The head of the Food and Drink Federation said that when businesses first raised problems at Easter, ministers only wanted to talk about Covid and Brexit transition. “There was also a degree of scepticism about what we were saying. Remember most politicians never go shopping.” https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1444271828063735814
failing corporatists blame anyone but themselves shock
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
...so FBPE doesn't have nutters because it doesn't have a figurehead?
Also, I don't think Brexit or FBPE is a religion, even though they are ideologies, but I'm sure you can have religions with High Priests.
The FBPE brigade are completely insufferable, but we're certainly worse off with Brexit - a vote which HAD to be acted on in order for the UK to remain a democratic nation.
Noone's changed their mind, we are where we are.
Bit like a religion then. You can't convince anyone by reason or logic. And the converts on both sides tend to be the most fanatical.
Had a chat with my wife's Uncle this morning, joked that we were glad to be in Ireland while there were fuel and food shortages in Britain. He was pretty clear that the same sort of trouble was heading to Ireland and the rest of Europe - the problem of treating HGV drivers like crap will eventually reach a breaking point there too. Naff all pre-emptive action being taken to head it off naturally.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
Back on topic, I think this is my favourite bit France’s answer to the radio ‘Shock Jock’, he is best summarised by stating that his (English) Wikipedia page has a section ‘Cases before French jurisdictions’ which runs to 957 words and two convictions for ‘Provocation to racial discrimination’ (one pending appeal)
Basic rule of thumb, you shouldn't vote for someone whose 'criminal/legal controversies' etc which runs more than 300 words.
The head of the Food and Drink Federation said that when businesses first raised problems at Easter, ministers only wanted to talk about Covid and Brexit transition. “There was also a degree of scepticism about what we were saying. Remember most politicians never go shopping.” https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1444271828063735814
Of course. They're the employers. They should do some f***ing thing about it. Labour, especially skilled labour, is a scarce resource. Shortage is more natural than excess and employers have had years of enjoying an unnatural excess.
Having said that, if the DVLA did something to shift the 40,000 "vocational" licence backlog it would go some way to easing the problem. They have been a f***ing discrace during the pandemic. I hope they are working 24/7 and have drafted in people from other Departments.
ON THREAD - could Zemmour and Le Pen destroy each other allowing someone else through the middle (possibly Xavier Bertrand)? I'm not saying Bertrand or anyone else is necessarily fishing in the same pond - but if the far right vote is evenly split it may allow someone from another camp through to the run off - possibly someone with a better chance of beating Macron.
I don't have an opinion about British petrol shortages but the political point is that even if everybody thinks it's Brexit that's doing it, there will be an indignant argument about whether it's 80% Brexit or merely 65% Brexit, and the people who liked Brexit will feel like Boris is sticking up for them against the insufferable 80%ers. There are more than 40% of these people, and in the British system 40% wins you the election. I don't really have any good ideas for what Labour can do about this.
Channelling Abraham Lincoln, Johnson needs to fool 40% of the voters all the time. He' seems quite capable of doing that.
“‘A perfect storm’: supply chain crisis could blow world economy off course From Liverpool to LA, shortages of energy, labour and transport are threatening recovery from Covid”
There’s a quiet panic happening in the US economy. Medical labs are running out of supplies like pipettes and petri dishes, summer camps and restaurants are having trouble getting food, and automobile, paint and electronics firms are curtailing production because they can’t get semiconductors. One man told me he couldn’t get a Whopper meal at a Burger King in Florida, as there was a sign saying “Sorry, no french fries with any order. We have no potatoes.”
Imagine that, no french fries in America.
The problem seems to be getting worse, as the shortages pile on top of each other like a snake eating its tail. For instance, the inability to fix trucks means that truck drivers can’t haul boxes of goods, which might actually contain the parts needed to fix the trucks, and so forth.
...
Then there’s trucking. Talk to most businesspeople who make or move things and they will complain about the driver shortage. This too is a story of deregulation. In the 1970s, the end of public rate-setting forced trucking firms to compete against each other to offer lower shipping prices. The way they did this was by lowering pay to their drivers. Trucking on a firm-level became unpredictable and financially fragile, so for drivers schedules became unsustainable, even if the pay during boom times could be high. Today, even though pay is going up, the scheduling is crushing drivers. The result is a shortage of truckers.
These are all true to differing extents, especially the worldwide semiconductor shortage, and the cargo ships stuck off the californian coast, but there are no major petrol or food shortages in the rest of western europe as yet, nor, from what I can gather, anywhere on the Northeastern or western coastal United States.
There were pictures of food shortages in Brussels supermarkets this week
Though they have problems because of Walloon / Not Walloon politics. It seems that bringing goods into Wallonia from the rest of Belgium is verboten. Or something.
Too late, it's already gone viral amongst the ultra-Brexiters on social media, with no information providing that crucial supporting context. I've heard that one mentioned already elsewhere today ; the need for complete normalisation of whatever is going on is very strong.
But the exact same process happens in the heads of Remoaners like Scott. Shortages in UK filling stations and the odd supermarket are all Brexit, only Brexit, and prove yet again that Brexit is an apocalyptic disaster yada yada
Whereas anyone with an IQ in double figures can see there are massive global supply and energy issues, a chain reaction of problems across the planet. All because of Covid, or the way Covid has exposed underlying weaknesses (like a lack of truck drivers - everywhere).
