Current Affairs 2017 General Election

[peteblue]

FFS...we have to find a pill as well as a money tree now?! this is getting out of hand..

It was ever thus in the land of make believe......

 

[Bruce Wayne]

But wouldn't you concede that if the borrowing is placed in areas/technologies of which are expected to grow exponentially - then we'll be better placed to move forward as a country?

Maybe, but even then high growth industries are usually high skill industries. They aren't going to help the places that were deindustrialised.

That's largely the problem as our cities, and especially the university towns, are doing alright, but that prosperity isn't spread.

 

[roydo]

But wouldn't you concede that if the borrowing is placed in areas/technologies of which are expected to grow exponentially - then we'll be better placed to move forward as a country?

Like what?

We are one of the most efficient car builders on the planet. Our mobile and IT companies are as well. Our distribution network is beyond belief in how much, and how quickly, stuff is ferried around the country. We build and sell high tech engines and military stuff to all sorts.

Our design and technology industry is one of the most thriving on the planet, and we make gazillions from counting everyone elses money in London.

 

[peteblue]

Cheers for replying.

I took a look at the ONS' statistics regarding unemployment, and you're correct - it is falling. However, look further and you'll see that the working-age population has risen.

Even then, I'd argue that the unemployment rate alone doesn't really encapsulate the entirety of the situation.

For example how many part-time workers would like to work full time, for a decent wage and adequate hours?

How many workers feel they're grossly underpaid, or work in poor working conditions?

This is one of the reasons I voted for Brexit, to give our young a better chance. Perhaps you should ask that nice Jeremy Corbyn why his union leader mates allow it........

 

[tsubaki]

A campaign ran on the basis of hope, and not fear. Great to see so many working class young people fight for their futures.

TBH it isn't really their future they are fighting for, more like fighting to get what the 55+ people got - which was of course is easily available social housing, affordable homes, job security, decent pensions, free university education and considerably better (and certainly cheaper) vocational training than is available now.

 

[peteblue]

Like what?

We are one of the most efficient car builders on the planet. Our mobile and IT companies are as well. Our distribution network is beyond belief in how much, and how quickly, stuff is ferried around the country. We build and sell high tech engines and military stuff to all sorts.

Our design and technology industry is one of the most thriving on the planet, and we make gazillions from counting everyone elses money in London.

We also used to have a hugely profitable telecoms industry employing tens of thousands of highly paid engineers before the last leader of a Labour government destroyed the industry with his 3G licences.....

 

[orchard]

I'm convinced. Let's get Jezza in and let his mate borrow the 250Bn he promised. But remember, it'll be you that pays it back, not me.........

No, i'm now convinced. Let's treat the poor like serfs, make them work in sweat-shops, pollute our cities and countryside, remove the precautionary principle and most 'red tape' that has been developed to protects us, throw ECHR in the dumpster, give May even more power, et al.

 

[peteblue]

TBH it isn't really their future they are fighting for, more like fighting to get what the 55+ people got - which was of course is easily available social housing, affordable homes, job security, decent pensions, free university education and considerably better (and certainly cheaper) vocational training than is available now.

But those people also put in 30-40 years of productive work, building the infrastructure and the houses, hospitals, railways etc that we have today. Maybe if we gave all the under 25 year olds everything they have built and earned, and we keep everything else that we have built and earned we could go our separate ways......somehow I'm not sure they would like that.......

 

[peteblue]

No, i'm now convinced. Let's treat the poor like serfs, make them work in sweat-shops, pollute our cities and countryside, remove the precautionary principle and most 'red tape' that has been developed to protects us, throw ECHR in the dumpster, give May even more power, et al.

No, I'm with you brother. Let us live in the new Utopia. But remember that you will be paying for it, I've already done my bit. Over to you.....

 

[Number_25]

Maybe, but even then high growth industries are usually high skill industries. They aren't going to help the places that were deindustrialised.

That's largely the problem as our cities, and especially the university towns, are doing alright, but that prosperity isn't spread.

I originate from a ex-mining village in the South Wales Valleys. I took the plunge and moved away to a University town a couple of hundred miles away, I am aware of the disparity and disproportionate spreading of wealth.

A return to the "business as usual" approach to the economy put forward by the Conservatives would be unsustainable, and will inevitably lead to the the return of the boom-and-bust economy that has been so costly to both the people and the economy.

We need a considered strategy as to achieve greener, sustainable growth - as to ensure that living standards and wages do not continue to stagnate. We have to find new methods of producing, and consuming - and disregard previous methods of quantifying economic progress.

But even I understand that we can't just scrap everything and start afresh. We need to work within the current system in order to meet these objectives and ensure a future for this country. We need to harness and support the excellent work that is currently happening within our world-class Universities.

Many of the largest developments in fields such as green energy and biotechnology are occurring right here on our doorstep. It's a failure of government to not exploit these advances, as to take our economy past the simple premise of manipulating debt as to create wealth.

This is one of the reasons I voted for Brexit, to give our young a better chance. Perhaps you should ask that nice Jeremy Corbyn why his union leader mates allow it........

You should read what I've posted in the EU referendum thread.

 

[orchard]

No, I'm with you brother. Let us live in the new Utopia. But remember that you will be paying for it, I've already done my bit. Over to you.....

Ha, what was you bit, grabbing the ladder?

 

[tsubaki]

But those people also put in 30-40 years of productive work, building the infrastructure and the houses, hospitals, railways etc that we have today. Maybe if we gave all the under 25 year olds everything they have built and earned, and we keep everything else that we have built and earned we could go our separate ways......somehow I'm not sure they would like that.......

Er - no "new" railway lines were built in the UK for about sixty years, most hospitals were built in the heyday of the NHS or under Blair's misguided PFI scheme, and the number of council homes has gone down since Thatcher sold them off.

The only infrastructure that generation invested substantially in was the road network - which has directly killed tens of thousands in accidents, caused considerable amounts of pollution (especially in cities), caused an addiction to oil (with all the unintended consequences that has brought) and created the second most effective tax extraction system known to man (the first being cigarettes) - and the nuclear power industry, which is perhaps emblematic of their contribution to British society because it generated cheap and clean power for them whilst leaving us with massive decommissioning costs and tonnes and tonnes of highly dangerous radioactive waste.

So I think the losers in your contest would be the over 55's, especially if you gave them the same circumstances (ie: no pensions triple lock, no comprehensive winter fuel payments, and a lifetime of considerably greater toil than the baby-boomers faced) that their parents got.

 

[Number_25]

I just want to highlight this.

Wage growth since 2010:

Poland +23%
Germany +14%
France +11%
UK 10.4%

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I just want to highlight this.

Wage growth since 2010:

Poland +23%
Germany +14%
France +11%
UK 10.4%

Only tells part of the picture though doesn't it? I mean in France, unemployment is exactly double what it is in Britain, so you might assume that we have substituted slightly lower pay for a job, whereas the French haven't. It's also worth remembering that Germany has been in a period of austerity since 2010, and indeed has run a surplus in the last 3 years. Something we don't seem that keen on trying to do here.

 

[Number_25]

Only tells part of the picture though doesn't it? I mean in France, unemployment is exactly double what it is in Britain, so you might assume that we have substituted slightly lower pay for a job, whereas the French haven't. It's also worth remembering that Germany has been in a period of austerity since 2010, and indeed has run a surplus in the last 3 years. Something we don't seem that keen on trying to do here.

Probably because we're seemingly unwilling to invest in the way that the Germans have and do...