Yesterday I looked at targets and controls to ensure prudence. I recommended the existing targets for inflation and debt interest.Ā Today I want to look at an additional target to replace the Maastricht requirements and to provide some balance to the controls. There should be a growth target to remind Whitehall and the Bank that growth brings higher living standards and brings the state deficit down more quickly than austerity.
Choosing a growth target is not easy for an economy that has been like many others so badly bruised by lockdowns and other anti covid policies. The pre financial crash economy could have sustained a growth rate of 2.5%. The post banking crash economy struggled to sustain 1.5%. With much better financed banks now and with plenty of cashĀ around inĀ the banking sector it should be possible to sustain a 2% growth rate for the next five years. That would make a sensible target, with symmetry around 2% inflation and 2% growth. That would mean typically wages rising 4% a year and real incomes 2%.
What actions should a government take to seek to sustain such a target? Just asking the question would be refreshing after years of asking how we meet the Maastricht lower debt and deficit targets with an implied emphasis on doing and spending less. I have set out inĀ past blogs some of the components of a successful growth strategy. We need more and cheaper energy, we need more domestically produced energy, industrial products and food. We need a policy aimed at cutting the large balance of trade deficit, with opportunities to replace imported energy, food, timber vehicles and much else besides. We need more intelligent use of government purchasing to back competitive UK products. We need lower taxes and easier rules on the self employed andĀ businesses as they take on their first employees. The UK economy needs a larger small business and self employed sector, with more competition for the large businesses with strong market positions.
August 9, 2021
We need a smaller and much more efficient public sector.
August 9, 2021
Indeed but one only doing the very few things that the state can do better than the private sector. Defence, law & order and not that much more. In these areas they could be hugely better directed and more efficient too. The police in my experience have virtually given up on real crimes. A 6% prosecution rate (not even conviction rate) for violent crimes for example. An NHS that is failing millions with massive rationing and huge waiting lists.
They should get out of most of healthcare, education, housing, energy and much else where they monopolise, offer unfair competition and hugely distort the market in a very damaging way. They have performed appallingly in these and many other areas – it is doing immense net harm.
August 9, 2021
So what did we get for our Ā£37 billion, handed to the private sector for T&T then?
And what of HS2? It’s not direct labour, is it?
And the probation service?
Southern Water?
August 9, 2021
I agree but this is gross incompetence (or perhaps worse corruption) by the state sector- they agreed to the fee structure for test and trace and what they demanded for this fee.
The State Sector care not what they spend nor what value (if any) they get. Not their money!
August 9, 2021
And what about the PCRs for travellers: 429 providers on the official gov.uk website(as of 09/08, 431 yesterday) only 17 real laboratories able to read the tests and send the results. So a couple of hundreds of Mom&Popās pseudo-companies that are sending PCR tests from the shed in their gardens then assume that the buyers of such tests will send them to one of the real labs for proper reading of the results, but still pocket the money for a ādistributionā work that is hardly pharmaceutical/medical or anything scientific but make them a nice Ā£50+ per test.
Is that one of the beauties of the private sector (āthe entrepreneurial sectorā) you are so keen on? And if anything here, the āpublic responsibilityā is only in a lack of checking that these M&Pās companies are really what they claim to be, a bit like what happened with the contracts that were provided to friends of the previous Health Secretary, PMās advisor, ā¦ but in that latter case it was public money that was distributed.
August 9, 2021
Indeed. The most expensive PCR tests in Europe combined with being about the only country insisting on them. Other countries are accepting vaccination proof and Covid recovery proof. Why is the UK not doing the same?
People I know are now spending 10 days in places like Spain, Portugal or France before coming to the UK because it is (1) way cheaper than the UK government’s quarantine charges, and (2) you aren’t confined to a hotel room by the government in those countries.
Those countries are following the same science, so what’s the difference. I guess the answer is you have to also follow the money.
August 9, 2021
+1
August 9, 2021
Competition amongst the many outfits trying to make a profit on testing is bringing the price down.
A look on the very good government site gave me a choice of 11 local clinics for a test to leave the UK to go to Spain ranging in price from Ā£129 down to Ā£59 for the same test.
And all had appointments for tomorrow.
Some very close to me some a 40 minute drive away.
Would a state run monopoly be better?
August 9, 2021
@LL; Except the failing at Southern Water, well documented at Ofwat, and the spiralling cost of HS2 are caused by problems -or worse, as you suggest- within the private sector; the failing of the T&T system (including PCR/Lateral flow testing, as @hefner points out) has happened under the leadership of people brought in from the private sector, it isn’t anything to do with the NHS; on the other hand the successful roll-out of vaccines has been entirely due to the NHS /public health care service.
August 9, 2021
Jerry, You’ve just inverted the truth. The covid vaccines were mostly designed, and completely developed and put into production (an incredibly complex task) by “private” industry. All the NHS had to do was shove it into your arm. And the NHS wasn’t even up to that task, having to rely on armed services personnel, pharmacists and even vets to supplement their feeble efforts.
In my experience of working with “government”, costs spiral because the government agency keeps changing its mind and the project specifications. On top of that the accurate information supplied by the private industry actually doing the job, gets either ignored or modified (or both) as the information percolates up to the Minister responsible (and I’ve experience of that too).
August 9, 2021
Yes Jerry, but those who want to break the NHS apart, which in my experience started in 1993 will never agree. We went from a well managed NHS to a system where the term ‘manager’ enabled a meat factory manager to head staff, because supposedly they had a few hundred staff in their care( admin ) whereas the real managers the ‘clinicians have thousands of people in their care and their jobs include onging management.
August 9, 2021
He who pays the ferryman calls the tune. The state sector is totally incompetent at so doing. Or, as it is not their money they are wasting, simply do not care about cost or value for money.
August 10, 2021
@NickC; “All the NHS had to do was shove it into your arm”
Yes, a small but non the less most important part…
“In my experience of working with āgovernmentā, costs spiral because the government agency keeps changing its mind and the project specifications.”
In my experience of working in for the private sector, supplying the public sector, costs spiral because share holders etc. want ever greater payouts for little or no gain to the customer and can get them because Govts since 1979 have all believed private provision is better.
@LL; What ever, nice rant, as usual… The fact that that Southern Water for example basically ignored (State) Ofwat regulation appears to have escaped your notice, the fact that the private corporate lead T&T system here in the UK wrote their own rules and operating procedures appear to have escaped your notice.
August 9, 2021
With the examples you have quoted, MIC, all you have done is proven that the civil service is absolutely useless at running any kind of project that interfaces with the private sector. The idiots that agreed to pay Ā£4,000 a DAY to consultants on T & T were completely stupid.
August 9, 2021
+1
August 9, 2021
@OW; Why smaller? So there can be a much bigger private for-profit sector providing much the same services perhaps, I do not recall anyone suggesting the current level of public services are not needed…
August 9, 2021
@Jerry
I believe that the state can deliver improved public services at a lower cost to the taxpayer.
Where there is a will there is a way.