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But you also need to look at it in terms of a hierarchy of daily inconveniences. Food and fuel are near the top of that, and they're not happening for our neighbours at the moment. There are certainly global issues, but until or unless these issues align with those on the continent, people will very reasonably and predictably ask why they aren't doing so; as the polls are also already showing, too.
Do you think a peddling little disruption to food and fuel is a greater inconvenience than not being paid enough to afford to even have a home of your own?
Certainly not, and they're both long-terms consequences of nationalistic Thatcherism, in different ways. As will be many more people being evicted from their houses, and others increasing the strain on foodbanks, following the deranged cut in universal credit at a time of high inflation, coming up in the next few weeks.
Au contraire, Thatcherism led to more people having the security of their own home than ever before.
Fifty years ago it was the unions like the NUM trying to rig the market. Now it's NIMBYs and people who expect others to only work for a government mandated minimum wage.
Either way the vested interests need standing up to.
It can't be escaped from, or denied; Britain's much lower wages and poorer conditions than Germany or Sweden are long-term results of Thatcherism, and Thatcher's total and unqualified victory over organised labour, much more than, forty and fifty years hence, how obstructive or not the NUM may have been in 1978 or 1984.
A little optimistic saying that it is just the UK which is a little lower than 2 chosen countries.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
I don't have an opinion about British petrol shortages but the political point is that even if everybody thinks it's Brexit that's doing it, there will be an indignant argument about whether it's 80% Brexit or merely 65% Brexit, and the people who liked Brexit will feel like Boris is sticking up for them against the insufferable 80%ers. There are more than 40% of these people, and in the British system 40% wins you the election. I don't really have any good ideas for what Labour can do about this.
Channelling Abraham Lincoln, Johnson needs to fool 40% of the voters all the time. He' seems quite capable of doing that.
Boris Johnson doesn't actually need to fool anybody. He just needs to be less bad than the alternative.
Labour has an appalling image problem. Labour propped up by Scottish Nationalists, which is the only likely means by which Keir Starmer gets into office, is even worse.
Yep - the twins (who know way too much about Broadway and West End musicals including how to find bootleg videos on Youtube) screamed when they saw the advert for this as they instantly knew how bad it was...
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
Had a chat with my wife's Uncle this morning, joked that we were glad to be in Ireland while there were fuel and food shortages in Britain. He was pretty clear that the same sort of trouble was heading to Ireland and the rest of Europe - the problem of treating HGV drivers like crap will eventually reach a breaking point there too. Naff all pre-emptive action being taken to head it off naturally.
It's a interesting phenomenon in a number of countries - parts of the developed world have become addicted to cheap labour to do various jobs, rather than investing in equipment or managing in *concert with* the workforce.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
One thing a lot of people need to understand
Brexit and the collapse of the Red Wall are both due to Osborne's Austerity and the way it impacted northern councils way more than southern ones due to how Council Tax was changed and the band of the typical house in that council.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
Well, health permitting, we’re hoping to get back to Blighty for a visit next April so if you all could keep the wolverines and lepers at bay until after then we’d be very grateful.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
It has been "irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers" - this became the editorial view of the NYT, when Cameron went for "Austerity" rather than the fiscal expansion advocated by Obama.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
Well, health permitting, we’re hoping to get back to Blighty for a visit next April so if you all could keep the wolverines and lepers at bay until after then we’d be very grateful.
Wolverines are not so much of a problem now. It the bloody Jackalopes and the Drop Bears that have been smuggled in from Australia that are a menace. Worse, some of the Drop Bears have hybridised with the native Wild Haggis...
The head of the Food and Drink Federation said that when businesses first raised problems at Easter, ministers only wanted to talk about Covid and Brexit transition. “There was also a degree of scepticism about what we were saying. Remember most politicians never go shopping.” https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1444271828063735814
Of course. They're the employers. They should do some f***ing thing about it. Labour, especially skilled labour, is a scarce resource. Shortage is more natural than excess and employers have had years of enjoying an unnatural excess.
Having said that, if the DVLA did something to shift the 40,000 "vocational" licence backlog it would go some way to easing the problem. They have been a f***ing discrace during the pandemic. I hope they are working 24/7 and have drafted in people from other Departments.
For much of this year they've been working 0/0 and anyone drafted in would have been attacked as scabs.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
Well, health permitting, we’re hoping to get back to Blighty for a visit next April so if you all could keep the wolverines and lepers at bay until after then we’d be very grateful.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It does seem at best highly emotive in its reporting, when you'd think there could be value in some distance.
Had a chat with my wife's Uncle this morning, joked that we were glad to be in Ireland while there were fuel and food shortages in Britain. He was pretty clear that the same sort of trouble was heading to Ireland and the rest of Europe - the problem of treating HGV drivers like crap will eventually reach a breaking point there too. Naff all pre-emptive action being taken to head it off naturally.
It's a interesting phenomenon in a number of countries - parts of the developed world have become addicted to cheap labour to do various jobs, rather than investing in equipment or managing in *concert with* the workforce.
See some big issues in the US on this.
