That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
With part-time and summer jobs already harder to find, what can we expect over the coming year? We already know that it is the worst time to graduate in the last 20 years, and now the Chartered Institute for Personnel has announced its belief that unemployment will top 3 million during the recession.
Whilst job security may be found in a sturdy graduate scheme with a national firm or the government, and many more students are applying for postgraduate courses, these options clearly won’t cover us all. So what’s to be done if we want to avoid thinking we spent all that money on tuition fees for nothing?
Those looking for jobs now are, of course, the unlucky ones... Or so it would seem.
If you aren’t in your final year of (under- or post-graduate) study, then perhaps you need not worry so much – you’ve still got a loan and a large overdraft facility, the government says we might be on the way to recovery by the autumn and who cares if Woolworths has shut when Your:Shop does pick ‘n’ mix. But those looking for jobs now are, of course, the unlucky ones.
Or so it would seem.
A few rogue commentators in the national press think there is a silver lining after all. Giles Coren, of The Times, claims the long boom we have experienced led graduates into tedious jobs in finance which they didn’t really want, but took because of the money. Indeed, he claims to be grateful to have graduated in the last recession, even if he did have to work as a barman for 18 months after his graduation.
Similarly, The Telegraph's Roger Bootle believes it is "far healthier" if graduates avoid the allure of the financial sector and head elsewhere.
The Guardian reports growing interest in teaching subjects such as maths, which should result in steady jobs for those who would previously have looked elsewhere, as well as increased applications to charities, where people aim to "contribute to society".
Whilst that’s no comfort if you really do intend to become a high-flying banker - or if you want a (well paid) job shortly following graduation - we can at least contemplate the benefits that pressure on the labour market brings, if only because unemployment will give us time to think.
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