"The OBR’s best guess is that much of this productivity loss has been structural, rather than just a result of weak demand. The watchdog notes that productivity has continued to languish this year as growth has revived. And while it forecasts output per hour to start growing again next year, it does not predict rapid catch-up growth to regain the lost ground.
This is central to its belief that the economy’s growth potential is lower than it was expected to be before the crisis. By 2019, it believes the level of potential output will be 15 per cent lower than the level the Treasury had expected in March 2008 before the crisis hit.
That is one reason why the OBR thinks more of the government’s budget deficit is structural and is not going to disappear naturally as the economic cycle turns.
“The unexpected strength of private consumption this year has largely come from lower saving, not higher income,” it said. “Ultimately, productivity-driven growth in real earnings is necessary to sustain the recovery.” This will not start to happen properly until 2015, it believes.
The OBR also cautioned that policy makers can do little to resolve the “cost of living crisis”, as the Labour party has put it, without better productivity. “Policy measures cannot continually improve the terms of trade, taxes cannot be cut indefinitely and workers can only work so many more hours in a day,” the OBR said. “Productivity growth is the only sustainable source of real income growth in the long term.” "
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
That seems like quite enough to me for a foreign head of state whose primary achievements, however inspirational, were domestic to that country.
More!
Nelson Mandela Museum, dedicated to political correctness gone mad - sorry, the fight against racism - throughout history. That should be suitably irritating to Mail readers.
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
That seems like quite enough to me for a foreign head of state whose primary achievements, however inspirational, were domestic to that country.
More!
Nelson Mandela Museum, dedicated to political correctness gone mad - sorry, the fight against racism - throughout history. That should be suitably irritating to Mail readers.
Turf Dacre out of Northcliffe House , and base it there.
Tony Blair can conduct the official opening ceremony, whilst Cherie supermarket sweeps the gift shop.
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
Phew!
I don't know about the memorial really. It would give the impression that the struggles a few people in the UK have are in some way comparable to those of black South Africans in the 20th Century. I can see people who are slightly worse off than others under present conditions crowbarring embarrassing and factually lamentable parallels into public...
Steven Burrell, 21, spent 16 months hacking profiles on Runescape - the world's biggest online role-playing game - A court heard he then sold people's virtual items, such as potions, weapons and cooking equipment, on auction sites and forums to raise up to £3,000.
Surely this must qualify for the ultimate ‘Nerd’ crime award…!
Hmm Seems that crime pays (Sort of), £160 fine for £3000 of income, the two computers are probably worth £500 each at a guess. Thus the 150 hours of his work will effectively be paying him ~ between £12.26 and £14.50/hour I make it.
His items he has sold on E-Bay will be the property of Jagex as per their EULA so I wonder if they will pursue him civilly for the £3 grand. But as it has been dealt with criminally I am not certain if they can...
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
Phew!
I don't know about the memorial really. It would give the impression that the struggles a few people in the UK have are in some way comparable to those of black South Africans in the 20th Century. I can see people who are slightly worse off than others under present conditions crowbarring embarrassing and factually lamentable parallels into public...
I note the flash poll below and how the people below in that poll have rated the Autumn statement. I know the usual caveats of small sub-sample and one poll, however, it re-enforces my belief that the papers sway on the voters is receding very quickly. The number of certain papers and Sky News fawning over the Autumn Statement should have lead to a resounding positive, however, thanks I think mainly to the internet, people are more than ever making their own mind up of how it will effect them. Certain papers and Sky News might be telling them how fantastic everything is, however, people are trusting their own views and circumstances. The days of "The Sun what won it" are over.
Not only are the papers losing their readership, they are struggling to control their remaining readerships political views, like they have been able to in the past......which is not a bad thing.
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
Phew!
I don't know about the memorial really. It would give the impression that the struggles a few people in the UK have are in some way comparable to those of black South Africans in the 20th Century. I can see people who are slightly worse off than others under present conditions crowbarring embarrassing and factually lamentable parallels into public...
The struggle for EMA
We'll never know what the great man thought about the 'Bedroom Tax'.
Numbers are not on front page of website (where they usually are) but tables can be accessed from polls page. See link. Fieldwork 4/5 Dec. I assume the headline numbers are as per page 3 which I have posted.