August 9, 2021
@OW; I was questioning your use of the word “smaller”, not efficiency (cost). I agree with you that costs can be reduced, for starters let’s rid the public services of the over paid consultants and advisor’s from the private management/servicing sectors! For example, why can’t LA’s directly employ garbage collectors, why can’t the NHS provide independent living equipment directly, why do these services need to be franchised out. Why is it that some on the right believe in the economies of scale when it is the private sector, private servicing companies can become and as diverse as they like, but the same can be allowed in the public sector?
August 9, 2021
@Jerry
When I said “We need a smaller and much more efficient public sector”, I meant fewer people performing the same work or, ideally, fewer people performing more work. We need a more streamlined and a more efficient bureaucracy to support our front line workers to, in turn, help them work more efficiently. I’m not too bothered who performs the work so long as it is done on time, to budget and of the required standard and “we” are able to bring contract(s) to a speedy end, if necessary.
I’m sure we all have opinions as as to how the size/cost of the public sector could be reduced and how money might be saved. The obvious savings might be, in no particular order:
1. Abolotion of the House of Lords
2. A reduction in the number of MPs by (say) one third.
3. Improved spending guidelines and/or controls for local government.
4. Permit the people of Scotland to have their referendum…but a binary choice… either Westminster or Holyrood, not both.
5. The long promised bonfire of quangos
6. The long overdue reform of NHS bureaucracy/management
August 9, 2021
Because state run industries or services are notoriously inefficient, Jerry. And unresponsive to their customers, too. There is no reason for the state to run any industry or service. The state can simply act as the administrator or insurer of last resort.
All the state needs to run is internal and external security (police and army), and of course provide the legal system, because they are the bedrock of any nation, where direct democratic oversight is essential.
In the majority of cases people are taxed to pay for services they consume which they could perfectly well pay for themselves directly, instead of using the state as middleman. Education is an example.
August 10, 2021
@NickC; Your arguments are the same as used in 1979, since when we have had 40 years of private involvement in many, if not most, public services/sectors yet they are even more inefficient/expensive (adjusted) than they were at the high of the Socialist mid 1970s!
As an example, the private company who collects my domestic garbage has THREE lorries turning up to each street (all on the same day), yes some of that is due to the green religion, but that has its roots in the ability of private waste companies to make money out of the taxpayer (the citizen) – just as the private sector are from state backed green energy.
As for your last paragraph, nonsense, the State can achieve far higher economies of scale than any individual private company can, unless also a monopoly or cartel provider, and what difference does it make if tax [1] is taken from the left hand or a private company takes it from the right hand, unless you are advocating such expense as education (for example…) become voluntary. How can the State provide a “free at the point of need” Ambulance/A&E service if they do not also provide a hospital service, pay the private sector?!
[1] or a statutory fee is mandated by govt, such as is the case with mandatory German health care insurance
August 9, 2021
@Oldwulf
The size of the UK’s public sector is an on going drain on those that actually create the wealth to keep them employed. Covid saw the private sector take a massive hit, while the public sector enjoyed a holiday and a pay rise, after all which sector is it queuing up for all these foreign holodays.
August 9, 2021
Oldwulf . . . We need a non growing population but our wondrous leaders are fixated on trying to get the whole of Africa and Asia here.
August 9, 2021
I would suggest a specific focus on looking around the world at countries with better policies in particular areas and considering adopting them. OK lets not bother about the NHS, we are locked into our inefficient, statist model despite the overwhelming evidence of the superiority of more mixed systems such as exist all over Europe, in Australia, Singapore etc. Reform probably needs to wait for a Labour govt led by someone sensible, if there ever is one. (Probably not).
But lets consider the sort of tax offers to nomadic entrepreneurs such as exist in Portugal and elsewhere. Of course the numerous dynamic economies with much flatter and simpler tax systems. the huge advantages of simple, modern digital systems in govt such as exist in Estonia. The open, free trading model of Singapore and New Zealand. The dynamic environment for venture activity and investing in the USA. Etc. Lots to go for. And the Conservatives need to do it. At the next election in 2023 or 2024, of course there will still be a lot of discussion about recovery from covid. But the legitimate question ‘what was the point of Brexit?’ will also be asked. there needs to be a very clear and good answer.
August 9, 2021
Looks like the govt. is seeing to a major growth factorā¦plenty of new workforce ā¦at bargain rates no doubt!
Govt. seems to be planning vast tax rises for those who pay. High taxes are apparently not a good growth indicator, we need tax cuts!
As per article there are plenty of coin clippings flying around which apparently IS good for growth.
What concerns me is the WFH thing. No one seems keen to go back to the office and I canāt work out exactly what the govt. wants. Long term aim HAS been to destroy High Street and turn offices into homes and virus and horrible work environments used to end office employment but now they seem to be reneging on this plan?
Just wonder if those who want to keep working from home realise exactly what this means? Schools and colleges will also close or go hybrid. Not so bad in a leafy suburbs but think of 27/7 cheek by jowl in a block of flats. Residential cities.Nowhere to go and no means of getting there. No theatre, no cinema. Travel passes needed?
August 9, 2021
How do newcomers, particularly the young, get trained if everyone is working from home? Learning from experienced people is surely how people at work learn. Uni’s do not prepare them for work.
August 9, 2021
+1
August 9, 2021
Yep but you won’t get that from Boris’s Blairite government, all you will get is mass immigration to depress wages and become an enemy living in our own country, theft of our best intellectual property as China and India use it to undercut us, fake green nonsense that loads costs on here forcing jobs abroad and pushing up net world pollution, and the state taking ever more of the decisions away from individuals.
August 9, 2021
+1. That is exactly what they are doing.
August 9, 2021
Indeed. The new points system with its removal of caps and removal of Resident Labour Market Test, alongside turning down thousands of our own who want to study medicine therefore importing more staff for ‘our NHS’ will ensure immigration keeps on and on and on.
August 9, 2021
yep its so deeply engrained in the whole of our political class, that the views of the decent majority of voters have little chance of impacting it unless something dramatic happens
August 9, 2021
You seem to have come into unauthorised possession of the Conservative Party’s next general election manifesto. I’m dialling 999.
August 9, 2021
I don’t think there is the faintest chance of getting anything so sensible while these people lead the Conservative party.
August 9, 2021
Everything the government does will impede growth except of course the open ended immigration policy.
Net zero will be regressive but may just rid us of this socialist government.
We need to start building SMRs and stop Importing power from the hostile EU. We need to stop building ridiculous windmills which eat subsidies
There is so much that could be done but won’t as Carrie ….. is running the country.
August 9, 2021
It seems we are indeed being run by a deluded, green loon, Theatre Studies Graduate – Can we have the real Boris back please?
August 9, 2021
You really should try and keep-up Wraggy. The days of Ā£150/ MWh subsidy are long gone. Contracts for Difference (CfD) in the last round came in at circa Ā£39 – 40/ MWh; around current mean market pricing. BTW. If you can quote a recent commercial application of a new technology that wasn’t initially financed by government funded National Laboratory or University, let me know.
