How Britain should tackle its recession

How Britain should tackle its recession

Spending our way out will not work. Targeted tax cuts would help but they must be properly funded. Future generations must not be burdened, writes George Osborne

 

Future generations of rich people he means......  I'm sure I saw a report the other week that the generation of people who are proving the most consistently out-of-the-workforce are those who lost their jobs permanently in the last recession.

 

That's quite a powerful thought - that recessions mark their scar on our economy by marking those communities and individuals caught up in it permanently.

 

I'm no fool - I know there will be downturns as surely as there will be upturns, but any evidence that people are deterministically marked by their experience surely runs counter to our radical idealism that everyone needs an opportunity to fulfil their potential.

 

If that is so - then HOW we deal with a recession is not as simple as cutting taxes so that rich people can get back on with the job of making money - instead it becomes a complex task of supporting individuals, investing in communities and education and steaming ahead with plans for infrastructure which will see us ready to work again at the earliest opportunity.

 

SH

RE:

I think Cameron’s speech was a failure and the reason is because I actually like him and wish he was in the Labour Party. Normally when I hear him speak I acknowledge how good he is and have found myself agreeing with him.....

Today – nothing – I was bored, and disagreed with almost everything he said.

Now, if I’m typical new labour, and his appeal to me represented his move to the middle ground, then today represents his move back to the Tory fold – a move I never expected him to make...

As Andrew Neil put it – “That was a Daily Mail Speech”

SH

RE: Cameron

If you’re watching the daily politics show – Nick Robinson has just talked about what’s in Cameron’s speech and he could be screwed.

 

Apparently just like Tony Blair showing that he changed Labour into New Labour he can change the country too, David Cameron is going to use the same argument – he can’t prove he would be a good PM, but look at what he’s done as opposition leader.

 

Except – for me, the conservative party has not changed – there was no clause four moment – they’re still unchanged – his record isn’t as great as they think it is

 

Cameron

I’m watching BBC Parliament right now, and they are showing Cameron’s emergency speech from yesterday and a couple of thoughts occur to me.

 

What was going on inside Team Cameron that made them think they had to do this.  Is he wanting to signal the graveness of the situation and his mature responsible attitude to it (read “Dunkirk spirit”)?

 

Or was he aware that the momentum was building back to Labour and he needed to put himself in front of it?

 

Maybe he was worried that none of his front bench would be capable of getting headlines from the conference yesterday and he was the only one capable of doing that?  That’s got to be a worrying thought.

 

Finally, he’s a decent chap and thought the honourable thing to do for the markets was signal how there will be no political wrangling in this country?  I believe this one is true, but so are the others.

 

He stood up and backed-up George Osborne, and that can only be because Osborne has taken a knock after being quoted in Gordon Brown’s speech.

 

In other words, he’s become the only national heavy hitter in his team, he knows it and it’s going to start taking its toll on him.

 

And finally – normally when I see Cameron do something unusual like this, I think “clever boy” for grabbing the initiative and swinging it his way.  Yesterday he was desperately trying to bring the initiative back to him and he looked weaker for it.

 

How good does it feel that for the first time in ages, Labour is setting the direction?

 

Dominic Grieve is speaking now.... good grief.....

Tories and their 'A' divide

Tories are attacking the disparity between rich and poor areas in the numbers of students who go on to study A Levels today.

 

It's a bit flawed and their response is a bit empty really: "Giving parents more control will help to improve opportunities for children, particularly those from deprived backgrounds" - erm, not really.  The reality is kids in Knowsley and the West Midlands don't do A levels for all number of reasons, but probably not because their parents aren't involved in the running of the local school....

 

I could be really cruel and say that the Tories would never know this because none of them have come from poor areas......

 

BUT - I want to congratulate them on one thing.  Every year we see a repeat of the same old tired formula - record results and the Tories criticise them and complain about falling standards, thus on what should be a day of joy for students and parents they bring clouds of doom - no clear winners with that strategy.

 

Instead Tories are trying this new attack line, which I think touches on a much more pertinent question and avoids running down the thousands of young people who slogged their guts out for months watching Wimbledon, sleeping in and doing six months of revision in the last two days.  well, that's how I did my A levels....

