JOBS FOR...?

These are not my words.. they appeared today in response to a 2 hour long blog/open discussion hosted by The Guardian newspaper here in the UK about local economic development and inward investment. Effectively a talking shop on how best to approach increasing employment and getting foreign owned companies to invest in places outside of London.

As I say, they are not my words (in fact they belong to someone named 'simsum' on the Guardian site)..  but I must say I agree with almost every last one of them.  And I am qualified to say that given that half of my work involves exposure to people working for local authorities and charged with 'creating' employment!

There is a very good reason that councils are referred to as "simple shoppers" by the private sector because they have absolutely no idea how to create wealth, jobs, opportunities or manage resources effectively. That is the reason they work for the council because they had/have no ambition or ability other than to either obtain a job with a council to stay the course for life or perhaps stay long enouhg in that council to eventually get bumped up the greasy pole by route of drinking with the boss, saying all the right "buzz words" at the right time or the charity work scam!

Numerous examples exist of how housing associations/councils have jumped into bed with PFI contracts without the ability to adequately seek an alternative for the taxpayers. Why? because they simply don't have the skills or ability to do so that is why they work for councils. 

I have two relatives who are jokingly referred to as a deputy and chief exec (why these titles exist in local authorities apart from the fact it allows the scam of paying themselves obscene salaries and then claim it is on a par with the private sector i will never know). 

What exactly is localism? Does anyone know? Does anyone know how it is applied to the long suffering taxpayers? 
How will localism really work when the threat of central government oversight is being waived about by eric pickles like a kebab about to be stuffed in his fat face!

If local councils were able to create jobs, growth, real savings for taxpayers do you think they would be working at the council?

What we have are councils up and down the country who are unable to create anything other than council job hoping managers and fat redundancies at the taxpayers expense. It don't matter to them because it is not their money unlike the private sector entrepreneur who has a personal stake in his creation.

Do all the European jollies and paid for corporate days out really help the local economy and if so how?

The best thing councils and councillors can do is to shuffle paper around and stay out of the way of real wealth creators. 

These words come hot on the heels of news this week that a fraudulent company has taken a bunch of headteachers for idiots to the tune of around £300m in a technology and equipment leasing scheme - the headteachers claimed that they were told they could have loads of IT resources and didn't have to pay much for them as an anonymous donor had stumped up most of the money. When they signed the leases (for the full amounts per month - doh!!!) the company then disappeared and they were left with big bills. Some even ended up paying 4 to 5 times what the equipment was worth.

What happened to the teachers? Sacked? No, not really - they have retired on their pensions. Only happens in the public sector! Here's the link

I rest my case.

99 PROBLEMS...

 
A growing trend on the web / social media globe is the 99% website.

It's a tumblr blog that hosts people who upload a picture of themselves and their pitiful downtrodden story of how life's hard at the moment.  You get the idea... The website intro says it all, including..

"We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution." and other moans.

There's been a lot of press coverage of the blog and how it's a great example of social media enablement of 'the people', ordinary people who want to tell their story and make their voice heard. The 99% of people who do. Apparently.

Trouble is, not many people are listening.  Neither are 99% of people so motivated to try and stand up for things around their world.  We see this every day - how soon the UK riots and the issues they threw up have been buried into the midst of time?

There's a good analysis of it on The Economist's own blog site here.  Basically showing how people are very ready these days to find the facebook page and hit the 'like' or 'become a fan' button.  By doing so, they think that they are making their mark in history.   In actual fact they are probably just making one Mark a very rich man by adding to the masses of data that facebook hold on everyone's likes and dislikes - valuable data to sell on to those who want to sell us something.

A better indicator of social concern the article argues is the #hashtag trend.  If people on twitter are marking up their posts with a specific hashtag, then that must be an indicator of rising popularity. Trouble here too though as people change the hashtags as things get subjectified.  What started as #UKriots might become #Manchesterriot or #riotpictures #rioterspics #cleanuptheriots etc etc  The trend moves and becomes less easy to follow as time evolves.

The 99% website may be better.  To upload you have to upload your photo, type your story into the browser and have in the pic your story actually written in ink (shock horror).  Not many of the pics are in legible writing of course given that they are mainly from people who spend 99% of their time tapping on keyboards rather than with pen in hand (I must also take some of the rap for being like that these days - though anyone who went to school with me will tell you my writing is and always has been pretty crap - left handed you see, that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

So, if it picks up the pace.  If 99% of people do make tracks there and start writing about how their life is crap, it might just make it as a social phenomenon. Me, I'm not putting any money on it.