Britain was particularly bad tho. Mainly because we were in the EU Single Market, and we speak English and we are welcoming - no ID cards, free welfare at point of use, an absence of racism. We became a huge magnet for cheap workers from Eastern Europe, so businesses could rely on important labour to make a profit, rather than increasing productivity in other ways. We grew obese on this easy sugar rush.
Having just been to Switzerland, it makes an interesting contrast. And a good example. High skills, low taxes, stable laws. Equals actual prosperity, not 4m plumbers from Wroclaw
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It started when Cameron took over. Brown had a lot of friends in the East Coast rich, liberal lot (core Democrats).
So when Cameron came in and, worse yet, implemented economic policies that went against the fiscal expansion advocated by Obama..... It was heresy... and heresy *must* never prosper.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
I'm still waiting for the house price crash.
That referendum was two groups of politicians throwing a combination of wild threats and lies at one another in their desperation to win. They both turned out to be right about some things and wrong about others, Of course, the Leavers simply had more effective campaigners; that, and the fact that there was very little emotional investment in the EU, made the difference in the end.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Be careful, don't we need a trade agreement with the US?
The head of the Food and Drink Federation said that when businesses first raised problems at Easter, ministers only wanted to talk about Covid and Brexit transition. “There was also a degree of scepticism about what we were saying. Remember most politicians never go shopping.” https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1444271828063735814
Of course. They're the employers. They should do some f***ing thing about it. Labour, especially skilled labour, is a scarce resource. Shortage is more natural than excess and employers have had years of enjoying an unnatural excess.
Having said that, if the DVLA did something to shift the 40,000 "vocational" licence backlog it would go some way to easing the problem. They have been a f***ing discrace during the pandemic. I hope they are working 24/7 and have drafted in people from other Departments.
For much of this year they've been working 0/0 and anyone drafted in would have been attacked as scabs.
A lot of the DVLA is also working without a problem. The only areas with long delays are those that haven't been automated.
For most things such as licence renewals are full licenses after passing your test things are virtually instant.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Did he? I stand corrected then. Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Are you anticipating a great deal of deregulation?
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
In fairness some UK reporting on the USA is not exactly un-hyperbolic and might make readers feel better, but NYT does seem to realllly go for it.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
In fairness some UK reporting on the USA is not exactly un-hyperbolic and might make readers feel better, but NYT does seem to realllly go for it.
UK reporting on other countries has a decades long reputation for balance, nuance and total absence of any exaggeration. A noble tradition which endures despite the many provocations.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
And whilst the government may come up with something where it's worth diverging from EU regulations that makes a meaningful difference to the economy, it's not done so so far. Permitting imperial weights and measures isn't it- that's increasing costs by running two systems not one.
In the meantime, running the UK as a smaller closed garden definitely increases costs because of the extra bumf every time something or someone crosses a border. And that drag on productivity isn't going away.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Did he? I stand corrected then. Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Hopefully labour shortages will force employers to improve productivity through automation.
If we are really lucky then the jobs automated out of existence will either be replaced by additional ones in growing sectors suitable for the newly unemployed, or the number of available jobs will fall at approximately the same rate as the number of available workers, as the population goes into decline. Population decline being the best (and possibly only) long-term solution both to the tremendous house price problem, and to the strain that ever increasing numbers of human beings places upon our environment.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Did he? I stand corrected then. Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
It's actually WORSE than everyone says. There are not words to describe it.
But is it actually meant to be this bad. Like an extended joke about the Worst Possible Musical?
Well, I hadn't heard of it until just now, and am now kind of fascinated, so quite possibly. If your starting premise is shit, it might be best to lean into it for a so bad it is good situation.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Are you anticipating a great deal of deregulation?
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Hopefully labour shortages will force employers to improve productivity through automation.
If we are really lucky then the jobs automated out of existence will either be replaced by additional ones in growing sectors suitable for the newly unemployed, or the number of available jobs will fall at approximately the same rate as the number of available workers, as the population goes into decline. Population decline being the best (and possibly only) long-term solution both to the tremendous house price problem, and to the strain that ever increasing numbers of human beings places upon our environment.
Automation is an attractive idea and it could undoubtedly happen to some extent. But empirical estimates of factor substitutability, as it is known in economic jargon, tend to show that it's only possible to a very limited extent; I've seen an estimate that about 20-25% of labour can be substituted with capital at the margin. The rest of a wage increase goes in lower profits or higher prices.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
If it redistributes income from those not working to those who are then that's an improvement in its own right
But there's no reason why productivity wouldn't rise. Incentivised to do so, people will invest in improvements and technology to aid productivity.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
In fairness some UK reporting on the USA is not exactly un-hyperbolic and might make readers feel better, but NYT does seem to realllly go for it.
I presume the US is annoyed with the UK over Brexit because now they no longer have an inside man. I can't imagine that even the most ardent of Remainers would want us to be in that position. Of course it would be a completely unfair stereotype.
Good and bad in this, but interesting to see the cobwebs of complacency swept away a little.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Send it in. See if they publish it in their letters.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
makes you wonder why the RHA didnt do something about it four years ago
One interesting thing is that we didn't have many EU HGV drivers here in 2015, so they weren't driving down wages.
The big drop is since 2019.
Cumulative effect - 1% here and 1% there and soon you're dealing with substantial numbers.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
Depends, the causality could be the drop in younger driver intake sucking in outside labour, like with farm food picking.