 

SH

unreconstructed Tories

I'm going to join in the clamour of people complaining about Policy Exchange's latest pamphlet which suggests we should give up on towns in the north, build additional housing in London, Oxford and Cambridge and basically manage the decline of towns like Liverpool.

 

For me, it is a real sign of how unreconstructed the Tories are - no sense of what regeneration is for, and an unswerving belief that the market can fix all ills - never mind that throughout the eighties, there was never any private investment in the north and it's only since 1997 that a new public investment paradigm has allowed the creation of markets up north which, "fuck me", nobody knew existed.....

 

SH

HIPs don't lie

news today is that estate agents claim HIPs are a hindrance and causing a delay in sales - poppycock! and other delightful phrases....

 

HIPS aren't causing delays - inability to get a mortgage are delaying sales.  I lose respect for any intellectual argument that chooses to lie like this in order to push their own agenda.

 

SH

the evil banks

Our generation has a new bogeyman (at least for the meantime).  20 brides and grooms (please tell me they were in wedding outfits - what a photo opp...) marched on HSBC yesterday demanding the company help out Wrapit, a wedding list company that has gone into administration.  Granted losing your wedding presents must be a shocking, pain-in-the-ass loss, not to mention an embarrassing situation - "excuse me, I know you bought us that £100 set of Egyptian cotton towels, but could you just give us the cash now" - but why does anyone think the bank should just help them out?

 

Wrapit went bust - end of story.  The job of providing a list, charging the guests, and buying the goods for the happy couple (probably with a pretty box thrown in) and charging a little extra on top to make a profit should be an easy thing to do.  Wrapit must have been badly run to screw that up - and that's not HSBC's fault.

 

Neither is it the happy couple's fault either, but the best lesson from this has to be - pay with a credit card when buying on-line....

 

SH

David Davis Resigns

Good lord!  At first I thought - WOW!

 

Now, on reflection, I'm like, huh? so what?

 

After all, it's a very empty gesture to cause a by-election in a very safe Tory seat and do a deal with your biggest threat, the Lib Dems not Labour, that they won't compete.  A real man of principle might resign and leave parliament altogether.

 

If Labour decide not to put a candidate forward (which given how safe it is, would be understandable) then the whole thing can rightly be seen as a waste of time and money.  Granted he has got today's headlines though.

 

Quick question though - under arcane rules, presumably David Davis the MP today would be seen by the authorities as a completely different person to the David Davis MP who comes back after his by-election, no?  So could there be any expenses-type situations which would become null and void by resigning as an MP?

 

SH

Crewe - a pause

A lot is going to be said tomorrow about the result of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election - enough to keep us all reading over the whole bank holiday weekend. 

 

However, it's all happened so quickly that I've just remembered, before the storm I want to pay another virtual tribute to Gwyneth, who might have been mad as a bat was a wonderful woman none-the-less.

 

Politics is a cruel business, and you have to be prepared for how quickly people will move on, but I would like to pay a moment's tribute to the woman who's contribution to the Party and Crewe we "celebrate" today at the polling station.

 

 

.............

 

Thank you

 

SH

By George!

Today is St George's day and there has been plenty of discussion about why the English don't celebrate it.  We even had a group discussion about this in our company in advance of one of the girls appearing (?) on radio this morning.

 

However, I have been thinking for some time now, after I was challenged that we should pull out of the European Union because we have lost our identity, about that big questions: "What is an English identity?"

 

and I keep coming back to the feeling that we don't have a culture or identity - we have done a very good job of borrowing from others, but the best I can do is the good old Sunday Roast.  My main problem is that the wide range of things that come to mind when you are asked about the English are things like cricket, G&Ts, croquet, stripy jackets and flowers in our straw caps.

 

Almost all of the things we are famous for belonged to the rich.  The class history of our country is such that poor people were excluded from all the common cultural institutions.

 

As the rise of the middle class meant we became richer and the reduction in the upper classes meant there were less of them, I think we saw English culture die off because there were less people practising it.  the middle and lower classes were kept away from English culture - with the result that now, we find it difficult to define English culture, or at least we find it difficult while ignoring things we don't like....

