Forum Topic

Community Shop - Hanwell

I think this new shop has just opened and is opposite Wickes in Hanwell. I popped in on Saturday and bought a lovely Laura Ashley raincoat for just £7. Would be at least £25 in Chiswick. Was chatting to the lady in there. It's backed by the government for the 1st 2 years and is designed to out young people with disabilities in work and after 2 years the government will withdraw and leave the employees to run it themselves. It's a brilliant thing to do and the shop itself is lovely. Stock is clean and fresh and is merchandised beautifully...looks very upmarket. They would love some donations. Everything gets taken to their warehouse in Acton where it is sorted and cleaned if necessary and then given to the shop to sell. I really hope it does well and would urge everyone to get it off to a flying start.

Penny Crocker ● 5069d19 Comments

Re  their ability to compete will decline.        xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      let's hope so , it is the West who have made China rich by transferring our manufacturing and businesses there but the belief is China's prosperity will be self sustaining with the rise of the middle classes. What the effect will be on us with the mass inpouring of ill educated, unskilled mainly non English speaking people will have  does not bear thinking about, the vast majority on Benefits. Utter madness.

Tony Price ● 5066d

Re  I am used to it and have adapted;               xxxxxxxxxxxxx  probably because you are a cut above the average, not everyone has your ability to adapt and so drastically. Some lead, some follow, you must be the former and are the  most sought after. In UK we are better off than most in Europe, 50%  young unemployment in Spain and Greece, a Polish friend's  father had a heart attack recently, taken to hospital ( in Poland ), got partially better and told  his money's worth was spent, so out you go. So in an erstwhile Communist country, there is a limit on the amount their health system will spend on each person. My Chinese friends say there is NO free health care in China, nor free education. In India they can't believe our government  actually PAYS  people to have kids, so I suppose we still have something others don't, hence why they pour in here  boat, plane and lorry load thus probably shortening the time we enjoy the benefits WE have paid for.

Tony Price ● 5066d

We can all get anecdotal Tony about how we know someone to whom what is being said does not apply. How's this for an anecdote?I heard on Radio 4 this morning that 20% of young people in Europe are unemployed and this is likely to rise.Before you say 'You are a glass half empty' type of bloke, I used to be a glass half full type but the goalposts have moved considerably in the last 3 yrs.No one is happy .I suppose there is always the adage 'If ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise' to fall back on.

Keith Iddon ● 5066d

Agreed but it will not return in any where near the scale that is needed for industrial recovery. It's a pity too that most of the biggest manufacturers in this country are foreign owned and therefore make foreign companies rich.As for services,you can only serve the same plate of chips once,if you know what I mean.

Keith Iddon ● 5066d

I don't recognise this increasingly all pervasive commentary about how we all had it so good and things are so bad for our kids.My children have had no shortage of opportunity whilst they have been growing up compared to my own experiences and now, as they are on the cusp of entering the jobs market, things don't seem any more severe than they were in my day some 30+ years ago.I know times are tough, but times have *always* been tough (and people will always whinge regardless...)

Tony Colliver ● 5066d

Fortunately, there are signs of manufacturing returning to this country.  It will take a while no doubt, but as wages rise in China it is inevitable that their ability to compete will decline.

Tony Colliver ● 5066d

I am used to it and have adapted; switching my skills from building to manufacturing and then to service industries. Adapt and survive.

Nigel Brooks ● 5066d

Re  Negativity is not the answer.            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      acceptance of reality is,  the fact is the best is behind us. Sadly Britannia no longer rules the waves and hopefully Britons will not be slaves, at least  not to  persons overseas but by 50 years time, anything could have happened. America gone the way we did and who will be  the supremo is open to conjecture but must be  either China or India, which may well have overtaken China in size by then. All of course if the plans supposedly laid down by others does not come about. And I wonder IF English will have become the world language?. Someone tried to tell me recently the language used by most people in the world is Arabic, which may be true as China does not use one language, India  certainly does not, hence the wide use of English there. I put money on English being  paramount, notice  signs in ALL countries  are in the local language AND English and in most countries most protesters carry their banners in English in order to catch the worlds' attention.        But getting back to the predicament of young people now, when I was leaving my place in Southampton this afternoon to come back to Ealing, a young female  came to my door with a large pack on her back. What she was trying to flog  I never got round to finding out by saying I did not even have the few seconds she asked my attention for. My house was the 5th she had approached and had had no response, and the look on the poor girls face when I  declined her " advances "  made me upset and I felt so sorry for her. We all need hope and I don't persons like her  can have much?. I fully recognise persons of my age have had things  so much better.

Tony Price ● 5067d

Nigel.Please don't give me the 'negativity' bit.Not having your head buried in the sand is not negative.If you think that this country will be able to regain anywhere near the position in the world order of industrial or commercial might that this country enjoted pre 1918 you should write a thesis on how could be done and present it to the CBI.If they follow it and it succeeds you will be hailed as the best thing since objective reality went out of the window.We have been in a long slow decline since 1918.It is not an opinion but is borne out by the economic and industrial facts.We have been overtaken,lapped even,by other countries.Get used to it.