Edit: been very impressed (in the wrong way) with the reportage coming out in recent months on the way [further edit] driving staff are treated universally in Europe, including the UK.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Hopefully labour shortages will force employers to improve productivity through automation.
If we are really lucky then the jobs automated out of existence will either be replaced by additional ones in growing sectors suitable for the newly unemployed, or the number of available jobs will fall at approximately the same rate as the number of available workers, as the population goes into decline. Population decline being the best (and possibly only) long-term solution both to the tremendous house price problem, and to the strain that ever increasing numbers of human beings places upon our environment.
Automation is an attractive idea and it could undoubtedly happen to some extent. But empirical estimates of factor substitutability, as it is known in economic jargon, tend to show that it's only possible to a very limited extent; I've seen an estimate that about 20-25% of labour can be substituted with capital at the margin. The rest of a wage increase goes in lower profits or higher prices.
But 20% of labour is a massive number of people, on the scale of the economy as a whole.
It starts with car washes, coffee machines, self-ordering kiosks and self-checkout machines - all of which are easy investment decisions as the cost of unskilled labour starts to rise above minimum wage, or as minimum wage rises above inflation. All of these substitutions of labour with capital, make the business more productive and more profitable.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
One thing a lot of people need to understand
Brexit and the collapse of the Red Wall are both due to Osborne's Austerity and the way it impacted northern councils way more than southern ones due to how Council Tax was changed and the band of the typical house in that council.
I think there’s a hell of a lot of truth in this. But people can kid themselves it’s all racist grandads.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
makes you wonder why the RHA didnt do something about it four years ago
One interesting thing is that we didn't have many EU HGV drivers here in 2015, so they weren't driving down wages.
The big drop is since 2019.
Cumulative effect - 1% here and 1% there and soon you're dealing with substantial numbers.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
The big drop in the total number is in the last 18 months. It looks to me that around 70 000 British HGV drivers disappeared in the pandemic. It looks like they found a better way of making a living, and the shift of EU drivers was quite minimal in comparison.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Did he? I stand corrected then. Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
makes you wonder why the RHA didnt do something about it four years ago
One interesting thing is that we didn't have many EU HGV drivers here in 2015, so they weren't driving down wages.
The big drop is since 2019.
Cumulative effect - 1% here and 1% there and soon you're dealing with substantial numbers.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
The big drop in the total number is in the last 18 months. It looks to me that around 70 000 British HGV drivers disappeared in the pandemic. It looks like they found a better way of making a living, and the shift of EU drivers was quite minimal in comparison.
The anecdotal evidence, is that a lot of long-distance HGV drivers got jobs driving smaller vehicles more locally, for similar money. There was a huge expansion of home delivery services at the start of the pandemic, as supermarkets and retailers understandably refocused their businesses away from physical stores.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Did he? I stand corrected then. Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
If it redistributes income from those not working to those who are then that's an improvement in its own right
But there's no reason why productivity wouldn't rise. Incentivised to do so, people will invest in improvements and technology to aid productivity.
You'd have two effects. On the one hand there would be a substitution effect, as firms are incentivised to substitute capital for Labour. But as I explained below that's probably limited. On the other, there would be an income effect, as business as a whole is less profitable.
The idea that we can pay-rise ourselves to prosperity is as seductive as the idea that we can tax and spend ourselves to prosperity, and just as accurate. The only way to increase prosperity overall is to increase productivity.
Mrs Thatcher made a really good speech on this. I'll try and did it out.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Did he? I stand corrected then. Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
makes you wonder why the RHA didnt do something about it four years ago
One interesting thing is that we didn't have many EU HGV drivers here in 2015, so they weren't driving down wages.
The big drop is since 2019.
Cumulative effect - 1% here and 1% there and soon you're dealing with substantial numbers.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
The big drop in the total number is in the last 18 months. It looks to me that around 70 000 British HGV drivers disappeared in the pandemic. It looks like they found a better way of making a living, and the shift of EU drivers was quite minimal in comparison.
Indeed.
Covid has had a major disruptive event and many bad employers have been left exposed.
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
In fairness some UK reporting on the USA is not exactly un-hyperbolic and might make readers feel better, but NYT does seem to realllly go for it.
I presume the US is annoyed with the UK over Brexit because now they no longer have an inside man. I can't imagine that even the most ardent of Remainers would want us to be in that position. Of course it would be a completely unfair stereotype.
Good and bad in this, but interesting to see the cobwebs of complacency swept away a little.
It's not the US.
It was written by a freelancer called Samuel Earle who is based in London, and lectures in Feature Writing at UCL.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
makes you wonder why the RHA didnt do something about it four years ago
One interesting thing is that we didn't have many EU HGV drivers here in 2015, so they weren't driving down wages.
The big drop is since 2019.
Cumulative effect - 1% here and 1% there and soon you're dealing with substantial numbers.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
The big drop in the total number is in the last 18 months. It looks to me that around 70 000 British HGV drivers disappeared in the pandemic. It looks like they found a better way of making a living, and the shift of EU drivers was quite minimal in comparison.
The anecdotal evidence, is that a lot of long-distance HGV drivers got jobs driving smaller vehicles more locally, for similar money. There was a huge expansion of home delivery services at the start of the pandemic, as supermarkets and retailers understandably refocused their businesses away from physical stores.
