Deborah Meadon

I know I shouldn't have a knee jerk reaction to something I read in the Daily Mail. I know it's written to get my back up and it certainly does. Last year I read about Theo Paphitis and his penny pinching thoughts on peoples use of social networking sites at work because of the millions of hours supposedly being lost in productivity! The worn and over used phrase "AS IF!!!" sprung to mind then and it does now as I read how Deborah Meadon, one of the other Dragons on the BBC's Dragons Den TV show, struggled to find workers for her textiles mill. Article can be read here

She states she couldn't find anyone aged 16-17 to work in her mill.  Citing young people as not finding it 'cool' to do manual labour work, she was then forced to extend her search to include 19-24 year olds to fill the vacant positions. Nothing at all to do with 16-17 year olds only being paid £3.68 an hour and 19-24 being paid between £4.98 and £6.08 an hour then? Surely Deborah wasn't trying to get cheap labour was she?

"The NMW rates are reviewed each year by the Low Pay Commission and from 1 October 2011:

• the main rate for workers aged 21 and over will increase to £6.08
• the 18-20 rate will increase to £4.98
• the 16-17 rate for workers above school leaving age but under 18 will increase to £3.68" -(directgov,2011)

No wonder Deborah was upset.


The mill is situated in Somerset where there are very high levels of unemployment, (so the article states) what it doesn't state however is how many unemployed 16-17 year olds there are. I would have thought the vast majority of these teens will be on full-time college courses! Not looking for work.

I've got to love the way the Daily Mail makes the public believe that Millionaires are only trying to help and that the youth are lazy good-for-nothings. When closer to the truth to say the millionaires are taking advantage of 16/17 year olds and paying hardly any tax.