The question has to be asked why are people more likely to be lazy under Tory governments?

Unemployment was sky high during the 1980s, it was as high as this now under Major in the 1990s, then it fell for the decade from 1997-2007, before going back up in the last year of the Labour government and now has gone back to the Major level.

What is it that changes peoples social attitudes that hundreds of thousands of people that were willing to work a few years ago, now decide that work is beneath them?

Is it that the Tories have the attitude that life on benefits is acceptable, and its a lifestyle choice, started by Margaret Thatcher, that entices people out of work and onto benefits? When Tony Blair was PM there was none of this, say what you want about him but he was tough on social disorder, crime, ASBO kids, renegade dictators with WMDs, benefit cheats. It was "a hand up not a hand out" under Blair and unemployment fell and employment rose.

It is just sad that along with the Tories comes a new era of laziness and decline.

The same thing happens with people who are IN work, under the Tories they get in trade unions and start going on strike and making a public display of their not wanting to work and wanting to hold their employers to ransom. Again when Blair was PM you didn't have this social unrest, people who were in work by and large got on with working rather than striking but now the Tories are back it is starting again.

I think the Tories are seen as a soft touch so the lazy exploit this. It's a shame that Blair is not still around else he would have sorted this mess out. Perhaps one day he can come back as President of the EU and be able to set measures in place that way.

I think the biggest problem is that the only real assistance the unemployed get in this country is financial assistance. Yes support is they for people who can't write up their own CV (should they be applying for jobs where a CV is required if this is the case?) and those who can't read out the job descriptions But they don't offer any practical help to get people into work - not really.

I agree with you that most people aren't happy in with their jobs. So that just shows how reluctantly people are going about in this world because of the limited choices that they have. If you gave someone a choice between full time work or been unemployed then I think a majority would choose the former. But most people don't have that choice - only those in work do.

The choice for those who are unemployed is benefits or starve to death. It's a very limited and sad choice. Society does need re-thinking and I think we will move towards a better one eventually. Over time things have gradually got better for people anyway and will continue to get better. The Tories won't be in power for ever.

Finally it is not the likes of your neighbour ruining it for the rest of us. That blame probably lays with the media who do they best to sensationalise anything in order to have readers. Some of them have manage to generate a hatred for those who are more victims of society rather than the exploitive individuals that they make them out to be.

If you've been following The Diary of a Benefit Scrounger Damo, you'll have seen Sue went into hospital this week very ill. There was a picture of her on the blog with oxygen tubes up her nose. And this is the woman who has been TURNED DOWN for DLA and like she says, her surgeons have told her she is the worst in the country with her condition and if SHE can't get DLA then who can?

Too many people think (courtesy of the media) that you fill in a form for DLA and hey presto, its granted. Your neighbour DSM might be up trees and have a well managed garden but he would have had to have letters from his GP, his consultant, a specialist nurse (if applicable) and someone who sees him on a daily basis. It is very easy to assume he is lying. Either that or all of his medical team are liars. What also makes me laugh is how everyone seems to KNOW what benefits their neighbours are on. Not saying this about your neighbour but there are some out there with hidden disabilities. I can cut the grass as long as I take regular breaks to sit down and know afterwards my hands will swell. How do you know your neighbour doesn't spend the next day suffering because he wants a nice garden and is too proud to ask for help? Theres plenty of stuff I do that I just know will put me on the sofa for the whole of the next day but I still do them because you'd go stir crazy if you vegetated.

The Telegraph has today exposed the Conservative led government for massaging the job figures. www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs ... yment.html Quote The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that 218,700 jobseekers were taken off Jobseeker's Allowance and moved on to training payments of equal value in the year to September 2011, while attending job-hunting courses and classed as officially "employed".'" I think this is disgraceful from the Conservative government and shows how low they will stoop to try and cover up their lazy attitude towards getting wasters off benefits and into work like the rest of us.

The Telegraph has today exposed the Conservative led government for massaging the job figures. www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs ... yment.html Quote The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that 218,700 jobseekers were taken off Jobseeker's Allowance and moved on to training payments of equal value in the year to September 2011, while attending job-hunting courses and classed as officially "employed".'" I think this is disgraceful from the Conservative government and shows how low they will stoop to try and cover up their lazy attitude towards getting wasters off benefits and into work like the rest of us.

I think its fair to say we will agree to disagree on the whole disabled argument.....You will obviously side with the argument of those being scrutinised by the authorities, I will always maintain that there are those who manipulate the system to suit their own agendas and should be weeded out.

But back to the point that I'm most concerned by on this thread, and that is Damo's wish to be able to choose his own job, while still being housed and fed by the state??.....Surely, in any society, not just one struggling economically, this is wrong?.....By all means, be picky over where to work, but don't expect the taxpayer to look after you in the meantime?

DSM - If this government force me onto JSA and to look for work, I too have to be "picky", I can't wait for public transport therefore I could only go for jobs within a short distance of my home. I can't work long hours/weekends/evenings etc, I am limited in tasks I can carry out, but you know I am disabled and you are ok as a taxpayer to "look after" me because you know I am genuine. How do you know Damo isn't genuine with his disability and thats why he's "picky"? Maybe he isn't, but you don't know that yet you still jump on him.