Yes, that is quite plausible. Nonetheless it is hard to see that less than 10% of the workforce was driving down HGV wages in 2015. Nor for that matter that the quarter of HGV drivers are going to come back in a hurry.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Hopefully labour shortages will force employers to improve productivity through automation.
If we are really lucky then the jobs automated out of existence will either be replaced by additional ones in growing sectors suitable for the newly unemployed, or the number of available jobs will fall at approximately the same rate as the number of available workers, as the population goes into decline. Population decline being the best (and possibly only) long-term solution both to the tremendous house price problem, and to the strain that ever increasing numbers of human beings places upon our environment.
Automation is an attractive idea and it could undoubtedly happen to some extent. But empirical estimates of factor substitutability, as it is known in economic jargon, tend to show that it's only possible to a very limited extent; I've seen an estimate that about 20-25% of labour can be substituted with capital at the margin. The rest of a wage increase goes in lower profits or higher prices.
But 20% of labour is a massive number of people, on the scale of the economy as a whole.
It starts with car washes, coffee machines, self-ordering kiosks and self-checkout machines - all of which are easy investment decisions as the cost of unskilled labour starts to rise above minimum wage, or as minimum wage rises above inflation. All of these substitutions of labour with capital, make the business more productive and more profitable.
It's only 20% of labour at the margin. Not overall - it will certainly be lower overall. And of course you're left with a bunch of unskilled unemployables with nothing to do. Fine if you can deport them or retrain them, but as a country we have a pooe record at doing both.
Then there’s trucking. Talk to most businesspeople who make or move things and they will complain about the driver shortage. This too is a story of deregulation. In the 1970s, the end of public rate-setting forced trucking firms to compete against each other to offer lower shipping prices. The way they did this was by lowering pay to their drivers. Trucking on a firm-level became unpredictable and financially fragile, so for drivers schedules became unsustainable, even if the pay during boom times could be high. Today, even though pay is going up, the scheduling is crushing drivers. The result is a shortage of truckers.
There is definitely something going on. I recently bought an engine and transmission for my '80 Firebird (this winter's project). I had them consigned to FedEx in Memphis for shipping then I got my estimate for the freight costs.... $8,000!
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
If it redistributes income from those not working to those who are then that's an improvement in its own right
But there's no reason why productivity wouldn't rise. Incentivised to do so, people will invest in improvements and technology to aid productivity.
You'd have two effects. On the one hand there would be a substitution effect, as firms are incentivised to substitute capital for Labour. But as I explained below that's probably limited. On the other, there would be an income effect, as business as a whole is less profitable.
The idea that we can pay-rise ourselves to prosperity is as seductive as the idea that we can tax and spend ourselves to prosperity, and just as accurate. The only way to increase prosperity overall is to increase productivity.
Mrs Thatcher made a really good speech on this. I'll try and did it out.
Though all post industrial economies seem to struggle with productivity. Service industries don't necessarily benefit from automation. If I want a coffee from a machine why not make it at home? Why use a self checkout in a shop when it is easier to shop online?
The premium that people want to pay for is inherently time based. I could see more patients if I halved consultation times, but wouldn't patients feel short-changed?
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
In fairness some UK reporting on the USA is not exactly un-hyperbolic and might make readers feel better, but NYT does seem to realllly go for it.
I presume the US is annoyed with the UK over Brexit because now they no longer have an inside man. I can't imagine that even the most ardent of Remainers would want us to be in that position. Of course it would be a completely unfair stereotype.
Good and bad in this, but interesting to see the cobwebs of complacency swept away a little.
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment. - Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up. - Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road. - Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Interesting thread on this here. People (incorrectly) predicted a demand side shock and (correctly) predicted an ongoing loss of prosperity as a result of Brexit. They didn't predict the highly damaging loss of resilience.
The clues where there, particularly when the pandemic kicked off, but no-one picked up on them.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
If it redistributes income from those not working to those who are then that's an improvement in its own right
But there's no reason why productivity wouldn't rise. Incentivised to do so, people will invest in improvements and technology to aid productivity.
You'd have two effects. On the one hand there would be a substitution effect, as firms are incentivised to substitute capital for Labour. But as I explained below that's probably limited. On the other, there would be an income effect, as business as a whole is less profitable.
The idea that we can pay-rise ourselves to prosperity is as seductive as the idea that we can tax and spend ourselves to prosperity, and just as accurate. The only way to increase prosperity overall is to increase productivity.
Mrs Thatcher made a really good speech on this. I'll try and did it out.
Though all post industrial economies seem to struggle with productivity. Service industries don't necessarily benefit from automation. If I want a coffee from a machine why not make it at home? Why use a self checkout in a shop when it is easier to shop online?
The premium that people want to pay for is inherently time based. I could see more patients if I halved consultation times, but wouldn't patients feel short-changed?
Yes productivity in services is incredibly subjective and difficult to measure. Most measurements are based around income, which is obviously absurd in some contexts.
I write as someone who has done more work on productivity than any man should have to...
The New York Times is, I feel, going to be kind of *disappointed* if Britain is not an irradiated desert inhabited solely by drooling wolverines and moaning lepers, within a year or so
I think it first has to coming to terms with a drooling zombie of a president who cant do interviews.