 

Football, drinking, Costa del sol, fry-ups and burned faces....

 

Compare this to ITV's falling audiences for the boat race

We love the royals (ahem..... Ed), but how many people know who the lord lieutenant is?

 

It's a good question to ask about British culture, and it would be good to start defining some traditions which are open and accessible - school sports days, dragon feasts for St George's Day - regional dishes that don't depend on cholesterol.

 

Of course, one of the bigger problems with this is that it requires non-centralised media and reporting.......... another issue entirely.....

ok - that's funny!

http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/03/great-graphs-of-our-time-no-94.html

at least read the bloody thing!

http://kerroncross.blogspot.com/2008/03/eu-cannot-be-serious.html

how much should we pay MPs?

http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/02/29/what-should-we-pay-mps/

 

An interesting question from John Redwood, but I found the comments most interesting.  There are a fair few, who argue that pay should go up, but the expenses system needs reforming with more transparency. - fair enough!

 

Then the cynics come in, criticising MPs, accusing them all of being greedy so on and so on. 

 

Which is when it hit me....  The criticism being levelled covered MPs who already have houses, second jobs in consultancies, etc.  These people are also readers of John Redwood's blog. 

 

These people are complaining about Conservative MPs!  Think about it, they are the ones they've most likely been in touch with, read about, spoken to - they are from the circle of Tory clubs, fundraising BBQs and referendum-campaign-meetings which meets and judges Tory Members.

 

I'm not saying there aren't instances on the Labour benches, but I could name a fair few who would never accept a consultancy job, are dedicated to representing their people and have genuine passion to argue for their area.  I'll happily put the Cumbrian and Liverpool MPs in that category.  Don't know the Manchester ones too well, but Tony Lloyd and Graham Stringer (you may not agree with them!) but are passionate about promoting/defending Manchester...

 

SH

 

 

Good lord, they're everywhere!

Just learnt today that the man who made L'Oreal into the multi-national success it is today is not a Frenchman - he's a (plastic) Scouser!

 

I will not be making a joke about plastic an' surgery.........

 

Because we're worth it!

 

SH

 

 

sorry small break - need to come up with something really passionate!

but in the meantime,

http://www.andipamodern.com/DET/DET-6554.HTM

 

hat tip to http://www.bobpiper.co.uk/

How sad I am

McCartney divorce battle resumes

 

And my first thought was that Ian and Anne made such a lovely couple......

 

SH

the worth of MPs

The BBC is talking today about MPs expenses after the House of Commons tried to justify not asking for receipts under £250 or allowing £400 for unmonitored food each month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7233560.stm

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2008/02/milk_with_your.html

 

While I recognise how tricky this is and understand people's feelings about the need for greater transparency.  And I particularly understand that at the moment and with the modern world of information, people want to be able to be sure that the systems for MPs expenses are not open to abuse.

 

For this reason I think there do need to be some changes.  For a start they should reform the system so that they are no longer called expenses, because that causes confusion right from the beginning.  That reform should introduce more transparency and monitoring.

 

But I warn against taking it too far - because I think it undermines our democratic system, and falls into the trap of the fourth estate.  And I want to say it clearly here - the attitude of some towards elected politicians is designed to undermine them regardless of purpose - and that is dangerous.  We need to stand up to them and, as painful as it may be, display trust in our elected officials, and the office in which they reside and resist the temptation to join the rabble rousing crowds.

 

This is nothing new, but it used to be Communist agitators, or anarchists or fascists or any number of political persuasions.  Because these political factions no longer exist it's not felt that these people have a political agenda that they are pushing - therefore we should listen to them.

 

Instead - in this modern world the threats are apathy, the instant media and oppressive negative reporting (from citizens and media alike).  here's my reasoning:

 

If everything MPs spend is itemised, the level of scrutiny will be massive, and no newspaper will manage to resist the temptation to comment out of the ordinary.  This could be a large restaurant bill, or a hotel charge.  It is highly feasible we would start criticising MPs for staying in 5 star hotels or visiting restaurants we deem as "too nice".

