Blogs: Richard's job log: 10

Richard currently works in a Birmingham law firm, after a contemporary history degree. He’s thinking about a paralegal career, but also has media ambitions.

In 1993, Blur released a record called ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’. At the time I thought that was a bit unfair. What did Blur know? Life was relatively good; I had a Super Nintendo, a football and a Gameboy. What was rubbish about that? Nothing, that’s what. Modern Life was smashing in my world. I hadn’t even gone through the horrible process of developing those crippling teenage neuroses. However, in fairness, I think this was chiefly because I was only ten years old at the time, but that’s not how we are remembering it.

In 2011 however, should Blur or their modern day equivalent (JLS probably) release an album of the same name I fear I would agree with them. Whilst we do live in an age of technological wonders (HD TVs, iPhones, personal rocket packs etc) it does seem that almost literally everything else has disappeared down the toilet at an alarming rate.

Latest figures released in February 2011 estimated that there are approximately eight billion people unemployed in Britain and you don’t need to be a rocket Doctor or a ‘Numbers Czar’ to know that, that is pretty bad news.

One way around the unemployment problem, I think, is a good old fashioned war. We could wage a nice, patriotic war, during which our boys could claim a few glorious victories over a foreign (possibly tyrannical) foe. There is nothing quite like a good war to cheers us all up and give us a good reason to wave some tiny Union flags about in the streets. Oh wait…….

Equally depressing is the news that David Cameron’s much vaunted Big Society has been a colossal (and unsurprising) failure. Funding cuts have devastated the Big Society to such a degree that the whole scheme now constitutes a single old man playing the spoons in a day care centre in Watford. And rumour has it he has just lost the funding for one of his spoons.

All is not lost though citizens, for we have a Royal Wedding to look forward to in April (I think). What will her dress look like? Will Prince Phillip continue his seemingly unstoppable quest to offend all of the Earth’s people? Will anyone care?

There is also the end of the world to come next year, because, as you probably know, if the Mayans and John Cusack are to be believed we are all utterly doomed. Which, to be honest, might put a bit of a dampener on things. Modern life may be rubbish, but I would much rather be alive than dead.

As such, if the world is to end in 2012 and my brief existence on this earth is to come to an end before I hit my 30th birthday I can only hope that the universe really is a fair and just place after all. Hopefully Karma will kick in and take out the coalition government before me, because to be honest, if I go before David Cameron I will be livid.