Johnny..

Johnny Stiletto lives in London. Always has. Probably always will.

He's been snapping everyday street scenes for over 30 years and has a back catalogue of amazing events, everyday events and fortunate moments when he was stood on the right street at the right time.  He has a great blog / website called 'alias johnny stiletto: a website for people who like photograhy'.

On his website is a photo of Margaret Thatcher snapped on the TV one evening during her ascendancy in 1979. Interesting idea. Snap the TV and capture historic events for later digestion…

Anyone can do it, but nobody has the idea to do it. 

The defining difference between an artist and everyone else?

http://www.aliasjohnnystiletto.com/#/single-lens-reflex-thatcher/callaghan

RIOTS...

Well, Saturday night I was sat in Spain around the pool and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.  Sunday I was vaguely aware of a rumour of trouble in Tottenham that reflected my childhood in a bizarre way; I was 13 in 1981 and remember the TV footage of Toxteth, Brixton and Handsworth in Birmingham.  My son is 13 now and watching the developing crisis with much the same mixture of fear and amazement.  This time he lives in Manchester so it's a little closer to home than my sleepy medium sized town in the east was..

Night four of rioting has just closed with Manchester, Birmingham and - strangely - Gloucester becoming involved.  The footage is quite extra-ordinary on youtube; St Ann's Square being looted for gods sake, parts of the Arndale on fire? cars driving straight at people just protecting their own homes in Birmingham (with a resulting 3 people dead)?

Soon, hopefully soon the British establishment is going to start asking the awkward questions; the political issues beihnd the reason why this has happened beyond the sheer greed of a few young people who have been brought up on a diet of consumerism and having anything they want without having to work or it, and the generation just above theirs; the twenty-somethings who seem to be in denial that it can be anything to do with social structures and is all about the lack of fairness or disgruntlement with the current government?

To me the only real question is, 'what makes the rioters think they can do this?' but then a good friend just asked me if I honestly thought the rioters even thought before acting...

Good point...

What next for this nation that proudly boasts some of the 'highest' low educational achievement in the West?

Hopefully, the British weather has come to the rescue as it has started raining today and nobody likes getting wet - least of all the pathetic, cowardly little kids that have formed a large number of the looters...

Here's hoping...
 

DEFINE IRONY...

 
Some irony courtesy of The Economist this week..

"The great irony of Mr Cameron's predicament is that he has managed to get himself embroiled in a crisis concerning something he has never really cared about: newspapers."

Full editorial here

 

EM/IMMIGRATION..

  
Something interesting is happening to the level of people coming into and leaving the UK at the moment.

Despite the issue being out of the news lately (oh how quickly the reporters forget and move onto another issue?) the latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows a surprising result:

• Net inward migration to the UK was 242,000 in the year to September 2010, the highest level since June 2005.

• This has mainly been driven by a fall in emigration since December 2008, mainly of British and more recently among A8 nationals (Central and Eastern Europeans).

• HMG's target (or aspiration depending on which minister is discussing) is to reduce annual net migration to the 'tens of thousands' so the challenge has got tougher.

ONS Official UK migration statistics can be found here

There have been concerns raised about the impact that immigration limits will have on companies looking to recruit skilled staff from outside the European area.  Many of these concerns were a consequence of the model that UKBA used to put in place the interim limits which ended in March 2011.

The new permanent limit comes into effect in April. Figures published by UKBA show that out of a monthly limit of 4,200 only 1,019 certificates of sponsorship were requested and granted and only 781 successful application were made in May.  The balance will rollover to June 2011. 1,500 certificates of sponsorship are available each month after April - which had a higher limit to account for any pent up demand.

So the message at the moment is that the cap does not seem to be inhibiting recruitment and if companies have been deterred from recruiting by the rhetoric they should not be.

The UK still welcomes the brightest and the best.
 

ECONOMY WATCH..

  

Who knows where the UK economy is heading?

Public sector employment is falling.  That is, in the main, a good thing.  From where I sit - and it is an educated and informed position - the people I've seen losing jobs in the public sector in the past year or two have been well deserved recruits to the dole lines.  The really good ones, the committed individuals, are still there or left in frustration some years ago.

