My ex-wife owns a restaurant (which I still have a financial stake in) and she just despairs at the standard of British young people who apply and whom she has employed. With a few notable exceptions, they are often late (if they turn up at all) and seem incapable of putting in anything like a normal hard day's work.

She now asks the Poles & Lithuanians who work for her for referrals, so she gets first choice when their friends arrive in the UK. It's the last thing that she wants to do - she'd much prefer to employ UK staff, but she has been driven to distraction. She's now increasingly getting workers from Spain.

She's hardly unique - I hear this experience numerous times from other business owners in the town. It's maybe not politically correct to admit it - it's just a fact. I've no idea what the answer is - whether it is the Benefits' culture, excessive internet & phone addiction, drink, soft drugs. Maybe we are getting the best of the foreigners, and the lazy ones are staying at home.

I just know when I was that age I worked my butt off to earn money - there is just no way my parents would have allowed me to laze around the house all day.