Ch-ch-ch-changes

On Friday I went down to town to attend a course I've been assigned to by the Jobcentre. It was with an organisation called PACE, which has EU funding to help those who are out of work. The hour I spent was a one-to-one, filling in paperwork and signing things, but it was a profitable time. The lady who saw me was very helpful, and gave me some useful perspectives from the employer's side. She has worked in HR, so she has some useful knowledge to impart. I'm due there again next Friday.

Later on in the day I received a phone call from a recruitment agent. After the preliminary questions, he told me that there's a job in Derby (yes, Derby again) for which my previous experience would be suited. So I'll wait and see..

This so-called credit crunch is rolling on; relentlessly hyped in the press, we're expecting to see the soup kitchens any minute - and the Jarrow marches. There's a lot of realignment going on in the economic world at present (for example, Woolies down the pan and Santander job cuts in the banking sector), but I'm not sure whether the crisis is the cause or the effect. I'm inclined to think (borrowing Voltaire's saying) that it the credit crisis didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent it.

In the same way, if terrorism didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent it. Otherwise, how could we have armed police (and their attendant errors like poor Jean Charles de Menezes), ubiquitous sureillance cameras and phone tapping? Come back, Eric Blair. All is forgiven.