@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
Ukip averaged 11% in the Ashcroft seats yesterday on the 2nd question (better in the first), in areas they weren't contenders.. It's not really that bad ,
Nick Clegg could have a difficult time tonight as currently he seems to have each foot placed either side of a great divide. He wants to claim success for the economy, tax levels etc, but also wants to be pro-Europe, pro-immigration etc. Will he just prevaricate?
Ms Wood is far to the left of EdM, is a republican and an idealist. She bemoans lack of investment (UK and global) in Wales but when asked why a global country should invest there, she cannot come up with an answer. The truth is that Wales' reputation on health and education is too well known and so Wales struggles to recruit good doctors and surgeons, good academics and industrialists.
I share your thoughts on education. But in turn it falls back to aspiration of the parents. If they are content to live off subsidies ("investment") whether from English Mansions or North Sea Oil, then there is no incentive to work hard.
Britain generally, and Wales and Scotland in particular, used to have a strong culture of the Protestant work ethic. Without some return of that spirit we are never going to achieve in education or anything else.
Nicky Morgan is continuing the work in England on Education, but in a more low key way.
"Content to live off subsidies" - can you define that a bit more precisely? As that well-known leftie Boris Johnson said yesterday, there are plenty of very well paid company CEOs who are effectively subsidised by the state topping up on the extremely low wages they pay their very hard working employees.
Out there in the real world, if you are working all day with a long commute on top because you cannot afford to live close to your employment (see cleaners etc in London), then you do not have the time - literally - to do much else. Many children are left to their own devices not because their parents are feckless wasters content to live off the state, but because their parents are only at home at the extreme ends of each day.
By "content to live off subsidies" I mean the desire to have everything provided by taxes on someone else; whether Mansion tax, 50% rate or North Sea Oil.
@Indigo - the vast majority of benefits paid in this country are to people who work (and to pensioners). Can you explain how in-work benefits encourage the people who receive them to sit on their couches all day?
It has been the "Bane of Britain" for decades now. Blame the workers and pay those at the top ever more for pointing out who is at fault, rather than look at the problems with a fresh and unprejudiced eye. The whipping boys can of course be replaced according to taste and convenience.
Nick Clegg could have a difficult time tonight as currently he seems to have each foot placed either side of a great divide. He wants to claim success for the economy, tax levels etc, but also wants to be pro-Europe, pro-immigration etc. Will he just prevaricate?
Ms Wood is far to the left of EdM, is a republican and an idealist. She bemoans lack of investment (UK and global) in Wales but when asked why a global country should invest there, she cannot come up with an answer. The truth is that Wales' reputation on health and education is too well known and so Wales struggles to recruit good doctors and surgeons, good academics and industrialists.
I share your thoughts on education. But in turn it falls back to aspiration of the parents. If they are content to live off subsidies ("investment") whether from English Mansions or North Sea Oil, then there is no incentive to work hard.
Britain generally, and Wales and Scotland in particular, used to have a strong culture of the Protestant work ethic. Without some return of that spirit we are never going to achieve in education or anything else.
Nicky Morgan is continuing the work in England on Education, but in a more low key way.
"Content to live off subsidies" - can you define that a bit more precisely? As that well-known leftie Boris Johnson said yesterday, there are plenty of very well paid company CEOs who are effectively subsidised by the state topping up on the extremely low wages they pay their very hard working employees.
Out there in the real world, if you are working all day with a long commute on top because you cannot afford to live close to your employment (see cleaners etc in London), then you do not have the time - literally - to do much else. Many children are left to their own devices not because their parents are feckless wasters content to live off the state, but because their parents are only at home at the extreme ends of each day.
By "content to live off subsidies" I mean the desire to have everything provided by taxes on someone else; whether Mansion tax, 50% rate or North Sea Oil.
Given that most benefits are paid to people who work, those receiving the biggest subsidies are low-pay employers.
Indigo Not entirely true, Japan has unemployment insurance and more Asian nations are introducing it as they develop, China also has recently introduced a minimum income including for those out of work.
I'm a huge DIY nut - all self taught and had what felt like the contents of B&Q in my cellar. A tool for literally every job. The only thing I'm not so good at is plumbing - but I've installed radiators and copper pipes.
I despair at the inability of even my contemporaries in the 40/50s who asked me to fix simple household appliances, put together their cat climbing tree, help with almost anything
I love fixing/building things and gained a huge amount of enjoyment, confidence and satisfaction from it.
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years.
Yes on the narrow point you are right, but I suggest wilfully missing the point that our younger generation is rapidly losing interesting in making stuff, and that suppliers that are in business to sell products to "make stuff" are scaling back their offerings in the face of public apathy. Probably half my generation would have made repairs at home, and the vast majority of my father's generation, but its easier, and involves less effort (and less satisfaction I would say) to hire a polish handyman, and go out to a wine bar.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
The reality is we wont catch Asia because the four main reasons they are ahead of us, and will stay ahead of us are not compatible with western liberal values, at least until their market dominance becomes so ridiculous that we have no choice.
Firstly there is very little social security, people who lose their job largely are supported by their extended family, which works very well because their is immediate pressure on those people to get a new job, it tends to come up every day at dinner time!
Secondly, basically everyone is on a no-notice contract, if you aren't any good in most of Asia, you get sacked that day, no notice. Which means that everyone that wants to stay employed makes an effort, all the time. There is usually a queue of people outside the door wanting to take the job so employers feel no compunction about accepting second best.
Thirdly, schooling is long hours and rigorous, parents are engaged and almost uniformly respect and support the teacher. Children are unable to play teachers and parents off against each other, if you go home and complain about being told off by the teacher, you will get an earful from your parents as well.
Finally, most of Asia is prepared currently to accept a dramatically lower standard of living than anyone in the UK would even dream of. This will change over time for sure, but with two thirds of the worlds population in developing Asia, any regression to a mean will result in our standard of living approaching theirs more rapidly than theirs approaches ours. By the time their living standards approach what we have, they will be completely dominant in most market sectors and before that, they will always be cheaper.
