Unemployment Archives - Aberdeen Voice

Oil And Gas Lay Offs Impact On Food Poverty

Jan 132017

With thanks to Esther Green, Senior Account Executive, Tricker PR.

As food poverty continues to grow across Grampian – with the slump in the oil and gas industry pushing up requests for aid – a major financial firm is helping emergency food parcels reach those most in need.

Aberdeen-based charity, Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE) has a fleet of nine vehicles distributing food donations to organisations operating at grass roots levels to support those living in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray who are struggling to put a meal on the table.

Aberdeen Asset Management has donated £5,000 towards CFINE’s vehicle costs which has been described as a “fantastic contribution” that will help keep the fleet on the road, allowing it to continue to make essential deliveries to support the growing numbers of people affected by food poverty.

It’s not just those on benefits or low wages that gain assistance, the downturn in oil and gas resulted in a new market of referrals emerging, with laid-off energy sector workers forced to seek out vital support.

Dave Simmers, chief executive officer of CFINE said:

“To see your income collapse, sometimes with no warning at all, because of a job loss leads to difficult times. We have heard of people losing well paid jobs in the oil and gas sector but left with next to nothing when their income dries up – any one of us could be just be a few pay cheques away from a crisis.

“Our services are more needed than ever and with benefit changes coming through we expect there will be a deeper impact on already hard-pressed families. Many already have to make choices between heating or eating and we hear anecdotal evidence of parents going without food so they can buy their children’s school uniform.

“We operate on very tight budgets and every penny counts so to get £5,000 from Aberdeen Asset Management is a fantastic contribution. Without our vehicles, we could not get out to the charities and community organisations like Cyrenians, Salvation Army and Instant Neighbour which in turn reach the people in need in Grampian, which is a huge area to cover.”

CFINE is seeing increases for aid and the number of referrals increase all the time. In 2017 it will receive, organise and deliver more than 500 tonnes of food – which equates to a staggering 1,190,476 meals. Last year it distributed 10,000 emergency food parcels thorugh its own foodbank, a huge increase on the 3,000 food parcels given out in 2012, its first year of operation.

Dominic Kite of Aberdeen Asset Management’s charity committee said:

“Food poverty is a sad but very real fact of life for too many people in our region. We applaud the work of CFINE , its volunteers and partner organisations in tackling food poverty, building resilience and improving the health and wellbeing of people across the Grampian region.”

With demand for its services showing no sign of waning, CFINE has a number of volunteering opportunities and would welcome anyone who may be willing to help out. Call Christine or Graeme on 01224 596156; email info@cfine.org or visit the website www.cine.org to get involved. The charity also welcomes food and finanacial donations to ensure this vital work can continue.

The Aberdeen Asset Charitable Foundation was established in 2012 to formalise and develop the Group’s charitable giving globally and seeks partnerships with smaller charities around the world, where funds can be seen to have a meaningful and measurable impact.

The firm encourages its employees to use their time and skills to support its charitable projects. The main focus of the Foundation is around emerging markets and local communities, giving back to those areas which are a key strategic focus of the business and to build on the historic pattern of giving to communities in which Aberdeen employees live and work.

For more information visit http://www.aberdeen-asset.co.uk/aam.nsf/foundation/home

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The Full Monty – Some Bare Cheek At HMT Aberdeen

Aberdeen City, Opinion No Responses »

Mar 312015

The Full Monty at HMT. A review by Duncan Harley.

It was clearly only a matter of time before this tale of missing trousers came to the Aberdeen stage.

Is it a mere tribute to the film, or is the stage production of Simon Beaufoy’s award-winning screenplay breaking new ground?

The story explores the issues faced by a group of laid-off steelworkers. The steel mill has closed and the de-skilled men have been chucked on the scrap heap.

The government of the day has little to offer other than the so called Job Club. Impotence, poverty and despair are central themes.

Even suicide by hanging is an option, and in a slapstick but shocking scene the audience are forced to make a decision as to whether to laugh or cry!