 

But what we won't do is judge that expenditure against what is was supposed to achieve.  There will be no attempt to judge the expenditure against its results.  That dinner might have been with a company who's about to open a new factory in the MPs constituency worth lots of jobs.  The context for expenditure will be removed, and that could establish a very damaging method for judging and monitoring MPs.

 

Let's not forget we already have a very effective system for judging how effective MPs are - they are called elections.

 

now wouldn't that turn out to be interesting?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/jersey/7234516.stm

"Liverpool author Ken Pye investigates whether a Liverpool man murdered by his wife was, in fact, Jack the Ripper"

Daily Post 07.02.08

 

 

Ken's wife must be getting on a bit.......

 

I've met Ken a couple of times, and he is a really nice bloke - passionate about Liverpool and the Athenaeum club, (which I haven't joined yet, but one day....)

about bloody time!

This is extremely under-estimated - the nightmare of travelling by train between two major economic powerhouses.  It's the kind of situation that just wouldn't be allowed to happen in London!  And it's no good looking to the public sector to pay.

 

Are you seriously telling me that the revenue from permanently packed trains is not enough to pay for the very trains passengers are standing on?!?!?!

 

surely that's b*llsh*t!

Article here: http://www.manchesterconfidential.com/index.asp?sessionx=IpqiNw86IwfqJaqiNwF6IHqi

Told you.....

Told you it would come down to this, but would you listen.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7226069.stm

David Maclean is a very well respected member of the NW Conservatives, and a very nice man when I met - BUT he is also the guy who ran the campaign against the FOI Act being applied to MPs.  However I thought he had some good reasons for that, so I guess now we will see his true colours.

 

With the three MPs carrying out the review though.......  Danger level of nothing getting better..... extremely high

 

PS - absolutely love the photo of the Wintertons.......  must tell you about the time Sir Nicholas had had a glass of wine or two.......

 

Scally Scouse or Scouse Scally

My last post reminded me of an argument, sorry discussion, we had the other weekend - Can you have a Scouse Scally?

 

I said no, because you would use the word Scally in a specific place, so you wouldn't need to identify them - therefore the word scouse is redundant.  Much discussion ensued.....

 

Secretly, I'm just fed up of Scousers being labelled....

 

SH

Colleen's Real Scouse Accent

Meant to write about this last week, but I wanted to mention how fantastic Colleen's Real Women is.  Firstly, I think the concept is fantastic about challenging Model and Ad agencies' perception of "real" women and trying to get brands to use more realistic body figures to promote their goods.

 

Secondly, how completely won over by Colleen I was.  For all her coverage, etc. she is no polished, experienced media dahling - she looked positively scared shitless by the tall, attractive professional from Petty Polly in the first episode - they were polar opposites, both in terms of opportunities in life and how they had got where they were.  Everything about Colleen was genuine, even her mistakes, and she won my admiration for putting herself out there.

 

SH

At what price?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a0344df0-d282-11dc-8636-0000779fd2ac.html

 

Huge investment in the science base of our country is very wel(l)come, but at what cost to the UK will such a huge investment from a single organisation mean to our national priorities.

The Wellcome Trust's decision to only fund a new synchrotron facility (DIAMOND) in the south-east practically killed Daresbury laboratories in 2000, despite the UK's knowledge base for this science being based in the labs near Warrington.  One of the D's in DIAMOND even stands for Daresbury.....

Now higher than proportional cuts are to be made at the site - supposedly one of the two bi-polar sites that are supposed to be the backbone of UK science.  And it will be the Daresbury site that suffers most....

This is an unconsciable attempt (again) to relocate all of the nation's science facilities to the South East.... and yet we are supposed to turn the UK's economy into a knowledge economy, when by definition only the South East will have any knowledge.

I think it is a disgusting sign of abandonment of the North. (I want to write more in the future about levers in the regions, which I think is the big differentiator between Labour and Tory economic policy). There should be an unwritten contract that if the region invests in the facility (which it has through the NWDA) then the national bodies have to come through with their side of the bargain.