IT would be fun to do an opening paragraph, such as that on the UK by the NYT, but on the USA
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
Sadly, all too plausible.
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
It's partly Brexit, and also, partly - I've come to think - that it makes their readers feel better about themselves and about America, at a time when they are quite depressed about both. Because America does have major problems, arguably much worse than the UK, and it is also now in obvious relative decline as a superpower (a painful process we have already endured). So to cheer up its readership, the NYT points across the Atlantic to the mother country and another great English-speaking democracy and says Look how bad it is THERE!
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
In fairness some UK reporting on the USA is not exactly un-hyperbolic and might make readers feel better, but NYT does seem to realllly go for it.
I presume the US is annoyed with the UK over Brexit because now they no longer have an inside man. I can't imagine that even the most ardent of Remainers would want us to be in that position. Of course it would be a completely unfair stereotype.
Good and bad in this, but interesting to see the cobwebs of complacency swept away a little.
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
That's definitely a factor. Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Is Brexit causing special or unusual glitches in the UK? Probably. But as the IRISH Times says, Brexit as a problem is dwarfed by this planet-wide turbulence. Brexit is not causing the power cuts across swathes of China
But Brexit can and will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. It's going to have to be continuously defended for decades. It has already become synonymous with 'shit'.
In your febrile brain, perhaps. In the minds of others brexit might become associated with, say, higher wages, or more jobs.
Also, this won’t go on for decades. Already many people roll their eyes when Brexit is mentioned - in the real world, not Twitter or PB. In 5 years it will be an issue raised by embittered cranks, as other newer problems, disasters, developments, opportunities intervene
LOL
;pre vote we were harried by the nailed on prospect of mass unemployment should we vote to Leave.
Post vote we have a shortage of labour
It's not just Brexit though. The financial crash, the spending cuts after that, Covid, and probably other things have all been predicted to lead to "X million unemployed". The doom-mongers have been consistently and wildly wrong. For reasons I can't even understand the UK has a remarkably resiliant labour market. You would think eventually the talking heads would look back and think "I'll shut my gob" but they don't ever seem to learn from their dismal track record of forecasting.
I don't remmber the X million unemployed warning, but I do remember the reduction in trade warning, leading to employment issues, and prices going up.
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
No one, on either side, predicted a Labour shortage. Brexit moves in mysterious ways. Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of the Remain Campaign, called it right on the very first day.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
True. But unless matched by higher productivity, it will cause general inflation. So the end result will be a redistribution of real income from those in occupations not in competition with EU migrants to those who are. The country as a whole won't be better off.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
Hopefully labour shortages will force employers to improve productivity through automation.
If we are really lucky then the jobs automated out of existence will either be replaced by additional ones in growing sectors suitable for the newly unemployed, or the number of available jobs will fall at approximately the same rate as the number of available workers, as the population goes into decline. Population decline being the best (and possibly only) long-term solution both to the tremendous house price problem, and to the strain that ever increasing numbers of human beings places upon our environment.
On a historical scale, immigration to Europe is still rising. Hard to see that ever changing.
Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said that a promise by ministers a week ago of three-month visas for 5,000 drivers, “simply does not work.”
makes you wonder why the RHA didnt do something about it four years ago
One interesting thing is that we didn't have many EU HGV drivers here in 2015, so they weren't driving down wages.
The big drop is since 2019.
Cumulative effect - 1% here and 1% there and soon you're dealing with substantial numbers.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
Depends, the causality could be the drop in younger driver intake sucking in outside labour, like with farm food picking.
Edit: been very impressed (in the wrong way) with the reportage coming out in recent months on the way [further edit] driving staff are treated universally in Europe, including the UK.
Likewise with meat production:
Every inch of Margot’s body hurt from the unrelenting work. Her hands bled from blisters that burst as she repeatedly hauled carcasses, but she would wait until she got home to sterilise her wounds with ammonia. “If you didn’t do your job well, you’d be pushed – they didn’t care if your hands were full of blood,” she says.
This wasn’t the life Margot* imagined when she left her job in a clothes factory near her home village in Romania in search of better prospects for her young family in western Europe. She thought labour conditions in the Netherlands – where she worked for three years in a meat factory – would be much more favourable than in her home country. “I didn’t expect it to be so awful.”
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment. - Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up. - Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road. - Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
Interesting.
I suspect people are starting to factor in interest rate rises coming down the road.
What impact do people think a 4-5% interest rate would have on average house prices?
I recon -30%, possibly more.
I think even a 0.25% or 0.5% rise would send chills through the housing market
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
I don't want to sound rude but some of the the people you talked to must be stupid if they compare a lawful vote with a violent attempt to overturn the results of an election.
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment. - Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up. - Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road. - Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
Interesting.
I suspect people are starting to factor in interest rate rises coming down the road.
What impact do people think a 4-5% interest rate would have on average house prices?
I recon -30%, possibly more.
I think even a 0.25% or 0.5% rise would send chills through the housing market
Am suspicious that a certain proportion of mortgage holders aren't actually aware interest rates can rise.
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
I don't want to sound rude but some of the the people you talked to must be stupid if they compare a lawful vote with a violent attempt to overturn the results of an election.
