After 10 years in power...

[BillyStubbsTears]

This Govt has finally got wages back to where they were before the Crisis.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51543521

THE most appalling decade of economic mismanagement in living memory.

[bobjimwilly]

the past decade has been the worst for improvements in living standards in more than 200 years.

[bpoolrover]

10 years ago also unemployment was at nearly 10 percent so at least that is a massive turnaround

[albie]

Blackpool,

Perhaps unemployment (as was) has changed to being a problem of UnDERemployment.

Many more on restricted hours via zero hours contracts, others in part time work that does not allow them to earn enough.

A lot of people going to food banks are in work, but can't make ends meet.
Just not right, that!

[foxbat]

when working a couple of hours a week on a zero hours contract is counted as being 'employed' these figures become nothing more than soviet style propaganda.

[Ldr]

Maybe a competent realistic opposition party may have been useful over the last decade......

[BillyStubbsTears]

Well we had one from 2010-2015 that pointed out the damage that Austerity was doing on a weekly basis, but they were called "communist" and folk were more concerned about the Shadow Chancellor blinking and how the Leader of the Opposition ate bacon sarnies.

So maybe we deserve what we've ended up with.

[Ldr]

Haway BST, labour have been grossly incompetent since Blair stepped down

[BillyStubbsTears]

Ldr.

I wouldn't fancy living in the world we'd have been in without Brown leading the global response to the Great Financial Crash.

Ask any sensible economist and they'll tell you he saved us from another Great Depression. Unfortunately, because of the rank stupidity of Austerity, we've had a Little Depression instead.

[BillyStubbsTears]

10 years ago also unemployment was at nearly 10 percent so at least that is a massive turnaround

That was at the end of the worst global crash since the 1930s.

Even then we sorted out unemployment AND wages. This time we've sorted unemployment by the longest, deepest drop in wages since the Napoleonic War.

If you're a pensioner, you've been protected from that because you and the highest earners are the only ones who haven't seen your income deliberately depressed for a decade as a matter of Government economic policy.

[bpoolrover]

Blackpool,

Perhaps unemployment (as was) has changed to being a problem of UnDERemployment.

Many more on restricted hours via zero hours contracts, others in part time work that does not allow them to earn enough.

A lot of people going to food banks are in work, but can't make ends meet.
Just not right, that!between 60 and 70 percent of people on zero hours contracts are quite happy with being on one, also there are many different reasons people use food banks

[DonnyOsmond]

Well we had one from 2010-2015 that pointed out the damage that Austerity was doing on a weekly basis, but they were called "communist" and folk were more concerned about the Shadow Chancellor blinking and how the Leader of the Opposition ate bacon sarnies.

So maybe we deserve what we've ended up with.

Aye. The same people that probably think the happiest and healthiest countries in the world are communists too, the Nordic countries.

[SydneyRover]

sweeping statements, I think you've said something similar previously, would be good to see some supporting evidence bp

[wilts rover]

This do Steve?

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives,[1] which the report also correlates with various life factors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

[scawsby steve]

This do Steve?

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives,[1] which the report also correlates with various life factors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

Steve?

I've not posted anything on this thread.

[wilts rover]

This do Steve?

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives,[1] which the report also correlates with various life factors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

Steve?

I've not posted anything on this thread.

Apologies my mistake

[SydneyRover]

i think this was just in case you did?

[scawsby steve]

i think this was just in case you did?

Guilty until proved innocent?

[Bentley Bullet]

Now now Steve, Wilts has at least apologised. Or should that be at last! Maybe you should hang back on judgement, he might ask for three years of back-dated apologies to be taken into consideration!

[drfchound]

i think this was just in case you did?

Guilty until proved innocent?

Apparently mate, you can’t be proved to be innocent, only not proved to be guilty.

[albie]

On the subject of zero hours contracts, there is a FullFact briefing;
https://fullfact.org/economy/employment-since-2010-zhcs/

How many on ZH contracts would prefer a proper arrangement, with holidays and sick pay, if it were on offer?

[bpoolrover]

sweeping statements, I think you've said something similar previously, would be good to see some supporting evidence bp

[/https://fullfact.org/economy/how-many-people-zero-hours-contracts-want-more-hours/

[bpoolrover]

https://fullfact.org/economy/how-many-people-zero-hours-contracts-want-more-hours/

[wilts rover]

Now now Steve, Wilts has at least apologised. Or should that be at last! Maybe you should hang back on judgement, he might ask for three years of back-dated apologies to be taken into consideration!

Damn I hadn't though of that, thanks BB.

Steve, I withdraw my apology in the full knowledge that you probably said something in the past and are likely to say something else in the future.

That should cover it...

[Bentley Bullet]

I can fully understand you changing your mind, Wilts. If I had your mind I'd also want to change it.

[SydneyRover]

https://fullfact.org/economy/how-many-people-zero-hours-contracts-want-more-hours/

Thanks bp, a very comprehesive set of numbers, I'm quite staggered that there appears to be a large cohort of people quite happy with their lot on zero hours contracts, I didn't see any explanations as to why they are but it's difficult to argue with those figures. My immediate thoughts would be that they do not have to service a mortgage or large debt, that they are supported within a relationship, they do not need to apply for a mortgage etc, maybe uni students take a lot of these jobs. I will def' have another read through for my own curiosity. thanks
 

[albie]

With these surveys of satisfaction, it is critical what question you ask.

If you are unemployed, for many any job is better than no job...so you will take a ZH job.
If you are offered a choice between ZH work and proper terms and conditions, many will take the latter.

After all, paid holidays and sick pay are pretty basic standards across the western economies. A move to casualisation may suit some for a while, but not for the long term.

Getting a mortgage for example, would be difficult without predictable source of income going forward.

[bpoolrover]

Maybe they want to work certain hours only that fit in with other parts of there life where often you can’t pick and choose the days and hours you work  where often with a zero hours contract you can, while I don’t think zero hour contacts should be banned I do think that if your on a zero hours contract and you don’t want to be that should be banned everyone should have some security and knowledge of when there working

[BillyStubbsTears]

I suspect the majority of people who are happy with zero-hours contracts are students, filling in flexibly in part-time work. Which is fine.

For other people, the question "do you want more hours?" is entirely the wrong one as far as I can see. It should be "do you want more security and support like paid holidays, sickness leave and pension support?" THAT is the problem with so-called flexible contracts. They often remove the need for employers to offer the sort of terms that make life bearable and less vulnerable.

[SydneyRover]

Yet more pain from a blind insensitive government that cannot see beyond it's own love for itself.

''Social care is crumbling, and Johnson’s immigration plans will only make it worse''

Let's see how the Cumjo address this growing problem, it will need more than a few slogans thrown at it.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/20/social-care-uk-crumbling-boris-johnson-immigration-plans