to be worried there is no thread about what is being done that will affect our children's futures?

[granted]

I have become increasingly concerned both at the measures being taken by this govt (and the last too, though obviously nothing we can do about those now) that will impact on the next generation.

Articles like this:

www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1328228/Revealed-30-year-graduate-debt-trap.html

on top of high house prices, increasing unemployment, climate change - we spend so long on this site debating the tiny things, like bedtimes, number of baths, bla bla bla - just surprised that I haven't come across other threads discussing this.

Do other mums feel like this, and if so, what can we do? Am thinking about situations where women campaigning together have made huge changes eg I think in Norther Ireland women were drivers for the peace process etc.

I feel strongly that a load of super-rich and entirely male politicians have no concept of what effect the raft of policies they are implenting will have on ordinary families and ordinary children - who after all, have no vote to make their views heard - and the current lot will probably have retired by the time they're old enough to make their views known.

Anyone else?

Your problem, Riven, is that your DS2's very wealthy cruise-ship riding grandparents are not willing to fork out for some bus-fare. It may take a village to raise a child but charity begins at home....

i don't think there is a politician in the country that doesn't support every single child achieving a high standard of education and living.

It is ridiculous to suggest Tories or any other party doesn't want every member of society to be capable of contributing.

So all these politicians with their Oxbridge educations... Most of them had to work and scrounge to get them did they?

I assumed daddy paid for them. Silly me.

your point being?

I know I am in Norway and you are not. But I read an editorial in the local paper urging "Pensioners return home from your cruise ships, your umbrellaed drinks in Spain and GET TO WORK because you have had it so easy, there is no reason to retire if you can do a meaningful job and also babysit your grandparents"

I read the replies the following pointing out that todays elderly worked full time, brought up their children in post war times, did not have preschools, had 3 months maternity leave, placed their baby at the neighbourhood childminder, walked or took the bus to and from work and on the nursery/school run, because they did not have a car. Rushed to get to the shops before they closed, after work, juggling picking up kids and shop, then walk/bus home, and do housework and cook dinner. At the same time marched for jobs, marched for equality, marched for pensions, etc. In other words, they deserve a bit of rest.

I quite agree. But it also pointed out to me how much harder life was, and how HARD people worked, benefits was not even a word. (still really isnt here, as you nearly need to take a lawyer to help prove you have a disability and therefore need benefits, but that is a separate issue alltogether. Even sickness or disability benefit is just 2 years. You lose your unemployment benefits if you have failed to get a job after three job interviews)

The trouble is, as a nation we have already been divided by years of tabloid scare stories about "Heath and Safety gone mad" and political correctness, when none of these were actually laws implemented - just individuals who were terrified of being sued thanks to one or two high profile stories here and there, and an imported "Sue them!" attitude which washed in from America. It's all just a load of bollocks, aside from the somewhat extreme terroist detention laws (which I haven't actually heard of being implemented all that much - read: at all - but still, the prinicple is a little alarming)

As for the sense of entitlement - I think, again, that this is something blown out of all propertion by media scare stories. I don't think it's a sense of entitlement to not want to starve in a first world country. I am totally reliant on governemtn "handouts" as my epilepsy has made it exceedingly difficult for me to find a job, and I have been told by doctors I cannot work full time. Honestly, I'd hand over the benefits at once if you could take the epilepsy away and give me my old job back. The one I had before I lost it for being off sick all the time. Or if you could cure my DP's clinical depression and make it possible for him to go back to being a bookseller. That would be just dandy. I would be able to drive again, and then I might actually be able to see my mother more than once a year, and my grandmother more than once in three. Neither of them live outside the UK, so it wouldn't be unreasonable of me to visit now and then. Is that your sense of entitlement?

Or is it a sense of entitlement that I should want my DC to be able to go to University if they aspire to it when they are older? Of course we shouldn't be pushing for every child to do and get a degree - I chose not to go myself because I didn't feel a degree was appropriate for me - but pricing the poor out altogether is not the solution. It just creates an underclass who never get a chance. As others have said, it's one big step back to the Victorian era. It's a shame this country obviously hasn't lost its class system. People are just as obsessed as they always were with keeping people in the strata they were born to - apart from the ones above them. They could stand to be taken down a peg or two, or caught up with, of course.