As I've said before, ironically the best British comparison with 6th January in DC is the Remainer campaign to overturn the Brexit referendum: to simply ignore a lawful vote and get it reversed, because they "didn't like it"
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
I don't want to sound rude but some of the the people you talked to must be stupid if they compare a lawful vote with a violent attempt to overturn the results of an election.
Not stupid, just ignorant. Parrotting what they read in the NYT and see on CNN rather than finding out about the issues and making their own minds up.
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment. - Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up. - Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road. - Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
Interesting.
I suspect people are starting to factor in interest rate rises coming down the road.
What impact do people think a 4-5% interest rate would have on average house prices?
I recon -30%, possibly more.
I think even a 0.25% or 0.5% rise would send chills through the housing market
Am suspicious that a certain proportion of mortgage holders aren't actually aware interest rates can rise.
Anyone under 35, has never really known anything except interest rates on the floor.
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
I don't want to sound rude but some of the the people you talked to must be stupid if they compare a lawful vote with a violent attempt to overturn the results of an election.
As I've said before, ironically the best British comparison with 6th January in DC is the Remainer campaign to overturn the Brexit referendum: to simply ignore a lawful vote and get it reversed, because they "didn't like it"
That's a very interesting thought. Sort of crossed wires, but I like it.
I was just in the States, and most informed liberal Americans I talked to are obsessed with the notion of Boris as BritTrump, and Brexit as our equivalent of the 6th January uprisings. Americans usually think of foreign politics in American terms, but even I was surprised at their lack of interest in, or understanding of, the big differences between the two.
I don't want to sound rude but some of the the people you talked to must be stupid if they compare a lawful vote with a violent attempt to overturn the results of an election.
As I've said before, ironically the best British comparison with 6th January in DC is the Remainer campaign to overturn the Brexit referendum: to simply ignore a lawful vote and get it reversed, because they "didn't like it"
The similarities are far outweighed by differences. Remainers should have just accepted a compromise but the acting as if the methodology makes no difference is just plain bollocks. It gets a rise from people, job done, but that doesn't denote anything substantive.
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment. - Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up. - Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road. - Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
Interesting.
I suspect people are starting to factor in interest rate rises coming down the road.
What impact do people think a 4-5% interest rate would have on average house prices?
I recon -30%, possibly more.
I think even a 0.25% or 0.5% rise would send chills through the housing market
UK Consumer confidence does look to be dropping, and that must affect house prices significantly.
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment. - Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up. - Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road. - Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
Interesting.
I suspect people are starting to factor in interest rate rises coming down the road.
What impact do people think a 4-5% interest rate would have on average house prices?
I recon -30%, possibly more.
I think even a 0.25% or 0.5% rise would send chills through the housing market
Absolutely fantastic news if true but I won't count chickens until they hatch.
Surely the biggest issue hasn't even been mentioned yet? Construction may finally be outpacing demand for the first time in decades. Long may it continue.
Comments
And the converts on both sides tend to be the most fanatical.
as would giving their directors a payrise
like to guess who got the bigger raise
France’s answer to the radio ‘Shock Jock’, he is best summarised by stating that his (English) Wikipedia page has a section ‘Cases before French jurisdictions’ which runs to 957 words and two convictions for ‘Provocation to racial discrimination’ (one pending appeal)
Basic rule of thumb, you shouldn't vote for someone whose 'criminal/legal controversies' etc which runs more than 300 words.
Having said that, if the DVLA did something to shift the 40,000 "vocational" licence backlog it would go some way to easing the problem. They have been a f***ing discrace during the pandemic. I hope they are working 24/7 and have drafted in people from other Departments.
We were far from being outplayed too.
Much lower wages than Germany or Sweden applied only to the UK? True of nearly every significant country in Western Europe whether you measure by PPP, Gross salary, or net salary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage
#DianaTheMusical
https://twitter.com/bmay/status/1444189366998417411
Labour has an appalling image problem. Labour propped up by Scottish Nationalists, which is the only likely means by which Keir Starmer gets into office, is even worse.
That's really all there is to it.
See some big issues in the US on this.
Brexit and the collapse of the Red Wall are both due to Osborne's Austerity and the way it impacted northern councils way more than southern ones due to how Council Tax was changed and the band of the typical house in that council.
I'll have a bash
"Hospitals filling up with dying plague victims. Gunmen rampant as murders soar out of control. Soldiers fleeing foreign bases, chased by barefoot militants. And, in the background, a political system reeling from an attempted coup, as race riots roil the cities - and the homeless die of opioid addiction. This is America in 2021."
I also remember the "we have all the cards", "EU falling over themselves to trade with us", and "there's no reason we could have a trade deal from day one",
What is it with the NYT and their rabid anti-British stance? I'm all for taking a hard look at things that need fixing in Britain but really, if you buy the NYT you'd expect a modicum of balance.
Wolverines are not so much of a problem now. It the bloody Jackalopes and the Drop Bears that have been smuggled in from Australia that are a menace. Worse, some of the Drop Bears have hybridised with the native Wild Haggis...
Having just been to Switzerland, it makes an interesting contrast. And a good example. High skills, low taxes, stable laws. Equals actual prosperity, not 4m plumbers from Wroclaw
So when Cameron came in and, worse yet, implemented economic policies that went against the fiscal expansion advocated by Obama..... It was heresy... and heresy *must* never prosper.
