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David Cameron is he failing?

5th January 2012

There has been much rhetoric from the government over the Christmas break about the performance of key public sector workers such as the police and teachers. But how do we judge performance especially that of politicians.

In business we judge performance on growth and profit. You need both as growth without profit makes one a busy fool. In 2011 the Electronic component suppliers were reporting good growth. Figures around 25% were being quoted. Manufacturers I spoke to were even taking staff on to cope with demand. Now let's look at the government. Growth less than 1%, unemployment going up and well known high street retailers going into administration. When David Cameron goes to a meeting of European leaders he ends up being humiliated. To cap it all we have seen strikes and riots, these we have not seen on this scale since the 80's.

Based on performance this government is failing. In 18 months it has blamed everything from the last government, Gordon Brown, snow, the Royal Wedding, the euro crisis. The one thing they have not done is look closer to home and accept that some of their policies are clearly not working. In the USA they have just created 200 000 jobs by investing. All we have done is create more unemployed, offer words of comfort and then do nothing.

A leading business magazine in the South East commented that David Cameron had failed in his egotiations with Europe. I would go further than that. David Cameron is failing full stop.

Pensions

5th December 2011

The government has seriously underestimated the feelings of public sector workers. As someone who has worked in the private sector, who now works in the public sector and owns a business I can see the arguments from both sides.

The remuneration package that most public sector workers are offered includes a yearly salary, pension which is calculated based on your final salary (Contrary to some opinion you do not get your final salary as your pension) and holiday entitlement.

In the private sector the package can include commissions or bonuses, share schemes or performance related pay. It can include a company pension scheme as well as company cars and private medical insurance. It must be accepted that not all private sector employees enjoy all of these benefits however the public sector do not have these benefits.

There is a big issue in the private sector regarding pensions. You only have to look at the situation at the Daily Mirror newspaper a number of years ago when the then owner Robert Maxwell plundered the scheme to prop up his business empire. More recently the Comet Electrical retailer was sold for just £2. It has a massive hole in its pension scheme. One of the reasons that company schemes have black holes is that companies were allowed pension holidays so whilst employees continued to pay into the scheme, employers did not.

Rather that attacking the public sector for making a stand there should be a full debate on the subject of pensions. No company should be allowed control of its pension scheme so that it can be plundered. Every worker should have their own pension arrangements and not depend on the state to support them and that includes the self-employed.

The comments from organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses are not helpful, and as a member I totally disagree with the comments a representative made on radio.

Nov 30th Strike

23rd November 2011

David Cameron demonstrated today his total lack of leadership. He said the strikes were likely to close "most of the classrooms in our country" and were the "height of irresponsibility". Choice words from a so called leader who has no idea how to lead. If David Cameron really thinks that teachers and other public sector workers really want to strike then he is seriously mistaken. However teachers and other public sector workers have been left with no option by the bully boy tactics of a government that was not elected with a majority.

David Cameron along with Richard Ottaway (Croydon South MP who expenses left a lot to be questioned) are very quick to quote figures regarding low turnout of voters and unless 50% of membership vote for a strike it should be banned. Well look at your own house first. At the last election out of a possible 45.679 million voters only 29.691 million bothered to vote. Your party received 10.726 million votes or 23.5% of the possible votes. This is hardly a majority.

If you were a true leader Mr Cameron you and not your colleagues would be sitting round a table with the unions trying to negotiate a solution. If the strike goes ahead then it is your "height of irresponsibility" and no one else's, don't blame anyone else the buck stops with you. You will only have one choice and that is in the national interest to resign and call a general election. I bet you will not stand up to the challenge and lead.

Is it still gloom and doom?

24th June 2011

Recent press articles are indicating that the high street is going through a very tough time. I forcasted a while back that a DIY chain would go to the wall and sure enough Focus DIY has gone. But it is when your hear that Comet is up for sale having raked up its first loss in 16 years and that Dixons is planning to shut a number of branches to reduce costs one realises that we still have a long way to go before we start to see growth.

However the manufacturing sector paints a different picture. Several of the large distribution companies are reporting substantial growth in the last 6 months. Indeed we have seen that too. But what for the next 6 months. Lets hope that the surge in manufacturing is not a blip and that growth continues

Why dont our elected councillors and politicians listen?

