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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that people on the dole could be out shovelling snow for their dosh?

139 replies

mmrred · 08/01/2010 22:14

Just had a call to say my Gran has fallen and broken both her wrists on the untreated pavements...paths round us are a nightmare, too...so am having a facist moment and thinking people being kept by the government could 'pay some back' by clearing footpaths...

OP posts:
Awassailinglookingforanswers · 08/01/2010 23:14

oh flipping 'eck - I'd better get some sleep hadn't I?

currently getting ESA (DH's claim - but he gets for me as well)

But soon to be getting

IS, CTC - AND I've been on IS and CTC before AND - I'm about to start my 2nd course with the OU (the first one having been fully paid for just like this next one will be.........)

Pikelit · 08/01/2010 23:17

I live on the cusp of a Conservation Area though. So could only have attractive peasants cleaning my snow lest the price of the house falls by hundreds of thousands overnight.

monkeyfeathers · 08/01/2010 23:19

Yes, indeed. It's going to be a long day for you and the rest of the family. You'll have kilometres to clear!

Tortington · 08/01/2010 23:20

agreed,. and when they are done they can start gardening along the side of the railways to make my journey more asthetically pleasing.

monkeyfeathers · 08/01/2010 23:20

Pikelit: they can send a squad of children in shorts and flat caps your way. It'll give a real Victorian feel to your conservation area.

Pikelit · 08/01/2010 23:24

That's wonderful monkeyfeathers. These children will need to have winsomely dirty faces and be capable of breaking into tuneful ditties (a la Mary Poppins) if visitors arrive, mind. I don't want anyone thinking I have bog-standard urchins.

mummyofexcitedprincesses · 08/01/2010 23:25

I think all the teachers should be out clearing the snow while the schools are closed. They made it snow so they could have a few days off (apart from weeks and weeks for Xmas and inset days).

cariboo · 08/01/2010 23:26

and drinking the sweat off honest working folk's brows!

Awassailinglookingforanswers · 08/01/2010 23:30

hmm - not sure it should be all the teachers - our 2 schools didn't close......

PeachyWillNeverVoteBNP · 08/01/2010 23:31

Wellpikelit I am in a conservation area also so willahve to shareyour attractive peasants,though mroelikely to get elderly tourists here tbh.

Monty100 · 08/01/2010 23:33

I live quite near a conseration area. Does that mean my peasants will be fairly attractive.

Think OPs on the phone to Secretary of State?

Monty100 · 08/01/2010 23:34

*conservation. lol my mistake this time.

PeachyWillNeverVoteBNP · 08/01/2010 23:36

Fairly elderly, I reckon.

Far as I can se,living here means that you can't have sky,you can't have double glaxzing and sometimes you wake up to find Japanese youristsphotographing your house (no idea why, a great many just like it all about....)

Oh and the village only sells plaster cherubs and books about the roman invasion.

sheepgomeep · 09/01/2010 00:16

my dp is a 'dole bum' as was so nicely put and has been hard at work clearing the pavements and the pathways outside our own house,

He signs on yes but gets no money as my pt earnings and ds disability allowance tips us just over the amount they say we need to live on.

We aint all lazy fuckers

Tortington · 09/01/2010 00:18

i dont think anyone on disability should be forced to clear the snow.

but i would like people claiming jobseekers who have not got a disability to have a tube of saxa on them at all times.

sheepgomeep · 09/01/2010 00:25

I wouldn't be able to go to work if dp was out all day shovelling snow.. I would then have to claim benefits and be a another drain on society.

GrumpyWhenWoken · 09/01/2010 00:39

if I could I'd volunteer my ex-h to clear your Gran's snow, he is a scrounging lazy good for nothing twunt who hasn't paid a penny in CSA money for nearly 3 years, who GAVE UP his job so he didn't have to pay.

In fact, I wish I could volunteer him to do lots of lousy jobs, but then I'm bitter

Fayrazzled · 09/01/2010 08:23

I hate this attitude that all those who are on benefits are "scroungers" and should be put to work. My dad has been a chartered accountant for 40 years and is currently unemployed. As he was out of work earlier in the year he is not entitled to JSA. After 40 years of paying NI he's now not entitled to anything (because my mum has a small P/T job). He spends his days researching jobs, writing applications, ringing agencies, attending interviews. It's a full-time job in itself. The Job Centre has no idea how to help a man like him who has so much professional experience but basically he's on the scrap heap because of his age. Unemployment is on the increase for men in their 50s and yet most need to continue working to have a decent pension pot: www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/unemployed-50s-release-161209.asp

So, no, I don't think I want to add to his humiliation and others like him by requiring him to shovel snow.

I realise I went off on a bit of a rant there.

ItsGrimUpNorth · 09/01/2010 09:05

'sic' is used after a word or phrase that is spelled wrong or out of context - you use it to show that you, the writer, knows it's incorrect but it's how it was used originally.

E.g. a journalist would use it when reporting what somebody said and what they said was grammatically incorrect.

monkeyfeathers · 09/01/2010 11:15

I hate 'sic'. Academics use it all the time and I just think it's so arrogant to affirm that you know better than the author's you're quoting. They don't just use it for grammar or spelling mistakes, they also use it to show how they're more politically correct than those they're quoting. Eg, you see a lot of 'he (sic)' where the author wants to point out that they would never be so mysognistic as to refer to people of unspecified gender as male. Of course, it makes no difference if doing so was the editorial norm in the context the quoted piece was written.

Writing sic seems so... Rude.

expatinscotland · 09/01/2010 11:22

i think we should bring back workhouses and force all these dole-scroungers to 'pay some back' by running on wheels to generate power.

then we won't need wind farms.

ItsGrimUpNorth · 09/01/2010 12:26

"..you see a lot of 'he (sic)' where the author wants to point out that they would never be so mysognistic as to refer to people of unspecified gender as male"

Or for example, they simply just can't be arsed to get into the he/she debate. Because they know someone is going to jump on it so they pre-empt it to stop wasting everybody's time?

pagwatch · 09/01/2010 12:30

My son gets DLa. I want him to clear the drive but the little fucker has the chimney to clear first.

I am apparently living in a Dickens novel

littlemoominmamma · 09/01/2010 13:12

Teenagers in general should be made to clear snow, it will give them a little exercise and something to do with their hands other than lobbing snowballs (you would think they would be bored of it by now eh!)

Whilst the schools are shut keep the children occupied is what I say!!!

pagwatch · 09/01/2010 13:15

The school opposite is filled with parents clearing the drive and car access.
DD pointed it out and asked why. I told her so that the school could try and open on Monday.

" don't they like their children then - do they want then back to school really quickly"

Well yes and no really.

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