I wouldn't employ many of the recent redundancies let's put it that way.  These are the people who could never quite grasp that the rest of the world wasn't full of 'training days', extended leave periods for illness and the like.  Almost every email to one of these people would get an instant auto-response saying, "sorry I am out of the office until x and will not be receiving my emails...'

But private sector employment took a hit at the beginning of the recession.  And it hasn't picked itself up yet.  Not even to fill the drop in employment from two years ago let alone to create new jobs for all those useful public sector people now sat at home [at this point the reader should not get unduly concerned for their welfare as many of these people are sat on bundles of (our) cash from very attractive redundancy payments let alone the promise of their cosy public sector, final salary pensions kicking in].

So, here's what the graph looks like with some historical perspective...

Who knows where that line is going to turn - up or down?

In short, nobody.

 

CAN'T GET THE STAFF...

 
...and evidently a lot of local authorities really can't!


Thank you Mrs Polko for pointing this latest gaff out.
It doesn't surprise me in the least.

It would be a funny story, but this is the very authority I and around 160,000 other households give hard earned money to on a monthly basis for Council Tax...

Automatic spell check - my a*s#!

ANY NEWS IS GOOD NEWS?

  

I don't think..

A couple of clips from the news in the last few days..

Nuff said

 

RULE BRITTANIA?

   
So, here I sit after a night out with a few clients and ready to sleep in a hotel in the City of London - Financial Capital of the world (95% of all non-ferrous metal trades done in this city, 70% of all private equity fund managed from here...da da da)

And here is my hotel's internet speed rating...

What a complete joke?  260k download less than one mile from the UK Stock Exchange!!!

The stats I've quoted above were part of William Hague's speech tonight at the Honourable Artillery Company HQ in the Barbican, just north of all this so called action.  And I'm sat in my hotel, just round the corner.  So why is my internet connection so crap?

Because Britain ain't so great, that's why.  Because Britain ruled the waves a long long time ago.

We have a lot to wake up to....

..and very soon.

October 20th looms large.

I'll give you a hint.. but you can also look it up for yourself - or buy a paper on October 21st.  A good paper that is.  Not some sensationalist shite like most people will read and carry on their lives like nothing is changed.  Paying taxes, moaning about the price of things. Watching shite TV.

October 20th = UK government's Comprehensive (?) Spending Review day....

Watch this space... as in some way it WILL affect you...

LEPers Day!

  
Tomorrow, 3rd September, is LEP day in the UK.

Let me explain. Since the change in government here during the Spring the coalition, led firmly by the Conservatives and with little real influence from the Liberal Democrat Party, have engaged on a de-construction exercise of the public sector.  This would have probably happened anyway given that the Labour Party had spent so much money - even they didn't realise exactly how much - on boosting public sector employment and influence over things economic in the past 10 years or so.

A little diagram will suffice - the expansion of public sector employment in total employment 1998 to 2008.  A jump that equates to 1.3 million more people employed by public sector organisations.  At some point during 2002 the public sector became the largest employer type in the UK economy, surpassing even 'distribution, hotels and restaurants' which has always been a big employing sector given the number of part time jobs that it provides.

'nuff said.

I will not be drawn into the debate on whether this was good, bad or indifferent.  But the key thing right now is that the country cannot afford to employ such a large scale public sector workforce as the tax take from other activities is not high enough and fewer people are now in work in non-public sector organisations.  Added to that, the government is finding it more difficult to borrow ever increasing amounts of money to fund such a public expansion in today's credit crunch climate.

So what about LEPers?

Local Economic Partnerships LEPs are the dynamic new buzzword on the block since the coalition government came into power.  The LEP movement (don't look for any real movement.. not yet.. they're still drawing up their plans and Word documents!) is essentially a nice way of combining some powers from local authorities and other public sector organisations into (hopefully) smaller organisations that cover a large area somewhere between local and regional - i.e. cost cutting in the main.

There are plenty of reasons why this is a good idea - joint buying power will help drive down costs where the same work is required across a wider than local authority geography for example.  The main and immediate casualties of the new LEPers will be the demise of the Regional Development Agencies, organisations that have had a massive allocation of money from the central government budget and who have been the focus of much criticism for the way in which they have operated / boosted staff numbers / become political / opened international offices / duplicated work of other organisations despite also ploughing (tens of) millions into each of the regions of England and Wales. It is unfortunately in vogue to give them a good kicking right now rather than assess the many things they did right in each region.  And they did. But don't quote me on that one.

