ThePiglit

Boy is this a long and diverse string. First - Sheffield is an excellent city to live in, not too big and not too small, stonking countryside and something for everyone. However, the problem with much regeneration of the place, indeed of anywhere that has gone through industrial decline, is that of replacing that which has been lost with something equally viable. Sheffield used to be a major indistrial city, and though more of that industry remains than you might think, the problem of employment remains also. As someone who is looking for work after being forced to give up my old job, I am concerned, and not merely for myself, that whilst there are plenty of jobs about the quality of them is not good and the pay neither. Unless this problem is addressed regeneration in the long term is going to be a disappoointment. I don't know what the solution is, and if we look at areas where there has been what I would call final industrial decay (eg cornwall, mining dead for nearly a century!) you can see that viable working class jobs are never really replaced. That@s not to say that working in dangerous disase ridden old industries constituted the good old days, but neither does working in call centres, food factories and shops constitute a bright future. I suspect (where can you get the figures?) that if we analysed the type and distribution of employment and income in this area say over the last 3 decadesi, we would see the following patterns of divergence 1 increase in well paid and specialised jobs for well qualified people 2 decrease in skilled manual jobs and training 3 increase in non productive service sector jobs 4 increase in part time and temporary work 5 a decrease in the average wage for those not in well paid jobs (if you see what I mean!) widening the gap between the better off and the not well off (if you see what I mean) (In essence what I mean is the difference bewteen the average manual worker and a lawyer, back in the late sixties is less than the difference an average service sector worker and a lawyer today!). Also, making Sheffield look better is fine, and a bit of embourgeoisment never hurt anyone, but if this is being done without fundamental wealth generation then it may be the appearance is all you may change. And what about the housing crisis? Is that a price of regeneration. And finally the word vision has been used in this string more than once - tricky word - what about OBBJECTIVE, PURPOSE? Things a bit more concrete.....

Spot on mr Robbo! Lissen I'm not Mista pinko fluffy politically corect but this stuff about asylum seekers etc etc, is not only deeply unpleasant, but provably wrong. And if it wasn't I'd be the first to have a grunt about it. The housing association place where I live has only one asylum seeker that I've met, a pleasant bloke who waited ages to get asylum, and has got a job now (which is more than I have). As for single parents, well I am on a returners to work course and have met some! Nobody seems to be queing up to give them evrything they want or do them favours. I was surprised how little benefit they get and they are obvioulsy struggling. And shouldn't people with needs, whether it's their fault or not have some kind of priority.# But enough woffle......remember who is knocking down these houses and not building any more. The bosses and sell out labour councillors!! Oh maybe I am mista pinko fluffy politically correct....

Cheers for all the info. The explosives store (not weapons!) is on the track running from the first right hand bend as you go from Ughill upwards, just under the trees. It has a rusty sign with stuff about the explosive act on it. More intersting is just before that is a collapse drainage/hole kinda thing with lots of orange coloured water gushing out. Is there a plot for an episode of Doctor Who in all this? Preferably one where Billy Piper gets exterminated. But I digress, and thanks once again.

whoops got the quoting technique wrong. So many buttons to press in this world... Ok agencies are good in many ways, but no-one who runs one should hide from the fact that they are charging clients more than they are paying employees, (that's how they make a living,) and trade on the basis of job insecurity. so things like pensions, redundancy, are not a worry for clients. One persons flexibility is anothers uncertainty. I don't know what the figures are, but agency staff account for a substantial part of the workforce across the board, and generally (though there are key exceptions) the wages are lower than for comparable directly employed jobs. Ironically..... I used to be an agency HGV driver, a skill in much demand, and hence I was well paid and got a choice of work. Now, having lost my licence through a medical condition and about to get a CLAIT certificate, I am in the ugly position of shortly going knocking on agency doors looking for #### office jobs paying wages I can barely afford to live on. Have you got a CV? No, I hate French cars.

There seem to be plenty of youngsters, they wizz past me on snazz racing machinery on the climb to Moscar Top every time. But I'm training hard, I really am.

