porca misèria Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 It's a bit like the 1970s when we had British Leyland, where a few thousand workers were paid by the state. We now have millions of workers being paid by the state if we include all the large banks and all the businesses (not just supermarkets) whose wage costs are subsidized by government. Such policies used to be the preserve of Militant Tendency and the Socialist Workers Party. They are now mainstream Tory orthodoxy. It was more than a few thousand car workers in the '70s. It was a whole raft of old industries. But it's true, what's happened since about 2001 (when Gordon abandoned Prudence) has a lot of echos of 1960s feelgood and 1970s bust. Even to the extent of a supposedly-tory government (1970-4 like 2005-10) talking the talk but then wallowing in destructive state intervention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyguy Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 It was more than a few thousand car workers in the '70s. It was a whole raft of old industries. But it's true, what's happened since about 2001 (when Gordon abandoned Prudence) has a lot of echos of 1960s feelgood and 1970s bust. Even to the extent of a supposedly-tory government (1970-4 like 2005-10) talking the talk but then wallowing in destructive state intervention. True. THE UK today makes the 70s look like a highly efficient laissez-fair economy. The UK fell to bits in the 74 when the oil crisis hit, which reverberated up to the early 80s recession. Trade liberalisation from 79 onwards exposed a lot of our national champions to be, err, sh1t. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long time lurking Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 More lies http://politicalscrapbook.net/2015/04/bis-zero-hours-contract-exclusivity-clause-screw-up/#more-52323 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamnumerate Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Brown was a truly extraordinary politician. Most just tweak a couple of things, here and there and hope they work out. Brown went full on with loads of stuff. Problems in Scotland? OK, lets set up a parliament. 15 years down the line - Bang! Labour are about to get wiped out in Scotland. Want to increase public spending and keep it off the books. PFI! 15 years down the line, billions of pounds later, uselss hopsital + schools which we will be paying for for the next 20 odd years. Help for low paid (the more generous view) / create client state (less generous view) - tax credits. Oops, made them so complex that no-one - claimant or tax office know how to administer them. Newspaper running stories about single mums owing HMRC several 10k in benefit. Quick - bump up the money given out! Whomp - all low and middle paid families move out of full-time job and into 16h/week client state. Productivity falls off cliff as very few people working in skilled, FT jobs. Europe opens up (this one's Blair's), almost entire population of Poland, etc move to UK to take advantage of out cretinous 'needs based' benefit system. Massive - and I mean - massive budget deficit. Quick, how do we pay for all this extra public spend. Brown: Using my economic genius, I shall bring in light tax financial regulation, allowing the UK financial sector to grow and draw tax to pay for my social policies. 2007 - Whoops - rather than paying in money, UK finance needs billions to keep it afloat. All that, and people do not still release what a grubby, dirty political operator he really was. Or that the two Eds were at the centre of it all. A lot of Labour MPs - not just the Blairites - have a genuine, strong hatred of Brown. Brown has probably destroyed the Labour party. If Labour do not form the next government then they will probably be over. His reputation is not limited to just the UK - just look at all the international orgs that are falling over themselves NOT to give a job. Unheard of for a (relative) young senior politician - there's always some body that needs a chair or someone with a contact book. Brown - a total political pariah. The books on Brown have not be written yet. I think Darling was going to write one but put it on hold whilst he tried to save the Union. I still think Brown is going to be found hanging in a closet in a few years. I don't agree 100% but I did like most of your post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snugglybear Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 I wonder what the effect of getting rid of the £11bn subsidy would be on the weekly shop for the average family. And what sort of work practices would take the place of zero hours contracts and part-time? Would they have to pay sufficient to get more full-time staff in for instance and that they would essentially be trying to employ fewer people with longer hours (as there would be fewer worker property costs and tax credits to cover). Given that 3 million people want more hours than they are currently working, according to the ONS*, I don't think the supermarkets would have too much trouble getting full-time workers. *http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/underemployed-workers-in-the-uk/2014/rpt-underemployment-and-overemployment-2014.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashmonitor Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 I guess food is subsidised from farm gate to supermarket check out. I guess the only guys not taking a subsidy are the UKs ultra efficient logistics operation in the middle. All delivering food at rock bottom prices for which I am grateful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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