Politics Thread!

[Dio]

It's probably true though. It's a pretty crappy salary for the kind of hours and travel the job involves, and having to live in London. Then again I don't understand how the economics of this country work for anyone trying to live south of Birmingham on less than £100k so I'm not the best equipped to comment.

[VNVObit]

It's probably true though. It's a pretty crappy salary for the kind of hours and travel the job involves, and having to live in London. Then again I don't understand how the economics of this country work for anyone trying to live south of Birmingham on less than £100k so I'm not the best equipped to comment.

The salary is the least of it - hence all the allowances and expenses scandals we have. The connections and potential earnings from side activities (non-exec directorships, consultancy, after dinner /conference speaking, working for the beeb on travel programmes ) are an attraction for some (not all). The success of which are dependent on a really good contacts book.

[merman]

Surprised no-one posted about the unemployment. It’s all good news but it’s worth highlighting a couple of features.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_393554.pdf

First the % of people in work, the employment rate, is at an all time high; it's not a new record but it just matched the previous record (set in 2005). This is in some ways a more meaningful statistic than the unemployment rate which can be affected by the number looking for work; the employment rate though is just jobs ÷ workers (the number of people working has been a record for a while, but that’s partly down to the growing population. this just confirms it was not just due to demographics).

Second wage growth is has taken a definite turn upwards. This is while inflation is falling, due to falling oil and food prices. Maybe two or three years ago low inflation would have let employers freeze pay or offer only rises in line with inflation. Not any more with the labour market tighter and tighter.

This contradicts some of the gloom and doom predictions on the left, that cuts (and there have been real cuts and job losses) would massively boost unemployment and harm the economy, and on the right that mass immigration would take jobs from natives also boosting unemployment. Neither has happened; instead the economy has been steadily improving since the recession. Things are improving so fast I’d not be surprised to see interest rates rise this year, though that probably depends where the unemployment rate stops as it can’t keep falling forever.

You posted about it multiple times, so no-one else needed to.

You've also been fooled by the figures.

Youth unemployment is still high in most areas and getting worse, as the work creation schemes fail. Cameron's announcements of cutting off Jobseeker's Allowance and housing benefit to the under-21s proves how little they care for the young.

The first year of cuts - according to the IMF - slowed the recovery, cut GDP and cost the average family over £1600. That's a fact. More cuts are coming.

Osborne cannot claim that his policies have led to low inflation - it's all down to the fall in energy prices, which are still not being passed on in full to the consumer. In real terms people are still worse off thanks to four years of below-inflation pay settlements.

[gravy]

It's probably true though. It's a pretty crappy salary for the kind of hours and travel the job involves, and having to live in London. Then again I don't understand how the economics of this country work for anyone trying to live south of Birmingham on less than £100k so I'm not the best equipped to comment.

I think there's an argument for paying them more and precluding any other income but I'm more making the point that it's an argument that wlll not play well.

[pogo]

Youth unemployment is still high in most areas and getting worse, as the work creation schemes fail.

I don't know where you get your information from. Youth unemployment is actually falling, rapidly. From the ONS report linked above:

Comparing October to December 2014 with a year earlier, the number of people aged from 16 to 24:
• in employment increased by 110,000,
• who were unemployed fell by 188,000, and
• who were economically inactive increased by 35,000.

(The last category is mostly students).

The first year of cuts - according to the IMF - slowed the recovery, cut GDP and cost the average family over £1600.

And what was the biggest cut in 2010? the 2.5% VAT rise, announced by Alistair Darling in 2009. That had a particularly strong effect as the previous VAT cut had encouraged people to bring forward purchases, boosting the economy in 2009 but at the expense of the economy in 2010.

You are right, the cuts did have an impact. It’s not possible to cut spending without it having some, and we needed to cut spending (and still do). The key is to cut areas where there is slack, where cuts can be made without damaging the economy, and at a rate that the economy can absorb job losses, avoiding e.g. the mass unemployment seen in countries that have cut too fast.

But yes, it was inevitable the cuts would have some effect. Labour’s borrowing fuelled boom did put a lot of money into people’s pockets, especially civil servants’. But it was living beyond our means and we could not afford to go on borrowing so much forever. It had to end.

