Benefits

Unemployment is a lagging indicator.  This means it measures the effect of economic events, such as a recession. The unemployment rate doesn't rise until after a recession has already started. It also means the unemployment rate will continue to rise even after the economy has started to recover.

I don't mask ,not on a conscious  level anyway. I'm not good at processing  body language etc in real time, and making adjustments based on such.

firemonkey said:

I struggle to know what to say.

And I struggle to shut up sometimes. We have more in common than we realise.

Thank you for the acknowledgement - no apology needed and I hope we can continue to discuss / debate spiritedly for a long time to come.

I will try to be more sensitive where I can detect it is needed though - I'm a bit of a bull in a china shop sometimes.

Iain said:

It is most likely linked to my own issues of self worth where I try to be useful to justify my existance through being useful.

Firstly I'm the one who should apologise,not you. I can fully understand the need to prove self worth  through being useful. For me it comes via nearly 20 years of participating in the World community grid and over 25 years of spreading information via the many RSS feeds I'm subscribed to. I'm not, and never will be, good at providing emotional support. I struggle to know what to say.

firemonkey said:

I just wish the patronising 'helpful advice' from you and others,would stop.

Do you mean just the advice aimed at you or all the advice on the site?

When you wrote:

firemonkey said:

I do my best to make worthwhile contributions.

I was trying to be supporting and acknowledge out differences to encourage you to keep doing this.

I apologise if you are offended by this. Please remember that I too am autistic and have my failings, one of which is a degree of emotional blindness that causes me to misread the unspoken "ask" in a conversation and can lead me to be overly "helpful".

It is most likely linked to my own issues of self worth where I try to be useful to justify my existance through being useful.

However this is my own cross to bare.

If you are talking about advice on the site in general then that is a hard no from me. A lot of people come here desperate and in need of advice and were I have something I believe is of use to them I will contribute to ease their suffering and improve their lives.

In these cases I think the annoyance of one individual is a price worth paying to help another.

I just wish the patronising 'helpful advice' from you and others,would stop. I may be lots of not very good things, but being mentally deficient isn't one of them.

It is certainly not the case that most Autistics live high powered lives.  Or most neurotypicals for that matter.

The internet can make you feel like everyone is deliriously happy. But it's an illusion.  People mask don't forget. Socialisation is an interesting thing.  The Auties who are better at surviving amongst NT's will have lived their lives taking on many Neurotypical characteristics without even realising it.  And it has just become personality now.

I don't tend to mask at all. Especially online.  Which puts me in a state of perpetual debate with others.  It's exhausting

Well, if it's true, I'm terrified because I live alone in a two bedroom flat and I don't want anyone else to live with me.  I need the space.

firemonkey said:

I do my best to make worthwhile contributions.

Just make contributions - try not to judge their worth.

Whatever your perspective, interest or style of writing it is always welcome as it helps us understand one another better.

We sometimes don't agree on things but I always smile to see your response as it means we are engaging in a discussion about something that is important to someone and that is how we ultimately find balance in the world.

I do my best to make worthwhile contributions.

It's wonderful that your work placement led to your current, ongoing role - especially given the extra challenges that gaining and staying in employment can present for us as autistic people.

On the political context, though, it's perhaps worth knowing that long-term unemployment (which you mention) was already falling rapidly under John Major's Conservative government. That fall continued after Labour took power in 1997, but levels then rose again from 2004 onwards (still Labour). Levels then fell again after the Conservatives took office in 2010, falling in 2022-23 to the lowest levels since 1993.

Sorry if this seems to be rubbing salt in after Iain's reply. It just prompted me to do some digging, so I thought I may as well share what I found!

IrishInManchesterUK said:

Labour’s proposals to have people living in council houses and/or in receipt of benefits being effectively forced to have at least one or more migrants in their homes

Do you have a link to the news article covering this please?

One thing that could have serious problems for people is Labour’s proposals to have people living in council houses and/or in receipt of benefits being effectively forced to have at least one or more migrants in their homes (which technically it’s not their home if the council owns the property) under pain of benefit sanctions and/or of being in breach of tenancy/revokation of tenancy agreement and/or eviction for refusing to have an unvetted migrant in your home - either way going forward, the tenants will eventually be forced out regardless and replaced by migrants, which is why this proposal must be resisted - aside from existing related laws, it’s highly likely that Labour will pass the relevant laws through Parliament 

I agree.

My main objecton to our current foreign policy is that it is jingoistic. (Now I've looked it up., previously I'd have used the word stupid or even perhaps "suicidal).

UKvRF at "warfare" is a match similar to me V Tyson Fury at "slaps". I was good at "slaps" but that was years ago and ,er, Tyson Fury... England was good at warfare in the 1940's Still just about handy enough to beat Argentina in 1982 but NOW?? 

We don't have raw materials, reliable soures, (of raw materials) a steel smelter, any real heavy machinery manufacturing base, and unless we've been naughty, all our submarine based nuclear deterent is "dual key" with the Americans. Will they let us launch, knowing that RF retaliatry strikes won't just be limited to us if "Dead hand" kicks in? Don't know about their "Perimitr" A.K.A. Dead Hand automated nuclear strike system? 

Our best option is to remind the RF how bloody great their korea area jets were thanks to the RR NENE and plans which we sent them, and they then freely copied. Then we can bIll 'em for the licences, and they can pay us in lpg and titanium.... 

its likely also that under labour work didnt pay as they held wages down, the wages under labour were like. ..... £2 per hour... and for young workers and apprentices? you worked free, no wage at all, slave labour.... thats what it was under labour. no young person had reason to work as labour didnt want to pay young people.

I'm not an expert on such matters, AutToFindOutMore.

However, according to what I've just read, a Bill starting in the House of Commons, or House of Lords needs to be approved by both Houses before it becomes an Act (law). The link below provides detailed information about the process involved.

Source: https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/

Patriotism-fine. Jingoism- not fine.

"Jingoistic cesspit of Europe"

You say it like it's a bad thng! 

Kinda like the growing cynicism though...

The sooner everyone realises what the current deal is , the sooner we might negotiate a better one.

If you can, I think you need to try to break the habit of comparing yourself with other people, as I don't think it benefits you. There are members here who are considerably younger than me, who have experienced more in their lives than I have in mine. By the same token, I know I've had life experiences that other members may not have had.

Quite often, I find that I am ill-equipped to make a 'worthwhile' response to many of the discussions on the forums. Therefore, I feel it is a matter of playing to my strengths and responding to discussions that I feel I can contribute to in some way.

I sometimes feel like a pauper at a millionaire's convention here. So many people living far more high powered lives, because whatever their problems they've got their act  together, to a marked degree that I haven't. It can be hard to make worthwhile responses due to not having the necessary life experiences.