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
F1: when is a re-election not a re-election? When you're unopposed. Todt retains the presidency, and also the invisibility cloak he's been wearing for the last few years: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25263441
"He could charm the birds off the trees—and cash right out of wallets. He told me once how Margaret Thatcher had personally donated £20,000 to his foundation. “How did you do that?” I gasped. The Iron Lady, who was famously frugal, kept a tight grip on her purse. “I asked,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll never get what you want if you don’t ask.” Then he lowered his voice conspiratorially and said her donation had nauseated some of his cohorts. “Didn’t she try to squash our movement?” they complained. His response: “Didn’t De Klerk crush our people like flies? And I’m having tea with him next week … He’ll be getting the bill.”
Amstell forced into apology for light-hearted and (from the description) amusing reference to racial segregation at the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/25256315
"He could charm the birds off the trees—and cash right out of wallets. He told me once how Margaret Thatcher had personally donated £20,000 to his foundation. “How did you do that?” I gasped. The Iron Lady, who was famously frugal, kept a tight grip on her purse. “I asked,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll never get what you want if you don’t ask.” Then he lowered his voice conspiratorially and said her donation had nauseated some of his cohorts. “Didn’t she try to squash our movement?” they complained. His response: “Didn’t De Klerk crush our people like flies? And I’m having tea with him next week … He’ll be getting the bill.”
I doubt Gandhi or Christ would have remained silent whilst Zuma spent 215M Rand building an opulent house, next to a township of 13,000 many of whom have no running water or electricity.
"Wealden Conservatives: At a packed public meeting, Nusrat Ghani was chosen to become our Parliamentary Candidate in 2015, when Charles Hendry will retire following 14 years service as our MP."
Apparently in the football World Cup draw England have been drawn in a group with The Vatican City, Sao Tome and the Pitcairn Islands. England football manager Roy Hodgson said :
"Clearly it's a tough group and there are no easy matches at this stage and we're just pleased to be here with the giants of world football.
I only hope we manage to escape our group although very obviously we're the underdog of the four teams."
Boris's Tory mea culpa, though more 'they' than 'me'.
'Boris Johnson tells Michael Crick the Tories got it "completely wrong" on Mandela in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher called the ANC a terrorist group.'
Mandela's life also reminds me of the plot of my favourite book, The Count Of Monte Cristo, although Mandela was more forgiving than Edmond Dantes,
The Count of Monte Cristo is an excellent book, and it is also notable for having a really good film version.
Not a particularly big reader, but I have read The Count three or four times. Love it so much.
The film was never going to match the one I had in my head, but it was a fair attempt. The change of ending bugged me badly, but I guess stories have to adapt to the time they are told in.
Boris's Tory mea culpa, though more 'they' than 'me'.
'Boris Johnson tells Michael Crick the Tories got it "completely wrong" on Mandela in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher called the ANC a terrorist group.'
At risk of being moderated back into the stone age, what did this bloke actually do? He went to prison for something he possibly didn't do, then he was let out again. Like SeanT. He was married to Winnie. The South African Truth and Reconciliation commission found "Ms Winnie Madikizela Mandela politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights", concluding that she had personally been responsible for the murder, torture, abduction and assault of numerous men, women and children, as well as indirectly responsible for even larger number of such crimes." She made a speech in 1986 praising the practice of "necklacing" - burning victims (invariably poor blacks) to death with diesel and car tyres, a process which takes 20 minutes of unimaginable agony. It took him till 1992 to separate from her. I think Jesus Christ took a rather more proactive stance against that sort of thing.
Apparently in the football World Cup draw England have been drawn in a group with The Vatican City, Sao Tome and the Pitcairn Islands. England football manager Roy Hodgson said :
"Clearly it's a tough group and there are no easy matches at this stage and we're just pleased to be here with the giants of world football.
I only hope we manage to escape our group although very obviously we're the underdog of the four teams."
I wonder how many BBC staff will be flying out to South Africa, to cover events and soak up the Winter sunshine?
Loads I hope.
I also think we should have a new national holiday called Mandela Day. Wonder if Prime Minister Ed will be the type to think up imaginative and petty ways to irritate the Daily Mail tendency? He seems the type, here's hoping.
I'll give you the benefit and hope you're lightheartedly trolling
Could you imagine anything lamer and less appropriate than Nelson Mandela Day in England?
