Bolitics The New Condem Government

[Kingfisher]

The Uk 2013 and people IN WORK are starving and they don't think this is an issue worthy of their (paid) time as our public servants. Despicable.

[thetrees]

The Uk 2013 and people IN WORK are starving and they don't think this is an issue worthy of their (paid) time as our public servants. Despicable.

If people IN WORK are starving, then it is clear that the well meant minimum wage has, as I suggested here at the time, has become THE wage.

A shame that something so well intended can be so damaging. But then perhaps it wasn't thought through very well.

[Kingfisher]

Minimum wage is a brilliant idea, but it is too low. Not rocket science. Quite apart from implementing that glaringly obvious change, this government don't even want to debate it and that is disgusting.

[MakemineVanilla]

 

The Uk 2013 and people IN WORK are starving and they don't think this is an issue worthy of their (paid) time as our public servants. Despicable.

If people IN WORK are starving, then it is clear that the well meant minimum wage has, as I suggested here at the time, has become THE wage.

A shame that something so well intended can be so damaging. But then perhaps it wasn't thought through very well.

 

 

I don't think you can blame the minimum wage; what you have to take into account is the inflation for food staples, fuel and housing, which has impoverished low-earners in particular.

 

Wages just haven't matched food price inflation.

 

Food has gone up by 144% since 2003.

 

Average wages have only gone up by around 40% since 1999.

 

House prices have gone up by 166% since 1999, which will reflect in rent prices.

 

Since food and rent represent the biggest proportion of poorer people's budget it can be seen that they have disproportionately suffered.

 

What this sort of analysis shows is that the working poor and the unemployed have been getting poorer for over a decade.

 

It shows that those on benefits have already faced annual cuts to their standard of living and that the present cuts are gratuitous - inspired by the false assumptions of a resentful public, which is not discouraged by too much information.

 

The minimum wage has only slightly offset this decline but it would have been worse without it. 

[thetrees]

On the theme I was yesterday told a statistic that, had the minimum wage risen in line with Chief Executives pay over the same period, it would now be £19.50ph

That little gem did come from a Unite shop steward though!

[Xann]

Exec wage rise vs Average wage rise.

[MakemineVanilla]

On the theme I was yesterday told a statistic that, had the minimum wage risen in line with Chief Executives pay over the same period, it would now be £19.50ph

That little gem did come from a Unite shop steward though!

 

I read it in Polly T's column in the Guardian.

[PauloBarnesi]

Cable talks some sense, whilst trying to avoid another runway on his patch

 

London draining life out of rest of country - Vince Cable

COMMENTS (1257)

Continue reading the main story Related Stories

• Should Britain let go of London?
• Airport expansion options set out
• Airport plans divide opinion

London "is becoming a giant suction machine draining the life out of the rest of the country", Business Secretary Vince Cable has warned.

Mr Cable made the comment while saying that he believed regional airports should be expanded rather than London's Heathrow Airport.

The Lib Dem minister told BBC Radio 4's Today some "more balance" was needed.

But Mayor of London Boris Johnson said Mr Cable's assertion was "stupefying and ridiculous".

And Labour criticised the coalition for "dismantling" regional developments agencies, arguing that its alternative approach to addressing economic imbalances in the UK had been "feeble".

Mr Cable, whose constituency includes Heathrow flight paths, has long opposed plans for a new runway there.

Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

It's no good him talking about regional imbalances when his government dismantled the institutions that were addressing that”

Chuka UmunnaShadow business secretary

He was speaking after Sir Howard Davies' Airport Commission shortlisted three options for expanding UK airport capacity, two of which involved Heathrow.

With much of the business world in favour of more airport capacity in south-east England, Mr Cable was asked whether he stuck by his opposition to expansion at his local airport.

'Ferociously'

He said: "What this report is doing [is] trying to reconcile two different things.

"One is to try to ensure that, for the economic interests of the country, we have more connection to the big emerging markets.

"On the other hand we have hundreds of thousands of people in London living under the flight path with very serious issues of noise.

"All the parties have made it very clear that we can't make that problem worse."

The "way forward", he argued, was to make "more use of provincial airports".

