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  Barry - "many" is a bit of hyperbole - the reality of the minimum wage is that it has proven to be a bit of a Curates Egg. For a the majority the minimum wage has worked, for a minority it has held them back as it has acted as a disincentive to their employers to increase wages to reflect skills/productivity. For an even smaller minority it has been a disaster as their employer just goes round the rules and still pays below minimum to people desperate to earn something.
  
  Alexander - get yourself down to The Eight Bells and tell me how many of those sitting there at 10 in the morning are in full employment, or have some other form of income other than benefits. Also one can take paid employment up to 15 hours per week without losing benefits, so many do this to top up their benefits - to be fair most of these are not the ones you find drinking in the street or propping up the bars of town centre Weatherspoons or Yates.
  
  There is plenty of evidence to show that those that are second or third generation in a household that has never had work tend to under perform at school and head straight to the benefits queue at the earliest possibility - it is this cycle that we need to break. However as I posted on Barry's blog if we do not sort out the education system and create manufacturing enterprises and apprenticeships we are dooming a further generation to the indignity of benefits.

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