Hehe right the first time. Some sort of high profile permanent memorial though, definitely.
How about naming a university JCR after him?
Perhaps one where the Federation of Conservative Students meet, they've got some songs about him after all.
There's something very appropriate about Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela dying in the same year. It's as if the 20th century has finally ended.
Sad news indeed. I keep hoping time will be reversed so I can attend music concerts by some of my favourite 80s pop bands, like Japan's Sons Of Pioneers tour in 1982.
The muddle headed & shallow minded leaping to denounce Smuts in the previous thread might like to read this contemporary article from The Economist on the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947 and the challenges Smuts was facing:
Stuart Dickson has a tricky decision ahead. Will it be good news for the Yes camp if England get knocked out early because all Scots will unite in derision for the underperforming English or will it be good news for the Yes camp if England get through because the English patriotism at this footballing success will unite all Scots in antipathy?
Indeed and Mandela came here in 2000 to unveil a statue of Huddleston.
Let's be thankful that ex-Tory MP, Terry Dicks has no links with the town.
He said: “(Mandela) was just a terrorist, no different to the Irish terrorists, perhaps no different to the ones we’re fighting now … a terrorist is a terrorist … and if they (the apartheid regime) had wanted to they could have executed him, seriously, and then you wouldn’t have had all this fuss of ‘I lived 27 years in prison.’”
Mandela was “no different from … people like al-Qaeda, no different from bin Laden,”
@faisalislam: Fun Manaus fact4: Apparently there are no roads to Manaus. Either a flight. Or a two week boat up the amazon. Rooney should take the boat.
Incidentally, a reminder to those of you upset by Australia slaughering us at cricket that next year will see the probable crushing of Ricciardo (who is, of course, an Aussie) by Vettel in F1. If he is, as I expect, bloody murdered, it'll be interesting to see if he stops smiling so much.
Stuart Dickson has a tricky decision ahead. Will it be good news for the Yes camp if England get knocked out early because all Scots will unite in derision for the underperforming English or will it be good news for the Yes camp if England get through because the English patriotism at this footballing success will unite all Scots in antipathy?
You haven't been studying your Scottish anthropology enough if you don't know the answer to that.
In comparison I don't know if I live within an especially cynical and callous section of society but the universal response I've heard today has been "I'm sick of hearing about nothing else than bloody Nelson Mandela" with several "they've only flicked the switch now to give publicity to that film about him".
Now if I do live within an especially cynical and callous section of society its all the most surprising that I'm such a moderate and generous hearted individual ;-).
I preferred watching the England cricket team in the 90s and early 2000s because there were more characters in the squad at that time. These days a lot of the players seem a bit robotic IMO.
One thing that I'm sure most of us can agree on is that it would have been much more likely for the South Africa of 1980 to have a more disasterous future than it in fact has.
In fact its likely that any significant change in the political and economic influences upon South Africa in the 1980s could have led to catastrophe, millions of deaths and millions of refugees - the events of Rwanda but on a far larger playing field.
So I wonder if any of the PB lefties will show some of the generosity of spirit Nelson Mandela is famed for and admit that Thatcher's policy towards South Africa ** was the correct one ?
** Which was of course the same policy the previous Labour government had persued.
There's something very appropriate about Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela dying in the same year. It's as if the 20th century has finally ended.
Sad news indeed. I keep hoping time will be reversed so I can attend music concerts by some of my favourite 80s pop bands, like Japan's Sons Of Pioneers tour in 1982.
I believe A Secret Affair are playing in Islington on Saturday.
Comments
Tony Blair can conduct the official opening ceremony, whilst Cherie supermarket sweeps the gift shop.
I don't know about the memorial really. It would give the impression that the struggles a few people in the UK have are in some way comparable to those of black South Africans in the 20th Century. I can see people who are slightly worse off than others under present conditions crowbarring embarrassing and factually lamentable parallels into public...
His items he has sold on E-Bay will be the property of Jagex as per their EULA so I wonder if they will pursue him civilly for the £3 grand. But as it has been dealt with criminally I am not certain if they can...
In wages, perhaps, but not in the price of goods and services.
And that is the pinch people are really feeling.
Its partly global. In the past when western growth was weak then the cost of living would ease because we were the only market in town.
