unemployment

[Keith Tindell]

Can you believe this with the amount of unemployed we have here, maybe stop the dole money, and offer this, kt

Fruit and veg farmers facing migrant labour shortages - BBC News

[cappy]

bloody hell keith you cant expect the great unwashed to do actual labour keith.....its against there human rights.....jeez what have we got immigrants for .....whoops i forgot they have human rights ,,,so next year more expensive fruits for all...then mr corbyn will demand free fruit to keep rickets at bay.....mainly among the great unwashed of course....cappy

[Jim Brady]

The unemployment figure for the area involved is just one and a half % I don't think that there are many great unwashed living around there.It would appear that they can't even attract the Poles there to do the work,must be a good job.
Regards.
Jim.b.

[Captain Kong]

Before all this immigration there were plenty of seasonal workers for farms,
In summer hundreds of Cockneys used to go to Kent for Hop Picking, camping there and used it for a holiday taking all the family and kids.

In 1948 and 1949 we used to go to Cheshire, Camp, picking potatoes and earned £1. 5 shillings a week, a lot of money then. Farmer Jessop gave us a shilling tip and a turnip at the end of every week, we had a good time doing it, working in the sun and fresh air.
The Bums today would refuse to do something like that. it may give them a bad back. or something.
or it may affect the Benefit they all get TAX FREE for nothing.
Brian

[Keith Tindell]

I remember the hop pickers well, they came every year, and the pubs became very lively at night. In Hampshire a lot of the hop pickers were gypsies , as well as Londoners, so the old sing song in the evenings, that is until the fighting started, happy days, kt

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Keith.
Same problem out here but with a big difference of course the distance, most of our fruit and veg farmers rely on back packers despite the large number of unemployed, but we are talking thousands of miles of travel, so an married man living in Sydney would have to live away as well as keep a home, and on what the farmers pay impossible. This miserable Govt tried to lift the tax that the backpackers paid which would have made it a waste of time, they had to drop the idea. I suppose unemployment is with us for the near future, as the only thing around now is IT which produces nothing. There are not the thousands of kids going away to sea or even joining the forces as technology and missiles have taken over that as well.
Cheers Des

[cappy]

##good money fruit picking in oz in the 50s ...worked up barmera in south oz in the late 50s on thegrape picking and loading ......the money was good for hard work 20 quid a week when a AB would be on 35 to 40 quid a month ..the cost of living not much different to the uk so it was top living when you spent it ....we lived in a little wood hut with tin roof ...like a bloody oven through the night ..nearest bar about 12 miles away ....the cockies wife bought the food which we ordered ..i learned how to keep sausages from going off by makiing a home made fridge.....the hours were long ...i preffered the loading to the picking there was an old italian he could clear a vine before i could clear half of it ...remember his name was tinto .....not tonto.......i bought a vincent 1200 motorbike black shadow with two other guys and we used it no tax no insurance ....never saw a copper ...whent to nearest bar came back on dusty road ...never saw another vehicle ....standing in the back of the tractor up to your waist in grapes .....ist few days stuffing them down ...but soon got sick of grapes ...another guy with us was hungarian from the revolution ...had been spirited out of hungary after throwing petrol bombs at russian tanks ..a great guy ...it was hot hard work but when you were young in them days you didnt get out for nowt ....you didnt work you didnt eat.....got paid went off to adelaide got in hotel with ozzie bird paradise for a young man......even as you walked down the street shopkeepers and others asking did you want work...jobs galore and a decent screw for a young man.....i look back with pride on my younger days ...and an experience nothing could match for excitement and the learning curve of life ...the work ethic was imprinted in me ..perhaps that is why i have a great distaste for idle youth and a benefit system which enables them to live without working.....its still a wonderfull world for young folk if they get of the asses and look.....cappy from shields

[John F Collier]

For generations Londons eastenders used to go to Kent for Hop picking it was a tradition for them and gave them a chance to get their kids into the country side and a taste of fresh air, they used to turn it into a very happy social event, I expect it's done by Eastern Europeans now as nobody seems to want these jobs anymore. cheers JF

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Cappy.
I remember buying a few bottles of cheap wine in Adelaide in the early 50s, told my mate it had a taste of sweaty feet must have been the grapes you were standing on, still went down a treat.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

You wouldn't say that Des if you had known that Cappy never washed his feet then, even kept his seaboots on at times. Cheers JWS