Meanwhile, get angry about UK government subsidies to the bioenergy and waste incineration cowboys who are vacuuming up subsidies every which way. Blending biofuels into petrol and diesel is a joke. Have a rant at the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation; the Renewables Obligation (RoC); and, who is allowed to play in the Contracts for Difference (CfD) playground. Particularly, question why Drax Power Station is being heavily subsidised to import wood pellets from countries that don’t allow wood pellets to be used to generate electricity.
August 10, 2021
Acorn, The latest offshore Wind contracts may be lower but haven’t happened yet – that is, the arrays are not built and operating at that price. Wait until they are running before crowing. Experts (remember them?) maintain that recent Wind bids are completely unrealistic and depend on subsequent bail-outs by the government (us). And all that’s before costing in the intermittency, and the necessary dispatchable back-ups.
August 11, 2021
Telephone, fibre optics, LCDs, transistor, integrated circuit, tablet pc, smartphone, 3D printer. I am sure there are many more.
August 9, 2021
So how come countries like Germany and France do not suffer anything like this depression of wages to which you refer?
They have had larger immigration than the UK, and also have FOM, don’t they?
The answer is because the do not have draconian anti-union laws like the UK, nor those which effectively legalise breach of contract by employers, and so are able to defend pay and conditions for ALL employees rather better.
Their peoples have the good sense not to elect politicians much like the UK Tories, and enjoy the benefits of so not doing, notably, better employment law.
August 9, 2021
Mic
So if what you say is all true, why do thousands of immigrants to France want to leave that wonderful Country, Pay people smugglers in order to come to the UK.
August 9, 2021
Only around 1% of the refugee influx – and those who pass themselves off amongst it – to Europe want to come to the UK.
August 9, 2021
They’re still escaping from your EU empire, Martin!
In 2020 there were 471,300 asylum seekers in the EU (Europa), and 37,550 in the UK (Red Cross). Do the maths, that’s about 8% – or about 8 times your claimed 1%.
If you just kept getting things wrong that would be bad enough, but you always seem to get things wrong in favour of the EU. Coincidence? Or prejudice?
August 9, 2021
Thank you Nick.
In an earlier post I correctly said “of the order of 1%” – which 8% still is, as would be 0.11%.
“A few percent” would have been proper.
August 10, 2021
You must have done modern maths MiC
1% is the same as 8%
Hilarious
When does in the order of 1% become inaccurate?
August 9, 2021
Way more people (about 3-4x) apply for refugee status in France than in the UK. The UK ranks way behind countries like France, Germany and even Greece in terms of taking in refugees and asylum seekers.
August 9, 2021
PP
I have no problem if refugees apply using the legal route in advance as is requested.
I have a real problem with people who enter our Country illegally, and then want to go to the front of the queue
August 9, 2021
Larger immigration in Germany? Once again, how do you work that out? In 2000 Germany’s population was 82 million. Today it is under 84 million – about 1.5 million more in the last 20 years. Our population since 2000 has grown by 9 million with about 7 million in immigration. So it seems, not for the first time you are talking tosh. You are becoming like your mate, fact free Andy.
August 9, 2021
Well, you claim – inaccurately – that “Mrs Merkel invited millions in” don’t you?
Certainly, it has received well over a million asylum claimants.
If a country’s demographic is shrinking owing to low birthrates, then the figures that you quote tell us nothing about immigration.
August 9, 2021
Wrigggle wriggle. No answer at all as usual. Do you think that 7 million immigrants in 20 years is greater than population total increase of 1.5 million? Where are the figures you claim show Germany had many more immigrants than the UK? And no, you have never heard me say Merkel invited millions in, so keep to facts, which you do not usually do. You are always trying to change the subject rather than say ‘I was wrong’ and make yourself look even more ridiculous.
August 10, 2021
Dunno – I’m just pointing out deficiencies of the claim.
August 9, 2021
It seems France, UK and Germany have similar numbers of Trades Union members MiC, and similar minimum wage rules and similar wage growth recently.
France has a similar number of immigrants to the UK but Germany much less.
August 9, 2021
Well done, Peter.
Now research employment contract and strike laws.
August 9, 2021
We have employment contracts here in the UK which give employees good protections and laws on redundancy pay, sick pay, maternity and paternity pay
And unfair dismissal.
Maybe Germany and France are better but other EU nations are not as good as the UK
It might force companies into closure if they cannot reduce staff when orders drop off as I have read it does in France
So MiC
Take a look at the higher unemployment rates in the Eurozone and see if your desired policies work compared to the UK
August 10, 2021
Nonsense – UK employers can – legalised by Statute – tear up contracts, providing that they tick the “consultation” box.
That is, basically, tell the staff that they’re going to do it.
August 10, 2021
Rubbish MiC
You are talking about the redundancy process which has many regulations and rules about what you can do especially in larger organisations.
What would you do instead MiC if you were running a loss making business with reduced orders?
Would you force companies to keep staff they cannot afford and do not need, and then go bust closing the whole business?
August 10, 2021
No, I was writing about Variation.
August 10, 2021
When did you mention or hint at variation?
Oh I see.
Within the EU which has higher unemployment one or two countries have more restrictions on making staff redundant.
So their companies eventually fail.
And available jobs are fewer.
So you get made redundant but can’t find another job.
August 9, 2021
@Iain gill – all the indications and actions from Boris shows he is way of to the left of Blair. Closer to Corbyn than most Conservatives allow themselves to admit, that would mean the party had been duped for the third time in succession.
August 9, 2021
Really it is a bit like asking one of those bile farm bears what policies he would like to see.
I just want to be free again!
Yes..we escaped Maastrichtā¦and fell straight into this fire!
And it seems doubtful that we will own any political input ever again.
August 9, 2021
Growth targets will be a charade as Johnson is in the āBuild Back Betterā camp now.
In other words āYou will own nothing, you will be happyā
Time for Johnson to be removed.
August 9, 2021
To be replaced by whom? Given the fact that we only have about 100 sound Tory MPs the rest are dim sheep, career politicians on the make, Libdims or blatantly socialists – s0 any replacement would surely be even worse. Appalling Chancellors like Philip Hammond/Ken Clarke are even sent to the Lords rather than the tower.
Doubtless Major, Cameron, May, Sunak and Osborne will also be elevated eventually too.
August 9, 2021
Lifelogic,
A suitable replacement from within the Conservative Party is definitely a problem, as it is usually down to an unappealing shortlist of Sunak, Gove, Javid etc. There are probably decent MPs on the back benches but they will never get a look in.
A better option would be a new party that draws votes away and topples the government. It will not gain power but that does not matter initially. We may have unstable Italian-style balance of power for a while, but there must be something better that will eventually emerge. Either way the uncertain path might at least deter self-serving careerists from a life in politics.
August 9, 2021
Agree – would that the back benchers could see the train coming down the track – they are running out of time.
August 9, 2021
The problem is remove Johnson and there will be another one to take his place. I remember many people thinking removing Cameron was all that needed doing, then they got May and now Johnson.
If the electorate keep insisting on voting for the Lib/Lab/Con pact then what hope is there?
At least people have been weaned off believing they can only vote Labour and seen through them at last.
