Unite has said David Davis has “deceived Parliament and the public”, after the Brexit secretary admitted the government has not carried out assessments of the impact of leaving the EU for different…Read more…
Speech to Unite Manufacturing Delegates, Unite Sector Conferences, November 15th, 2017.
Speech to Unite Manufacturing Sector Conference – 15th November 2017 The Challenge of Brexit Conference we meet at a time when manufacturing is being damaged by the Brexit chaos created by a…Read more…
German Union Submits 6% Pay Claim And Demands Shorter Hours
Germany’s largest trade union, IG Metall which represents engineering, automotive, electrical, aerospace, steel and manufacturing workers is preparing to submit a 6% pay claim to German engineering…Read more…
A missed opportunity – the government’s corporate governance proposals
I have in a blog in The New Statesman, entitled Workers on boards was an enlightened idea – Theresa May should have stuck to it , which sets out the TUC’s comments to the government’s corporate governance proposals, after our initial response described the proposals as feeble. And in…Read more…
‘Economists for free trade’ contradicted by today’s GDP data
In a provocative piece this week (‘From Project Fear to Project Prosperity’), Professor Patrick Minford made a number of claims about the post-referendum economy. Apparently “the devaluation brought on by Brexit is acting as a powerful stimulus to the economy …”. Here’s how: … switching demand away…Read more…
Cartrouble? sub-prime auto lending hits the real world
Have you ever had a ride in a light blue car? Have you ever stopped to think who’s the slave and who’s the master? Have you ever had trouble with your automobile? Have you ever had to push push push push? Car trouble oh yeah. Adam Ant For those of a certain age, it turns…
The…Read more…
Rising employment shouldn’t distract from the living standards crisis
Recent headline job numbers tell a welcome story of rising employment but they mask a growing living standards crisis. The latest figures show employment has reached a new record of 75.1% and the unemployment rate is just 4.4%. But workers are feeling …Read more…
From North to South, no community deserves to be abandoned
Where you are born should have no say on how your life pans out. But the reality of today’s Britain is different. Regional inequalities persist from birth to childhood, to working life and beyond. The North / South divide is not a myth… Your life is likely to be shorter if you’re from the…Read more…
Brexit: The EU Thinks We Have A “Cunning Plan”
Reports from the EU say some of the EU 27 think that the UK has hatched a cunning plan behind the shambles currently afflicting the Government and our UK negotiating team! This helpful little guide…Read more…
Excess household lending + deficient business lending = no New Hope for galaxy
Worries about excessive bank lending to households are (understandably) never far from the headlines, but there is too little concern about the very low levels of lending to firms. The point of departure is a speech by Alex Brazier of the Bank of Engla…Read more…
Demand needs to rise before rates do
With the economy showing increased signs of weakness, it is welcome that that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted today to keep interest rates on hold. More surprising perhaps has been the recent positioning of MPC members that has fostered specu…Read more…
Why multipliers matter
“Nothing in economics is more potent than a simple idea whose time has come”, Gavyn Davies, October 21st 2012 The week before last, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published a new assessment of ‘fiscal risks’ to the UK. Reporting on threats to the public finances, they warned against new…Read more…
An economic and social audit of the ‘City’
As its many champions constantly tell us, the City provides huge benefits to our economy in the form of contribution to GDP, tax take, balance of payments, employment and usage of financial services by UK households. This is undoubtedly true. But, the Financial Inclusion Centre’s new report for the…Read more…
Can increased public spending pay for itself?
Since the election, we have seen several proclamations of the ‘end of austerity’. As TUC post election polling (among others) has showed, there is now a clear majority in favour of ‘Maintaining decent public services even if that means my taxes go up’. This is a far cry from some of the rhetoric…Read more…
Brexit Chickens Coming Home To Roost
“The Brexit chickens are coming home to roost” a prominant person in the automotive industry told me during a discussion about the announcement by Michel Barnier that the UK would not…Read more…
It’s not just the public sector that needs a pay rise – we all do.
The government’s unfair public sector pay cap is currently coming under criticism from all sides. Rightly so. Those in the public sector have now faced years of pay freezes and real wage cuts. Vital public sector workers are unfairly receiving less and less money for their hard work. Don’t forget…Read more…
Bank warns consumer credit is a “pocket of risk that warrants vigilance”
Tackling the symptoms of the consumer credit boom without addressing the causes risks exacerbating the living standards crisis. Consumer credit was prominent in the yesterday’s assessment of financial stability by the Bank of England. Up front a chart shows the accelerating growth in various…Read more…
4 reasons to dismiss the Chancellor’s claim of ‘good progress’ on deficit reduction
Philip Hammond has been out and about this week looking for praise for deficit reduction. At his Mansion House speech he claimed: “the deficit is down by three-quarters – and below 3% of GDP”. He tweeted the same line in response to Office for National Statistics figures yesterday (my…Read more…
Why the rush to hike the State Pension age?
One of the first jobs for the newly appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, David Gauke MP, is to publish a report on the outcome of his department’s review of State Pension age. We know that a draft report to Parliament had been prepared when the general election was called. It is…Read more…
UK welfare benefits fall short of international standards
Within hours of the General Election, the government was held to account on the international stage for the failings of the UK welfare system – with worker reps from Sweden, France, Australia, the International Transport Federation all calling on the UK government to bring UK provision into line…Read more…