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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Snowflakes picking cabbages

87 replies

Skustew · 05/02/2018 08:48

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5351133/Eastern-Europeans-10-times-faster-farm-work-Brits.html#comments-5351133

Aibu to question the motives of this?

People that aren't used to manual work or working outdoors during winter are much slower on their first day compared to people that have been doing the job day in day out. I fail to see the actual story

The URL gives away the full story pretty much!

OP posts:

NannyOggsKnickers · 05/02/2018 08:52

It does show that local people in many rural areas aren’t used to manual labour anymore. The is anecdotally supported by stories about issues with British workers told by my farmer friends.

But the reality is that our food is so cheap because supermarkets have forced farmers into the position where they can afford to pay more than pittance and therefore rely on migrant labour.

We need to pay more for food if we want Brits to pick it and produce it.

specialsubject · 05/02/2018 08:55

Oh, for a like button!

FlouncyDoves · 05/02/2018 08:59

YANBU. Shock horror, a Cambridge graduate isn’t that great at picking cabbages.

These jobs will be forced upon the out of work feckless population who scrounge on benefits. They’ll be fine at it.

Original poster

Skustew · 05/02/2018 08:59

I agree it shows that local people don't do these jobs anymore. But it doesn't do much to actually explain why and makes it seem like people are just too lazy to do it.

The UK economy is broken

OP posts:

Titterofwit · 05/02/2018 09:04

I'm no snowflake but I've never picked cabbages in the winter. I guess I would be a bit slow the first week and would need to toughen up before I would shrug off sore hands and muscles. A bit like every other person who was doing something new and difficult.

Trills · 05/02/2018 09:06

YABU for calling people snowflakes

It's not likely to make anyone listening to you think you are a reasonable person with a good point to make.

Trills · 05/02/2018 09:07

Apologies - not you calling them snowflakes but the article?

Well then apply my comment to the author instead.

Original poster

Skustew · 05/02/2018 09:13

Sorry I should of made it clearer the title was me trying to encapsulate a daily mail reader.

OP posts:

expatinscotland · 05/02/2018 09:16

' Shock horror, a Cambridge graduate isn’t that great at picking cabbages.

These jobs will be forced upon the out of work feckless population who scrounge on benefits. They’ll be fine at it.'

Yes, because Cambridge grads are never unemployed, nor are people in their 50s and early 60s who've been made redundant and can't get another job for love or money, or learning disabled people put on JSA after losing ESA. There's no such thing as a feckless out of work population, the number of people out of work and claiming unemployment for over two years is miniscule. But of course, the DM isn't one for revealing that and people have been buying into this type of bullshit propaganda for years.

Slartybartfast · 05/02/2018 09:16

what are the the daily mail trying to prove? are they anti brexit?

Slartybartfast · 05/02/2018 09:17

the daily mail are anti anybody i forgot

DailyMailcanfuckthefuckoff · 05/02/2018 09:18

I was about to give you an earful OP until I realised you were impersonating DM readers

I totally agree with what you've said. I've picked kiwi fruit on an Aussie farm, and the more seasoned pickers (travelling Maori farm workers) picked at around 3x the pace of us backpacker workers - we were a bit taken aback at how rubbish they made us look!

rightsaidfrederickII · 05/02/2018 09:19

This is the same newspaper that campaigned for Brexit, and will then complain when we can't get migrant workers to pick cabbages and they rot in the fields

YABVU for reading the Daily Mail, and for calling anyone a 'snowflake'

kalapattar · 05/02/2018 09:22

I suppose that if I had to do the work to earn money, then I would get better at it. Money and being hungry can be a great motivator. But not everyone is physically able to do it.

Saying that - I have picked strawberries for 3 days but that was bloody hard work. I then got a job with pizzas which was much better.

For some reason, I want to show this video from Gone with the Wind

GhostofFrankGrimes · 05/02/2018 09:22

The endless circle of hate and ignorance...

Clandestino · 05/02/2018 09:22

YANBU. Shock horror, a Cambridge graduate isn’t that great at picking cabbages.

So the Eastern Europeans coming for seasonal work are hardened primitives, used to hard work outside and Siberian cold.
Shock and horror, many of them would be university students just earning some extra buck.
Just saying.
Btw, a Cambridge student can be as good at picking cabbages as anyone else. Doesn't require any special skills. Or being a hardened peasant.

Slartybartfast · 05/02/2018 09:23

what a lot of bigots

sportinguista · 05/02/2018 09:23

I've done manual labour on farms and yes you do get quicker and fitter as you go. It is hard in winter and it's also pretty damn hot in summer too! It's like anything with practice you get quicker. I taught myself to touch type, I was embarassingly slow for a good while but have speeded up. I'm nowhere near as good as some of my former colleagues but that doesn't mean I'm unemployable. My DH has a lot of Eastern Europeans to train at work, when they start they are slower than their British colleagues who have been doing the job for 20+ years, that's just natural because they need time to pick it up, and they do. It's relative and whatever nationality you are it still feels cold in winter!

Slartybartfast · 05/02/2018 09:23

daily mail are bigots i mean.

gamerpigeon · 05/02/2018 09:27

I also found the make up thing odd (the article has a go at them for insisting on wearing make up) as I'm sure I remember reading about how women in the war defied Hitler by keeping up standards of appearance as best as they could. Nothing wrong with wanting to wear make up if you would like to!

Abracadabraapileofbollocks · 05/02/2018 09:27

Pretty much the reason why many wont go to a gym - same attitude there everyday. "Oh my goodness look how much better I am at this exercise than the new person. They're so shit."

crunchymint · 05/02/2018 09:32

I watched a documentary about this. Farmers said Eastern Europeans who had never picked were faster on their first day than local British people.
Many of my generation in my family did fruit or vegetable picking as young teenagers to earn extra money and were fast. It was a common way to get some pocket money and the truth is we were fitter than current generation in our family. It has far more to do with fitness, hard to be fast if you are not fit and not used to being very active.

computationalAspects · 05/02/2018 09:35

I thought people normally say that the Daily Mail hates immigrants.

They can't win can they.

kalapattar · 05/02/2018 09:35

Farmers said Eastern Europeans who had never picked were faster on their first day than local British people

I wonder how much of that is down to motivation?

kalapattar · 05/02/2018 09:36

I thought people normally say that the Daily Mail hates immigrants

The Daily Mail hates immigrants.
The Daily Mail hates 'snowflakes'.

Sometimes it has to decide which it hates more.

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