Again they have failed and Wellcome's new investment is only going to make it harder to keep science here.

I don't like being doom and gloom, but without encouraging the ability of people in the north to create and invent, we will never become the economy we should....

What a waste to Pendle

http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/business-news/Government-minister-is-key-speaker.3740059.jp

 

Only seen this in one paper - however the conference itself is looking at what I think is one of the major defining issues of our time - what to do with all our waste.

 

Possibly more on this at a future date.

 

SH

Chicken and egg

Dizzy takes the MP tapping scandal into a slightly different area, with a question about whether this means MPs think they are above the law:

http://dizzythinks.net/2008/02/wilson-doctrine-places-mps-above-law.html

 

While, I for one, don't like the idea of MPs swanning around thinking they are god, or untouchable, there is a general issue about the status of our elected officials.  Compared with the US, where the position (not necessarily the man) of the POTUS, or even Senator or Congressman, is given a very high level of respect.

 

That simply does not exist in this country - but I can't help thinking that some elements of it should.  and I'm trying to think of examples when that should be the case:

 

An MP abroad is stopped by the police in France - are they allowed to search him/her?  What if it happened in Egypt?  would we treat this any differently?

 

MPs do have privileges we don't - Parliamentary privilege for example, means they can say anything in the chamber without fear of prosecution

 

and I know someone will point out that if they want our respect they should start behaving in the right way - to them I say only one word..... granted.....

 

I've always wondered how come the US can have Air Force One, but the UK has no equivalent - when Tony Blair commissioned a plane it was all over the papers as an unnecessary expense.

 

Heck, just look at the furore over MPs expenses every year - even though the vast majority of it goes on staff and offices, but when you read the newspapers you assume it's all been pocketed.... Even with Derek Conway we see the system regulating itself (in spectacular fashion!) 

 

And for this I blame the fourth estate (and the Taxpayer's Alliance).  It is impossible to have a serious discussion about the worth of MPs, the job we want them to and how much we should be willing to spend on them.  It's a serious question for our country (personally I favour a modest raise, but vastly increased staffing budgets).  But the hordes of baying wolves demand cuts - and for me, it is a working class issue.... why?  Because every single expense introduced has been to enable anyone in the UK to stand for, be elected and serve in Parliament - not just the wealthy.  And office expenses - so that MPs can respond and represent everyone in their constituency, not just the landowners who can pop down to Westminster and buy lunch.

 

and if you think an MP isn't doing their job..... gosh, wow, that's what elections are for!

 

SH

Can you pay bus drivers per passenger?

http://www.slate.com/id/2138159/

 

Interestink, very very interestink.....

 

Obviously in the unionised workplaces of today's bus companies you couldn't introduce a change like this - and I'm not sure you would want to, but it is a very interesting question....

Lib Dem Liverpool worst in the country

How the hell do you create a £60m deficit in a local authority budget and get up in the morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/01/30/council-faces-60m-funding-shortfall-100252-20412322/

 

AND.......

 

still part of Lib Dem lies about how they can fix it - they are seeking permission from the government to use the Capital Receipts budget to pay for Capital of Culture - which is only £20m - I mean it's not like they've had years to plan for it and prepare a celebration within our means..... oh wait........

 

BUT - the capital receipts are also being raided to fund the overruns in a new swimming pool and the Arena ( a birdie told me they forgot to ask for the money to put any seats in... d'oh!).

 

This means the capital receipts budget is being spent twice and doesn't have enough money in it anyway......

 

Capital of Spending Culture

Baby-Sitting the Economy

It's a very old post on Slate.com, but I have been inspired by its simplicity so am hat-tipping it here in the hope others see it too.

 

I'm even tempted to start a whole new web-site to exploring it, but not sure how sad it would make me........

 

It concerns a baby-sitting co-op in Washington DC in the seventies that aimed share the load.  About 150 couples joined, with the purpose of baby-sitting each other's children, thus saving money and giving everyone an opportunity to go out more often. (probably to some of the great restaurants an ex-girlfriend from Georgetown tells me there are!)