But there are also many reasons to be suspicious about LEPs becoming just a re-branding exercise rather than a re-construction.  More of that in a later blog. Perhaps.

So why LEP Day?

3rd September is the first deadline set by government for the receipt of initial LEP plans.  There are so many flavours coming out of the various parts of the country that it is impossible to see the new shape of economic development as yet.  What is clear is that the government have been trying to make LEP authors work hard at defining what it is they want to do in future.

Some areas have found this very hard indeed, lacking clarity among groups of local bodies or simply lacking the intellect to put together anything but a document that contains all the buzzwords.  This is exactly what a lot of public sector management staff have been busy (possibly the wrong word?) doing for far too long to be honest.

Other areas have everything in place already.  Manchester, ever a pioneer in things economic development, were the first to announce a coalition of ten local authority areas and a Shadow Board to drive it forward within weeks of the call for LEP proposals.

One thing is for sure.

It's all change at Regeneration Grand Central...
 

COUNT THOSE CALORIES...

Once upon a time in New York.. a few restaurants started to publish calorie counts on their menus.  This trend started slow but grew and grew.  Until one day people in New York woke up to notice that they couldn't avoid calorie counts here, there and everywhere..

And one day a politician woke up somewhere in New York State thinking, this is a good wheeze to get me noticed.  He huffed and he puffed, and he pushed and he pushed until some months later (it must be said under heavy attack from the powers that run America's large fast food chains!) a new Healthcare Bill has been passed and now proudly shows off Barack Obama's signature on the bottom since Tuesday.

A central component of the new law is the concept of calorie count disclosure - chain restaurants with more than 20 locations will now have to place (prominently) the calorie content of an item alongside its price.  This is estimated to affect over 200,000 locations in North America.  Vending machines will also have to comply.

Rationale: increased information flows to consumers who can now make better decisions based on the true cost of their consumption (ignoring for now the hidden environmental cost of ripping up agricultural lands or forests to feed cattle for burgers or plant more coffee beans - that's another story that I'll get to one day perhaps).  Information to hand at the point of consumption notice, not posted down some dark hallway, on a hamburger wrapper once you've bought it or on the company website.

Result? Well, on first glance this has to be applauded. As an economist more information is good in my book whatever and whichever market we're talking about.  But, when you start to think this through isn't it just passing the buck from a legitimate government job of informing and educating to the companies and their consumers.  This last group are critical too.  All data (from the Western world at least) display a clear correlation between higher obesity rates and lower socio-economic classes of society.  Seems clear.  Let's help exactly those people who are suffering from a lack of education about what is good or bad for their health?  But, it strikes me it's not so simple.  A simple calorie count isn't going to do much for somebody who can't put the calorie count in perspective, 500 calories? but 500 calories out of what daily allowance for me?  And I'm not going on to the seemingly large body (!) of people who seem to take pride in going against official advice in the first place.

Of course calorific intake is also more complex than a simple counting of numbers.  500 calories in a fat-laden burger does not equal 500 calories in a suger-laden drink. I'm sure any dentist would agree.  So, in my book good labeling needs to reflect this not ignore it.

What we are really talking about here is moulding human behavior.  Making people change.  That is a tough thing to do - especially when it goes against self-interest - much, much tougher than we think. Unless a nudge has a shove attached (and calorie counts on their own don't) most people will remain unmoved.

The other sticky point is of course implementation.  Under the Bill the FDA now have 12 months to come up with the national standard for labeling but there is no mention of a final deadline for restaurant compliance. Through my experience advising government on environmental policy design in the early 90s I've seen this problem a good few times.  Politicians love new legislation that sets out the plan.  Something to get them a few column inches, a photo in a paper and a shot at a radio interview.  Trouble is once the moment has passed the hard work begins and the politician is fixated on the next vote winner with little or no come back if their last conquest and victory lays on a shelf somewhere.  Some of the work I got involved with in the 90s is just about coming round again now in 2010!  Time lags make any benefits that much harder to achieve whether we're talking about the environment or people's health.

