I’d like to thank the current UK Government and current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for organizing, a general election. Excellent timing for my Book on Economics. I had already decided to write it because of f Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng. If they can write books about Economics and foist their nutty theories on us, then I see no reason why I shouldn’t enter the fray. In fact, I predict this will be a best seller and I won’t bankrupt the UK and crash the Global Markets. I can’t promise I’ll save them but at least I’ll make everyone feel better and let them know that it isn’t their fault. No need to feel guilty that you don’t work hard enough, aren’t’ clever enough or come from the wrong side of Town.
Students currently studying Economics and the lecturers and tutors teaching them while doing their research and their various phd’s in ” Behaviour in Random Markets” and increasingly obscure economic theory , you’ve missed the boat , because this is the only book anyone is ever going to need. No more theories from Grizzly old Men sitting at their desks,(Keynes, Smith and Friedman ). The World has changed beyond anything those men could have imagined, they’ve been left behind in World where gainsaying means more than evidence and where the rich imagine a World without the inconvenience of ” workers”. Robots will do the work for us, we don’t need people and their emotions and inconveniences. The Digital Economy is here, the people will play to our tune , or will they?
That crazy year when Liz and Kwasi caused a mighty upheaval in the financial markets and wasted so much money on their theories. When the whole economy nearly came crashing around our ears I thought at the time that someone is going to have to pay for this sometime. Recently with my income severely reduced and budgeting being high on my agenda, I have thought well we’re all in the same boat, but how did we get here?
To be honest it wasn’t really Liz’s and Kwasi’s fault, I suppose they tried to put their “theories ” into practice and let’s just say that there were a lot of flaws in them. Things had been on the skids along time and I suppose their colleagues thought they were going to be our economic saviors. Which brings me to my first point about Economics.
There are NO Economic Saviors or Geniuses who can make something out of nothing. Much as the theorists and intellectuals would like to think. It’s a fallacy. Resources are finite. Electoral promises are poppy cock. Two and Two as some point has to equal Four if the Chicken dinner can be cooked and served on time. Know what I mean?
So here we are Crime and Immigration, they go together don’t they? Well if your a News Editor who needs to increase your readership (digital or otherwise), Crime certainly pays. Our assets by their nature are important to us and ownership is part of our culture. Anyone who wants to take them from us is dangerous and thus front page news.
It’s a difficult one when there is total confusion over who owns what. Take for example The Elgin Marbles they are definitely Greek , and are known by the Greeks as the Parthenon Sculptures( because they were found in Parthenon). Some are housed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, and some of the Sculptures are housed at The British Museum in London.
In the 19th Century Lord Elgin acquired part of the Parthenon Sculptures from the Ottoman Empire( Turkey rather than Greece). His actions were thoroughly investigated by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal. (Good Ol’ Parliamentarians!) .The Greek Government would however like them back and feel of course that they are part of Greek History. What indeed is ownership, why do we need the Elgin Marbles, and was the decision in 1816 fair?
Need is the connection, we’ll argue tooth and nail for a lump of Marble, but when it comes to the need for a working population we will one minute say “yes” to immigration for jobs at home, in truth, that no one really wanted to do and when we feel we have enough workers and times have changed and we’d like those jobs back, we say “no” to immigration.
The Keynesian idea of “full employment” is intriguing , where there is no significant surplus of unemployed workers and therefore employers are unable to find additional workers to fill open positions. That is the definition of “full employment” and that is when the workers, heaven forbid can ask for higher wages.
The Confederation of British Industry have always rattled on about the “lack of a skilled workforce”, but were never very specific about the skills this workforce needed. Keynes was talking a long time ago, and probably using a hammer was a useful skill, now being able to understand stock systems and operate a keyboard and understand the finer points of data protection are necessary skills even to work in a supermarket .
Keynes theories are out of date now, he wouldn’t understand that a worker may choose to work part- time in order to have a better quality of life and he would be astounded by the level of education that most workers have and are expected to use. He would most definitely understand that rather than employing more people a firm would rather pay overtime to existing workers just to keep headcount down. In his view , full employment was a reality. ( possibly due to losing so many people of working age during the War).Honestly I hope we never go back to that.
Emotive terms such as “Stop the Boats” and putting illegal immigrants in “Prison Barges” has nothing to do with the need for labour or availability of jobs. The proportion of people who are trying to enter this Country illegally is not large and although there is an element of economic migration, the reality is that to choose to make such a journey , with the inherent dangers and risks involved is not for the faint hearted. Our humanity should reach out and say, “that could be me one day”. Those people must be desperate. Instead we use terms like “invasion” and assume that they are just making use of our wonderful benefits system. (more of that later)
Either we had a wish to enforce our Borders or we didn’t. Reality is Customs, Border Control or whatever it’s called is now hopelessly under resourced. That is a deliberate policy decision based on Economic Risk Management by Governments over the last 30 years or so.