Brexit moves in mysterious ways.
Who dare question the Will of Brexit? It will provide.
That referendum was two groups of politicians throwing a combination of wild threats and lies at one another in their desperation to win. They both turned out to be right about some things and wrong about others, Of course, the Leavers simply had more effective campaigners; that, and the fact that there was very little emotional investment in the EU, made the difference in the end.
For most things such as licence renewals are full licenses after passing your test things are virtually instant.
Brexit, he said, will lead to wages going up.
Telling somewhat though that I've never heard of him. Sums up the Remain campaign.
It is basically what the Daily Express does when it aims jabs at France or Germany for its Brexity readership
The one surprising thing is that NYT readers don't complain (indeed, they must lap it up, as I imply). They are not a stupid bunch. Many of them must be aware it is hyperbolic rubbish.
Ultimately the only ways to be better paid as a country are to increase our productivity, or reduce the real prices we pay, for example by deregulation.
In the meantime, running the UK as a smaller closed garden definitely increases costs because of the extra bumf every time something or someone crosses a border. And that drag on productivity isn't going away.
Here is the Guardian spin on his followup remarks to a government select committee, during the campaign:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/14/lord-stuart-rose-misquoted-post-eu-brexit-wage-increases
The pro-Brexit media weren’t quite so nice on him:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/649308/EU-referendum-Lord-Rose-Britain-Stronger-Europe-UKIP-wages-Brussels-Cameron
If we are really lucky then the jobs automated out of existence will either be replaced by additional ones in growing sectors suitable for the newly unemployed, or the number of available jobs will fall at approximately the same rate as the number of available workers, as the population goes into decline. Population decline being the best (and possibly only) long-term solution both to the tremendous house price problem, and to the strain that ever increasing numbers of human beings places upon our environment.
It's actually WORSE than everyone says. There are not words to describe it.
But is it actually meant to be this bad. Like an extended joke about the Worst Possible Musical?
Like I said. Sums up the Remain campaign.
The big drop is since 2019.
But there's no reason why productivity wouldn't rise. Incentivised to do so, people will invest in improvements and technology to aid productivity.
Good and bad in this, but interesting to see the cobwebs of complacency swept away a little.
Especially if its having an effect on the number of younger British people becoming drivers.
An ageing workforce in any economic sector is a sign of fundamental problems.
Which was of course (in the movie) a massive hit
Or else employ you....
Edit: been very impressed (in the wrong way) with the reportage coming out in recent months on the way [further edit] driving staff are treated universally in Europe, including the UK.
It starts with car washes, coffee machines, self-ordering kiosks and self-checkout machines - all of which are easy investment decisions as the cost of unskilled labour starts to rise above minimum wage, or as minimum wage rises above inflation. All of these substitutions of labour with capital, make the business more productive and more profitable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyKrXB4i9Ag
With him is 'Red Prince' Will Straw. Now Will Straw CBE.
The idea that we can pay-rise ourselves to prosperity is as seductive as the idea that we can tax and spend ourselves to prosperity, and just as accurate. The only way to increase prosperity overall is to increase productivity.
Mrs Thatcher made a really good speech on this. I'll try and did it out.
(I've no idea about his skills, but I'm damned sure he got his CBE for one reason only.)
Covid has had a major disruptive event and many bad employers have been left exposed.
It was written by a freelancer called Samuel Earle who is based in London, and lectures in Feature Writing at UCL.
https://muckrack.com/samuel-earle
Axis really starts at $0.
The premium that people want to pay for is inherently time based. I could see more patients if I halved consultation times, but wouldn't patients feel short-changed?
I'm hearing reports that the Housing Market is coming to a screeching halt. Causes
- End of Stamp Duty holiday has finished any rushed transactions, and now affecting sentiment.
- Dip after the rush of the last week or two whilst backoffices catch up.
- Dawning realisation that some taxes are coming down the road.
- Delaying until Oct 23 to find out.
If you are buying, now may be a good time to deal.
The clues where there, particularly when the pandemic kicked off, but no-one picked up on them.
https://mobile.twitter.com/t0nyyates/status/1442877965881253899
I write as someone who has done more work on productivity than any man should have to...
Every inch of Margot’s body hurt from the unrelenting work. Her hands bled from blisters that burst as she repeatedly hauled carcasses, but she would wait until she got home to sterilise her wounds with ammonia. “If you didn’t do your job well, you’d be pushed – they didn’t care if your hands were full of blood,” she says.
This wasn’t the life Margot* imagined when she left her job in a clothes factory near her home village in Romania in search of better prospects for her young family in western Europe. She thought labour conditions in the Netherlands – where she worked for three years in a meat factory – would be much more favourable than in her home country. “I didn’t expect it to be so awful.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/28/the-whole-system-is-rotten-life-inside-europes-meat-industry
I suspect people are starting to factor in interest rate rises coming down the road.
What impact do people think a 4-5% interest rate would have on average house prices?
I recon -30%, possibly more.
I think even a 0.25% or 0.5% rise would send chills through the housing market
https://www.cityam.com/anxiety-about-soaring-living-costs-weighs-down-uk-consumer-confidence/amp/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&__twitter_impression=true
Surely the biggest issue hasn't even been mentioned yet? Construction may finally be outpacing demand for the first time in decades. Long may it continue.