Expect some very dragged heels - especially from companies with much yellow and red in their logos where a regular size drink can contribute 50% or more of an adults daily recommended calorific intake or from the insane grinning man with glasses and a white beard...

Count the calories?  Count the consultant lobby firms more like!

As a funny aside, Vice President Biden and Barack Obama staged a TV handshaking session on Tuesday (see, happy to take the limelight now, where will they be in a year's time if the FDA fail to hit the deadline?). Biden was heard to say to the President right at the end of the national TV slot, "this is a big fucking deal!"  It's nice to have real people in top slots.

ECONOMICS...

Now, I'm not the world's best economist.. Far from it. But I am an economist. Give me that.

As I cook my risotto tonight, back from the local pub in the snow and waiting for the rice to soften, I am quite frankly amazed at the audacity of some people. And a neighbour at that. Having said that, if any of my other neighbours read this they would know who I'm talking about immediately given this guy happens to embarass himself on a regular basis (or at least more than I do ;) - a sense of humour is always useful in life )

I have just come back from a conversation with (incidentally a Guardian reader) who thinks that gas is a public good - hot on the heels of some story sowed from the paper he reads about utilities companies making profits or something, he clearly had an issue with gas this evening? Anyway, given that I challenged him on the definition of a public good by pointing out that if there were only one litre of gas left in the world and he used it to heat his house I would not be able to heat my own (joint and non-excludable consumption - look it up if you are lost) I think I rest my case... At this point he very un-chivalrously, unmanly and downright rudely turned his back on me..

Look up the proper definition of a public good if you will - here.

This guy knows nothing. Full stop.

Anyway, I must go off to stir my risotto - but please, I do know more than the average Joe in the pub about economics - my parents will tell you that given they funded my education. My pupils may also tell you that, from the four countries where I have lectured. And lastly, but not leastly, my current clients might tell you the same given they pay me a handsome daily amount to advise them.

What is my neighbour doing on a daily basis? Well, from what I can see, nothing more than reading the Guardian and listening to Radio bore, sorry four, not much else.....

This IS what is wrong with the UK right now - too many coffee table economists, politicians, newspaper educated policy advisers that haven't a fucking clue about the basic tools never mind the real world complexities. Apologies for no deletions of the swearing but - to be honest - the time HAS come... 2010 the year of say it as it is. And if you don't know about a subject - do what I do - SHUT THE FUCK UP...

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

I am an economist, just like the Chancellor and now Prime Minister Gordon Brown (though thankfully a very different flavoured one than him)..

Today's news on the BBC website carries the story that Mr Brown has promised the UK economy will not only recover but will return to growth in 2010..

Who does he think he is? That kind of talk gets economists and economic theory a bad name. We do forecast variables from time to time, my favourites being population numbers, but are never as blasé as to think we can know what will happen in the future. Maybe Mr Brown has had a visit from Marty McFly or a replicant from the future? Maybe, as is more likely, he's just in denial of reality.

Whatever Mr Brown.

What I know for certain is that we wouldn't be in our current situation and would certainly have been better off if you and yours hadn't handed the banks money on a plate just to get your ugly mugs in with the electorate (which didn't work anyway). The bankers must have laughed their socks off when they got away with that kind of treatment last year. Brown & a bunch of former teachers and union reps meddling in international financial markets like they were some sort of financial guru's. I know plenty of other people with strong views about life in the City that have never been within a mile of the Square Mile (in my defence at least I used to work there but I still exercise caution when criticising traders lifestyles and pay rates)..

Yesterday's FT Weekend carried an interview with George Soros, someone I trust to know what is going on in the world of finance a lot more than some baggy suited, overweight Scottish geek. This is someone that landed in the US post-war with less than $5 to his name and is now one of the richest men on the planet. All through gaining a deep psychological understanding of how humans and therefore groups of humans (i.e. markets) work.

So, in closing I am happy to quote 'The Man':

Soros characterises Wall Street profits as 'gifts' from the state
"those [bank] earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers, these are gifts , hidden gifts, from the government, so I don't think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses. There's a resentment which I think is justified."

Soros is giving a series of lectures in Budapest next week in which he is developing these thoughts. I may well step on a plane if I could only get a ticket!

PEACE?

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not a man of peace. Far from it.

But.. Nobel Peace Prize?

What's this guy done?