Staff our Borders .Should we ? Shouldn’t we?
The balance between spending the money to protect our Borders or leaving our Borders to fend for themselves has been made. The latter won the day and now it is much easier to cover the tracks of neglect by saying we’ll send the unfortunates to Rwanda. It makes a good headline, so the Politicians of the Day and the Media are happy.
The above diagram shows the four elements that were part of the Risk Assessment. Conversation ( a lot of hot air in Parliamentary Committees), Money ( There’s never enough) Time( no one pays much attention to this) and finally Mistakes( obviously have detrimental effects on risk)
The Real Issue then of labour and work is not illegal immigrants stealing our jobs or our benefits packages. Indeed, now that pseudo Australian Immigration rules have been introduced to the UK , where you need to earn a certain salary to take a job in this Country. Even the elite immigrants with qualifications, money and talent aren’t stealing our jobs, because they presumably are the only ones able to do whatever they are employed to do. We just don’t have a person of that caliber at that time. Shame eh? So bring them in from abroad. Just like we use to complain about the exodus of our trained Health Professionals to places like Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Quid Pro Quo, I suppose.
Currently, there just isn’t enough of the lower level jobs available for those who see themselves not as an “intellectual elite” and who in truth would never want to be. We cannot fill our Universities with people who really want to be out experiencing life, even if it is on a building site carting bricks or working in a Warehouse, or indeed policing our Borders.
A lot of young people have high expectations, brought up in a high tech world where they had access to everything their parents could afford. They don’t want 4/5ths of their income going on Rent, Heating and Food, with nothing to spend for leisure or indeed a car loan. Never mind saving for their retirement. Most jobs they will start in will hardly pay for the rent. Where is the appeal in that. They want the life their parents had.
The Real Crime; if there is, one is not the Bogey people who come over here to steal our jobs and property. The tragedy is that there have been many opportunities and enough evidence over the years to have put an economic infrastructure in place to provide for everyone’s needs and aspirations to earn a living.
The” intellectual elite” in the Media and Politics will demonise working people because it suits them, they are after all an elite and want to maintain their position. They have failed in their responsibility to use their perceived intellectual superiority to make things better and funnily now only seem to wash their hands of the whole process and use their investment funds to retire to a warm, romantic peasant lifestyle in rural Europe and make an appearance on T.V. to tell people about it.A.K.A ” A Place in The Sun”
Generations of their family had lived in the Ol’ Manor for what seemed an eternity.There was no point in measuring time,that was about as useful as comparing web designs.And that they would never do.
Caspar Laithwaite had moved in with his family consisting of his wife and their two young children,a boy and a girl,both under ten. Also, in their family was Esme, a fourteen year old girl that Caspar and Nancy had adopted after being told that their chances of having their own children were slim.
Caspar was very well known in the IT field,not only was he a brilliant programmer and coder, but he could also write and communicate about the subject too.This meant he was much in demand and moving into the Ol’ Manor was an effort on his part to put down permanent roots,he was tired of globe trotting.He wanted his kids to have a home.
Nancy, felt the same way too about settling in one place and she was even pleased at first when Caspar’s sister,Meg, asked if she could live with them at the Ol’ Manor for a short time,no more than three months,she promised .She was between web designing jobs,her next contract,which was a biggy wouldn’t be until July,and she was happy to help around the house.Decorate,Babysit anything really.
Three months turned to six months ,and Nancy realised that Meg’s terrible fear of spiders had begun to make living in the Ol’ Manor almost impossible.The Ol”Manor had a lot of spiders and other insects.
“Decorating,that was a joke!”Nancy said to herself retrospectively, thinking of the first few weeks when Meg had volunteered to help.
Meg would jump three feet in the air if she touched something warm and furry while reaching over into a dark corner with the manual wallpaper stripper.Meg would scream the house down and run out of the room shouting for Caspar.
“Kill it!”Caspar, if he was there, he would deal with it,not kill it,he would find a safe place for it in the garden.Esme would find where the safest place to release the spider was ;Esme had an uncanny affinity with nature. It calmed them both as they watched the releasd spider toddle away.
However,Caspar had to go away on business halfway through Meg’s sojourn with the Laithwaite family.
Meg by this time had had enough and decided that she needed to stay in the one bedroom in the ol’manor with a working ensuite bathtoom and that she needed to keep her doors and windows shut.
After Esme had given the all clear on Meg’s new room by inspecting the room,shower, and bathroom .Esme had also agreed to do a weekly check for the sake of peace and quiet, and Esme was happy as it kept the spiders safe.