Of course it’s all metaphorical. The shedding of clothes in the Chippendale scenes reflects the claiming back of dignity and the casting off of the impotence of mass unemployment. The hanging scene where Bobby Schofield’s Lomper is first rescued, then abandoned, before being taken into the fold reflects on issues to do with the uncertainties of celibacy.

The spectre of a female peeing up against a wall not only challenges gender beliefs, but also further emasculates the jobless men. She has a role to play and they don’t.

At points the lampooning of Thatcherite Britain resembles a Donald McGill seaside postcard and there were cracks. Kate Wood’s Linda was a case in point. Despite her best efforts, the characterisation appeared slightly wooden, and the dialogue disappointingly sparse. Kate’s high spirited Bee and Annie more than made up for this.

In the big scheme of things however this is a superb production. Beside the political moralising the entertainment value shines through. With feelgood galore, plus one of the funniest hanging scenes ever performed on an Aberdeen stage, this hilarious tale of willy waggling in the industrial heartland of England had the audience in stitches from start to finish.

Directed by Roger Haines – Cabaret, Godspell and Driving Miss Daisy – and with choreography by Ian West – The Dog Ate My Homework and The Blues Brothers – this is writer Simon Beaufoy’s first foray into writing for the stage, and he freely admits having to learn a whole new set of skills to make his original screenplay work in a theatrical space.

Of particular note was Brook Exley as Nathan. I have to date yet to see another young lead deliver so many lines so faultlessly.

With a stage set worthy of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and pounding numbers such as Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’ and the Tom Jones classic ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ you’ll get good entertainment value from The Full Monty.

The Full Monty plays at HM Theatre Aberdeen until Saturday 4th April.

Tickets from Aberdeen Performing Arts Tel: 01224- 641122

Words © Duncan Harley, Images © Matt Crocket

Lets Be Thankful For Civil And Public Sector Employees

Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Articles, Community, Featured, Information, Opinion No Responses »

Nov 242011

Brian J Carroll, a long serving Aberdeen Civil Servant takes a look at the crucial role the Civil and Public Services play in our day to day lives and argues that this should be gratefully acknowledged.

Lets be thankful for Civil and Public Sector employees !

I have worked in the public sector for over 30 years and have reason to be grateful to the public sector for employing me but also have reason to be grateful for the services other civil and public sector workers provide to me, showing that they have a dedication, commitment and loyalty second to none, in the service I and others within and in other services deliver to the public on a daily basis.
Once these services are gone they will never ever come back again!

Lets hear it for all the hard working, dedicated, committed and loyal civil and public servants who have provided me and no doubt a lot of you with the services we need to see us through life from cradle to grave:-

My school teachers who taught me my letters and numbers, to read and write, english, arithmetic and maths, foreign languages, history and science
The nurses who came round and inoculated us against TB, mumps and measles
The Doctors and nurses in GP practices and hospitals who looked after me when I needed them
The air traffic controllers who saw to it that my holiday and work flights took off and landed safely
The benefit officers who helped me out when I was unemployed, skint and looking for a job
The registrar for doing their job in respect of births, marriages and deaths
The midwives who helped in the safe delivery of my nieces and nephews
The court officials, administrators and Procurator Fiscals who ensure that justice works on a daily basis
The radiographers who X-rayed me
Those at the blood transfusion service who helped me to help others
The firemen who put out a fire in a flat next to mine a number of years ago and the policeman who assisted in clearing the flats next to the one on fire
The gardeners who keep our parks looking nice
The refuse collectors, without whom we would be in a terrible state
The social workers who help and assist people daily with their problems and issues
The paramedics who answer our calls for help, day and night
The court officials who assisted me in dealing with my fathers estate
The physiotherapist who helped me after breaking my foot at rugby
The police officers who answer our calls for help day and night
The HMRC staff who assist with Tax Returns
The DWP staff who assist us in getting benefits and finding jobs
The librarians who provide a reading facility and library second to none
The museum officials who continue our learning of this country and the world
The grave diggers and others who give us a place to rest and a dignified send off

All these people are to have their nationally agreed pension rights cruelly slashed. The government says:

“They have to take the pain just like everyone else.”