Now before some moderator comes along and poops this post saying Bradfield isn't Sheffield, there's a sign at Moscar Top when yer coming in saying it is OK....anybody know, or know where I can find out, about mining in the Bradfield parish? Particularly interested in the mine remains near Ughill where the sheep shelter in the explosves store (sign on it!) and the pits further up towards Strines, both of these sites having metal gates with a letter D on them. Interesting area to bimble about in by the way, if yer didn't know. Cheers.

Er this is because of the councils redevelopment of the area. Houses not deemed worthy of refurbishment are first citex screened so that Chavs can vandalise them, then they (the houses not the chavs) are demolished. Any new building appears to be done by private developers, as on the site opposite Southey Green social club. Also, the council housing department is now a quango called "sheffield homes", and the whole ugly business has been better and more comprihensively protested about etc, than I can here. This is not just happening in Parson Cross. The result? Well, I moved into an estate on the edge of teh Cross 3 and a half years ago and had the choice of three flats. Now there is a waiting list hundreds long. Plus, the rise in property prices in Sheffield to unaffordable levels for many people must be connected. This is the action rememeber of a LABOUR council "The revolution has been privatised!" (With apologies to Gil Scott Heron, writer of the song "The revolution will not be televised.")

this reminds me of the old warning that when you apply for a job which says you can earn "up to £50 000" you should rememeber that by defintion "up to" can include the figure 0

I worked for them for quite a while as an HGV driver until a medical condition terminated my licence. They were excellent when I worked for them, and excellent when I stopped, even phoned up a few weeks after to let me know I had holiday pay coming and let me keep the fleece jacket only just issued! Owned and run by Paul Forde so the personal may make the diffrence. Do various work beyond HGV but whatever you wont have any of the usual agency hassle of false promises and payday **** ups.

Just a brief squeal of gratitude for all info recieved. I am on a returners to work program thing which gives you a work placement(s) in the penultimate phase. They place a lot of "clients" (us) in TA voluntary posts for up to 12 weeks. Having done youth and bother related voluntary work in the past and done very badly at school (underachiever of the year award) I thought it would be a good prospect. However despite the many positive posts, my reservations about the money and,( from researching via the net and other m.o.'s ) the kind of people and qualifications desired leave me in doubt. I don't think an truck driving bourgeouis drop out with an ancient degree in woffle is what the education bosses have in mind when they talk about life experience and role models. No matter, the job quest goes on.....(and on.....) Thanks.

I'd like to end this string I started by adding some of the ard facts I was looking for - searching on Fish4jobs, I found a supply agency saying they paid the best rates for "experienced" people, these rates being between £30 and £50 a day. Terrific "I'd rather be a unpaid volunteer than a badly paid employee"

Yup I did a search. But the problem and the joy with a site like this is that opinions come before facts, and er... facts, (like personal experience) is wot I'm after. Surely there must be a headbanger, sorry headteacher out there who has experience of recruiting or maybe a yoof wots been tort by uh klasroom ass. Sorry, and ever hopeful

Re that police term, I have the dubious honour of having mates in "the job" in different parts of GB and they use the universal term "scrote" which comes from a novel and film I believe called "The Choirboys". Also the police seem remarkably short on slang and mnemonics, but are hot on using the NATO/phoentic alphabet as in the obvious and frequent "Foxtrot Oscar" Mind how you go. Ted Hughes said we should all be the policemen of our own imagination. I'm on the run.

Many thanks to Professor Cols for the Oxford hyperlink. I buy the explanation both that it comes from Chatham and comes from the Romany Chaval, as in Kent (where I was born) there were and are large traveller poplutaions known often derogitavely (spelling!) as "Pikies". They originally formed a large part of the seasonal workforce in the fields of the county, known once as "the Garden of England" but now referred to as "the gateway to Europe". Times change and the irony is that as the surburban hordes hurl down the motorways and railway lines to the chunnel, the "travellers" stay put in static caravans or give up and become surburban themselves. Sorry for Wofflling but we've all got something we're good at.