead to research where 'new jobs' are going to be and advise clients accordingly. Youngsters who want careers advice have to seek out a Connexions PA (lots of these are careers professionals), over-19s and those at university can still ask to see a careers adviser.
- Anon , East Anglia
Oi ! Winslet! NO !
- Ted, London
Will, this is a very pertinent piece. I left Liverpool during the early 80s, ended up in the City actually (computers) but never was part of the elite 'dealers' or 'brokers' club where incredible earnings are the stuff of legend (now). Your astute comments on the very reasons we do work are also worthy of serious study, I recall Bertand Russell's essay "In praise of idleness" as valid now as it was then (1932).
- Hugh, Birmingham, UK