27th May 2011

Surrey County Council recently proposed to introduce on street parking charges in high street locations. A petition against these charges received over 20 000 signatures from members of the public and businesses in Surrey. Organisations including the FSB were involved in petitioning against the proposals.

Does Surrey County Council listen. In a word No. They put it to the vote and still passed this unpopular policy. It is being used as a revenue generator, yet Surrey can afford to pay their chief executive £250K in salary. The council leader, Dr Povey said at last years "have your say" event at the Dorking Halls that Surrey County Council staff were on a pay freeze. That suppliers were encouraged to freeze their costs to Surrey and as we all know business costs are increasing (post, petrol, gas, electricity etc), however it seems that it is ok for Surrey to introduce new ways of generating revenue and passing on costs.

It reminds me of an old saying, Do what I say and not what I do. It seems that these councillors and indeed our MPs are living on a different planet. Do they want to see a recovery because the high street is still struggling and the last thing that it is needed is additional costs to consumers. Councils need to wake up now if they still want to have a High Street.

Poor growth in the economy

12th May 2011

You may be wondering why I have not be active in blogging recently. In a nutshell just like the manufacturing sector we have seen a good increase in business. The manufacturing sector seems for the moment to be bucking the trend and showing positive growth. I know of one manufacturer who has taken on more staff to cope with demand. Whilst this is great news it is a shame that the government does not promote engineering and technology.

If we had a better manufacturing base like Germany then we would be showing a faster growth rate just as Germany is. In fact the Uk has shown 0% growth over the last 6 months. With the forcasts for the rest of the year for growth being downgraded, is the current surge in manufacturing just a temporary reprieve or is it going to be a long term boost for British manufacturing

Are we heading back into recession

28th January 2011

The announcement this week that GDP contracted by 0.5% in Q4 2010 was not good news. In some industries especially retailing Q4 is the most important of the year. Excuses about the weather are not really acceptable. Without the weather GDP was 0. The situation was made worse when America announced a GDP of 3.5%. They too have bad weather and heavy snow.

All eyes will be on the figues for Q1 2011 at the end of April. If growth contracts again then the UK is officially back in recession. Is this likely to happen? Well Q1 for retail is always quite and the increase in VAT will only make things worse. Retailers I have spoken to are quiter than this time last year. Construction had a negative effect on GDP Q4 and I would expect the same this time. Some how I cannot see the manufacturing sector having a further increase in growth compared to Q4 2010. If America announces growth in Q1 then many questions will be asked especially as they are following the lead of the previous government of the UK.

If we do end up officially in recession then the fault clearly lies with government policy. Increasing VAT and making savage cuts will nor generate growth. The policy of reducing the defecit at all costs has to change.

University fees vote

10th December 2010

This weeks vote on University tuition fees is going to have a long lasting affect on this country's ability to achieve economic growth. The result will also do further damage to our politicians and the publics faith in politics.

Firstly whilst I support the right to demonstrate I totally disagree with vandalism and the destruction of property as well as the throwing of objects at the police. However let's look at the facts.

The Lib Dems went into the election with a pledge that if they won they would abolish tuition fees. Many students based on this gave their support to Clegg and his party. The fact is they came a poor third. One of their own party, a so called respected politician on economics drafted and launched the bill. The least the Lib Dems could have done was to abstain

On paper it sounds good. Students will not need to borrow and will only be liable to repay once they start earning 21K. If after 30 years the debt is unpaid then it is written off. So if someone started paying off the debt at 24 it would only end at 54. This is like having a mortgage. Two questions still remain answered. All this debt that is written off, who is going to pay it? It won't be Cameron or Clegg, let's face it they will be 75 by then and on a fat pension. If a former student wishes to apply for a mortgage they will have this debt around their neck. It will affect the amount they will be able to borrow.

No one from government has answered these questions because no one has thought through this policy. Cable has shown he has little grasp of economics just like the rest of the current government.

There is also a shortage of engineers, teachers, doctors etc. This new bill on tuition fees is not going to improve the current shortage, if anything it is going to get worse. The problem with this government is that they have set their sight of reducing the deficit at the expense of everything else.