Keith Iddon ● 5067d

KeithWe are still an amazingly innovative country and are slowly, too slowly, waking up to the fact that we don't need to export our talent to make things.Yes, the world has changed and we need to adapt to survive. Negativity is not the answer.

Nigel Brooks ● 5067d

More worryingly - China isn't far off being bust either!

James Brown ● 5067d

We adapted from agriculture to industry when we had an empire and were the leading naval and trading power in the world.The world has taken us over and now it is we who are a colony.Tony Benn said the last colony of empire would be the working class and he is not far wrong.It's a very different world now Nigel from when  Turnip Townsend and James Watt we around.Wake up and smell the curry powder.

Keith Iddon ● 5067d

We have adapted before from agrarian to industrialisation, we will adapt again.Our expectations may be different, but we we still innovate and deliver well in the service sector.Interestingly, a number of 'offshore outsourced' services are returning to the UK as quality is now considered a better way of retaining customers than cost. Equally, there is a rise, albeit small, in UK manufacturing (source CBI) so all is not bleak.In the bigger picture, I agree China has 'awoken', the USA is 'bust' (and has been for decades) and don't get me started on India where I still fail to see why we send one penny of aid to a nation with 8% growth, nuclear weapons and a space programme!!!

Nigel Brooks ● 5067d

Re  I share his cautious optimism      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    Nigel, long may it continue but sadly I think your optimism will  proved to be misplaced ( don't say anything to your son ) but the West in general has no hope but to go downhill. OUR days are over, the East are taking over,helped by OUR manufacturers transferring  their work to the East. China and India will be THE economies of the future, China may overtake America as soon as 2016, then the fun starts militarily and in space. God bless America, who have kept us safe since we were replaced as governors of the world. Europe won't take over, too much internal squabling, apart from being bust, as is America if the truth were known. So young persons in the West  will have to re-adapt  pyhsically and mentally to a different exiastence than we  had. I regard myself as very fortunate, and have helped 2 young persons in particular substantially, both not of these shores but who share the same cuklture. At least they have and are being helped to stand on their own feet and make their way in an increasingly difficult world.

Tony Price ● 5068d

TonyIt is tough, bloody tough, for our yougsters at the moment. My son graduated three years ago and can still only find part-time and contract work. But he has found part-time and contract work; not by sitting on his bum with a Playstation and bemoaning his lot but by getting out there sending loads of CVs to ignorant people who don't even acknowledge them, applying for loads of jobs where, often, his application isn't even acknowledged. He is building a record of work. Meagrely paid work, but work all the same. Like 95% (just a guess) of young Londoners, he will never be able to afford a home in London so will eventually be at the mercy of greedy landlords. Is he negative? No, peed-off definitely but never negative.I share his cautious optimism and feel the same about schemes such as the community shop where youngsters, less fortunate than my son, are building a record of work.The real issue is in convincing those who are happy to lounge around and claim benefits that there is an alternative, not with a big stick approach but by showing real alternatives to life 'sponging off others'.

Nigel Brooks ● 5068d

re    If you stay negative then your prophecy can only be fulfilled.          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    Nigel, I am not referring to my personal situation, which is fortunately very good and which I realise , and hopefully will stay  that way but the question of where the good times are , are  beyond we mere mortal's control. As far as the residents of Ealing and the country as a whole are concerned, I remain firly of the opinion  the best is  behind us. So think young persons. What chance do they have of buying their own home,no jobs now with lifetime guarantee,or a job at all, and except Public SERVANTS, no 2/3rds inflation proofed pension or any useful pension at all. Why  do young people rebel and riot , cos they see no future.

Tony Price ● 5069d

The young 'door to door' sellers are often part of organised gangs and there have been many warnings about their trading activities in selling counterfeit polishes and overpriced dusters and the like.The case with the Community Shop is rather different as it would appear not only to be giving young people who are disadvantaged a vital outlet for their skills but also providing vital training for the wider retail sector.I am not defeatist and the best times arte the ones you have yet to have. If you stay negative then your prophecy can only be fulfilled.

Nigel Brooks ● 5069d

re  would urge everyone to get it off to a flying start.            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    certainly sounds as though it deserves our support. I feel so sorry for the young people who come round to our houses trying to sell items which basically we don't want or need, or services likewise and how sad it is that they have to try to earn a living in such a way. What future do they have and I thank my lucky stars I never had to "stoop so low ". The best times are certainly  behind us ( in more ways than one,especially in the L B of E )

Tony Price ● 5069d

I passed by yesterday, it looks good.Thnk you for the background information Penny. I really hope that it does succeed.

Nigel Brooks ● 5069d