Indigo Not entirely true, Japan has unemployment insurance and more Asian nations are introducing it as they develop, China also has recently introduced a minimum income including for those out of work.
Yep, it's happening across Asia - even in Singapore:
Indigo Not entirely true, Japan has unemployment insurance and more Asian nations are introducing it as they develop, China also has recently introduced a minimum income including for those out of work.
Indeed. Don't look too closely at the terms, or the amounts paid out!
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years. The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
Unions not held us back? - UK car industry and Red Robbo, Shipbuilding and 'who -does-what and demarcation strikes? etc. Improved technology usually means fewer workers. But we have always to use improved technology to compete and it requires people with high skill sets to operate it.
Governments do not help - Green taxes nearly shut all the rest of or steel industry until the threat of closure woke up the Energy Sec.
Graphene - One of the very first patents pertaining to the production of graphene was filed in October 2002 and granted in 2006 (US Pat. 7071258).[36] Titled, "Nano-scaled Graphene Plates," this patent detailed one of the very first large scale graphene production processes. Two years later, in 2004 Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov at The University of Manchester extracted single-atom-thick crystallites from bulk graphite.
In 2014 a £60m National Graphene Institute a £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) - (Manchester) were announced to support applied research and development in partnership with other research organisations and industry.
In North East England two commercial manufacturers, Applied Graphene Materials and Thomas Swan Limited, (with Trinity College, Dublin researchers) have begun manufacturing. In East Anglia, another manufacturer, Cambridge Nanosystems, is operating a large scale graphene powder production facilities.
@Indigo - the vast majority of benefits paid in this country are to people who work (and to pensioners). Can you explain how in-work benefits encourage the people who receive them to sit on their couches all day?
SO you are giving us page after page of why things are wonderful in the UK and how we will do fine. The only problem is they aren't and we won't. Sitting with our fingers in our ears is the long slow way to the poorhouse.
It has been the "Bane of Britain" for decades now. Blame the workers and pay those at the top ever more for pointing out who is at fault, rather than look at the problems with a fresh and unprejudiced eye. The whipping boys can of course be replaced according to taste and convenience.
Those at the top benefit hugely from a business culture that favours low-cost, low-security employment, squeezing margins, investing as little as possible in plant, machinery and R&D, and focusing on quarterly dividend returns. Sclerotic productivity rates suits them fine. They have absolutely no incentive to change anything.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
Southam Indeed, of course in the UK most people had to rely on charity or the workhouse until the early 20th century, it was only as the economy developed and most people got the vote that a welfare system was introduced as is now happening in much of Asia
Indigo The UK ranks only 46th in terms of unemployment benefit replacement rate in relation to previous income, behind Egypt, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan Turkey and South Korea and most western nations. Certainly the reduction in contributory JSA we have does not help, it is paid out for 6 months only and at the same rate as income based JSA http://euwelfarestates.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/world-ranking-in-unemployment-benefit.html
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years.
The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
@Indigo - the vast majority of benefits paid in this country are to people who work (and to pensioners). Can you explain how in-work benefits encourage the people who receive them to sit on their couches all day?
SO you are giving us page after page of why things are wonderful in the UK and how we will do fine. The only problem is they aren't and we won't. Sitting with our fingers in our ears is the long slow way to the poorhouse.
Things are bad in the UK, but not because we have millions of people sitting around on couches refusing to work. As the government tells us, more people are in employment than ever before in our history - yet productivity is dire and we spend billions of taxpayers' money subsidising companies that do not pay their employees enough to live on.
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years.
The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
US universities are private businesses. UK universities are paid for by the government, if they do no research at all, sell no patents at all, they will stay in business, and the management are paid the same irrespective of any profits made, so they have no incentive to make a deal.
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years.
The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
I'll have none of this. The British plug is the best plug in the worrrrldd.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
Profit is a dirty word in large parts of UK academia. Also, generally UK academia are terrible at getting out there hustling, self promoting, etc, partly because pretty much any academic role is a job for life. As a result, it is a very insular world.
The reverse is the case in US academia, they are if anything overly profit driven, too concentrated on pumping out paper by volume, rather than quality. No publications by you and your PhDs, you wont last long. And getting tenured Prof is extremely difficult.
There are notable exceptions to the above generalizations.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
@Indigo - the vast majority of benefits paid in this country are to people who work (and to pensioners). Can you explain how in-work benefits encourage the people who receive them to sit on their couches all day?
SO you are giving us page after page of why things are wonderful in the UK and how we will do fine. The only problem is they aren't and we won't. Sitting with our fingers in our ears is the long slow way to the poorhouse.
Things are bad in the UK, but not because we have millions of people sitting around on couches refusing to work. As the government tells us, more people are in employment than ever before in our history - yet productivity is dire and we spend billions of taxpayers' money subsidising companies that do not pay their employees enough to live on.
Its not that millions are sitting around, its that millions feel safe to make no effort because there is a big fat safety net under them, that is a good thing socially, but a bad thing motivationally. Its that millions once employed feel not need to make an effort because they have next to no chance of being sacked for being no good, again arguably good socially, terribly in terms of productivity. Its that we have families where all the parents and grandparents have spent their life on benefits and the children have no role model that suggests that hard work is desirable. Finally we have (and have had for a long time) a disastrous anti-elitist culture that suggests that being too successful or doing to well is both uncool and in some ways un-British.
