I was amused by the recent edition of Private Eye (15 October) which began…
DAVID “We’re all in this together” Cameron has chosen a patriotic bunch to sit on his “business council”
The Eye article then stated that Martin Sorrell of advertising group WPP has moved his company offshore to avoid tax. Paul Walsh of drinks company Diageo has threatened to do the same. … and, of course, Sir Philip Green…giver of advice to governments on cuts and waste, has arrangements with his wife in Monaco.
All this is, of course, within the rules…. but it is ironic when the mantra of the day is “We’re all in it together”…. when, so obviously, we are not quite ALL in it together. There are, of course, many millionaires in the current Cabinet..and it would appear a fair few millionaires or potential millionaires (when their books come out) in the Shadow Cabinet.
I don’t have any problem with businessmen and women making money – they are the lifeblood of our country – and the small businesses do also add up to employ a substantial number of people. I just wish they would call a spade a spade. I believe that a fair few entrepreneurs like Alan Sugar and Duncan Bannatyne (who I have been a bit caustic about recently on another matter which has, thankfully, blown over) prefer to stay here! Full marks to them.
I hope the private sector can mop up the public sector redundancies. There will be a fair number of talented people – so there are genuine opportunities to attract good talent?
Hello Charon – in a private business you want “doers” and not public sector administrators / committee people – e.g. if you can install a central heating system then there may be a job but there is not a committee to plan how to do it and private business usually avoids consultants like the plague.
the private sector can mop up public sector redundancies??? there’ s gonna be half a million of them; that’s one big fucking mop. i didn’t notice a whole load of mopping in the 80s.
yes, we are all in this together, but the government definitely aren’t.
SW – I did say “I hope the private sector can mop up….. ” the current mantra of Tom Brown and his school chums….
Obiter J – Yes… would agree with you… perhaps there will be some ‘doers’…. but I take your point. there may not be!
“I just wish they would call a spade a spade.”
So you want people to break the Law by using racist terminology?
Keith
🙂 Er…. no!
However one looks at all of this, it certainly seems that we now have a government which will make sure that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Bringing this “patriotic” bunch inside will perhaps bring some business expertise into government which really does need to become leaner and more efficient.
The problem is that these super-rich people generally work things to their own advantage and it will stick in the craw of many that “tax exiles” get any say at all in our economic management.
OJ – that is pretty much taken for granted by liberal economists these days. The inequalities between societies are being reduced, they say, while the inequalities within them increase.
Perhaps Charon could find a Chinese guest contributor to explain to us why this means that representative democracy, as a system of government, is past its sell-by date.
Charon – I agree. How on earth are the private sector going to take on all those extra staff? Are we to assume (as Osborne presumably does) that they are not working at full capacity at the moment?
If there is such a great demand for more workers, why aren’t they targetting the existing unemployed now, or are they expecting a massive increase in demand to come as soon as the public sector stops spending money? Doesn’t make any sense to me.
The other big issue is the move towards market rents for social housing.