Just because private sector employers who make billions of pounds of profit offer their employees such lousy pensions or no pension at all, does not justify underpaying public service pensions when they are affordable, fair and actually costing the country and the taxpayer less as time goes on.

The average public sector pension is £5600. The average private sector pension is £5800, The average company directors pension is £175,000 – they still have final salary pensions; that is the real scandal and rip off of pensions in Britain today.

Nobody joins the civil and public sector to get rich. They do it to serve the public. They have a public service ethos. We should value that and thank them for it – not vilify them at every turn on the back of government rhetoric and lies.

Dr David Kennedy On Morality And Values

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Featured, Information, Opinion No Responses »

Oct 132011

As conversations go, our own Suzanne Kelly found her recent discussions with former Robert Gordon University Principal Dr David Kennedy fascinating. As always, conversations lead to discussion of inter-connected events. Here, in a further interview extract, Dr Kennedy talks frankly about how personal and societal standards, values and morality have changed and how individual actions have affected and influenced matters, perhaps unintentionally, on a much larger scale.

We had been discussing land use and EU farming bureaucracy, and how, for many farmers, European subsidies had made them rich.
See: Aberdeen Voice article ‘Dr David Kennedy On Land Use And Farming’ )

Dr Kennedy is in no doubt that elected politicians have much to answer for, on numerous issues in addition to agricultural policy.

“It‘s a bizarre state of affairs. These are supposed to be highly-intelligent people elected to represent us. The sad truth is, as one old friend used to say, ‘they are just filling their own pooches’. And that’s absolutely true. Some investigative journalist did the work on MPs’ expenses and when her work was made public, we saw the full extent of their greed. The MPs’ expenses scandal was an absolute disgrace, but that is nothing compared to what is happening in Brussels.

“Morality is fast disappearing for some reason or another. There is a lack of integrity and it now seems that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are making money. Trump boasted on his website of brutality, toughness and greed. Are these behaviours we all really value?

“Why do humans behave in this way? Well, it’s a long story involving conditioning the human brain. This began in a scientific way early in the last century, not by Joseph Goebbels as we are encouraged to believe, but by an American named Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, who could, fairly, be called the father of advertising, propaganda, and public relations. He knew how to play on the pleasure and pain centres of the brain. Goebbels was an avid pupil of Bernays.

“Brainwashing didn’t begin with the wicked Chinese, or the godless Communists, or even the evil Nazis. It began in America, where it has been perfected over the years, and we are all subjected to it. Trump is simply one example of The Big Lie. Anyone who analyses the mainstream media will readily see how words are used, not to inform, enlighten and clarify, but to mislead, confuse and confound. And it is all done to amass wealth”.

“There has been a massive cultural change. I’m 80 or so, and I look at changes such as wealth-creation, sustainability, satisfying our needs and the problem of waste. The thing is, in about the last 30 years the speed of technological change has been bewildering. Sixty years ago an Edinburgh academic, Professor CH Waddington, looking at the future, predicted that, given the rate of change in the accumulation of knowledge, it would eventually be impossible to keep up with all the changes. I think what he said has come to pass.”

Pressed for an example, Kennedy continued.

“Take micro-electronics. When I was a young man you learnt about thermionic valves and their use in radios. A few years earlier, radios were powered by accumulators that seemed to weigh a ton. Electrical engineers who were brought up on thermionic valves, then had to learn about transistors, and the technology of valves was forgotten. Transistor radios were very much smaller and easily carried around. Noise pollution increased. A new technology had to be learned, which lasted for about 10 years before being replaced by the silicon chip. Things are getting even smaller.”

There are serious issues with the UK’s higher education system – tuition fees, devalued degrees, an imbalance in the areas of tertiary learning where we can’t all be Media Studies graduates, poor employment prospects and very grim student loan burdens. What, I asked, are Dr Kennedy’s views on where these problems came from? Where does he think we are heading, and what can be done about it?

Again, the issues of personal morality and values were raised.

“I think it is fairly easy to see where the problems come from. They arise from economics. Mrs Thatcher radically changed the basis of economic life in Britain famously claiming, ‘There is no alternative’.

