Teachers, Jeff Bezos
Teachers
…A teacher friend of mine had staff room colleagues called Miss Pounder and Mr Bacon. It was one of his pupils who suggested that they should marry, combine their names and call their son Arthur.
(John Felton, Private Eye No 1492)
 |
Chiding, Leon Emile Caille (1836-1907)
Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY- NC-ND]
|
As usual, when matters of child behaviour are concerned, the last people the Government seem to consider are the parents. They are the most important element in the matter of bringing up children and should bear all, or most, of the responsibility for their proper upbringing.
The Home Secretary cannot be so naïve as to believe that violence and criminal behaviour is that simple to eradicate. Piling the blame on teachers, police and social workers is not the way forward.
(J A Porter, Deal, Kent, The i, 2019)
Amazon and its Workers
…This
year Amazon overtook Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company,
worth £634bn, and its founder, Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man. However,
the online giant is being accused of profiting on the back of its depot
workers, who complain of poor pay, long hours and risky conditions with no employment
benefits. Ambulances have been called out to 14 Amazon warehouses 600 times in
the past three years according to a freedom of information request by the workers
union, GMB, but it says Amazon ignored its request for an independent health
and safety review.
The
Observer has been contacted by three drivers who have delivered parcels for
Amazon. They report shifts of 12 hours or more on zero hours contracts, unpaid
overtime and penalties for failing to meet targets. Because they are classed as
self-employed, they are obliged to pay for their vehicles and expenses and do
not receive sickness or holiday pay. They claim long, unpredictable hours and
transport costs mean that pay can amount to less than the minimum wage.
(The
Observer, 14.4.2019)
Jeff, as the world’s richest man, can you spare a
few extra quid for your employees? No? Proper contract, then? How about
volunteering for the Citizens Advice Bureau then? More details below.
The
levels of poverty in the UK are a stain on all of us. It seems like a complex
issue, but the situation could easily be improved if more people claimed the
benefits they are entitled to.
According
to the latest government statistics, more than £10m of means-tested benefits
went unclaimed in 2016-17. Millions miss out while millionaires get tax cuts.
When
I became a volunteer at a Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in 1996, I never thought
it would involve working with so many people in poverty, despite being brought
up in a low-income family. But as a benefits advisor, I could see people
missing out daily on what they are entitled to.
I
recently helped an elderly couple who were receiving £106.19 too little a week.
Both were disabled and one of them had a war pension. The Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP) and the local council knew they might be missing out and
even notified them to say they were on a low income, but failed to follow it
up.
The
couple is likely to have been missing out for years. I secured them 12 weeks of
backdated pension credit, but in my opinion, it should have been much more.
…Many
people are also put off claiming due to the stigma attached to the benefits
system – they don’t want to be seen as a scrounger. The Government and the
media often point to fraudulent claimants but, to be honest, fraud in big business
and in the city involves far larger amounts of money.
(Gary
Martin, The i, 2019)
Too true.
Too true.
Comments
Post a Comment