Unfortunately there are far too many who still think they have to vote Conservative, for whatever ridiculous loyalty reason they cling to, even though they know it isn’t what they see as Conservative on many issues.
August 9, 2021
They have little choice given the FPTP voting system. Tories or Labour/SNP is the appalling choice. Boris or Starmer/Sturgeon
August 9, 2021
@michelle – yes agreed everyone can see the Conservative Party has been highjacked. It however appears it the left that has stolen it from under our eyes, meaning the choice for the voter has been robbed from them. You can now vote for Left, Left or Left all carrying out the identical agenda of the Metro Politicos where an egotist regime gets to rule by a centralist committee
There are just a few Conservatives, our host for one, but to few to make a difference. The Party selection process is now so left wing ‘do as your gang leader says’ that it looks unlikely we will see any new real Conservatives ever again. Candidate selection should be by local vote of constituents, elections then should be entirely funded by the community they serve
August 9, 2021
+1
August 9, 2021
I have pointed out here several times in the last year that, regrettably, the electorate has gone soft.
Much as I would like to see a re-incarnated Margaret Thatcher in No 10, it’s a fact that she would not win an election in the 21st century. To win, a Blair/Cameron type of candidate is needed for PM, but one that is a dedicated Brexiteer. Boris made it because, well, he’s Boris.
I’m not sure he can repeat the outstanding 2019 performance but in 2024 he could easily make do with a majority reduced to 30 or so. He certainly won’t be beaten by an unholy opposition alliance of Labour, the Libdems and the SNP !
August 9, 2021
+1
“EU court has rejected a petition for compensation by bank depositors whose funds were confiscated in Cyprus’s financial crisis in 2013”. The EU cleared peoples bank accounts in Cyprus and at the time claimed it was a one off. This was not true as it became a Directive.
George Osbourne modified this EU money grab with HMRC being able to take everything above Ā£2,000 from your total bank accounts. I have seen nothing to confirm this has been repealed.
I wonder if the time will come when the Johnson regime finally admit (well perhaps not admit) they have bankrupted the country and they need your money and if you don’t have enough in your bank accounts, not a problem they will accept your assets in payment.
August 9, 2021
No, the Cyprus government made the deductions – not “cleared” – not any European Union institution.
August 9, 2021
Don’t be pedantic MiC
You know Cypris were forced into this action by thec EU as a condition of the bail out terms.
August 9, 2021
The sovereign government of Cyprus made its own decisions as to upon whom to impose the levy.
They rather liked the look of all that foreign money, it seems.
August 9, 2021
How are they sovereign when the EU is dictating terms
You are being ridiculous.
August 10, 2021
Doesn’t your lender stipulate terms when you borrow?
Does that make you a serf?
August 10, 2021
Terms and dreadful pressure are different.
Which is exactly what the EU did.
Most dreadfully.
Yet you are cool with many decent small businesses and individuals having their savings sequestration by the rich EU elite.
August 9, 2021
Plenty of people “own nothing” now and seem to be happy with it.
If you’ve stopped buying DVDs or Blu-Rays and instead subscribe to a service like Netflix or Amazon Prime, you’ve done this.
If you’ve stopped buying CDs or albums and instead subscribe to a service like Spotify, you’ve done this.
If you’re buying a new car on a PCP, you’ve done this.
August 9, 2021
And yet, I’ve done none of these things, Peter P. Not least because I am not happy at owning nothing.
August 9, 2021
That’s your choice. Given the success of those services, it would seem that plenty are.
August 10, 2021
But the proposal is that I should have no choice, Peter P. The idea is that we should all be serfs. But the very rich will definitely own things. Because they’re “different”. And you defend this?
August 10, 2021
I’m not defending anything, I’m simply pointing out that subscribing and consuming rather than owning is actually a common model today and plenty of people seem perfectly happy with it.
August 9, 2021
There should be a growth/capita target, then the government might stop importing the World’s poor and untalented.
August 9, 2021
When will they get around to encouraging and helping our own talented? This ‘talent’ excuse for mass immigration is a kick in the proverbial to many of our own willing and able.
August 9, 2021
Cheaper energy is inconsistent with your own governmentās existing net zero target. That can only be achieved through much more expensive energy.
August 9, 2021
All in agreement I am sure, sir John.
You have also the personal experience of policy and government, but you will not be part of the delivery and may as well be making comments as we proles do under the article.
There is no conservative leadership or government in the Tory party so we will continue with the collective and international socialist blob we have always had since Maggie.
Perhaps when the pendulum swings so far and all is turned to dust things may changeā¦. Sigh
August 9, 2021
Indeed the idiotic net zero target needs to be abandoned. Every green job must kills or exports at least 4 real unsubsidised jobs. This through the taxes on businesses to finance the subsidies, the expensive energy and rigged energy markets forcing industries to contract or more overseas and the forcing of very expensive EVs, heat pumps and hydrogen boilers onto people.
August 9, 2021
Not true. Solar is the cheapest form of energy in history. Thatās according to a the International Energy Agency which I suspect knows more about it than you.
You are literally raging against cheap technology which works. Let me guess – youāre a Brexitist too, right?
August 9, 2021
Well I read Math, Physics and Electronics Camb. and then Manchester so I do know a fair bit. I am not against Solar when & where it makes sense and is cost effective but is so without subsidy. Solar, plus the storage or backup needed in the UK, is not very cheap energy in general if you do the sums.
August 9, 2021
@LifeLogic – You sum up the truth! ā youāre a Brexitist too, right?
August 9, 2021
Indeed I am pro Brexit alas we did not get a full one.
Had I been old enough I would have voted to leave the āCommon Marketā in Wilsonās referendum.
August 9, 2021
Solar works well enough Andy but only when the sun shines. In this country, that’s not so often as other places (looked out the window in the past week or so?) and of course, it doesn’t work at night either.
You’d also need a great deal of space to install enough capacity to replace our existing power sources. So whilst this may be a good solution for the Australian Outback, it is a lot less useful here – and that was equally true before we left the EU and remains so now.
I know you think the sun shines out of the many well-paid backsides in Brussels but even with all those bums straining towards to the west – it wouldn’t keep our lights on! š
August 9, 2021
A global grid is the answer. It would need to work at about 1.6 MV but that’s feasible.
August 9, 2021
So why do the electricity bills keep going up? We’ve been told this rubbish before about wind turbines as well. No sign of it at the consumption end. You being rich can get solar panels fitted, with the poorest subsidising them and as your electricity consumption is offset, the price goes up again for the poorest. Nice and decent.
August 9, 2021
Renewables like solar are supported by subsidies and grants Andy.
Have you not even heard of the Contracts for Difference Scheme (CfD)?
Consumers pay around 30% extra on their bills to help pay for renewables.
Subsidies which cost around Ā£10 billion a year.
August 9, 2021
@Andy – solar energy’s dependence on ample sunshine means its suitability as far from the equator as is the U.K. is materially less than in the tropics or even in the 30-40 degree zones. Batteries to store the electricity (to provide supply at night or in weak sunshine) at present cost a lot, often enough to change the economic equation.
