Forum Topic

Growth

Still going well at minus  0.1% Rachel from accounts says it's just a blip .

Andy Pike ● 19d7 Comments

Mr Robinson'The whole government pipeline is dependent upon getting people into work'.Further to my earlier reply to you on this issue, it now seems the Health Secretary Wes Streeting holds similar views regarding those using 'mental health' reasons for their inability to work and hence relying on benefits.In a BBC interview reported by the Guardian 'The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he believes there is an “overdiagnosis” of some mental health conditions as well as “too many people being written off” – factors he said were the key drive for the government’s welfare measures.Asked whether he thought overdiagnosis of some conditions was a problem, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I want to follow the evidence and I agree with that point about overdiagnosis'.Of course it is very difficult to diagnose 'mental health issues' or to disprove that someone who claims to suffers from them.Similarly proving or not that people suffer from 'long Covid'.Perhaps more stick than carrot should be used."If you don't take an offered job which takes account of genuine and obvious physical and mental disability, then no benefit".From today's MailOnline -'Some 2.8 million people (more than the combined population of Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool) are currently categorised as long-term sick, 535,000 more than in 2019.The number of under-25s in this burgeoning community has risen 40 per cent since the pandemic, with most citing mental health issues.Is it really possible in this era of remote working and smart technology that so many people are incapable of doing any paid work? Or could it be that some see living on benefits as a lifestyle option?A survey in today's Mail shows that a quarter of young people in work are considering giving up their jobs for a life on welfare, typically for mental health reasons".The Government claims that people who do not work but perhaps could suffer mentally and emotionally.I have to say I am more concerned about what this is costing me.

John Hawkes ● 16d

Thatcher's Neo-Liberal blind following of letting the markets rule has led us to the problems of our outsourced and crumbling monopolies and infrastructure.

Philippa Bond ● 17d

Mr RobinsonNot sure much of today's economic problems can be put down to Mrs Thatcher.Surely Boris replaced her as Labour's bete noire !'Very difficult to get businesses to take a chance on the long term unemployed and inexperienced with employment taxes and a sinking economy'.I think every non-sycophantic commentator has pointed out the detrimental effects of the Chancellor's recent tax changes.Her Spring Statement is looked forward to (sic) with great expectation.However I don't think Putin is going to do a Galtieri and attack the Isle of Wight !

John Hawkes ● 18d

Decades of Thatcherite governments unfortunately of both red & blue.It was Thatcher that first hid the unemployment hiding them by putting them on other benefits. Since then various UK governments has operated a pyramid scheme that is close to collapse.Very difficult to get businesses to take a chance on the long term unemployed and inexperienced with employment taxes and a sinking economy.No doubt Starmer will be looking for his equivalent of the Falklands war.

Ed Robinson ● 18d

Mr Robinson'The whole government pipeline is dependent upon getting people into work'.Labour here has a bit of a problem as many of its MPs (lead by expelled ex-Labour Shadow Minister John McDonnell) seem to think encouraging and even putting pressure on those not working but are claiming benefits is akin to marching them off to work in the cotton fields or in chain gangs.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/15/john-mcdonnell-accuses-ministers-of-lacking-empathy-over-benefit-cutsTheir diversionary retort is 'what about those with a health problem or disability that are unable to work' ?No one doubts that there are some for whom mental or physical disability restricts the type of work that can be undertaken or even prevents it entirely.Such need special handling.However many others are still claiming to be suffering from Covid related 'mental health issues' which prevents them working.A malady that cannot be medically certified.From Andrew Neill in MailOnline today -'Over three million people of working age are now on sickness benefit, up one million from pre-pandemic 2019. No other advanced economy has seen such a rise.We now spend 4.3 per cent of GDP on welfare benefits for people of working age – about twice what we’ve been spending on defence. This year, Britain will spend £70 billion on sickness and disability benefits alone, a massive increase on pre-pandemic times. The total is projected to climb relentlessly towards £100 billion in the years ahead'.I recall my grandmother recalling how as a widow she was given "ten bob a week" to bring up three young daughters and support her mother.She supplemented this by taking on at least three cleaning jobs.Before he died young her husband, a plasterer, would walk miles when offered work.I still have his only asset - a wooden plasterer's finishing trowel.Sounds very Dickensian I know.But hasn't society gone soft and idle and lost all sense of personal responsibility.

John Hawkes ● 18d

Rache from accounts is running out of 'it's the fault of previous government' excuses so now she's blaming global events:The chickens are coming home to roost.Of course Rachel Reeves is blaming global events for the UK's economic woes.'The world has changed and across the globe we are feeling the consequences,' she notes this morning.But the reality is the latest decline in the economy - output fell 0.1 per cent in January - is the result of her disastrous anti-business growth-sapping Budget.The Chancellor's £40billion of tax hikes came alongside an inflation-busting rise in the minimum wage and a new package of rights for workers that will tie business in red tape while costing them £5billion a year.This on top of months of trash talking the economy following Labour's election victory.This has proved a toxic combination for business and workers.It is worth noting, too, for all Ms Reeves' attempts to blame global events, this latest fall in output came in January - well before Donald Trump's upheaval of the world order.In fact, he didn't take office until his inauguration on January 20, stock markets were riding high and the trade wars were in their infancy.Furthermore, the most damaging of the Budget measures - the £25billion tax on jobs via the manifesto-breaching increase in national insurance - does not come in until next month.But Labour - and specifically the Chancellor and her Budget - bear much of the blame for the latest decline in economic output.She turned the fastest growing economy in the G7 - which was going 'gang busters' ahead of the election - into one in decline before the global storm that is brewing even hit. Rache from customer services is clueless and hopeless and way out of her depth and is only clinging onto her job because there simply isn't anyone with any real qualifications to take over.

Sue Hammond ● 19d

Definitely not her fault for the dip of course.I'm amazed that they have not replaced her.The whole government pipeline is dependent upon getting people into work, it's all out of sync now.New employment legislation when SME's are reluctant to take on people being one example.

Ed Robinson ● 19d