That is no longer the case. The cost of living has kept rising even amid slow growth because important markets world are growing, and growing fast.
Not only are the papers losing their readership, they are struggling to control their remaining readerships political views, like they have been able to in the past......which is not a bad thing.
This can only be a negative for a certain party
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have held surprise talks on a "strategic partnership treaty".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25267130
Were they ever really with us?
The Sun could only lay claim to deciding one of the last goodness knows how many (92). And its a very slim claim at that.
Jeff Breslin @jeffbres 11m
I might as well say it since everyone knows it - in time, history will view Salmond as Scotland's paler Mandela. #LongWalkToFreedom
No to censorship.
Lab 38
Con 34
LD 13
UKIP 7
Numbers are not on front page of website (where they usually are) but tables can be accessed from polls page. See link. Fieldwork 4/5 Dec. I assume the headline numbers are as per page 3 which I have posted.
http://www.populus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Online_VI_06-12-2013_BPC.pdf
38/34/13/7 as posted below.
Private Eye?
I'm sure they would give an arm and a leg for photos of Pippa Middleton at the South African High Commission
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25263441
"He could charm the birds off the trees—and cash right out of wallets. He told me once how Margaret Thatcher had personally donated £20,000 to his foundation. “How did you do that?” I gasped. The Iron Lady, who was famously frugal, kept a tight grip on her purse. “I asked,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll never get what you want if you don’t ask.” Then he lowered his voice conspiratorially and said her donation had nauseated some of his cohorts. “Didn’t she try to squash our movement?” they complained. His response: “Didn’t De Klerk crush our people like flies? And I’m having tea with him next week … He’ll be getting the bill.”
Read more: Bono Honors Madiba, The Man Who Could Not Cry | TIME.com http://world.time.com/2013/12/05/bono-the-man-who-could-not-cry/#ixzz2mi9nxcKR
Oborne wins the prize for the most OTT headline so far:
''Few human beings can be compared to Jesus Christ. Nelson Mandela was one''
Has Mary Riddle written an article yet? only she can top that, and the only figure left after Gandhi and Jesus is God himself.....
Was Nelson Mendela actually God? http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/johnmcternan1/100248969/nelson-mandela-had-a-unique-gift-he-was-able-to-govern-in-poetry/#disqus_thread
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/25256315
I agree that a lot of the tributes are rather sickly... but I can see the JC comparison!
Bono may have been channeling SeanT
"He had surgery in 1994 to put this right. Now, he could cry.
Today, we can"
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/29/jacob-zuma-accused-corruption-south-africa
http://www.wealdenconservatives.com/news/nusrat-ghani-selected-open-primary-succeed-charles-hendry-mp-wealden-conservative-candidate
"Clearly it's a tough group and there are no easy matches at this stage and we're just pleased to be here with the giants of world football.
I only hope we manage to escape our group although very obviously we're the underdog of the four teams."
http://thewptformula.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/analysis-turbochargers/
'Boris Johnson tells Michael Crick the Tories got it "completely wrong" on Mandela in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher called the ANC a terrorist group.'
http://tinyurl.com/nspj3vj
The film was never going to match the one I had in my head, but it was a fair attempt. The change of ending bugged me badly, but I guess stories have to adapt to the time they are told in.
*CLAPS*
For those of you who don't bet, that means if you bet £10, you will lose £10
I wonder if there have ever been any groups before with 3 World Cup winners in them before?
I'd take
Hart, Forster, Foster
Walker, Johnson, Cole, Baines
Jagielka, Cahill, Terry, Jones
Gerrard, Wilshere, Carrick, Barkley
Townsend, Morrison, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain
Sturridge, Rooney, Carroll
Gary Lineker, BBC Sport
"One of the positives is that Luis Suarez isn't in good form at the moment."
Footballers Get Me Out Of Here.
I'd pay to see them stuck in the jungle.
(As are we all.)
Chile is my punt that has had the real stinker in terms of a group.
http://www.economist.com/news/21583170-royal-tour-great-significance-divided-dominion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Huddleston
Let's be thankful that ex-Tory MP, Terry Dicks has no links with the town.