Odama does not equal Peace. Yet.

WHAT A WASTE..

Re-branding has been seeping through the whole political dung heap for a while now, often under the guise of real restructuring... but in the main what has really been happening has been a complete waste of taxpayers money on new logos, new stationery, making government e-ready, etc etc. spin spin spin.. Look we're really busy restructuring.. what? we are supposed to deliver policy? No mate. Do something mate? Not me mate. I'm in New Labour. I mainly just talk about it.

Here's just one among a myriad of examples. Hold on tight to your seats as it gets extremely messy.

But first, switch on your speakers and click here if you want a nice soundtrack to the whole sad sorry affair.."

In a feat of mayhem mathematics when Gordon Brown came to power in 2007 he re-branded (sorry 're-structured') two government departments in the name of streamlining into three. See diagram below. The DES and DTI were re-divided into DCSF and DBERR with a third department created from the University and Skills functions (of DES) and Science and Innovation functions (of DTI) to be known as the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills, the DIUS.

Now DIUS went about their business getting ready their new logos, stationery, website, the mechanisms of modern government... getting exciting isn't it?


Everything was going to be different from hereon in. The country was heading into the brave new modern world of 'knowledge transfer', 'innovation', 'competitiveness', even 'advanced manufacturing'.. (Q: what do these spin concepts really cover?)

Only in June this year Gordon decided to stop the process, disband DIUS and create a new department.. the Department for Business Innovation and Skils.. clearly the University bit was getting in the way of acceptance by business.. surprise, surprise.

Trouble is DIUS has spent £953,911 on building their website alone and god knows how much more on the other goodies of empire building.. Leaks are coming out of the DIUS Commons Select Committee that the final bill for DIUS alone is around £7.1 million. And thats a minimum estimate.

Worryingly, this is just one story in the naked city of New Labour..

Continuous rebranding is clearly a waste of money. If politicans took the time to stick their head in the real world they'd notice business doesn't rebrand or restructure itself that often.

What has been happening in these latter days of the New Labour 'modernisation campaign' is a concentration on selling the product rather than having any decent product to sell. When you really dig deep it appears that most of it is generally about selling a con (spin) or wishlist rather than being based on anything solid. There appears to be a belief in the present government that if you say something often enough it will become true. And Gordon this week is repeatedly saying 'it's not over yet..' From where I'm sat he appears to have fallen foul of his own spin machine.

God Bless New Labour and all who sail in her.. only to the other side of the world please!

THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE..

I have had an entertaining yet mildly worrying exchange of emails with a friend of mine who runs a business not dissimilar to me.

He and hiw wife are now to have their second child, after rearing the first to 16 years old.

Our emails went something like this (the names have been changed to protect the guilty)..

>>From: A September 22, 2009
>>There's going to be a little addition to the (family) next March.
Yes, we are having a baby! F had the 12 week scan and all's well, so it's going to be a busy 2010 (actually make that 2010-2028!)
A

>>From: Polko September 22, 2009
>>Congratulations, and make that 2010 - 2031!!
Polko

>>From: A September 22, 2009
>>Maybe, but I reckon by 2028, that 99.9% of the population will be going to university and therefore our latest addition will have a free choice of decent jobs without the need for us to fund 3yrs drinking!
A

>>From: Polko September 22, 2009
>>I think you may be right. I even had a conversation with [my son] about the validity or otherwise of even getting a degree now that you can readily become a BA in Cultural Media Assorted World Studies easily enough. There is a strong argument for simply learning from those around you and start your own business at 15.. Get on with it whilst the others are mounting up their debts and forcing themselves to become wage slaves forever..
Polko

To put it another way.. University education gives you knowledge sure enough. But it doesn't provide much by way of attitudes and competencies that are then directly useful in the world of work. Through my day to day experience with plenty of people from diverse backgrounds in property, business and even to some extent the public sector, it is the people who have the right attitude and can readily apply modern competencies that get on and enjoy professional success - be that making money, managing people or organising organisations.

There will always be a need for core degree subjects - not many doctors, lawyers or civil engineers can get away without a College education I guess (but you know, some can!). For the rest isn't it what you do with it rather than what you know at the end that defines the benefits of a University education?