August 9, 2021
Solar is not dependent on sunshine. It is dependent on light. It works year round in the U.K. – even on short, wet, cloudy days in winter. Though, obviously, it is most effective on long sunny days.
I first had solar panels installed in 2007. I didnāt get a grant for them. They produced most of our electricity for most of the year and they paid for themselves within 4 years. They helped add Ā£50k to the value of our house when we sold it.
We had solar panels installed on our next house in 2013. I didnāt get a grant for them. They produced most of our electricity for most of the year and paid for themselves within 3 years. They helped add Ā£75k to the value of our house when we sold it shortly before Covid hit.
As well as solar PV we also had solar thermal installed in both houses. This produced virtually all of our hot water between April and October and about 2/3 of our hot water over the winter months.
We have plans to renovate our current house and, when the work is done, we will get solar PV, solar thermal, heat pumps and batteries. It will cost a lot upfront by our energy costs will be close to zero and we will recoup it all when we sell our house.
Please criticise government policy or ask questions about how we can possibly install all this stuff as a country. But donāt make up rubbish about green tech not working. I have lived with it for more than a decade – and it works just fine.
August 9, 2021
have you hooked up your Tesla to solar panels? Oh – it would need to be hooked up on every sunny day from dawn to dusk. But you could do a few ‘free’ miles after dark I suppose.
August 9, 2021
@Roy Grainger – agreed. UK energy tariffs are loaded with peripheral charges that have nothing to do with the producer or delivery mechanism making them among the highest in the World.
No electricity no wealth creation, no future. Yet because it is a soft target Governments keep creating problems. In simply terms affordable electricity from the right source could allow us to make all these Socialist targets for 2050. Though all the time 50% of the World is not going to sign up to that ridiculous objective there is little point, more time an effort would be better purposed in framing how we will live in a World some 2degrees warmer.
August 9, 2021
Rather better growth than 2% is perfectly possible were we just to abandon the mad net zero/expensive intermittent energy lunacy, cut red tape hugely, cut & simplify taxes and halve the size of the mainly parasitic state sector that holds the economy back massively. Release bureaucrats to get real and productive jobs or set up businesses with their redundancy packages. You say:- “The UK economy needs a larger small business and self employed sector” indeed it does but Sunak has just decreases entrepreneurs tax relief by a massive 90%, we have the appalling IR35, making tax digital and very large increases in corporation tax and attacks on private pensions. Then we have the expensive intermittent energy and net zero lunacy on top of this to make businesses even less competitive.
Clearly Sunak is far more interested in taxing and regulating small business out of existence and pushing industry overseas. Such are most PPE Oxon. graduates – zero grasp of real economics or competitive advantage. Sunak is often described as a sound right wing chancellor – if he is right wing let us hope we never get another one left of him. To me his is tax borrow and piss down the drain socialist.
The foolish Sunak even thought taxing people, wasting lots of it in collection and distribution costs then using it to buy some richer people 1/2 price restaurant meals was a sensible thing for government to do!
August 9, 2021
We also need to cut student loan for all the worthless university degrees (about 75% of them are) and these are only offered to people three As at A levels. This now that (absurdly) over 40% of students get A or A*. The rest should get a job or resit a real exam.
Also to ensure that the benefit & tax system actually rewards people who work (this after all the addition costs of work commuting costs, lunches, childcare, clothing…)
August 9, 2021
Waste not want not! This would be a good place to start. Government spending should be first for the cull followed by legislation and policies that promote waste. HS2 and measures to promote/enforce net zero fantasies will cause massive waste. Governments have form. The tax aided push for diesel passenger was hugely damaging. It is now being replaced by the hugely damaging push towards BEVs. The push for inefficient heat pumps to replace more efficient gas boilers is another grotesque example of government inspired waste. Such change requires replacement of the present incumbent in No 10 with someone who has a better grasp of such elementary matters.
August 9, 2021
@Oldtimer – it is strange that Governments don’t admit or see that it is there own cult of identity politics from their own individuals that have created all the problems the rest of have to pay for.
Banking crisis Gordon Brown saving those that shouldn’t be saved, diesel – opps! Gordon Brown again. Nuclear Energy more Gordon Brown, the UK will never need it so the Government sold the capability. Now the UK Government is hiring the French and Chinese States to build us units to be controlled by them.
This rubbish was the perpetuated by Cameron, May and the most left leaning of them all Johnson. The People of the UK want freedom, less interference and certainly less Political Ego style dogma
August 9, 2021
It actually is comical, the way that you label every single thing that you don’t happen to like personally as “left wing”.
Most of them are simply ad hoc policy decisions by the most right wing government that this country has had since WWII by far.
August 9, 2021
What even more right wing than Blair?
August 9, 2021
Very much so.
Can you seriously see any Tory government having brought in Human Rights, Freedom Of Information, proper Land Registration, Empty Dwelling Management Orders, High Hedges rules, to mention just a few of their many progressive laws?
Or engaging properly with all parties in Ireland to bring peace?
Blair’s governments were by far the most left wing in my lifetime.
August 9, 2021
But generally really hated by the Labour left.
Good fun to draw out praise for Blair from you Marty.
August 9, 2021
@MiC – Something we can agree on Gordon Brown and the Labour Party as weird as they were, was not as left wing as the current incumbent – just more of the same meddling that left wingers can’t resist particularly where they are not needed.
August 9, 2021
It actually is comical, the way that you label every single thing that you donāt happen to like personally as āright wingā.
August 9, 2021
Right wing with the highest taxes for 70 years and still increasing them?
August 9, 2021
Oldtimer
I am not so sure Boris actually believes in what he is promoting with regards to Green policies, but he has surrounded himself by so many people who do, I think perhaps he is getting carried along (excuse the pun) with it all.
Seems to me Boris is full of the Big plan, Broad sweep statements and policies, but he seems to ignore the very important detail. Northern Ireland Protocol a good example.
Certainly he needs to improve and wise up a lot more at the very least.
August 9, 2021
i am not so sure about that. Perhaps his father indoctrinated him. While he may be the master of the catchy phrase he does not appear to be the master of the detail of the key decisions that Prime Minister’s must make or how to organise that they are clearly identified and presented to him when such decisions are required. The impression I get is of a muddled, disorganised government. That starts and ends at the top. The Tory party needs to replace him with someone who will bring order and clear thinking to the job of government.
August 9, 2021
Good morning.
Do absolutely nothing ! Because when government decides to do something, anything, it usually ends up being an unwanted, overly expensive and late. Plus it now tends to mess up the Private Sector with its silly rules and ‘Outcomes’ based policies.
Just do what we pay you (and not others to do) and make the rules by which markets can operate.
August 9, 2021
Mark B, +1, emphatically!
August 9, 2021
As the world burns, I wonder whether a growth strategy is really still approriate. Since the finacial crisis, we have pumped billions and billions of QE into the economy in the attempt to prevent deflation. All this seems to have achieved is to have put house prices out of reach for first time buyers. Where is the growth?
