Scotland's Navy

[Jim Brady]

I thought Brian would've been in like Flynn with the answer.Cappy it didn't do him any harm so to speak but if he would've been a lad living on his own he would've found himself at the food bank.For not attending the charity shop he was sanctioned for two months (for those that don't know if you are sanctioned your benefit is stopped for the time imposed)So that could happen to anyone male,female,married or single,you will get money eventually but in the mean time without a family or borrowing money what alternative do you have but go to the food bank.At any one time there are 50.000 people sanctioned so this figure also comes off the unemployed figure,besides there being the need for the food banks.Many people could be on pre-payment electric and gas meters they do not have money to feed the meters so they are limited what food they can be given because they cant cook it.
When you are around young people you know what is going on today in the world of employment and unemployment and people being used by the employer not only because of zero hours.Last year my grandson told me, granddad I've got a job as an apprentice cabinet maker. Great I thought what a great apprenticeship,
.Another scam by another employer.The job was assembling kitchen units in a factory,there you are son here's your cordless drill work out on them flatpacks.That job was gone but the employer rang him up,this is more in your line we have properties that we look after,went there as apprentice joiner.He ends up cutting down trees digging up roots and filling the skip and painting and decorating.The job title apprentice is being used by lots of unscrupulous employers for the likes of call centre jobs,not apprenticeships atall just a way of giving somebody £2.50 an hour.Putting kitchen units together is factory work and qualifies for £6.25 per hour not £97.00 p.w..You hear unqualified statements made in this life you just have to shake your head and walk away.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Keith Tindell]

Jim, i would hate to be young and looking for a job, absolutely soul destroying. I have said on other posts here, we came from a generation on the crest of a wave, plenty of work, a large merchant fleet etc, so we were very lucky. All my previous post was to say that we have lost a lot of the cooking skills, and ability to create meals from leftovers etc. I have a lovely daughter in law, very good wife, but is afraid of cooking, and comes from the generation of *ping cruisine*, ie micro wave meals, but as i said she works full time like a load of other wives. This situation your grandson is in has been running for some time, i remember work exoerience, just an excuse to give people work for little money, KT

[cappy]

not all work experience is a rip of keith ...like everything there are good and bad deals .....when i wanted new learners i used a society called the rathbone society it was for kids withproblems and bad family histories .......some i signed on some were lifes no hopers .....ie couldnt turn up didnt want to learn .....but the job centers were a waste of time ....they would reply to a query 2 or 3 weeks later......i had the kids of murderers and dope importers who had been caught and also some young girls who had bee used by there own fathers......out of them i got 4 or5 who learned askill and are still working at it 20 years later......but one did scare me when i asked him why he had attended the rathbone and he told me he was an arsonist.....this in a factory filled with dust and textiles......sadly i did not need his experience......oh the experience of life.....regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

Hi Jim
been out all day with the Long Haired one . I am very sorry for your Grandson, and share the same sentiments as Cappy.

The way you describe it , it seems to be a big problem, But sometimes the Staff at those Job Centres are a bunch of arrogant bastards, They have the power. Also they are in employment with good conditions.
It happened to me one time when I was redundant, I signed on in Bolton on a Monday, they told me my signing on day would be on Wednesday in future. So Wednesday I was in Liverpool and signed on at the Pool, looking for a ship. I went in the Job Center the following Wednesday and they told me my dole was stopped. because I never signed on last Wednesday.
I told them I had signed on in Liverpool as they do not many ships up in Bolton. They said You do as your told, when we say sign on you sign on, ` I was looking for work.` `not interested`, my Dole was stopped.
I had a mortgage to pay no money. So I wrote to Maggie Thatcher, [ I know you do not like her, but ] she wrote back to me and said she would sort it out. I then got a letter from the Head Honcho of the Civil Service in Whitehall. saying go back in there and it is sorted. I went back to the Job Centre and They were complaining that they had nearly lost their jobs because of me. I said You should have lost your jobs, then you would know what it feels like on this side of the counter. I got all my dole money back dated
So those bastards in Job Centres can be a lot more understanding and lenient if they wanted to,
Why not write to Cameron, he is the head of the Government and The Civil Service and is always spouting every week about the booming economy and 1.8 Million new Jobs, and ask him ,Where are all these jobs for lads who are keen, who want to work, why are they on the scrap heap What are you going to do about it. ? Use a Letter not email. to 10 Downing Street, you cannot lose , only a postage stamp. Call his bluff.
I had a young relative, He was redundant as an electrician, tried every where to get a job, No Dice. I suggested he worked Off Shore,
I paid £600 for him to do the Helicopter Safety Course at Fleetwood College. Once he got the Certificate he has been working ever since. He is in Aberdeen today waiting to take off and go to a Maersk FPSO 250 Klms NE of Aberdeen.
Quite honestly I do not think there is much of a future for anyone in the UK anymore. I think If I was young I would emigrate and go and live in Western Australia. They seem to want skilled people out there as their industries seem to be booming more than here.
Cheers
Brian.

[Jim Brady]

Despite the job centre managers and members of the government saying that job centres and the individual advisors not being given targets to sanction so many people a week some workers have become whistle blowers and have said that they are leaned on if they haven't sanctioned enough people.Some of the stories you hear for the reason someone is sanctioned when they have a genuine reason for being late signing on or failing to attend is nothing short of draconian.
Another job my grand son was sent after was a apprentice warehouse ma, I ask you, yes same rate £97.00 per week or £2 odd and hour
Regards.
jim.B.

[gray_marian]

#99, Jim, Having read of your grandson's plight re the YMCA charity shop, did he ask the manager for time off for his interviews? Just a thought for future reference.