Southam Indeed, of course in the UK most people had to rely on charity or the workhouse until the early 20th century, it was only as the economy developed and most people got the vote that a welfare system was introduced as is now happening in much of Asia
Indigo The UK ranks only 46th in terms of unemployment benefit replacement rate in relation to previous income, behind Egypt, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan Turkey and South Korea and most western nations. Certainly the reduction in contributory JSA we have does not help, it is paid out for 6 months only and at the same rate as income based JSA http://euwelfarestates.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/world-ranking-in-unemployment-benefit.html
But people then claim their housing costs separately, which has to be taken into consideration.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
Agreed, too many companies (and I've worked in plenty of them) promote on the Peter Principle, the brownest nose in a team, who ever is not going to endanger the promoter and more and variations of the above.
No, I'm not bitter, used and abused the "system" through out my working life. The one job that gave me the most fun was one in which advancement was a given based on the quality of work produced, but as the MD made clear, if you were in the same position after 5 years, you better have a damned good reason (family, responsibility etc.) or you would be out of the company. Stayed 5 years, promoted twice, company bought out and I left (Company sold on, merged, failed) .
Far too easy to blame Unions, Europe or whatever rather to look at problems too close to home.
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Yes on the narrow point you are right, but I suggest wilfully missing the point that our younger generation is rapidly losing interesting in making stuff, and that suppliers that are in business to sell products to "make stuff" are scaling back their offerings in the face of public apathy. Probably half my generation would have made repairs at home, and the vast majority of my father's generation, but its easier, and involves less effort (and less satisfaction I would say) to hire a polish handyman, and go out to a wine bar.
There's a flip side to this.
A complaint from a friend of mine who lives in Eastern Europe is that how dodgy the electricity and plumbing is, after a couple of decades of previous occupiers Doing It Themselves and not necessarily very well. The level of practical skills in the wider population might be high (it's a cultural-historical thing, I'm told: getting in a domestic electrician under Communism could mean an eternal wait), but that doesn't mean it's of professional standard, and some jobs are just worth doing well.
From an economic point of view, we've known about the Division of Labour since at least the 18th century, so I don't think there should be any shame in taking advantage of it. I specialise professionally in those things for which I can charge the most for my time - and I can trade the time I spend doing what I'm good at, to bring in someone who can do the things I wouldn't be so good at but which I want to get done regardless.
Some things I'll do for myself because I extract a hobbyist's enjoyment from them. But the utility I derive from doing my own gardening, for instance, is the fresh air and exercise and opportunity to commune a little with the wonders of Nature, Perhaps a childlike delectation in the glories of getting myself muddy. It's certainly not that I'm kidding myself I'm doing an excellent job of it, or that I'm saving a small fortune in labourer's wages.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
Populus, like Comres Online and Survation, find many more conservative to UKIP switchers than the phone pollsters (incl. Comres). It reduces Tory 2010 vote retention by about 6%
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Populus online are an untried pollster at the General Election.
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
Surely the one with most to lose tonight is Nick. .......He has to surely focus on the success of the Coalition and how the Lib Dems will act as a moderator in a government of either colour. If he starts moaning about the Coalition the last few that care will be wondering what the point of the Lib Dems is.
The time to focus on the success of the Coalition was throughout the past five years. As the Responsible Left, in stark contrast to the two Eds.
The in-but-out-but-in-but.... stance on the Coalition has been a fundamentally stupid piece of positioning, tied to the old way of thinking that the LibDems could ride two horses in different directions.
A sensible Clegg should be shouting from the rooftops about the LD successes of the Coalition - lifting the personal allowance, free school meals etc. Instead he seems determined to use the narrative the he stopped the Tories eating babies while apologising for tuition fees and the reduction in the 50% rate. The LDs spent years decades arguing the positives of coalition, now seem determined to only use the negatives of actually being in one!
Free school meals a success?! Fundamentally wrong in principle and deeply irritating to interfere nannyingly like this, and in practice a nightmare for small schools, not to mention a waste of money.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
ARM?
ARM is an interesting one for lots of reasons. It was, and is, far from a standard investment and IP story. The UK owes Robin Saxby a great deal for his vision.
Southam Indeed, of course in the UK most people had to rely on charity or the workhouse until the early 20th century, it was only as the economy developed and most people got the vote that a welfare system was introduced as is now happening in much of Asia
Indigo The UK ranks only 46th in terms of unemployment benefit replacement rate in relation to previous income, behind Egypt, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan Turkey and South Korea and most western nations. Certainly the reduction in contributory JSA we have does not help, it is paid out for 6 months only and at the same rate as income based JSA http://euwelfarestates.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/world-ranking-in-unemployment-benefit.html
But people then claim their housing costs separately, which has to be taken into consideration.
And their free education and healthcare, which is massive.
At the moment a quarter of my monthly outgoings here is paying the school fees for my children, and they are in local schools, not international schools. It will be a higher percentage for most locals here.
Last night watched a repeat of a programme giving the history of the Welsh Valleys, often illustrated by pictures of the changing times. It gave a very good illustration of the impact of technology and globalisation on the health or misery of that local economy. ... Some PBers are developing business globally whilst others want to revert to past times and privileges that are no longer there and so mirror the political party leaders. Will we see any real thought innovation for GB at the debate tonight - I sincerely doubt it.
Odd post. You celebrate the industrial revolution, yet claim others are dinosaurs harking after the past. I doubt you would accept that life for you and your family.
Nobody needs to accept anything for themselves or their family. You just have to get people off their backsides and do something about it personally.
Look at education, the Victorians and their successors loved it, the Chinese and other Asians love it, the Africans love it - so why are we employing truancy officers and showing a declining performance compared to our global competitors?
Why do about half the adults in Wales have only a literacy and numeracy standard of an 11 year old? The answer is a combination of political ideology (all must win prizes) and a nigh total lack of aspiration for excellence by most politicians at all levels, who accept that average is good enough. Well accepting average of a declining standard can only lead to unemployment and bankruptcy.
Are supporting higher spending on education?
No, I support more efficient education, with better educated and subject qualified and aspirational teachers, longer school hours and get rid of the nonsense about children from poor backgrounds are disadvantaged. My grammar school was full of children whose parents could hardly afford their uniform (the school did provide grants for the needy) but all the parents were very keen for their children to achieve the best of their capability and to utilise their talents These parents also got involved with the PTA and supported their children - a bit different from what happens in some schools today.