In professional life, I was a chartered quality manager. I spent years working with SME’s showing them how to control waste and become more efficient – and hence more profitable. Recently, I have been looking at the concept of the “circular economy” favoured by the Greens.
The circular economy is an economic model designed to minimize resource input, as well as waste and emission production. A circular economy aims to reach the maximum efficiency in the use of finite resources, the gradual transition to renewable resources – and the recovery of the materials and products at the end of their useful life. Moreover, it targets the rebuilding of all available types of capital, financial, human, social, and natural. Essentially, a circular economy describes a regenerative economic system.
The circular economy is an alternative to a linear economy, which is based on a take-make-dispose model. The proponents of this economic model believe that it is a viable option to achieve high levels of sustainability without diminishing the profitability of the business or reducing the number of available products and services. Lets try it – it seems to suit the needs of the obvious climate crisis that is now clearly upon us.
August 9, 2021
Sakara, The “world” is not burning. And clearly CAGW is a hoax.
August 9, 2021
Even if the science of global warming and CO2 emissions are wrong, there is no doubt the world’s resources are finite and being depleted by human activity faster than they can be replenished. Pollution is poisoning the planet and habitat is being destroyed.
So how can more growth be the answer? It can’t. Government needs to find a different solution to managing the finances, which doesn’t require increase in the economy to service the ever increasing debt. Government needs to rein in spending and when it comes to immigration say “no more”. The world can sustain a pleasant lifestyle for the human race, just not at its present population. The UK doesn’t produce the food the population needs, the population of the UK needs to reduce.
August 9, 2021
“the population of the UK needs to reduce”
I suspect the Johnson regime are currently working on this with the experimental gene therapy.
However, I wonder what they are going to do when the compliant native population is gone and they are only left with millions of migrants who, in the main, only came here to live off the native populations taxes is anyone guess.
Forward planning and risk management is an unknown concept to career politicians.
August 9, 2021
@Dave Andrews ” The world can sustain a pleasant lifestyle for the human race, just not at its present population” – true, but what is to be done with the present c.5 billion excess?
August 9, 2021
Half of which are likely subjugated women. If women had the freedom to choose whether and who to marry, many of them might prefer a career rather than motherhood, and the population will decrease. Do it too fast and there will be a demographic disaster. Watch Japan.
August 9, 2021
You make a very relevant point.
August 9, 2021
@ Dave Andrew’s
Does the government really create, drive and control growth?
Isn’t growth created by the population and its aggregate endeavours?
People in a nation, like the UK, opening businesses, creating jobs, developing interesting new products and services.
August 9, 2021
Your final 5 sentences confirm the policies that the silent majority of voters favour and hoped/assumed they would get from this Conservative government. Thereās no sign these will come about though, meaning that non politically partisan people such as myself will not vote for your party at the next general election as the actual direction of travel is substantially the same as indicated by the other parties.
August 9, 2021
@MPC – agreed.
Those sentences setting out “…the components of a successful growth strategy” require our own Ludwig Erhard and we do not have one, at least in power.
What do they do over at the BEIS department?
August 9, 2021
There sums to be an underlying theme in the majority of your comments received, when you expand that to the larger community in which I circulate there is a general perception that: the vaccine rollout was very good and luck favoured the brave but in all the other areas policies or the lack of them being implemented is seriously found to be wanting. The Sunday media all seem to be implying there will be another round of musical chairs in the cabinet.
Too many politicians are seemingly accepting the shape of events as rolled out. You Sir John are like a lone voice rather like a certain politician in the thirties. History showed he should have been taken notice of and supported.
Our PM is too exposed on too many fronts. Time for a radical change.
August 9, 2021
We need such belief and policies but when will your friends in government and the party take clear direct meaningful action to stop the sale overseas of our businesses? Tell the world we have given up prostitution. Every sale helps to disguise our country’s trading insolvency.
We cannot survive until we make more of what we need here and develop again big brands for the world to buy from us. We should face up to the need for hard change but will we get it with your leaders who live in a world detached from ours.
August 9, 2021
Thinking on a wider context is needed. How do we connect with Greece to enable them to grow out of the present crisis. There are climate Change talks in November , but what can we do before that? We have had firemen who have taken it upon themselves to lend a hand , but should a country rely on these caring individuals?
August 9, 2021
It all sounds sensible and positive John, but few in Parliament seem to have the will.
The Conservatives seem to have completely lost direction, Labour are in turmoil after dancing with a mature student protester called Corbyn, the LibDems only have support from the usual safe job, Guardian reading brigade, The Greens just promote un-costed vague ideas, and the SNP just want everyone else to pay for their fantasy independence, but at the same time want to be under EU Rule.
The problem is not enough joined up thinking going on, and far, far too much politics, with too many taxes, too many regulations, but no actual control over what exists at the moment.
Just look at the latest farce, many of the rubber dinghy illegals appear to have now gone missing, having left their free food, free health care, and free hotels, no one now has a clue where they are.
It’s simple, they will be in the alternative economy, earning (sometimes by dubious means) and living a completely non regulated parallel lifestyle, all against present rules and which offers nothing back to the Country as a whole, whilst taking out what ever benefits they can from a complex and dysfunctional system that has completely broken down.
Yes we do need a re-set, but one which encourages drive, ambition and a degree of self reliance.
August 9, 2021
Sitting at the bottom of the hole, as we are, economically speaking, trying to make up growth targets as the basis of policy is far too esoteric.
Surely by now the Treasury knows what stimulates growth – forget targets for now, they don’t matter at this stage of the cycle, but start using the knowledge of what actually gets the economy growing again:
Government needs to encourage and make it easy for startups to succeed – Remove all possible red tape, and get councils to work with the lifeblood of our economy to build back better.
August 9, 2021
B.H., +1, Too true, therefore it will be ignored as this ship of fools sails on over the horizon
August 9, 2021
BH – – thanks for the laugh – “get councils to work with ” – – that depends on who is buddies with the little hitlers running them. Just like who gets the council houses in the best areas.
August 9, 2021
2% growth and 2% inflation sounds like a good objective to me, however, that will probably mean that the pound will fall on foreign exchanges, particularly against the Euro, if the EU sticks to its tight monetary policy, driven by Germany and its Weimar-induced fear of inflation.
As for energy prices, there is zero chance of us getting cheap energy. The price of energy is only going one way and it isn’t down. The ludicrous rush to Net Zero favoured by almost all British Politicians and every political party is going to impoverish our country.
It will inevitably mean a switch away from gas to electricity which, if one looks at our energy bills, is already at least four times the price of gas per Kw. That will make our economy far less competitive against countries that will take a more realistic and sensible approach to phasing out fossil fuels.
I fear that as a result a 2% growth target will be impossible to attain over the next decade.
August 9, 2021
Yes, all those things, but not just lower taxes, but a complete overhaul of the tax system to make it more efficient, easier to understand and fairer to all, including the better off.
The problem is that I do not see any of this coming from the leadership ofthe present Governement who seem to lack any appreciation of why it is so important, particularly if we are going to stand any chance of being able to pay for all they want to imose on us.
August 9, 2021
Sadly, doesn’t importing more people lead to ‘growth’?
