Offers of help flood in to Bill English

Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, April 14th, 2016 - 53 comments
Categories: activism, bill english - Tags: , , , ,

Bill English’s abominable comment that young Kiwi men are “pretty damned hopeless” has caused quite a reaction. But here’s an unexpectedly positive one.

One Friend of The Standard (FoTS) rang Bill English’s office to offer their help in teaching some of these young men to read. They were gobsmacked to learn that the office was being flooded with such calls.

Good on you Kiwis, whoever you are, offering practical help in this way. I hope English is taking up every offer.

53 comments on “Offers of help flood in to Bill English ”

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  1. McFlock 1
    14 April 2016 at 4:14 pm

    I think the first recipient of “Assistance to stop being hopeless” could be English’s replacement in the Clutha-Southland electorate: a young kiwi male who seems to have been given more responsibility than he could competently handle.

  2. NoThanks 2
    14 April 2016 at 5:00 pm

    Except that you see that in the FB comment section of One News or Newshub etc, the vast majority of the people do not find anything wrong with Bill English’s comment. There are SOME people who are hopeless, there’s nothing wrong with it… Those who have called are offended by his telling of the truth which has hurt their brittle hearts of hopeless sorrows. Meh…

    • Stuart Munro 2.1
      14 April 2016 at 5:24 pm

      But he’s not telling the truth – he’s just trying to shift the blame.

      $150 billion in debt this year Bill – and record unemployment – these hopeless young fellows are all rockstars next to you.

      Useless bosses everywhere need their workers to be supermen. Supermen wouldn’t work for scum like that though. They fly away.

      • NoThanks 2.1.1
        14 April 2016 at 5:35 pm

        If there is record unemployment, then I wouldn’t have received loads of request for job interviews on LinkedIn from employers seeking to fill vacant positions. Unskilled jobs might be losing ground soon, but tech jobs are still booming. If you are unskilled, then you’re hopeless.

        • Shona 2.1.1.1
          14 April 2016 at 6:00 pm

          @ NoThanks . Define unskilled.

          • NoThanks 2.1.1.1.1
            14 April 2016 at 6:09 pm

            Many of the repetitive manual / labour jobs, such as manufacturing.

            • weka 2.1.1.1.1.1
              14 April 2016 at 7:19 pm

              It takes skill to do repetitive manual work. There is no such thing as unskilled work.

              • srylands …
                14 April 2016 at 9:07 pm

                “What is ‘Unskilled Labor’

                Unskilled labor is a segment of the work force associated with a low skill level or a limited economic value for the work performed (human capital). Unskilled labor is generally characterized by low education levels and small wages. Work that requires no specific education or experience is often available to workers who fall into the unskilled labor force.”

                http://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unskilled-labor.asp

                • weka …
                  14 April 2016 at 10:30 pm

                  It’s misnamed. There is no such thing as unskilled work. The term unskilled work is used to denigrate many jobs that are essential to society or that people in power couldn’t do without. It’s part of the culture that deems that some people should be poor for the sake of others, and that we need people kept in their place to serve capitalism. It’s also patronising and ignorant.

                  • Molly …
                    15 April 2016 at 9:34 am

                    Yes, the diversity of work required for our lifestyles means that skills are necessary in all areas.

                    Imagine if our housing crisis was left in the hands of these guys?

                    https://youtu.be/KYywc65kWmg?t=3s

                  • AB …
                    15 April 2016 at 2:05 pm

                    “It’s misnamed. There is no such thing as unskilled work”.
                    Yes agree Weka. I am constantly amazed at how skilled all sorts of people are at various things. If someone does a task for long enough they become really good at it. Some tasks might take longer to learn and be harder to master (e.g. becoming an accountant who is expert in tax avoidance) but that doesn’t mean other work should be sneered at as ‘unskilled’.
                    Perhaps we could say there is no such thing as an unskilled human – given time and opportunity to develop in their own way.

                • Tricledrown …
                  16 April 2016 at 12:14 am

                  Serial repeater of what you are paid to say makes you an unskilled Drone.

        • Gangnam Style 2.1.1.2
          14 April 2016 at 6:09 pm

          I’m all right Jack, fuck everyone else.

          • NoThanks 2.1.1.2.1
            14 April 2016 at 6:13 pm

            That’s right! Life is short, stop caring too much.

            • seeker 2.1.1.2.1.1
              14 April 2016 at 6:22 pm

              @no thanks
              Did you work hard to acquire your particular attitude to life, or did it just come naturally?

              Serious question.