Nancy ,on the other hand, was not very happy,she wanted the ensuite for her and Caspar and had been annoyed that to pacify Meg before he’d gone on his business trip ,that he had agreed to her demand.Indeed he told Meg that Esme would help her with any problem spiders.
Nancy had written in her journal that day.
“Spiders,Spiders make my Day,
Make Silly Meg,Go Away”
Esme was a very quiet child and was introspective to a fault.She had already started classifying all the insects in the Ol’ Manor Garden and House. She was not a collecter but rather an observer.
One day,there was an incident. Meg had had taken a mug from the mug rack in the kitchen to make herself a hot chocolate only to find a large spider sitting at the bottom of the mug.Mug and spider were launched at speed across the room and there was the usual screaming and running for help.
Esme came into the kitchen and saw the mess and began to clear up the pieces of mug and the dead spider .She listened to Meg’s protestations about dirty things like spiders,and it was stupid to have a mug rack,but what difference did it make the cupboards were filthy too.Nothing in this house was clean ,there were cobwebs everywhere.
Meg had muttered to herself that spiders only like clean places; but Meg didn’t hear.
Another time ,there had been three spiders in the bathroom that day,but Meg only saw the one swinging on a single strand of web above her head as she had relaxed in a full to the brim bubble bath.
She screamed immediately and jumped out of the bath,whacking her knee against the cast iron bath,reaching for the door and frantically unlocking it.
She ran naked out into the top floor corridor,just as the two younger Laithwaites were coming up the stairs.
“Oh, Christ,” she cried out helplessly and opened the bathroom door to get her towel to wrap around her.
She came back out to the corridor just as the little girl was trying to cover the little boys eyes with her hands, and he was pushing her away.
“Get Esme,one of you, please!”
Esme appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Meg,yes, I’m here,” Meg walked towards the bathroom.
“Oh, Meg,it’s very big, and it was swinging above my head!”
“It’s OK,I’ll sort it,be quiet or you’ll frighten the children.”
Esme went into the bathroom,saw the frightened spider,helplessly swinging above the now bubbleless bathwater, and gently coaxed it into her hand.
“Esme,she’ll have to go,she’s frightening the children,we can’t go on like this,someone is going to get hurt”
The spider began to chatter.
“I’ve a big family to look after,they are saying to me the house is haunted with all the screaming and shouting.”
“I know,I’ll have to think,you know this is crazy,she’s a web designer.” Esme smiled to herself.
“Am I supposed to laugh at that? Look nowhere is safe with her around.”
“OK, I know.Now where are the other two,I need to get them out of here before she comes back in here.Tell me they’re not in her dressing gown.”
“Well,maybe,that cotton is so clean and soft.”
“Oh no,I told you not to!Right both of you out of there.”
Esme gathered up the cotton bathrobe and rescued the two spiders from the pocket.
“It’s our house, Esme. we never had this amount of trouble before.”The bigger spider kept talking as the other two spiders nestled into Esme’s pocket.
“And what were you doing swinging above her head anyway? She could have pulled you into the bath, and you could have drowned.”
“She’d have died of fright if I did!Result eh?
“Well no,that wouldn’t be much good”.
“Look Esme,you know how it is,us spiders don’t live more than five years,I’m near the end but the Ol’ Manor,well we’ve been here generations,we do our best to stay out of the way”
“Oh yeah,I’d hardly call resting in someone’s dressing gown, staying out of the way”.
“Look,everyone except Meg seems to get on with us,all this shrieking and shouting well it’s not good for a spiders nerves.Our spiderlings can’t take it.We need future generations.”
Esme sighed!She felt a new classification coming on “Arachnid Stubbornalis”
It all came to a crux when Meg got the letter finally saying that due to lack of funding ,the big web design contract had been cancelled.Caspar was away on business, and Meg imparted the news over breakfast with Nancy and Esme.
Esme felt a shudder in the timbers of the kitchen ceiling ,she sensed the spiders had had enough.They were continually on edge .To them ,it was like having a screaming banshee in the house.
The next evening,after Esme had given Meg’s room the weekly all clear .They had all gone to bed early as they were tired, having been out to dinner and later the cinema.
The spiders took their revenge.Firstly,when Meg was asleep,with a great feat of strength ,they pushed over her glass of water onto the floor.She heard it crash,at first she thought she had knocked it over and hopped out of bed,and turned on the bedroom light.
The carpet had felt funny as she ran across it,almost tickly.She looked down at her feet, and they were covered in black spiderlings.They began to crawl up her legs and she tried brushing them off but more just kept on coming.
Meg’s only thought was escape,so she ran to the exit door of the bedroom. It was locked,but where was the key,she always kept the key in it.