“This assertion has been accepted by all the major political parties and involved rolling back the state, decrying collective activities while promoting individualism, standing on one’s own two feet. Since then, we have seen the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This is another example of Trump’s mantra, ’greed is good’.

“So, education is no longer thought of as being for the greater good of society. Health is no longer thought of as a basic necessity, best provided by an all-inclusive system. Caring for the elderly through a comprehensive system of pensions paid for whilst one is healthy and working is now too great a burden.

“Instead, leave it to the individual and let the market decide what should be provided, and for whom. This is completely against the 1940s wisdom of William Beveridge and the subsequent foundation of the welfare state. And, of course, the same attitude prevails when it comes to protecting the environment – nothing must be allowed to stop the onward march of progress”.

More from this fascinating conversation will appear in future issues of Voice.

Aberdeen Bucks The Unemployment Trend

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Information No Responses »

Aug 162011

Carlo Pandian highlights the fact we Aberdonians are fortunate with regard to latest employment figures

While the rest of Scotland suffers, Aberdeen is bucking the unemployment trend.
The Office for National Statistics released a new unemployment report this week that will no doubt trigger many a debate down the local pub.

The report highlights the national employment black-holes where job vacancies are scarce, numbers of benefit claimants are high, and opportunity is generally low.

Northern English cities and smaller Scottish and Welsh cities dominate the black hole list. Which poses the question: should job seekers in places like Hull & Motherwell be willing to up sticks and find employment in other more prosperous UK cities – or should they be grafting away in their local economies?

The good news for Aberdeen is – the city’s employment market is currently flying.

The data from the Office for National Statistics has been cross-referenced with job search engine Adzuna to show that for every 1.6 employment benefit claimants in Aberdeen, there is 1 open vacancy. “Almost” enough jobs to go around for everyone in the city!

This is in no way representative of the rest of Scotland (or the British Isles for that matter), but in these dark economic times, the oil and gas industry appears to be keeping Aberdeen alive. Demand for engineers in the city is higher than ever, and Aberdeen’s economy seems blissfully insulated from the economic turmoil other cities are experiencing.

The full set of job opportunity below can be seen in the infographic here.

Foster Care Cuts – A False Economy?

Articles, Information, Opinion No Responses »

Jan 142011

By Gordon Maloney.

Cutting foster carer allowances is a “false economy”.
In October 2010 the Fostering Network recommended an increase of 5.1% in 2011/2012 to the allowances given to foster carers. These allowances are meant to cover food and clothing, as well as, for example; the costs involved in having and maintaining a larger car and house.

This increase was calculated in line with the revised Retail Prices Index (RPI) from 2010/2011 and the Treasury’s predicted RPI for 2011/2012.

This recommendation has, however, been met with concern from local authorities and independent fostering providers, such as the children’s charity Barnardos. With some local councils facing cuts of up to 8.9% being forced upon them, despite the illusion of choice in letting them choose where the axe should fall.

Cuts will exacerbate the already very serious problems in recruitment and retention of foster carers. This will in turn lead to poorer outcomes, with more children being put into unsuitable homes and, ultimately, it will cost the Government more. Leading charity the Fostering Network has warned that the shortage of foster carers may mean that more children end up placed in residential care, despite being the poorer option for meeting many of their needs and costing local authorities three or four times as much in the long run.

The damage that will be caused to people’s lives by this failure to support vital state services – of which this is only one example – will be devastating. With youth unemployment nearing a million, it is not melodramatic to speak of a ‘lost generation’. The human misery caused by these cuts and belt-tightening could, perhaps in some warped neo-liberal mind, be justified if it would, as we are constantly told, improve the economy. It will, however, do no such thing.

It will cost us more.

David Cameron argued in his New Year’s message that the Coalition’s cuts will put the “country on the right path.” He claims optimistically that 2011 will be “the year that Britain gets back on its feet.” A failure to properly cover the costs of foster care, however, will prove to be one of many examples of short-sighted cuts that will only do damage. Far from putting Britain back on its feet, these reckless cuts will do untold damage to the most vulnerable in society, and will even prove to be economically illiterate as well.