He said: “(Mandela) was just a terrorist, no different to the Irish terrorists, perhaps no different to the ones we’re fighting now … a terrorist is a terrorist … and if they (the apartheid regime) had wanted to they could have executed him, seriously, and then you wouldn’t have had all this fuss of ‘I lived 27 years in prison.’”
Mandela was “no different from … people like al-Qaeda, no different from bin Laden,”
http://blogs.channel4.com/gary-gibbon-on-politics/mandela-uk/27176#sthash.yZFKTVtL.pv3wzxIx.dpuf
Piss easy draw for England.
Wind up Baloteli and Suarez and get them sent off in the first 10mins. Walkover for England.
Costa Rica are getting pounded like a dockside hooker.
They are shite. They've only ever beaten Scotland in a World Cup match.
Which group are Scotland in?
:Innocent Face:
I don't bet, but is it me or does that 6/4 look like easy money?
The bigger question is this: will the English football team be more disappointing than the English cricket team?
"There are no expectations, we are in a very difficult group so just enjoy it" should be Roys advice
Pick a young squad. At least a dozen u-23s
English cricket has given me a lot of joy in the last few years.
twitter.com/jimmurphymp/status/408745108277063680
"Jim Murphy @jimmurphymp 18h
I spent all my teenage years in South Africa. Here's my obituary from the Scotsman newspaper of Nelson Mandela. http://tinyurl.com/qxfpxms"
Our cricket team can claim to have been the best in the world in recent years, the football team has never been close.
The England football team are, by and large, complete t*ssers.
Colombia -> Brazil -> Germany -> Argentina (2nd in group)
Ivory Coast (Or Greece) -> Spain -> Argentina -> Brazil (Win group)
Chile Paths:
Brazil -> Colombia, Italy or England -> Germany -> Argentina (2nd in group)
Mexico -> Uruguay -> Argentina -> Brazil. (Win group)
Argentina/Germany/Portugal/Belgium have had great draws, particularly Argentina.
We really should talk about whom Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have drawn in the World Cup...oh
::Innocent Face::
He views Stuart Broad as a vile cheat, and speculated that he must be a Tory.
It may well be that John Ruddy is our keeper at the world cup.
Luis Suarez vs England defenders and a Norwich goalkeeper, it's going to be carnage. He could easily score 5 or 6 just against England.
25/1 With Ladbrokes
http://www.oddschecker.com/football/world-cup/top-goalscorer
I'm not expecting England to do well at all.
And we're playing Costa Rica at Belo Horizonte, the last time we played a World Cup match there, we lost one nil to the USA.
Remember, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as an England World Cup campaign
Last time England were in a World Cup group with Uruguay......1966.
IIRC, Uruguay hacked Scotland off the park, had a player sent off in the first minute, which meant Uruguay qualified and Scotland didn't.
After the match they interviewed some of the the Tartan Army, who were very angry at the Uruguayan tactics and said
"If Uruguay played England, I'll be cheering for England"
In comparison I don't know if I live within an especially cynical and callous section of society but the universal response I've heard today has been "I'm sick of hearing about nothing else than bloody Nelson Mandela" with several "they've only flicked the switch now to give publicity to that film about him".
Now if I do live within an especially cynical and callous section of society its all the most surprising that I'm such a moderate and generous hearted individual ;-).
We won't be going out on penalties this time.
"Derren Brown trains four pensioners to steal for latest TV show
Illusionist's new show for Channel 4, The Great Art Robbery, aims to show older people in a new light":
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/30/derren-brown-show-great-art-robbery-older-people
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-the-specials/videos/all/derren-brown-the-great-art-robbery-clip-1
What does one say about a PM who acts so small and licks the boots of his hosts in the hope of ingratiating himself and Britain. Ugh!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cb01954e-5d12-11e3-a558-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2miQq8phR
In fact its likely that any significant change in the political and economic influences upon South Africa in the 1980s could have led to catastrophe, millions of deaths and millions of refugees - the events of Rwanda but on a far larger playing field.
So I wonder if any of the PB lefties will show some of the generosity of spirit Nelson Mandela is famed for and admit that Thatcher's policy towards South Africa ** was the correct one ?
** Which was of course the same policy the previous Labour government had persued.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/5309593/david-cameron-christmas-card.html
£5 E/W on Falcao at 33-1
£10 Win & £5 E/W on Messi at 9-1