Change programmes cost money, you don't get something for nothing.
The polling is still showing a confused picture. It's important to look at each pollster's results separately rather than jumble them all together chronologically.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
US universities are private businesses. UK universities are paid for by the government, if they do no research at all, sell no patents at all, they will stay in business, and the management are paid the same irrespective of any profits made, so they have no incentive to make a deal.
Not true: most research done at most US universities is federally or state funded.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
ARM?
Yes, ARM is an outstanding exception. But given the quality of our universities there should be many more ARMs.
Surely the one with most to lose tonight is Nick. .......He has to surely focus on the success of the Coalition and how the Lib Dems will act as a moderator in a government of either colour. If he starts moaning about the Coalition the last few that care will be wondering what the point of the Lib Dems is.
The time to focus on the success of the Coalition was throughout the past five years. As the Responsible Left, in stark contrast to the two Eds.
The in-but-out-but-in-but.... stance on the Coalition has been a fundamentally stupid piece of positioning, tied to the old way of thinking that the LibDems could ride two horses in different directions.
A sensible Clegg should be shouting from the rooftops about the LD successes of the Coalition - lifting the personal allowance, free school meals etc. Instead he seems determined to use the narrative the he stopped the Tories eating babies while apologising for tuition fees and the reduction in the 50% rate. The LDs spent years decades arguing the positives of coalition, now seem determined to only use the negatives of actually being in one!
Free school meals a success?! Fundamentally wrong in principle and deeply irritating to interfere nannyingly like this, and in practice a nightmare for small schools, not to mention a waste of money.
Certainly a success in terms of it being a clear LD policy coming through the coalition, rather than the success of the policy itself.
My point being that Clegg & co need to be more positive about their achievements. Thinking back to 2010 and where we might have ended up from the inconclusive election, the fact that we are where we are now is a massive credit to both parties involved - yet only one of them wants to shout from the rooftops about their record in Government.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
YouGov poll on who people expect to win tonight makes modestly interesting reading. Reinforces the favourites, though perhaps suggests Cameron is slightly too long and Farage too short (as others have argued). Personally I think it slightly weakens the case for partisan loyalty translating to debate support, given Sturgeon scores pretty well and Farage too. There is certainly an element of it, but I believe it has been somewhat overstated.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
Yes, a week off the booze and fags will have been advisable for the debate as well as a few morning runs or cycles and plenty of hydration.
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Populus online are an untried pollster at the General Election.
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
#TrustTheTriedAndTested
So TSE, you think that Populous Online will be the Angus Reid of 2015?
Many thanks for a fascinating exchange of views on here today. Very enjoyable and constructive.
I should hasten to add that this is not a party political point. I think a lack of real world experience at the top of all the major parties makes them far too amenable to listening to vested interests of all kinds. And those who run big businesses and investment banks are just as much of a vested interest as the teaching profession, trades unions, professional bodies etc.
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Populus online are an untried pollster at the General Election.
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
#TrustTheTriedAndTested
Does it matter if the pollsters were accurate at the last GE or just that they did polls?
Mind you their Scotland prediction looks quite broad brush to me - the idea that the SNP will gain only 35 seats if they take Orkney and Shetland is preposterous to my mind.
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Populus online are an untried pollster at the General Election.
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
#TrustTheTriedAndTested
So TSE, you think that Populous Online will be the Angus Reid of 2015?
I wouldn't go that far.
I've said the pollster with the most accurate UKIP figure will be the top pollster at this election.
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Populus online are an untried pollster at the General Election.
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
#TrustTheTriedAndTested
Does it matter if the pollsters were accurate at the last GE or just that they did polls?
Both. Helps to have a benchmark.
Once you apply the house effects on each pollster, they are largely showing the same thing
Do Labour and the Greens have age profile problems ?
Higher is better in each table imo.
From latest Populus:
65+
SNP 38.5% 65+ (Statistically borderline) Conservative 34.1% 65+ Lib Dem 33.3% 65+ UKIP 30.0% 65+
Labour 16.9% 65+ Green 10% 65+
18-24
UKIP 3.1% Conservative 7.3% Lib Dems 8.8% SNP 8.8% (Statistically borderline) Labour 10.6%
Green 32.3%
I'm assuming the numbers have been weighted to UK population pyramid excluding under 18s.
Plaid's figures are too statistically insignificant.
Interesting then that SLAB seem to be targeting the middle-aged and elderly West Central Belt Rangers/Celtic supporting male who likes his swally (and, some might add, sniffing glue when he was younger) - which IIRC is borne out by the data showing SLAB vote peaking in this demographic. Does this mean therefore that Scottish Labour voters are different from southron ones?
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
ARM?
Yes, ARM is an outstanding exception. But given the quality of our universities there should be many more ARMs.
Do you know why ARM has its rather unusual position in the industry?
It is not something that is easy to replicate, particularly on purpose.
Do Labour and the Greens have age profile problems ?
Higher is better in each table imo.
From latest Populus:
65+
SNP 38.5% 65+ (Statistically borderline) Conservative 34.1% 65+ Lib Dem 33.3% 65+ UKIP 30.0% 65+
Labour 16.9% 65+ Green 10% 65+
18-24
UKIP 3.1% Conservative 7.3% Lib Dems 8.8% SNP 8.8% (Statistically borderline) Labour 10.6%
Green 32.3%
I'm assuming the numbers have been weighted to UK population pyramid excluding under 18s.
Plaid's figures are too statistically insignificant.
Interesting then that SLAB seem to be targeting the middle-aged and elderly West Central Belt Rangers/Celtic supporting male who likes his swally (and, some might add, sniffing glue when he was younger) - which IIRC is borne out by the data showing SLAB vote peaking in this demographic. Does this mean therefore that Scottish Labour voters are different from southron ones?
