NI society suffering 'breakdown'

[Aindriu]

Society in Northern Ireland is breaking down, with soaring levels of unemployment, family splits, mental illness and addiction, a think-tank has warned.
Government must look beyond the legacy of the Troubles and set itself to mend the fractures in communities across the region, according to the Centre for Social Justice.
A report from the influential centre-right organisation acknowledged that the conflict had contributed to the current problems, but said many of the issues were also evident in other parts of the UK.
While the study - Breakthrough Northern Ireland - painted a stark picture of social disintegration, it claimed the decline was reversible.
The report urged the Stormont administration to take action

Time for the politicos to get working hard and putting old ideas behind them methinks.

Read the full article here.

[idle tim]

Time for the politicos to get working hard and putting old ideas behind them methinks.

Read the full article here.

Can anybody shed some light on the Water Works area of North Belfast(never heard of it),political affiliations,young or old population,size of population ect ect.

[Cruimh]

Waterworks Ward, North Belfast

Waterworks is named after the park at the heart of the ward which provided the city’s water supply during the 19th century. There’s no such area as Waterworks instead it’s an amalgam of (nationalist) areas in the Lower Antrim Road and Lower Cliftonville Road – Newington, The Bone etc

[Mister men]

Basketcase of a society anyway. Let the brits deal with it.

[Figaroni]

It also takes in the small Loyalist Westland area to the North of the park and 'little America' on the Cavehill Rd..

[Red Stag]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W2YzSHB3z4]YouTube - Fenians[/ame]

With unionists learning their politics like this - no wonder why it's breaking down

Video starring British Citizen

[Squire Allworthy]

There is an interesting site that gives relative levels of poverty by ward and sections of wards in NI.

NINIS | Area Profile Report

Some very interesting figures and worth comparing with the report if you are interested in such things.


[COLOR=Blue]In the Water Works ward in north Belfast nearly four in five births were to unmarried mothers, nearly half the adult population had never married and two-thirds of people had no or low qualifications. [/COLOR]

Two points here, firstly is the level of births out of marriage in poorer communities not also related to the benifits system and trying to obtain accommodation? Unmarried mothers are a higher housing priority and two people 'living separately' receive more benefit? Now the cost to the tax payer of two allegedly living separately is an extra rent and for society it is an apartment or house unoccupied. This is one of the reasons why people with a good grasp of the actuality in poorer areas need to structure the benefits system and not politicians with backgrounds in Oxbridge.

The second, is related to education. The level of illiteracy in some areas of NI is staggering. There were primary schools where no one passed the 11+ Some schools did not even put the pupils forward to do the exam!

Obviously many of the children are as intelligent as the population norm, so what must be happening is parents with low skills not being able to pass on any constructive skills to their children. I came across communities where it seemed to me that many could not even communicate verbally. Every other work a swear word, no real sentence structure and very hard to understand. Many of the children in these areas are doomed the day they are born. Nothing to do with the secondary school system, the problem is at home and the need is to supplement (or reduce) the role of the parents in their upbringing. It would need massive investment in preschool and primary education in such areas or the problem is inherited by the next generation.

In addition to this the loss of many of the large employers of the past has further reduced the structure of society and I feel that even the loss of local shops and the dominance of super markets adds to the decline of such areas.

You see similar in the UK and in almost any country. How to solve such problem is another matter. Would I employ a boy form Ardoyne, probably not as basic communication skills would be less than many others, so even if employment opportunities increase these areas fester. Truely difficult problem.

[Robo]

This all boils down to the benefit and social housing systems. The benefit system enables women to be drugged up baby factorys and they never have to work, so long as they continue to claim to be a single parent. With social housing these women are top of the list to be housed due to the as per need system they have, the basket cases come first. Men are on a losing street as there is not much meaningful well payed employment for them so to a lot of them what is the point. They may as well spent their days of their face or pissed.

Lack of employment, a benefit and housing system that plays to the lowest denominator. There needs to be employment and the social housing need to be linked to employment. ie if your employed you come before the unemployed.

[Scipio]

I haven't lived in Belfast so can't comment what it's like there, but I have lived in the Antrim town/Ballymena area and you see much the same thing. Rafts of 16/17/18 year old girls walking around with babies in buggies, people openly drunk at 3 o'clock in the day, unemployed young adults hanging around the same stretch of street corner day after day etc.

Interestingly enough, it's almost always the most deprived areas which are covered in flags and bunting, be it from one side or the other.

Societal breakdown might be overblowing it, but there definitely is a real problem as regards educational attainment in many parts of NI.

[Sync]

I'd expect lots more of these reports from all over the UK. They all play into the need for the new government's "Big Society" idea, and so provide ammo for Cameron et al to forward their agenda.