Mr Cable described Sir Howard's report as "very well argued".

But he added: "One of the big problems that we have at the moment, which I don't think the report sufficiently addresses, is that London is becoming a kind of giant suction machine, draining the life out of the rest of the country.

"More balance in that respect would be helpful."

Shadow business secretary and Labour MP for Streatham in London, Chuka Umunna, said: "It's no good him talking about regional imbalances when his government dismantled the institutions that were addressing that - Regional Development Agencies - then put feeble substitutes in their place in the form of Local Enterprise Partnerships which they gave no powers too nor appropriate budgets."

The London mayor, who also opposes Heathrow expansion, described Mr Cable as "the cabinet minister in charge of supposedly growing the UK economy".

He argued: "He's talking rubbish. I'm amazed and I fundamentally disagree. In fact the opposite is true: London now contributes more to UK GDP than ever before.

"This city is the motor of the UK economy, and the gateway to recovery across the country, attracting record levels of overseas investment, all of which is helping not hindering recovery.

"Far from being a drain on the the rest of the UK London is helping to drive job creation and growth outside the capital as well as in it."

 

During the Today programme interview Mr Cable made clear that he would argue "ferociously" in government against Heathrow expansion but said it was not a matter over which he would be prepared to resign.

The final Airports Commission report is due by summer 2015, after the next general election.

[colhint]

easy to solve move,  some government departments out of London

[PauloBarnesi]

easy to solve move,  some government departments out of London

 

The government does that quite a lot, or rather the civil service does. Certain departments I guess it makes sense to be in London as the capital (foreign office in Leeds, no I don’t think so). But underlying it all is that if the economy is focussed on the financial sector then London is going to be more and more dominant. 

[colhint]

well you could move Education, Environment, MOD entirely, Perhaps the only ones you would really need there would be the exchequer and foreign office

[thetrees]

On the theme I was yesterday told a statistic that, had the minimum wage risen in line with Chief Executives pay over the same period, it would now be £19.50ph

That little gem did come from a Unite shop steward though!

 

I read it in Polly T's column in the Guardian.

I work in the private sector, so never have time to read a newspaper

[MakemineVanilla]

easy to solve move,  some government departments out of London

 

The trouble is that presenting average figures for such as wages, gdp and houses is a massive distortion.

 

Such is the inequality that the billionaires who live in central London earn so much that it is easy to forget that Tower Hamlets etc is very poor. 

 

Stratford was virtually a favella living within a short distance from the City, with minimum wage service workers (cleaners etc) living on the crumbs: the government's only solution was to hold the Olympics so they could clear it away in the hope no one noticed how their system fails to benefit everyone.

 

The same goes for the growth figures: just because there was more wealth created it doesn't mean that everyone but the few got to share it. 

[snowychap]

 

On the theme I was yesterday told a statistic that, had the minimum wage risen in line with Chief Executives pay over the same period, it would now be £19.50ph

That little gem did come from a Unite shop steward though!

I read it in Polly T's column in the Guardian.

 

I believed the stat until you said that.

[MakemineVanilla]

 

 

On the theme I was yesterday told a statistic that, had the minimum wage risen in line with Chief Executives pay over the same period, it would now be £19.50ph

That little gem did come from a Unite shop steward though!

I read it in Polly T's column in the Guardian.

 

I believed the stat until you said that.

 

 

She never provided a source, so doubt away.

[villaajax]

I agree with Cable, London sucks.

[Jon]

The Cable Guy is one of the few (only possibly) lib dems i have any time for. He speaketh much sense

[Kingfisher]

Boris Johnson has won a legal battle which will allow the go ahead to his plans to close 10 London fire stations with a loss of 550 jobs.

[chrisp65]

Well if his house isn't on fire why should he pay for some scumbag chav that was probably smoking anyway to have their house rescued?

 

What you appear to forget, is everytime we shell out good money for an ambulance or a fire engine there's a banker somewhere not getting the tax break that would encourage them to stay in the country and allow trickle down to save us all.

[Kingfisher]

A very enlightening interview with doctor Bob Gill regarding the dismantling of the NHS which is going ahead apace right now. It makes me sad, and it makes me angry.