Possibly, but the SNP age profile doesn't look awful to me whereas the Conservative age profile in seems a whole heap better than the Labour one (Obviously both are mainly English samples)
@Indigo - the vast majority of benefits paid in this country are to people who work (and to pensioners). Can you explain how in-work benefits encourage the people who receive them to sit on their couches all day?
SO you are giving us page after page of why things are wonderful in the UK and how we will do fine. The only problem is they aren't and we won't. Sitting with our fingers in our ears is the long slow way to the poorhouse.
Things are bad in the UK, but not because we have millions of people sitting around on couches refusing to work. As the government tells us, more people are in employment than ever before in our history - yet productivity is dire and we spend billions of taxpayers' money subsidising companies that do not pay their employees enough to live on.
That is also true in the US. I have read papers pointing out the vast amount of public subsidies that Walmart get, and oil & gas subsidies for companies like Haliburton. Crony capitalism is alive and well in the US. I think there is just a broader question of national culture. We often mock Americans for not knowing about geography, but they seem to have a far better understanding of business and financial matters than the average Brit.
Mind you their Scotland prediction looks quite broad brush to me - the idea that the SNP will gain only 35 seats if they take Orkney and Shetland is preposterous to my mind.
Absolutely. Realistically, you could probably add a minimum of ten to that number - all from Labour - and possibly up to 20. The way things are going now, Labour will do well to exceed its current overall seat total.
And so just as we seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the polls were swinging one way over the past few days, along comes one swinging the other way!
Populus online are an untried pollster at the General Election.
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
#TrustTheTriedAndTested
So TSE, you think that Populous Online will be the Angus Reid of 2015?
I wouldn't go that far.
I've said the pollster with the most accurate UKIP figure will be the top pollster at this election.
I think you're probably right there.
I wonder if the UKIP vote share will become a little like the LDs as we get closer, squeezed out in the Lab/Con marginals but still doing well where they can win and in the safe seats where they have no chance but might end up second? They could end up on 8% but with half a dozen seats to show for it, if they can sufficiently narrow their campaigning on the ground.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
I dunno.
Who will she go for ?
Farage is pretty much an irrelevance to her, Leanne Wood is her ally and Bennett is a sort of neutral ally competitor (The Greens stand in Scotland, Plaid do NOT) .
So her choices are obviously Clegg, Miliband and Cameron. The Scottish Lib Dem vote has already collapsed beyond repair - so my guess would be she'll go for Miliband particularly large on the fact that Labour are reasonably similiar to the Conservative spending plans (When compared to SNP).
Many thanks for a fascinating exchange of views on here today. Very enjoyable and constructive.
I should hasten to add that this is not a party political point. I think a lack of real world experience at the top of all the major parties makes them far too amenable to listening to vested interests of all kinds. And those who run big businesses and investment banks are just as much of a vested interest as the teaching profession, trades unions, professional bodies etc.
As in other aspects of politics where MP representation is light (understanding the position and attitudes of the very poor, prisoners, people with Alzheimers, children, people with major physical disabilities, etc.), we can't really rely on having lots of MPs who are expert from personal experience - nice to have, but not realistic. The acceptable substitute is an ability to listen and empathise without being co-opted. I've never criticised anyone for going to a private school, for instance, but the recognition that this isn't everyone's experience and an interest in understanding differences is essential, perhaps the most important of all political skills.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
ARM?
Yes, ARM is an outstanding exception. But given the quality of our universities there should be many more ARMs.
Do you know why ARM has its rather unusual position in the industry?
It is not something that is easy to replicate, particularly on purpose.
It should be noted that ARM relied heavily on public subsidy in its early days. Something that the US gets right, but is rarely done in the UK.
SO UK Polling Report gives Labour 310 and the Tories 296 seats on last night's yougov. Even if Labour loses 30 Scottish seats as looks likely that would still leave them on 280, clearly ahead of the 258 they won in 2010 http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/swing-calculator
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
I dunno.
Who will she go for ?
Farage is pretty much an irrelevance to her, Leanne Wood is her ally and Bennett is a sort of neutral ally competitor (The Greens stand in Scotland, Plaid do NOT) .
So her choices are obviously Clegg, Miliband and Cameron. The Scottish Lib Dem vote has already collapsed beyond repair - so my guess would be she'll go for Miliband particularly large on the fact that Labour are reasonably similiar to the Conservative spending plans (When compared to SNP).
I'm assuming that the SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru will have done some joint planning in advance of tonight. They portray themselves as an alliance. If they work in concert as they should, they could cause huge problems for the rest of the field, especially Ed Miliband.
@Financier - Seeing R&D as an expensive luxury is part of the British disease. As are outdated working practices and technology. We have had one of the most deregulated labour markets anywhere in Europe for three decades now. It is not unions that have held us back; it is managements and our investment culture. Look at the performance of companies elsewhere in countries with far stronger labour laws than ours and similar levels of educational attainment.
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
You might ask why is it that the university which carried out the research wasn't more entrepreneurial?
That university would need capital to develop spin-outs and/or licensees willing to pay a royalty to work the relevant patents. The first means investors, the second means companies. Those are to be found outside the UK, but not here.
So why does it work in the US? The academic culture here might be too complacent re risk taking, or the search for profits. Though @Financier has pointed to action.
It's far easier to access capital in the US and much easier to find licensees (though recent and possible further changes to patent law will change that - much to the US's disadvantage).
ARM?
Yes, ARM is an outstanding exception. But given the quality of our universities there should be many more ARMs.
Do you know why ARM has its rather unusual position in the industry?
It is not something that is easy to replicate, particularly on purpose.
It should be noted that ARM relied heavily on public subsidy in its early days. Something that the US gets right, but is rarely done in the UK.
Did it rely on public subsidy? As a genuine question, which subsidies?