August 9, 2021
Not growth per capita, it doesn’t. Not overall. And that’s what matters.
The fact is that not all immigrants are of equal value. Some do indeed benefit the economy – those who are skilled and highly qualified. Others have a neutral effect – those who come to do less skilled, manual labour, but who pay their taxes and increase economic output. And others are a huge DRAIN on the economy and on the wealth of the nation – the unskilled, the criminal and the illegal migrants.
We need a bit more honesty and an immigration policy based on the interests of the BRITISH people. We should welcome those migrants that benefit Britain and we should block and deport all those who do not – including asylum seekers. Britain does NOT exist for the benefit of foreigners. Foreigners who want to come here must benefit US.
August 9, 2021
+1×100%
August 9, 2021
Almost any expansion of the workforce increases a countries total output. So, immigration = growth.
Hence politicians of all parties tend to welcome immigration – it makes them look good (“The economy is growing”).
Even if we only allowed people educated to degree level to come here, how large do we want the population of these islands to be?
August 9, 2021
What actions should a government take to seek to sustain such a target? – remove its self. That might sound flippant, but if you think it through all the problems the UK has now comes from this meddling Control freakery Socialist Government.
The UK economy is not a toy for the egoists to play with. Time and time again it has been shown when the State steps back, supports instead of interfering, those that ‘have to do the work’ just get on and do it.
Above all the UK needs a Conservative Government
August 9, 2021
+10
August 9, 2021
What does a growth policy look like?
Well, not like brexit if you ask me.
I see that Honda in Leave-voting Swindon are now closing as announced, with the loss of 3,500 jobs.
I gather that they say that it is not because of brexit, but I wonder what was agreed and why in these confidential talks that the Government had with firms such as these and Nissan?
The redundancy payments seem – interestingly – very substantial indeed.
Reply Nothing to do with Brexit. Honda is pulling out of the whole of Europe and supplying from Japan
August 9, 2021
Well Honda isn’t leaving Swindon to open up somewhere else in mainland Europe Andy – they are pulling out of Europe all together and returning manufacturing back to Japan.
Maybe that’s a good hint for us too!
August 9, 2021
MiC – – Those 3’500 job losses – will they lead to house/home losses to? – or will the govt rush to put ex-workers in hotels – just like they do with the clearly preferred
newly arrived, never paid a penny in nor likely to do so, non stop complaining/demanding foreign freeloaders?
August 9, 2021
Honda, and they won’t be the last Japanese manufacturer, have decided to move out of EU countries, in favour of home production. Indeed with falling demand for petrol/diesel cars around Europe surely you can see the sense in their decision? Sadly that decision means UK suffers the backlash.
August 9, 2021
Job bonus/
With GDP of about two trillion pounds and demand for about forty million jobs, the U.K. needs about one job for every fifty thousand pounds of company turnover.
Companies that benefit the community by creating more jobs than this threshold should be rewarded with a ājob bonusā of say five thousand pound for every employee.
Companies that sell into the U.K. market without creating at least one job per fifty thousand pounds of turnover should bear a ājob malusā of say ten thousand pounds per fifty thousand pounds of turnover.
The scheme would cost next to nothing to administer because the revenue already collects all the needed data on turnover and number of employees in the U.K.
The values of the threshold, bonus and malus can be chosen so that the scheme is neutral for the Treasury.
Employers would be encouraged to take on extra staff in the U.K, and dissuaded from offshoring jobs. Employees will get satisfaction and self-esteem from working and opportunities to learn and develop. The resources and lives lost to unemployment would be reduced.
August 9, 2021
āWe need more and cheaper energy, we need more domestically produced energy, industrial products and food. We need a policy aimed at cutting the large balance of trade deficit, with opportunities to replace imported energy, food, timber vehicles and much else besides.ā
All this is at odds with the Governmentās agenda of taking farmland for more houses to service the uncontrolled immigration that they fail to tackle year on year; their Green agenda that makes energy much more expensive; and, their high domestic taxes that make imported goods better value for money.
I for one have lost confidence in all the main political parties. They all seem devoid of any common sense.
August 9, 2021
Above all, we need to remove the threat of more lockdowns, the most destructive, growth killing policy any government has ever implemented.
August 9, 2021
Villaking, Exactly so.
August 9, 2021
Watching the Sky News interview with Kwarteng this morning, perhaps the meerest glimmer of common sense might be creeping into the Net Zero debate ? He said that lots of things have to happen before gas boilers are abandoned in favour of Hydrogen, heat pumps or anything else.
It looks like for the majority of us unable to convert our houses to a heat pump or any type, we are likely to be able to continue with a gas boiler for many years to come until the government invests in a wholesale switch to Hydrogen. This can be safely kicked into the long grass by ensuring that all new gas boilers could theoretically be run on hydrogen. That should keep the green lobby quiet for a decade or so, but in reality, could easily take 25 or 30 years to achieve.
In the meantime, I wonder how many people will buy a new home if, as seems likely, the heating system provided after 2025 is more expensive to run, less controllable or provides inadequate heat in a severe winter ? If I was a house builder, I would be quite worried.
August 9, 2021
And hydrogen still doesn’t adress the problem of people who live with out gas at the moment. We cannot get hydrogen into our homes. That leaves with the choice of an electric boiler or heat pump. A heat pump is way out of our price range. An electric boiler would have to be our choice but the running costs would be horrendous. Still, I suppose that’s the choice we are going to have. An expensive form of heating and say goodbye to your holiday abroad or indeed any holiday looking at the price of even a caravan for a week in the UK. Many have to choose between heating and eating now so God knows what will happen in the future.
August 9, 2021
I am old enough to remember smokeless coal/ coke used on our open fire at home when I was a kid, whatever happened to that type of fuel ?
Supposed to have had much fewer emissions than the standard stuff, and I believe was allowed under the new at the time, clean air act.
August 9, 2021
This Maastricht thing is absurd how can you keep peddling such complete tosh – the debt /GDP ratio was supposed to have been 60% not that any action has been taken at any time to enforce this . In the UK it was never above 35% in the Blair period and flew straight past this mark in 2009 , it is now close to 100% , and we are not in the EU anyway.
The extent of our debts is the responsibility of this Government which seems to wish to make us all borrow a lot of money to cover its tracks on Brexit whilst throwing cash at the “left behind”
In terms of a pro growth Policy the best way forward would be to re-join the EU stop taxing, stop spending and stop putting obstacles in the way of every industry we have with a future. It might be nice if this Government took five minutes out of its bsession with fishing and farming and worried about media , pharmaceuticals , Banking ,Insurance Publishing and generally … the real world we all live in
August 9, 2021
Newmania, UK growth reduced after we joined the EEC (EU). But don’t let facts get in the way of your desire to sell-out our independence to the EU.
August 9, 2021
A few years back The Guardian in their usual way made an extraordinary claim the 71% of the Worlds carbon emissions came from 100 Companies. Obviously a headline to attract – basically although still quoted it has been debunked.