 

The co-op failed because they essentially entered a depression.  Each member had coupons which they gave to the baby-sitting couple.  These could be redeemed at a later date, meaning had to go out and party and baby-sit in equal measure.

 

But people held on to the coupons so as to be able to go out in the future, which meant the money, sorry, coupon supply ran dry and the co-op failed....

http://www.slate.com/id/1937/

 

Of course, they all worked in Congress, which inspires a great deal of confidence about US lawmakers' ability to manage the future global economic tightening......

 

and some people would now argue that the internet would have helped them with transparency and create a freer exchange.......

 

SH

said it before and I'll say it again.....

"It does seem odd that a man arguing that the Lisbon Treaty is the "most shameful and complete surrender of sovereignty in our island history" (in Gouriet's words) would initiate a process which, if successful, would dramatically reduce parliamentary sovereignty."

http://www.westmonster.com/2008/01/spare_a_shekel_for_a_judicial.html

 

Eurosceptics are not thinking straight - their policy is not based on anything other than a kind of latent institutional xenophobism.  My evidence?  When people resort to completely illogical and irrational strategies to scupper something they hate but can't articulate why..........  In my view, it is because they are falling back on their own raw emotions.... fine, I don't criticise that - but just look at the emotions they are falling back on.....

 

SH

Just because it made me laugh

http://www.westmonster.com/2008/01/blond_bouncy_one_for_the_boys.html

no ambition

In the pub on Saturday I surprised myself with a rant about the lack of ambition in the world today.

 

We were talking about a store in Oxford, which when it was built had an underground railway to bring in the coal and coke to heat it.  Why the hell!?!?!?  of all the options, they built an underground railway - it's both fantastical and incredible at the same time.  But it represented a time when there was huge amounts of ambition in this country.  Every facet was engineered with a can-do not a can-do-cheaper attitude.

 

I think we could do with more of that....

train (phone)lines

"The other day I ended up by saying to someone at National Rail Enquiries: "You don't know any more about this than I do!" My adviser agreed ruefully."

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/susan_tomes/2008/01/a_cloud_of_unknowing.html

 

Once upon a time, my housemate worked for NRE, and they were based in local call centres, and this one was behind Liverpool Lime Street Station.  I needed to make an unusual journey (say south coast to Liverpool, or something)......  The actual journey should have taken ages, but I knew that engineering works meant some trains were making unusual unscheduled stops.

 

I called NRE and challenged the guy who answered that we could shave hours of the official time if we could use these unscheduled stops.  we then spent about 25 minutes working out a schedule that got me from A to B quicker through stops that don't appear on the normal timetable.

 

He admitted it was the best enquiry he'd ever had and the most fun - but alas, then they sacked them all and shipped them into a huge call centre and shipped capacity off to India.  oh well.......

 

Lazy European Thinking

"We should listen to the people; that's how we re-engage with them. If we refuse, then we do so at our peril and a little bit more trust and democracy will die. This is why it's essential to give the people a choice on the ballot paper. If I am selected to the list system I will promise that the party voters can de-select me if I do not carry out my promise of putting the sovereignty of parliament first and thinking, "Is that directive really necessary? If not, scrap it."
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/janice_small/2008/01/vote_for_change.html

This is just lazy to the point of dishonest. Janice Small (With whom I agreed on a lot of her other points...) then offers this kind of lazy, misleading, false choice. I bet she's really scared at the thoughtof being de-selected because she's not done enough to put the sovereignty of parliament first - how the hell do you prove that.

Oh, and wait - if she's tearing up directives....(wait for it.....) isn't she second guessing the UK Parliament whose sovereignty she just swore to uphold.

Never mind the fact that she's in a parliament, which millions of people have voted before but promising sovereignty to another - isn't that the absolute definition of not listening to the people.

And while I'm on listening to people, this is the big trap that eurosceptics fall into like clunking hammers - which people? Every Directive has people who want it - Boris Johnson proved that when he shouted at the CBI because they couldn't come up with a singlepiece of red tape they wanted to scrap. Every Directive helps someone...... The skill is in balancing the needs, wants, winners and losers to produce the most effective legislation. I'd pay more attention to Eurosceptics if they got that..........