George Osborne's message to UK business: Pay People More!

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Though I'm not sure that's quite what he meant. And I don't think his audience understood it either. But it's the implication of his latest freeze on working-age benefits.......
"The UK's Conservative Party, like its Labour Party and most of the media, is obsessed with deficit and – ultimately – public debt reduction. Never mind dreadful productivity, falling real incomes, high private sector debt burdens, under-employment and inadequate investment: public sector borrowing is THE economic problem of our time. The deficit is TOO HIGH. Public spending MUST BE CUT. And George is the man to do it.

"Osborne informed the Conservative Party Conference that, if re-elected, he would freeze working-age benefits for two years. Assuming inflation remains positive, this means a real-terms cut in benefits not only for the unemployed, but also for those in work who are receiving a range of benefits including earned-income tax credits, housing benefit and child benefit. It's a further squeeze on real incomes for low- to middle-income earners. This went down very well with his predominantly grey-haired, well-heeled audience, the vast majority of whom would not be affected. Austerity is always popular when it affects somebody else......
Enter the hapless John Cridland of the CBI, who (unintentionally) lifted the lid on what this plan would mean for UK businesses. More than his job's worth to say so, though....

Read on at Forbes. Such fun.

http://i1.huffpost.com/gen/1379804/thumbs/n-CONSERVATIVE-PARTY-large570.jpg

Comments

  1. Frances Coppola29 September 2014 at 20:11

    Anonymous,

    I have deleted your comment because it did not comply with the comments policy of this blog. You can find this by clicking the "About this blog" tab at the top of this page.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous29 September 2014 at 20:39

    Understood. I am aware it is difficult to pretend to be a renegade, while taking the corporate shilling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Frances Coppola29 September 2014 at 21:04

      Normally I would have deleted this comment too, since it makes a simply wild accusation against me. However, I feel I need to reply.

      Firstly, let me make it clear that I do not "take the corporate shilling". I am not paid by any banks or corporations. I earn my living from freelance writing, singing and teaching, about which I have been completely open. Your accusation is both ridiculous and libellous.

      Secondly, the reason why I deleted your original comment was that it was both personally rude to me and way off topic. The comments policy of this blog is as follows:

      - please be polite and refrain from personal attacks on me or anyone else
      - please stick to the topic of the post.

      I regard these as reasonable rules for people wishing to comment on this site. If you are not prepared to abide by them, you cannot comment here.

      I will not post any further comments from you that break these rules.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous30 September 2014 at 09:02

    So you can call John Cridland "hapless" but I can't (even though I might agree with you). Anyway. I intend no malice, I am aware of your career and that Pieria is corporate free; I may even join. I was thrown by the Pieria site having "Companies" and "Investment" sections, along side an "Economics experts" section. A particular line on the latter will colour thinking on the former two; particularly how you consider Government debt instruments.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1 October 2014 at 09:24

    I think the joke may be on you. Cameron, cridland and their ilk ate engaged in class war, not the construction of a high tech, high wage high productivity economy. they don't care about the contents of the pile so long as they are on top of it.

    unemployment will be allowed to rise, the unemployed will be forced to work for benefits, not the minimum wage and the anti "terror" laws will be used against anyone protesting about this.

    in short, we are looking at class war by the rich against the rest of society.

    ReplyDelete
  5. aerix12 October 2014 at 14:05

    I know your expertise on this. I must say we should have an online discussion on this. Writing only comments will close the discussion straight away! And will restrict the benefits from this information.

    Click Here for Cleaning Business Ideas

    ReplyDelete

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