On the money side of things, as an economist I am familiar with all the econometric studies that show a positive return on a First Degree education and the even higher return to continuing this into Masters levels (the biggest leap in lifetime income potential is recorded there), but many of these studies are now being outmoded based as they are on old data series and a continuing structural shift in the modern labour market and skills demands of employers. The world is changing. And fast. There are now many disparities in income generating potential with plumbers and tradesmen often earning way in excess of somebody with a degree, even a good degree from a renowned University. And I personally know people in business who began very early, failed a few times, learned a lot and are now sat very comfortably indeed.


Just a thought.

And if you just can't be bothered click here and print out whichever degree certificate you want..

BLACK STEEL IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS..

I got a (email) letter from the government (well Business Link anyway)
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers

They wanted to know..

Does Government Do Enough for YOUR Business?

..and then went on in a diatribe about the various forms of help we could possibly access through becoming members of the local Chamber of Commerce, booking a meeting with a Business Link advisor etc

Now, that's all well and good. But, another part of government - central government this time - has recently cheesed me off good and proper.

I use a lot of official data in my work. And I mean a lot. Like the other day when I tried to download a national dataset from a well known database and it stopped me telling me I couldn't carry on as I was asking for more than 1,000,000 cells of data. Oops. But I really did want the lot as I was mapping something across the entire UK at VERY high resolution!

Anyway.. I also needed to assemble some schools performance data and it would be easier if I had the latest dataset for the whole country - every single local authority area across 12 or so variables. Not a lot to ask for really (4,380 or so items or cells). I have the data in official Excel tables and a lot more besides for each year since 2000 as I have a friend in the central statistical office who helpfully and cheerily sends me the files. This year for some reason I forgot to ask for them in January when they were refreshed.

So, I browsed the usual website (Department for Culture Schools and Families is its name this month - the government may well decide to change it soon.. they do that you know! gives em something to do and creates new linkages between 'joined up government'). The dataset was not there - unhelpfully the only schools data anyone can get to is individual schools or individual Local Education Authority areas.. not useful if you are working on a national level unless you have a full day and nothing to do but transcribe numbers between web pages and Excel!? Which I am assuming nobody does?

I called DCSF direct. I say direct. But what I mean is I called the company that holds the contract to disseminate DCSF data. Prolog they're called. Unhelpful is not the word. After the fourth call back (first time I was placed on hold for 23 minutes and decided enough was enough, second I got cut off and third the woman was very bad mannered and told me she didn't know what I was going on abarrrrt.. with a long East Midlands drawl of an accent) was told by a very young contact centre agent that the data I wanted didn't exist..


Now I know it exists given that I have it for every year since 2000 and have been using it professionally since around 1994!

I blasted off a request on the Prolog website detailing what it is I wanted.

I got the auto-response saying it was being dealt with after a few hours.

I got a second one saying it was still being dealt with after three days.


I then got another response saying they had dealt with it. They had forwarded my request to another (this time government) department and I should get a response within 15 days. Note should not would?

15 f*king DAYS!!! I am in the real world here people. The private sector. The world where a report takes a few days to write and clients need it to use in their real world decisions. 15 days is just ridiculous!

So, I am still waiting for the response.. Approaching 10 days now.

Lucky I have the intelligence to use the telephone and call that friend in the central department that do know what they're doing. She emailed me the full national tables (all 24 of 'em) within the hour on the day when I was told they didn't exist..

Is this government doing enough for my business?

You decide.

PAY DAY OR NOT?

Sorry, am I going mad?

Are we rapidly heading towards Winston Smith's future world of getting up, doing our exercises in front of a big flat screen on the wall, trudging to work for little or no pay that is dictated to by someone else with little or no chance of doing anything different, all the time watched by CCTV cameras and being pacified by cheap alcohol and films about a war somewhere else where some unknown figure is trying to harm us all?

ah..

but today's BBC carries the news that more "public figures" have added their name to a list of campaigners for a cap on relative wage levels and rewards for people who earn more than the average.. I quote, "The government must now take decisive action on excessive pay at the top when it has had such a damaging and corrosive effect on the real economy and wider society."

In the same way the Low Pay Commission was set up in 1997 to advise on the minimum wage, a High Pay Commission was needed to introduce "a wide-ranging review" of pay at the top and bring in new measures to curb excessive remuneration, it said."

Excessive pay? What does that phrase mean exactly? One person's excess is another's normal isn't it?