By now,the spiders had reached her thighs, and she was screaming loudly.The room, though, had been hermetically sealed with webs and spiders, and no one could hear her.
Her hands and face were covered,so she ran to the ensuite bathroom and opened the door. The walls and ceilings were covered by large hairy mother spiders.
She could see the army of spiders coming up the plug holes and out of the taps.She began swinging her arms wildly,and though she managed to kill a few, they just kept coming.
By now, her throat was hoarse, and she could no longer make any sound.She fell to the ground unconscious. The spider’s retreated.
The next morning,Nancy and Esme had to break the lock on the door to get into Meg’s room.They found her pale and shivering in the corner and the broken glass on the floor.
All Meg would say was that she would leave the Ol’ Manor that day and book into a hotel.
“But what happened?” Nancy said.
Meg couldn’t or wouldn’t say.
Esme had her suspicions, though, and thought perhaps it was for the best and that at least the ensuite would be her mum and dad’s now and the spiders would be happy.
For fifteen years after my first dog passed, I decided against getting another companion animal,even though “Silver” had been brilliant, and it was heartbreaking not to have him. I knew that I was going to be by myself and working full-time, so it wasn’t fair.
I sacrificed what I must say now is an essential and enjoyable part of my life. I made the right decision, however ,as I really did not have the wherewithal to look after a dog.I wish more people realised this before jumping in both feet to acquire one.They need you and they need your time.
I’m pleased to say that once my partner and I were in a position to spend the time,money, and effort in having a dog.Tedi came into our lives and he is nothing like “Silver” but he is a brilliant dog too.
However,being dogless all those years was a sacrifice, which I’m glad I made.
I wear it all the time,except when I’m at work,my grandma’s bracelet.It is well over 100 years old, and even at the time my grandfather bought it for her it was an expensive piece.
I don’t even know how I was given it,my mum must have passed it on to me when she was alive. I’ve had it valued. its cartage is high, so I asked the jeweller to put a safety chain on it as the clasp is quite worn. I feel safe wearing it now, and because it’s almost pure gold, it won’t make a mark on my wrist.
When my grandmother (known as nanny) was young and courting ,things were much harder for people, and she would have had a small wrist. So I’m pleased the bracelet fits me,the style of it helps as it’s not round but elliptical.
There is a pattern on the top side of it,and this has worn through time ,which, of course, makes it more valuable to me.It reminds me of her as I remember staying with her for the whole of one summer,she had the most lovely birthday party for me,I must have been about five.
Dublin was our safety net, and I now know my parents were concerned as 1960’s tenement Glasgow was not a good place to be,so I was packed off.
It also makes me think how much my grandfather loved her,he was a Cooper at Guiness’s, which must have been a very good job at the time.He gave her an expensive piece of jewellery which has proved stylish and timeless and helps me remember many happy times. Isn’t it funny what love can do?
I once met a girl who said she was a natural follower.It’s a valid point,she had been in a managerial position three months and hated it so much that she asked for a transfer to her previous position in another area .
Her company asked if she would be willing to be a floating manager,covering sickness as she had the ability and the skills etc,but hated leading or being seen to lead a team of people she knew .In other words, her team of followers had not acted as followers at all but were instead would be leaders.Hence the girl had had a miserable time managing her team.
In the end, she loved being a floating manager because she could do what she was good at without having to manage a team of people who she knew and who thought they knew her.
Following on from that humble example, we have dictators,as per the current situation in Tunisia,where the “laws” of Tunisia have been overturned in order to facilitate “change” in the country.Basically what the President says goes.
In Tunisia today , someone thinks they are a leader,but they can only lead by force or by undermining the constitution of that country .It is potentially very dangerous to believe you have “the right” to lead,particularly for those who oppose your leadership and are no longer protected by the laws of the country.
All the financial ,health ,and business scandals in the UK where I live and that have been unearthed so far have been leader led.
These scandals ,for example Dido Harding “Test and Trace”, Robert Maxwell “Pension Funds Scandal”to mention two.
Billions of Public Money frittered away so that one individual can get a benefit either for themselves, or their friends or their family.
The interesting thing is that these are figure head leaders,bogey men, and bogey women.Put in that position to do the dirty work and then blamed and pilloried and held up as an example.
Leadership in the UK is on the whole faceless and nameless.Things happen, and you never quite know why.That is not healthy either. No one can be accountable, yet our fate is decided.
I suspect these non-leaders follow no one but themselves and are actually convinced that nameless,unaccountable control is a valid aim and that no one would follow them anyway,but they know what’s best for us public and our purses.
So,yes, neither a Leader or Follower be if you want to get ahead or indeed keep your head.
thenotsomightyom 