The step my son took to learn his trade drystone dyking was applying to a local dry stone dyker and stating he would work for the minimum wage, [he had already established with Job seekers that they would be willing to pay towards his wage if taken on] whilst also attending college. After one year he realised he was carrying this particular chap who was on waccy baccy and could hardly get out of bed in the morning. So he then a approached a renowned Stone Mason along similar lines and has never looked back. When Irwin retired my son became self employed that was 11 years ago. Like cappy he takes on waifs and strays when needed, they very rarely last beyond six months when the cold weather kicks in. Now every other month the DSWA arrange weekends where their dykers work for free, repairing walls etc training others who are interested and of course hoping to establish a contract here and there. When he left school at eighteen he also attended business college for two years to prepare for his future. Perhaps if your grandson went around local builders/carpenters it could work for him also. Best of luck to him.

The mantra of a stone dyker is "You never hurl the same stane twice"

[Jim Brady]

Marian I don't think my grandson had any intention of going to the YMCA charity shop even if he didn't have the interviews lined up,if he got sanctioned so be it, it was more important to look for work rather than be taken off the unemployed figures.He did start work within about two weeks anyway that's where he was supposed to be an apprentice joiner but where he was more of a general labourer.Unless you go on site as a joiner many companies who may have contracts with social housing associations do not want joiners,tylers or plasterers they want multi taskers someone that can do all of those jobs.My grandson went back to a training establishment, classroom and out on site.He has tiled a bathroom done small areas of plastering and of course he is qualified as a joiner.The training school tick all jobs that you are competent at.Many of these jobs you need to drive the van so his mum and dad are paying for him to take driving lessons at the moment.
He finished college a few weeks ago but has kept away from claiming benefit he hates the place,lived on his own money he got for his 21st.Now he has signed on he has got to prove to the Job Centre that he has spent 35 hours each week looking for work,cant prove it sanctioned, money stopped.The problem now is what companies are going tobe recruiting at this time of the year.there's no doubt in my mind that he will find a job suitable to him in the New Year.
Thanks for your kind words Marian.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Rodney Mills]

Rodger Dyer,

Rodger, a favor please, would you please explain the "preferential voting" system . For the life of me I cannot understand how someone with such low voter appreciation could possible win an election.

Thanks in advance, Rodney

[Keith at Tregenna]

Not sure how Scotland's Navy morphed into starving families-
Gilly

The Royal Scots Navy (or Old Scots Navy) was the navy of the Kingdom of Scotland from its origins in the Middle Ages until its merger with the Kingdom of England's Royal Navy per the Acts of Union 1707. There are mentions in Medieval records of fleets commanded by Scottish kings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Robert I developed naval power to counter the English in the Wars of Independence and after the establishment of Scottish independence continued to build up naval capacity. In the late fourteenth century naval warfare with England was conducted largely by hired Scots, Flemish and French merchantmen and privateers. James I took a greater interest in naval power establishing a shipbuilding yard at Leith and probably created the office of Lord High Admiral.

James IV put the enterprise on a new footing, founding a harbour at Newhaven and a dockyard at the Pools of Airth. He acquired a total of 38 ships including the Great Michael, at that time, the largest ship in Europe. Scottish ships had some success against privateers, accompanied the king on his expeditions in the islands and intervened in conflicts in Scandinavia and the Baltic, but were sold after the Flodden campaign. Thereafter Scottish naval efforts would rely on privateering captains and hired merchantmen. Despite truces between England and Scotland there were periodic outbreaks of a guerre de course. James V built a new harbour at Burntisland in 1542. The chief use of naval power in his reign were a series of expeditions to the Isles and France.

The Union of Crowns in 1603 ended conflict with England, but involvement in England's foreign policy opened up Scottish shipping to attack. In 1626 a squadron of three ships were bought and equipped for protection and there were several marque fleets of privateers. In 1627, the Royal Scots Navy and privateers participated in the major expedition to Biscay. The Scots also returned to West Indies and in 1629 took part in the capture of Quebec. After the Bishop's Wars and the alliance with Parliament in the English Civil War, a "Scotch Guard" was established on the coast of Scotland of largely English ships, but with Scottish revenues and men, gradually becoming a more Scottish force. The Scottish naval forces were unable to resist the Cromwellian navy and when Scotland became part of the Commonwealth in 1653 they were absorbed into the Commonwealth navy. After the Restoration Scottish seamen received protection against arbitrary impressment, but a fixed quota of conscripts for the Royal Navy was levied from the sea-coast burghs. Royal Navy patrols were now found in Scottish waters even in peacetime. In the Second (1665–67) and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars (1672–74) between 80 and 120 captains, took Scottish letters of marque and privateers played a major part in the naval conflict. In the 1690s a small feet of five ships was established by merchants for the Darien Scheme, and a professional navy of three warships was established to protect local shipping in 1696. After the Act of Union in 1707, these vessels and their crews were transferred to the Royal Navy.

Royal Scots Navy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Lewis McColl]

Clan Line atually started life of as a Liverpool company.
The company that would become the Clan Line was first founded as C. W. Cayzer & Company in Liverpool in 1877 by Charles Cayzer (see Cayzer baronets). It was set up to operate passenger routes between Britain and Bombay, India via the Suez Canal. The next year, Captain William Irvine joined the company and it was renamed Cayzer, Irvine & Company.

They used to load across the dock from Blue Funnel in Birkenhead , not sure what the dock was called but on the Blue Flu side it was Victoria dock. A shame that like Blue Flu they are all gone now.

I am from N Ireland and proud of it , but sometimes one gets a bit tired of we did this, the Scots did that and the Welsh did the other. Get over it the English did more than their fair share.

I will say this though it is only the Irish that make a decent Whiskey lol Just eyeing my collection should I have wee Bushmills or go for the Tullymore Dew.