Don't get me wrong, rewards going to those who mess up I'm certainly against. I have one or two old friends - shall we call them acquaintances? yes, that's better - who earn 6 figure salaries with final salary pension schemes that will be larger than any of my other friends standard salaries and they certainly don't deserve them just for echoiing what others have said to them and generally licking butt for a few years before moving on ahead of the shite hitting the air con unit. But, let's just break this beying for high paid blood down a little shall we?

The Low Pay Commission and thereafter the Equal Pay Commission was based on a sound psychological and equitable basis that a minimum level of pay for anybody is a just and grown up thing to strive for. The psychology is simple, pay that is too low creates a vacuum among people that are not working who basically think, "I can't be arsed working, after all what additional benefit is there in it for me?" To a point I would agree and thus a minimum wage is something that makes sound economic, ethical and psychological sense.

Now maximum wage levels? What piece of psychology or market efficiency is that based on? Tell you what, why doesn't everybody get up today and work as hard as possible for their employer in the knowledge that you'll only ever be able to earn a fixed amount. It won't put you off working harder tomorrow or the next day 'cos you love your job and the company.. I think not.

Maximum pay has of course already been experimented with in a different economic system, in the former Soviet Union. Factory Managers and the equivalent of our Fat Cats were paid bonuses according to quantitative targets (in a similar vein to the financial scene of the City of London). However, targets were set with the bosses around the table and whilst discussing the resources needed to achieve them (ring any bells?) and so targets were not particularly demanding. The other aspect of the system (and the one we should take heed of now) was that it didn't matter whether a factory hit 101% or 1001% of its target, the bonus was the same amount. Fixed maximum pay, fixed bonus structures. There are many documented examples of factories working until target +1% then all the workers downing tools and drinking cheap alcohol (or more often making something else that wasn't in the plan for the factory boss to sell out the back door).

Maximum pay? Kiss goodbye to the work ethic then. Kiss goodbye to building a better Britain. I run my own business. What point is there in doing any more for it than reaching the maximum return point for my own salary? No more employment for others, no re-investment into the economy. Sod England, I'm off elsewhere Jack. Nice society. Not. I think Compass (the pressure group behind the calls) have got their needle bent, else they are being pulled by a different magnetic field to everyone else. Which might well be the case.

So, what should you make of maximum pay schemes?

You make of it what you will. Me, I feel like Winston pushing his chin further into his jacket as the chill winds of 1984 come in faster than anybody expected at the turn of the 21st Century... Please strike out at any hint of a totalitarian society coming to a pavement near you today.

PRISON SENTENCES

A few sentences I found on an unrelated Forum site i was just using to get a spare part number for my car. Not my words, but words to think about and raise debate nonetheless.

>>>I was dismayed the other day to read of Ronnie Biggs' release on compassionate grounds , in the wake of news that the same dispensation is being considered for the Libyan intelligence officer convicted in connection with the Lockerbie bombing

I found the picture of Biggs sitting up and smiling in bed , as his train driver victim lay in his grave , highly offensive .

This completely undermines the judiciary who hand down 'life' sentences and makes a mockery of the whole criminal justice system with no real deterrent against committing serious crimes as criminals can count on being 'let off' eventually .

At least the Germans got it right the other day by handing down a life sentence to a ( edit 90 year old ) former German soldier who was involved in the murder of a number of Italian civilians during the war ( albeit a number of years after an Italian court had found him guilty in absentia of the same charges ) and , at least , in Germany life means life .

In this country the politicians who overturn the judgements of the judiciary should hang their heads in shame as they send out entirely the wrong messages to the criminal fraternity .

Another post said:

>>>.........and televise the sentences being carried out .

Showing a few murderers , rapists , drug dealers etc being hanged , shot , electrocuted , lethally injected ( not neccessarily in that order ) might deter others from offending in the same way .

Likewise , public floggings outside the courthouses for less serious , but still nasty , offenders would be an effective deterrent as well as being less costly to the taxpayer ( giving someone 20 lashes has to be cheaper than even a weekend in jail ) .

So, there we have it. A few sentences. A lot to think about. The way the economy is going I may just go out and 'do a robbery' myself! At least I'll only be gone for a few years before coming out to my ill-gotten gains (if nobody finds them and digs them up first!)

Good job I'm only joking. For now.