              • NoThanks …
                14 April 2016 at 6:45 pm

                A crash course on corporate finance could teach you a lot about business decisions which seem harsh but rational. Then you’ll care a lot less about the irrational anger but focus more about how you would survive in this fiercely competitive environment. I hope one day finance could be included in social studies in Form 3 and 4 courses so kiwis would possess a basic knowledge of corporate governance and investment strategies.
                I do care about house affordability issues, I’m very lucky that my parents own a big piece of land and I managed to own a home on my own in Auckland. I do feel sorry for those who are working in industries like law / engineering / tech, who are the future of this country who are also having a difficult time to buy their home (unless you can get an associate position in Goldman Sachs which very well paid but extremely difficult to get in), plus how on earth would I invest if they are so expensive?
                On that front, I do care, I wish the govt would cut the tax for people of key industries (IBanking, engineering, law, finance and doctors etc), esp the young, so that they are well supported, instead of wasting time on useless unskilled labour who will have no future. But that’s just my dream. So you see, I do care for some, not all.

                • the pigman …
                  14 April 2016 at 6:56 pm

                  That’s right, dear, everybody is useless and stupid except you, or “Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the brighter future of New Zealand!”

                  • Gangnam Style …
                    14 April 2016 at 7:04 pm

                    I know, they think they are supermen but they are as vulnerable to future changes like everyone else, miserable deluded gits.

                • Sacha …
                  14 April 2016 at 7:22 pm

                  You reckon law, finance and banking are ‘key’ industries? Pffft.

                • greywarshark …
                  14 April 2016 at 10:19 pm

                  You could be recruiting for the army No Thanks. Harsh but rational!
                  You possibly speak for many in human resources who don’t seem to have a clue about people or the different styles of economic hegemony. Watch out a robot will replace you, or maybe it has already happened. Hi C3PO how’s your oil today?

                • Mike S …
                  15 April 2016 at 12:35 am

                  Fuckwit much?

                • vto …
                  15 April 2016 at 7:35 am

                  “Banking law and finance” are not industries, they are services provided to actual industries…… leeching services ……

                  what a dickhead

                • Shona …
                  15 April 2016 at 7:56 am

                  So you repair your own house/vehicles,make your own clothes, do your own gardening and cooking grow your own food etc @nothanks? Build your own home do your own decorating? Hmmm? Corporates suck as do the dickheads like you who are stupid enough to live within the corporate paradigm. And yes both my partner and I have walked the walk and talked the talk within the corporate world. Dickheads with spreadsheets who have no fucking idea of what it is you do but who know you’re doing it wrong. Oh and my list of rudimentary skills above are all skills I have acquired in life thru hands on experience.Being an unskilled worker ya know!

                • AB …
                  15 April 2016 at 2:12 pm

                  “So you see, I do care for some, not all.”
                  So what shall we do with the Untermenschen then? Turn them into biofuels?

                • seeker …
                  16 April 2016 at 1:59 pm

                  @ no thanks @6.45pm 14 april

                  Thanks no thanks for sincerely answering the question I asked about how you came to acquire your particular attitude to life. It was very illuminating. And, because I think you may still be quite young, I hope, as you grow older and hopefully more enlightened that that the fact that you do care for “some” will expand into ‘all’.
                  I think life is far too short (for all) to pick and choose. Best wishes on your life journey…… I hope it’s one where you eventually become a “true human being” as the Cheyennee Indian used to say (Dances With Wolves and The West).

        • Stuart Munro 2.1.1.3
          14 April 2016 at 6:30 pm

          Even in the depression there was work for bailiffs.

          Your argument is apocryphal and tangental to the issue.

        • ankerawshark 2.1.1.4
          15 April 2016 at 9:21 am

          No Thanks.

          Some people behave in an unhelpful way eg. not turning up for work, not being able to apply themselves, not having persistence. That does not make them hopeless as human beings. It is objectionable to write people off in that way.

          There is sound research that supports individuals with good self control have good outcomes in health, welfare and income. This is something some people are born with and that is just their good luck. Good self control is something that can be learnt and I think it is society in general who has failed these young people
          in not providing the means to learn in (and I don’t mean boot camps, that don’t work)…..Mr English is in a better position than any of us to implement and fund such strategies, so I would see it as his failure that this problems exists if it does exist.

        • Anno1701 2.1.1.5
          15 April 2016 at 12:06 pm

          “If you are unskilled, then you’re hopeless.”

          how about if can steal your car in less than 3 mins, It pays well too !

          skilled enough for you ?

      • Nessalt 2.1.2
        15 April 2016 at 2:24 pm

        it turns out Bill is telling the truth. it’s old lees-galloway whose been doctoring the truth.

        • Gangnam Style 2.1.2.1
          16 April 2016 at 3:01 pm

          Except (other than the BS ‘doctored’ story you righties are grapsing onto) English admitted he did indeed say it! SO is English lying??

  3. RedBaronCV 3
    14 April 2016 at 6:39 pm

    He seems to be complaining they can’t read, write and don’t have a license (driver’s) I assume.
    Well Nact have been in charge of the education system for the last 8 years so obviously the education changes they’ve made don’t work .
    And to get a driver’s license you need a car to learn to drive and the $500 to$600 it costs to get through the tests – which is a lot of money to a lot of people – He seems very out of touch

    • Sacha 3.1
      14 April 2016 at 7:24 pm

      Of course he’s out of touch. Had things handed to him on a plate his whole life, down to the public paying for his house-cleaner.