However, the Boris team is hell bent with his contradictions to perpetuate that theme. In essence he wants a problem that he alone can solve and his answer to the problem is to do the very things that are in his mind causing the problem. The cause of carbon emissions is due to consumer demand for the new, therefore new production and delivery, nothing else. Boris and his team wants everyone to engage in changing everything especially those items that have to be produced by nations that are not engaging in his personal Net Zero dream and especially from those Companies that made it on to The Guardian top 100 list.
Missing from this Dream is sustainability and common sense.
August 9, 2021
We donāt need more āgrowthā, which is a euphemism for mass immigration.
Instead we need policies to increase GDP/capita, reduce the percentage of the workforce not working for the state either directly or indirectly, and aim for a positive balance of payments and energy independency.
August 9, 2021
+10
August 9, 2021
What you are proposing is exactly right, Richard. It encompasses the criteria for a prosperous country exactly. The only thing I slightly disagree with you on is over growth.
One of the benefits of increased efficiency can be growth without increasing the workforce. We have fallen behind many other countries because employers have had the easy option of employing ever more poorly paid Eastern European workers rather than introducing automation.
UK PLC should be encouraged to introduce more automation into manufacturing because producing more with fewer staff reduces the gap between the costs of producing in the UK and China. That should enable more to be produced at home, improving the balance of payments, reducing delivery times and transport costs. Of course that will only be possible if we move towards Net Zero no faster than the Far East. The current trajectory is going to make things worse and not better in this respect.
AI is rapidly coming over the horizon and working from home during the pandemic has demonstrated that “home” could be anywhere in the world. The accountants at the top of large companies are going to insist on transferring administrative jobs to the developing world, particularly India, if managers insist on a return to expensive office working.
August 9, 2021
+1
August 9, 2021
I see the Tories have renewed their assault on those working from home. An āunnamed Cabinet ministerā – presumably unnamed because they are too gutless to say it publicly – has suggested pay cuts for civil servants who work from home. Then there are the threats of job losses, no promotions and so on. Itās a bit pathetic really.
Most of my friends are, naturally, highly paid remain voting professionals. Most work in the private sector. None will be going back to the office full time. None expect their staff to go back full time. None of their companies expect any of them to go back full time.
Businesses have learned – which the Tories obviously havenāt – that staff can be MORE productive from home. This is perfectly evident. No distractions, fewer pointless meetings, zero time wasted on a stressful and expensive commute.
And, hereās the thing, people who canāt work from home benefit too. Their commutes are easier and more pleasant because fewer people are travelling. Absolutely – it is a disaster for hospitality businesses in places like London. You will have fewer customers. And if you own office buildings – oh dear. Turn them into retirement flats!
Covid has given us a great opportunity to change work to make us more productive whilst improving the environment and making workers healthier and wealthier. And the Tories are bumbling around longing for a world that is now gone. Imagine their horror when we tell them a four day week is next.
August 9, 2021
Andy
Just look at the positive’s with everyone working from home.
Those big Government Departments can remove the need for the London weighting allowance, and could thus save some wage costs and reduce taxes for everyone at the same time.
August 9, 2021
Only if you have a soft office job. How do you train people, especially the young who you profess to care about if they never meet people of skill and experience? What happens about their mental health? Working from home is going to be the next generator of skills shortage.
August 9, 2021
Yes, I think that we’re getting a few clues, as to who in government is connected with interests in commercial property, aren’t we?
August 9, 2021
Andy, You can’t make EU toasters at home!
August 9, 2021
SJR
You make all the right noises but you seem to inhabit a long lost world!
Thereās a video on YouTube by Simon Webb ā¦History Debunked where he says that trying the integrate people of different ethnicities never works because they always have differing views which leads, inevitably, to friction, he cited the case where a social worker and a policeman were attacked because there had been concerns about the welfare of a child, the names of the people involved didnāt sound very English
This is the situation that exists throughout Great Britain and will only get worse
August 9, 2021
Any Tory MP that supports the UN IPCC Climate Change report today should resign from the party and join the Green Party and force a by-election
August 9, 2021
I completely agree with the list, in your final paragraph, of the things that “we need”. I would suggest however that you have omitted the most important thing we need: a new prime minister.
Failing this, perhaps some more pressure on the government from like-minded Conservative MPs might help. But are there any – that’s the question. There is a proliferation of backbench pressure groups (the ERG, the CRG, the NRG, the CSG, etc) but strangely, given the Conservative Party’s alleged concern for economics, there is no Economic Policy Group. Have you ever thought of setting one up? After all, I doubt either Boris or Rishi read this blog (their loss, of course!) so how else are you going to influence them?
Reply I attend some of those groups and others you do not mention. Ministers are aware of relevant analysis and comment on this site.
August 9, 2021
The increase in minimum wage has been a great success! All small businesses are so flush with money and customers they simply donāt know where to throw it. Business owners, the recipients of the lowest wages in a lot of establishments are delighted and in the blocks waiting to run to the polls to vote for Boris. Who would think that he has made the Oligarchical EU rule seem magnanimous.
What say you to the 5,000 vaccine deaths reported by the Scottish Government? They must be lying else the pro rata England and Wales vaccine death rate is 53,000 in 7 months with the number of vaccinated staggered through that period.
The collapsed economy is now the least of our problems.
August 9, 2021
Its truly extraordinary,
More comment awaiting moderation?
August 9, 2021
Its truly extraordinary,
my comment still awaiting moderation?
And, apparently Iāve already said that??
August 10, 2021
JR, Growth policy:
– ensure a strong, fair, fast legal system;
– stop government picking winners (either directly, or by subsidy);
– get politics out of the economy.
August 10, 2021
JR āWhat actions should a government take to seek to sustain such a target?ā
Take back over Statutory sick pay and sick holiday pay and make it a contributory scheme from the NI ring-fenced and be able to terminate a contact of someone who has been off sick for over 8 months so that you can replace them with a full-time worker you can progress and train. The mental pressure you put on someone who is in temporarily cover or the other staff covering is terrible. There is no surety over the relief workerās permanent employment status businesses arenāt all massive companies that can afford to soak up all newcomers. You demand that taxpayers fund all this full sick pay for public sector workers and all sorts of tax funded quangos and charities and housing associations (ex council workers) and on and on – but the private sector has to pay twice one to fund all that and again to fund itās own. Your government stunts growth, your government by making people keep on multiple sick workers for years (paying them sick holiday pay) and unable to replace them and no mandatory retirement age is damaging, you can have someone age 67 off sick for months on end year after year and you canāt replace them because you would face tribunal action for age discrimination even if you give them the full notice in their contract, and any other numerous protected statuses. You wonder why productivity slips. Do you know how difficult it is to get employees, to find them, the Market is distorted with benefits, furlough, top-ups for working part-time. Half the time people are sick for so long right now is because the NHS is letting them down, not treating them, just keep signing the sick note without even seeing people, counselling them, arranging the correct treatments to get them back into work. Covid has introduced people not used to claiming to the benefits of reward and advantages of a panoply of benefits.
August 11, 2021
What does a growth policy look like? Ask Sir John Cowperthwaite
http://sir-john-cowperthwaite.com/