Steph, I think you'll find the only peole who "jump" on Damo are those who have suffered him in the past. When he called out BG for his post count and I worked out the daily averages of Damo & BG, I completely forgot the time (some months IIRC), Damo was prevented from posting on here.

Look back though some of his earlier posts. People are not exagerating his bragging about drunken sprees, that also included (again working from memory), ripping the sink out of a pub toilet.

I agree he probably needs help and assistance, I am not convinced that he would welcome it though. Unfortunately I think he may end up featuring in an updated remake of last year's "Strangeways" documentary

Quote ="sally cinnamon"The Telegraph has today exposed the Conservative led government for massaging the job figures. www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs ... yment.html I think this is disgraceful from the Conservative government and shows how low they will stoop to try and cover up their lazy attitude towards getting wasters off benefits and into work like the rest of us.'" Hahaha EVERY government does it. The worst offenders were the Labour party in the 90's who convinced 50% of the people in this country that they should go to University..........and the fees are the result.

Quote ="sally cinnamon"The Telegraph has today exposed the Conservative led government for massaging the job figures. www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs ... yment.html I think this is disgraceful from the Conservative government and shows how low they will stoop to try and cover up their lazy attitude towards getting wasters off benefits and into work like the rest of us.'" Hahaha EVERY government does it. The worst offenders were the Labour party in the 90's who convinced 50% of the people in this country that they should go to University..........and the fees are the result.

Mmm while I agree with the sentiment I do think your figures are a bit off.

To be honest, Damo's attitude comes across more as turning down a job because he feels it is beneath him, rather than him being unable to do it, due to any physical problem.....This is probably something that is probably quite common among younger folk leaving education with their 'qualifications' under their arms.

First of all people who've 'suffered' from my outbursts should to learn to move the hell on. I have since apologized for my behavior on here in the past but certain people won't accept an apology.

When I hit myself with a brick - it was fake - I'm good actor.

The whole stealing a sink from a pub episode was a joke as well. It was a joke from my comedy blog which wasn't reality.

When I was banned, I was only banned from the sinbin and that ban was between me and Mintball. I have never been banned from any other forum on here and I was still active on southstander during my sinbin absence. It seems that certain people's hatred of me grew when I left. Well I can't please everyone and I don't intend to.

Tuition fees should be in place, it shouldn't be for the taxpayer to foot the bill and let us get a bigger and bigger deficit all the time.

The Tory government under John Major made all the ex polytechnics into universities as part of the "prizes for all" mentality that the tories tried to breed, but they thought the taxpayer should pay for it. In the end Blair recognised reality and had to take the unpopular decisions, that of course now the Tories support.

30 million people were convinced to go to university? Wow.

I said 50% were convinced that they "should" go to Uni, not that amount would actually go.

The problem isn't going to university the problem was New Labour convinced lower classes that it was right for them to go to university.

In the 1980s you got a state grant to go but it was generally people well bred that went to university and we were doing proper subjects like Ancient History and Classics, or as we called it at Oxford "Literae Humaniores". These were courses that taught you important things and more importantly they told you how to think, and this has served us in good stead in our jobs in the City, at the top of industry and the Civil Service, leading the country.

Then came Blair and his well meaning leftist chums who wanted every ruffian from a comprehensive to go to university and do what I would call a Mickey Mouse course.

I have to think back to the wise words of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd in South Africa, the "high priest of Apartheid" who when passing the Bantu education act said "The Bantu child should be taught from a young age that equality with the white man is not for him". A bit non pc for the modern age but I think we would be wise to remember again that university isn't for everyone, just for the elite, a lot of people, especially from the working class rugby league communities that frequent these forums, just aren't meant for it.

The issue with tuition fees is that it puts off many poorer students from going to University.

It was Blair that started the mass University rush not Major.

If the numbers who went to University were kept at 1980's levels, then the country could afford this without resorting to tuition fees.

Sorry, Major started it with the conversion of Polys into University of some indistinct area, Blair just continued down the same road (as he did with many of the Major/Thatcher policies). It was the Major government for instance that started the drive to university educate all nurses for instance.

It's the Conservatives that encourage people to better themselves and go for things like higher education.

Labour just encourages the feckless to sit on their backsides watching their plasma TVs and let the rest of us pay for them.

In a little over 5 years, that'll be me

Nope, that again was started by Thatcher and continued thru to Brown, Thatcher wrote off large swathes of the workforce by getting rid of industries like mining and replacing them with very little, there are still areas where mining and steel were once the backbone of society where two generations only know life on benefits.

Why not be the first option in my post and be aspirational and go to university?

If you haven't already been and had student finance there's nothing to stop you going to university and getting a tuition fee after you have retired.

If your pension doesn't take you over the threshold for repayment you don't have to pay it back.

Why not spend your retirement getting ratted at the taxpayers expense at the SU bar and pulling some freshers. You will never end up having to pay it back, unless you live an unusually long time on an unusually high pension.

I seriously doubt that in 5 years time I'll be in any position to kick back and watch the world go by. Well not if I want to eat and stay warm anyway

Quite right, too sally cinnamon.

I'll tell you what, I've never thought of that, what a brilliant idea.

I can imagine the entrance interview:

"So what would you like to be when you graduate?"

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