  4. Dorothy Bulling 4
    14 April 2016 at 6:53 pm

    Billy boy will know what useless looks like. I have 3 son who all have jobs and they are not useless, they just never wanted to work on a farm. Could I suggest that those farmers who cannot get decent staff might need to look hard at themselves and their farming business and maybe they will see why no young New Zealander would want to work for them.

    • Gangnam Style 4.1
      14 April 2016 at 7:12 pm

      https://nzfarmsource.co.nz/jobs/vacancy/2841704541

      “Hey lazy farm worker. NZ is so deregulated & your boss has more rights than u. How abt 18 days straight, 12 hour day” – Helen Kelly

      Need 2 years farm experience to get this “upwards of 40k. plus house Negotiable” job. Sounds dreamy…

    • The Pink Postman 4.2
      16 April 2016 at 2:17 pm

      good point Dorothy ,A few years ago my then young son wanted to work on a farm . He worked for this certain farmer for a whole month but this farmer never paid him ,we took him to the employment court won the case but my son never received his wages .Our son continued working on farms but it was 4 years and about 6 different employers before he found a farmer who paid him what he was worth and gave him decent time off, He is now a farm manager for that farm. There are a few who treat there workers as they should but there are very many who think their workers are just poorly paid slaves.
      One thing Dipper Bill did learn at school that is missing from young people today ,is how to screw tax payer to buy his houses.
      Him and his lousy Tory mates would be the first to scream if workers were to make a few bob under the counter,
      These scum are so arrogant its getting scary at the thought of them having another term.

  5. Sacha 5
    14 April 2016 at 7:25 pm

    Is anyone offering Billyboy a soul?

    • miravox 5.1
      14 April 2016 at 7:42 pm

      Souls seem to be in short supply right now. The closest would be some words from his religious leader, I think.

      Maybe swapping ‘church’ for ’employer’ in this one might fit The Bill.

      Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads … to those who have quit or are indifferent.

      Pope Francis September 30, 2013, interview, America magazine

      • AB 5.1.1
        15 April 2016 at 2:20 pm

        +1
        Souls are in short supply because Bill and so many of his ilk have already sold theirs.

  6. Neil 6
    14 April 2016 at 9:04 pm

    When my dad retired, one of the things he used to do in his spare time was to teach people to read & if they didn’t have a licence to drive he would teach them to read the road code & get their licence. Most of all he didn’t expect any reward for doing it, he used to say the reward was to see someone learn to read & get their drivers licence.

  7. greywarshark 7
    14 April 2016 at 10:10 pm

    I actually gave a bit of reading assistance to one young guy from a small town. He was a good sort and had got into trouble through getting into bad behaviour with some friends. So he shifted away and in a short time I found him a bike to get round on, and he was so happy he brought his family down too and they were able to break their cycle of
    difficulties with that change of location. A little help can go a long way you snotty superior righties.

  8. vto 8
    15 April 2016 at 7:37 am

    Bill English and his type of person are the ones responsible for these apparent “hopeless young men” …..

    Bill English and his type of person have held the reins of government and education and everything in this country for 17 of the last 26 years……

    …. the results of government and education are all Bill English’s.

    Take a bow cocksucker Bill

  9. Patrick 9
    15 April 2016 at 8:47 am

    I guess they must be like some failed National Party leaders…. oh like that bloody hopeless Bill (the 20% man) English.

  11. Matthew Whitehead 11
    15 April 2016 at 10:51 am

    While I agree Bill English’s statement was stupid, he was ineligantly expressing something that had a kernel of truth: That people who grow up in urban areas of New Zealand are probably going to be hopeless at and not want jobs as a farm hand at ANY economical wage.

    However, unlike most developed nations where English might have had a point, (eg. the US, the UK) New Zealand has a plenty of people in rural areas willing and able to work in sectors like agriculture. We should make sure that those people are getting a shot before relaxing immigration rules, for sure, not because immigrants don’t deserve a chance regardless of their skill level, but because immigration is expensive in terms of carbon emissions.

  12. Internationalrescue 12
    15 April 2016 at 12:43 pm

    It’s enlightening indeed reading the post and responses with the benefit of hindsight. We now know the recording of English was doctored. We now know English didn’t say what was claimed. We now know this was just another case of Labours desperate dirty politics.

    • Gangnam Style 12.1
      16 April 2016 at 3:07 pm

      What were the other cases of Labours desperate dirty politics? (& this one you are spouting everywhere (repeat & rinse, chop chop, spray & walk away) is already been countered as utter bullshit).

  13. Thinker 13
    17 April 2016 at 9:06 am

    Why doesn’t someone in the opposition put a question to the Minister of Education to ask if the Minister of Finance’s statement is a true reflection of the facts. And if there is a significant number of young males who are leaving school without enough education to do basic farm work, what policies are being put in place to rectify this?

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