It was jointly invested in by Apple (45% from memory), Acorn (45%), and VLSI (10%). I think VLSI's figures were lower than that and the other two's higher. I can't recall them getting subisides after they were spun out in 1990, but I've not looked into their early history for some years, and it was well before any involvement I may or may not have had with them.;-)
SO UK Polling Report gives Labour 310 and the Tories 296 seats on last night's yougov. Even if Labour loses 30 Scottish seats as looks likely that would still leave them on 280, clearly ahead of the 258 they won in 2010 http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/swing-calculator
Factor in Lib Dem incumbency, and likely first time Conservative incumbency, and Labour would finish below 280.
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years.
The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
The UK 3 pin plug is the greatest design triumph of all time.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
I dunno.
This seems to be a good reason for parties that only stand in one part of the UK to not be included in UK-wide debates.
Incidentally, saw ITV News at Ten last night, and they seem to have a debate rating app. That'll be gamed by every party. SNP may do nicely on that measure.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the debate this evening. I shall be on a plane while it takes place.
My other half actually asked me whether it would be on one of the catch-up services so that he could watch it later. Since he normally has a go at me for being so interested in "that political betting shite", I was left lost for words.
OGH makes much of the Tories 2010 lead tie with Labour among teachers:
For five years teachers have complained about the damaging and ill-considered changes forced upon them by the Conservatives. So why does it appear – based on grumblings heard in staffrooms and across social media – that Labour has yet to secure the teachers’ vote?
The answer, according to National Union of Teachers general secretary, Christine Blower, is that many of her members remain politely but firmly sceptical of Labour and its shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt.
Someone I know who works with children is contemptuous of some of Labours ill thought out plans - latest one to set him off was the apprenticeship wheeze which actually is worse in some ways than the existing provision.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
I dunno.
Who will she go for ?
Farage is pretty much an irrelevance to her, Leanne Wood is her ally and Bennett is a sort of neutral ally competitor (The Greens stand in Scotland, Plaid do NOT) .
So her choices are obviously Clegg, Miliband and Cameron. The Scottish Lib Dem vote has already collapsed beyond repair - so my guess would be she'll go for Miliband particularly large on the fact that Labour are reasonably similiar to the Conservative spending plans (When compared to SNP).
She'll happily give dave and nick a kicking - the interesting thing will be the dynamic with ed. passive/aggressive maybe?
If I were to advise her, I'd go with "the tories have spent the last 5 years eating babies and you've barely even noticed." type of thing.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
I dunno.
Who will she go for ?
Farage is pretty much an irrelevance to her, Leanne Wood is her ally and Bennett is a sort of neutral ally competitor (The Greens stand in Scotland, Plaid do NOT) .
So her choices are obviously Clegg, Miliband and Cameron. The Scottish Lib Dem vote has already collapsed beyond repair - so my guess would be she'll go for Miliband particularly large on the fact that Labour are reasonably similiar to the Conservative spending plans (When compared to SNP).
I'm assuming that the SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru will have done some joint planning in advance of tonight. They portray themselves as an alliance. If they work in concert as they should, they could cause huge problems for the rest of the field, especially Ed Miliband.
I have money on Sturgeon as an outside, bit of fun bet. I'm not that hopeful however. She may come across as the most passionate which might help.
Sweating could be a major issue for the contestants in tonight's fight.Farage looked particularly out of shape in his first clash with Clegg but the risks of excessive perspiration are more real for Cameron,especially if it gets mixed up with the make-up powder and ends up dripping like sludge.Clegg's face is also worth a watch for puffiness-he looked to be going the same way as Elvis earlier on in the parliament.Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look. I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
A Sturgaculation is certainly possible. The problem is that she's not trying to appeal to a UK audience - her debate strategy is simple and very focussed. Expect lots of *scotland this* and *scotland that* - is that really going to win over the ~20-25% of the English people on the polling panel that she'd need, to come out as the winner?
I dunno.
Who will she go for ?
Farage is pretty much an irrelevance to her, Leanne Wood is her ally and Bennett is a sort of neutral ally competitor (The Greens stand in Scotland, Plaid do NOT) .
So her choices are obviously Clegg, Miliband and Cameron. The Scottish Lib Dem vote has already collapsed beyond repair - so my guess would be she'll go for Miliband particularly large on the fact that Labour are reasonably similiar to the Conservative spending plans (When compared to SNP).
I'm assuming that the SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru will have done some joint planning in advance of tonight. They portray themselves as an alliance. If they work in concert as they should, they could cause huge problems for the rest of the field, especially Ed Miliband.
Plaid Cymru and the SNP certainly are an alliance. Nathalie indeed only represents the Green party of England and Wales (Though whether people will distinguish between them and the Scottish Greens is doubtful).
Scottish Green candidates here. Note no candidates for the moment in P&RS and East Renfrewshire (And nicely from a betting perspective Cumbernauld...) , hopefully the rest aren't overworking
SO UK Polling Report gives Labour 310 and the Tories 296 seats on last night's yougov. Even if Labour loses 30 Scottish seats as looks likely that would still leave them on 280, clearly ahead of the 258 they won in 2010 http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/swing-calculator
We'll see. I suspect Labour is not going to do as well as "just" losing 30 seats in Scotland, while much of England may also be a struggle. They should make gains in London and some in Wales and the North, but the Midlands and the South will be very hard. Overall it's hard to see Labour winning many more seats than they will lose in Scotland.
There are nearly 3 BILLION aspirational Indians and Chinese waiting to take our place on the world stage, while we as a country seem to care only about what we can do without offending the producers...
On a related topic I found this article in the paper yesterday extremely depressing.
Surveys suggest that only 8 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds can wire a plug. But then the same surveys report that only 12 per cent can use a drill..... The answer is not that they can’t do DIY, it is that they do not want to. In this they are becoming more like the French, for whom vast superstore aisles of red and white means wine, not rawlplugs.