If every business was run the way this government seem to operate then their would be no businesses

Snow and our roads

3rd December 2010

Every time we get a bit of snow this country comes to a halt. Tuesday 30th November was a joke in the SE. Despite the councils knowing that heavy snow was forecasted, little was done to prepare the roads. Normal 30 minute journeys were taking over 4 hours or more and this is despite the councils stating that they were prepared and had plenty of grit.

It is laughable that our modern trains have come to a halt and passengers are left stranded but back in December 1981 our trains still ran and our schools remained open. The solution for the train companies would have been to use Diesel Locomotives like the ones that pull the freight traffic. When the railways were still nationalized this was a possibility. Today however a different company owns the Diesel locomotives to the passenger franchisees. The Passenger companies would have to pay to use the Diesel locomotives and while the negotiating is going on the poor passenger is left stranded.

It is about time that the rail companies and councils had a published action plan as to how they were going to deal with these conditions. These action plans need to have clear objectives and clear penalties for the council leaders as well as the directors and shareholders of the rail companies. Both the rail passengers and motorist pay substantial sums of money and deserve better. It is about time it was people before profits.

Education white paper

26th November 2010

Once again we see the politicians set out their plans to reform education. The 80 odd pages details how the ConDems plan to reform the current system to make it better. But will they? The Conservatives tried to do just that the last time they were in government and clearly failed. Why is it that even today children leave primary school with a reading age 2 or more years below their birth age. Secondary school are seeing children year on year with a reading age of 6 and 7. This is disgraceful.

The biggest problem in the education world is that there are too many advisors, consultants and university professors coming up with "new ideas" It is about time teachers were left to do what they have been trained to do without interference. Why is it acceptable for teachers to be constantly observed in the classroom to see how well they are doing their job. The current system allows for 3 hours per year excluding OFSTED. Under the new proposals this 3 hours limit is to be scrapped. Can we now expect to be able to observe all public sectors workers from the Prime Minister, Council leaders down to frontline council employees? I bet MP's would object to be observed, so why is it ok for teachers?

Another concern with the white paper is the focus on academic subjects (Maths, English, Science, a language and either History or Geography). We live in a world of technology yet it has been missed from the list. We are a nation of inventors and should be making Design and Technology compulsory as it once was. It is one of the few subjects that involves both academic knowledge along with practical skills. It involves problem solving, something we as a world need to be able to do. This government has made all the right noises about the importance of technology and has had an opportunity to make it compulsory in the white paper, however just like previous governments it has failed to deliver.

Are we getting young people to take up electronics

25th Oct 2010

Having spent the last 22 years in education it is always pleasing to be able to find out about past students successes. One of my former students who achieved an A in GCSE Electronic products is now working for McLaren formula 1. His younger brother also studied Electronic Products and also achieded an A grade. He is now with BA.

Getting girls to study electronics is never easy. However there are four sisters who I have taught. Three have passed GCSE Electronic products. Sister no 4 has just started her 2 year course. This must be some record, not just one girl but 4 girls from the same family.

Its just a shame that when it comes to work experience there is no real opportunity for pupils to experience engineering and technology. All that seems to be on offer is retail and office work which is hardly inspiring. If the Electronics industry wants to attract staff it does need to get involved with local schools to give students the opportunity to experience 1st hand the exciting world of technology.

Building schools for the future

19th July 2010

The recent government announcement came as no surprise. After all any project started by the previous government is never going to be continued by the next. But is this right?

Up and down the country there are hundreds of school buildings that are not fit for use. No one in government would accept water pouring into their office or into the House of Commons when it rains, so why should it be acceptable in schools.

Children have the right to a school building that does not leak when it rains, have adequate heating in winter so they are not sitting shivering in class, have toilets that work and most importantly a building that is safe to be in.

The cancellation of BSF will also affect the construction industry and their suppliers. If there was plenty of work around, most would not notice the cancellation. In saving money the government must realise that millions has been wasted in planning these rebuilds. Who is going to pay for this? In addition teachers up and down the country have been involved in BSF meetings. They do not get paid for this and now feel that their efforts have been wasted. Good will has been lost as teachers will not give up their time again for free.

This Government needs to have a serious rethink on its recent announcement. It is most definitely not in the national interest.

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Noel's weekly blog