No point whatsoever, wealth should stay in the hands of the wealthy.

The British class system has worked for so long now and it if it ain't broke don't fix it.

"Even sickness or disability benefit is just 2 years. You lose your unemployment benefits if you have failed to get a job after three job interviews)"

What do people with disabilities who are unable to work (I know that isn't all of them!) or people who are just unlucky enough not to get one of the first 3 interviews do?

I can't understand why we should have to pay £9,000 pa for university education here in the UK. In the rest of the EU, apart from Ireland, I believe, the most fees you have to pay is about 1,500 euros pa. Why is it going to be so much more in the UK? Or, why aren't the other countries putting their fees up?

We are a family right in the middle. Earning too much in the south-east for any benefits, but far too poor to be able to help our children financially in any way. DH has just had his T&C at work changed completely, no more bonuses, probably on same wages for years to come. It is said that a student will come out owing £51,000. How can they possibly pay that back, plus have a mortgage or get married? I think the way that people get FE will change. More students will do OU, or go to colleges of FE and stay at home.

There must be some safety net or a lot of beggars :(

or support by extended family I suppose

I think a lot of the people who are harping on about the sense of entitlement will eat their words one day. You may be in the middle now but when your children grow up they will be the new poor. The tories will take care of the rich only, they always have.

My thread appears to have been huijacked by the 'entitelements' brigade - hat kind of misses the point. Very interesting, and I don't entirely disagree, but not really opposing/relevant to the point I was making.

This thread appears to have gone down the classic divide-and-rule road - 'the problem is them lazy scroungers on benefits' - 'no, the problem is them lousy scroungers who work in banks' etc etc.

No. I was talking about things that will affect ALL our children, whether rich or poor, and which worry me greatly. To the poster who said I should shut and up and do something about it - well, that's what I've done. I've started a thread to garner suggestions for POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE action, preferably together as there us strength in numbers.

I'd love to hear all POSITIVE suggestions.

To the poster who said this was regularly discussed and I should know, asI'm a 'regular' - wel, I'm not. I've only been on the site for about a week? 10 days? and can't claim to be on top of all the threads in that time, let alone before. Please provide links to duplicate threads if you wish - that would be very helpful.

Riven I think the plan is to push people (who can be) back into being dependent on family.

I don't really know what you mean by suggestions. Maybe, start your own veg patch.

I know it won't work Riven, yet again they have not thought it out.

So is it somehow wrong for parents that can afford it to help their children through their further education? We should thank fuck that there are people out there that are minted enough to be able to do that, it's the only way we are going to have doctors, lawyers etc in the future. If the poorer people also want to do those types of jobs, then eventually they will earn enough to be able to pay back what they borrow.

it IS very possible to pay off even large amounts of student debt, as the next generation will find.

in the U.S., this is just the price you pay for an education to get a higher-paying job.

In cases of severe physical or psychological disabilities, there is no problem getting benefits for life. I was referring (but without specifying, sorry) to "smaller" disabilities, where you have to go through the rigmarole of getting evaluations and doctors notices biannually. Such as, say agoraphobia, you need to prove you still have it, and you need to have undergone treatment and actively tried to get well.
Take my neighbour as an example. She has a problematic shoulder, she has been off sick for a year because her shoulder bone seems to be smouldering up. In order to renew her benefits she had to try to go back to work (her old workplace), be seen by a doctor after 3 weeks to assess whether this was worsening her situation or not. She cant lift her arms, and when working in a shop you need to be able to place stock up on shelves, etc.

I dont know much about the unemployment "rules". All I know it is you need to make 3 serious applications in a year at least, and if you don't get a job, you lose your benefits. You should try to get any job and not be "snobbish" about it. It doesnt matter if you were a lorry driver or a university lecturer, if you cant find work in "your" field, then you try something else. The point is that you need to be seen to seriously try.

And presumably those rich people that can afford to help their children through education have worked to be able to afford that. Maybe for generations and the wealth has been passed down. And they will continue to work, and therefore pay 40% tax. This country does actually need these people, just as much as it needs those people who work the low income jobs.