At the same time invention, creation, making stuff is becoming a huge movement in the USA. The maker movement is all over the country there, not just with magazines full of things to make, but lots of cutting edge technology being open sourced and democratised. It a lot of community centres in the USA its not uncommon to find lazer cutters, 3d printers, CNC mills and other high end production machinery available to rent by the hour or the job, so people can design and build their own products. Its challenging, empowering stuff, and we are going in the opposite direction... sad.
I thought that wiring a plug is positively discouraged nowadays, with sealed plugs to avoid electrocution. Outside work (where some basic wiring is often needed), I haven't wired a plug for years.
The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
The UK 3 pin plug is the greatest design triumph of all time.
My second greatest achievement in life was designing a 3 pin plug where each of the screws was the same distance from the flex entry, thus meaning one didn't need to shorten the individual wires. This being Britain, I did nothing with my idea whatsoever and allowed the country too be flooded with moulded plugs, then complained about globalisation and lack of government support.
My greatest achievement was to invent a word and get it into common parlance. Sturgaculation has been used on this thread, albeit only once (so not so common). Whoever used it, I thank you.
Comments
We don't produce R&D-based companies because our investors walk a mile from them - they are an upfront expense and returns do not fit the schedules they demand. Look at graphene: first produced in this country, but taken forward elsewhere by foreign businesses because none in the UK wanted to get involved.
Poor quality case, broke after one day, not good value for money.
https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/labour-letter-signatory-wayne-hemingway-admits-hiring-unpaid-interns
It has been the "Bane of Britain" for decades now. Blame the workers and pay those at the top ever more for pointing out who is at fault, rather than look at the problems with a fresh and unprejudiced eye.
The whipping boys can of course be replaced according to taste and convenience.
I despair at the inability of even my contemporaries in the 40/50s who asked me to fix simple household appliances, put together their cat climbing tree, help with almost anything
I love fixing/building things and gained a huge amount of enjoyment, confidence and satisfaction from it. Yes on the narrow point you are right, but I suggest wilfully missing the point that our younger generation is rapidly losing interesting in making stuff, and that suppliers that are in business to sell products to "make stuff" are scaling back their offerings in the face of public apathy. Probably half my generation would have made repairs at home, and the vast majority of my father's generation, but its easier, and involves less effort (and less satisfaction I would say) to hire a polish handyman, and go out to a wine bar.
Firstly there is very little social security, people who lose their job largely are supported by their extended family, which works very well because their is immediate pressure on those people to get a new job, it tends to come up every day at dinner time!
Secondly, basically everyone is on a no-notice contract, if you aren't any good in most of Asia, you get sacked that day, no notice. Which means that everyone that wants to stay employed makes an effort, all the time. There is usually a queue of people outside the door wanting to take the job so employers feel no compunction about accepting second best.
Thirdly, schooling is long hours and rigorous, parents are engaged and almost uniformly respect and support the teacher. Children are unable to play teachers and parents off against each other, if you go home and complain about being told off by the teacher, you will get an earful from your parents as well.
Finally, most of Asia is prepared currently to accept a dramatically lower standard of living than anyone in the UK would even dream of. This will change over time for sure, but with two thirds of the worlds population in developing Asia, any regression to a mean will result in our standard of living approaching theirs more rapidly than theirs approaches ours. By the time their living standards approach what we have, they will be completely dominant in most market sectors and before that, they will always be cheaper.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/263dd9b2-bb6e-11e4-a31f-00144feab7de.html#axzz3W8vZ8O8m
And, of course, housing is heavily subsidised across the region.
The 3 pin plug is surely the biggest design fail of all time: you end up stripping too much/not enough, not leaving enough to get round the corner, and then you upend the thing and the fuse holder bit falls out.
But we have always to use improved technology to compete and it requires people with high skill sets to operate it.
Governments do not help - Green taxes nearly shut all the rest of or steel industry until the threat of closure woke up the Energy Sec.
Graphene - One of the very first patents pertaining to the production of graphene was filed in October 2002 and granted in 2006 (US Pat. 7071258).[36] Titled, "Nano-scaled Graphene Plates," this patent detailed one of the very first large scale graphene production processes. Two years later, in 2004 Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov at The University of Manchester extracted single-atom-thick crystallites from bulk graphite.
In 2014 a £60m National Graphene Institute a £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) - (Manchester) were announced to support applied research and development in partnership with other research organisations and industry.
In North East England two commercial manufacturers, Applied Graphene Materials and Thomas Swan Limited, (with Trinity College, Dublin researchers) have begun manufacturing. In East Anglia, another manufacturer, Cambridge Nanosystems, is operating a large scale graphene powder production facilities.
Source Wiki.
More likely MOE of another poll which has it neck and neck
I bet the next few days we are going to have polls all over the shop.
Business confidence in construction industry reaches highest level since 2006.
Gender split looks 'interesting'
Indigo The UK ranks only 46th in terms of unemployment benefit replacement rate in relation to previous income, behind Egypt, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan Turkey and South Korea and most western nations. Certainly the reduction in contributory JSA we have does not help, it is paid out for 6 months only and at the same rate as income based JSA
http://euwelfarestates.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/world-ranking-in-unemployment-benefit.html
The British plug is the best in the world, as Tom Robinson nearly sang, and Tom Scott explains on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q
I'll have none of this. The British plug is the best plug in the worrrrldd.
The reverse is the case in US academia, they are if anything overly profit driven, too concentrated on pumping out paper by volume, rather than quality. No publications by you and your PhDs, you wont last long. And getting tenured Prof is extremely difficult.
There are notable exceptions to the above generalizations.
Does Populus table 5 account for differential age related turnout or just tries to get it's sample in line with the population pyramid ?
No, I'm not bitter, used and abused the "system" through out my working life. The one job that gave me the most fun was one in which advancement was a given based on the quality of work produced, but as the MD made clear, if you were in the same position after 5 years, you better have a damned good reason (family, responsibility etc.) or you would be out of the company. Stayed 5 years, promoted twice, company bought out and I left (Company sold on, merged, failed) .
