why should I keep my trap shut, my opinion is no less valid than yours, it's just different.

About those figures I posted. Any response? Do you still think that anyone who doesn't take whatever job they can get, even if it ends up costing them money, is a waster?

And anakin is not bleating about his predicament. He is joining in a discussion about unemployment and slave labour.

And repugnant.

The tent occupiers are not disrupting people. Indeed, when I walked past them recently I got the impression that the majority of people going about their lawful business where not unhappy about them being there.

in your opinion, which is worth two fifths of sod all to me, but maybe worth a whole lot to someone else.

it's how opinions work, or maybe you're not capabale of having a difference of opinion without it becoming personal

Edited for accuracy.

Where has it become personal (apart from your wholly unwarranted comments to AS)? I said your opinion was repugnant and, to me, it is.

Now, those figures...

If he's not, he'll be in the majority on The Sin Bin!

Various posted have touched on the issue of the long-term unemployed and work experience etc – but we've moved on from that.

So let's change the discussion a little – if the world we now live in is this dog-eat-dog situation, where the majority struggle to keep their heads above water, with no security in life of job or home etc, then a number of questions arise:

1) how did this become the case;

2) is it inevitable;

3) if it is, what sort of society do we expect from that;

4) if it isn't, how do we change it – and what to?