[(o)(o)]

Surprised no-one posted about the unemployment. It’s all good news but it’s worth highlighting a couple of features.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_393554.pdf

First the % of people in work, the employment rate, is at an all time high; it's not a new record but it just matched the previous record (set in 2005). This is in some ways a more meaningful statistic than the unemployment rate which can be affected by the number looking for work; the employment rate though is just jobs ÷ workers (the number of people working has been a record for a while, but that’s partly down to the growing population. this just confirms it was not just due to demographics).

Second wage growth is has taken a definite turn upwards. This is while inflation is falling, due to falling oil and food prices. Maybe two or three years ago low inflation would have let employers freeze pay or offer only rises in line with inflation. Not any more with the labour market tighter and tighter.

This contradicts some of the gloom and doom predictions on the left, that cuts (and there have been real cuts and job losses) would massively boost unemployment and harm the economy, and on the right that mass immigration would take jobs from natives also boosting unemployment. Neither has happened; instead the economy has been steadily improving since the recession. Things are improving so fast I’d not be surprised to see interest rates rise this year, though that probably depends where the unemployment rate stops as it can’t keep falling forever.

You posted about it multiple times, so no-one else needed to.

You've also been fooled by the figures.

Youth unemployment is still high in most areas and getting worse, as the work creation schemes fail. Cameron's announcements of cutting off Jobseeker's Allowance and housing benefit to the under-21s proves how little they care for the young.

The first year of cuts - according to the IMF - slowed the recovery, cut GDP and cost the average family over £1600. That's a fact. More cuts are coming.

Osborne cannot claim that his policies have led to low inflation - it's all down to the fall in energy prices, which are still not being passed on in full to the consumer. In real terms people are still worse off thanks to four years of below-inflation pay settlements.

Yeah what IS gong on with OFGEM... seems to be an "orgy" going on.. with the regulator in bed with at least 6 others ???

Andrew I personally know many people who are having great difficulty finding proper full time jobs ... most offer low pay and between 16-20 hours, and then it turns out many employees are on these hours too... being topped up by benefits or "just barely surviving " .. Those on JSA?? I know one person who took a job where hes no better off (yup 16-20 hrs) and two others (degree qualified) who have signed off due to the stress of it and have eaten savings and are now into precarious debt situations

Obviously the practice of restrictive hours and low pay is widescale and the government is setting conditions where its in a companies best interests to follow this policy ... The figures bandied about are BS.. totally massaged and do not conform to reality

There just aren't enough real jobs to go around despite a growing number of reluctant 'wage slaves'

Lovely Cameron there encouraging employers to pay proper wages.. yeah yeah 72 days to go...

[zip accident]

Anybody else had polticians banging on the door yet?

We had our first today, it's already one too many.

[Dio]

In Newcastle? You're having a laugh. Our votes are worth 0.12% of a vote or something because it's a safe seat.

[(o)(o)]

No Labour stuff comes in the mail and in the sticks so they're not going to come knocking.

Tory heartland here.

Tactically voting does next to nothing.

[pogo]

In Newcastle? You're having a laugh. Our votes are worth 0.12% of a vote or something because it's a safe seat.

Same around here. We get leaflets as they spend their share of their national budgets but solidly Labour at both local and national level so voting and canvassing isn’t worth it.

[gravy]

Missed this earlier, conservative whip withdrawn from Rifkind

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ess-claims

Probably not as bad as Cameron giving his full support in the matter

[Governmentyard]

Rifkind has noped the fuck out of the Commons: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31603202

Anyway - door knockers. We don't get them here - safe Labour seat, which is probably why I haven't been impressed with my local MP. the Tories, on the other hand, have given us one of these, poor kid:



...with the eyebrows and everything!

We got a leaflet through the other day, with a link to her videos. The headline?

"You Tube If You Want To"

Apparently, the lady is not for tubing.

[gravy]

Ooofio!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/02 ... 41572.html

Greens need meeja training

[gravy]

Rifkind has noped the fuck out of the Commons: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31603202

There we go!

[Governmentyard]

Ooofio!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/02 ... 41572.html

Greens need meeja training

That's the Greens for you - decent at discussing ideas for improving the world, crap at selling them via media channels.