Far too easy to blame Unions, Europe or whatever rather to look at problems too close to home.
A complaint from a friend of mine who lives in Eastern Europe is that how dodgy the electricity and plumbing is, after a couple of decades of previous occupiers Doing It Themselves and not necessarily very well. The level of practical skills in the wider population might be high (it's a cultural-historical thing, I'm told: getting in a domestic electrician under Communism could mean an eternal wait), but that doesn't mean it's of professional standard, and some jobs are just worth doing well.
From an economic point of view, we've known about the Division of Labour since at least the 18th century, so I don't think there should be any shame in taking advantage of it. I specialise professionally in those things for which I can charge the most for my time - and I can trade the time I spend doing what I'm good at, to bring in someone who can do the things I wouldn't be so good at but which I want to get done regardless.
Some things I'll do for myself because I extract a hobbyist's enjoyment from them. But the utility I derive from doing my own gardening, for instance, is the fresh air and exercise and opportunity to commune a little with the wonders of Nature, Perhaps a childlike delectation in the glories of getting myself muddy. It's certainly not that I'm kidding myself I'm doing an excellent job of it, or that I'm saving a small fortune in labourer's wages.
Last three Populus (end of week)
33-31, 34-31, 32-29
Last three Populus (start of week)
34-34, 33-31, 34-34
Populus, like Comres Online and Survation, find many more conservative to UKIP switchers than the phone pollsters (incl. Comres). It reduces Tory 2010 vote retention by about 6%
All bar one of the pollsters who polled at the last election have the Tories ahead.
#TrustTheTriedAndTested
And their free education and healthcare, which is massive.
At the moment a quarter of my monthly outgoings here is paying the school fees for my children, and they are in local schools, not international schools. It will be a higher percentage for most locals here.
http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=ENV/EPOC/WPCID(2012)6&docLanguage=En
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/27/universities-government-money_n_3165186.html
Higher is better in each table imo.
From latest Populus:
65+
SNP 38.5% 65+ (Statistically borderline)
Conservative 34.1% 65+
Lib Dem 33.3% 65+
UKIP 30.0% 65+
Labour 16.9% 65+
Green 10% 65+
18-24
UKIP 3.1%
Conservative 7.3%
Lib Dems 8.8%
SNP 8.8% (Statistically borderline)
Labour 10.6%
Green 32.3%
I'm assuming the numbers have been weighted to UK population pyramid excluding under 18s.
Plaid's figures are too statistically insignificant.
My point being that Clegg & co need to be more positive about their achievements. Thinking back to 2010 and where we might have ended up from the inconclusive election, the fact that we are where we are now is a massive credit to both parties involved - yet only one of them wants to shout from the rooftops about their record in Government.
I suspect too 2 contests,one for Head Girl and one for Head Boy but the sisterhood,working as a team,could end up the overall winner which is why I am backing Sturgeon at 9-1.
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/04/02/more-expect-miliband-do-well-tv-debate/
PM-Pendulum Model: Conservatives Edge Labour in Votes and Seats
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/generalelection/pm-pendulum-model-conservatives-edge-labour-in-votes-and-seats/
Two hours is a long long time under lights.
I should hasten to add that this is not a party political point. I think a lack of real world experience at the top of all the major parties makes them far too amenable to listening to vested interests of all kinds. And those who run big businesses and investment banks are just as much of a vested interest as the teaching profession, trades unions, professional bodies etc.
I've said the pollster with the most accurate UKIP figure will be the top pollster at this election.
Once you apply the house effects on each pollster, they are largely showing the same thing
I dunno.
It is not something that is easy to replicate, particularly on purpose.
'Miliband has far less of a puffy,sweaty look.'
Just a weird look instead..
I wonder if the UKIP vote share will become a little like the LDs as we get closer, squeezed out in the Lab/Con marginals but still doing well where they can win and in the safe seats where they have no chance but might end up second? They could end up on 8% but with half a dozen seats to show for it, if they can sufficiently narrow their campaigning on the ground.
Farage is pretty much an irrelevance to her, Leanne Wood is her ally and Bennett is a sort of neutral ally competitor (The Greens stand in Scotland, Plaid do NOT) .
So her choices are obviously Clegg, Miliband and Cameron. The Scottish Lib Dem vote has already collapsed beyond repair - so my guess would be she'll go for Miliband particularly large on the fact that Labour are reasonably similiar to the Conservative spending plans (When compared to SNP).
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/swing-calculator
It was jointly invested in by Apple (45% from memory), Acorn (45%), and VLSI (10%). I think VLSI's figures were lower than that and the other two's higher. I can't recall them getting subisides after they were spun out in 1990, but I've not looked into their early history for some years, and it was well before any involvement I may or may not have had with them.;-)
The UK 3 pin plug is the greatest design triumph of all time.
My other half actually asked me whether it would be on one of the catch-up services so that he could watch it later. Since he normally has a go at me for being so interested in "that political betting shite", I was left lost for words.
If I were to advise her, I'd go with "the tories have spent the last 5 years eating babies and you've barely even noticed." type of thing.
I'm sure she doesn't need my advice though!
http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/westminster2015-2/
Scottish Green candidates here. Note no candidates for the moment in P&RS and East Renfrewshire (And nicely from a betting perspective Cumbernauld...) , hopefully the rest aren't overworking
My second greatest achievement in life was designing a 3 pin plug where each of the screws was the same distance from the flex entry, thus meaning one didn't need to shorten the individual wires. This being Britain, I did nothing with my idea whatsoever and allowed the country too be flooded with moulded plugs, then complained about globalisation and lack of government support.
My greatest achievement was to invent a word and get it into common parlance. Sturgaculation has been used on this thread, albeit only once (so not so common). Whoever used it, I thank you.